Hey everyone - Sorry I didn't get a chance to get on the internet last night - I don't have the longest time on this computer here at the hostel, so I'll make a bit of a list of what I've done in the last couple of days.
Yesterday morning (I guess it's 2 days ago now), I got up, checked out of the hostel in Shanghai, and went out to do a bit of real antique/junk shop diving. None of this 'antique' street market stuff, I'm talking getting your hands a little dusty, pokey little shops, piles of old junk, and the good stuff all hidden in a corner behind a bunch of white porcelain Mao busts. So I headed out to a couple of places around town - a few were closed, what with it being the Lunar new year's eve, but I found a couple of nice spots. The rest of the day was spent travelling to various spots around the city, to various places I'd missed in the last week, and returning to a couple (no more fried dumplings though - they were closed :( )
My flight out of Pudong Airport in Shanghai left at 10:35, so got the light rail, then the metro train, then the MAGLEV! Which was very exciting - it's the fastest train in the entire world, and while it doesn't travel at top speed in the evenings (it only got to 300km/h :p), it still only took just over 8 minutes the travel the 30km from stop to stop (which by my reckoning, is an average speed of around 225km/h. After waiting a couple hours at the airport I hopped the plane and was on my way to HK.
And while on the plane, I saw a most incredible sight - So I was flying over China at midnight on the 17th of February - when the clocked ticked over into the Year of the Pig - and a traditional way of celebrating the new year is with fireworks - which can be bought at shops or streetside stalls - which means -everyone- sets of fireworks. And I was 30,000 feet in the air to see this happen - it was really spectacular to look out my window and see flashes of light reflecting off the clouds all the way to the horizon - I even saw some actually going off, which is quite cool from above rather than the usual point of view below the action.
After such a spectacular show, I arrived at HK airport at 1:15 in the morning - not wanting to into town in the middle of the night, I found some unused seats and bedded down - caught a few hours of sleep, explored the nearly deserted airport, then at 7AM, took the bus into Kowloon.
After dropping off my luggage at the Hostel, I walked the empty streets of Kowloon for a while (Lunar New Year's morning in HK, think Christmas morning at home), headed across to the island and came back to the hostel for a nap.
After a short, refreshing sleep, I headed out into the now largely business as usual city of HK, and made my way down the the New Year's parade route.... It wasn't until I got there that I realised how much I really don't like parades - I got there at 7 for an 8 O'clock start - and waited and hour and a half for the first float. standing in the second row (no barrier to lean on :p), it was another 15 minutes before the 2nd float came along (I think that there might've been a fire - all these fire trucks rushed past, but I couldn't see where they went), then they started coming pretty regularly - I stayed for most of the time, came back to Mong Kok to trawl the night markets, then came back and fell into bed.
Well, that was my 2 days - I'm just about to check out of the hostel, take a bit of time to go across to the island one last time, then head back to the airport and my plane home!
I promise a post with pictures sometime later this week.
'til then!
Jono
Yesterday morning (I guess it's 2 days ago now), I got up, checked out of the hostel in Shanghai, and went out to do a bit of real antique/junk shop diving. None of this 'antique' street market stuff, I'm talking getting your hands a little dusty, pokey little shops, piles of old junk, and the good stuff all hidden in a corner behind a bunch of white porcelain Mao busts. So I headed out to a couple of places around town - a few were closed, what with it being the Lunar new year's eve, but I found a couple of nice spots. The rest of the day was spent travelling to various spots around the city, to various places I'd missed in the last week, and returning to a couple (no more fried dumplings though - they were closed :( )
My flight out of Pudong Airport in Shanghai left at 10:35, so got the light rail, then the metro train, then the MAGLEV! Which was very exciting - it's the fastest train in the entire world, and while it doesn't travel at top speed in the evenings (it only got to 300km/h :p), it still only took just over 8 minutes the travel the 30km from stop to stop (which by my reckoning, is an average speed of around 225km/h. After waiting a couple hours at the airport I hopped the plane and was on my way to HK.
And while on the plane, I saw a most incredible sight - So I was flying over China at midnight on the 17th of February - when the clocked ticked over into the Year of the Pig - and a traditional way of celebrating the new year is with fireworks - which can be bought at shops or streetside stalls - which means -everyone- sets of fireworks. And I was 30,000 feet in the air to see this happen - it was really spectacular to look out my window and see flashes of light reflecting off the clouds all the way to the horizon - I even saw some actually going off, which is quite cool from above rather than the usual point of view below the action.
After such a spectacular show, I arrived at HK airport at 1:15 in the morning - not wanting to into town in the middle of the night, I found some unused seats and bedded down - caught a few hours of sleep, explored the nearly deserted airport, then at 7AM, took the bus into Kowloon.
After dropping off my luggage at the Hostel, I walked the empty streets of Kowloon for a while (Lunar New Year's morning in HK, think Christmas morning at home), headed across to the island and came back to the hostel for a nap.
After a short, refreshing sleep, I headed out into the now largely business as usual city of HK, and made my way down the the New Year's parade route.... It wasn't until I got there that I realised how much I really don't like parades - I got there at 7 for an 8 O'clock start - and waited and hour and a half for the first float. standing in the second row (no barrier to lean on :p), it was another 15 minutes before the 2nd float came along (I think that there might've been a fire - all these fire trucks rushed past, but I couldn't see where they went), then they started coming pretty regularly - I stayed for most of the time, came back to Mong Kok to trawl the night markets, then came back and fell into bed.
Well, that was my 2 days - I'm just about to check out of the hostel, take a bit of time to go across to the island one last time, then head back to the airport and my plane home!
I promise a post with pictures sometime later this week.
'til then!
Jono
posted by Jono Russell at 6:42 PM
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