Before I continue on with my winter vacation blog, I have to tell you about this morning. As much as I like winter and snowboarding, this morning I was envying everyone enjoying a nice warm Australian summer. I woke up this morning and at first I didn't notice anything unusual. I had breakfast, had a shower, got dressed etc. It was only when I went down to my garage that I noticed it was a little colder than usual. The reason I noticed was because the hairs in my nose froze as soon as I entered the garage. Then I tried to start my car. I've never heard such a pitiful noise come from a car before. It chugged and chugged and finally turned over. Then I tried to put it into gear and it took most of the strength I had (the gears were frozen). Then I drove out of my garage and my car let out the weirdest sound I have ever heard it make. I still don't know what it was, but it wasn't good. It continued until I reached school which, fortunately, was only a few minutes away. When I got to school I checked the temperature on the town's official clock/temperature gauge which is out the front of the school. -31 degrees. Very cold.

Anyway, back to the winter vacation. On day 2 in HK, I woke up early and headed off to Hung Hom station in Kowloon to get a Shanghai train ticket for the next day and a Chinese visa. I was a little worried about the train being fully booked, but there were plenty of seats available. I was given a choice of a hard sleeper or a soft sleeper, and I chose the hard sleeper. I figured that while I still ahd money and energy I could rough it for a night. The hard sleeper wasn'T really roughing it that much anyway. 'Hard' simply means a less private room than the 'soft' sleeper. The bunks have mattresses and pillows, so it's not exactly hard. I was then given a choice of the bottom, middle or top bunk. From the research I'd done the top sounded best for me. If you get a bottom bunk, people will sit on it when it's not sleeping time. If you have a top bunk, which is well above head height, then tall people (like me) can stick their feet out of the end of the bed while they are sleeping and not have to worry about people bumping you as they walk down the train corridor. Besides, the top bunk was the cheapest, and I was trying to watch my spending for the first part of the trip. I think it cost about A$60 for a top hard sleeper, which is pretty cheap for an overnight train.

Next, I went to the China Travel Service desk in the station to organise a visa. Everyone visiting China (except for people visiting the Shenzen or Guangzhou Special Economic Zones which border Hong Kong) is required to get a visa. Fortunately it is a quick and easy service. It's not particularly cheap, and even more expensive if you need same-day service, but it was much less of a hassle than getting a Japanese visa. I filled in the forms, payed the cash and left my passport with them.

After all this work I was pretty hungry (I hadn't eaten yet), so I left the station in search of breakfast. About ten minutes later I found a nice bakery in East Tsim Sha Tsui and got a few different pastries to try, then sat down by a fountain and had a mini picnic. I have to say that I was really looking forward to some Chinese bakery food and it didn't disappoint. Japanese bakery food is ok, but generally it is too sweet. Chinese bakery food has a large selection of savory foods which I had been missing in Japan. I ended up getting a selection of chicken pies, char sui pies and a pork bun, and washed it down with a sickeningly sweet lemon iced tea. Oh man, it was good....



After breakfast I wandered down to the harbour and decided to catch a ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong island. The Star Ferry is one of those tourist things that people say 'you have to try' while you're in Hong Kong. It's actually a very cheap and fairly fast way of getting to Hong Kong island, but if you're really in hurry the subway is much faster and the stations are more conveniently located. The ferry ride was much shorter than I expected as Hong Kong island was closer to the mainland than I thought it would be. I'm not sure exactly how long it takes but from Kowloon to Central it's definitely under ten minutes. The views of Hong Kong island and Kowloon from the ferry are pretty good too.






I suppose this is a good time to mention that during my whole trip my camera had some smudges or dust or something inside the lens that I couldn't see on the camera's viewscreen, so all my photos have a couple of smudge marks on the top of each picture. They're only noticeable on the sky shots and I could photoshop them out, but I really couldn't be bothered. Sorry.

So, I arrived on Hong Kong island and with no real plan in mind spent the next few hours wandering. I caught one of the famous HK double decker trams, which was good for sightseeing but not so good when I was standing. The roof of the tram is very, very low, so I kept hitting my head every time the tram jolted.

This is also a good time to mention one other great aspect of HK transport, the Octopus Card. The Octopus Card is simply a rechargeable card that costs HK$150 ($50 deposit, $100 credit). You can us it on all public transport in HK, as well as for shopping at various places such as 7-11. The card is easy to use (you just scan it at the gate or on a box near the tram/bus driver) and you also get a slight discount over regular ticket users. It makes sightseeing easy as you don't have to worry about buying the right ticket for your trip. You just scan your card and get off when you want. Easy.

Back to HK. Hong Kong island is definitely more western than Kowloon. All the traditional western buildings and most of the new commercial buildings are on HK island, while Kowloon is much more Chinese. This is not to say that HK island isn't Chinese, it's just less Chinese than the rest of HK. It's also very hilly compared to Kowloon, which is totally flat. There are lots of sights and attractions on HK island, but I spent the afternoon just wandering along streets and looking through shops.





After a few hours I caught the subway back to Kowloon and did some more window shopping and people watching. One slightly frustrating thing about wandering through Kowloon is that there are quite a few annoying touts who are certain to approach any foreign traveller that passes by. Being a foreign, white, single traveller was like having a neon sign over my head saying 'Hey, I'm a sucker looking for some cheap stuff - come and talk to me!'. During my time in HK I noticed that there were three particular types of HK touts. The first, and most common, was the 'Indian guy' who touts custom made suits. They stand on street corners and approach people with friendly greetings such as 'Good afternoon young sir! How are you this fine day? How about a custom made suit? Very cheap and fabulous quality!'. These guys are annoying, and are a little hard to ignore because they come off so friendly, but if you do ignore them they'll go away. The second was the 'Rolex man'. There are two types of 'Rolex man'. The first comes right up to your face and suggests a 'cheap Rolex' or maybe some 'Vuitton'. They'll quickly dissappear if you ignore them. The other type is the 'Rolex Ghost', who spies you from a distance, works their way through the crowd, and as they pass you by they whisper 'Rolex...' in your ear. They continue on as if you were a complete stranger, and it's up to you to follow them if you want their goods. These guys were obviously pretty afraid of getting busted by the cops, so their merchandise is probably the most dodgey (or most stolen). The other type of tout is the 'Hashish Tout'. I only met a couple of these guys, but they were definitely the most laid back. Surprisingly, they were also pretty open about their dealings. A couple of times a guy came up to me and said 'want some hashish man... it's good stuff...' and followed me round for a little why. Even when they realised I wasn't interested they were still happy to have a little chat about this or that. They were pretty cool, but probably not the best guys to be seen hanging with.

In the evening I wandered through the Temple Street Night Market, a typical Asian night market selling fakes watches and polo shirts. There was nothing there I wanted (I really don't need any of that fake stuff), but it was still interesting to see both the shoppers and the salespeople going about their business. Having worked up an appetite I stopped off an street restaurant for a Chinese meal. I had a great chicken and cashew nut dish and some very cheap beer. If I remember correctly, it was less than A$3 for a 750ml bottle. After dinner I made my way back to my hotel, stopping off on the way for a brief wander through Kowloon City and a quick trip to 7-11 for supplies.

Actually, having written this, I think I made a mistake. I think I did this on the previous night. On the second night I had dinner and some drinks in my hotel's Irish Pub. Hmm... I think that's right. Oh well...