Hong Kong (Part 3) - That's not a seal, I know a man dressed up in a seal costume when I see one!

On our second last day in Hong Kong we went to Ocean Park, which is kind of like a cross between Underwater World, Adventure World and the zoo. It was great fun, definitely worth a whole day.

First we saw the alligators, the funny otters and the gorgeous pandas, then we headed over to the Whiskers Stage for the Whiskers and Friends show. On the map there was a picture of a seal, so of course we were expecting to see seals. However, when we got to the amphitheatre it was full of small children and there was no pool to be seen, just a normal stage. Not a good sign. When the curtain went up we were treated to four people dressed up as 'Whiskers and Friends' and two clowns who performed some juggling tricks. They also threw a juggling ball into the crowd and tried to get people to catch it and throw it back to them. We were shocked to see that not one single kid was able to catch the ball or even throw it a few metres back to the clowns! I am the first to admit that when I was in primary school I would have been just as uncoordinated, but most of the other people in the class would have been able to catch and throw a ball. But out of 10 kids, 100% of them were as unco-ordinated as me and that is saying something. Given that the Chinese population makes up 20% of the whole world, they should be wiping the floor at the Olympics. However, if all of the kids are that bad then it is no wonder that they don't! Anyway, after witnessing that debacle, we stayed for a few minutes and then escaped when we thought that no-one would notice.

Then we took the cable car, with the most amazing views, over to the other section of the park, which was located right at the end of a narrow peninsular jutting out to sea. We went to the Atoll Reef, which is an artificial reef with three viewing levels. It was pretty cool but Michael and I agreed that AQWA (Underwater World) in Hillary's is better. At Ocean Park the water was not as clear and there is no handy flat escalator (I think it's called a travelator), so people tend to hog the view. Also, it was a bit crowded with annoying Chinese tour groups who were screaming at the top of their lungs and knocking on the glass (even though the signs say not to!).

After the Atoll Reef we went to the 'Sideshow Alley' section where they had various games where you can win stuffed toys. We spotted some toys that we thought Napoleon might like, so Michael had a go at the Basketball game, where he sank 5 out of 8 shots. The first three shots were 'swishes', which is where you sink the ball without it touching the hoop, it just goes straight through the net. By the third shot he had gathered quite a crowd of spectators, and when he sunk the fourth shot people were starting to go 'ooooooo'. This shows again that people in Hong Kong are rubbish at sports. Michael has in fact never really played basketball before, and he reckons it was easy since the hoops were so much closer than they would be at the Royal Show, for example. Unfortunately, he missed the next couple, but then sunk another one before missing the last one.

Since that game seemed so easy we had a go at another couple. I tried one where you throw small beanbags at some cans to knock them off the platform, and we both tried a ring toss game. However, me being woefully uncoordinated and the ring-toss being rigged, we did not walk away with any other prizes :-(

Then we went on the scenic escalator, it is the second biggest outdoor escalator in the world apparently. This took us to the top of the hill where they had a show featuring some dolphins and seals doing tricks, like in Free Willy. It does make you feel a bit guilty though, why should they have to perform for our amusement anyway? What if they don't enjoy having to learn all those tricks? What was really annoying, however, was the Chinese tourists, who kept standing up and blocking the view. Don't they understand that if everyone stands up they can't actually see any better? We were ecstatic when it started raining and all of those people who stood up at the front got wet and had to leave, whereas we were just under cover! Some of them tried to move up to where we were and stand in the aisle, but Michael told them to get out of the way or leave. I don't think they understood English but they got the gist and soon moved :-)

By this time it was near closing time, so we quickly ran past the aviary and flamingos before heading back to our accommodation, thoroughly exhausted but content with another great day.

On our last day in Hong Kong, we took a ferry to Lamma Island, which is the third biggest island in Hong Kong. The population is only 6,000 and there are also no high-rise buildings or cars, making it much more peaceful and laid-back compared to Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. After our visit we found out that there is a sizeable ex-pat population as well as many artists and musicians, who are known for having 'alternative lifestyles'. Apparently this has given it a bit of a reputation has being a 'hippie' island.

Where the ferry landed was a fishing village, with heaps of seafood restaurants lined up along the foreshore (incidentally, I read that Chow Yun-Fat grew up on Lamma Island and his family still run one of the seafood restaurants). For those of you who watched Masterchef season one, remember when Lucas came back and they did the Rainbow Fish challenge on a floating pontoon in Hong Kong? Well, that was where we were! In fact, the dish was demonstrated by a chef from the Rainbow Seafood Restaurant, which is where we had lunch!

It was pure luck that we choose this restaurant, since I recognised the pontoon from Masterchef but didn't realise that the chef was the same one that did the demonstration. We just chose the busiest restaurant, and this was the busiest by far.

We enjoyed a seafood banquet of battered squid, seared scallops, garlic butter lobster, a whole steamed fish (best fish we've ever had), veggies, fried rice and fresh fruit, all for about AUD$25 each. It was one of the best meals that we've had on the trip, right up there with the Japanese Traditional Inn in Mt Fuji and the Peking Duck in Beijing. If you are ever in Hong Kong I would definitely recommend going to this restaurant, and if you make a booking they will pick you up and drop you off using their private ferry.

Then we tried to walk some of it off by walking from one side of the island to the other, to catch a different ferry back to Tsim Shar Tsui. It was one of the hottest days that we had experienced so far on the trip, so we took our time and had plenty of stops along the way to admire the view. After a couple of hours we made it to the other side of the island and caught the ferry back to our accommodation. We celebrated our last night in Hong Kong at a very expensive Irish pub with some drinks and the most delicious deep-fried Brie skewers. We were sad to leave Hong Kong, and will definitely return when I am able to bring an empty suitcase in order to fully appreciate the fantastic shopping!

Hong Kong (Part 2) - High tea, show-off buildings and a definite lack of floating restaurants

One of the prettiest places that we have been so far is the south side of Hong Kong Island, which is were we went on day 3 of our stay in Hong Kong. There is a set of sandy bays, looking out onto the ocean with a distant view of Hong Kong's many smaller islands. It reminded me Albany with its green rolling hills and sheltered beaches.

We started at Repulse Bay (so called because the British drove back the Japanese when they attempted to land here in WWII). We walked along the beach to a very unusual shrine which looked more like an amusement park! There were hundreds of different deities, all painted with garish colours. There was also the Longevity Bridge, which supposedly extends your life by 3 days when you cross it. As the Lonely Planet pointed out though, there is no evidence to suggest that running back and forth all afternoon extends your life by any more, so I settled with just crossing it once.

After that we took the bus across to Stanley, another beachside town with a lively set of markets. First we had lunch at a lovely cafe, which Michael pointed out was a Delifrance! Having worked at Delifrance for a couple of years during uni, I instantly recognised the apron, scarf and beret outfit, along with the baguettes and some of the pastries. There the similarity ended, however, as Delifrance over here is much nicer with more variety and proper sit-down meals.

After wandering the markets and getting thoroughly ripped off, we took a bus to another seaside town called Aberdeen. The city did not seem very attractive, although it might just have been the area where the bus dropped us off. We decided not to linger, but still attempted to find the floating restaurants, which is a popular attraction with nice food and a great view. We could see the restaurants floating in the harbour and thought it would be easy to find the pier where the boats shuttle people back and forth. We managed to find a sign which said 'Floating Restaurants' and an arrow, however it lead us to a bus depot where a security guard told us to get lost. After about an hour of fruitless searching we admitted defeat, and had to wait another half an hour for the bus to take us back to our accommodation.

Even though we had a great day overall, we were pretty grumpy by the time we got on the bus, after the frustration of missing out on a major attraction and then having to wait ages for a bus. Imagine our frustration then, when a few stops later, the bus passed a clearly marked pier adorned with fairy lights and a big sign for the floating restaurants! We were so disappointed, but too tired by then to turn back.

We ended up going to Kraze Burgers for dinner and, feeling a bit of ill-will towards the floating restaurants, were determined to enjoy our burgers more than some fancy schmancy seafood dinner. Michael proclaimed the gourmet burgers as good as the ones in Shafto Lane, and we were satisfied that we had at least saved some money, rather than giving it to a restaurant that puts up fake signs to mislead poor tourists.

The next day we slept in, partly due to the windowless hostel room (if you can call it a room, more like a closet!). Without any natural light to wake us up, we found ourselves sleeping in really late unless we set an alarm.

I was really looking forward to the afternoon, because I had booked us in for high tea at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The place to be seen at high tea in Hong Kong is actually the Penninsular Hotel, however because it is so popular it is also very expensive and therefore not suited to our flashpacking budget (like backpacking only with a bit more money). In addition, the Penninsular Hotel is now so popular that you sometimes have to line up, which in my opinion is completely at odds with the whole high tea experience. In contrast, at the Mandarin Oriental we were able to relax in the opulent downstairs lounge before heading up to the restaurant where we were led to our pre-booked table. It was also more reasonably priced and we had heard that the quality was better than the Penninsular Hotel anyway.

The service was impeccable (there was actually a toilet attendant who turns on the tap for you, hands you paper towels and then opens the door for you!) and the food and tea was delicious. However, we both agreed that high tea at Tranby House in Maylands was better. At the MO we did have some gripes, which were that we had to ask for a second helping of jam and cream since they don't give you nearly enough, the scones were dry and the cakes not as nice as Tranby House. While Tranby House may not have a fancy toilet attendant or rose petal jam (overrated), the scones are bigger and nicer, they give you plenty of jam and cream  and the view is much prettier on the Maylands foreshore, especially if the weather is nice and you can sit outside.

In the evening we went down to the foreshore to see the Symphony of Lights, which is the world's biggest permanent light show, set to music. Basically, the neon lights on 44 buildings and laser lights mounted on top of the buildings are synchronised to classical music which is played over speakers at various viewing points around the city. It was quite spectacular, the photos do not do it justice.

Hong Kong (Part 1) - China with a pinch of Japan, served with a dollop of Britain

After our travels through China, Jenni and I were really looking forward to Hong Kong. We were hoping that the British influence on the region over the past century would have eradicated some of the things we hated about China; the language barrier, people spitting everywhere, dirty cities and rude people. I am delighted to report that Hong Kong came through with flying colours.


The first thing that we discovered about Hong Kong is that it is not entirely separate from the main land. Hong Kong island itself is separate, but Kowloon, also part of the Hong Kong region, is actually attached to mainland China. Hong Kong region extends onto the main land to the border of the SEZ (Special Economic Zone) in which the Chinese city of Shenzen lies.


Hong Kong seems like the cities in Japan that we visited; a clean and modern city with lots of buildings crammed together in a tight space. The English influence over the past century has lead to pretty much everybody being able to speak a combination of English and Chinese (Cantonese).  The Chinese influence is still very prevalent in terms of the way that people do business, bartering and trying their best to rip you off! We found that Hong Kong was a fair bit more expensive than China in terms of food and drinks, but still much cheaper than Australia (we have come to realize over the past couple of months that just about everywhere is cheaper than Australia!).


We left Guangzhou via train and arrived in Hong Kong in the early afternoon. Visas and immigration were all done at the train terminals with no problems. After a quick stop off for some lunch and purchase of some giant Pocky and Cream Collons, we made a start on finding our accommodation in Kowloon. A short subway trip, followed by a short walk from the station found ourselves standing outside Chungking Mansions, a multi storied building in the middle of the district of Tsim Sha Tsui on Nathan Rd, one of the busiest tourist areas in Hong Kong. The first and second floors of Chungking Mansions are home to a huge population of Indians, all with clothing stores, electronic stores and Indian food stands. Our accommodation was somewhere inside Chungking Mansions, but in a specific block of the building on a higher floor. After wandering around for about 10 minutes trying to find the correct lift with about 15 Indian blokes trying to con us into going to their own hostel within the building, an employee of our hostel luckily spotted us wandering around, asked us our names and showed us the convoluted way to get to our hostel. We had to go to a specific block of the building on the first floor, take the lift on the left - not the right as it only goes to the odd numbered floors - to go up to level 12 and then find our hostel on that floor. Leaving and returning to the hostel was a bit of a pain in the backside as every time we entered / exited the building we would be pestered by hordes of Indians trying to sell us a "Copy watch handbag" (said with a thick Indian accent while waggling your head left and right). I have no idea what exactly a "Copy watch handbag" is, but I can assure you that I am not interested in one. At least a polite "No thank-you" seemed to get them to leave you alone, unlike the hawkers back in China that you pretty much needed to beat with a baseball bat to try and get them to leave you alone. 


That evening we had dinner at a fantastic little Kebab, Curry and Pizzeria place called Ebeneezer's on one of the back streets in Tsim Sha Tsui. That evening we went to the movies to see Ironman 2 which was only newly released in Hong Kong. Even though Hong Kong is only kilometres away from China, it is treated as a completely different country. Across the border in China, Iron Man 2 was months away from being released in cinemas, if it was to be released at all as we have heard that the Chinese government has enforced a limited quota of Western movies that are allowed to be released each year in cinemas. You may have noticed that the past 2 posts on the blog have included photos throughout the article. These posts were done in Hong Kong, where the Chinese internet censorship policy does not apply and thus we can once again access the blog website directly. Similar to other foreigners, Chinese citizens also require a valid visa to enter into Hong Kong and foreigners need a valid visa to re-enter China. For anyone that wishes to travel to China in the future, make sure that you apply for a multiple entry visa if you wish to travel from China to Hong Kong and / or Macao and then back to China. Getting back to Ironman 2; Jenni and I were delighted to be able to enjoy the entire movie without people talking throughout, mobile phones ringing and people kicking the back of our seats, a few small luxuries we were not able to enjoy at a Chinese movie theater, a few days prior less than 200km, away back in Guangzhou (see Jenni's post entitled "Three Days and Counting").


Nine days after we arrived in Hong Kong, Jenni and I are due to arrive in Vietnam to meet our friend Eric. We were unable to organize our Vietnamese visas back in Australia before we left because you can only apply for a Vietnamese visa 1 month in advance of your arrival. Therefore we had planned to get one organized just before we arrived there. Hong Kong was an excellent candidate city for us to make our application as we figured that it would be handy to be able to submit the application to an office where the people could speak English if there was any problems with our application. 


Our second day in Hong Kong was set aside to organise our Vietnamese visa. We looked up the location of the Vietnamese consulars office on Hong Kong island and set off expecting it to take the majority of the day to get processed. To our delight, the visa application was a breeze and we were able to get it processed on the spot, freeing up the rest of the day for us to be able to explore Hong Kong island.


Our visit to the Vietnamese consulate building had already taken us on a stroll through some of Hong Kong island's CBD, so we decided to continue through to the East side of CBD where some of the shopping areas lie. The shopping areas on Hong Kong island are pretty much the same as the ones in Kowloon, so we did not spend too much time there.  We continued on through to Victoria park which lies to the East of the CBD. It is home to a large array of sporting grounds and jogging tracks. It looks really unusual to have all of these facilities surrounded by lush greenery with the high city buildings, just across the road and then the towering hillside just behind the buildings.


After a short rest while reading our books in Victoria park, we made a move to head back to Tsim Sha Tsui. Along the way we took a quick visit to Tin Hau temple (which was undergoing renovations, so we could not really see much) and stopped of to see the Golden Bauhinia, the 6m tall golden statue of a flower, which is symbolized on the Honk Kong flag. Next to the Golden Bauhinia lies the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre which houses a 7 storey high glass window. These sights both lie right next to a ferry dock on the Hong Kong harbour, allowing us to get a great view of Tsim Sha Tsui across the other side of the water.


That evening we decided we would go for a pub crawl. It was probably the most pathetic pub crawl in history as we only ended up making it to two pubs, although we did stay at the first one for quite a length of time due to the fantastic entertainment. The first pub we went to was an Australian pub called "Ned Kelly's Last Stand" where 'happy hour' is from 11-30am to 9pm! There we were able to treat ourselves to some good Aussie red meat dinners and some Crown Lagers. Our stay at the bar included a good ol' pushing and shoving between one of the bar staff and a disgruntled patron as well as free entertainment by means of the nightly performing Jazz band which was excellent. We enjoyed ourselves so much at Ned Kelly's that we didn't leave until quite late. We decided that we would need to visit at least one more pub to at least aspire to serve the definition of a pub crawl, so we ventured into one of the nearby venues. 


The bar we ventured into was a couple of floors up in a building so we had to take the elevator to get up to it. When the elevator doors opened, we were mortified to find ourselves standing in the entrance of a completely dead bar with not another sole in there aside from the 2 bar staff. We felt that it would be rather rude to turn around and take the lift back down, so we agreed to stay for one drink. To our delight we were escorted into what looked like a large VIP room with couches and a massive wall mounted TV that looked like it was designed to fit about 15 people. We made ourselves comfy while we finished off a single drink each while watching an episode of "Flash Forward" on the TV. We concluded our pathetic excuse for a pub crawl by heading back to our accommodation and getting some rest so we could get up at a reasonable time the following day.


Stay tuned for days 3 and 4 of Hong Kong!

Guangzhou - If you can't see the water, you're in underpants!

Jenni and I are now in Hong Kong and finding it very difficult to tear ourselves away from this fantastic city to take some time out to report on what we got up to in our final city in mainland China, Guangzhou. But for the good of the blog, I have tonight torn myself away from the dazzling city lights to write an article about it.


Guangzhou lies in the south of China and is located only 2 hours away by train to Hong Kong. Our original itinerary did not have us going to Guangzhou, but we decided to pass through it upon the recommendation of a fellow traveller. Also, getting from Guangzhou to Hong Kong is very easy as a relatively cheap train runs between the two cities.


Upon arrival in Guangzhou we had a pretty crappy first day. (See Jenni's rant, errrr I mean post, entitled "Three days and counting"). Luckily the following days where better, but still had their moments.


We had a very busy day on our second day in the middle of the city. First off we visited the Orchid Garden. This had beautiful winding paths through lush jungle like gardens with large butterflies flying around. Unfortunately not all of the orchids were not in bloom, if they were, the place would look breath taking. Next to the Orchid Garden in a Muslim cemetery where we saw hundreds of Muslims visiting. Along the small lane to the cemetery, lots of street traders had set up stalls to take advantage of the extra traffic the cemetery generates among the Muslim population. Along with the traders were beggars, some bearing horrific burns and scars all over their bodies, some with mutilated limbs.


Across from the Orchid Garden we walked through Yuexiu Park. This reminded us very much of Perth's Kings Park. The park is spread out over about 90 hectares and has winding roads up along many hills and past ponds and lakes. The walk through this park would have to be the first real reminder to us that we are travelling closer and closer to the equator as we really built up a sweat walking up and down all of the hills and throughout the jungle like scenery. Near the main peak we were able to take some great snap shots of the impressive 10 meter high Five Rams Statue.

Usually a day trip that involved such a large amount of walking would see us heading back to our accommodation, but we soldiered on to the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King after we exited the park. By the time we grabbed a bite to eat and got to the entrance of the museum, it was only an hour from closing time, so we had to be quick. Even though we didn't get a lot of time to see the mausoleum, it is by far one of the most impressive things we have seen in China. In 1983, a bunch of labourers stumbled upon a tomb while lowering the ground to build an apartment block in the middle of Guangzhou city. Upon uncovering the tomb, archaeologists discovered that the tomb housed the remains of Zhao Mo, the second king of Nanyue. Zhan Mo was the king of the 2000 year old Nanyue kingdom before it was invaded by emperor Qian and united as part of China as a whole. So the tomb is REALLY old. What was even more surprising was the fact that the tomb was found comptletly intact, with all of the relics left untouched. Making a find like this is pretty much the equivalent of finding an untouched 2000 year old tomb of an ancient king, on St George's Tce in the middle of the Perth CBD. It is just unbelievable!


The relics have all been removed from the tomb, restored and setup inside the adjacent museum. Before entering museum you can actually walk down and into the burial chambers! Along with the king and all of his treasures (the most notable of which was an entire outfit made of jade plates, woven together with red silk), additional remains were found. They believe that the remains belong to the king's wife, concubines, head cook and favourite musician. When we heard this we thought, "Wow, it must of really sucked to be them when the king finally carcked it!" Could you imagine that nowadays!?! Prince William bites the dust, so Kate Middleton along with a couple of his recent floozies have to killed and buried with him. Along with them, all members of his favourite boy band, the Backstreet Boys, also must be executed and buried along with him; no harm down there in my opinion.... :) Then the entire staff at the local McDonalds find out that the late William really enjoyed his Big Macs, so they have to join him too!!!


The following day we organised our train ticket to Hong Kong and visited some of the shopping areas. We read in the Lonely Planet about the markets along the street, Beijing Liu which was near Haizhu Square. We made our way to Haizhu Square and from there managed to find Beijing Liu. At first we were very disappointed as when we walked down the street, there wasn't really that many markets. After a while we managed to find one stretch of markets, although it only contained underpants. However, if you are looking for an underpants market, this is your place. It was 500m worth of underpants street stalls. It is a bra, bikini and budgie smuggler bonanza.

After some lunch, we decided to have one more crack at finding these fabled Beijing Liu markets. After rounding a few corners, we managed to find them. We came there on a Saturday and the place was CHOCKERS! You could hardly walk, there was so many people around. The markets look like that they have gradually evolved over the years into an outdoor shopping mall with street markets at ground level and towering department stores behind. Unfortunately by the time we found them, Jenni and I were fed up walking around all day and were not in the mood to deal with so many people. To make matters worse, the street hawkers kept seeing us two foreigners and kept making a be-line for us, trying to pull us into their stores. At one point, a hawker tailed me for about 40m through the crowd before I finally turned around and sternly said to him "Why don't you go and pester any one of these other hundreds of people!?!", to which he replied "I pester you!". Upon hearing his cheeky reply, I turned to him and said to him in an very loud voice "Do I need to crack your f**king head open?!?". Upon hearing this, Jenni quickly grabbed me by the arm and rushed me in the opposite direction. As I glared back at him, I could see that he was cowering away to leave us alone.


The following day we decided that we needed to get as far away from the hordes of people as we could in case we might kill someone. We decided to visit Shamian "Island". The "Island" isn't really much of an island. It is basically a few city blocks that are separated from the river front by a 10 meter stretch of water. Originally, Shamian Island was a simple sandbank on the riverside that was used by the British and French to setup warehouses on. Over the years, the 10m stretch of water along with a couple of guarded bridges managed to keep the Chinese out and the Europeans in, resulting in a set of city blocks that all have European style buildings throughout. Unfortunately during our visit, a lot of the terraces and buildings were undergoing major renovations, so it wasn't as spectacular as it could have been. Fortunately one side of the island has the renovations completed and we were able to enjoy an entire afternoon at Lucy's outdoor bar and restaurant, sipping down manys a glass of wine and beer, in the surroundings of the renovated gardens, statues, riverfront and brides and grooms having their wedding photos taken. In a couple of years once all of the renovations have been finished on Shamian Island, that place will no doubt be stunning and will probably become a major tourist attraction.


Guangzhou definitely had some excellent sights to see, some of the best we have seen in China. Perhaps we lucked out by having an unusually frequent number of encounters with really irritating people in this city during our short stay here. But then again, Guangzhou is still in China...

Xiamen - Birthdays, belching and botched bookings

Hi Everyone!

After my last post, some of you have wondered whether the recent silence on the blog was due to us either being too grumpy or getting beaten up by some angry Chinese people. Fortunately this is not the case, we have just not been able to find enough time to write articles. However, we are back and looking forward to writing about the last couple of cities, starting with Xiamen.

Xiamen was my 'birthday trip' (thank you for all the birthday wishes!), so Michael and I decided to live it up in a 5-star hotel. Unfortunately they 'lost' our booking, so we were stuck at the front desk for about half an hour showing them our email confirmations and trying to make sure that we got the cheap price quoted on the booking website. Since it was less than half the going rate for a room we thought that there had been some mistake on the website, but they honoured the price and gave us a room so no harm done. It was a very nice change, with a lovely soft bed, a bath, a concierge and a delicious buffet breakfast.

While I am on the subject of food, let me point out that the change in cuisine from northern China has been very pronounced. I have been told that the Chinese food that we enjoy in Australia is mostly Cantonese in origin, and this is definitely supported by my experience over here. Even as far down as Hangzhou, the food was fairly bland, although I didn't realise it until we got to Xiamen. Sure, we had some tasty dishes (like the Beggar's Chicken and Peking Duck), but overall it was not the taste sensation that I had been looking forward to. Xiamen was when I started to notice dishes more similar to my favourites back in Australia.

Still on the subject of food, the buffet at the hotel was amazing. I didn't realise how much I had missed having a proper breakfast until I was able to have porridge, muesli and pancakes for the first time since leaving. Unfortunately the dinner buffet wasn't included in the price, however we treated ourselves on the last night and it was worth every penny. They had all different types of steaks and skewers that you gave to the kitchen to cook for you, heaps of seafood like oysters, prawns and crab, delicious little entrees like a parfait glass with scallops and squid drenched in sweet chilli sauce and roast beef with steamed veggies, and don't even get me started on the desserts. Mmmmmm I am getting hungry just thinking about it... and since I am currently on a train for the next 2 hours with no food I should probably stop now.

Xiamen is very much a beachy sort of town, complete with palm trees and its very own Rottnest. It was also much warmer than Hangzhou, although not to the extent that I could leave my jacket in the hotel room. The area all around the hotel was mainly shops, which came in handy when Michael took me shopping for my birthday (which was the first day that we were in Xiamen) and bought me two nice new tops.

When we got back I was surprised by a delicious birthday cake (layers of sponge cake covered with cream and fresh fruit) from the hotel, along with a birthday card from the General Manager. I couldn't figure out how they knew it was my birthday, as Michael swore that he didn't tell them, until we guessed that it was from my passport (you have to present your passport every time you check into a hotel over here).

That evening we had a delicious dinner at a Burmese restaurant, where we were served by a waitress who burped really loudly as she poured us tea. It was hilarious and we had to choke down our laughter until she left the table.

Then we did a mini pub crawl of the two pubs at the hotel, the Hollywood Bar and the Golf Bar (with its own putting green). They were really the same bar with the same drinks list, just with different settings. But I was finally able to enjoy and few glasses of nice white wine so it was all good.

The next day we took a day trip to the lovely island of Gulan Yu. It was like Rottnest but not quite like Rottnest. There were no cars but also no bikes, there were plenty of beaches but you wouldn't want to swim in them and it was relatively quiet compared to the mainland but it was still as busy as Perth city on the weekend. The buildings are a fascinating mix of Chinese and European architecture, and together with the beautiful gardens and views made for a fantastic day trip.

First we climbed the highest peak on the island, which gave us a spectacular view. Then we took a cable car to another part of the island and went to the aviary, where they had heaps of different types of birds, including some spectacular white peacocks. It was an enormous enclosure, however some birds were in small enclosures, and some birds were even chained to perches :-( In addition we also saw a couple of huge rats about the size of Napoleon (picture to the right). It put a bit of a dampener on things and we soon left. After that we went to some beautiful gardens which were situated right next to the water, and then walked around the side of the island to see an enormous statue of some famous General, and another beautiful garden that had some interesting bronze statues.

Then we returned to the hotel, and Michael paid for my second birthday treat, an hour long massage at the hotel beauty salon. It was so relaxing that I didn't want to leave!

By the way, Michael and I would like to thank everyone for the emails and comments which let us know that people are reading the blog. Even though we are writing it mainly for ourselves, we get a real kick out of knowing that other people are enjoying it :-)

Three days and counting...

I apologise that I am posting this out of order (we just arrived today at Guangzhou however we haven't yet posted the last entry for Xiamen), but I just need to have a quick rant about why we are both so looking forward to leaving China. 

Today the inhabitants of this city reminded Michael and I that even though we are so close to the border, we are still well and truly in China.

We attempted to spend a quiet day getting our bearings, replenishing supplies and seeing a movie at the local cinemas. However the locals managed to make even those tasks a frustrating experience.

For example, I was waiting in a line consisting of three people to buy my shampoo, conditioner and razors. There was a lady in front of me making a purchase, myself and then another lady behind me. When the first lady had finished and moved to walk away, I moved forward. However, the b**ch behind me tried to sneak in front to get to the counter first!

I was like, are you serious?? You can't wait another 20 seconds for me to buy 3 items? It's not like I have a full trolley or anything! Usually I would just stare in amazement, however, learning from Michael's actions in Shanghai, I made an "oh no you don't" noise (I would have actually said "oh no you don't" except I didn't know how to in Chinese), shouldered her out of the way and made sure that I got my things to the counter before her. 

This method of finding a foreigner and cutting in front of them seems to be a perfectly acceptable way of getting ahead in a line, which we also witnessed happening to fellow foreigners at Hangzhou Airport.

Then we went to see the movie, Clash of the Titans. Even though there was only about 8 other people in the cinema, we had to endure 90 minutes of people talking, mobiles ringing and one especially annoying women who kept kicking the back of Michael's chair. It completely ruined the movie for us, although the bad script and poor acting were doing a pretty good job by themselves.

While there are certain places in China that I have recommended in the blog, as a complete package I would definitely not recommend China as a holiday destination. The only reason that I am glad that we came to China is that it makes me appreciate the fact that I do not have to live here! I can honestly say that the best part of this leg of the trip will probably be leaving. In fact, Michael and I have both agreed that we will not be returning to China unless our jobs requires us to do so.

We have definitely seen some amazing things, but I don't think that they are so amazing that they outweigh having to live with this level of rudeness. I would much rather go and see similarly spectacular things within an environment where I would be treated with the same level of respect as I show other people. 

Apologies for the rant, because you might be one of those people who agree with the Lonely Planet's view that this is just "part of the fun". However, if this is your idea of fun then I would suggest that you should either stop smoking illicit substances or go and see a therapist.

Hangzhou - Even us backpackers need a bit of a relaxing holiday

Those of you back home doing the day to day grind, you are probably going to want to ring my neck when I say this, but even backpackers sometimes feel like a little bit of rest and relaxation. Before you throw your hands up in disgust and stop reading this article, let me explain.

Although Jenni and I are not experiencing the day to day stress of work that we used to experience back home in Perth, we are instead now under a different kind of day to day stress due to the challenges that we face each day while travelling in a foreign country. Making sure that we have a place to sleep each night, trying to find accomodation that is in an easy to access area, trying to figure out how to get from city to city, figuring out where to go to buy tickets for transportation, making sure we don't miss our transportation, trying to find our accomodation once getting there and most importantly, making sure that we have a clean pair of underpants to wear the next day can really burn you out. Even finding somewhere to eat for lunch can be stressful as we need to walk around the streets looking for somewhere that is reasonably priced, having either an English menu or at least pictures of the dishes so we can point to them to order and is clean enough looking inside so that we can eat food that will not get us sick.

Our toughest tasks are always trying to get to some of the more out of the way places which we travel to on our day trips. Planning to go on one of these usually involves a good couple of hours scouring through travel guides and internet pages to gather the most clear set of directions on how to get there. Once we set off there are always further complications along the way, like the directions not being particularly clear on where to go to get a connecting bus or train and signing on bus stands and ticket booths not being written with English characters so we have no idea where to go. Even once we finally figure out how to get there, the stress doesn't completely go away as we are always conscious that we need to be able to get back to our accomodation for the night and need to make sure that we don't miss the last trains or buses because if we did, we would find ourselves stranded a very long way away from our beds.

When we read about Hangzhou's tranquil west lake area, we decided that even though there wasn't many big sights, we would allow ourselves a good amount of time there to just unwind and forget about the whole backpacking thing for a couple of days.

Our hostel was located right next the the south side of the lake. We made quite an entrance the night that we arrived. Our train arrived rather late to the city and as we were about to alight from the bus that dropped us off near our hostel in the dark, the heavens opened. We got soaked to the bone in a matter of minutes before we managed to get our wet weather gear on over ourselves as well as our packs. Fortunately we didn't need to keep it on for too long as the directions given to us by the hostel were excellent and we managed to find it in a matter of minutes. The front door of the hostel was stuck and Jenni had to give it a mighty heave to make it crash open. We clambered in completely soaked with the thunder and lightning from outside announcing our entrance. 

Fortunately the weather cleared up the next day and we were treated to fantastic clear weather for the rest of our stay. We spent most of our days in Hangzhou wandering around the lake. It is rather contrasting in comparison to the busy and grubby Chinese cities we have been visiting over the past few weeks. Along the lake there are beautiful clean walkways through sculpted gardens with little bridges connecting the land on each side of little ponds. Many times we found ourselves being greeted by whole classes of little school kids out for excursions around the lake, all jumping at the opportunity to practice their English by crying out in unison "hello"! Each day we would make a regular stop at the local French bakery for a coffee and cake while spending an hour or two reading our books on the couches in the upstairs seating area.

On the day before we left, we decided to stop being lazy and actually take a hike around the whole lake. It is about 15km around the perimeter. On the east side of the lake we were entertained by the local squirrels running around in the trees. We extended our hike to go through the hills on the north side of the lake to give us fantastic views of the entire lake and city on the other side of the hills. Along the hike we ventured through a set of boulders which some local mad man were using as a rock climbing playground. The guys were obviously very experienced as they quite easily scaled the vertical walls of the rocks, showing off by leaping from one ledge to the other and hanging on by only the fingertips of a single hand, but it was one of the most dangerous things we have ever seen. They didn't use any safety gear or harnesses at all and were at times hanging over high ledges with over 15m drops right over rocks. One mistake and they would have found themselves plummeting to their deaths. Other highlights included sunrise point (a lookout at the very peak of the hills that is the best vantage point to see the sun rise) and the northern hills pagoda. After finishing our hike through the northern hills, we stopped off for some lunch where we tried 'beggar's chicken', a dish that was recommended to us by another traveller, before heading back along the lake during twilight to get some snapshots of the southern pagoda which was illuminated by lights on the way back to our hostel.

Our last day in Hangzhou was short as we had to get to the airport to catch a flight to Xiamen. Our taxi driver arrived with ample time to get us there, but was determined to drive like he was competing in the World Rally Championship. The guy was an absolute lunatic, weaving in and out of cars at 110km an hour, overtaking cars in the emergency stopping lane and at one stage, slamming on the brakes to avoid crashing into the car in front, resulting in the wheels of our van locking up and us fish-tailing down the highway before he managed to get it back under control. By the time we reached the airport our legs were like jelly and we were grateful that we managed to get there alive. The only damaged caused by the taxi driver from hell was to the front leg of my jeans, due to a massive pee stain :)

Jenni and I are sad to leave Hangzhou as we have enjoyed this place more than any of the other places we have visited in China so far. Although it doesn't have the big sights like Beijing and Xi'an, we would highly recommend it to anyone visiting here in the future.