Cosmic Collisions

Hello everyone!

Sorry I have been SO slack on the blog front! We have had a busy couple of weeks moving about from place to place and no time to catch up on the blog front!!

I will start where I left off and quickly explain about our relaxing trip to Pokhara. We had a long seven hour bus journey from Kathmandu to reach the sleepy town so when we arrived we were all desperate for food, a beer and a shower! We checked into our hotel and had a little explore noticing straight away how quiet it was compared to the busy city we had been used to! We got our bearings and found a place to eat and enjoy some mojito's! The rest of the week was pretty similar, we all took a chance to relax eat some good food and recover from the trek! We rented bikes one day and Daniel taught Chris and I how to ride a scooter! ( I looked SO good in my helmet haha) The hotel across from us had a great outdoor swimming pool so we took full advantage when the sun was shining! As you may have guessed we all really enjoyed our time in Pokhara and thought it was a great place to recover from walking up a mountain!

Arriving back in Kathmandu we spent our last day in Nepal eating at our favorite haunts where Steph and I had our first STEAK! (It was SOOOOO good!) We packed and prepared ourselves for flying the next day and had an early night. Chris and I had to be up early to get to the airport to check into our flight at 10.40. We arrived at the airport at 8.00 said our goodbyes to Binay (who had kindly come with us in the taxi!) and made our way into the terminal. Once we got inside we were pretty confused- there was NO sign of our flight- anywhere... After walking around asking about 5 people who all told us just to wait we got a bit stressed out (as by this time it was 9.30 and we hadn't checked in and our flight was leaving in just over an hour). Chris found a really helpful guy who told us that apparently our airline didn't fly in the morning and they had sent us a wrong conformation time, our flight was in fact the same flight as Dan and Steph's which was leaving at 4.00pm. Hungry, angry and sleepy we waited at the airport for D & S and gave them a small shock when they saw us still in the airport (slight payback for the shock they gave us!). Kathmandu airport is very small so to fly to Hong Kong we had to stop via Delhi. Once in Delhi Chris and I had to separate from D & S and find our flight to Hong Kong and once again there was no sign of our flight...very tired and grumpy from the previous problems I was about to throw my toys out of the pram until Chris found that our flight had just been delayed by two hours! Fortunately the plane was really comfy and we had loads of room - unfortunately due to lack of sleep, no food and all the emotions I didn't feel very well at all when we arrived in HK. Chris and I left the plane and in the next few minutes I had a lady tapping me on the shoulder, putting a thermometer in my ear and putting a surgical mask over my face! Chris and I were whisked off to a medical corner where they asked me loads of questions about my health - I actually thought they wouldn't let me in the country! After explaining I was probably just VERY VERY worn out due to flying for over 24 hours they let me go! A starbucks iced lemon tea and the amazingly clean and air conditioned airport made me feel instantly better and we got a taxi to Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.

Hong Kong in general is amazing. It was refreshing to go somewhere that's clean, air conditioned and modern, however because of these things it is also very expensive! Our accommodation was pretty gross and we resented paying 20pounds a night for a room we all shared. (This was the cheapest and nicest place amazingly) It was a good way of keeping us out of the room though and we spent five days exploring the cool city. I ate some amazing dim sum, bucket loads of ice tea and we found this crazy vegetarian restaurant where they serve fake FISH! We checked out all the big museums (watched a great imax show called 'Cosmic Collisions!'), caught a ferry across the harbor and watched the light show. We must have walked for miles just taking in the sites and smells of the streets. I would 100% recommend anyone to go to Hong Kong but if you can take lots of money with you so you can do it in style!

That brings us to Vietnam! We love it here already and we have only been here for a few days. The accommodation is great and the beer is only 15p in some places! We made friends with a lovely Australian couple called Mike and Ellie who have shown us some of the best places to eat and drink. Tomorrow we are off on our Hal Long Bay tour which we are all SO excited about! Will update after then...I promise!! E xxxx