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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
08 July 2005
at
12:24
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Day 9 (7th July 2005)
I was up and at em' at 6am, the weather was awful with heavy showers but I needed to get to the airport for my flight to Thailand. I got to the aiport in plenty of time though and caught the flight. It was however, delayed for about 1 hr. I arrived in Thailand and had to wait ages to get though the Thai customs - there were massive queues so I got friendly with a few of the people in the queue. Finally I got to the baggage reclaim and couldn't find the right belt, spent about 30 mins walking up and down and eventually (thank god), I spotted my bag lying on the floor by one of the belts. From the airport I took the shuttle bus to Khao San Road. This place is absolutely buzzing....so many travellers, shops and pubs/bars. After locating the hostel which took a little while..I headed out to go for a beer in one of the bars..this was a bad idea as I spent the whole evening in there hanging out with some Thai girls, a Canadian, an American, some Irish and some Ozzies. It is really so easy to get talking to people here. After many beers I headed back to the hostel and slept for like 14 hours or something..again I have got a prety decent hostel here with Aircon and in a good location....More Khao San road fun to come...I saw the sad news about the bombings in London..I feel for the people in London caught up in all that stuff and all I can say is that these people are just sick and should be brought to justice.
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| Matt is currently in
Khao San Road, Bangkok, Thailand |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
08 July 2005
at
12:15
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Day 8 (6th July 2005)
This was my last day in HK, I again woke up late and headed straight to the space museum in Tsim Sha Tsui. After wondering around there for 30mins I left and made the classic mistake of heading back into that Irish bar on Nathan road - this was becoming a habit! I met another guy from Bristol doing the solo travelling thing and an American that lives in HK, we had a chat for several hours until it was time to meet Fiona. In the evening Fiona and I headed to the seaside place of Sai King in New Territories where we had a seafood dinner. This place was mad as there were tanks full of live seafood. You pick which ones you want to eat and they cook them - can't get fresher than that! We each had an oyster to begin with and then shared some shrimps and a lobster...this was the first time I had really eaten anything like that but I really enjoyed the food - I suprised myself. (I have some pics that I need to upload) This was my last day in HK as I had to get up early in the morning to catch the bus to the airport. I liked HK and very much enjoyed my time here. The place is really busy - I mean really busy and very hot and humid but it was a really great place to start my trip and I would definately return here in the future. I tried some new cuisines, vistited some great places, stayed in a fab hostel and had a good friend to show me around and help me out. All in all this made the experience something unforgettable and I will always have them photos and memories of a great place and a great time...Now it's onto Thailand................... 
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| Matt is currently in
Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
06 July 2005
at
03:48
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Day 7 (5th July 2005)
Today I headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui to walk along the avenue of stars again and take some more photos of the harbour during the daylight. I also got scammed by a 'so called' monk and ended up having to pay him 100HKD to get rid of him. It has been very hot today and after heading back up Nathan road I came across an Irish bar at which I spent most of the afternoon watching the rugby (Auckland vs Lions) and chatting with various people from both UK and the states. Around 7pm I met Fiona again and we headed to the Mid/Center levels escalator on HK island. This is the worlds longest escalator at 800m - we rode the escalator to the top taking some 15-20 mins and then walked back down stopping off on the way at an indian restaurant for dinner. After this it was back to the irish bar for a few more beers and then back to the hostel....
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| Matt is currently in
Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
05 July 2005
at
05:14
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Day 6 (4th July 2005)
Today was again a late start! I got up around 12 and headed to Maccy's for lunch. Today I had decided to head towards the Sik Sik Yuen Temple at Wong Tai Sin. Immediately on exiting the MTR station you are directly right by the temple, this is a pretty big place covering 18,000 square metres. Again being a temple, there is a lot of incense being burnt here. People go to the temple to practise the religions of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism and so it is one of the biggest religious temples in HK. After spending some time walking around the temple and taking in it's peaceful atmosphere I decided to get back on the MTR and head for the Apliu Street flea market in Sham Shui Po...this is a long street with many street traders selling a whole range of electrical goods...every store seems to sell batteries though - there must be enough power stored here to power HK for a day! Later in the evening I met Fiona for lunch - this time we went to a restaurant called Little Sheep...We had this hot pot type thing where the water (with different spices in) is boiling on a hot plate and you basically put the raw meat or fish into it and cook it yourself..we had 4 different types of mutton, some sliced green carp and fish paste with cod..none of which I had tried before, let alone would have cooked by this method...the dinner, however, was really nice and I was pretty stuffed by the end of it not only with food but also with Tsing Tao (Chinese local beer)...oh and for the first time I managed to get through a complete dinner session without having to ask for a fork..seems I am getting the hang of these chop sticks at last!  
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| Matt is currently in
Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
04 July 2005
at
05:18
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Day 5 (3rd July 2005)
Got up very late today and then headed back from NT into Mongkok by bus...spent some time walking around the Temple street night market and then headed to a typical bar for some beers. Not much else happened today though.
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| Matt is currently in
Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
04 July 2005
at
05:15
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Day 4 (2nd July 2005)
Got up early today to go for my harbour trip on the Duk Ling Junk Boat (See photos) the trip lasted for about an hour touring around the spectacular Hong Kong harbour. On the boat I met some people from Surrey who had been in HK for around a week. After the trip Fiona and I went to Aberdeen on HK island for lunch at the Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant - this place is really massive, it's about 3 floors in total and get's very very busy. It seems that this is the main reason why many people go to Aberdeen. Lunch was nice, then we left to take the bus to Stanley to visit Stanley market and Murray house. This is a small market where you can buy all sorts of things, it is a good place to pick up gifts etc. After a short walk around the market it was time to jump back on the bus and head towards The Peak Tram. It was very busy at this time so we queued for quite a while. On arrival to the top I saw for myself the reason why. The views from the top across HK are spectacular. We were also there in time for another "Symphony of lights" show but this time viewing it from the top. Unforntunately my night-time camera photo taking is not up to scratch and they have come out a little blurred - but you can see the fireworks from the top of the buildings - this was something not to be missed. After a busy day I headed back to New Territories to stay at Fiona's...
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| Matt is currently in
Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
03 July 2005
at
08:39
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Day 3 (1st July 2005)
I was up early at 8.30am and headed out to meet Fiona at the Mongkok MTR station. We had breakfast at a small cafe place and then headed out towards Lantau Island - First taking the MTR to Tung Chung and then transferring onto a bus to head to the Tai O fishing village. We walked around the village where there are many places that were selling mainly dried fish for chinese cuisine. Had lunch (noodles) at some place and then we jumped on another bus to head towards Ngong Ping and the Big Buddha. This buddha was massive! and the walk to the top where it was located was very knackering. We walked around there for a bit to get some photos and then we checked out the Po Lin monastery - there is a lot of incense being burnt in this place and it stinks! After visiting Lantau we headed back to Kowloon via the ferry, this time ending up in Tsim Sha Tsui walking along the avenue of stars (see my HK photos!) At 8.00pm each night there is a lightshow called 'the symphony of lights' - basically a lot of the buildings on Hong Kong island are lit up with colourful lights and there are fireworks that are set off on the top. This was very impressive as the music is co-ordinated exactly with the lights and fireworks. After the show we headed off to the lively nightspot of Lan Kwai Fong for a few beers in various bars. The beers are not cheap though at 55HKD (approx 4.20GBP) each. We left here at about 1am and I went back to stay in New Territories with Fiona........
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| Matt is currently in
Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
03 July 2005
at
08:13
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Day's 1 & 2 (29/30th June 2005)
Ok so here's the first update:-
My journey begins at Swanick train station, where I caught a train to Woking and then got a bus to Heaathrow airport. In a bar at Heathrow Airport I am drinking a beer and after looking around in the bar I notice that the DJ Paul Van Dyke is also sitting in the same bar with his girlfriend and a load of record cases. Anyway, I was sat in that bar for ages waiting for the Gate number to appear on the LCD screen, finally it appeared "Gate 46" which happened to be one of the furthest gates away! I got to the gate 15 mins later (picking up some postcards of London on the way) and boarded the plane a little after. After being sat on the plane for over an hour we finally took off bound for Hong Kong, there was a delay for some reason apparently 19 queued aircraft all waiting to take off. Around 11 hours later we arrive in Hong Kong Airport - it's 2.30pm local time and I had to get my luggage, buy an Octopus (not literally, it's a card for the MTR, which is the underground system) and collect my ticket for the Duk Ling Boat trip from the tourist center. On arrival to baggage re-claim the first thing that hit me was the smell of noodles! Anyway it turns out that my bag is the last one out as I was probably one of the first to check in, oh and another bonus I was upgraded to World Traveller Plus on the flight! Ok so I got my luggage, the Octoupus card and the boat trip ticket and headed towards the MTR. I needed to get to the hostel promptish for check in and only had an hour. I also had to change 3 times to get to my destination which was Mongkok in Kowloon. The MTR system here is very clean and modern, it makes our own underground look very very dirty in comparison. Sitting on the train I feel very comfortable, what I mean is that it is not intimidating to be here. The people do not look at you because you stick out and it is a very nice feeling to be able to travel around and not feel intimidated in any way. After about 45 mins of MTR travel I arrive in Mongkok, exit the station and I am surrounded in what can only be described as a maze of mayhem - I had no idea which way to go and my bag seemed to be getting heavier and it was so hot and humid - arghhh. Anyway I had an idea, I remembered that on the map the hostel building was right near a Maccy's so I looked up and down the street for the "M" and I saw one! I headed towards it and the hostel was right there - What Luck is that! I got my stuff sorted in the hostel. The family that run it are really nice and the rooms are very clean with air con - I was very impressed. I also have a phone in my room so I was able to call Fiona (she is going to be my guide in HK) we arranged to meet up for dinner. We went to a proper chinese restaurant for a meal - I had chicken with ginger and tried some shrimp dumplings still can't get the hang of these chop sticks so I got a fork! After dinner we went for a walk around the local area and the markets of Fa Yuen/Ladies Market stopping at a couple of places so I could buy a couple of T-shirts - got back to the hostel around 10.30pm as was completely knackered. Zzzzzz
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| Matt is currently in
Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
29 June 2005
at
10:22
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Ok only a few hours now until I catch the train to London Heathrow. I have finally managed to pack my backpack  however I did have to leave out a few items...the main thing is that all the important items have been packed! So Hong Kong here I come...I will update again after I arrive in Hong Kong!! Ciao for now.
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| Matt is currently in
His Mums House, UK |
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Travel-log entry
by
Matt
on
27 June 2005
at
10:14
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Ok so it's Monday and there are only 2 days left to go until I leave here at lunchtime on Wednesday. Well the move out of my accomodation on Saturday went well, I was up at 5am packing stuff into boxes - managed to get all my stuff into Alans van and move it all to my mums house in one go. I spent a lot of time trying to find space in the loft here.
Anyway, now I am getting more and more nervous as it is getting so close to my departure. This morning I have been doing some trial packs of my rucksack and it's not looking good - seems I have too much stuff and not enough space! I am going to have a little re-think and try to decide what stuff I can leave out. I also still need to get a few things, tomorrow I am going on a last minute shop to pick them up. That's all for now I will try and update tomorrow on my last full day!
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| Matt is currently in
His Mums House, UK |
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