Day 13 - Fenghuang - Zhangjiajie

Fenghuang - Zhangjiajie

After 2 nights in Fenghuang, It was once again time to move along. We had a big breakfast of noodle, chilli & egg from a street stall, treated ourselves to a take away coffee, packed our bags & set off. Our hotel manager was exceptionally helpful by giving us bus times, hailing a taxi & negotiating the price of the taxi for us.
He was a huge help during our stay, we had limited to no Wi-Fi & couldn't find things easily on our own.  We highly recommend staying at 166 Inn hotel because of its fantastic location and the super friendly manager.

Once at the bus station, it was easy enough to buy tickets and find our departure gate. We had some small success in now being able to decipher some writing on our tickets without help from technology, things like our departure gate and seat numbers! The mass of foreign symbols is slowly becoming less daunting. Our bus was meant to leave at 1.30pm but was late & instead we left at 2pm. The Chinese countryside continues to show off it's natural beauty in the form of mountains, farming villages, crops & at 4.30pm we could see wind turbines perched high on a mountain range. The dirt now seems to be of a dark red colour & scattered across the hills you can see graves/tombs, something we had not seen/noticed before today. 

The bus arrived at the final destination at 5:30pm, in the centre of town, Zhangjiajie, something we were slightly unprepared for. Our accommodation and reason for travelling all this way was still an hour away in Wulingyuan Scenic area, up a mountain, also known as the Zhangjiajie National Forrest Park. Above all things in China, this is something I am most excited to see! 

Just outside the bus station terminal was a very friendly Chinese man in a smart looking minivan who seemed very keen to help us out. We were able to use Google Translate to ask him for directions at which point he let us to a friend of his that could speak some English. This friend advised of his taxi service and after agreeing on a price & without too much delay we set off up the mountain. An hour later we arrive and found our hostel right on the border to the national park. Again Tom has done a fantastic job booking the accommodation with a more than perfect price and location!!!

Once done checking in & depositing our bags we set off to explore & find some dinner.  We found some cheap street food with three pages of vegetarian options at a reasonable price!! Winning ! Finding reasonable priced & yummy vegetarian options has been somewhat of a struggle for me.

Also on this menu a few comical translation errors such as 'sizzling crystal powder' and 'egg with three colored water' 

 There was also a variety of game meat such as giant salamander, bamboo rat and snake. After being tame in our dinner decisions & enjoying every mouthful we headed back to the hotel for some blogging and a big night of sleep. 

I'm hoping the weather holds out, its meant to rain a lot tomorrow ! 

- Alli

Day 12 - Fenghuang

We wake up in the morning in beautiful Feng Huang, to a crisp temperature of 15 degrees, celsius and not a cloud in the sky. After having a couple of hours of the previous night to explore, and having seen how beautiful everything was, we were keen to get out and about. However as many other mornings the 7am alarm got snoozed to an 8am wake up! No regrets!

We venture out by about 9am and are immeditaly greeted by the many food stalls and vendors we had seen the night before. The city was equally as beautiful during the day. You could now see the mountains closely surrounding the river and ornate riverside bars and hotels. Its hard to put  nto words the feeling you have walking around this place. Its kind of like stepping back in time to what china would have looked like once upon a time. Without the over industrialization it suffers today. The only thing that brings you back into the present are the many coloured lights, which no doubtedly complement the atmosphere. And the tourists of course. Which thankfully are relitively few this time of the year. I will let the photos attached attemp to fill the gaps! Although even those dont do it justice. I feel like without the smells and sounds you are missing 2/3 of the moment.
We spent many hours today walking up and  down the river. Getting lost amongst the back streets. Testing our stomachs with the street food. Compared to Guilin, pretty much no one speaks a word of english. Which in a way is good. We have also seen only one or two other westeners, so altough it is a very touristy town, we feel like we have penetrated into the less western China we have been seeking.

After about 5 hours of walking and another 15km under our belts. We stopped for a feed and Allisha has opted for a nap. The temperature has reached a sweltering 30 degrees now. I have posted myself at one of the cheaper bars near our accomodation for a well deserved cold beer. It is quite expensive in Feng Huang. Being a very tourism based town. And you can easily pay 40 Yuan for a standard western beer, that comes to 8.70 AUD! However if you seek out the local beers at a medium quality venue (you still have river views), they will only cost you 10, so a quarter of the price fpr 2x the beer! It seems there is always a cheap option available. You just need to go looking for it. Maybe I try my luck at some Saki and see if thats better value for money while Allisha has a nap! ;)

Later in the evening while watching the moon rise on a beautiful balcony, drinking local beer, We both observed how slowly time is going now we're on holiday.
Its been less than 2 days since we we're at Guilin underground in the Reed Flute Cave and less than 2 weeks since we left our home soil, Australia. More and more I feel its this timelessness that is the true pursuit of happiness. And something we will spend our lives chasing. Careless freedom.


- Tom

Day 11 - Guilin - Fenghuang

Guilin - Fenghuang

Another part of the journey begins & we leave Guilin today heading North East to Fenghuang. I'm a little bit sad to be leaving, it's a beautiful town, I've loved our adventures & the hostel.

After packing & eating a breakfast of fruit & instant coffee, we confirmed a few things with the staff at the hostel such as our bus departure time & what bus station we would arrive at in Fenghuang. Once again the staff go above & beyond regular good service by calling our next accommodation & speaking to them about transport, check in times etc, then she called the bus station & confirmed our departure times, relaying specific instructions from both conversations & then called us a taxi to get to the Qing Tan bus station. I can't recommend Ease Hostel enough based on location, outstanding service, friendliness, cleanliness, personal touch's & a great all round atmosphere.

The trip in the taxi came to less than 15 Yuan, less than 3 dollars AUD. Amazing how cheap the cabs are. We always tip a few extra dollars. Anyway!  We arrived at the bus station at 1.30pm & easily brought tickets for a 3pm departure, thankfully it's a small bus station.
It's going to be a big day of reading, Netflix & listening to music while staring out the window at the ever changing landscape. China's beauty continues to grow the deeper we travel into the country. A land ravaged by mountains, hills & rivers. The mountainside's cut into blocks to help with irrigation & the crops planted into these blocks, from the distance the mountains look like they are covered in scales. At this time of year, most of the scales are colours of brown & blue, bare dirt & water awaiting plants to become green again.
After we had been driving for 4 hours, we started to notice crops of yellow flowers, and lots of small trees resembling different species of pine trees.
There is minimal rubbish in the country, small villages & I'm guessing minimal electricity due to the dark houses & large fire pits. I also noticed the sun was later to set.

We arrived in Fenghuang just before 8.30pm and found a 'taxi' driver, who wasn't really a taxi driver & charged us 3x what the fair should of been. He was very enthusiastic about his horn & driving on the wrong side of the road, more so than the average Chinese driver, but he got us to the road our hotel was near.  The hotel manager met us at the entrance to the road (cars aren't allowed along the roads & lanes of old Fenghuang) all waves & smiles. He grabbed my bag out of the boot, obviously struggling but determined to carry it. Commenting to Tom on the fact that I'm so thin, my bag is very heavy & also that I have no jumper & it's very cold.

He was so excited to have us stay at the hotel. It was also at this hotel that we are confronted with the unavoidable squatty potty, up until now we had been very successful in dodging it. Another great hotel booking, a 2 minute stroll down to the river and the old town but still far enough away to avoid the throngs of people, most of the noise and at a great price! 

Fenghuang- OMG - Amazing. We instantly wish we had more time here. We left our hotel room keen as beans to explore. It is stunning!
Never have I been so infatuated with a city or felt so immersed in culture. This is old China in all its glory.
Everything you dream China would look like, it looks like in Fenghuang, combined with the smells & sounds make it mystical, elegant and ancient. Lanterns, pagodas and houses with pointy roofs, wooden boats, houses on poles leaning over the river, bamboo everywhere, chinese music, dragons and symbols, the colours red and gold dominating everything, Traditional clothing and make up, old wooden carts being pulled up tiled lanes. It is a sight to behold.
- Alli

Day 10 - The Reed Flute Cave

The Reed Flute Cave -

It was a beautiful rainy day with a temperature of 16 degrees and our last day in Guilin. We decided the perfect opportunity to visit the Flute Reed Caves, a natural attraction highly recommended to us. We booked our tickets at the reception in the hostel, the staff here are amazing and have gone above & beyond what is expected. We also borrowed 2 umbrellas & set out on a 6km walk to get to the caves. Not for the first time or the last, I was thankful that I have brought my timberland hiking boots, they are waterproof but also provided an excellent grip of the wet marbel tiles along the pavement.

I'm still shocked & amazed at how the local people transport themselves around on all manner of scooters, bicycles, wheel chairs & mini vehicles, half ute & half scooter. Today we saw a scooter van drive past with a lit fire oven on the back and he was cooking while he was driving.
Even in the rain they pile the scooters high with passengers or things, balance an umbrella in one hand, a mobile phone in the other & weave precariously through traffic. Thank god, were finally getting the hang of crossing the roads. After we got a few kilometres outside of town the landscape really started to change. Lots of mountains, rivers, traditional Chinese buildings with pointed roofs, huge power lines & fields of twiggy looking trees covered in pink blossoms. We later learnt they were peach blossoms. Another kilometre down the road & the path disappeared to be replaced by dirt, puddles & rough cement.

A lot of houses around here are either abandoned & falling down, half built or piles of rubble, there is also A LOT of rubbish. You can really appreciate the effort that goes into keeping the city clean & preserved.
Eventually we reached our destination, Reed Flute Cave! Just before the entrance, we were approached by a friendly Chinese man who spoke very good English. He quite easily convinced us we needed to go down the river on a bamboo raft. Though it felt very touristy, and at one point like we were the tourist attraction! It was very peaceful and a good way to admire the mist rolling of the mountains.
 Our captain, who was on our raft steering and  pushing the raft, would have at least been 60 & was half the size of Tom. She had calloused hands that were ancient, but strong & reassuring & a face full of wrinkles from smiling. She seemed very happy with her life & her place in the world. I hope I'm as happy, strong & self reliant as she is when I am her age!

Finally, the caves! My first caving experience! Reed Flute Cave is 787ft of natural limestone cave containing pools of water, ancient turtles that are over 100 years old, stalagmite & stalactite formations & ink inscriptions dating back to the 8th century. It was absolutely amazing & I found it really hard to pick only a few photos to share over our social media Platforms. I had read about the caves & they were highly recommended as something to do in Guilin. Initially I wasn't sure how I would feel being inside the cave or about the coloured lighting. Rest assured I loved it! The lighting & the sheer depth and detail of the caves, created a feeling like you were on another planet, like something out of Avatar. As Tom said "A Subterranean delight"

There are 7 or 8 different species of turtle that live in these caves, some of them have spiky shells and long tails! These Turtles are older than 100 years of age. The few that were on display in smaller ponds were absolutely surrounded by money form people paying their respects. The turtle is a symbol of longevity in china & also thought to bring peace and health. I felt a bit sorry for them, imagine reaching 100 years of age in a dark cave, then being discovered, contained in an enclosure with light, surrounded by money and being gawked at by people.

After spending a little bit more than an hour in the cave, we headed for the exit, dodged the souvenir sellers and begun the walk back to our accommodation.

Hot Tip:  As usual, buy your ticket online, it saved us 30Yuan & if you have the time and fitness level, walk! You can find websites with english options to help you make the booking or ask your accommodation. WeChat is of course the best way. Our hostel was very lovely and booked it for us, at no extra charge.

- Alli

Day 9 - R&R in Guilin

It was time for another chill day, a day to rest ad recover.
After a sleep in, we went for a relaxing 10Km walk around the lake behind our hostel & the beautiful gardens. Admiring the many sculptures, obelisks, rocks with inscriptions and plants.
The lake contained quite a few bridges, each made of a different material and a different design, such as a glass suspension bridge and a traditional cement arch bridge. Each was beautifully constructed and had a significant story in Guilin history that was on display in the form of paintings and tiles on the side and underneath the bridges, making them very 3D and artistic.
After exploring we had worked up an appetite & a slight hangry attitude, we found a restaurant and ordered a couple of vegetarian meals and some coffee, unfortunately the coffee was more like frothy milk while the food was very bland and oily, nothing good music, a few beers and a few games of pool could'nt  fix back at the hostel!
All in all a great relaxing day

Day 8 - Get Lost In Guilin

Day 8 - Get Lost In Guilin

After our big day of travel yesterday we didn't bother to set any alarms & we both slept through until 10am. Obviously sleep was exactly what our bodies & minds needed.
After the best coffee we have had internationally, big claim but its true, we set off to explore and get lost in Guilin.
I was very excited to work out that coffee is cheap here in Guilin & plenty of places sell it in cafe's as well as the usual Starbucks etc.
Guilin is a nice change to Hong Kong, it feels like a more complete immersion into Chinese culture.  The first thing I noticed was the lack of air pollution and the amount of beautiful green trees & gardens throughout the city.  Guilin (formerly known as Kweilin) is located on the west bank of the Li river. Its name means forrest of sweet Osmanthus, due to the large number of Osmanthus trees throughout the city. Interestingly, it is one of only 4 towns in China listed by the state council to protect its cultural heritage & natural scenery as a top priority. They have definitely done a good job of this. The cultural heritage is everywhere, the streets are paved in beautiful stone tiles, there are lots of sculptures, inscriptions carved into rocks, paintings, traditional bridges, lanterns, temple structures & fountains full of koi fish & wishes.  It is very scenic. The people here 'look' more traditional with the way the women style their hair and the clothes that are worn by both men and women, I've hardly seen anyone wearing sports branded clothing.

There is lots of traditional chinese music played in shops and down by the river you can hear lots of instruments being played and people singing.
Even though Guilin is listed as one of China's most popular tourist destinations, there are very few western people here, we definitely attract a lot of stares, not necessarily unfriendly though. A few months ago I made the decision to dye my hair light brown, instead of blonde & then a few days before we left the country I also had 3 inches of hair cut off, I am finally feeling good about that, long blonde hair would of only caused more attention & potentially some unwanted attention.
 The few locals who do know some english are very eager to come and have a chat & people seem to get a real kick out of yelling "hello" at us & waiting for us to reply in turn. We were even asked to pose with one local in a photo & have caught many people in the act of photographing us.
The streets are full of scooters and bikes, I didn't realise until today that we didn't see any scooters in Hong Kong. I dont think I will ever get use to seeing the way people drive these scooters, piled high with food or building materials, a toddler in the front and another passenger on the back, talking on the phone while weaving through traffic!  This seems perfectly normal. And as far as we can see the chaos seems to get on just fine. Everyone seems to have a handle on making sure they are courteous to other drivers. Maybe in not enforcing the use of helmets and having very few rules is the key! It would be interesting to review statistics on road incidents after seeing it work so well.
Another big claim for Guilin is the best meal we have eaten since we have been on holiday!
It was at a place called Rice Noodle Pub in town where the night markets are set up. The food was orgasmic, the restaurant was very clean, the waitress was lovely and it was quite cheap.
We spent a few more hours wandering the streets, looking through the many stalls and shops Guilin has to offer, we then returned to our hostel for a beer, a few games of pool and some blogging.

We ventured out again later that night..

Guilin is stunning at night time! The city is covered in lights which reflect of the surfaces of water and tiles while also casting beautiful colours onto trees in parks and up the sides of the mountain.
We highly recommend a stroll through town of a night time, especially in the fire lake scenic area, you can really appreciate the 2 beautiful Pagodas in the lake known as the sun and moon towers.
After a total of 19.9km's of exploring, we are finally happy to be tucking ourselves into bed.
- Alli

Day 7 - Entering China !! Hong Kong - Guangzhou - Guilin

Day 7 -  Entering China !! Hong Kong - Guangzhou - Guilin

Finally our Chinese Visa's were approved! After 6+ hours at the Chinese embassy and multiple visits (we cover this in another blog) we could finally make the last ferry trip to Hong Kong island to pick them up. We then went snack shopping, and brought enough to make our good friends Nat & Dom proud! From experience buying food during transit can cost you big time. We then put on our big packs & smaller back packs & waddled 30 minutes to the international train terminal. We easily brought our tickets straight through to Guilin but were not really aware of what this would entail.
 The first leg of the journey to Guangzhou was easy enough to find the gate & go through customs & our tickets put us in first class, I was more comfortable travelling than I had ever been before in my life! We got off in Guangzhou, China and faced a whole new world with limited to no english signs and no-one who could speak english. Very different to Hong Kong!
 We had to catch 2 trams  to connect us to the next train, both of which were on different levels in a HUGE, multi level transit station. Without blowing my own whistle, I am actually very happy with how calm we were & how well we managed to deal with the situation, whilst carrying 30kg's each on our back. We arrived at the departing gate with only 10 minutes to spare & were delighted to see we were about to board our first bullet train.
Whilst travelling from Guangzhou to Guillin we were able to test Toms Google translate app & 'decode' the chinese symbols until we had a rough idea what station we had to get out at. It works a charm! we still got off 1 station too early and asked a guard to check our tickets,  who quickly shoo'd us back onto the train before it whizzed away.

W arrived in Guillin at 9pm, tired & sore from a big day of transit & carting our packs around (we have made big plans to get fit again, quickly) to face a taxi rank full of taxi drivers and not a drop of english. We had pre planned for this and taken photos of our hostel's location on google maps & had the address translated into chinese symbols as well. For some reason, they still had no idea where it was & we attracted a swarm of taxi drivers passing our phones around and asking us questions we couldn't answer. Thankfully a police officer who spoke a few tiny words of english, asked us if we had a contact number & he rung our hostel, who gave them the answers we could not.
After arriving at our hostel & paying our taxi driver a double fair for his troubles (the equivalent of $4.10AUD)  we were absolutely thrilled to walk into one of the most relaxing rooms, our hostel common room. A fridge full of beer & wine, a pool table, comfy lounges & books, a barista station, beautiful chinese wall art & a ginger cat, I'm  yet to befriend!  After organising our room key ( we got to take our pick out of the available rooms)  We brought cold beers to drink in a hot shower - A beautiful end to a very daunting day. Our room is about 4x the size of the one we had in Hong Kong for less than half the price, Its also worth mentioning Guilin looks gorgeous by night & were super keen to explore it tomorrow.


I can already tell I am not going to want to leave this hostel or this old traditional town,  it is way too cool!
- Alli

Chinese Visa!

Chinese Visa!

STOP….
Before you even consider going through this process from within Hong Kong at the Chinese Consulate, please do yourself a favor and read the below.

Visa's can be applied for before leaving on holiday to China, which involves sending your passport, application & supporting documents away within a certain time period, once your Visa is approved (if approved) & depending on what sort of Visa you have applied for,  you have a certain time period to then get into the country. Alternatively, you can apply in Hong Kong international airport Via Express service through a company called CTS once you arrive. We were not eligible for this service, due to one of us having a brand new passport & our Visa type. We have read good reviews about this service but can not personally comment. If there is an opportunity to avoid going in and applying in person at the Chinese consulate, I would jump at that option!

Follow the basic document checklist & don't be surprised if they ask for extra documentation. We supplied and recommend having multiple copies of your passport as well as your actual passport, copies of any old passports and the original's, copies and originals of international drivers licenses & Australian drivers licenses. Proof of employment such as group certificates, payslips and an official letter of employment from your employer containing your passport number. A copy and the original of your arrival card for Hong Kong. An itinerary, even a rough one that you can change as you go, typed in a word document explaining what sort of traveller you are and what you were seeing and where you are going. Booking confirmations for accommodation and your mode of transport into the country. We weren't able to supply this as we had to have a visa and our passports to book our train tickets. The lady at the consulate was initially going to reject our application but we kept pushing and explained we weren't able to book it and that we wanted to back pack, she asked a supervisor who said that was fine. Date & mode of departure from the country, they are particularly fussy about this, thankfully we had this planned and a flight from Beijing to Nepal already booked. 

Visa photos that aren't older than 6 months. They are particularly fussy about this as well and were very quizical about my facial hair growth that was not on the visa photos taken 5 weeks prior. Allisha had to take  new photos and remove all jewellery from her ears and face. This is very unexpected and a lot of women have to redo their visa photos. We were unable to remove some of Allisha's new cartilage piercings in the top of her ear but successfully covered them with band-aids a similar colour to her skin. 

You will need an application document, that as far as I know can only be obtained from the office itself.  Pick this up and return another day with an appointment for the quickest service, this is what we chose to do. Otherwise if its not too busy you might be able to fill it out on the spot and have a 9:30-10:00 appointment pre- booked on the same day, so you can jump the queue once you have all your paperwork filled out. The office opens at 9am, on our second visit to the consulate we arrived early at 8:35am  and the line was already very long, the entire lobby was jammed full of people waiting in the non-appointment line for the pre-check, we couldn’t get off the lift! At every visit to the consulate, we have arrived early in the morning and the lines have always been excruciatingly long... 5 hours long for a pre-check of your documents! If you have the money and not the standard 4 days turn around time, you can apply for an urgent Visa, avoid the massive lines, pay $900 HKD and have your Visa in 2 days. 

It is imperative that you have your first few destinations planned and have booking confirmations. If you use booking.com you are able to make reservations that will have a free cancellation period so you are able to change your travel plans after entering the country, this is especially useful if you are planning on making many short stops. If the accommodation confirmations only have one persons name on it you will need a declaration document to state you have booked on behalf of others. These can be obtained at the pre-check desk and you will need to submit one with each application not named on the accommodation, along with a copy of the passport fo the person who's name the booking is in.

It also helps to have your train bus or flight booked into china. This can be difficult as the visa can take between 2-4 business days to obtain (depending if you pay for the ‘urgent/service’ and often flights and train tickets can be non-refundable (you probably wouldn’t be able to claim on travel insurance either a it was not at fault of the provider that the trip was missed). I would suggest leaving yourself a decent leeway to make sure you aren’t going to miss your connection.

Make an appointment! I cannot stress this enough. There were people lining up for 3-5 hours to have their documents pre-checked. If you go to the link displayed in the photo you can make an appointment and you will jump the entire queue. There is a separate queue on your left once you exit the elevator. It is usually only 4-5 people long. Where as the non-appointment queue is 100 or so long and stretches around the entire office.

Arrive early.  Avoid Monday and Friday and holiday times. If you haven’t made and appointment I would recommend getting there an hour or more before they open with all your documents prepared in order to avoid the queue.

Be patient and don’t miss your number. There can be quite a language barrier with some of the staff that work here. And the general feel is that they don’t want to make it easy to get into the country, so make sure you keep your cool and negotiate you position. 

When you collect your Visa, you will feel like a huge weight has been lifted from your shoulders. China will be worth every second of the 6.5 hours we spent in the consulate! 

- Tom

Day 6 - Victoria Peak & Andy's Chili Party !

Day 6 - Victoria Peak

For our last day in Hong Kong we decided to go to the tallest peak in Hong Kong, on Hong Kong Island and watch the sun set over the city. From Jordan where we were staying, we walked 20 minutes to the ferry, the ferry then took 10 minutes to cross the harbour to the Central Ferry Terminal, and finally a 40 minute bus ride up the mountain. Note: If you get any sort of motion sickness I would urge you not to sit on the second level of the bus.

Initially the bus drops you off at the Sky Terrace 428 complex. This complex contains lots of overpriced fast food, some shopping and a lot of escalators spread across 2 buildings. On top of one of these buildings is the Sky Terrace 428 which is a 360 degree viewing platform at 428 metres above sea level and is the highest viewing platform in Hong Kong. It was about 4.30pm when we got to the entrance and ticket area for the Terrace, after seeing the crowds and the price, we decided we would try our luck and find another view.
Here's how we did it - if you walk down the escalators to the bottom level, get out of the building complex and find a road just past the buildings (facing Hong Kong) called Lugard road, you have found the 'secret lookout'. Follow Lugard road which turns into a beautiful cement walking track surrounded by rainforest plants, rocks & a few small waterfalls, walk along this track for about 15 minutes keeping right at all the forks. The walk is a mixture of bamboo and ferns, is nice and cool and comparatively has no crowds. This track has several look out points across Hong Kong & the harbour, with many different viewing positions to see Hong Kong.

"This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen" - Tom.

So, yeah we definitely recommend it! After watching the sun set, we took quite a few night time shots of all the lights. With earth hour approaching (24th of March) I can't help but wonder in a city as big as Hong Kong how much energy is saved within that 1 hour. We made our descent down Lugard road & then took a bus back down the mountain at around 8.30pm.
We were starving!

To end our fantastic evening, we decided to spend our last night in Hong Kong eating at a fancy restaurant called Andy's Chili Party which is where I had my ass handed to me in a fancy restaurant by a dish of chilli. Neither of us being a stranger to hot spices, we shared a chilli starter & an entree, we then hooked into the main 'hot pot' when it arrived. After a few mouthful's I started to sweat, then I could feel my nose start to run uncontrollably & my eyes water, I then stupidly, ate a whole chilli.... After that I could feel my mouth, oesophagus & stomach squirming, my ears started ringing & I started to dry retch & panic! I skulled half a beer & raced outside for a breather. Thankfully I didn't spew but when I walked back into the restaurant I could see people staring & I had broken out head to toe in a bright red chilli rash.... there goes my dreams of being a chilli master in India. All I could pray was that it didn't hurt me again tomorrow.

 -Alli

Hong Kong Transport!

Hong Kong Transport!

One of the most common themes throughout our stay in Hong Kong has been the transport system. Weather it be bus, train, ferry or tram you are always welcomed with an extremely organized and easy to understand system. Even on the specialty transport like Cable Car, however if you are visiting the Ngong Ping cable car its best to get there first thing in the morning as the line becomes quite a wait later in the day. Being our first stop we had considered thoroughly how hard it would be to get around. Luckily the city of Hong Kong was excited to show us exactly how wrong we were!

Pro Tips:

·      Most signage is bilingual and the English component is easy to understand. Same goes for the terminals to buy tickets, they are easy to operate.

·      There is free Wifi at most railway stations so you can use Google maps ‘public transport’ feature to work out which number service you need to be on and how frequently it arrives.

·      You will need exact change when travelling on Buses as they wont give you change. When travelling by Train or ferry there will be an attendant or a machine to dispense tickets. They will give change but may not accept large notes.

·      If you don’t like being in large crowds avoid the peak hours on weekdays. Weekends are fairly busy throughout.

·      As with anywhere in the world, food in and around the transport centers is at a premium, so don’t travel hungry and pack snacks!

All in all I have found the public transport here to be a very clean and well-organized system. It’s also very cheap. Costing much less than what you would be used to in Australia. Ferries can cost between $4.00-$7.50 HKD for a short trip to Hong Kong Island. Busses we paid $4.00 HKD for a short trip and $8.00 HKD for a longer trip to Tung Chung. Airport busses were a little more to get into the city but nothing crazy ($30-$40 HKD from memory).

Although we didn’t catch any cabs, we noticed like everything else in Hong Kong, they run on an Octopus card. Like any transit card you apply credit (assume in person or on line) and you are then able to use all modes of public transport. Amazingly they also work at many restaurants, and I have seen people using them on the photocopier in the Chinese Embassy when applying for a visa! Truly a very integrated system and a must have if you are spending an extended time in Hong Kong. Fares are slightly discounted if using this service.

Over all I am very impressed, and hope that we have not been to spoilt going into China next where I’m sure it will be a bit more difficult! I hope so long as we give our selves plenty of time and take the right attitude we will get through! I am keen to use ‘Google Translate’ for its picture recognition software and see if that helps us on our way (hopefully it can be used off line)!

- Tom 

Day 5 - Shopping !

Day 5 - Shopping !

We had a few 'must have' items for our trip that we planned to purchase in Hong Kong. I needed a new pair of sneakers and Tom wanted to get a Go-Pro.

Our first destination was 'sneaker street' also known as Fa Yuen Street in Mong Kok. After walking into about 10 different shops and trying on a few pairs, I found the ones. Tom managed to talk them down $80 HKD off the original price and I left a happy customer. I spent approximately  $100 AUD on Nike sneakers that would of cost double that price in Australia. We would encourage others to shop around and ask for a lower price, its also fairly obvious which stores are selling fakes & bad quality sneakers. Based on our experience & other recent reviews I have read, I don't think Hong Kong is a shoppers paradise anymore, some things were the equivalent in AUD or more expensive. Its also not a cheap place if you are a lover of coffee, between AUD $6-$8 for a latte!!  I wouldn't pay this back home in Melbourne or Brisbane, sadly I have only had 2 coffee's while we have been in Hong Kong.

We found the Go-Pro in a store along Nathan Rd in Kowloon Park, we decided on a Hero 5 instead of the new Hero 6. Tom used his expert bargaining skills & brought the Hero 5, a really long selfie stick, spare battery & a memory card for the equivalent of AUD $500.
There was many hours of fiddling with settings and set up before our adventure the next day up to Victoria Peak.

Below is a picture at Victoria Peak when Tom was frustratingly adjusting  the settings & I was bored. Proof that he gets frustrated with uncooperative technology & its not just me who sometimes struggles! LOL

Day 4 - Rest and Recover

Day 4 - Rest and Recover,
After walking just over 36km's in the previous 2 days, it was time to have a break. We brought some cheap beer & snacks, then retreated to our hotel room, Thank god for Netflix!
My cold from earlier on in the week came back in full force and I spent quite a few hours sleeping and sneezing.
Tom spent a few hours confirming the next week of our Holiday in China, reassuring relatives, uploading photos and updating the budget.
We enjoyed an amazing Japanese lunch at Fung Authentic Japanese restaurant, where Tom got brave with Sashimi and I did not.
At 7pm we wandered down to the Victoria Harbour  to watch the symphony of lights, a free, multi media attraction at the harbour  which involves music, narration, lasers and lighting from the main buildings along Hong Kong island. I really enjoy the beauty that already exists along the harbour at night & appreciated the light show. I don't think it would be something I would travel very far to see or want to pay money for. If you are in the area I would highly recommend seeing the harbour of a night time to appreciate the lights & doing it at a time close to the light show so you can see both during the one visit.
We checked out the Temple Street Night markets as well for the first time tonight. A good place to buy cheap street food and barter for cheap nick nacks, not unlike other street markets!

- Alli

Day 3 - Continued & Ocean Park!

Ocean Park!

After returning to the Tung Chung end of the cable car. We quickly headed to the train station near by, we were able to find free WiFi and easily worked out how to get to Hong Kong Island and on to Ocean Park. After a very quick train ride and change over to a bus at Hong Kong Central Station, we were soon walking through the massive gates to the adventure park! The total journey taking about an hour.
Hot Tip -  Once arrived, we were able to use the parks free WiFi to book tickets online and managed to get a meal
included for the price of a standard admission! Always book tickets for this sort of attraction online to avoid huge waiting times in queues, to score a bargain and save some coin. We hurried into the park and having become hungry from the adventures of the first half of the day, quickly found a vendor to redeem our voucher. Feeling refreshed and renewed we energetically ventured out into the park. First order of business was the Panda's,  inside the Amazing Asian Animals exhibit! We hurried in and were welcomed with no queue just a member of staff holding a sign instructing us to keep the noise to a minimum and not to use flash photography.

 The first exhibit we came to was the smaller cousin of the Giant Panda, The Red Panda. At first this curious creature was hidden inside its leafy and ladder filled enclosure. Though it wasn't long before we caught a glimpse of red fur through the branches. Not knowing much about this little panda we later discovered they are native to the eastern Himalayas and south-eastern China. It has also been classified as endangered because its wild population has slipped below 10,000 mature individuals. The second exhibit had the resident Giant Panda, Le Le, who was sound asleep with his back turned to the small audience around his enclosure. It was great to see the amount of space he had and the different aspects of environmental enrichment he had within his enclosure. There was also Ocean Park staff on stand by making sure people were not disturbing the animals. It was really sad to find out that there is less than a thousand Giant Panda's alive in the wild, we feel lucky to have seen Le Le's backside.

Alongside the Panda's, Ocean Park has quite a few other interesting species native to China including Otters, Giant Salamanders, Alligators, Koi Fish and Gold Fish, all of which were fascinating to see and learn about.

Next stop - the aquarium! We could
of easily spent half a day inside the aquarium (after we got through the queue) admiring the huge spectrum of different aquatic species & learning about the Chinese efforts for preserving the ocean and its inhabitants. From crustaceans to Manta Rays, this aquarium had it all & is definitely something we recommend doing for anyone who visits Hong Kong. After the aquarium we walked around through the rest of the theme park looking at all the various attractions, mostly food, music and children's rides, thinking we had seen it all. Once we checked the map & realised we hadn't even seen half of the park, yet and on the other side of the mountain was an even bigger section with all the roller coasters.

We quickly caught the train across to the other side of the park, by this time it was 6pm and we were running out of daylight & time. We only managed to explore a small bit which included the seals exhibit, 3 harbour seals playing in their pool & a VR roller coaster that got the heart pumping.
After realising how big the park actually is, we would recommend a whole day to explore every exhibit and go on the rides & avoid weekends and Chinese holidays if you can!

Day 3 was a massive day of walking & with our feet obviously feeling the effects of 20km's, we headed home and straight to bed.

- Tom

Day 3 - Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car, Tian Tan Buddha & the Po Lin Monastery

Ngong Ping 360 Cable car is the biggest cable car in the world and is 5,700 metres long and takes 25 minutes to reach its destination on Lantau Island.  We were on our way to see the Tian Tan Buddha!  We were warned of poor visibility and some monsoon warnings had been issued, to our awe the result was some dense layers of cloud being blown over and in-between the buildings and the mountains which was stunningly beautiful. As we neared our destination, the cloud shifted and we got our first glimpse of the Buddha perched on the mountain 'waving' through the clouds. 

Hot Tip - Buy your ticket online! it will save you a lot of money, no matter what option you go with. Plan to do this early in the morning, try and avoid weekends and Chinese holidays. The cable car starts operating at 10am, we were at the gate at 10am on a Saturday, tickets already brought and still had a 20 minute waiting time and had to share our cable car with 6 other people.  It can be cold on the mountain so pack a jumper! 

Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha is a large bronze statue of Buddha Shakyamuni and was completed in 1993. The Big Buddha symbolises harmony and the relationship man shares with nature, people and faith.  For us the journey to the top involved walking up 268 steps, however there is a bus option that can take directly to the top. As you can see by the 'relatively small crowd' this place can get very busy with worshippers travelling miles to pray in front of Buddha and light incense. It is a major centre of buddhism in Hong Kong.  Surrounding Big Buddha are more smaller buddhistic statues, these are known as "The Offering of the Six Devas".  No photos are allowed to be taken inside the big Buddha, but there is a history of Chinese Buddhism and photos of the statue in construction to be found online. This magnificent site was laid out with many of places to pray, make an offering of fruit and light incense.      

Po Lin Monastery is a Buddhist monastery that  was established in 1906 by 3 monks that were visiting from the Jiangsu province. Po Lin Monastery, translates to 'Precious Lotus Zen Temple'.  In Between some of the temples you will find big statues of the Lotus flower surrounded by a pond full of koi fish and many people praying and offering coins. The monastery boasts many amazing and architectural temples, including the shrine hall of Buddha & the hall of Bodhisattva Skanda. The main big temple, originally known as 'The Big Hut' houses 3 bronze statues representing Buddha's past, present and future lives. Surrounding these statues is many buddhist scriptures, offerings of flowers, fruit, a donation box and incense. It is a very spiritual place and it is very overwhelming to see so many people, old and young praying. The inside of the temple's are not allowed to be photographed and in some halls visitors are not allowed entrance. Words fail to describe the intense rich colour, detail and architecture that makes the floors, walls, statues & roofs of these temples so impressive inside and out. No matter your religious preference, if any, visiting a buddhist place of worship will be a memorable one & something we highly recommend. 

The Wisdom Path is a 15 minute walk from the Po Lin Monastery and is a series of 38, 10 metre tall wooden beams with Chinese inscriptions on them. Set in the hills, with the clouds rolling around them, this place feels very spiritual and natural. There is no english interpretation at the site, but the inscriptions are a popular Buddhist prayer called the Heart Sutra.  The beams are arranged in a figure 8, which represents infinity and curiously, one of the beams is a little bit taller and contains no inscription. This beam represents the meaning of emptiness. 

    

Hot Tip -Allow yourself at least half a day to see Ngong Ping village, which is mostly souvenirs and food,  the Big Buddha, Po Lin Monastery & the walk of Wisdom. We spent 4 hours and walked 9km's  exploring.  Lantau peak is the second highest peak in Hong Kong and offers amazing views. There are options for hiking if the weather permits and  many starting points. One of the most popular ones takes you along stage 3 of the Lantau Trail and takes approximately 3 hours to ascend and descend to the monastery. We saw plenty of people doing the hike while we were in the cable car. Just beware of how much walking you will also be doing inside the monastery after the hike, it very quickly becomes a big day! 

The journey down the mountain in the cable car had increased visibility due to stronger winds and we got glimpses of the other mountains, the ocean, the airport and some more of the buildings. Hong Kong is a Geographical beauty! 

Alli & Tom