Shanghai and Hong Kong

The train to Shanghai and onwards was interesting. To save some money we had picked the 3rd class sleeper train. This was like the trains in Russia but rather than 2 bunks there were 3. As we had booked late the only bunks left were the top which meant us being about 9 feet in the air and having about 2 feet of headroom for the journey. The journey wasn't too bad as we slept most of it until at about half 7 in the morning the TV came on full volume and stayed on for the next 2 hours!

 
Shanghai was a fleeting one night visit for us as the train to Hong Kong ran only on the odd days in the month and we had a flight to catch. We spent most of the time in Shanghai on the river front called the Bund which looked out over to the financial district of the city. It seemed we were like celebrities down there with many Chinese people taking sneaky pictures of us.

 
The train to Hong Kong was the same as the previous one, only this time we had the middle bunks with (luckily) empty beds above us. When we arrived we found a place to stay in the misleadingly named Chung King Mansions. This was easily the worst place we had stayed in but it was only for 2 nights and was relatively cheap. On our first evening we (finally) put shorts on and had an ice cream on the sea front. Here they have a version of the Hollywood walk of fame but for Chinese/Hong Kong stars such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

 
The next day we took a surprisingly cheap ferry ride to one of Hong Kongs surrounding islands to find a beach. After some lunch and a wander around the little harbour area we found a deserted beach and swam for a while; such a big change from the snow in Mongolia a few weeks earlier! 

When we returned to the city we decided to take a night time ride up the peak tram to the top of the hill behind Hong Kong city. They absolutely pack you onto the tram meaning I didn't get a seat, though it was a good way to experience how steep the route actually is. After a bit of time at the top admiring the views of the city we went to get the tram back down, however the queue was crazy so we decided it would take longer than walking down. We were wrong. We ended up walking down crazily steep, pitch black paths through jungle-like areas around the back of Hong Kong. After about 40 minutes of jumping at random noises we finally made it back to the safety of the city!

 
At Hong Kong airport the next day me and Pete accidentally decided to test the security enforcement. I left suncream in my hand luggage and Pete a cutlery set including a knife; of course with the world wide threat of terrorism neither of these items were discovered...