China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong

14 flights, 5 ferries, 2 overnight trains, numerous painful bus trips, and one £120 speedboat ride. On this trip, I have learned that a man may become wealthy by simply being bold but a country can only become wealthy through the humility of its people.

To see the posts in time order, go to the bottom first then scroll up.

Hong Kong

IFR2, the 5th tallest completed building in the world but they are about to finish one in Kowloon across the river from here, which will be taller

Avenue of the Stars

Bruce Lee statue

Then I met him but he didn't say much

Neither did Kelly Chen

Tram that goes to the peak, I thought it was rubbish. It was built in about 1600 and is really slow and shaky, it's about time they built a new one

Metro Train

They really love Jackie Chan here. This is a shop devoted to him

And one for Bruce Lee

Thailand - Patong, James Bond Island and Koh Phi Phi

Maya Bay on Koh Phi Phi Ley or, to give it it's more romantic name, "Park Ranger Unit 5"

Koh Phi Phi north beach

Koh Phi Phi south beach

A lagoon near James Bond Island

James Bond Island, where he lands his sea-plane in The Man With the Golden Gun

Good Job holding the camera level

Phuket Tuk Tuk, Patong, Lamborghini yellow

Siem Reap

A floating village with floating school and floating library

A floating basketball court

A Cambodia Tuk Tuk

Our temple guide, You Sa. Was quite a character with lots of stories about "Angelina Temple" and others. He claimed to be hiding behind a rock when Angelina Jolie was here filming Tomb Raider and did a re-enactment of the scene for us starring himself as Angelina. He took lots of group photos and would shout after each shot, "That is absolutely wicked photo" or "That is absolutely orgasmic!" He introduced himself, "You can call me You Sa, I don't have a family name because my father was killed by the Khmer Rouge. My mother re-married, and I don't like the other guy"

The tour group: Valla, Eva, Fiona, Japanese girl no. 1, Hans, Me, James.
Seated: Terry, Jackson, Japanese girl no. 2

Our Cambodia tour guide, Con. The most laid back guy in the universe. Like You Sa (and all Cambodians for some reason), he had a cockney accent, "Yeah, no problem, don't worry abat it, do it tomorra"

Angkor Wat

The Royal Palace, Phnom Penn

Phnom Penn Genocide Museum and Killing Fields

Some of these images are very disturbing. The brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime is second to none. The genocide museum is on the site of the Toul Sleng School turned S-21 Prison and torture camp. After torture, prisoners were taken to the killing fields, excecuted, and dumped in mass graves. Every year, the rainy season turns the ground into a swamp causing clothes and bones of the dead to rise to the surface.

Soldiers of the Khmer Rouge

This woman is crying and probably knew she and her baby would be murdered.

From 16 thousand prisoners, 7 survived S-21. One was an artist, who painted this picture.

The sign on the wall indicates, No Smiling

The graves in the foreground are of the 14 dead prisoners found by the Vietnamese when they invaded. In the background is PE apparatus (climbing rope) used for torture. Prisoners would be hung and submerged into the vats under.

At the Killing Fields

Many of the images in this post, above, are very disturbing

From Saigon to Cambodia

On the Mekong, Cambodia Customs, a very organised operation whereby swarms of kids run amock on your boat, shouting, "banana 1 dollar" and holding huge wads of black-market cash for exchange. You then set off for immigration, which seems to consist of a hut with an office and a volleyball court

There are no fat people here, except for fat tourists, especially in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). The people look like this:

HCMC at night
Crossing the street here is, indeed, an art form. This is how you do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlyOom0bwwY&feature=related

Ice Cream, anyone?

Shanghai

Fishing Tackle Factory; Emily, Me, Jill

Japanese fast food place; Denny, Manuel, JC, Anna, Me

Transport to the airport is similar to that in Glasgow, 430 km/h Maglev train

The Pearl Tower, ugliest building in China

The room in the Grand Hyatt and view from it. The shower has three nozzles, that's living alright

The Jin Mao Tower - tallest (completed) building in China, number 4 in the world

World Finance Centre will be taller when finished

I was feeling in the mood to make a roar but then I read the sign and saw it wasn't allowed

There were many exhibits at the Shanghai Museum, including some Rembrant paintings and this one, of ponsy writing

The Grand Hyatt Atrium in the Jin Mao Tower

Do they celebrate Christmas in China? Yes

The Jin Mao Tower can be seen in the background

Peace Hotel

Xian

The Terracotta Army. I couldn't see what the big deal was, it's a bunch of statues in trenches. 8th wonder of the world, my foot.

Drum Tower

The Edinburgh Garden Bar. It wasn't really a bar, more of a guest house/restaurant. Also, it didn't have a garden and I asked them what the connection with Edinburgh was and the guy said, "I don't know"

What's the difference? Me cycling round the city wall

Tiananmen ,The Forbidden City and The Hutong

This coffee shop used to be Starbucks but they have now changed it to Coffee Stop

Having lunch in a house in the Hutong: Brenton, Chloe, JC, Me, Kaitlan, Denny, the owner

Our Hutong guide, Lucy, Me, JC

A famous Hutong house, which appears in many movies and was visited by Bill Clinton (not sure why). It belongs to the Manchurian guy in the middle next to JC. His ancestors were emperors but now he's just some shmo

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen. It means, Gate of Heavenly Peace

The Emperor

Beijing - The Great Wall

JC and our China tour guide, Marcia

This part was a bit shoddy

Medieval Tobogan for getting down from the wall

Pesky Mongolians

Shenzhen - Jian's Mansion

Three Monkeys : Jian, Me, Sophie

A Promising Start

Gatwick Airport and the ever-powerful Xelerator

"The damn thing sounds like a jet engine taking off, and you can hear it about 20 feet away with two doors closed! That thing is nuts. And it's chrome. I almost wanna steal it and somehow hook it up to my Mustang's engine"