So we are on day 6 of travelling. We spent 3 nights in Hong Kong. It's such an interesting and busy city and I would love to go back one day and explore more but as budget travellers the place did get a bit expensive. But we made the most of it. We were staying in Fortress Hill which was right next to the bustling area of Causeway Bay. We walked a lot around the city taking in the sky scrapers and all the sights and smells of the crowded streets. We took a stroll down the Avenue of Stars where I had a photo taken by Jackie Chan's star. The avenue gave us the perfect view of Hong Kong Island. It's a far cry from Manchester!
On day two we went to the Tian Tan Buddha which I posted a picture of in an earlier post. Once we got to Lantau Island we took a picturesque journey up to the monastry. It was a hot day and we had to walk up 264 steps in the heat to get up the Buddha but it was worth it.
[Edit: On a final night we took a walk around the city, it was so busy but it was cool to be among all the sky scrapers and the hustle and bustle. This was the night that the photo used in the blog banner was taken.]
We left Hong Kong the next day. We had to get two trains to get to Nanning. We took a sleeper train which was a totally new experience. We had the top bunks which were about 6/7 foot up with just a narrow ladder to climb up. We shared the carriage with 64 other people.
[Photo taken from Sarah's blog Gandy Goes Global]
The bunks were tiny and we had no head room. And my feet were dangling over the edge. Don't even get me started on the toilets. I'm not looking forward to our next sleeper train journey tonight. The train view did however offer views of the Chinese countryside and we saw people working in the fields and the shacks we could only assume were their homes.
Compared to Hong Kong, Nanning is what I guess can be described as real China. They obviously don't get as many tourist as most people do stare at us, absolutely fascinated by these white people walking through their city. To say I stand out in this country is an understatement. The shop across the hostel sells baby turtles for 70p and the park next door men gather to play dominos. We went down into town to the night food market with some people we met at the hostel and they sell some weird and wonderful stuff there.
A chinese girl from the hostel came with us so fortunately she was able to tell us what everything was. We tried fruits that I'd never seen before. They had whole crocodiles (which absolutely stink), every body part of pretty much any animal on skewers and numerous birds in cages. The most distrubing thing was when a woman got a handful of sparrows from a cage and then just threw them to the ground to kill them, right in front of us. I think she found our reaction quite amusing. I even tried a chicken foot, when in rome and all. I can confirm that they actually taste quite good, it's just the thought that you're eating a chicken foot that is bad.
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| Sarah outside the hostel. |
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| The pet shop. |
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| Games in the park. |
[Photo with sparrows from Sarah's blog Gandy Goes Global]
Everything is so cheap here, we fed ourselves at the market for about 1 pound. On the way back we walked past the park where people gather to dance in the evenings. A song just starts and everyone knows the rountine and just gets into it. I wish I could have videoed it as some of the dancers were amazing. You should try and see if you can find a video on YouTube. I would look for it but YouTube is banned over here. And so is Facebook.
Blogger is also banned, so I'm posting this through the e-mail blogging facility so I have no idea how well this will post but I'll tidy it up when I get the chance.
Next time I post, I'll be in Vietnam!! Wish me luck for the train journey.
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