24th May - Planning Day

I needed to get out of my tiny box room with no windows and so after a lie in until 11 ish (I was very tired) I went for a lovely Japanese steak with coffee at a local restaurant. It was a lovey place and did very reasonable lunch set meals. Soup, coffee and steak was £5! Cool.

I spent hours on the internet looking up where I can get visas in HK, trains for Beijing to Mongolia and organising my thousands of photos. I am also trying to catch up on my diary before I forget everything. I did not feel comfortable using their wireless all afternoon as I had only had lunch and so moved on to use the very fast connection at an Irish pub. I spent the whole afternoon and evening their drinking coffee and eating calamari. Managed to upload loads of photo to FB etc.

A good planning and organising day. A bit boring though.

23rd May - Organisation Day

Up at 7 so that I could say good bye to Jacob. It has been such a fab weekend with him :-)

We had yesterdays desert for breakfast (as we had been too full last night). He headed off at 8.30 to catch his flight. I was knackered after such a busy weekend and too many late nights and early mornings and so I asked for a late check out and went back to sleep for a couple of hours.


Once I had checked out I had a lovely few hours using the pool, sauna and steam room at the hotel. I enjoyed taking silly videos in the pool using my water-proof go-pro camera. The pool has a glass side and as you are swimming under water you have views of Victoria harbour and all of the skyscrapers.


As I had paid for internet usage at the hotel and it finished at 5.30 I sat at the cafe and did some planning for the next leg of my trip until the internet ran out. I enjoyed one last coffee and cheese cake in civilisation until leaving to start on major budget again!

I left on the hotel shuttle bus to Nathan Road in Kowloon to find my hostel. Fortunately, the concierge let me store my bike and other belongings at the Hotel so that I did not have to take everything with me in the busy city area.


It took a little while to find the hostel and check in.... Oh back on budget in style... I am in a dorm room with no windows and a bed about 2 feet wide.

Early night.....

22nd May - Hong Kong Chilled Day

Having had a few crazy days we were going to take it easy today and have a day around the hotel.... did not quiet work out.

The weather was miserable. There were red thunderstorm warning signs everywhere. How exciting :-)




This is the photo of the back of the boat in the area where we were staying! Inside is a shopping arcade.... Very random.




We got up reasonably late and went for brunch at a lovely Chinese restaurant. The food was very good. It was rather strange to see a menu item of marinated intestines and cabbage for brunch...

Chinese food is so different to Indian. You never see pork on a menu in India but it is the main meat in India.




We then wondered round the local computer stores to try and buy 1 TB hard disks. I needed to get them today as I wanted to give Jacob my old external hard disks with copies of all of my photos so that I have a back-up in a different country (in case my hard disk breaks or I get it stolen). We could not find the right size locally and so jumped into a taxi and asked the driver to take us to a large computer shop.

We had no idea where we were going. The taxi driver took us to the best place possible. There where hundreds of computer stores all in one place :-) I found out later that it was the Golden Shopping Arcade in Sham Shui Po. It was great. I managed to get a 1 TB external usb powered hard drive for £57! And it's in pink.... I could spend so much money in there.

I also managed to pick up a screen protector for my phone, a phone charger and power converters for China. Awesome.... We then went for a wonder round the markets and Jacob bought some lovely paintings. A fun shopping afternoon.




Back to the hotel for a Sunday afternoon in. Watched 3 movies and ordered room service and drank a couple of bottles of wine. New York Style Vanilla Cheese Cake :-)

Fantastically decent day. It has been really great to catch up with Jacob.

20th May - Explore Hong Kong

Considering the time we stopped nattering and went to sleep we got up very early - 8ish. We were both too excited about going and seeing the city. We had a huge breakfast brunch as a treat at the hotel. It was £15 each but what a treat :-) We had loads of coffee and nattered for about 1 hour before taking photos of the harbour and the views from the pool and roof top. I love being an excitable giggling little girl with Jacob.


We could have got a taxi or the free hotel shuttle downtown but we decided to walk and explore instead. It took ages to walk the couple of km to Nathan Road as we kept on stopping to take photos and check out the place. We first had a look round the shops right next to the hotel and then walked along the water front. Took photos at the avenue of stars but did not recognise and except Jacky Chan.


Once we arrived in the downtown area we then wandered up Nathan road and I tried to buy some replacement hard-disks for photo storage and some cables I need but they were asking silly prices.

We explored the malls in the area and took a walk through the park and then caught the train over to ??????



We were getting hungry and so we treated ourselves to coffee and quiche. We tried to the catch the cable car to go and see the Big Budda but we had spent far too long exploring the city and having fun and it was too late. By the time the cable car got us to the Budda it would be closed. We headed one the underground to Hong Kong Island instead and walked from the underground station to the Victoria Peak tram where we queue with all the other hundreds of tourists to take a ride up to the top. It took ages! I really do not think the tram is worth it - you might as well just get a bus to the top.

Wondering round HK I remembered loads of things from my last visit here about 5 years ago. I should have remembered that the tram is rubbish and it would be better just to walk or get the bus up to the top. I found it very strange to be in such a clean, modern city again after being in third world countries for the last four and a half months (ish). It was actually a bit of a culture shock. HK is go clean and materialistic. You can buy anything. It was strange to see Starbucks and McDonalds etc again.


I am not a big city person but I do actually like visiting HK. It is lovely to be able to see the mountains and greenery behind the skyscrapers and I love being close to the sea. Where as other large cities feel like they go on forever as a sprawling concrete jungle, HK is really compact into a very small space and so it does not make me feel so claustrophobic. It is really easy to get out into nature from HK downtown just on a short train ride. The living space of most people in HK is extremely small and so where as Brits spend alot of time in their own homes enjoying some space or entertaining friends and family, HKers do this outside of the home in restaurants etc.

The views from the top of Victoria Peak where fantastic! I had seen them in the daylight the last time I was in HK. We were hoping to be able to see the views at dusk and then at night time today but we ended up queuing for ages for the tram and so it was pitch black by the time we got to the top. We had a wonder round on the top and then an awesome meal at a restaurant over looking the whole of HK.


The meal was extremely expensive but absolutely awesome. Rare fillet steak... I had died and gone to heaven it was so good. As my friend Justin would say "A good steak should make you weep!" This one pretty much did. We enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and nattered until late. A taxi driver tried to rip us off and charge us £35 for a ride that should have been about £10. We were annoyed that he had tried it on and just decided to walk and train it back to the hotel. It was lovely to see HK at night time and wonder through the streets.

A really fun day! It is sooooooo lovely to see one of my bestest buddies and catch up. I have missed my closest friends on this trip. There are some people that you just click with and even after time apart it just goes back to normal straight away. Jacob is one of these people.




For more photos click here

19th May - Hong Kong with M' Jakey

Arrived on time at Hong Kong airport but had not had very much sleep (2 hours) and so I went very slowly through the airport to get all of my things and get through customs. I remembered the airport straight away from when I had visited HK 5 years ago. It was strange to be in such a clean, westernised place again after India and Nepal for the last 4-5 months.



I was not sure whether it would be OK to get my bike (which is all boxed up) on the train and then on the free shuttle bus to the Hotel but it actually worked out absolutely fine as they provide trolleys for every step of the journey.

The train ride from the airport takes 20 mins and is fab as you get to see all of the surrounding areas and the water on the way. Again I remembered it from my last journey but I was surprised by just how clean, sparkly and new everything was in comparison to India and Nepal. Saying that though HK is much cleaner than London for instance. The coach ride also took about 20mins and dropped me off right at the hotel door. What a difference it makes when you are having a few days off budget. If I had been on budget I would have been all tired and jet-lagged and I would have built my bike at the airport and cycled to some shit hole somewhere....

We got the room at the Harbour Grand, Kowloon, for a really good discounted price. It is an amazing place. The room was huge and there is a glass fronted pool on the top of the roof. When you swim you can see through the side of the pool and have a view of Victoria Harbour and all of the sky skyscrapers. There are 6 restaurants and amazing views of Victoria Harbour from most of the rooms, the restaurants and the gym as well. I arrive at 10am and they let me check in early. I showered and went for an explore of the hotel and then out shopping for some supplies for the next few days.

This is the view from the room.

I know m' Jacob and how much he likes booze and junk food and so rather than him hitting the mini bar in the middle of the night I thought it best to stock up - especially on red bull. It took a while to find everything but fortunately there are loads of shops locally. There is a big shopping mall situated under a big boat.... very random. These photos are of the shopping area right outside the hotel.

I had a nap and a swim in the afternoon and then Jacob arrived about 7pm. It was really fantastic to see him. He is one of my bestest buddies and I had not seen him for 8 months. He had flown in Toronto via Chicago just to spend the weekend in HK with me :-) He was so happy about the Hotel too. We are such big kids.

We went out for a wander round town and to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. We stayed up late drinking wine and catching up. Awesome!

I'm SOOOO HAPPY!!!! :-)

18th May - Kathmandu to Hong Kong

It was my last day in Nepal today. I have spent nearly 1 month here and I actually wish that I had some more time in the country. I am in the middle of writing country summaries for every country I have visited but here are my thoughts on Nepal:

The other countries I have visited so far are all fantastic and I have enjoyed every single one. However, at the end of my time there I have felt "tick". I am happy not to rush back for 20 years i.e. until the country changes significantly. Nepal is different. I really feel like I would love to come back here on holiday and could spend a long time here and see it in far more depth. It really is a beautiful country, easy to travel and the people are extremely friendly. It is also very good value for money. Even though it is a developing country it is very much cleaner and more hygienic than India.

I listened to a podcast this morning about poverty in Nepal. The report was about the mountainous regions where there is no road access. Having traveled though various areas of the country I can now understand the problems that these areas experience. One area that the documentary was covering was a region that takes 7 days to trek to. I would love to explore more....

I was up at 8 to take my bike to Everest Mountain Bikes to get it fixed and get a box. They said that they could possibly weld my frame so to fix the pannier problem but they were not sure if they would get time. They would definitely have time to fix my wheels though.

I spent the morning faffing to prepare for my flight. I had to go through all of my things and throw out any thing that I can buy for less than the not very much money in Hong Kong. I spent ages trying to check in online with Kingfisher (an failing) and also printing out my electronic ticket info etc. I also printed out the info about the golf equipment charges in the hope that Kingfisher would count my bike as golf equipment so that I would have lower baggage charges.
I was really worried about the charges for the excess. I am only allowed 20kg with Kingfisher. That is pretty much how much my bike weighs with empty bags. On top of that I have about 10kg of stuff. At £20 GBP per extra kg that is £200 in excess charges! The flight itself was only £120!.

It was really lovely that I met Ang by chance at the Northfield cafe and could catch up with her before I headed off for my flight. She was still in Kathmandu and I thought that she had left days ago. She is actually flying home to the UK tomorrow instead of going to Thailand. We had lunch together.

I was in a real rush as the guys at the bike shop had said that they could not complete fixing the bike until 1.30 and I also could not pick up my laundry until 1.30 as well. Fortunately, the guys had managed to fix my pannier rack and wheels but they had not got the box ready etc and it took 30 mins to get it all boxed up and then another 20 mins to go via the other hotel I had stayed at to pick up my other bags and so I was short of time when I got to the airport.

I arrived at the airport all hot and sweaty. It took me a while to re-organise my stuff in the best way to put everything heavy in my hand luggage and put everything in the bike box. I was very stressed by the time I got to the check in desk. I was fortunate again that they let me on without excess baggage! It was brilliant as it would have eaten into my budget considerably. At least I have a flight for Hong Kong and did not have to pay through the noise to get through Tibet.

The flight to Delhi was fine and I watched a silly movie. I drank coffee and wrote my blog entries for the 6 hour stop over and caught my flight to HK at 11.30pm. I hate faffing, waste of time travel days...... Oh well part of traveling.... I suppose I can't have awesome fun every single day ;-)

17th May - White Water Rafting and to Kathmandu

Up at 4.30 to make sure I had enough time to organised my equipment after my trek, pack everything back on to my bike, get breakfast and get to the office of Adrenaline Rush for 6. I got there on time to find that the place was shut. I went to get a coffee across the road and waited until they opened at 6.20. The guy said that he had said 6.30 but when I asked him 3 times last night "6?" he said yes. I asked him 3 time because once he had said 6.30 but had originally said 6 and so I asked several times.

I had told the guy several times that I have a bike and that I needed to take it with me and he said that it would not be a problem. In the morning he had forgotten to organise a way for me to get my bike to the bus station and it would not fit with the kayaks on the taxi that he had ordered. Therefore, he gave me instructions to the bus stop to meet with the others. I biked and followed the instructions to the letter. All of them made sense and I went the right way but I could not see it right at the very end of the journey and so I asked a couple of locals for the bus station. They told me the way and it was in the same direction as the original directions so off I went. Unfortunately, I had just passed the tourist bus stand and I had not been told that there were 2 bus stations: a local one and a tourist one. After waiting 30 minutes at the local bus stop and trying to call the two landline numbers on the company website but not getting any answer I biked the 7km back again to the office. There was no one there at first but eventually I managed to wake someone. They put me in a taxi with my bike and we went back to the local bus station. At least it was a beautifully sunny morning and views of the mountains while I was waiting were awesome :-)

They put me on a micro (mini van with loads of seats) to go to the kayaking place. By this time I have been biking round (did 20km) or waiting for 1.5 hours and I was all hot and sweaty and not in a very good mood with the incompetence of the company. They had not tried to call me when I did not turn up at the tourist bus stand and I could not get any answer from them.

I tried to get some sleep on the way but did not really manage it. The micros are cool as you usually get a seat and they don't stop as often. They go faster than the buses. Therefore, I ended up getting there faster than the other girl that was kayaking with me.

It took the company an hour to faff and get us and kayaks down to the river and so we did not get on the water until 11.30. By this point I had been up for 7 hours and only done a 2.5 hour bus ride and been faffing about for the rest of the time.... Arrrgggg.

Megan, the other girl kayaking, had never done it before and did not even know how to row. The company rather stupidly took us straight down to an area with rapids and tried to teach us on the slower flowing section. Megan really has her wits about her and is quite and adventurous, confident person but even she struggled with this. The guy teaching us did not even explain the very basics to her and so I filled in the gaps. He went in at too low a level. I am no expert but I have done a few days white water kayaking before and know how to row and get out of the boat etc. There was just not enough area of flat water for a beginner to get used to it before going down rapids. They said that there was no other entry point but they should have gone further up river or something else instead. It was just incompetent. In the end it worked out OK because he held on to her kayak going over the rapids until the calm water but he should have told her that he would do this from the beginning rather than her panicking for 1 hour before we left and me waiting around for 1 hour while she practiced.

We had an instructor in a kayak and another guy on a big tube. The young lad on the big tube was very cute, funny and had a massive grin. He spoke very little English and was just learning the job and there to act as a second rescue when I went swimming....

I had actually forgotten most of the things I had learnt in the past about how to white water kayak and I ended up going swimming about 5 or 6 times. It was fun though and I did not mind. I remembered what I was doing (no thank to the instructor) half way though and did not go in again after that. Even though I am normally an adrenaline sports junky I was not in the mood for pushing today (maybe over tired) and actually most enjoyed the sections where we were just drifting and taking in the scenery rather than on the white water. The stretch of river going through the mountains really was very lovely. I did enjoy it once we got going and actually on the river.....

I was starving by the time we got lunch at 3. It had taken much longer to get down to the lunch region because we were going slowly with Megan. Megan had been really pissed off at the beginning because she was scared and they had not made her feel comfortable. She had booked 2 days of kayaking and at lunch time canceled the second day and decided to stay elsewhere tonight. However, over lunch the guys were quite fun and then the next stretch of water was flatter and her confidence increased so that she was actually enjoying it by the end and then changed her mind to stay tomorrow. I was very disappointed by the incompetence of the people in general though. Nice guys but not professional.

I was expecting to be stiff today with the mammoth day yesterday but in fact my legs where less stiff than they were the last 2 mornings. I really think that the regular stretching at the beginning, 2 hours in and then at the end of the day makes a major difference. :-)

It was 6 by the time we got back to the office and I got changed to catch the bus to Kathmandu. I had been told that we would finish by 3ish. It was good that they gave us extra time because we had started late, however, I had hoped to get to Kathmandu by about 6.

I was hoping to get a seat on a micro but unfortunately after waiting for 30 minutes to find a micro with a space I gave in and got on a local bus. They put my bike on the top of the bus and got on board. I had forgotten how much slower they go in comparison to the micros.... It was not very comfortable and it was difficult to write my blog on the journey. The bus also stopped for 30mins to give everyone a loo and food break.

It was nice that the rains did not arrive this afternoon but as a consequence it is very very humid and the bus journey was uncomfortably hot.

I did not arrive into Kathmandu until 9.30. Unfortunately the people had not tied down my bike securely and when they handed it down from the top of the bus I found that my pump had snapped off completely and was no longer with my bike (it was well attached with 2 plastic parts and a Velcro strap) and then I found that the frame itself had broken where the panniers attach at the back. This meant that the pannier rack was actually rubbing on the gears at the back. Arrrg! I was not sure how this could be fixed.

I am not having the best of luck at the moment with my bike and it breaking. Since I have left the UK I have had the following things break:

• 10 spokes
• 4 inner tubes (not punchers - the valves have broken)
• 3 back wheels
• 2 front wheels
• 1 pannier rack
• 1 frame welded with pannier rack as link snapped off.
• 1 quick release
• 1 puncture
• 2 pannier bags (currently held together with super-glue)
• 2 tyres (normal wear and tear)
• 4 brake pads
• 2 pannier rack screws
  
• 1 pedal
• 1 group set (old one worn out so replaced with a new one)
• 1 brake cable
• 1 saddle
• 1 bell
• 2 handle bar straps
• GoPro camera bike clip
• .... and probably some other stuff I have forgotten....
  

By the time I had walked my bike (not possible to ride with the pannier rack touching the gears) from the bus stop to Thamel, checked into a hotel, put my laundry in to be done, bought some water and checked in with my tweetie pie guardian angel it was 11.30 and I was knackered......