James & Heather Travelogues

After Nanjing, we caught a train back to Shanghai and then it was straight on to a plane to Singapore, where we had a couple of hours to kill before we got our flight to Rome. We arrived at the hideously early time of 7am after having flown overnight - Heather had managed to sleep, but as we were flying Singapore Airlines there was just too many movies for me to watch so I didn't get that much kip.

On arrival, we dumped our bags at the hotel we were staying in as our rooms weren't ready, and headed in to town. First stop was the Colluseum, as seen in the hammy movie Gladiator, and the nearby Forum. As a kid, I had read a lot about Roman history and it was a great experience to walk around the things that I had read about. While admiring the Colluseum, we also got to see the Aquaduct that used to transport water in to ancient Rome for the locals.

The following day, we went on a self-guided walking tour of Rome, looking at countless piazzas and Catholic churches. One such piazza housed the Fontana de Trebi (or something like that), where if you threw a coin over your shoulder into it, you would come back to Rome. Well, we had a couple of Yuan left from China, so they went over our shoulders. We will be coming back to Rome, except next time it will not be backpacking!

The last full day we had in Rome, we went to the Vatican. Neither Heather or I are particularly religious, but we considered it was something that needed to be visited. It was a vast sprawling complex, with a number of chapels inside it - we were fortunate to see a service being conducted in one, although not by the Pope (he didn't have lightning bolts coming from his fingers). One thing we noticed was that the statues of the earlier Popes had them in either very regal poses, or even more inappropriately, Christ-like poses. For instance, one statue had a Pope was carrying a large wooden cross. A bit of a God-complex going on there, I think. While in the Vatican, we also went to the Sistine Chapel where photography is prohibited. I saw someone else taking a photo, so decided that it wasn't enforced so pulled my camera out. Immediately, an official put his hand over my lens and told me to put it away. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, I turned it off. When he wasn't looking, I discretely took a picture of the Birth of Man (which actually isn't as big as I was lead to believe). I wasn't going to be beaten easily

We arrived on Hong Kong island at the new airport in a thick layer of fog; however we never really planned to do any sunbathing in HK so it wasn't a drama.

Rather than catch the MRT (the new train line built to service the airport), we caught a bus as it is significantly cheaper and headed towards Causeway Bay where our hostel was located. So far everything was running smooth...

On arrival, we spent 45 minutes wandering up and down a street looking for the entrance. It was only after we realised that it was on a specific floor of a building that we found it. Basically, in Hong Kong backpacker hostels tend to take up around about floor of a building, splitting it into rooms, etc. Certianly different to what we were used to. Anyway, we checked in with no problems eventually.

The next day, I was on a mission to acquire a new camera to replace the one that had died on the Mekong Delta. Dragging Heather along to about a dozen different shops, which took most of the day, we eventually settled for Fuji digital SLR. No more lens envy for me! Having sunk about $600, we decided that it was time to sink a few beers and try some authentic Cantonese cuisine.

The next day, we took the tram up the side of Hong Kong to the top to take in the spectacular views from the top. Unfortunately, the aforesaid mist greatly reduced the chances of seeing anything but it still was worthy of a few pictures with the new camera. We planned on staying until twilight but in the end became bored as we had a 2 hour wait and nothing to occupy us. So it was back down the tram, where we stopped at a noodle bar for a really cheap bowl of noodles (quite an appropriate place to get them really).

Not too bad first few days really...

Unbeknownst to a large number of people, Hong Kong actually consists of a number of islands of varying sizes, most of which are connected with bridges spanning the harbour. One of these is Lantau island, which contains a 3km beach and is actually the island that the new airport is based on (in reality, the local authorities built an artificial island attached to Lantau). It also contains (I believe) the largest bronze buddha in South East Asia.

On the day that we decided to go to Lantau (via ferry) the fog had become worse. When we hiked up the side of the hill, all we could see of the buddha was a ghostly white smear. Any photos we took came out looking as if it was a picture of a polar bear sneaking up on an albino penguin in the middle of the Antartic.

As such, Lantau was a bit of a bust...

After Hong Kong, we flew directly to Shanghai arriving there on 2 May.

Unfortunately, when planning our holiday we didn't bother to research public holidays and it turns out that May Day is a public holiday in China that that lasts all week. As such, Shanghai was teeming with local tourists that had travelled in to the big city for what is known as Golden week. The population had swelled (according to the only English language TV channel in China - CCTV9) by an additional 7million people, and all of them seemed intent on getting in my way...

Our activities in Shanghai were therefore quite limited to catching up with a friend of Heather's from University and only checking out a couple of tourist destinations. One was a temple that was built in the Qing (pronounced Ching) dynasty and is just about the only surviving one in Shanghai as everything else has been pulled down to make way for skyscrapers and checking out a bank along the Bund.

Now, it may seem bizarre to have a bank as tourist destination but it is actually a bank from Colonial times and is therefore oppulently decorated. The rules stated that no photos could be taken, and I was going to be a rebel and take one anyway. One look at the security gaurds with their assorted armoury and with faces that made them look sadistic put any ideas like that out of my head pretty damn quick I can tell you.

We only stopped in Shanghai for a couple of days, so really there is nothing much else to tell (also my memory has faded).

After spending a couple of days in Hue, we caught a bus that took us to Hoi An, which is UNESCO listed. To describe Hoi An, I would say it is most like Pingyao (read my first blog posting for details about that , except rather than being Chinese it is obviously Vietnamese (as we are in Vietnam at the moment).

We arrived at a slightly more expensive than normal hotel ($12 a night instead of $9) and checked ourselves in. This extra $3 allowed us access to a nice swimming pool - something that Heather was keen to take advantage of. The rest of the hotel was nice and comfortable as well, which is never a bad thing.

After checking in, we wandered in to town and bought a ticket that allowed us entry in to up to 5 museums/old houses/temples. We started with a craft museum, where locals made and sold souvenirs (Heather was getting the shopping urge). However, as part of this, a troupe of local musicians performed traditional Hoi An songs for us. It was nice, and markedly different to the Northern Chinese traditional singing that we had experienced in China.

Following this we visited a couple of museums and an old, which is still used as a residency. The guide in the house explained that during the flood season (July to December I think), the waters rise so high that the entire ground floor has to be cleared out and everything moved in to the top floor. I can't imagine what that does for the insurance premiums.

We also visited a Japanese bridge that connects two parts of the town together. It was built in the 16th Century or so and has the distinguishing feature of a small Buddhist temple on the side of it. Following an explore of the town, we stopped off at a restaurant alongside the river and watched the sun go down before heading back to our hotel.

In the morning, we didn't have too long to wait for our bus back to Hue, so we went and lazed by the pool. It was only when we had about 15 minutes before the bus was due to arrive was I able to convince Heather that it was time to get ready.

After the bus ride, and another night in Hue, we caught a flight to the Vietnam capital of Hanoi.