Inglaterra en Semana Santa

Estamos de vueltaaaaaa!!
La verdad contentos de ver a los amigos y familia de Hannah. Pero con muchas, muchas ganas de ir a España y ver a mi familia y amigos de alli. El 12 de Mayo volamos a Alicante y de ahi a Albacete.
No nos podemos quejar. Estamos de vacaciones hasta que nos volvamos a Asia. Hannah esta aun negociando algunos trabajos de profesora en Hong Kong. Yo como ya dije hasta firme el contrato y empiezo el 15 de Junio, pero volaremos antes para buscar casa y demas. Por cierto estais invitados, quien quiera venir, ya tenemos a Carlitos en Septiembre, ha sido el primero en reservar. Seguramente seran casas de miniatura, lo positivo es que mas calenticos estaremos.
La Semana Santa en Inglaterra es distinta a la de España. Comer, beber y huevos de pascua de chocolate. Creo que hemos recuperado un par de kg. Cuando lleguemos a Albacete vamos a tener que ir a comprar ropa nueva, dos o tres tallas mas..:-/
Estamos quedandonos con los padres de Hannah. Patricia y Graham. Son encantadores, y nos estan cebando...jejeje. La madre de Hannah nos ha dejado su coche por todo el mes. Yo estoy haciendo substituciones. Hay que recuperar pasta porque va a ser caro el empezar en Hong Kong. Tenemos mucha suerte la verdad.
De repente en Inglaterra todo parece limpio, verde, civilizado, tranquilo y...no es lo mismo pero se agradece. Hemos pasado la Semana Santa comiendo y bebiendo como decia antes. Los hermanos de Hannah con los respectivos vinieron y nos juntamos un grupo grande.
Ya no hay mucho mas que contar.
Creo que este es el ultimo blog.
He estado leyendo los posts del blog de Hannah y mios y me parece increible todo lo que hemos hecho. Como decia tenemos suerte de haberlo hecho y somos conscientes ello. Queriamos compartir con la familia y amigos las experiencias y el blog nos ha sido muy util. Espero que quien lo haya leido haya disfrutado, esa era nuestra intencion al compartir todas las anecdotas y fotos. Estamos contentos de estar de vuelta pero no puedo evitar sentir nostalgia de lo que ya ha terminado. Quien sabe. En unos años tal vez repitamos.
Os vere pronto en Leicester y en Albacete. Deseandolo ya!

De vuelta en Tailandia Abril 2011

Teniamos muchas ganas de regresar a casa hasta el punto que cambiamos nuestros billetes de vuelta pagando una sancion y un cambio de tarifa, pero como suele pasar, cuando llegamos a Tailandia nos arrepentimos.
No es que se estuviese mal en Vietnam, simplemente estabamos cansados de viajar y con la confirmacion del trabajo nuevo teniendo que volver en Junio para empezar una nueva aventura en Hong Kong el volver antes y pasar tiempo con la familia y amigos era una idea atractiva.
Volamos a Bangkok desde Ho Chi Minh city. Cuando llegamos nos encontramos con la sorpresa de la celebracion del año nuevo Tailandes. Lo llaman Songkram o algo asi. Es la epoma mas calurosa del año y lo celebran tirandose agua el uno al otro. Literalmente cubos de agua en ocasiones. La mayoria de la gente joven compra pistolas de agua y las calles de Bangkok se vuelven un campo de batalla.
Es super divertido si quieres participar, cuando uno esta haciendo las ultimas compras y te calan de arriba a abajo incluyendo la ropa que acabas de comprar no es tan divertido. Preguntarselo a Hannah que por la razon que sea atraia a las muchedumbres y lo que es peor atraia los cubos de agua.
Hannah tenia mogollon de recados y cosas que comprar, en Mayo es la boda de su hermana y siendo barato como es en Bangkok se ahorraba una pasta comprandolo aqui.
Nos fuimos a pasar los ultimos dias del viaje a Koh PhaNgan, la isla que ya habiamos estado muchas veces donde he trabajado de voluntario en numerosas ocasiones. Es super bonita, hay fiesta, y conocemos gente. Tenia sentido acabar el viaje en un sitio donde nos encontrasemos agusto....y donde no te tirasen cubos de agua al tres por dos.
A parte de los viajes de noche en tren con aire helado mas que acondicionado o sentados a la vuelta porque lo demas estaba reservado todo fue genial. Fue un broche de oro para el final del viaje.
Hannah se volvio a Bangkok a hacer los recados y yo me quede con James y compañia por unos dias mas. Una noche cuando estaba solo me fui a la playa donde esta toda la fiesta un par de noches antes de la famosa fiesta de la luna llena. Ya habia mogollon de gente, muy animado pero no las 20 mil personas que se juntan en la luna llena. Estaba sentado y un grupo al lado me invito a juntarme. Un irlandes, una sueca y un par de americanos de LA. Muy majos. Yo estaba con muchas ganas de fiesta pero empezamos a mezclar cubiletes de ron local con cola y red bull y acabe desapareciendo de lo malo que me puse. No el final o broche deo oro de la noche que me hubiese gustado, pero aprendi la leccion. Nunca mezcleis botellas que no sabeis ni lo que pone.
El resto nada del otro mundo, Bangkok, mas compras, maletas y vuelos.
De vuelta a la vida real.

Vietnam

We arrived into Saigon very late at night and went with a Dutch couple in a taxi to the backpacker area. They'd booked a place and a sleepy guy opened the door to them - but wouldn't let us in. It's a labyrinth of alleys full of private 3-4 storey houses, but all with rooms to rent. We rang the bell of another place and a guy came out in his boxers and showed us inside. Then, he went into a room at the back and got his wife out of bed (well, Angel said they were sleeping on towels on top of the bed.. but still) and gave us the room! I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea, but he insisted and we didn't have many other options. The room was like 5 star luxury with ensuite, wifi, tv and even a fridge. Nice, but we moved to a cheaper one the next day.

The first few days in Vietnam were a constant surprise. I had visions of paddy fields and murky rivers, but what we found was that everywhere was really developed; even more so than Thailand, which was very surprising. First we went to Ho Chi Minh, which the locals still call Saigon. The street food was great. The Pho Bo (Beef noodle soup (very typical) was really tasty and so was spring roll with noodles! There's also barbequed pork everywhere and lots of stews with rice. They always serve it with a bowl of soup and iced or hot tea.

We also even did a bit of shopping. The small Vietnamese designer labels are really original and great quality.

The buses are also amazing. They have wifi everywhere and they give you free bottled water and wet towels. All the seats have neck pillows and the waiting areas have fridges full of free fresh sliced fruit and free coffee. The coffee here is also smooth and chocolatey, but soooooo strong. It's literally like have five espressos in one glass. I don't know how they don't start twitching after all that caffeine! For some reason, these buses are also cheaper than the cramped crappy minibuses (which I'm wedged into as I write). Other one was fully booked! These can be much more entertaining - but not for 7+ hours as I think we'll end up being on this one for!


After a couple of days in Saigon, we decided to head to Mui Ne, to quote the Lonely Planet SE Asia 2004 'a charming but undeveloped fishing village'. Well, that's the last time I travel with an old edition! Mui Ne turned out to be the key destination for Russian tourists: 7km of huge hotels and restaurants! Even the beach was so windy that it was like having a particularly vigorous exfoliation every time you stepped onto it. It was great for kite-surfers though! Angel really wants to learn how to do it - maybe in Hong Kong.

The next place we went was Dalat, a place in the hills to see if we could find somewhere a bit more rural. It was a bit - we hired a moped
(which I learned to ride in a carpark in Dalat!) and spent the day riding around, but even the Minority villagers seemed to be having a day off from their cloth- weaving and traditional costume.

It wasn't until we went back to Saigon and met a local guy who spoke excellent English (and man, absolutely nobody speaks any English whatsoever in Vietnam - and fair enough, why should they? But not even the basics like the word 'hotel'! Even in tourist areas they don't know any numbers at all. It certainly makes you realise how much you take communication for granted!)
Anyway this very helpful chap recommended a couple of rural undeveloped villages to us, so we set out again a few days later.

Finally we found rural Vietnam! Back in Saigon now - baring the thousands of motorbikes which come at you everytime you try and cross the road. had a bit of a disastrous haircut on my birthday but I suppose it serves me right for trying to get a haircut for two dollars! Went out that night with a French Canadian couple and an Aussie guy who had planned a birthday dinner for me at a local Barbeque restaurant and a few beers afterwards! Heading excitedly to Thailand now - after changing our plane tickets again! We're going home a month early - miss everyone back home too much and only 6 weeks there before we head back out to Hong Kong to find a somewhere to live. Bring on Thailand!

Vietnam

Después de la agradable sorpresa de Filipinas hemos llegado a Vietnam otro país nuevo para nosotros al que teníamos muchas ganas de venir.
Ya estamos un poco cansados de tanto viaje. Es una experiencia increíble pero llega un momento que tal vez no se aprecia tanto y cansa el estar en buses y de hotel a hotel con la mochila a cuestas.
Aterrizamos en Ho Chi Minh City, la antigua capital de Vietnam del sur (antes llamada Saigon) y la ciudad mas grande del país.
Saigon es bastante grande pero el centro se puede recorrer andando. Hay bastantes iglesias, debe ser por ser una excolonia francesa. También tienen bocadillos de pâté y fiambre que están riquísimos, especialmente después de casi 7 meses sin probar el pan.
Estuvimos en el museo de la guerra que es bastante fuerte. Lo enfocan hacia como los americanos abusaron de poder y torturaron y mataron tantos inocentes. Probando el gas naranja y otras drogas químicas que destrozaron no solo los soldados sino también los civiles inocentes y generaciones posteriores.
Vietnam es bastante desarrollado para lo que es el resto de Indochina.
No hemos viajado muy lejos porque como decía estamos cansados. Fuimos a Mui Ne. Una playa al norte que se ha vuelto súper turística. El pueblo es súper chulo, de pescadores muy rural y autentico. El resto es como Benidorm, luces, todo en ingles y en ruso, que por cierto hay mogollón de rusos viajando. Los distinguimos fácilmente porque son los que llevan bandanas amarillas con camisetas rosas y zapatillas verde fosforito. Su moda es como hace 10 años.
Visitamos los alrededores alquilando una motillo. Cañones de arena y arcilla, dunas de distintos colores por la mezcla de arenas. Nada del otro mundo la verdad.
De ahí fuimos a Dalat, en la montaña. Es el único sitio en el que hemos necesitado manga larga. Bastante fresco en la noche. Es un sitio turístico vietnamita y esta todo impecable. Los parques, lagos y fuentes. Todo tipo de casetas con comida local. A la noche venden leche de soja dulce de sabores, chocolate, vainilla o leche con magdalenas, bizcochos y otros dulces que están de muerte. Lo de los pasteles es también influencia francesa.
En Ho Chi Minh City me invitaron de extra en un anuncio. Ya van dos, el primero en India. En este salía al lado de una modelo rusa anunciando Lipton Tea. Como es Nestea.
Ahora estamos en el Sur. Delta de rio Mekong. Súper bonito, rural, llanuras verdes con arrozales y canales con barcos por todos lado. Mercadillos flotantes, fabricas de arroz, miel...etc. Una pasada, sin duda mi parte favorita en Vietnam. En un par de días volamos a Tailandia. Ultima parada antes de volver.

Filipinas. Negros y Cebu

Siento haber tardado tanto en escribir el blog. La verdad con los rollos de busqueda de trabajo...etc no he estado muy relajado últimamente. Podría ser peor la verdad. Hemos pasado 3 semanas en Filipinas, el tiempo que dan de visado cuando uno llega. Como hay tantas islas era difícil decidir a donde ir. Gente nos dijo ir allí, otra gente, ir allá. Al final decidimos dividir las dos semanas entre las islas de Negros y Cebu. Una pareja alemana nos dio mogollón de información de donde ir, que ver y demás en ambas islas. Así que llegamos de la ultramoderna Hong Kong a la relajada Filipinas. Del aeropuerto de Negros, que no es mas grande que el de Albacete, fuimos a pillar el bus en un triciclo. Es el taxi local, le ponen un sidecar rudimentario todo tuneao a una especie de vespino o moto rusa/china tipo rieju y ya tienes un taxi. La gente se monta a mitad de camino y cuando te das cuenta tienes la mitad del pueblo en esta especie de híbrido. Por supuesto cuando digo gente, incluyo bolsas de compra, maletas, pollos y hasta gorrinos atados donde se pueda. Empezamos en Sipalay playa. Muy bonita. Aquí el mar es super azul claro con rocas, pequeños montículos todo verdes sobresaliendo del agua que hacen el paisaje incluso more escénico. En Sipalay conocimos un pescador con su familia y le convencimos para que nos añadieran a las cenas familiares, por supuesto pagandoles, aceptaron alegremente y aprendimos mogollón de ellos, que majos que eran. La mayoría de los hoteles turísticos clavan por la comida el triple de lo que cuesta en un restaurante local y no esta tan bueno. Un día en el pueblo le pregunte a un tricitaxista si había gente que alquilase habitaciones de su casa y sin mas el ofreció su casa. Fue una experiencia muy guapa. Nos dieron una habitación con un ventilador para ahuyentar los mosquitos, porque no tenían mosquitera, y pasamos las noches bebiendo ron y comiendo pescado a la parrilla que es la tapa que acompaña la bebida, al menos en su casa...mmmmm, estaba riquísimo, y no me refiero a ron solo!! ;-) Fuimos aun par de sitios mas que no necesitan que me extienda mucho. Lo único relevante que ocurrió fue la desgraciada noticia del Tsunami de Japon con avisos de evacuación de sitios costeros en Filipinas. Estábamos Hannah y yo comiendonos un pollo asado, que son muy comunes aquí, cuando nos llamó la madre de Hannah bastante exaltada contandonos lo que había pasado. Nos acojono con razón. Nos dejamos medio pollo y casi me atraganto con los huesecillos. Creo que conforme nos decía las noticias yo masticaba sin pensar que estaba comiendo. Al final no paso nada. Nos aseguramos que no estábamos en peligro antes de volver a nuestra cabaña a 3 metros de la orilla de la playa. Esa noche nos bebimos 2 litros de San Miguel filipina sentados en la playa pensando que afortunados éramos imaginando lo mal que podriamos estar y lamentando la desgracia de Japon. Para terminar fuimos a la isla de Cebu, el clima estaba revuelto después del terremoto y tsunami de Japon. Estuvimos snorkelling y turisteando, que a pesar de la intermitente lluvia estuvo genial. Filipinas es muy famosa por el buceo. Para poner el broche de oro, terminamos en la islita de Malapascua. Una pasada, el color de la arena, del agua...te hipnotiza. Blanco y azul intenso. Hicimos mas snorkelling y pasamos unos días geniales conociendo gente local. En Filipinas las peleas de gallos son el equivalente al fútbol. To dios va y apuesta o tiene gallos que cría para ese propósito. Hemos estado en varias. La ultima fue con el dueño del ultimo hostal donde nos quedamos que gano y nos invito a cenar el pollo perdedor que lo trae el perdedor para comerlo todos juntos como es costumbre. Claro, bañado con bastante ron como también es costumbre. ;-) Otra cosa que se me olvidaba es que la lengua local es muy parecida al español. Al ser una excolonia descubierta por Magallanes la comida, la lengua, la religión, todo esta influenciado por los españoles. Ósea que cuando te dicen el precio despues de comerte un puchero, arroz caldoso o un cerdo en adobo suena algo así como, siento sinquenta y sinco peisos. Vamos para Vietnam. He oído que la comida vietnamita es alucinante!!!

The Philippines

Wow, here we are in The Philippines. I was freezing in Hong Kong (-well, it was about 15 degrees at night,) and even colder on the plane. It was a low-cost company, so no blankets I'm afraid madam.. I was wrapped in a big beach sarong and still cold, but when we stepped off the plane....hot hot hot! Mmmmmm!!!- I love that.. when the heat warms you to the bone instantly! Delicious!

It's not just the weather which is warm; the people are also very warm-hearted and friendly here.  It's like a curious mix between South America and South East Asia! In fact, as it used to be a Spanish colony, the Philipino language has alot of Spanish words and the food is also similar to Spanish dishes like Adobo and Puchero. When you ask anyone for directions, they tend you look at you as if they don't have a clue what you're talking about, and then suddenly launch into almost perfect English with a heavy American accent. (- It was also an American colony.)

The Philippines is an archepalaego (I love that word) of more than 7000 islands.  It's almost all Catholic apart from a Muslim minority and some indigenous tribes.

When we arrived, we took another flight to the capital of Negros Island, Dumaguete, then we found our way to the bus station, had some really good local food - Adobo and rice - like a Spanish stew with pork, garlic, onion and potato.  ...And all pleased with ourselves at finding great value delicious food and not another foreigner in site, we plonked down on the first local bus we saw to Sipalay. It wasn't until after 20 minutes or so that we asked the ticket collector how long the journey would take and he said 5 hours! It was literally stopping every 5 minutes to pick up and drop off- and then, about 3 hours in when we stopped, the conductor told us we would be having a 1.40 minute break! We decided to go and use the Internet as I had to send an application. When we got back, the bus was jam packed! People were even standing all squashed in. We went back to our seat and there was a woman with her 6 or 7 year old son on our seat and a man next to him, sitting on top of our stuff. Angel politely ejected him from our seat and we squashed on, but the man started falling asleep standing - curling around the pole and Angel took pity on him and stood up. Angel was actually happy about standing because he felt like a giant compared with all the Philipinos! It was Ok until the same man then started falling asleep on me!A bit longer into the trip, which was already 5 hours and nowhere near over, the kid next to me started puking.. Great! Then the kid behind me also started puking! Even better! And then.. I realized that there were live chickens under my seat (of course there were - how could there not be on this bus journey?) and it seemed like they'd just woken up and wanted to get off.

We finally arrived in Sipalay and took a tricycle (- which is what they call a motorbike with kind of a metal frame sidecar attached) to Sugar Beach. We've only got 3 weeks on the visa and apparently there's far too much to see in only 3 weeks, so we'll probably just visit 3 or 4 places this time.  A middle-aged German couple we met on Ko Chang (really sweet and funny when they were trying to remember places to tell us, they kept making high-pitched exclamations and then whispering excitedly to each other in English, like they were in a library and didn't want to disturb people! Ha ha.. )Anyway, they were the ones who recommended Sipalay in Negros to us, and Sulu Sunset Resort on Sugar Beach in particular.This place is run by one German bloke and about 12 Philipino girls... A bit dubious considering there is more prostitution here than in Thailand.. But the girls are very sweet and go everywhere smiling and singing (Everybody sings here constantly.) In the morning it's like being on the set of Annie, the musical, as they all do the cleaning, washing, brushing etc. while singing in American accents at the tops of their voices in that kind of nasal Annie-esque way.  They don't seem to be trapped in some dark underworld - even when warbling along to 'Please release me...'.

Angel was playing volleyball with them and another bloke today and some of them wanted him to go on the opposite team, so they could get a better look at him! They even all screamed groupie-stylee when he took his t.shirt off! Ha ha.. I think he was feeling all smug - and tall coz they have the net positioned really low as they're all about 5 ft. He was jumping up and smashing the ball down over the net like Gulliver playing with the Lilliputians!;)

One bad thing about the resorts here is that the food is really overpriced. It's about 4 times as much as the same thing in the town and not even as good. We've taken to persuading the local fisherman's wife at the end of the beach to cook for us. She makes really nice food and charges us local prices -and even teaches us a bit of Philipino thrown in.

Considering I've never been much of an animal person, I've done my fair share of saving the little creatures on this trip - with dog day in Sikkim and Apu in Kerala.. and now... We were having dinner at the house of the fisherman on the beach and as well as 5 dogs, they've also got a piglet sniffing around. The poor thing doesn't stop rubbing its back up against trees and rocks. I convinced Angel to give it something, so the next day we went back with some medicine to kill the mites, stop the itching and reduce the inflammation. We put it into a bit of rice and fed it to him. Ten minutes later it was asleep.. Oops, hope we didn't give him an overdose!  We didn't tell the woman what we'd done just in case!

After four nights of guiltily sneaking off to the other end of the beach for dinner and rum instead of spending money in our resort, we've decided to move to the town. I needed to use the internet anyway.- I spent literally three hours writing a cover letter the other day in town and just after I'd finally completed it, the computers all shut down. It wasn't until they started again that I realised that they have a desktop wiping programme and the finished letter was wiped. So p***ed off! So I'm going to go back today and tomorrow and try again.

We asked the tricycle riders if there were any homestays around, and one of them immediately said 'you can stay at my house!'. He's a young jolly guy called Noy and he lives with his very quiet (about 15 year old) wife and child and his schoolgirl sister in law.

We spent last night with our new family. They are really sweet. The wife is actually 24, and not 15 and waits on her husband hand and foot. So glad I'm not Philippino! All the women were really shocked this morning when Angel came outside with a big tub of our washing that he'd just finished handwashing and started hanging it on the line... They must think I've got him very well trained!

Noy took us to see his flighting cocks today. Negros is famous nation-wide for the cocks (or should I say roosters) they produce! He showed us a species of cockerill which looks like a hen. Apparently they win alot of fights because they confuse the more masculine-looking cocks into thinking they're going to mate instead of fight! Noy has a gay friend who has a pink house and a pink car and owns alot of these kind of fighters. They are all really into their cock fighting and gambling here, but it seems to be a men only sport - the same goes for drinking alcohol. We sat around watching Spartacus and drinking rum last night. The women just watched...

On the bus, we made a snap decision to go to Maya - the jumping off point for Malapascua Island. We arrived off the bus finally into a little town with one place to stay 'Abba Lodge' ...what can I say except it wasn't superdupa, no dancing queens etc etc. In fact, the guy wanted 500 pisos for a dingy twin room with no bathroom. We didn't even bother trying to negotiate, but his granddaughter persuaded him to accept us for 400. It was still far too much for the type of room so we went looking around with our rucksacks in the dark. It was at this point that we realised that literally everyone around the town was drunk - even the police on duty with their lethal weapons hanging off their waist bands. One old (drunk) guy told us we could sleep in a hall for free but that there were no beds. We went to have a look anyway, and though there were some sturdy-looking tables, without any kind if matress, we didn't think we didn't think we'd sleep much and anyway, he quickly changed his mind for some reason - we must look like unsavoury characters, though he was the one who stank like a brewery. We went round the village and came across a big party of people in the street drinking beer by the crate. They offered us some Balut which is boiled egg with a twist - the twist being that the chick is almost fully formed inside! They make a little hole in the top if the egg, suck the 'juices' out and then peel the egg and crunch the rest. Noi, who we stayed with in Sipalay said his little daughter loves them. Funny how in some cultures, kids think baby animals are cute and in others they eat them as snacks! We had to crawl back to the Abba Lodge in the end and take his room. After that we thought that if you can't beat them, join them, and bought a litre of beer. We arrived on Malapascua the next morning after a really rough boat ride. Since the tsunami in Japan, the weather's been pretty bad here. It rains every day and the sea's been alot rougher than usual and it's not even rainy season. In fairness though we've been really lucky with the weather on the trip as a whole - so we can't complain.We found a nice room in the village on the middle of the island but still only a couple of minutes wall from the beach. The owner, Rex (like almost everybody in the Philipinnes) breeds fighting cocks.We were invited to the weekly cock fighting extravaganza. We stayed to see Rex's birds win and then escaped. Later on, Rex invited us to dinner with a his nephew, a friend, and, as is traditional, the owner of the cock that lost, which we would be eating for dinner. The weather had been terrible since the tsunami hit Japan. It had uncharctacteristically been raining every day all around Asia. When it finally cleared up, Malapascua was like a completely different place. The sea was suddenly turquoise and clear and the beaches were bright and white. We were so glad to see the difference and it really made us want to come back here and bring friends and family who cone to visit us in Asia later. It's only a very quick cheap flight away from HK.

Hong Kong

We arrived in HK and were blown away by the high 'tech-ness' of the place. We'd both been here before but for me it was 9 or 10 years ago and the sheer height of the buildings and the number of skyscrapers never fails to surprise you.

There are moving screens everywhere - like Picadilly Circus X 100. The shopping areas are comparable to any city centre in the west but there are probably more than in any city I've ever been to. Every street seems to have a mall - if not 5 or 6!

I think they say that any street in Hong Kong at 3am on a normal day is as busy as London Oxford St on Christmas Eve..  well I wouldn't say any street but it certainly is busy at night and the shops open late every night. Life gets going after 6pm - like New York in Asia - and nothing like back home! Our neighbours in our little 18th Century street in Melbourne, Derbyshire - where we spent a year in a cottage told us that it couldn't be more different moving to HK and I think they were right.

We'd booked a cheap and cheerful guesthouse in Kowloon - one of the main parts of one of the islands. It was certainly cheerful and clean, but my god, you couldn't swing a cat anywhere. I was expecting it to be small but you almost had to stand on the bed to get changed- and the shower was actually positioned over the toilet! Not my cup of tea - I get very claustrophobic- especially on the 15th floor with bars on the windows.

We're planning to move to HK, and these few days were for interviews and to start thinking about where we'd live etc. I really started to panic that we'd have to live in a shoe box..However, we went to have dinner with the mum of a good friend of ours, who's been there for years and her place was great! I wouldn't say it was palatial, but she could certainly swing a few cats and her guest room even had an en-suite! She lived out on one of the islands; a tropical paradise called Lamma Island. You arrive into a fishing harbour and the houses are all 1-3 storeys. There're really nice beaches and no roads at all. You walk everywhere along small paths or walkways. There were even pubs and seafood restaurants everywhere full of both Chinese and expats. I loved it and really wanted to live there, but another night we went out with a girl called Shevaun, (another vet who Angel met a few years ago doing charity in Thailand,) who changed our minds!

She's Irish and after taking us for an Indian and a few beers (despite the fact that we hadn't been able to even look at Indian food after 5 months in India!), we went to the shop and bought some more beers and went out to the harbour seafront. It was really windy that night, and I had been making do with a tshirt and a thin scarf all week even though it was still winter in HK and the locals were wearing winter coats and boots. I told myself I was a tough Brit  - but it was more to do with the fact that I'd left my goose down jacket and my hoodie in storage in Bangkok with a load of other stuff that I (wrongly) thought I wouldn't need for the rest of the trip! While getting very merry, shevaun told us all about life in HK and her amazing social life. She convinced us that if we lived out on Lamma, we'd have to get the last boat back at 11.30 every night, when our night out would just be getting started.  She lives in New Territories, which is the vast jungly countryside area in the North. It's still on the metro line and it's only 20 mins in a taxi from HK Island for her. It's cheap, much bigger accommodation and quiet and peaceful, but you can still be in the centre of the city in 20 mins.

One thing that I wasn't entirely convinced about was the food.  I've never been such a fan of Chinese food but the menus with things like pig's blood jelly, tongue, chicken's feet or trotter soup may have lost something in the translation. Everything seemed to have offal and even if it didn't, it comes in a gloopy gravy without any of the layers of fresh flavours that Thai food has. I do love dim sum (Chinese dumplings) though, which is usually a breakfast or lunch dish served with jasmine tea.. Mmmmmmm! I suppose we'll be able to cook alot and we'll find out where the best places to eat are after a while.

Angel ended up having 5 interviews in 4 days and I was able find the main shopping areas(!) and to explore a bit.  We still don't know where we'll live or where we'll be working, but we have quite a few options. Angel has been offered 4 out of the 5 jobs so far (jammy git), so now he's trying to decide between them. It looks like he'll be starting in June, which won't give us long back home before we have to come back again. We're thinking about finishing the trip a bit earlier, so we can both go to Spain for a while as well as back home for Martha and Nat's wedding and to meet up with friends.

We're looking forward to getting a base in HK but being able to travel round Asia at weekends and during time off - who knows..maybe snowboarding in Korea, city-breaks to Tokyo, visiting mainland China and even direct flights to Samui and then a quick ferry to Ko Pa Ngan for full moon! The best thing is that the budget airlines have flights for £30-50! I've also never been to Australia or New Zealand, so definitely want to spend some longer hols there too.. and I'm sure my nieces'll be pleased to learn that there's even a Disneyland in Hong Kong! Supposedly the money is also really good here. The best thing is that even teaching English I could earn more than Angel! Woohoooo! Well, we'll see... now I have to concentrate on applying for jobs before I start counting my chickens!! Next stop The Philippines....