Our train rumbled into the colossal city of Guangzhou after mile upon mile of urban sprawl. This city, which at over 13 million people dwarfs even London, has a colourful colonial past and is now one of the major urban and business centres of China. After investigating the Lonely Planet’s recommended hostel, and fleeing from its overpriced and over-trendy vibe, we booked into one of the non-descript Chinese hotels in which we had grown to feel comfortable over the last few months. However, we had an interesting night’s ‘sleep’ when we discovered that the walls in our room didn’t continue all the way to the windows, and therefore we were pretty much sharing a room with our neighbours. Unfortunately, one of said neighbours appeared both to have bronchitis, and to be intent on having a Skype call until 2am in the morning while giving a very good impersonation of Dom Jolly’s shouty mobile man. Waking up the next day a bit bleary eyed, we explored the city, visiting the famous Pearl River, a huge dried fish market where even sea cucumbers and seahorses had not escaped the ubiquitous shrink-wrapping, and of course indulging in as many foody delights as we could find.
The night market was particularly good, with Harriet enjoying an eggy, pancake parcel filled with shucked oysters and spring greens, while Jonathan was immensely happy with a bun filled with shredded pork and gravy.
The next day we boarded the bus that would take us to Hong Kong. As the lush, semi-tropical landscape whizzed past we couldn’t quite believe that we were finally going to arrive in a place that had always been such a distant marker on our trip. After a slightly strange border crossing - we were simultaneously leaving and staying in China - we re-boarded our bus to enter the Special Autonomous Region of Hong Kong. After so many months cycling on the right, we were immediately thrown by the sight of everyone driving on the left hand side, and were also amazed by how green and vegetal the landscape was.
This was to be a continuing surprise during our stay on the islands: we had imagined them to be covered with the ultramodern, metal and glass skyscrapers that you see in the familiar photos of the Hong Kong skyline. But for now we were just very excited to be here, and looking forward to our reunion with Harriet’s brother Ed and his wife Hannah, who were very kindly having us to stay with them during our time away from the bikes.
As we got nearer to our bus stop and crossed over onto Hong Kong island itself, the cityscape we had imagined started to rise up all around us and familiar signs of Western life - Marks and Spencers, H and M, and Starbucks - flashed by.
Clutching our bags like a couple of country bumpkins in the big city, we climbed off the bus and were joyously met by Ed before being whisked off by taxi to his apartment in Tai Hang, an eclectic zone where independent bars and restaurants rub shoulder with car-repair shops and traditional Chinese food stalls. Another extremely happy reunion ensued as we were met by Hannah and shown around their beautiful apartment, which has stunning views over Victoria Harbour.
After so long living a transient lifestyle on the bikes, we were extremely excited about having access to a sofa, an oven and proper tea! But Ed and Hannah’s kindness really knew no bounds. We were immediately welcomed into their life in Hong Kong, and spent our second night there meeting their lovely friends at their Christmas party. They even kindly lent us some clothes so we weren’t such cycling hobos! They then spent the rest of our time in Hong Kong showing us the best the islands had to offer, taking us on spectacular hikes, visiting an awesome array of restaurants and bars (including a 1 Michelin Star Dim Sum restaurant), and being extremely generous at every turn.
When Ed and Hannah went back to the UK for Christmas, we had another very happy reunion when Jonathan’s dad, Doug, and sister, Helen, came out for the holiday period. After a mammoth flight, including a long stopover in Russia, they emerged out of Arrivals at Hong Kong airport and we all couldn’t stop beaming at each other. Greece was a very long time ago! We then spent the next couple of weeks catching up on the last six and a half months while walking many sections of the long-distance hiking trails that crisscross the islands, visiting beaches, swimming in the sea and sampling more of Hong Kong’s edible delights.
After so long away, we both really wanted a traditional Christmas day and spent Christmas morning cooking a traditional lunch with all the trimmings including bread sauce, homemade Yorkshire puddings and roast potatoes. The rest of the day was then spent in a fairly comatose state, watching films on the sofa while wearing paper hats from our crackers.
However, as usual, time went by far too quickly and we were soon saying goodbye to Helen as she boarded the bus back to the airport.
Jonathan and his dad then departed for a two week trip to China, and had an amazing time exploring the karst formations of Yangshou and visiting China’s only sub-tropical island, Hainan, where they hiked down into an extinct volcano.
During this time, the final happy reunion of Hong Kong occurred when Harriet’s sister, Cress, came to visit for a few days. Unfortunately, Cress wasn’t feeling her best, but despite this the siblings and Hannah spent a lovely few days together, exploring Tai Hang, visiting Ed’s cricket club, and hanging out on the sofa watching films.
On one particularly nice day, Ed treated Cress and Harriet to lunch and an amazing foot massage, before all three partook in a group manicure session.
On Jonathan’s return, we took a lovely boat trip around Sai Kung, a beautiful national park area on the mainland.
Then all too quickly it was our final weekend. This began with another unexpected treat: seeing Metallica in their first ever Hong Kong performance! The next morning, with slightly muzzy heads, we met up with a group of Ed and Hannah’s friends and set out to walk the entire Hong Kong trail over the two days. The first day’s hike took us from the Peak, with its spectacular views across the city, through woodlands and over streams, to re-emerge 25km later, tired but happy, in the heart of the city.
The next day some of the group were a little the worse-for-wear after a heavy night, and the combination of heat, humidity and steep stone steps aggravated the hangovers of those who managed to make it for the second half off the walk. Even so, as the endorphins kicked in along with some homemade Sichuan vodka, the general mood became jolly, and we enjoyed a beautiful walk through woodland, before cooling off in a lovely pool full of icy stream water.
Our late start meant that we didn’t quite complete the trail, instead calling it a day after stumbling upon a striking little cove and finishing the weekend with a glorious swim in the soft early evening light.
We had planned to set off again on Tuesday but a slight hiccup - all the trains were fully booked from Guangzhou to Guilin because of Chinese New Year - meant that our departure day moved to Friday instead. This turned out to be a fortuitous change, as our busy weekend meant that we didn’t feel ready to say goodbye to Ed and Hannah just yet. Now we spent a few lovely evenings together, enjoying a picnic looking over the harbour to Kowloon and a gorgeous curry at Ed’s cricket club, and reminiscing over the past six weeks. On our last morning, we very sadly said our goodbyes to Hannah, before Ed walked us to the stop where we would get the bus back to Guangzhou.
However, things didn’t go quite as smoothly as we had envisaged - all the buses were booked out for Chinese New Year (we’re slow learners). This was more than a slight problem as we had booked our train from Guangzhou to Guilin as well as our accommodation for the next few days. After a frantic metro ride, and a rushed goodbye with Ed, we found ourselves trying our luck at the train station, but with the same result. While we stood outside the station, stressed and wondering what the hell to do, we noticed a slightly shifty man behind us with a big wad of cash and a handful of tickets. Having watched a few people conduct transactions with this tout, we took the plunge and bought two tickets for the next train, at a surprisingly modest mark-up. We then went through security, as tensed up and shifty as a couple of drug mules, expecting our dodgy tickets to be flagged up at any moment. To our surprise, we instead had a smooth journey to Guangzhou, and before long were back in China and sitting on another train on our way to Guilin. Rested and relaxed from our time in Hong Kong, we now began to ponder the next stage of our adventure – an 800km dash down to the Vietnamese border before our Chinese visas ran out.