Hong Kong

In Seoul airport the clerk at Jeju airlines told me that I need an onwards ticket to board the aircraft - I had none. I said that I didn't think I did need one, and I get 180 days to stay. After already waiting for ages behind hundreds of people who all seemed to have 20 suitcases each she made me wait longer while she checked with her Hong Kong connection. Finally she said it was OK (yes I knew!) and I could go through. Security was packed - it took an age. I made it with minutes to spare - I was literally the last person on the plane, through no fault of my own. But after this I vow to arrive at airports THREE hours before the flight leaves - I can't be doing with the stress of running about  

I love Hong Kong! It's got all elements of almost everywhere I've been so far, plus a welcome Englishness in the buses, the traffic lights, the police, the signs - I even saw a black cab! I felt quite at home immediately. I stayed at the Hong Kong hostel in Causeway. The not-so-friendly staff put me in the "welcome mansion" - another building over the road. It was like having my own apartment as there was no-one else there, apart from a Russian guy who spoke pretty much no English. I have no idea why he was there. although he did say "shops" to me and he was out from 11am to 11pm, every day! He insisted on having the windows closed and locked (despite being on the 8th floor with bars on the window), and the room door closed (despite being behind 5 levels of security), meaning the room was ridiculously hot - I moved to the sofa most nights, which was comfortable and cool.

I didn't do much high-up sight-seeing as most of the time was rain and fog. I did go to the peak, you have to when In HK! The view was zero; it was paying to go to an extremely expensive, high shopping mall. Most of my time I enjoyed walking about, soaking up the busy streets, dipping into Chinese cafe's and galleries. I caught up with my good Russian friend from Malaysia, who now lives there, and we celebrated Halloween with some friends from his Uni - arriving home at 7am - I've not had a blow out like that in a long time!

Hue, Vietnam

After the mission getting to Phong Nha we wondered how to get out. Luckily there was a pre-booked minibus direct to Hue, from the farmstay. At 6am a swish mini-minibus dropped us to the decrepid main minibus. We were the only westerners on this loaded bus and had to bounce around at the back while the bus growled down the bumpy road, all windows open, melodic horn to blaring! I like these journeys as they're a lot more memorable than easy, comfortable ones. Talitha over-hydrated before embarking and half way through the journey desperately needed the toilet. We stop at a garage and the driver refuses to let her go, as it's a quick fuel stop. He informs her that we'll stop in five minutes time, to the sympathies of the other passengers. Fifteen minutes later we stop and Talitha bolts!
An hour later and we're at the Hue bus depot just out of towm. We ignore the motorbike taxis and hop on a crowded local bus, bags and all, prompting some discussion and pointing from other passengers. We squeeze off and sweat our way across the bridge to Hue backpackers; our home for the next few days.

The bus - once the crowds departed

Hue backpackers (they also have a branch in Hanoi) has everything the discerning MC Hammer-trouser-westerner could want: beer, grungy (grungie?) guitar music, burger and beer (beerger) nights, fish & chips nights, curry nights, drinking games, many flavoured vodka shots (one called arse), pretty barmaids and silly t-shirts for sale. We settle into the comfortable dorm, meet our new roomie, Ozzzie David, then scoot off down the road in search of food.

HQ

Our first culture stop was the citadel. Now pretty much flattened from the French then Americans it's not much to look at but has a fascinating history and some amazing carp in the entrance pond. Out the back entrance we carry on the walk around the city walls, grab a sweet coffee and stroll through the markets before heading back to western headquarters.

Work it... yea, more hips... MORE HIPS

David tells us that it's his birthday today so we have a burger and wash it down with a few Huda and festival beers (it is beerger night after all). We inform the staff and they very kindly sort a delicious cake and sing happy birthday as only the Vietnamese could. The cake gets munched by everyone in the bar and we continue with the drinking, buying David a shot of arse (vodka and fish oil) to really send him on his way! Hic.

I've been left partuicularly numb in the religion region since leaving India. Apparently only 20% of Vietnamese are active Buddhists but Hue is touted as the spiritual capital of Vietnam so i'm expecting to see something. We hire bicycles and head off in the specific direction of a temple & pagoda, to a complete fail (some issues with the Lonely Planet map guv!). But this is not an issue. My favourite days in cities have always been to go with no plan. In this case we found some hyper-local backstreets, giant Catholic graveyards, a huge warrior statue and a vegetarian restaurant that gave us some pork!

"vegetarian" restaurant (the food was delicious)

Waiting for the train...

When I pop my clogs I would like a statue of me - this size.

Where's Hoochie-Minh?

Breaking from the random cycle routing I could see a temple from a hill, so decided that would be our next destination. An hour later, and a bike race with some local kids, we find a deserted back-street leading to what seems like an extremely Buddhist area containing a Thai Monastery, a temple, some large Buddha statues, an incredibly lifelike waxwork of "Hoa Thuong Ho Nhan" (I hope I have that correct) and some plastic wild animals. I cannot find any information about it on the web. Maybe someone reading this might know?

Writing above the Monastery entrance

Hoa Thuong Ho Nhan & me. Same Same!

Many mini-Stupa'

Vietnamese kiss: day 3