Casino Casino Casino

We get up at 9am and I’m feeling a bit ruff….too many ciders mixing in with lager….ugh. The fecking handbag tout dudes start hassling as soon as we’re outside so I just yell ‘NO’ at one of them….dont mess with hungover Hayley…..but hey, what solves that?! Maccie d’s – yay!!! £2 for a big breakfast kinda thing – sorts us all right out. We have a laff about Dave’s exploits with the Nigerian’s last nite and head to the ferry terminal to find out cost of going to Macau. Ends up being £29 return – which is a bit steep for an 1hr ferry ride, but hey, we wanna go and the pushy travel agents get our tickets and we run for the ferry at 11.30am.
It’s a pretty nice ferry and feels like you’re in a plane!! The Fanimal comes out to play again and gets his pic on the way to Macau. We get there after an hour and we have to go through immigration as apparently its over foreign waters or summat…..interesting eh!? There are a load of casino buses outside which are FREE!!! Whooohooo – we get on the MGM one and get dropped off at this ENORMOUS MGM hotel / casino – wowzers! This is just like Las Vegas – seriously!! Mental!! We manage to get $100 HK onto a gambling card, by showing our ferry ticket, and away we go to the slot machines – teehee!! I have no idea what I’m doing and am just pressing buttons for the sake of it! I end up coming away with about £6 – just from the 20c machines! Haha
We have a good ol wander through Macau and its so European – like a holiday town when you go abroad to Spain or….Portugal…..funny thing is, Macau was owned by Portugal – so there are signs up in Chinese AND Portuguese AND English – crazy!!! We see the old town, a nice garden and head through the touristy bit. Have an awesome lunch at a local Macau restaurant – Beef Satay – yum! And we head to Wynn’s casino – this place has a mini fountain version of the bellagio – wicked!! Aaron wins a £10 in there and we’re all thinking – time to go – before we break the bank and spend everything on gambling!
Ferry leaves at 7 and we all snooze on the way back. Pick up some instant noodles at the 7Eleven and away to bed…China tomoz – eeeeeeek!!!

Hayley

Sunday - A day about town

Have an uber long lie-in – soooooo worth it. Poor Aaron has been up since 9am – haha!! Since when did he surface at that time!? We meet Sutty and hit the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island as we have an errand to run – Dave’s dad left some charger thingy at the hotel last year so we need to go get it. We take a tram along to the other side of the island and go to the reception at the hotel. At first, they aint got a clue but with some perseverance we get there and the charger is returned. Yay!!
We have a wander through Victoria Park and see the craziest thing – old geezers having mini speedboat races around the pond – they are soooooooooooooooooo fast – it’s hilarious!!! The smell of gasoline and cooking oil is pretty overpowering but to watch this, is addictive! That kills some time and we head over to Wanchai district to meet Roger.
Luckily, Dave and Sutty have their navigation hats on and me n Aaron hang back letting them do the work – haha!! We find Delaneys – yup the other irish pub – and meet up with Roger. He aint changed one bit!!! But now he’s a daddy – bless!! We have a few magners there and then its time for Sutty to say bye!! He’s off to the airport – sad times!! He well wanted to stay with us and continue the holiday vibe 
We realise we aint had lunch… his mate from Edinburgh rocks up and we go to another one of these local street ‘restaurants’ – basically, the Chinese version of a greasy spoon café really!!! I order soy sauce chicken – which is a huge chicken bone chopped up – after eating a piece, we notice there’s blood on the meat – argh!! Help me!!! Aaron asked for assorted meats – he gets gristle and bone chopped up really – hilarious – these cooks are sooooo laughing at us!!! Dave and Roger’s look ok – Duck and belly pork – but its all pretty cold / luke warm – I start dreading that I’m gonna wake up with the shits……….wait n see.
Next up we go to The Kanny Man – where Roger needs to meet the manager – as he’s from the same chain and needs to talk shop for a bit. The geezer looks like a Tommy Sheridan wannabe and props up the bar with a fag and a pint and his Thai bit of fluff – what a great look….he’s pretty miserable – obviously a weegie – and doesn’t even offer us a freebie – ugh!!!! Have a couple in there and then onto Fenwicks – which is a nightclub really….
Well, that was an experience…..there a few westerners in there…..all male, all over 50 and all with their Thai brides – sick, sick, sick!!!!! These poor women who are putting themselves through humping that?! Ugh, no thanks…..I look to the dance floor and its covered with phillopino women – bout 30 of them!!! All boogying away! I look around and I’m actually the only western woman in there – hmmm…..methinks, I’m in a seedy kinda place….but it all seems ok and we don’t stay there too long. We say cheerio to Roger and head back to hostel.
Dave is drunk and starts talking to all the dodgy geezers in the lift, asking them where they’re from – obviously Nigeria – and then starts doing the Fonejacker impression ‘I’m calling from your bank. Let me have your bank details’ – DAVID!!! STOP!!!! Luckily, no harm done and away to bed!! Macau tomorrow

Hayley

Big Buddha

Aaron meets us at 9.30 and what does he have on his neck?!?! Oh yes, you guessed it – a fecking love bite! What a dirty boy!! Him and Sutty went onto a ‘special’ bar after karaoke and were surrounded by ladies of the night – and if you buy them a drink, they’re all over you! Aaron refrained from paying them for a whole night of loving but got a love bite instead for his chat! He even offered the girl his hat for a BJ – WTF!?!? She declined obviously!!!
After discussing the night’s scandal, we grab brekkie at a bakery – time for a cheese n ham roll of the sweetest variety – yep, interesting crossing of flavours there – and we head to the ferry to go to Lantau island and see the Big Buddha at Ngong Ping Village. It’s a toasty day and Sutty gets burnt! We have an awesome lunch at the place we visited last year and went up the steps to the Buddha. Some crazy lass was on her knees praying at the top and crying her eyes out, screaming to Buddha. Wonder what her beef was……mean I know, but she was LOUD!! In front of all those tourists too….its a long day and we head back to the ferry.
Everyone is freshened up and we head up town on Nathan Road to find Sutty’s hotel. We eat in one of these local joints where you can see the hanging glazed ducks, geese and chickens still avec heads, and order the set meal for 4. Well, didn’t we get looks from all the locals?! Haha – we showed them a thing or two by using chopsticks and not failing with them!!! Soup was interesting to say the least…..i’m sure it had bone marrow at the bottom of the bowl…it was a nice dishwater colour too – but strangely tasty!! Next up was an assortment of crab, prawns, pork and ribs. All yummy!!! Huge bottles of Carlsberg for £1.50 – great success 
After our mammoth feed, we head off to find a pub…..do you realise how hard that task was!?!??!?! Huh huh!?!?!? OMG……..there were like NO pubs to be seen at that end of Nathan Road and if we did find one – it was a TITTY bar – raaaaaaa. Bless this woman that stopped us outside a ‘karaoke bar’ – Aaron went in to check if it was suitable for me – he came out and said ‘why aye! Its karaoke’ at the same time, this local woman said ‘the women, they sing with you and then…..(she raises her eyebrows) not suitable for girls’ – haha, I’m saved!!! Onwards we continue to look for a pub, but now I’m absolutely bursting for a pee….not good chat…..Maccie D’s comes to my aide and I use their facilities – thank you golden arches! What we did find on our travels was a few amusing names of buildings – just look at the photo!!
Where do we end up?! The bloody pub opposite the hostel – haha! Delaney’s – another irish bar – but hey, the footie is on and Bolton are holding Man U scum to a draw – come on!!! Argh, but the last fecking minute Man U go and score – don’t they – fecking typical!!! HAYLEY RAGE!!! Off we trot to bed around 1ish – sooooooo many dodgy geezers around our block – ugh!! A tad too many Nigerians here on business – aye right!!!

Hayley

Friday - Welcome to Hong Kong

We land at 2pm HK time – with the flight lasting about 10hrs 50mins – the sun is shining and it’s a nice comfortable temp of 18 degrees sweeeeeeet!! Bye bye crappy UK weather, Hello Sunshine!!! We get the MTR into Hong Kong and then another one onto Tsim Sha Tsui (?) where we get to our accommodation – Parkgate Hostel in ChungKing Mansions. This place is heaving and all full of crazy annoying touts with this crap chat: “Tailored suit sir, DVD, good fake watch?” or “ I take you to nice guesthouse. Where you want to stay? Follow me!” Joy. We rock up to the 15th floor and meet our hostel owner. She seems lovely and friendly so all good. We open our door to the room and its pretty darn basic! But at least it’s clean. The bathroom is a hoot – we have to shower head so it’s kinda like a metal hose hanging down – wahaha! Two single beds – mattresses are a tad hard and that’s about it!
I’m feeling skanky from the flight so hit the shower. Half an hour later we hear Aaron’s hearty laugh – you canny miss it – and Sutty has arrived!!! Aaron’s flatmate is stopping over in HK for a few nights on his way back from Oz to the UK – super timing. We get ready and meet them in the Irish pub next door – too handy!!! Bless Sutty, who has been researching the joint – mainly of Irish pubs – good skills! Unfortunately, it’s like £6 a pint or more in these places so we have to rely on happy hour – damn the exchange rate!
We head to the harbour for 8pm to see the free light n laser show – along the way we have dinner….at good ol Maccie D’s…..its £2 for a meal! Canny believe it!!! Light show is well impressive – even though we saw it last year – and we head to another bar!!! We stumble into a random bar – we’re the only Westerners in there with what looks like the fecking Triads at the bar – hmmmm…..dodgy!!! But we’re rescued….it’s a karaoke bar – hahaha! Aaron and Sutty get up and sing ‘Fly me to the moon’ - what a hoot! The locals LOVED it!! Probably helped that Aaron was wearing his England top and cowboy hat – mentalist.
Boy and I are knackered so get to our beds for 10ish.

Hayley

We made it to London

Using the wonders of modern technology I have managed to avoid paying airport WiFi charges by connecting my mobile phone to my laptop...

Well after all of the packing and saying goodbye, we are on our way successfully bagging our first flight. We are now in one of the bars (surprise surprise) in Heathrow’s T3 and Aaron is away looking for an outside bit to have a sneaky wee fag before the 12 hour flight to Hong Kong at 6pm this evening. The flight should be interesting as Aaron has invested in a Niccorette ‘Inhalator’ – a small plastic device which give the users a small dose of nicotine on inhalation. It will be interesting to see how well this works and how angst Aaron will be when he gets off the plane at the other end!!

On changing from T5 where we land to T3 where our next flight takes off, we had to clear security again. Me and Aaron made it through with no issues but Hayley set the metal detector off and the lady who searched her had a right old rake around in her over shoulder boulder holder, looking for hidden contraband – luckily for Hayley none was found.

Aaron has also brought his ‘Fanimal’ – those of you old enough will remember these creatures from the Peparami adverts of days gone by. Here’s a photo of Fanimal at Newcastle airport.

Dave

We've crossed our 1st Border

Well, yesterday we crossed our first country border making it successfully from Scotland into England. The motor was a bit full up with gear but there you go!!

Our first flight is at 12:15 on Thursday taking us from Newcastle to Heathrow and then on the 18:05 to Hong Kong.

Packing Begins

Now that we've said Ta Ta to just about everyone in Edinburgh, we can start to make a go of packing everything we need for the next few months into one rucksack each!

Things are already off to a delayed start as we set the alarms for 08:30 this morning but didn't surface until about 15 minutes ago (09:30) however, it can't take that long to pack a rucksack can it?

Dave