Thought you might like these Pics Dad...

Walking along the Water Front in Kowloom, Hong Kong and came across their film strip boulevard to rival LA....
 

Around Our School...

Just a couple of Pictures of our school and whats around it, from the train station to the Allotments. Also
the sunrise the otherday over our town.

Long day, hk to....shenzhen?

Had a little lie in before checking out of our crazy awesome hotel. We picked up a couple of cakes for breakfast and sat in Kowloon park with the taichi people for a relaxing morning with birdsong in the background.
We watched 4 middle aged asian women taking photographs before they saw us and demanded we get in their photos with them!

Avoiding the chaos we had a few hours to kill before visa collection but as we wandered around Kowloon we saw a lot of Police blocking a road. When we got closer we saw that someone had been hit by a lorry, pretty messy.

We had seen the main road and so decided to disappear into the back streets riddled with tailors, Indian restaurants and hundreds of hawkers trying to get you into aforementioned tailors or restaurants, if they can't sell you watches, girls or anything in between.

We decided on a lunchtime kebab and it was great, just like cafe noir in oxford! All the English signs and white tourists and many foreign locals and all the things designed to make Hong Kong feel like home for foreigners work and make it very safe and relaxing but a little boring and easy compared to china. I think I could imagine living for good here in fact, if I could find a job with the crazy expensive wage you would need!

We got the star ferry again over to hk island and walked to the visa office, meeting Todd in the queue.
Picked up my visawith no problem after smuggling in my food and made a conservative plan to be on the airport bus by 6 for a 9pm flight from shenzhen.

We all fancied heading to see if we could see the sea and so took a tram for 2hkd to the end of the line for a small view to the sea and across the bay.
Took the bus back to central station for 5 to find the bus station with time to spare.
We looked round and round asking many people where this bus stop was before eventually finding out that the stop here was drop off only! A helpful metro girl pointed us towards wan chai metro further down the line. We got there and eventually found the counter for the bus at half 6 only to be told we couldn't possibly get the bus in time and we would have to taxi it.
Jumping in a taxi we fought through the rush hour traffic to get to shenzhen port, we then had to queue to leave Hong Kong then queue to enter china and the guy on checking spent ages checking every last detail of our passport and visa!
We ran out and found a huge queue for a taxi!
Made it through that queue and found another taxi who drove at breakneck speed to the airport undertaking on corners and forcing buses off the road. We jumped out and ran through the terminal towards check in.

Made it to the gate 15 minutes before the flight, too late!  We tried to blag our way on but no luck.
Calling the agency they basically dropped us in it, no help with hotels, flights or paying for it! All respect for Helenconsulting now lost, they messed up the directions, gave us no notice, changed plans half way through, and then when we get stuck in customs abandon us. If the school hadn't been so great to us I would jump ship to another school who asked zero recently, but I do like the school. Considering I haven't actually signed a contract yet I wonder.... if I could cut them out .... haha.

We asked at the gate and a flight tomorrow is 90pounds , ouch! And we still needed a hotel for tonight!

Lucklily Todd had been here before and knew a great hostel, and now my phone works again I could Google it and reserve 3 beds.
The time at this point was gone 10 and the metro and bus had stopped so we had to get a taxi for another 70rmb.

The hostel when we made it was awesome! So clean, and they gave us a private triple for the price of 3 hostel beds.

Finally got our head down, sort out the rest in the morning!

Hz to hk!!

Up early and so tired, Claire calls us a taxi to the bus stop nearby in wulin square and we wait around for the bus and the other teacher an American called Teressa.
I gave her a call to see a woman nearby answer, a 30ish black woman with a massive bag.
We introduce ourselves and help her to catch the bus, she is definitely not a seasoned traveller!
Checking OK but notice that the flight is actually to shenzhen in china (the home of electronics!!) And knot Hong Kong.
We land in shenzhen and buy a bus ticket to hk. It stops first at the port and we all have to get off and go through immigration getting lots of new stamps in the process. Back on the bus which has sneaked round while we went through an on to Hong Kong!
I even see a sign for lan kwai fong a famous market here but also the name of an awesome Chinese in oxford, will have to go there!! And send a picture to my old work!

We arrived in kawloon, the mainland part of hk and get a taxi down nathan road (awesome!) To ourhotel.

Hk is crazy in that everything is built upwards. 20stories down each side of the street and the ground is a few shops, then a resteraunt maybe, the 3rs floor may be a hairdressers and then another reateraunt above that and then hotels or flats above that, or both! Crazy!
We eventually find a small lift behind a load of small shops and take it to the 11th floor to find the tiny chun king hotel.
This is a tiny 7 bedroom hotel faking a Quater of a floor number 737 nathan road, it was booked by the agency but never designed for foreigners, no English and small but quaint on suite rooms,  and OK priced for a private room in hk.
Chris and I love it and manage eventually to check in. No room key you just ask the owner to lock and unlock the door for you and we pay in advance, which he seems to require! The rooms have Covington around the ceiling with a sky mural, and are just awesome and quirky!
Teressa on the other hand hates it. She wants a western hotel with wifi and room service and English. Chris and I then jump in a taxi with her to a place we thought was our hotel, chin king mansions down nathan road at number 40. We look at a room and is a small serviceable single with en suite and seems OK, but not a patch on ours!
She is still not happy and we retire to Starbucks for her to search online.
While she searches we notice we were stood under a holiday inn! We go and get a quote of 1600hkd for 2 night, 80a night, pretty pricey (especially when we have to pay all our fees and get reimbursed next month by our company! Chris and I are close to tthe wire, I am using my inheritance to float us both until I can pay itback in when we get the money back)
Also there is a Max for the visa trip the agency will pay of 200pounds so a pricey hotel is not a good idea!

Teressa won't pay that price and gets more moody and upset rather than sorting it out and choosing where to go, even if it is less than ideal, gotta sleep somewhere!!

Unfortunately neither of my phones work here so I can't call the aagency so in the end we give her a few options and leave her to it having done the best we can!

We called the agency and found out the forms had been delayed so Todd the other teacher had to get an even later flight so we can't do an visa things today and so we will be forced to stay another day in hk and push everythingg back! Awesome!

Chris and I walk around kawloon and see the hk sky line over the bay, the sea mist means you can't even see the tops of the towers on the other side of the river-width bay!
We walk all the way up nathan road and stop in at our hostel in early evening to rest our feet. Then a little lie down, then the last few nights catch up and I wake up to Chris and Todd at my door at 9pm.
Todd is an older guy, american, 50 years old and a traveller and really nice.
He gives us the forms we need and we chat and trade stories. We make a plan to meet near the visa place tomorrow as he fancies another cheaper hostel and he leaves. He still has teressas form as without a phone or internet we have no way to contact her! Hopefully we will catch up tomorrow in the visa place.

Chris and I walk out past the goldfish market, hundreds of fish in small bags for sale, goldfish, catfish, turtles etc etc! And find a small cheap local resteraunt for some great local food before stumbling back to the hotel and bed ready for an early start tomorrow!

Hk is much more western and also English friendly than china, it seems great but with so much English help and so many foreigners it really looses a lot of its charm. I licensing the only foreigners in lingxi ans this just feels like London on steroids, not a crazy amazing adventure! Still cool though!

Medical day!

Didn't get to sleep until 1 and then all too soon my alarm went off to wake me up at 5.30 to get showered and ready to meet the car at 6.40 taking us to wenzhou for the medical.

Standing outside in the cold we waited until 6.50 then called Jenny to ask why there was no car. She got straight on it and it turned up shortly after with an obviously just women up driver.
We drove the hour to wenzhou and the driver pulled into a big carpark and spoke to a security guard, wrong hospital, the driver carried on around for another few minutes before hopping out when the car was at lights to ask a traffic warden, then another random person, but eventually we found it!

We were rushed in and filled out a form, multiple choice mostly with English questions but Chinese answers, the driver filled out most of it but spoke no English so I have no idea what he chose!

Next we are taken to a window in the wall with a queue of people waiting to give blood, I wait my turn and get done but Chris is less than fond of needles, we leave it for now and year upstairs to a row of 7 small rooms with queues in the door and this for all the tests, I have an ecg, xray, eye test (when I cant read the alphabet), ultrasound, and few other checks all with people waiting and watching you, and near wide open windows, and none of the doctors spoke English so either they or the driver just poked and pushed until you did what was needed.
Went back downstairs and managed to get some blood from Chris and pay for 35pound fee. The problem is that we need to be in Hangzhou for that night yet the results don't come out until 4pm.
We are whisked off to buy a bus ticket for that evening to Hangzhou and manage to speak to a new woman at the agency called Claire who seems to be the best of the bunch and sorts us a hotel room and a pickup from the bus depot for that night.
We get dropped back at the medical centre and have 5 hours to kill so get some pizza in sensuous and sit in a posh comfy coffee shop people watching and reading with some Chinese tea for a couple of hours.

We walked back and got our results and decided to try to walk to the bus station, one interesting and fruitless hour later we give up and just get a taxi, we were still miles away it turns out!

The bus leaves at 6 and gets to Hangzhou for 10 and we are met and taken to our hotel near the company office.

In the hotel we are given our itinery for the next few days.
By this time it is half 11 and we haven't eaten, we also then see we have to catch a bus at 5am to the airport for a 7am flight to hongkong.
We are supposed to travel with 2 other teachers but the agency have messed up and not got a form we need for the visa! They pull one teacher off our flight onto a later one and arrange for him to catch up with us in hk.
The plan is to spend the day handing in the visa tomorrow, to sleep one night, to pick it up in the morning and come straight back to Hangzhou the next day.

We eventually sleep at 1am but set our alarm for 4... another long day!

Travelling again!

Was quite worried the last few days as teaching has been looming now for a while. 

Today was the first day of term and we were expecting our schedule yesterday, well nothing came yesterday, this morning we were up bright and early but still no contact, I texted Eamon and heard nothing.

Checked my email to see that late last night Joanna from our agency had emailed to say we should eat any breakfast as we need to get a medical first thing this morning before heading off to Hongkong later today! Called Joanna straight away and she was going to talk with the school and we would probably end up getting the medical tomorrow instead of today now, a small blessing I guess. 

Got a call at around 12 saying Chris and I needed to teach our classes this afternoon, I will be teaching Grade one, and Chris Grade two, 22 classes across two schools, around 1000 students each! one class each per week. crazy! 

The Chinese teachers, even the busiest seem to teach around 16 lessons a week!

I was pretty nervous about my lesson but went in and blagged through it, talked about myself and tried to get them to talk too, the talked using the correct tense, about themselves and others, seems I need to find what I can teach them! 

Got out of the lesson and found our schedule, and our desks in a large communal office! and then discovered that a car would be taking us to the medical leaving at 6.40 tomorrow, and then we have to hang around in wenzhou until the results, then get a bus to hangzhou, then a flight to hong kong! Also the driver to the medical doesn't speak english and the medical forms will be in chinese only, the doctor probably won't speak any english and then we need to get the results too.... madness!

 The agency also mumbled something about us paying for the flights but bugger that, it says in our contract they have to and so they are, I can't afford it really anyway so sod them! 

Shouldn't really blog anymore as I need to grab some sleep before the crazy early start, also the last few days had a bit of stomach pain, not sure if it is the change in diet or what but it is not a huge issue yet, not gonna mention it in the medical! will see what I can do!

Updates from HK if i can!

Tianjin 3

Tianjin 2

Tianjin

Travelling back!

Woke up and looked out the window to find snow in Tianjin! Typical! The day I need to travel away! 

They seemed much better prepared here than in Hangzhou and had gritters out on the roads, and people paid to cycle around with grit bags and grit the paths too, a tough job! 

Found a taxi to the airport and hung around for an hour and a half, went to checkin and was told that my booking didn't exist! Turns out Ctrip had buggered it up and booked it for a different day! I called them up and was told it was also non refundable and I should have checked my ticket more carefully earlier, (lesson learnt!)

Anyway I asked for the next available flight hoping I would get back in time for the new term, luckily there was a flight at 17.10 instead of the 13.10 I was expecting, at £78 instead of the £50 I had already paid!  Ouch! But it did get my home in time to make my connecting train tomorrow morning and so I went for it, just getting a train would have been tricky, and it is an all night mission, and not much cheaper I expect, and so I just went for it! 

Waited in the airport for 5 more hours and got my flight back to hangzhou! The flight was fine, confused a random chinese woman by being polite as we met a door and let her go through first, haha, they really don't expect that here.

Got the bus back and luckily got talking to the person next to me as a woman stood up and announced my stop, If I hadn't got talking I would have stayed on forever!

Walked into the hostel to be greeted with 'oh its you again' haha, got to love a hostel that remembers your face! Same one as before and checked in no problem.

Wandered around a bit and then caught up with emails, going for a coffee and breakfast tomorrow before the train with another friend from hangzhou then back to Cangnan in time for lunch! 

Last day in Tianjin

I realised I had taken no pictures on my camera and although my phone is ok i wanted to correct that, so today I went out and photographed downtown, the river, the fishermen, the soviet era bits (hopefully I've caught that on film), and the park with the random ice ski slope thing! 

Will try to upload the pics when I'm back. 

I'm not sure how to get the grainyness out of my photos? A lot of night photos, fireworks or night scenes, come out very grainy even if they are not blurry, even with low ISO settings and long exposures, any tips anyone??

Surreal sports day!

After getting back I decided to move hotel as I found one that seems much nicer, private room etc, for not much more, also in a much nicer district! And I have a window now!

Today I slept late and then decided to go back to the big park I saw yesterday for some sport! In this random park you can skate on the lake or even go skiing! A chance too good to pass up! After paying my 8 pounds they lend you some skiis and point you towards an improvised lift to the top of a fair slope, and with no assistance or instruction let you ski, slide, fall or roll to the bottom!
Luckily I managed ok and managed to stay upright and facing the right way all the way down. Very fun!
Then had my photo taken by a random Guy with his friend!

Did some more sightseeing and random mooching around. China feels very safe, even in random back streets I have had no hassle and never felt put upon more than the stares that follow you everywhere here.

In my wandering I found a few internet cafes, well more like interneet warehouses, multi floors of maybe 50 people per floor all with hig screens and high graphics! Madness! Way better than my PC back home, damn I felt jealous! Haha.

Going to take aa load of pictures tomorrow as I haven't fancied carrying my camera on my random walks and haven't brought a bag, got a camera phone pics though!