Starring in a flashmob

And so it was that we reached our final destination of our time on the tour in China and indeed our last destination before heading off to South East Asia. The night was a fairly typical sleeper train journey with everyone a little too tired to be staying up too late. Joy, our tour leader, had however prepared a little surprise for everyone; a small card with a lovely personal message in each one. She really has been an amazing guide and we owe so much to her.

The arrival in Hong-Kong was a little strange; first we had to go through the usual tight Chinese security but you had to go through it to leave the country?! After this we then had the Hong-Kong immigration to get through but on the British passports this was a breeze and soon we were South of the divide. We could see the difference straight away. Everything seemed just a little cleaner and as a massive bonus nobody was spitting on the floor! It wasn’t until we noticed a sign warning all those coming over the Chinese border that this offence carried a $5000 penalty that we realised this was probably why.

The city itself generally felt a lot nicer and it was nice to see some familiar sights as well. As everyone said it was just the right balance of Chinese and British. It was a lovely setting for our final farewell to the rest of the group and we had a sad last meal together before going off to see the light show and the Avenue of Stars. The light show was a bit disappointing in all honesty, not enough light really. Still the Avenue of Stars was fun. It’s a bit like the stars on Hollywood Boulevard except it’s all the Chinese film stars. Alex ran off like an excited little child and found Jackie Chan and Jet Li before trying to pick a fight with a statue of Bruce Lee. Not long after that we were once again impressing the locals with our Gangnam style dancing except this time we did it as a flashmob adding the element of surprise to the mix.

Sadly it was to be the last time that we would perform and after a sad goodbye in one of the hotel rooms we departed from our group for what we thought would be the last time. During the day we did all sorts ranging from applying and getting our Vietnamese visas, being molested, visiting the Hong-Kong History Museum, being molested, moving hotels, being molested and oh yeah did I mention being molested. Alex went to get the visas and whilst he was gone Rach decided to run out and post some cards. It was as she was waiting at some traffic lights that she could feel the stare of the slime ball next to her. She looked over and if you can imagine a Gollum like creature with scabs covering his arms you have him in one. He leered at her and being a sensible girl she faced away and waited for the green man. It was then that she felt something touching her leg. She jumped back and realised that he had his clammy claw out and was pawing at her leg. She started out across the road and he started following her so she ran off successfully losing him in the crowd.

As you can imagine it was a pretty stressful day so we were looking forward to a nice evening out with a couple of our group. Turned out that there were more people than we thought were going to be there and we went out again with almost the entire group there. It was really nice and we had some Vietnamese food (ironically) and then went down the night markets before sipping on some cold beers.

Rex’s Rules of the Road

• The members of any group can make or break a trip. We’ve met plenty of people who have had crap tours because of a crap group.

• Be careful who you stand next to at traffic crossings. You never know who might be going to touch you next...

• Sadly we didn’t include much about the museum, check out Rach’s review for more info. She's also done reviews on the Symphony of Lights and the Avenue of the Stars.