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Published: January 8th 2011
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Amsterdam
5/1 Although it has been just three days, it seems ages ago since we were waved goodbye at Schiphol, Amsterdam. (Superlief dat jullie er allemaal waren! en bedankt nog voor de lieve brieven en cadeaus. Oma, ik heb de metalen nagelknipper er maar uitgelaten ivm scanapparaten, maar de rest van het tasje kwam goed van pas.) We managed to pass the
drop given at Schiphol through the biosecurity check of New Zealand.
Hong Kong
6/1 As the airport is located quite far from the city centre, we anticipated to be sitting at Hong Kong airport for 8 hours. That almost happened, if it weren’t for the Dutch man sitting next to us in the airplane. He was on his way of MOVING to Hong Kong and told us that it is fairly easy to get from the airport to downtown Hong Kong. The small amount of time that we spent at the airport was enough to ensure us that we made the right decision: the first thing we heard was ‘champs élysées’ (instrumental accordion version) and besides the Chinese characters nothing particularly indicated that we were in
Hong Kong. So, we filled out some forms, received a stamp in
Picture with Some Chinese Man
This is the man we asked to take our picture. our passports and off we went into Hong Kong, first by train and then another 8 minutes by ferry. Hong Kong is different from any other city I’ve seen. In its suburbs, people are cramped together in agglomerations of very high and damaged buildings. The city centre is very clean and yet the air is incredibly polluted. As small crimes such as stealing already can result in 10 years of imprisonment, crime rates are low. Also, I did not see any beggars. Everyone is dressed up nicely and takes care of his/her appearance. The girl sitting in front of us in the train spent the whole 24 minutes putting on multiple layers of make-up. Most popular clothing colours: black and beige.
We were looking for some breakfast, but some ‘normal’ breakfast was very hard to find. We did find: many Chinese medicine shops, dead and skinned goats hanging up side down from a market stall and a construction around a building for building workers to stand on completely made out of bamboo. On our way back to the ferry, we decided to have a picture taken of us both standing in front of the Hong Kong skyline. I looked for
the most normal and reliable looking human being around (obviously dressed in black and grey) and asked him whether he could take our picture. Up till that moment everything was normal, the next moment we were ambushed by a group of ADULT Chinese men and women wanting to be in a picture with us. They took turns standing in front of the flashlights and using one of 5/6 cameras available to take pictures.
Auckland
7/1 The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the airport: the warmth and the smell of flowers and plants. We took a ‘supershuttle bus’ which dropped us off right in front of our hostel 48 hours after we’d started travelling. The guy at the reception turned out to be Dutch and most other guests in the hostel also speak either Dutch or German. We first went shopping, had lunch and then took a small 18h long nap.
8/1 Today, we spent all day visiting downtown Auckland. Although Auckland itself is very big and stretched, the city centre is reasonably small. Although the city centre itself is not exciting (especially the architecture is the boring kind ugly), the atmosphere is very friendly and
relaxed. The centre consists of some (small) sky scrapers, the Sky Tower, shops, and the most fun part: a harbour. Many restaurants and bars are located at the habour area and at night you can hear (live) music coming out from the different bars. The Sky Tower provides a wide view over Auckland and its surroundings. The most fun thing to watch from the Sky Tower are the bungee jumpers hanging a few seconds in mid-air to have their picture taken before they drop down 200 meters.
PS. I GOT ACCEPTED AT MONASH!
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Masha
non-member comment
De foto's zien er echt zo tof uit! Geweldig dat je bent aangenomen. Heb je daar in ieder geval geen stress meer over. xx