Everytime I am anywhere but here I write about there. This is my travel life. I am everywhere.
Catching up in Hong Kong
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I had visited Hong Kong before on a stopover from Europe on the way home. That time was a quick stay in part to see friends, and to then also get a taste of the city without committing to a long stop. This trip with the goal of getting up into China it made sense to revisit Hong Kong, and then also get a chance to see friends I had short changed last time. I enjoyed Hong Kong the first time as it's a great mix of East meets West culture and food. Unfortunately for me it wasn't all fine blue sky. This was hot and humid end of typhoon season Hong Kong. Not that I minded to much. It had been so long since I had seen rain in Brisbane. And my lagging winter cough needed the humidity to help it disappear.
So my time here in Hong Kong was partly exploring the tourist zones I had missed, and then exploring the taste buds. I managed to fit in some Michelin rated noodles restaurant, and visit some great Dim Sum catching up with friends during the stay. Initial plans to go into the far reaches of Hong Kong in search of tourist spots had been curtailed by the weather and concern of protests. Heck I even considered going to see the Basketball World Cup in Shenzhen across the Chinese border. After all it was just there. A train ride away. But instead I just walked the neighbourhoods to take in the visual picture of skyscrapers and people everywhere. And yet in this wall of people I still found it sometimes difficult to find a central shopping district. As I learnt Causeway Bay was one area I didn't realise the importance of in this regard. I couldn't find any shopping of significance in the Central area. I had been looking in the wrong place and direction. Not a difficult problem to solve when the subway comes every 3 minutes and then you start to think like Hong Kong and start to look up and not just out.
The final morning in Hong Kong marked the start of the main event. I had booked a tour up into China with "The Dragon Trip". A budget backpacker based tour company that would get me up to Chengdu and the Pandas via the Yangshuo countryside. I was only doing their short trip. But that didn't worry me. It was getting me to where I wanted to be. I was paying just that little extra to get my own private room. That was a good call. The Dragon Trip use a slightly different format to most tours in their design. Instead of staying with one guide throughout you are assigned city guides. With each transfer you are left alone on the trains until the next stop. Sure some may like the one point of contact but heck this must of been a huge saving to the cost, and then also allows for guides to be local experts and not just generalists. Our first day with the tour was more about getting the correct documentation sorted for a China border crossing rather than actually seeing much. It was lucky I've seen the Peak before in Hong Kong as this time there was total cloud cover for what was supposed to be the highlight of seeing Hong Kong before heading over the Chinese border by train.
My first trip to Europe in many years brought about the opportunity to travel to a destination i never made it to previously. Neuschwanstein Castle . I mean I had been to Munich 3 times before. But never made a trip to the castle. I have to admit though 2 of those trips were when I wasn't experienced in independent travel, and the other was when I had sprained my ankle skiing making mobility a challenge in winter. Famous for being the Disney Castle yes. But also to me more famous for being the castle from the movie Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang. A favourite childhood movie. It wasn't until I was an adult I got to hear of the real castle story with King Ludwig the second. But let's leave that for later. So how did we make it to Neuschwanstein . Yes we. I was traveling with my friend who did all the planning. So when I say "we" I admit it, I refer to the royal we. I was riding coat tails on the logistics getting through jetlag with google maps and contributing only a vag...
So I was back in London just for little over 24 hours. Importantly I used this time to catch up with a friend. One who over time I see every few years. Hence it seemed fitting that we went out to Greenwich to walk around spending some time. But more importantly I visited the line.... Where longitude is counted from. Technically time is what it is. But Greenwich Royal Observatory is that special spot where time means a lot more. Where longitude is 0. And hence why we refer to worldwide time by Greenwich Mean Time. Interesting you'll also find at the observatory the gauge by which a British yard of rope is measured. But a yard today just isn't the same as it used to be. Around Greenwich there were quite a few things to do. The walk under the Thames wasn't visually inspiring. However to thing this was build so long ago it's an amazing piece of engineering. It also served as a safe haven during the Battle of Britain. Like the tube. The Cutty Sark and Navel museum as...
I took the opportunity to visit Layess, my former Brisbane flatmate, as a part of my Panda trip. The idea was that I could make a side trip to her home city of Chongqing from Chengdu. It was about 2 hours by train. This was easy enough to complete in theory. I just had to figure out myself how to get there. Which meant navigating the long distance trains myself after managing to buy a ticket. Easier said than done. The first step was easy. I just had to retrace our trip from the Chengdu Train station we had arrived into. Then I just had to board the right train at the station. It was fairly easy on the way to Chengdu. But then we had guided instruction on what to do from the tour. Although we didn't actually have the guide with us every time we were inside the station we were seemingly under the safety blanket beingtold what to expect. This trip has no such support. I was alone and had my memory to rely on. I had no ability to book my train tickets onlin...
So my time here in Hong Kong was partly exploring the tourist zones I had missed, and then exploring the taste buds. I managed to fit in some Michelin rated noodles restaurant, and visit some great Dim Sum catching up with friends during the stay. Initial plans to go into the far reaches of Hong Kong in search of tourist spots had been curtailed by the weather and concern of protests. Heck I even considered going to see the Basketball World Cup in Shenzhen across the Chinese border. After all it was just there. A train ride away. But instead I just walked the neighbourhoods to take in the visual picture of skyscrapers and people everywhere. And yet in this wall of people I still found it sometimes difficult to find a central shopping district. As I learnt Causeway Bay was one area I didn't realise the importance of in this regard. I couldn't find any shopping of significance in the Central area. I had been looking in the wrong place and direction. Not a difficult problem to solve when the subway comes every 3 minutes and then you start to think like Hong Kong and start to look up and not just out. 
The final morning in Hong Kong marked the start of the main event. I had booked a tour up into China with "The Dragon Trip". A budget backpacker based tour company that would get me up to Chengdu and the Pandas via the Yangshuo countryside. I was only doing their short trip. But that didn't worry me. It was getting me to where I wanted to be. I was paying just that little extra to get my own private room. That was a good call. The Dragon Trip use a slightly different format to most tours in their design. Instead of staying with one guide throughout you are assigned city guides. With each transfer you are left alone on the trains until the next stop. Sure some may like the one point of contact but heck this must of been a huge saving to the cost, and then also allows for guides to be local experts and not just generalists. Our first day with the tour was more about getting the correct documentation sorted for a China border crossing rather than actually seeing much. It was lucky I've seen the Peak before in Hong Kong as this time there was total cloud cover for what was supposed to be the highlight of seeing Hong Kong before heading over the Chinese border by train.
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