Last day in China/Hong Kong

So everywhere in china and hong kong when you are shopping you will come across somethiing stinky, and its usally a meat stall. this one was in hong kong, and the fish where still flapping on the tables. It took some serious convinsing to get Christina that close to the fish.

AT the stanely market in hong kong, actually behind the market, its nice and peaceful beach promenade. kinda like california, and really cold ocean water.

If your in hong kong and miss the china markets, head over to Shenzhen (like 30 minutes away by Metro). Also China has this really cool ice cream with a chocalate bar in the middle of it (kinda like a feast for you English people), you cant find it in hong kong but everywhere in China, and its well worth the hastle of crossing the border for, just make sure you have a re-entry visa for china.

SO I thought Malasia rain forest had big ants, the ants in Shenzhen are even bigger

I don't know why but Christina wanted to put this picture of some sushi we ate in here, each sushi piece cost about 30 cents if you ate after 9:30pm

Christina at the airport, and if you look closely you can seen a little building in the background that looks like a traditional chinese roof top

on hong kong island, we went to the stanely market, kinda dissapointing, but we found thses really cool rocks to sit on and rest.

so the swine flu is a big deal in china, and some mexican guy had it and was staying at this hotel, so they quaratined the hotel and locked the guest in.

the main road in kowloon called nathan road, tons of shopping is done here, and the stores will bargain a little.

if your tired of the hussle and bussle of hong kong there are some parks to chill at ontop of the shops.

at night some of the buildiongs do a light show in cordiation with a song, the show is called symphony of the lights

on kowloon they have a avenue of the stars similar to the one in hollywood, I found this statue of this asain dude, probably bruce lee, posing like me

This is at kowloon (hong kong) looking across the harbor at hong kong island

So Christina and I are sitting in the airport right now uploading the last images of our trip before we head home.

More from china

This is the Shanghai Market which is actually inside a subway station. You can definetly find some good bargains here, but make sure to bargain because the first price they give you is like 10 to 5 times what they are willing to sell at.

So this is the beggining of the main tourist street in Shanghai called Nanjing road. Its kinda like the same as the one in Beijing. We were here for the May First (Chinese labor day) Holiday, Very crowded, but fun.

So in Shanghai I found this bamboo scaffolding. it was really cool to see the bamboo.

I guess we really likeed the xian market because here is that picture again

In Beijing they have a place called the pearl market where there are tons of pearls. some are really expensive (which was only a hundread dollars, but expensive to me) and some were really cheap (like 50 cents). The pearl market also sells clothes, electronics, bags and some other stuff that im pretty sure you dont need to buy. This is deffinately a bargaining place, I think I was kicked out of at least 20 stalls for being to cheap. when some told me 800 yuan (chinese money) for an item I said 80. about 8 of 10 times I got that price too, although they weren't too happy about it. So the rule of thumb divide by ten. Although there were a couple of shops that didn't like the stress of barganing so they had signs posted outside "fixed price" or "one price" and they generally sold for a good price as well so no bargaing needed there.

SO I thought I would show my strength off by carrying one of the heavy cannons that used to be posted on the great wall.

picture of one of the more steeper parts. I was surprised to see some really old people up here, only moving a foot an hour, I was still impressed.

One of the castle looking thing on the great wall. Christina calls them post, I thought mini castles was more fitting.

So just about an hour away from beijing by bus is the great wall. this section is the badaling section, the most visited part of the great wall. it was pretty windy here and a little chilly. but after walking up the steep inclines of the wall you get pretty hot.

China, Xian, Beijing

Christina and I are enjoying some of the native food here. So Xian is the old capital of China, and the town center is enclosed by really big walls, that you can see in the background.

This is wanfuxing street in Beijing. this street is very touristy, with tons of shops along the sides. if you are looking for a bargain you wont find it here, it cost the same or more as in the states. the best thing on this street besides the world famous peking duck is the strawberries they sell on a kabab stick that are coated in caramel. Make sure to eat your fill when you get here because Christina was a little dissapointed when she couldn't find any more throughout China.

Terracota army close up.

The Terracota army, pit one. (also in xian)

This is in the Xian market place. Lots of Terracota warrior souveniers.

Finally in China

So we've been in china just over a week, and love it. its a little more pricey than the other places but well worth it. Alot of chinese people think im chinese or half chinese and start talking to me in chinese, but the people at the markets definetly know im not and charge me the foreign prices. From Vietnam we got into nanning (China) and then took a 30hour train ride to Beijing. Unfortunately all the sleepers were sold out so we had to sit on a chair for 30 hours, very uncomfortable. I thought we had it bad but the people who had the standing tickets had it the worse, not only did they have to stand 30hours but it was really really really crowded. it took me 20 minutest to walk 20 feet on the train. some women were just climbing ontop of other people to get from A to B. Now I believe there are a billion people in China.

more photos from Vietnam b

At Mui Ne there are these large hills made of sand, you can rent these plastic sheets to slide down the hills with, although it goes pretty slow. the sand gets all over the place, and you can barely keep your eyes open, but tons of fun.

More sound at Mui Ne, I thought I looked cool in this photo so i put it in.

Kayaking at Ha Long Bay

More Kayaking at Ha Long Bay

This is a photo from the top of the cave at Ha Long Bay

More photos from Vietnam

Here is Ha Long bay, the water is pretty contaminated, I saw oil on the surface everywhere I went and garbage floating in the water, but minus that the views were quite pretty.

The docking station at Ha Long Bay, tons of boats, these boats are pretty large and could accomadate probably between 30 and 40 persons, but must only took 2-8 and then departed on there voyage. also tons of pearls here. Sales ladies are draped in pearl necklaces, some look nice, others could probably go back in the water.

This is a street in Hanoi, and if your not carefull you will get ran down by a moped. there are tons of mopeds here, mopeds carrying whole families, even mopeds carrying mopeds. The clothes are pretty cheap as long as you don't pay the asking price. The food is pretty good. I cant get enough of the pho. and the beer is cheap, like $0.20 a cup. and the people are pretty friendly, some places i went to eat the workers would pop open a bottle of wine and drink with me free of charge.

More Mopeds in hanoi

This is a cave at Ha Long Bay, the rock makes a chicken formation, its hard to see at first, but after you see it, it becomes obvious.

Ha Long Bay floating village

More photos from Cambodia

Christinas first motorcycle (moped) lesson. she was pretty scared at first, but was pretty comfortable towards the end, untill she crashed into a curb. We rented a moped for $4 a day to cruise around sihanoukville (a beach area) .

We went to bamboo island, and there were tons of millipedes crawling all over the place. I was picking them up and throughing them around, Christina didn't want to get close. Im pretty sure millipedes are not poisions.

This is Bamboo island, the water is warmish, but not clear. the water starts off shallow and then drops dramitically.

At Siem Reap is where you would find Angkor Wat, which are humugus buhddist temples. it cost $20 to get into these unless your a local its free. so we just waited untill 5pm when the ticketing counter closed and went in. Here we found some elephants, which if you never seen before are prety scarry close up. Christina is cautiously approaching the elephant so i can take a photo of her.

Another photo of Angkor Wat, There are about 10 temples here, we only saw one, a midle seized one which we took a picture of. the temples are between 2km and 60km away from eachother and you would need a whole day to visit one, seeing that we kinda snuck in, we only had time to see one.