Hong Kong to Hanoi

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Hi guys finally got round to adding a new blog sorry its taken me so long but ive been in transit for about 5 days so havent really had the time! well ill give you a breakdown of whats happened so far:

We arrived in Hong Kong knackered after what i can only say was a bloody uncomfortable flight, they managed to seat me in the one chair that was duff on the whole plain typical!! after badgering them for an upgrade they finally convinced a free staff traveler to give up her emergency exit seat for me! felt a bit guity as she had to swap but what the hell i paid for the ticket!

The hostel we booked looked nothing like the pictures on the net but for 7quid a night in hong kong we beared the conditions. I have to say i have never showered over the toilet before wasnt a pleasent experience. Hong Kong was awesome, we did the standard tourist attractions such as the peak tram and skyrail to lantau island although we couldnt really see much because the mist was soo bad, you could just about make out the shape of the gold buddah that sits on the island. Was a bit of a shame that i was ill for the second day i was there, mixed beef noodle soup didnt quite agree with me.

after getting our Chinese visa we headed for the boarder for what was to be a 5 day trip accross china to hanoi. we took a train from hong kong to schenzhen and then further train on to guangzhou which i can only describe as the greyest and most disgusting city i have ever seen, it is the transport hub of southern china and was just a mass of phlegm filled chinese people and they were all quite willing to show you to. when we asked the person at the hotel reception where was good to eat she said "theres a KFC around the corner" nice! we made it out of there on an overnight train to nanning on which we met a local girl who was studying english there which was ideal as she showed us all the local places to eat and we met all her friends i think we were just used for training purposes but it kept us occupied while we waited for our vietnamese visa to be processed.

We finally crossed the border at pinxiang and pretty much got on a cargo train to hanoi, a wooden bench, alot of locals and a mountain of counterfeit goods, it was lucky we had another british couple with us to share the fun, as it only took 7 hours to go 120 miles. Efficient Vietnamese travel, pure engineering brilliance. that and throw in a massive argument about goods that resulted in the train stopping and the witness of a good old ruck, i would say local travel was definatly experienced.

Sorry no photos yet the computers are too old school for USB!

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Comments

[Daniel Gailis]

Awesome
Nice one fella, when you come back you'll be an expert on rail travel and all its pro's and con's. Brilliant. Mate sounds like a right old laugh, a story to tell for everyday, not like being back here. You wanna hear my story of the day? Well I'm digging a hole, then filling it with concrete..... I am oh, so, very jealous. Keep on trecking sunshine, sounds like a right adventure. PS. Would it be quicker to develop your photos and post them back to the UK than strugggle with the Comodore 64's or whatever computers they have out there? I wanna see some pics.......