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Saturday
Have arrived in Shenzhen. Mark is well, and it is great to see him
Sunday
took a ride on a very fast train to Guangzhou(Canton), and lived to tell the tale!!
Very comfortable, booked seats, just over an hour for the trip. Wandered around, visited a temple, went through some markets, ate and drank (lots of water as it was HOT and humid), had cocktails at The White Dove, walked along the Pearl River and then came back by train. Security checks at every station as the University Games are on in Shenzhen. Had a backpack with 3 bottles of water, 2 stainless steel, 1 disposable. Security took the disposable (ignored the others) and tested the contents of the bottle with a portable spectrometer. It was OK. Not sure why they ignored the metal ones.
We walked heaps, and were all tired at the end of the day. It is goood for us, as it helps us to acclimatise to the hot/humid weather.
Monday
Mark went off to work, and we spent the day at the spa. Had heard about these from Mark. The spa was located in a gaudy building, and on entry we felt we were going into a Kings Cross dive. An this was the most Englishified one he could recommend. And it went by the name of Queens spa.
Several people spoke english, but not very much. We were ushered into separate change rooms, and changed into our bathers. This caused a problem, as the main pool was closed, so we had to go to a bigger pool upstairs. To go upstairs, you are issued with pyjamas which we put on top of bathers, then met on 3rd floor, the mixed lounge, massage and food area. Then up to the 5th floor to the pool in the health club. Had a nice swim, big pool, not many people because it cost 10 yuan (about $1.50) to go in. Then, we removed wet bathers, put pyjamas back on, and headed downstairs again.
Time for a snack of fruit, jelly and soft serve icecream (these were the free food items). Then Peter had a neck massage and I had a leg massage. These went for nearly an hour each. For our second massages, Peter had the leg massage and I had the foot massage. Total cost for the day, about $70 for two. (minimum spend as about $30 per head). Very interesting. Amazing busy place, and since you can stay for 24 hours, apparently lots of people use the spas as cheap accommodation.
Tuesday
A public holiday in Shenzhen for the closing of the University Games, so we had another day with Mark. Did a shopping trip to the big camping shop (bought ultra lite sleeping bags, aboput 1/4 of the size of ours which now reside in a spare room awaiting transportation to Adelaide. Then on to a big foreign supermarket where we bought meat, 2kg of pork ribs and 2kg of rib eye steak. Finally stopped at Ikea, for a few food goodies. This trip was by taxi, which is amazing cheap here, especially when there are 3 people in the cab. Home for lunch of baguette, salami, vintage cheddar. Late afternoon we went shopping again, for wheels for our bags. We walk a long way changing borders, and the bags were very inconveniant on the way over. Dinner was ribs, potatoes and salad. Food wise, a very western day.
Wednesday.
Today is a transport day, taxi to the border, then train and bus to HK airport. We have an overnight flight to Nairobi with a 4 hour layover in Mumbai, between 11pm and 3am.
Thursday
We have arrived safely in Nairobi!!!
Interesting flight, the actual flying was no problem at all, Mumbai was quite an experience.
In Hong Kong we checked in through to Nairobi, baggage, boarding passes. At Mumbai, they decided we needed new boarding passes and luggage tags (first flight was Jet Airways, second flight was Kenya Airlines), so they took our passports, boarding passes and luggage tags, and 2 hours later we got our passports back and new boarding passes. After about an hour, they also came for copies of our onward itinerary, to prove that we would be leaving Kenya. We were pleased to see our bags in Kenya, and handed over our $50 each for our visas.
In the afternoon we walked into town, were accosted continually by silver tongued salesman either trying to get us to buy something, go on a tour with them, or donate to their favourite charity (which we assume was them). We found the "in" coffee house, and visited the supermarket to buy water and a few items. Everything you could want to buy there. Everyone speaks English, so no difficulty in communicating.
Had dinner at the hotel, pepper steak and lamb chops. Lots of bananas both here and in China, and we are not sick of them yet!!
Friday
Just had a great buffet breakfast, and are ready for the day. Had another lazy day, weather cool, so didn't use the pool.
Saturday
Off on safari tomorrow, will post when we can. Send us a travelSMS with your news. We have coverage at present. Hopefully photos of the big 5 coming up soon
