Hong Kong – it’s not China at all!

After the wilds of china we didn’t really know what to expect from Kong Hong (HK). I remember sitting in my sisters’ apartment in New York City (another place we plan to get to on this trip) and watching the expansive handover ceremony of the island back from British rule to the Chinese. Over 10 years have passed now since then and i wondered, would HK have turned into another typical Chinese megopolis?? The answer to that was a blunt and resounding no!!



Right from the moment you step onto HK soil you feel like you are in a different country. As we currently live in England there is a slight sense of coming home, all the road signs are familiar and the street names resemble London! But that’s where the UK influence kind of stops (oh and the fact they play cricket here!!)



The immigration check was long and frustrating. We had taken a train from Shanghai to Guangzhou, and then planned to take one of the buses that ply the road to HK. That’s fine but there are the china exits and HK entry points to content with. You have to repeatedly haul all your bags off the coach and go through the immigration. It is no fun.



Just by way of intro, HK Island is across the harbour (away from china) from Kowloon. Kowloon is off mainland China and the first bits of proper china are Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The famous views of HK are from 2 vantages points one is from Kowloon looking over to HK island, amazing view, and the second is from Victoria peak, that is on the HK island, and looks down to the mass of ex profitable word financial companies. From Victoria Peak you also see the harbour and Kowloon.



Anyway, on arriving to HK you are greeted with a different vista to that of china, people speak a different language, eat a variety of world foods, and the people reminded us more of Japan. There was limited loud raucous shouting on the metro, and people seemed far more professional. I have to say this was probably most true on the main HK Island. Kowloon (the bit with all the famous street markets, is very very down to earth, and you feel you are in a mix of NYC suburb, Mumbai street, and shanghai market – it is crazy!!!



Urvi had upgraded us from the usual backpacker hostels (which are decidedly unsafe by all accounts – Thanks Kieran!!!) to a plush hotel with a 32nd floor roof top swimming pool with amazing views of the harbour. We loved the hotel (Metro Park Causeway), it was right on the Metro and the dinky Trams that whizz along the island. So thanks to Urvi regular swim sessions were planned and I even got to the gym 4 times in our stay! (When you have a view of HK from the 32nd floor while jogging, anyone would go to the gym!!!)



It safe to say we absolutely loved HK. There is a great energy to all parts of the place, from the markets of Kowloon to the city chic of the main island. I felt it was still a very inspirational place, and if you like cities, the views that greet you here, are absolutely out of this world. We spent 5 days, simply taking the place in, spending time in the main areas and also a day on Lantau Island. Lantau is about 30 mins by boat from HK, and it is like going to a tiny Caribbean island. Its green, laid back, has nice beaches and is just a refreshing break from the nonstop pace of HK. We also spent some time in Kowloon, which is a different experience. I have now seen the most amazing Computer and video games market you can imagine, and also now know where all the stuff we buy from EBay comes from. 2 huge floors full of everything PC and games addicts could dream of and more! It was fun.



The food in HK is diverse and wonderful. The street stalls and small local eateries will rustle up anything you want, but in addition there are amazing international options to sample. There are many high quality malls and dotted within these there are some fantastic place to eat. We had a lunch one such place called dressed up salads (right near the city check in desk in the IFC building). You get a huge huge bowl full of the best salads you could want, and all for a reasonable price.



On a couple of evenings we met up with Urvi’s college friend - Mayura. She is working in HK and has been there for about 1 year. On the first night we went out to Lan Kwai Fong. This is the real happening area where there are lots of places to eat, just about any type of food you could wish for, there were Russian places, Spanish, brit pubs, American etc etc etc, we went to an amazing Italian restaurant, which served the best pasta and salads – it was great.



Generally speaking, HK is full of people who are young and ambitious. This kind of vibe does appeal to us, Kowloon is where the real hard work is done and there are still loads of small companies importing and exporting things around Asia and beyond. We liked both faces of the city. In 20 years, china may have changed the look and feel of this place entirely, who knows! But from speaking to people their focus is Shanghai, and they are almost happy to let Hong Kong slide. I don’t think this will happen, there is too much going on there, and the people are too resourceful.



This is a beautiful gem, that can’t be missed on any trip to china. Make it you exit route, and you will enjoy a dynamic yet relaxing end to your trip, and comparing it to china will give you a different perspective on both HK and china.



From HK we jump on the super speedy catamaran to Macau to get our flight to Phuket. Beaches and sun here we come!!!!

All she wants is a pair of Levis and a job at the US embassy

China has a pretty young population, and in many ways they are very western, particularly in style and to some extent ambition. However I don’t think they are very western in thought or outlook. This is a very good thing most of the time. We should stop thinking that the western way of life or the western approach to life is the only way, it simply is not true. The east has huge amounts to teach and the MTV CNN culture we all seem to grow up with is simply 1 dimensional in my opinion.

Having said this I think that those of us who live in countries like the UK have a freedom of thought and crucially the ability to question both in our minds and out in the open that is soooo lacking in China. To then meet people who do show some ambition in their thinking and are colourful in their approach to life is a real pleasure. While in Shanghai we met such a person. Kate. She is from a smaller town in China but is now living in Shanghai, working as an intern at an advertising company. We met her and also Max (student from Lille, France, also doing an internship) just before we left for Japan, and we spent some time with them once we got back to Shanghai.



Kate was one of the high lights of Shanghai for us, she was sooo full of life and really gave us an interesting perspective on China and the youth of china. She had such great English (again not universally a great thing) and was really well read and willing to debate. We spent a few evenings just talking through our relative experiences, politics, cultures, etc etc. Despite being unlikely to travel and see the world, she knew about it, and she wanted to know much more. This kind of hunger is rare in people who have everything handed to them on a plate, and in the west this happens all too often. What impressed me most was that she had a plan, and she had ambition. This doesn’t have to be to become president or a CEO, and in china this kind of ambition is still the reserve of the privileged classes I feel. However she had a strong sense of what was achievement for her.



We spent a really nice day with Kate, Max and Richard (a friend of Kate’s from her home Uni) we visited some places which could be said to be off the beaten track for most and really just enjoyed Shanghai in a new way. While walking around we talking about this and that and past a Levis store. Kate was saying that one of her short term ambitions was to own a really pair of Levis. And her longer term ambition was to work at the US embassy. This fairly casual comment really struck me. Not for what her ambitions were, but for the fact that she had some.



I guess it strikes me that we can spend time allow the tide to take us from one thing to another or we can have some goals and swim towards them. I am not saying that they have to be far away, but it sure easier to get to where you wanna go when you know where it is!

It is unfortunate that Kate can’t read the blog in china, but I would hope that she will be working in the US embassy soon, and going to the bulldog pub after work (next door to the embassy) in her Levi jeans!

Taking the Maglev to Airport

After having seen the awesome scale of the Transiberian, and the engineer feat and beauty of the Quinghai railroad to Tibet, we now boarded the fastest train in the world, the Shanghai Airport Maglev shuttle. Don’t get me wrong, this trip is not some kind of train spotter’s paradise, but these are some of the great manmade achievements in the world. The Maglev – Magnetic Levitation Train, has no wheels, it does not really have rails, rather there are magnets that when set to the same polarity make the train levitate. This frictionless environment allows super duper speeds of up to 400km/h. That is quick; trust me it is the closest thing to flying on land that you can get. The technology is so expensive that this is the only track in the world that is fully running, but typically the Chinese want to build a track that runs from Shanghai to Beijing, the train would take about 1-2hours to make the journey, that is overnight right now.





8mins to lug our bags from the hostel to the metro stop, 8 minutes to travel at 370km/h and get to the airport to board our flight. Time is so relative isn’t it!!

Tibet – a different country indeed

Let me park the politics for a second. Tibet is a beautiful country that really is steeped in history and culture. The major focus of any visit here is the Buddhist religion and the scenery. The mountains are everywhere and are such a strong force in Tibetan culture. In Lhasa (the notional capital and largest city) they are all around you. However the other thing that is as ever present in Lhasa as the mountains are the Chinese army. It is a really bizarre sight to see this many armed guards. They are on every corner of the main areas of Lhasa. (Back to the politics!) After the uprisings of the last year, the Chinese forces are everywhere, which in this time of current peace feels really weird. Also I have to say that from our experiences of the last few days, you would never meet such placid, kind and relaxed individuals as the Tibetans, so this display of power and domination seems totally over the top. China has a really funny relationship with Tibet, on one hand they actively suppress the Tibetan people, they can’t hold passports and therefore can’t travel; ‘Chinese’ people are drafted into set up businesses and other commerce at the cost of the Tibetans; and in general Tibetan people are seen as very much second class. However Tibet is stunningly beautiful and full of natural wealth, therefore an increasing number of Chinese tourists are flocking here, and openly China talks about its pride in Tibet. I find it very weird. Of course if you were on the Chinese side, one would be saying that Tibet is part of China, and that is without question. Therefore they don’t see what the argument is. The troops are there to protect the people and ensure order is maintained and this would happen wherever in china there was unrest. I don’t buy it. I think that Tibet is a status symbol for china, oh and full of the rich minerals and other natural treasures. I got a real sense of unease, with people going about their own lives but always under the watchful gaze of the military. What is funny is that the troops (often young) looked really bored, and why wouldn’t they, there is such little to do. I think the Chinese have totally over done it.





Back to the interesting stuff! I fell really honoured to be in Tibet. It is a place no one I know has been and although once you get here, it feels very much like other parts of china, it is still a bit of a voyage into the unknown. There is a mystic feel about the place, and about the people. The altitude also plays its part in making the experience very different. Lhasa is at about 4500m above sea level, so the air is thin, and takes some getting used to. I struggled a little bit for the 1st day or so, but after that it got better. When you get to Lhasa you see 2 distinct sides to the place, the first is the Chinese developed, status symbol that the city has become. Much of the city is brand new, and there are new buildings coming up everywhere. The station is a prime example. Built only 3 years ago, linked to the completion of the amazing Quinghai Tibet rail road, it would do any city in the world proud. It is spacious, even imposing and really quite stunning. The other side of this city are the Tibetan people. In contrast to the shiny new buildings the people are understated and really soft and welcoming. They are always willing to offer a smile and seem to be really hard working and contentious. We are visiting at one of the most holy times for Tibetan Buddhists, and so everywhere you go there are pilgrims visiting the many important monasteries. The biggest thing for me was the devotion that each pilgrim was demonstrating. These were not rich people sweeping in for blessings, these were poor people from throughout Tibet, young and old, they would arrive with the strongest belief and devotion I have ever seen. It was amazing and humbling to see and be part of. So you have this interesting juxtaposition of the new china and the old Tibet. I wonder who will win. The funniest example of this was one evening. We went to see and photograph the Potala palace by night. This place is one of the most impressive and to some extent beautiful buildings I have seen, we loved it. But opposite the palace the Chinese, in their pomp, have built up a park with a monument to the military (poor taste I think!!) In the evening, this park has very subtle neon lights and a booming musical and water fountain performance! It was garish and really out of place when you look at the building over the road. The funny thing was that that all the foreign tourists were looking at the Potala, and all the Chinese were engrossed by the dancing water!! This is the funny thing about china for me, it has soooo much history and yet people are more interested in musical fountains... we move out of Lhasa tomorrow and head west towards Mount Kailash. This is will be Chinese tourist free I think!

Our own Taj Tour!

Some of you may be aware of the famous Taj tours that run out of India - where they will show you 15 countries in 3 weeks, and they go with slogans like breakfast in Berlin, Lunch in London and Dinner in Denmark...

Well we did our own mini Taj Tour across China. Between the 22nd May to the 29th May we travelled to Datong – Beijing – Pingyao – Xian – Xining and got on the Train for Lhasa. That’s 5 stops in 8 days, including 3 days in Beijing!! I will cover Beijing in a separate post so this is about the rest.









The first thing to say was that it was tiring and maybe not the ideal way to see a country like China, but with the 30day visa deadline approaching and the major block of time in china being spent in Tibet we had to follow a bit of a hectic schedule. I know this was not Urvi’s choice, but I guess that with the 15 days in Tibet coming up there was not much else we could do.

The trip was tiring and I don’t think we did full justice to any place, but only got a bit of a flavour. What was in interesting was how far away any of the main sights were from the actual cities that we went to. Landing up at the station we would get into a habit of storing our bags and then getting out to see the place, however as we would be going to 1 or 2 of the main sights we would then miss the main towns. In some cases this was not a big deal such as Xining, but in others the towns are interesting and we missed it – Xian for example, which has one of the largest Muslim populations in China.

In all this frenzied travelling the real high point was the day in Pingyao. This is a tiny town that has not moved on from the 1700s, it is a really characterful Chinese picture postcard town. We arrived in the rain and therefore did not spend loads of time ‘touring’ but we found an amazing Youth Hostel - Yamen Hostel where we basically set up shop, it was awesome. Free internet so we could make final arrangements for Tibet and Japan, and also lovely coffee and Chips!!! Hurray! The day we spend there was just lovely and really helped to distress from the hectic train to train travel we were doing

Highlights for this portion of the trip were the Hanging Monastery at Datong, The whole of Pingyao, the terracotta warriors (just an amazing sight and wonderfully persevered and shown off)

We now get ready to get on the train to Lhasa, on the Quinghai (pronounced Ching Hai) railway. The highest railway in the world that also contains the longest land bridge in the world.

Beijing – this place is awesome and the hostel was even better!!!

Ok so imagine getting off the overnight train at 5am, being faced a mammoth Beijing West train station, finding your bus, getting on with a million others and fighting with the ratty conductor who is shouting at you in Chinese, and you are shouting back in Kutchi – no it’s not a funny sight!!! (Well it was actually) but then you get off the hot bus to a hot Beijing (20c at 6am!) and then we go searching of our Hostel. It is in the middle of a Hutong (which is basically a cram of small streets, and common courtyards, off which people’s houses are to be found. This is a very traditional way to live in China, and was really interesting to experience but a killer to navigate. It was lucky our Hostel is soooo popular that even the locals know where you are going when they see to back packers plodding aimlessly along the streets, looking at the road signs as if they were written in Chinese!!

So the picture I am trying to paint is that we are a bit haggard and tired, we enter the hostel and suddenly cool, calm, relaxed, everything is just lovely and we sink into the easy chairs in the semi open courtyard/common area. The hostel – ‘Sitting on the city walls hostel’ was soooo nice and the perfect remedy for our condition. The guys who run it were really nice and very experienced at making sure the guest get the best out of Beijing. On arrival they gave us a cheat sheet for the city, so that we could avoid the inevitable rogue tour guides that would take us to the great wall in a 10th of the price of the official rates, and then proceed to take us to 101 shops and other things that would sap our money!
Anyway back to the city itself and our take on it.

We loved Beijing, it is a humming place, that may well have been different before the Olympics but from what I recall about how my parents found it, I think they like it too. Beijing is huge, and there is a lot to experience and take in, it was really hot when we were there which made seeing the place kind of tough, but the city is so nicely planned in terms of public transport you can make it anywhere fairly easily. We became pretty good at navigating the metro (which is totally world class) and the busses too, and at 10p per trip it is a bargain.

The biggest thoughts I had on Beijing was that it was a young city, both in itself and in the residents. The city clearly has been majorly developed and even after the Olympics it moves on with further development. Maybe at the expense of the old traditional city, but that is the case in so many places around the world. And too be honest apart from some major sights and places of national value I don’t think the regime in china is too bothered. The people are also really young, everywhere you go it is young people, maybe cos we were there over a weekend we got more of that, but I don’t think so.

The major sights are all amazing, the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Summer Palace is where we concentrated our time, and we loved them. However I was not taken by Tiananmen Square. One may ask what is there to be taken by a square. Albeit the largest public square in the world. However it felt really stale to me. On the other hand Beijing’s Snack Street was a real fun busy place, basically I saw it as a little china town within a Chinese town!! There were small eateries and stalls, and shops and all sorts sprinkled with loads and loads of people all enjoying an evening, it was really fun, eating the fried Dofu (Tofu) the huge plates of Noodles, and then trying to explaining to the guy that we wanna pack it as a take away!! Trying to avoid the mass of sellers, telling us to ‘hello... come a look a look, I give you goood price!’ for the ‘antique’ chess board that she has stacked in a high pile.

We went to the Olympic stadium and trust me on the outside it was amazing for its architecture, presence and technology, but from the inside it was amazing for the sheer numbers of people who came to see it as a temple to the Chinese plan to dominate the world. I could not work out if people are almost told that they must visit the ‘birds nest’ or whether they truly feel the pride it is meant to symbolise, either way there were thousands of people all coming to see it. Admittedly it is not even a year since the closing ceremony took place, and Boris Johnson came along on his big red bus. So maybe the crowds will die, but the authorities have kept it exactly like the stadium was during the games, including all the hoardings etc.

The most notable thing about the Olympic stadium visit for me was the totally open way the stadium had been opened for people. You basically pay to enter, the stands are open and then the whole ‘pitch/track’ area is open. People were relaxing as if in the park, taking food, playing with their kids, playing badminton etc etc, it was lovely dare I say it almost not Chinese – in that there was no tour, nothing very regimented, relaxed. Maybe I have read the Chinese wrong, but I noticed that they were all very relaxed in this space.

I have always wanted to see the great stadia of the world – Lords, the MCG, Wembley, Old Trafford, Neu Camp, the Birds Nest, the Maracana etc etc, not totally for the sports connection but because these places represent 2 really strong traits that I think are so powerful, the idea of achievement – that comes through sports at the highest level, and an amazing sense of human togetherness. People come to stadia to watch and experience in unity. And these temples of sport are just so good at pulling people into the action, the history and the uniqueness of the sporting spectacle.

Overall we loved Beijing, the hostel really helped to set up the city for us, but it is clear that Beijing has something about; a something that we felt was missing from Moscow. The people were helpful, interesting and really seem to know where they are going. We were not there to assess the levels of control asserted by the communist regime, but even if we were, on the surface there was not a lot of suppression that people seemed to feel. The young were expressing themselves as much as anywhere in the world, however I am mightily angry at the fact my blog was blocked here!!

From Droitwich to Datong...!

The first part of our trip is now set, and we now have all the tickets and Visas!

Part 1 of our world trip takes us from Droitwich on the 2nd of May to Dusseldorf in Germany for the evening!!

We then take the early morning flight to St Petersburg – the Cultural centre of Russia. Hermitage is the largest museum in the world and assuming that we don’t get lost in there, there is so much more to see and sample across the city.

On the 5th night we begin our epic train route across the vast country of Russia, the first leg is an easy overnight sleeper train to Moscow.

The centre of the soviet empire and target of the west’s attention during the cold war, I am sure we will get the chance to try one of those funny fur caps!

Late on the 8th night we jump on the ‘Baikal’ train, and one of the most classic rail journeys in the world properly gets under way. For those used to trains in India 3 or 4 days on train does not sound that significant, but in the world of budget airlines and easy travel, who in their right mind would stay on a train going 60mph for 4 days!! – Welcome to the trans-Siberian!

We will be stopping at Lake Baikal from the 12th to the 16th of May, and then in Mongolia for another 4 days, from the 17th to the 21st May. Before entering the land of the dragon – China!!

Datong is our first stop on the 22nd May, for a day and then we move on from there. We are currently planning the next stage, which will include China, Tibet and Japan, so stay in touch with us on the blog!

Trans-Siberian tickets and planning

A few tips if you are planning a trans-Siberian journey

Think about the season you want to go in – we are going in spring time, it will be nice but it won’t be snowy, if you want to witness the real real Siberian world, go when there is snow on the ground. Late winter and early spring aren’t great as the melting snow leaves slush and mud everywhere!

Decide which way to go – you can go eastwards or westwards. For us this is the start of our trip (good for visa planning etc) so were are going Eastwards

Trans-Siberian, Trans-Mongolian or Trans-Manchurian? – There are actually many options and routes


We taking a fairly traditional trans-Mongolian route – as it says through Mongolia.

1st class, 2nd class or 3rd class – personally keep it simple go 2nd class, 1st class you will get a coupe for 2 and sometimes a ‘shower facility’, 2nd class is for 4 people and I think 3rd class is for 6, and is a little open.

This is 2nd Class - better than many hostels!!!



Stop or Non-Stop? – There are trains that will leave Moscow and go all the way to Beijing or Vladivostok, and people often buy a ticket that will take them all the way there. However it’s my opinion that this is for the rail geeks amongst us, and if you really want to get the most out of this trip, take a couple of stops. We are stopping at Irkutsk and Ulaanbaatar. Each time we will take a few days out, and explore the local areas around Lake Baikal (the deepest lake in the world) and the Mongolian Gobi desert.

It is important to note that you can’t buy a single ticket which allows you to make stopovers, so you will need to buy separate tickets. This makes the coordination of the trains to fit your schedule really crucial and therefore makes the next bit of advice important.

How do I get a ticket? – 3 main options, buy them yourself in Russia, buy the tickets through an agent, or buy a ‘package journey’ from a western agent.

1st off, I would not buy a package trip. They cost significantly more and ultimately you don’t get much more for your extra £s. The trains used are the same (unless you go for a really exclusive package costing £1,000s), you may get some excursions, but then exploring yourself is fun (as long as you make it back to catch the train!).

I also would not wait to buy tickets in Russia – unless you are flexible with your times/dates, and possibly unless you want a single ticket to take you through to the destination directly, tickets are hard to get hold of. Tickets are released 45 days before the departure date of the train, and most get snapped up by the agents (option 2!) therefore unless you are in Russia for a while, or can be flexible getting your own might be tough.

We are taking option 2, and buying our tickets only through an agent. As with most of these things Seat61 has the best advice. We selected RealRussia as the agents we would use as they seem to know everything about anything to do with the trans-Siberian! They are the best in the business and thus far have been fantastic for us, in particular Alla has been the agent I have been talking with and she is great. The biggest benefit about realrussia.com is that they have a UK presence. The prices they quote are in £s and you will get your tickets posted to you in the UK. There are of course others that you should look at.

All in all our tickets cost about £500 each for St Petersburg-Moscow-Irkutsk-Ulaanbaatar-Datong. I am sure the official price may be much less than that in Russia, but I am mentally prepared for that, and have the peace of mind that I have a ticket. Also a similar package (with stops, and therefore accommodation) costs about £1500 (!), so unless you stay in top notch accommodation throughout the trip, the agent sourced price is still a bargain.

Not much more to say, would love to hear others experience of the Trans-Siberian, and of course we will be blogging the whole way round, so I will update you on how much coffee I drank!