Day 2!

7th June 2009 - 9:12am

Well I'm currently sitting in Honk Kong airport awaiting my next plane
in just over an hours time. Mum dropped me off okay at Heathrow and we
checked my bag in without any difficulty and grabbed some breakfast.

I then said goodbye to mum at the security gate and made my way
through. Having made my way through to departures there were some
things I needed to get such as an adaptor and some snacks for the
plane. Hvaing got to the front of the queue the terminal fire alarm
then went off and the whole place was evacuated. No one really knew
where to go we were just following the crowd. We were eventually let
back in and I got my stuff okay so all was good.

I got to the gate with plent of time and boarded fine. I was in the
central aisle set of seats. Within about 5 minutes I had a lady and
her partner sitting next to me on the right. This would have been fine
bar the minor detail that this lady smelt like she hadn't had a shower
in weeks. A man named Clint sat on my left, from Ireland and we
chatted for a lot of the flight.

As you first get on the plane I was first struck by the fact a lot of
the cabin crew were wearing face masks - slightly surreal! The plane
itself was very nice and had a lot of legroom which is always great.

As the plane was meant to leave at 12:35 (we left about 30 minutes
late) we had lunch and then the plane was immediately treated as a
night flight. Which at 2pm when all the window shutters are closed and
the lights all turned off is a little weird. We then flew through the
night due to the direction of travel. So I landed at 7am here without
really sleeping - my body clock is very confused and I think it has
every reason to be.

The flight was okay though and I am glad I was sitting next to Clint
who made it amusing. I'm also very relieved the smelly lady moved half
way through to swap with her son who was on the row behind us.

For breakfast there was the option of an English breakfast or pork
congee, not having a clue what that was and the fact I'm here to
explore I went for that, this triggered the cabin crew to ask "are you
sure you want that?" - always worrying! It turns out it is very cooked
rice, to the point it's fallen apart with a little bit of pork ontop
and spring onions. Whilst not at all unpleasant I can't say it was
very breakfasty.

After 12 hours on a plane it was very nice to disembark. Clint and his
partner then took me out for coffee which was really nice of them. As
you get off the plane almost everyone is wearing face masks in all
shapes, colours and sizes, I must admit at the moment it is a little
disconcerting! They also ask people to remove their hats as they have
special cameras that detect body heat through the head, the theory
being that if someone has flu your body temperature will be higher and
you can be detected.

As we landed in Honk Kong the weater is 27C at 7am!! I'm currently
waiting at the gate looking out over a tiny plane and as it stands I
am the only white person and only one not to be wearing a mask...

7th June 2009 - 2:49pm

The words "I am out of my depth" seem very fitting. It's been an
interesting few hours. I was indeed the only white person on the plane
which made me laugh when they had to translate everything just for me.
The plane was quite quiet, I got the row to myself so enjoyed the
window seat.

On touch down we all had to remain seated as some of the military came
on board and put a scanner type gun to all of our foreheads to see if
our temperature was raised. Once the plane got the all clear we were
allowed to leave.

On entering the airport you have to queue up to sign a form saying
that you have no symptoms of avian or swine flu. Then onto passport
control and finally baggage - however due to all the other hold ups my
bag was there waiting for me.

Having got through someone was meant to meet me, however there was no
sign of anyone. I had gone to the bureau de change to try and get some
money for the pay phone - my mobile doesn't appear to be working. In
the end I was told I needed a new sim card, then a lady appeared
holding a sign saying "Alexander" - problem solved! She said that the
company hadn't let her know my flight details so she bundled me into a
taxi and off I was heading.

It certainly is a whole new world. The taxi had no seatbelts and we
were very close to hitting people, the drivers here seem to live on
their horns. The buildings are all there to serve a purpose and that
is it. There appears to be no architecture at all. But I suppose if
there are so many people to house then aesthetics come last on the list.

I was met at the hotel by another lady who checked me in, said we're
meeting for dinner at 7pm and that she had to run as one of the girls
spent last night in hospital with a raised temperature.

I found my room okay and the first thing you see as you enter the
room... the shower! It's in the middle of the room. It's quite a cool
glass cylinder. It took me a while to work out why I had no
electricity in my room and that's because you have to put your room
card in a small slot in the wall.

I'm not sure what to do for 4 hours now. Might try and get some sleep
- certainly not going to brave town on my own.

7th June 2009 - 9:05pm

Well we've just got in from an amazing dinner and met the rest of the
group. They seem like a great bunch, so should be a great 3 weeks. The
meal was at a restaurant around the corner. Start off with green tea,
followed by crispy duck, however unlike in the UK they mainly eat the
fat.

After that was loads of other dishes, beef, rice, aubergine, tofu,
fish, cucumber, corn, the list goes on. The amount of food they bring
out is extraordinary. Plan for tomorrow is up at 8:30am so back home
that is half one. Go have breakfast and then a tour of Chengdu at
9:30am.

Also my phone now appears to be working. The girl who was in hospital
is back with the group and is all fine.

8th June 2009 - 9:13pm

Sorry this blog is massive! I'll try and keep today's events shorts
although so much has happened. Also I can't directly get access to the
blog as it is blocked here, can someone please email me and let me
know it gets on okay? (alexpool00@hotmail.com).

Breakfast was interesting, rice and noodles with warm orange squash.
After that we piled into a minibus type thing and braved the roads
again - even scarier than yesterday. First stop was an alley way which
was nice, bit different to all the sky scrapers around it was more old
fashioned style chinese. From there we walked to the town centre and
had a little look at the town square with the chinese music blaring
out. Something that takes a bit of getting used to is being stared out
and getting used to people walking up to you and asking to have their
photos taken with you.

We then went onto a tao temple which was really pretty. We had lunch
there in a vegetarian restaurant and surprisingly I was more than
fine, although one person refused to eat anything at all even rice. We
had a tour around the temple before then going onto another park full
of bamboo.

Here we found some people giving chinese massages and ear digging. I
was encouraged to give this a go by one of the other guys so did. It
basically involved them using a tiny tiny spoon on a wooden stick and
scooping out the wax. They then clean the hole with cotton wool and
then bang a tuning fork in your ear - very odd. After that was a
chinese massage - painful! Everything in China is so cheap - the
massage and the ear thing together came to 3 pounds 50 - they don't
have pound signs on their keyboards funnily enough.

We then came back to the hotel and straight out to dinner at the same
place as last night, again amazing food! But rice for breakfast, lunch
and dinner is a bit much!! Off now to have a shower and get myself
destickified! Then off tomorrow to see the pandas!!

Hope you're all well and please can you let me know this makes its way
to the blog. Thank you.