China Time!

I am in China from 3 weeks and I have not been able to enter my blog so far due to Chinese restrictions on internet, for the same reason I am not able to enter my facebook but I don’t complain about it! Now thanks to a proxy server connection I am able to enter at least in my blog and I try to resume all things happened to me since my last login in Hong Kong!

I spent my last day in HK with a daytrip visit to Macau, very nice place, relaxed people and a bit of portoguese flavour in the air! I met some nice local girls who showed me around Macau and hosted me in the rainy afternoon (thanks Agnes & Pat for Macanese hospitality!), then after the dinner I had to run as usual to take last ferry back to Kowloon!

The next day I was ready to go to China, even if I was still thinking about some weird stories from other backpackers with a lot of problems in China... By the way after 40 minutes of metro finally I was in Shenzen, China, and the first person I met was Askan, german guy living there, who kindly hosted me for the next 4 days. Shenzen is a big industrial city of 12 million people, nothing to do in the day, but with a great nightlife, I was very lucky to met Askan, we had a lot of parties and he introduced me the other buddy for the nightlife, Guerric, French guy living in China for more than 5 years. I had from them a lot of advise and tips about my trip and they also changed definitely my original plan to visit China! So after 4 days of big city nightlife, I decided to move to Guilin, even because I knew that if I stayed longer there I would have finish to stay there for a looot of time because of a dangerous evil in woman dresses...BTW, thanks a lot Askan & Guerric, I look forward to travel with you guys!!

In Guilin I just stayed one night, the next early morning I went to the station to take bus to Yangshuo, then into the bus I knew Peter a 50 years old kung fu master and we start a long conversation for the the whole trip. Once in Yangshuo, we met George (Peter twin brother) and a Belgian couple living in Yangshuo from a couple of years teaching English. They helped me with accommodation and I get a great double room in the rof plan with big bathroom and great terrace for a very good price. At first I really liked Yangshuo, but in the next days I have start to love it and finally decided to stay here for more than 2 weeks... After first days of biking in the countryside, I have start to take kung fu class in the morning (in the gym of the 2 twin brothers Peter and George), Chinese class in the middle of the day and I have start to collaborate with an English college just spending a couple of hours conversation with Chinese student in the evening in exchange of free food, free accommodation and free beers, quite a good deal to me!! I had very great moments in Yangshuo, I meet so many people and I had so many buddies for day excursions to countryside, beaches or caves that it is difficult to me to remember all! So, after 2 weeks of easy life in Yangshuo, I am ready now to move tomorrow to Kunming, in Yunnan. My plan now is to go in Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Shangri La and then find the way to go to Chengdu, in Sichuan, probably it will take 1 month to do it slowly as I like, but as usual I am really flexible with my plan. So with a lot of friends in my hearth and the belly of Monkey Jane in my head (Kieran, you know what I mean...) I am ready now to go ahead in the great China!

Shenzen

Snap in Shenzen street

Korean bbq in Shenzen with Askan!

Yamgshuo by bike

Back in School... from other side!

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Yangshuo's Secret beach. Not so secret

Hong Kong life report: Cheung Chau, Lamma, Lantau and...... China Visa!

In these days I have been exploring all the 3 main islands close to HK, it was very nice and surprising to see how life can be so different and calm just half an hour away from HK! It seems incredible to stay in little islands, without cars, only bike, relax, happy people, sun, fisherman's villages, Big Buddha, absolutely another world respect to caothic HK, and this is what I liked more here!

Definitely what I liked of HK is the chance to have multiple solutions, you can have a western style (and price!!) or more simple and cheap chinese life, you can be in the middle of a big metropolis or you can take the ferry and go in very relaxing places, you can use a great and cheap transportation to go everywhere you want! The mix between the 2 different cultures here is great, of course I`ll be back, even if now I get a bit tired to stay here.

Tomorrow I am going to have a day trip visit in Macau and then Thursday I am going to China, I have just get the visa! This is a little detour respect my original plan, but I am sure it will be great!

HK by night

Lamma

Cheng Chau

Lantau

Lesson of the day

What I learnt today:

1- Hong Kong is made of different parts:
2- What the world knows as Hong Kong is an island;
3- You are staying in Kowloon, which is the mainland just in front of Hong Kong;
4- Ferries and metro don't go all night long from Hong Kong to mainland;
5- If you wanna go Hong Kong island for the night, you would better ask before what time is the last ride, otherwhise you will be ranning like Usain Bolt (with handicap of sandals);
6- Life is so beautiful.

Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and so on...

Today it was my first full day out in HK, I have start visiting the famous (maybe for chinese people...) avenue of stars, a kind of the one in Los Angeles but with only HK stars! I didn't know any name apart Jackye Chan and Bruce Lee of course. Then I went the check out local markets, I found people selling live frogs (to eat), girls offering cheap body massages, some temples and many other stuff. Tonight I should meet someone local to show me secret spots here in HK, we will see...

Rome-Paris-Hong Kong business class, thank you Air France!

Just arrived, very nice and comfortable flight, I really need to say thank you to airfrance for this surprise, really appreciated!! Here it is cloudy and raining, I didn't see anything yet, now just the time for a shower and then going out for dinner and first stuff. Anyway I must see that at first glance HK is really cool!!

RTW: Ready, Steady, GO!

Finally tomorrow I am going to start my trip! On the first leg of my trip I will be focusing on the Hong Kong area, recovering from jet lag and spending some days in Macau as well, hopefully if I will have the chance to get the Chinese Visa I will go around Canton too.

Now almost everything is ready, I have packed all my stuff on my backpack, I am just checking out all the frills, credit cards, insurances, Ipod and so on, I am starting to feel butterflies in my stomach, for sure I am going to sleep very few hours tonight... anyway HK I am coming!

photo's stock clearance

Meanwhile I am looking for good flights for my big trip, I try to put order in my blog and to recover from the temporal gap created during this spring. I start with some shots of my trip in Cyprus. Nice place and great food!