Thailand Part II

We got to bangkok and it was like dejavu! Been there done that. We only stayed for 2 nights, and we booked ourselves on an overnight train and bus and boat to our first island, Koh Phangnan!!

The trip took FOREVER and I was ridiculously cranky.....I hated everyone. But when we arrived at our beach bungalow I was very happy. The owner turned out to be English and very pissed when we arrived at lunchtime!! Gorgeous views, lovely bungalow, and beautiful beach! Very happy. Laura and Louis were also on KPG and came and moved into our bungalows the following day as we had planned to go to the Half Moon Party together and we were closer to the venue.

We lounged on the beach in the day and bought in booze for the evening, drank on our bungalows balcony with music and headed upto the party. It was in the jungle area, and was quite expensive! We soon realised the music was rubbish and wasn't really very good....BOOO! Still managed to stay for a while though. I refused to pay the ridiculous price the tuk tuk drivers wanted so we walked home along the creepy pitch black road!!

We spent the next few days on the beach and we had a night out on the Full Moon Beach. Very messy night with buckets (ergh again!) and sand, and fire shows, very fun! Laura went MENTAL and started throwing sand all over Elliot and Louis!! She is mad...We decided to move onto Koh Tao after a good while at KPG and had to say byebye to Laura and Louis as they were going back to Canadialand :'( sob!!! End to Elliots bromance with Louis!

Koh Tao was lovely...we decided not to book a place to stay and just walk along the beach and find somewhere nice and cheap. Almost everywhere we went to though was really expensive!! (in Thai cheap terms) But we eventually found a perfect beach bungalow! YAY! We stayed in Koh Tao for a good few days, we did a snorkelling trip where Elliot burnt his back and I burnt my BUM! Classy. So I got to spend a few days sitting in agony! We did some Crazy Golf! And wandering around in the sun :) While there we met Lucinda and Adam at the Full Moon Party on the beach. VERY drunk night, and I felt so sick after all the mixture of YES more buckets....We met them for drinks the next day and decided to stay in touch as we were probably going to be going to some of the same places.

We were headed for Railay Beach next, which involved boat trip, bus trip an over night stay, and another boat trip as Railay is only accesable by boat. Really beautiful place!! The main beach is gorgeous and sandy, and also very expesive to stay on as there are only a couple of very expensive resorts on the beach, so we headed to the muddy mangrove ridden beach and got a really cheap bungalow, which involved walking up the hugest load of stairs EVER out in the boiling heat with backpacks on, ergh it was horrible. By this point I was getting VERY sick of the cheap simple fan bungalows....But the price is too good! We did a HIKE through the friggin jungle on our first day over to the next bay along. SO HOT and when we got to the end of the jungle track it threw it down with rain! Torrential, on and off for a couple of hours, with ridiculously lound thunder!! We tried to hire a taxi boat back to the main beach but they refused to take us unless we payed for a full boats worth, or get another 8 people to go on the boat with us!!! This on an empty beach hahaha....So the guy suggested we walk along the water, through the jagged rocks! Which we ended up doing, got pretty wet, and Elliot cut his finger open. NICE! Our few days there were spent MELTING, it was so so hot, so after the hiking day we just sat on the beach, reading etc. We planned to rent kayaks but after the snorkelling burning incident we decided against it in the heat!

After our few days in Railay, we got a boat down to Koh Lanta, where we stayed in our first air conditioned room since Vientianne in Loas! It was LOVELY! We spent a day by the pool, and did a half day cooking course which was so fun! We got to eat what we cooked and keep what we didnt eat and it was SO tasty! Loved it...We moved to a different resort after a couple of nights, into a REALLY nice bungalow, aircon, TV, lovely big windows overlooking the beach and gardens MMM! We spent our time there on the beach or by the pool. Very nice and relaxing.

We then headed for our last island, Koh Phi Phi, which was pretty busy! Very hot but lots of fun :) Here is where we met up with Lucinda and Adam again, and we spent a couple of days with them, one night drinking BUCKETS...AGAIN! (I never learn) and dancing on the beach :) At about 12 though it pissed it down and we all had to leg it! No point though as we were soaked through. We ended up back at their fancy bungalow, and drinking beers from the shop until about 4am!!

The next day, we met up, all feeling terrible, and embarked on a walk around the island! Sweating out the drink from the night before!!!! We arranged to share a longtailboat for a trip out the "The Beach" the next day, and so we spent the day on our boat, looking at monkeys, snorkelling, sunning, wandering around "The Beach" and taking in the amaze views. After that we went to a fire show on the beach which was amazing!! SO ace....Said byebye to Lucinda and Adam, but agreed we would go visit them in Brighton :)

We headed off to Phuket island after PP as we were flying from there. We only gave ourself one night there as we hadn't heard great things about it. When we were arriving on the coach, we realised it was Thai New Year! Which they celebrate with a HUGE waterfight!!! We got wet just finding somewhere to stay. We got changed straight away and went to buy a water pistol!! We spent HOURS on the streets soaking people and getting soaked, and dancing at the street parties. SO much fun! After a good few hours, we headed back to book a taxi to the airport and get to bed to make sure we woke up in time!

So we made it to the airport, got the quick flight to Kuala Lumpur and waited in KL Airport for 8 HOURS!!! SOOOO BORING! Then sat on the plane for a further 11 hours!!! Just as boring....But we eventually arrived there in New Zealand! :)

LAOS!

When at the border for Laos we decided to kind of stick with 2 guys from our minibus, Andreas from Italy, and Freddy from Stockholme. After waiting for them to get their visas we had a decision of the public bus or a mini bus (which took some good few hours less) so we opted for mini bus, but had to find another 6 people to book one with us! And so this is where we got our Laos crew together! Added to us 4 we got Mike from Austria, Laura and Louis from Canada, Martin from Prague.

The trip, unfortunately, took about 12 hours on terrible roads, and after the van 'breaking' and the trip getting extended by hours everytime we asked how long left. Cause we didn't arrive in our destination of Luang Prabang until about 2am, Mike kindly booked us all into the hostel he was staying at cause we were all just going to find somewhere as we arrived but, 2am aint a good time to go exploring! The Spicy Laos Hostel was good though, very good price and very central.

We spent our first day there looking around, we went to the temple on top of the big hill in town, and the Palace Museum, and walked by the Mekong River. In the evening we went for dinner with Mike, Frodo, Martin and Linda (a new friend from Spicy:)) After dinner we all of course went to a bar, and some how got onto what our party tricks are! And thus we all got our new nicknames:

Linda Kondom
Martin Hairy Pussy
Mike Bendy
Frodo Deepthroat
Elliot 3 Nipples
Christy Retard (rude!)

Andreas turned up with his new Lao friend Hoi, and we all ended up in a tuk tuk to the local DISCOTECH. Which I have to say was pretty awesome, as I wasn't expecting much at all! While in there dancing away, Laura and Louis appeared from the bar!! WOOHOO! When the Disco closed we headed in a tuk tuk to the BOWLING ALLEY! So awesome, drunk bowling, causing havoc, mainly Elliot and Andreas getting in trouble on the lanes. Frodo soon dissapeared when he spotted some females and Andreas managed to rugby tackle Elliot onto the lane! When the bowling closed we headed back to Spicy. Awesome night out though!

This general pattern happened again another night, and we went to the same restaurant on the river and the same bar everynight for our giraff (tower) of beer Lao! Luang Prabang was ace fun. One morning we decided to go to the Alms Giving where loads of monks get up at 5am and accept food from locals on the street. This involved not getting drunk and getting up early, which was hard. We actually went out for a few drinks but still managed to get up, too much temptation! Frodo even managed it and his motto for the mornig was 'Fuck the Monks!'. Not 100% sure if it was worth the painful 5am wakeup, but I guess I will never see that again, just too many tourists! The nutella baguette helped though.

We also did a trip to the local waterfalls which was beautiful, even when ridiculously hungover!!!

Linda suddenly upped and left one morning when she discovered her flight hadn't been cancelled after she thought it was and rushed off with an hour til takeoff! We left Luang Prabang a day later, heading towards Vang Vieng, where we had heard so many stories and seen so many bruises! Turns out we all LOVED Vang Vieng and had such an ace time, we went tubing twice and got very drunk both times. The first time we didnt make it past Bar 3, the next time we bypassed the first set of bars so we didn't get 'stuck' there and headed downstream in our wonderful rubber rings and adventured to the mud volleyball, tug of war, and HUGE slide (on which Martin, who we dragged out for another day of tubing when he was pretty sure he was done in Vang Vieng, managed to rip his shorts open!!!) While the boys took part in all the manly things, me and Laura got free drinks for being ladies, and got drunk. Well so did the guys too, but they just hurt themselves while doing it! We ended up in Bucket Bar that night, and got free buskcts and danced all night!

After Vang Vieng we went separate ways with everyone, and headed towards the city Vientianne. We had a coach booked, but when we got on we were chucked off saying our tickets hadn't been booked properly and so had to get off cause there weren't enough seats! Well annoying. So to make sure we still got to leave that day we decided to get a jumbo, which we discovered was just a bigger tuk tuk, full of locals and stopping CONSTANTLY to pick up people or sacks of stuff. One guys ended up getting off cause he felt sick, and one woman looked like she was dying grogging/throwing up in a plastic bag!! ERGH! The journey took HOURS....and we got dropped off in a dark carpark full of tuk tuk drivers, right pain, but we were pissed off so didn't let em mess with us! They actually gave us a really cheap price for a change! WOO! We couldnt find somewhere very cheap to stay so we stayed in a nice hotel :) There wasn't much to do there considering it was a city, but we went to the Buddha park which was cool, hundreds of Buddha and Hindu statues all collected together and we went to a cultural show with music, dance and foood where Elliot got dragged up on stage to dance with them hehehe.

We then booked our travel to the 4,000 Islands (Si Phon Don) which involved an overnight 11 hour sleeper coach and a 3ish hour mini bus, then a boat to the island. Took quite a while and it was REALLY hot but Si Phon Don was lovely. Very relaxed and they have only had electricity for a couple of months, so nice and simple. On our first day there, we were sat in a bar and Laura and Louis appeared! How ace :) So we had dinner with them and arranged to go tubing down the river the following day, which we did, but it was SO HOT so didn't get too far before we headed to shore for a drink, and thats where i discovered I had burnt my legs so much! They were bright red...ergh! Very painful. Laura and Louis were leaving the next day so we had dinner with them again and said goodbye and said we would meet up in Cambodia. We had planed to leave for the border ourselves either that day or a day later, but my legs were so painful that we postponed it for a few days. Everything was pretty cheap there and the hut we were staying in was £3 a night between us so we weren't too bothered! But then as we were about to leave we realised we didn't hardly have any cash left! There were obviously no cash points on the islands, and there were non at the border!! So we didnt have enough to go straight to Cambodia...We had to go all the way upto Pakse which was a 3 hour drive away, which after our minibus kept breaking it took about 5 hours, we decided we couldn't be bothered going back for another 5 or 6 hour drive to the border for the then even more hours to a town!!!! Sick of buses....So we got a bus to Savannakhet and bought a plane ticket back to Bangkok (oooh flight - luxury!) SO we ended up not going to Cambodia!! We thought we would spend the money on the Southern Thai Islands instead. We do regret not going cause everyone says its amazing, and we still want to go, so NEXT TRIP!! :D

To Thailand!

When we landed in Bangkok it was really hot. But then we got on the airport bus and it started to rain torrentially!But luckily that was to be the only rain we saw for a month.

We treated ourselves to a real nice apartment in Bangkok cause we would be cheaping it after that. We loved it, so big and air conditioned (which we needed),with a fully stocked fridge, 7 jet shower, a pool, tennis courts, very nice! On our first day there we pretty much took advantage of our place. Swam in the pool, played some tennis in the midday burning sun, ate and drank almost everything in the fridge, then had the hottest thai green curries ever. We also had a big screen tv with cable channels so we sat and watched films on HBO :) Seems silly considering we had just arrived in a brand new country, but it was nice having somewhere cosy to just hang out and do nothing.We did do stuff though....We went to the weekend market which was HUGE, thousands and thousands of stalls. We got some new summer clothes :) We also went to the Phat Phong night market which was mental. As soon as I got out of the taxi I was asked if I wanted to go to a pussy show! nice....All along the street all we got was "PUSSY SHOW!" "COME SEE PING PONG!" so funny...although after a while it got a bit annoying. I got a lizard shoved in my face for saying no....RUDE! We also went to a theme park/water park which was so fun. There was hardly anyone there so we didnt queue once for anything. Ace rollercoasters and stuff and most of the time we were the only ones on them! Awesome...The day after the theme park fun we had arranged to meet up with Sam Martin. So we didnt do much that day, rested up in preparation of the excitement of seeing someone we know!!! That night out with Sam mainly consisted of BIG CHANGS and lots of laughing. Great fun :) When we got home though Elliot wasn't too well....too many big Changs? I dunno, but the next day he still wasn't too well and we ended up spending the day in the apartment. We arranged to meet Sam again the following day, which we did, Elliot fought on through! We went to Bangkok museum and had dinner, Elliot and Sam ate some lovely fried crickets (so gross!) and we watched Terminator Salvation (worst film!!) and said goodbye to Sam as we were due to leave Bangkok. But that night and the next day Elliot was still really ill so we ended up staying another few days, in which Elliot had a fun trip to the hospital and got lots of pills to make him better. After spending a week in Bangkok, we finally got the bus to Kanchanaburi, where we stayed for a few days. Elliot, still not well, we spent the first couple of days not doing too much. We found a pool and spent a day there, rented bikes and went to the JEATH museum, and finally when Elliot felt up for it we booked a tour. We went to Erawan waterfalls which were beautiful, full of huge fish and surrounded by jungle with monkeys. The trip ended on the Death Railway and at the Bridge Over the River Kwai.

We left to go to Ayutthaya next. They have some of the most amazing temples there, but me and Elliot didn't really see them... Well we saw the big old temple in the park and we did a night cruise of the river which surrounded the old city and saw all those temples by night, lit up, but didn't go in any of them cause they were closed! We got a good impression of them though :) So apart from that, and again, finding a hotel pool to use in the heat we didn't do too much. Elliot almost got mauled by a dog, but that was all. We left on a night "VIP" coach....there was NOTHING VIP about this cooach, it was a normal coach. And it was impossible to sleep on!

Arrived early EARLY in the morning after little sleep. We had actually booked somewhere for Chiang Mai so spent a while wandering the empty early streets trying to find it! But when we did we were happy. We could check in at the ridiculous hour and the room was lovely and they had a POOL! So we spent a while sleeping, swimming, and went to yet another market!! Chiang Mai was a lovely place, thouroughly enjoyed it. While we were there we went on another tour. This one was Elephant riding, bamboo rafting and white water rafting! Awesome day of ADVENTURE! The day after though I got ill and stayed ill for a few days in which we didn't do too much excepct sit by the pool. When I felt okayish, we booked our travel to Pai right up the North of Thailand along the bendiest, curviest, sloping, steepest road EVER. It made me feel so sick that I actually threw up when I got out the van and I spent most of my time in relaxing Pai feeling terrible. Eventually went to the hospital and found out i had stomach flu, which explained my terrible stomach pains!! So after a day of tablets I started to feel better, and a few days later we booked a minibus to the Thai border! (Well we had to cause our visa was up!) Yes along that horrendous road again, this time, after the road of doom, we had MORE hours of driving all the way across to the border, and we didnt arrive til about 4am!

Creepiest moment award goes to the driver of the mini bus who stopped unexplained in the middle of a dirt road on a corner, turned off the lights, took the keys, got out with a torch and went searching the road behind us. Kinda horror film-esque we expected a monster to kill him in the darkness! So creepy...After arriving at 4am, with no sleep cause the roads were so bad, we got some 3 hours sleep, and got woken at 7am to be transported to the border as it opened. We were so worried about the crossing after hearing all the bad stories of being ripped off etc. but it was fine! Nice and easy. Took a while at the other side as there were about 50 Chinese tourists going through just around us (there was no queue, just a mass of people). But eventually we were stamped into Laos for a month :)

What we did in Hong Kong...

As soon as we arrived in Hong Kong I think we preferred it. Maybe because of the English influences...! UK plug sockets, nicer food, soft mattresses! English speaking people. Awesome... (We are so rubbish)

We did a few of the touristy things, went up the Peak and didn't get a view, but did get our feet sucked by little fishies :) Went on the star ferry, almost every day! Saw Jackie Chans hand inprints on the walk of the stars, wandered around Soho on Hong Kong Island....Such things like that :)

We went to DISNEY LAND which was awesome, spent the whole day there, and I thought it was great. When we first got there the queues were really small and it wasn't too busy which was lovely, but as the day went on it got a bit more crowded and we started to get fed up of the generally RUDE people around us...But we managed to stay til the end and see the firework display over the castle :)

We also spent a day on Lamma Island which is a little island south of Hong Kong island which has no cars on it. Was lovely and peaceful as everywhere we had been so far was a busy city!! Even though the two of us started out on the day feeling a bit ill (i blame the boat journey...) W really enjoyed it and got to spend some time on the beach, albeit in the shadow of a huge power station, but was nice non the less. We walked right across the island and ended up in the opposite sides harbour for seafood dinner, and the boat journey home. Lovely day...

Happy Valley Racecourse was fun too...We went there thinking there was racing on actually THERE that day from what the timetables said anyway. But it wasn't. It was just on the big screen! Was still fun though, and we both won a race each! Everyone still cheered as the horses came in which was funny, including me and Elliot...We also got to ride on one of the ace skinny trams, so retro and cost about 20p to ride for as long as you want!

We also went on a 2 hour harbour cruise which took in the nightly light and music show of the famous buildings around both sides of the Victoria Harbour. Was pretty cool, and amazing to think it goes on every night!! We also got a wonderful photo taken by a pro of the infamous harbour lights behind us, as all the ones we took on our camera were rubbish! One to go in a frame on the mantelpiece when we get home anyway...

The flight to Bangkok wasn't booked until the day before we left...So prepared. But was all very easy as the metro line actually takes you inside the terminal! Ace...Thermals, warm clothes and the brick of a China book all got left in the hotel room, and we made our way to THAILAND :D

Traveling to Laos today....

So we are going to Luang Prabang, Laos today from Pai, Thailand, and are not looking forward to it as there isn't a service that can take us to our destination. They just drop you off at the border at 2am! So we are trying to find out some info on the onward journey from there and it seems as though we will be traveling for a good few hours (about 10????) Keep reading conflicting things....Ergh I hate the actual traveling part of traveling.

Hopefully will all be worth it when we arrive and we can re start our joyous trip! It feels like everything has been on hold for a while a I have been ill :( But BETTER NOW and we can explor Laos :D

China Town

So after the long, hot, pretty much sleepless flight to Beijing, we checked into our hostel near Tianaman Square. It was freezing in Beijing....Average temperature of the stay was -10 degrees. And the hostel was pretty much that temperature inside. The room had a good heater but the BATHROOM omg had a plastic roof which was covered in snow, and the door was also corrugated plastic with a huge hole in it for a nice icy breeze to come in. Showering was pretty painful!!

Apart from being very COLD for most of the stay, we had a great time in Beijing. Day 1 we just wandered around Tianaman Square as we were pretty jet lagged! The Hostel bar was good, lots of DVDs and games, and LARGE beers for 80p :) nice. Day 2 we took a kind of tuk tuk ride which was mental! And went to the Temple of Heaven and went for a huge walk around town. The next day we visited the Forbidden City, and in the evening we went to Silk Street where we tried to haggle for a few goods. We got a couple of bits. I got grabbed and cornered by Chinese people trying to flog me stuff, shouting "hey you lady come here!!". We then managed to find a nice restaurant that did the 'Best peking duck in town', which we tried, and we thought it was okay, maybe not the best in town. maybe the most expensive!

On our last day we decided to go to the good old Great Wall of China! It involved an early night and very early morning, which was HARD for us as we are well lazy. It was about a 3 hour drive away, which we slept through. When we got there it was pretty damn cold!!! We chose to get the ski lift up which was cool, amazing views! Then we walked up as far as we could one way, which was SO much hard work as some of the steps were massive!! We then had our picnic sat on the wall. Pretty impressive lunch views :) And then walked some more the other direction. We had to meet our driver by about 1pm down the bottom so headed back via TOBOGGAN! Which was totally awesome...You could just go as fast as you like and it was so fun...Makes the Great Wall just that little bit more Great.

When we returned we just hung out in the hostel bar enjoying the tasty cheap food, and then headed toward the MASSIVE Beijing train station. It was more like an airport! Bags get scanned and tickets checked on entry and they have departure lounges for each train. The night train went smoothly, and when we arrived in Xi'an someone was at the station to meet us and transfer us to the hostel, which was nice.

Xi'an felt warmer, didn't quite need the thick thermals, earmuffs and gloves all day :) The first thing I did there was go to Starbucks for a brew, as I had discovered you can get English Breakfast Tea there, thank GOD! We wandered about, and discovered that Xi'an has ALOT of high end shops, like Prada and Gucci, which seemed odd, not what I expected. Didn't do too much, just wandered and took in Xi'an and hung out in the hostel cafe which was lovely, and then had our free beer in the bar downstairs which had a terracotta warrior theme, and was full of drunken Chinese people! Elliot sleep talked in the dorm that night and woke up everyone, was well funny....

Decided to go to the Drum and Bell tower in town. One of which is now on the middle of a traffic island! We got asked to have our picture taken with a Chinese couple which was very odd, felt famous/like a freak show. When exploring them we found an ace street market where we bought some cheapy cheap souvenirs.

The next day we decided to venture out to see the Terracotta Army, but not on the expensive hostel tour, so we had to get 2 buses there. Was easy, and were there in no time, and after only spending about 80p! They were pretty impressive, loads of em, all different, amazing really. On our way back, at the bus station some KNOBHEAD tried to pick pocket me....I felt my zip on my bag open though and when I turned around he had his hand in my bag, and I screamed "GET THE FUCK OFF YOU SKIVVY BASTARD!!!" haha I am so classy. But he ran off...Proper shook me up as I did not expect it at all, and ever since then I have kept my hand on my zip!! Ended our last night in Xi'an in the bar, where we talked to a couple that we had previously met on the Great Wall! And then played some foozball where a couple of Chinese drunkard men joined in with us, they were wasted, and couldn't speak a word of English. Very entertaining!

As it was a last day in Xi'an, I was desperate to see PANDAS!! So we hired a private car to take us to a panda rescue centre. It was totally ace, we were the only people there and we got there just in time for dinner time so all the pandas were just coming out. The driver knew all the Pandas names and when he shouted them they would come right over to us! One called Lui Lui came over and started barking, sounded like a cross between a sheep and a dog! There were two babies who were born at the centre, and one came right upto the bars on his enclosure and the driver fed him some bamboo and he sat right in front of us chewing it. He was close enough to stroke! It was so cute and amazing ^_^

When we got back we left about an hour before our train was due to leave, which was a MASSIVE mistake. We could not get a taxi, and when we eventually gave up and got the bus, which got stuck in traffic, we then saw the mental queue to get into the station, and we had about 10 minutes to get to our train. Luckily a Chinese lad noticed our distress and explained to one of the guards that our train left in about 7 minutes so let us push in! When we got to our train, we literally had 1 minute on the clock before it left, so so lucky, would have been a waste of about £100 if we missed it!!

Train journey was fine, even though the people who got to our cabin first stole our more expensive lower beds (RUDE). When we arrived in Shanghai, we got straight into a taxi with an ass of a driver, who tried to rip us off, but when we insisted on having the meter on, we noticed he had one of the cheeky meters that go up WAY too fast. So we stole his licence card, to which he freaked out and put the meter back to normal. Christy & Elliot ONE, Taxi driver NIL!

Our room in the hostel was the smallest ever. The bed was big, but the floor space was non existent! We stayed in the room for about 3 nights, one of the nights being my BIRTHDAY which was v cool, as we went over to the new business area of Pudong, and had a lovely lunch and dinner, and Elliot bought me a surprise birthday cake which was DELICIOUS! Unfortunately though, both Elliot and I got ill during our stay, which made us not really up for doing much, we moved hostels mid way through our week long stay, and the next place was lovely. We took a walking tour of Shanghai, we shopped, we spend HOURS in a huge arcade and won prizes :D and went to the French Concession. One highlight of Shanghai was going up the Jin Mao tower to the highest bar in the world, Cloud 9, which was above the Hyatt hotel. Was so fancy!! Very expensive (£10 a cocktail) but was a cool experience. Although the view was not impressive due to pollution/mist.

The last day we made our way to the train station NICE AND EARLY. It all seemed too easy, but as we went to board the train we were told we were at the WRONG TRAIN. So typical. So we had to leg it to the other part of the station and get bags scanned, fill in departure forms, and get passports checked cause yes, we were leaving China to go to Hong Kong! We didn't realise that Hong Kong was classed as a completely different country, even though it's part of China, so we could not re-enter as we only had single entry visas!! Oh well....So we happily got on the train, and were with just one other Chinese guy. about an hour into the trip we were asked if we would swap cars with a family so they could all be in the same room, which we did, but we moved in with an old man, and a right moody woman. As soon as we entered they put on face masks and were touching everything with tissues, like we were contaminated or something...Then, when I was sleeping, the old man had left and caused a right fuss, which eventually woke me, where Elliot tells me the old man thinks Elliot has H1N1 cause he was coughing!! He had found a doctor and everything....He refused to come back in the room, but we refused to move, so the old man and moody woman left, which was nice, so we got the car to ourselves :)

Arrived in Hong Kong in the afternoon on the next day, it was warm and lovely.

We Heart Berlin!

Our stay in Berlin was great....Totally loved it! On the first night Arthur the guy who ran the hostel had invited us out to the cinema along with his girlfriend Jess, her cousin Steph, and a couple of other people staying in the hostel. The cinema however, was fully booked when we arrived so we got some Gluhvein (hot wine - Elliot had a beer!) and headed to an old building that locals had taken over and was using as gallery space. Very Cool! Our fave was a guy called Tim Roelfs who did collages. There was a while floor of people who made jewellry, and on the top floor a Russian artist who did massive paintings, slightly dark but very detailed... (we later bought a couple of prints :))

We were then taken to a bar next door which, when I walked in, I obviously didnt notice the huge metal dragon I was stood under and when it started the breath fire - crapped myself! Think the bar staff found it amusing! Was a really ace place though, but could only stay for about half an hour as there was a band on and we hadn't paid the entry fee. We walked back to the hostel in the snow, and went to the Curry Wurst stall that was near by with an Indian guy who was staying at the hostel (who we called Raggy - Raghav). We had seen Curry Wurst advertised everywhere but had NO idea what it was. Turns out its a German sausage, usually cut up into pieces with a tomato sauce on and loads of curry powder! Its DELICIOUS! My new fave food... We went back to bed in our shared single bottom bunk!! Slept rather well to start with but then the Australian guy, Brad from our room (who we had earlier been for a drink with in Belushis) got back absolutely WASTED and kept everyone awake for ages. He ended up crying and eventually being quiet...odd boy!

On our first full day we did as we had promised to do and did the walking tour. This was a free one that took you to most of the historical places. Started at Brandenburg Gate, went to the Hollocaust Memorial, the site of Hitlers bunker, Nazi Airforce building, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie (some more curry wurst for lunch) then to some cathedrals, a Christmas Market and ended on Museum Island. Was very interesting and the girl who took the tour was great! (if you go on the New Berlin Free Tour try to get Stephanie the New Zealand girl!!) We wandered about some more, met up with Raggy on Friedrichstrabe and walked back to the hostel together. It was his last day in the hostel which was a shame cause he was fun and had very good knowledge of UK football so him and Elliot got on very well! But we said fairwell, and had a lazy night in in the hostel.

The next day, New Years Eve Eve, we decided it would be best if we bought our tickets for the pub crawl! We went to the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz and met up with the tour group who were arranging the pub crawl. €35 each later we had our New Years Evil tickets :D It was snowing really heavily, and we wandered about the area. They had an outdoor museum with info about the war etc which we read through, and we went to a HUGE shopping centre for lunch and a paroooze. Ended up going to Belushis again for a drink where we saw Brad again and he apologised for the other night (LOL). We had booked ourselves in for Avatar tonight, so went back to meet Arthur, Jess and Steph and went off to the Sony Centre IMAX again. The film was very impressive. I enjoyed it a lot. Elliot didn't so much, but was a nice night anyway!

New Years Eve! We decided to take it easy as we knew we had a big night ahead...We went back to Potsdamer Plats where the Sony Centre is, and Elliot dragged me on a huge sledge run (which was totally ace!!) and we just wandered around. There was a big section of the Berlin wall there and an outdoor museum. The snow was SO thick, ridiculous! After several snowball fights we headed back and started to get ready. We had had to move rooms after the first night, and we were sharing a room with some Aussie girls and some Brazilian boys. We had some of the €1 beers Arthur sold and made our way to the first stop of the crawl which was the Yesterday Bar! Very cool with a fake lab set up and mushrooms on the ceiling and fake people sat at the bar :) We were split up into 2 groups and went to the next bar which for our group was the gothic bar (Last Cathedral!) Free shot on your way in. It was very.....gothic. Got called "fucking tourists" as we went in by a local....NICE! After some time there we went to the next bar which was a swing bar, cant remember the name but very nice. Free cocktail and shot on the way in. Lots of dancing done by me and Elliot! Then off to the next place which is where we all grouped up and spend midnight. It was an outdoor complex place and there were 2 bars with different music on, food stalls, and a massive outdoor area (covered in DEEP snow!) with bonfires by the river. It was so lovely and really quiet! We were all very drunk, felt like me and Elliot were worse though haha and when midnight struck we all ran about hugging and watching the fireworks by the river. Was lovely :) A group of people had bought loads of champagne and left it chilling in the snow and pulled it out at midnight to share about. After this lovely joyful New Years I then think I lost the camera. I was so gutted as all the pics from the last few days were on there!! I cried lots and tried for ages to find it in the club to no avail and we lost the group at the metro station! GUTTED! After we got off the metro, Elliot discovers he had it in his pocket all along....OMG I COULD HAVE KILLED HIM! But I was just happy we had it!! Luckily Arthur knew the clubs we were going to and had put them on our map before we left, so although we lost the group we still miraculously managed to find the final club! And just as we arrived the group was just going in the side entrance THANK GOD cause the normal queue was HUGE! We danced a lot and stayed til god knows what time....Got the trains back and went to bed. I think it was about 4-5am?? And we thought we were going to be the first ones back as everyone seemed up for a right big night out when we left, but everyone was in bed!! Apart from one Aussie guy who was staying up so he didn't miss his early flight...Losers! We had an awesome night anyway :)

Obviously not much to say about the next day, sleep, hangover and diet cokes in Belushis - Thats all!! Spoke to everyone else in the hostel who did the Brandenburg gate for New Years and they all had a very disappointing night as it was freezing and rammed full...Unlucky!

For the last full day, we decided to do the Alternative Tour (by the people who arranged the New Years Evil) which was very interesting. Showed you a lot of the Graffiti artists work around the city. He took us to the same place Arthur had taken us on our first night and it ended in the complex that we spent New Years!! But was still interesting.

The next day was our last. It was bitterly cold, the coldest day so far! We walked to the flea market down the road, but was too cold to enjoy it to its fullest!! Although it was very interesting, we had to head back and collect our bags to go to the airport. Was really sad leaving Hostel Aloha and saying goodbye as we had totally loved it and it felt like a home from home...But we left and went to the airport. HUGE queues and a very very long wait as the flight was delayed but eventually got on and settled down for the 12ish hour flight to Beijing!