Hong Kong, Macau and China

Gday all, after the dry heat of Jordan Frida and I continued our travels to the Humid heat of Hong Kong. We arrived late in the night and found our way out to southern Kowloon and checked into the Beverly Hills Mansion (but those of you know the Mansion houses synonymous with lower Kowloon will forget any thought of luxury). We walked around that night and went back around 3.30am with Hong Kong still buzzing!
After heavy rains the next day we did a little sight seeing around town and finished our time in HK next day with the famous tram ride up Victoria peak for fantastic views of the entire city and surrounds. That night was the anniversary of 60 years of the Peoples Republic of China which culminated in a fantastic fireworks display over Hong Kong harbour. We stood amongst 10s of thousands of people listening to communist propaganda songs (we think as who understands Chinese). The food here was definitely one of the highlights!!

Up early the next morning we jumped on the ferry to Macau to see the fusion of Portuguese and Chinese architecture, colonial buildings, pagodas, temples, small fishing villages and macanese food. The next day we caught up with Darren Mcloed (a friend from Melbourne), his wife Micarla and their house mate who showed us great hospitality. They all work in the biggest casino in the world there - its massive!!!!! They rustled up for us tickets to circ du soliel and then it was Micarla's birthday which we celebrated with vigour and got to have a few beers with another old friend who lives and works in Macau.

The big challenge came when we crossed the border into mainland China. Not only did all English disappear, but so did any recognisable letters of the alphabet. First stop became Guangzhou after a taxi driver took us to the wrong bus station and after much visual actioning, found another bus there. It is a huge city of 12 million or so that are just in a hurry. It has no particularly nice redeeming features except maybe a few of its inner city parks which are a welcome relief from the masses. One day proved enough.

Yangshou lived up to all its hype, karst peaks formed over millions of years from the limestone mountains surrounding the area on a river setting - picture perfect. Hiring a cycle was the perfect way to see the areas offerings and even though we got lost and and i got a flat tyre 2.5 hours out of town we got off the beaten tourist track and found sleepy villages still living subsistence like they did thousands of years ago, harvesting rice with bare hands and Buffalo's.
We caught a bus one day to the town of Yangdi and walked the 25 km to the town of Xing Ping along the river Li for fabulous views and some refreshing dips (which drew many confused looks from the locals trying to sell us rides on their bamboo rafts, Hello Bamboo became the catch cry).
We found a cool hostel named Monkey Janes after the crazy owner who was definitely schitzo, that had a rooftop bar and many travellers with whom to swap stories and information with. We even learnt a fun new drinking game - chopsticks - hayeee yaa!! Uutttzzz!! We can explain when we see you.....

Nanning became the next stop on our way towards Vietnam. It was a pleasant surprise with enough sites and sounds to keep us occupied for a day or so - the food market was the highlight!! Some of the food we ate didn't taste like it looked though.... live and learn! Dumplings in China are must and their seafood and noodles exquisite.

China proved a big surprise in one way in particular - everyone wanted to say hello and have their picture taken with us - especially Frida who was treated like a movie star with screaming girls and comments on her beauty and giggles as embarrassed girls said hello to her, and guys stared like they had never seen tall fair skinned woman before. Nothing threatening or perverse except a group of guys who followed us one time asking for Fridas telephone number.....

Recommended to all, China has many wonders and the people are generally friendly even if they have no clue about body language - even the smallest gesture of pointing was asking too much sometimes!! As we were in China during their national holidays we saw a people proud of their country with flags flying everywhere and a willingness to travel mostly within home borders. Contrasting to Jordan and so far Vietnam, China was very clean with bins everywhere which was a pleasant discovery. The journey continues..