Day 129 – it was like something from a Jane Fonda workout

I awoke to light tap on my arm. I turned to see a figure in the darkened room. “Your wake up call.” I was in the shower and changed in five minutes. Next was the trick of packing my bags in a dark room filled with sleeping people. You didn't expect me to have them packed, did you? 6.30am on the nose I was hoisting my bags into reception, where my taxi driver stood waiting. I paid the remainder of my bill and headed to the car. Funny enough, I just presumed the taxi driver didn't speak English, as I sat through the journey in silence, watching the waking city go by. We arrived in the airport promptly. Checked in my ever heavier bag and was given my boarding pass. Knowing it was edging over 20kg at this stage I was glad as nothing was said. Went through to my gate walked around the modern terminal to see if I could find a new set of headphones. The majority of the shops are repeated throughout the departure lounges. You'll find some shops with clothes, suitcases and vacuum packed meats such as duck and flavoured beef and the sort. With over 40 minutes to spare till boarding I treated myself to a massage chair for 15 minutes for 15rmb. Wow, fanbloodytastic. As I lay there, this large leather armchair vibrated and stretched my muscles in all different directions. I made the customary groans and grunts of pleasure as I was pummelled by this wonder of modern technology. Feeling a lot more sprite and slightly light headed I headed down to my gate on the lower floor to await my flight. Thinking there might be a WiFi I opened the laptop after sitting down. No luck. I walked around the waiting area in a large circle looking for an available network. Found one. Just at the door of a cafe. I ordered an expensive coffee and biscuits. Sat down to find there was no internet activity on the network. Drank my very small and terrible coffee and ate on of the dry and boring rich tea biscuits. Bloody exploitative airports, they don't change no matter where in the world you are. By the time I took the last sip, my gate had opened and people where boarding. I collected my things and headed through.

Without any delay the plane took off swiftly. Not quite as luxurious as the planes I had being on previously. I resigned myself to accept the rather cramped seat and make the journey as comfortable as possible. A rather large nervous gentleman sat beside me. Making this evident with his constant tapping of his foot and squeezing of his hands. Once again the only Westerner onboard, the majority of the passengers appeared to look as if they were flying for the first time. You could be the way they kept looking around, playing with switches and general uneasiness. The plane journey was not the most pleasant one at that. The majority of the journey we seemed to be ascending. Turbulence was consistent throughout the flight. The pilot was constantly tipping the wings from left to right. Just minor alteration, although constantly as we ascended higher and higher. We were served the usual complimentary food, snacks and drinks. Well over halfway through the flight when the turbulence was at its worst, the air hostesses did a performance. Asking everyone to follow, in Chinese. I worked this out when I noticed the three of them standing in the aisles doing exercises and all the passengers following suit. It was quite a humourous thing to watch, to say the least. As the plane jolted along, the air hostess would fall to one side as they lifted one leg and then the other in a circular direction. It was like something from a Jane Fonda workout video. This little charade carried on for around ten minutes in total. To be honest, it made me feel better. It also appeared to calm down the jittering man beside me. The landing was not in anyway better. The plane did that awful buckle and twist as the obviously inexperienced pilot jittered the plane down towards a landing. He had the wings swaying as he came over the runway. As the back wheels hit the runway unevenly, the front of the plane came down with a heavy jolt and that worrisome awkward twist happened as the plane used all its effort to brake and come to a slow roll. I was glad that was over. So was the dude beside me.

After collecting my bags I headed out towards the exit in search of a bus to Hong Kong. There at the main door stood a stand selling bus tickets to HKG. They tried to charge me 130rmb and I ended up getting it for 90. You don't ask, you don't get. After waiting a few minutes we were boarded on to a coach and off through the street and highways of Shenzhen. My last journey through China. After 30 mins we arrived at the border crossing. First you exit China, then you are driven to the Hong Kong entry gates. Suddenly I noticed something for the first time. All the Chinese staff were smiling and friendly, while the Hong Kongese seemed dour and serious. Strange. After boarding a new bus, I got chatting to 2 Canadian girls that were travelling the world. We did the usual exchange of stories and spoke about world economics, as you do. We were all heading to the infamous ChungKing Mansions. We ended up as the last people on the bus as the driver brought us to the last stop of Tsim Tsa Tsui. We collected our bags and I guided the girls to Nathan Road. I suggested we stop in Murphy's Bar for a drink while we organise ourselves. They agreed to follow. After a few minutes of entering the pub the girls seemed to get stressed about their booking and felt the need to leave. They were getting themselves all stressed. You could tell straight away that they couldn't relax until they got all their stuff sorted. I imagine the age difference and the fact I'd being travelling for the last four and half months might make a difference. I couldn't have being more relaxed and realised I'd be better to leave the girls to do their own thing. I offered to wait for them up on the street while they went to change their Chinese yuan. They met me 10 minutes later even more stressed. One of them had lost their wallet and didn't know where they had. I brought them up to the floor their guesthouse was on, to check-in. I offered to meet them in Murphy's at lunchtime and left them to it.

Ten minutes later I had left my bags and booked into the same accommodation I had stayed in previously. I headed to Murphy's for lunch. Ended up meeting four lovely middle aged ladies that were ex-pats living in Taiwan. One from Scotland and the other three from the US. I recommended the delicious lunch I ordered and a conversation ensued. It was lovely to meet some people that weren't backpackers for once and to hear some totally different stories. Two of them were teachers and two home makers. They were over on a shopping spree in Hong Kong for four days. It was a very pleasurable two hours to spend on arriving in Hong Kong. I had to excuse myself, although before leaving we exchanged Facebook details. It was nice to see some parents that actually got involved in the social networking that the younger generation live by. Something that is so important if you are a parent. Very impressive. Thumbs up girls. I wished them farewell and told them to stop arguing :) and headed off to collect my digital camera. The Canon repair centre was less than a 3 minute walk away. I was so looking forward to finally getting back the camera. After falling in love with it after seeing Greg using it and it being out of action for the last few months, it would be good to use something with a bit more quality. I paid the 1360 HKG dollars and headed off for a walk around the city. Over the next few hours, I went to the Song Ericsson repair centre, only to find out mobile phones do not hold an international warranty, found another night market and discovered an interesting little chipper. Some ingenious character had set up a chipper stall called Ireland's Potato on a corner. They sold chips in a bucket with a choice of sauces. There was a crowd outside patiently waiting for their fried potato chips. I stood there for over 20 minutes just watching. Crowds and crowd s of people just kept arriving. I decided to check out these wondrous chips to see if they were all they made up to be. Actually, I ordered filled potato skins to start. When I saw them microwaving some pre-made frozen filled potato halves, I politely informed the guy that Irishmen don't eat microwaved potatoes. He gladly allowed me to change my order to a bucket of chips with a mix of cheese and meat sauce on top. For frozen chips, they were remarkably tasty. The meat sauce was lacking in any meat, although very tasty. I stood there munching away and watching as more and more people queued. Fantastic idea.

After buying a Wifi voucher I settled down in a Starbucks just around the corner from Chungking. Ten minutes later who do I start chatting to online but Peter. And where do you think he is? In Chungking mansions. Himself and Ian had only arrived from Dalian a couple of hours ago. Ian had headed out although Peter said he'd join me in half an hour. It was good to see his smiling face again. We filled in each other with all our tales since we'd last separated. Ian had lost his credit card again and they had nearly not being able to pay for their hotel bill. As usual a hilarious array of stories had occupied both of our travels. We stayed for another hour or so and then we headed back, agreeing we'd met for breakfast and some more Starbucks in the morning. I jumped into bed and turned on the BBC News channel. As I sat their working on Picasa images I noticed the constant message of fear being poured out of the news. The world economies where crashing everywhere. It was spreading like some disease with all countries being effected. Companies were showing enormous drops in sales. The automobile market in the US was in a state. They mentioned US, Britain, China, India and even Australia in all this mess. It was kind of sick to watch as the pushed this fear and anxiety upon the world. News can be a very nasty thing. Amongst these terror reports, I watched the final speech of Obama, on his campaign run, before the elections were to be held. It was at some university sports grounds and on a cold Monday night. It was some speech. Very powerful and all encompassing. If anyone can change things in the world I believe it is that man. There is something about him. Can't quite put my finger on it. I feel asleep shortly later.