I got the bus from Tai Mei Tuk (the beautiful alpine-looking village where my hostel is) back into Tai Po Market train station. I ran the gauntlet of the Tai Po market stalls in order to get to the Hong Kong Railway museum which turned out to be closed (it opens every day but Tuesday.) Instead I decided to take a local bus from Tai Po market to Hung Ham Long? where there is a famous wishing tree. It was a recommendation from my guide book. I arrived to find a little market place with a local temple, lots of locals sitting around eating noodles and drinking China milk tea, and incense everywhere. I paid a lady 50 pence and she gave me a fancy scroll and a pen with which to write my wish. I ... read more

PM - At supper in the common room I began talking with a man from Hong Kong, who worked in finance in Edinburgh. It was great to speak to somebody well-educated, with manners and good English. He was educated in the UK and now lives in Edinburgh but was in Hong Kong to visit his friends and family. I asked him many questions about Hong Kong as I wanted to understand why my experience was so different to what I expected. I suppose I expected Hong Kong to be to China, what Gibraltar is to Spain, very little to do with it and everything to do with Great Britain. He told me that Hong Kong was populated by 50% Chinese people now whereas when governed by Britain it was mainly Hong Kong born Chinese. He explained ... read more

I walked all day today. I walked down to Victoria harbour from Tai Chi underground stop, I ate some local food (rice, two sausages and two slices of meat) and drank a lemon tea which actually was bitter. I went to the Art Museum which contained photos of HK, pottery, porcelain, ceramics and a few landscape paintings. I wasn't overly impressed but I did a pottery quiz to test different aspects of my personality and this took up most of my time. Afterwards, I walked around the whole of Kowloon park. It contained a mosque where lots of people were praying outside, it had lots of different mazes and gardens inside, it had playgrounds, lakes , fountains and lots of flamingos. Flamingos are the most beautiful ad elegant animals I've ever seen. From their colours to ... read more

This morning I walked along to Hong Kong park and the museum of teaware. I've been dying for a good cup of tea ever since I planned on going here one month ago... I walked along Causeway Bay and down the tram route on Hennessy Road. I didn't bother with the metro today as I wanted to get a real flavour of this city. Every time I come to a pedestrian crossing the crossing makes the relentless sound of somebody banging steel over and over with a hammer and only gives people enough time to dash across the road. Some days in the city the smog is so thick that you can't see far in front of you. I imagine this is what England was like in the Industrial Revolution. It is a requirement here that ... read more

I arrived at Chiang Mai airport at 4am and it was all closed up. The lady who owned the hostel drove me there out of kindness as there was no tuk tuk. My flight with Air Asia left at 6am. Air Asia turned out to be the Asian equivalent of Ryanair but luckily I slept for the whole two hours so no problem! My seat was comfortable. I got a very modern train from the airport into town which gave me a chance to get some amazing views of Hong Kong and Kowloon. I got a bus which drove me at top speed through the traffic which is pretty aggressive here and beep their car horns all the time. After spending a day here the only positive thing I have to say about this city is ... read more