Hi all. Well here we are in Tai Tam camp site in Hong Kong, prior to departure to the airport tomorrow morning, bound for Heathrow. We were due to spend the last 23 hours on the train on route to the border, however it was delayed so we ended up being in the same carriages for 28 hours…joy! We were really pleased that the chefs on the train took pity on us and cooked us scrambled egg this morning with rolls and strawberry jam. Made a change from noodles and chilli carrots! The crossing through the Chinese border into Hong Kong was fairly uneventful but we had forgotten the heat down south so were soon soaked.
The final visit was to Baden Powell House in Hong Kong where we had ‘another’ group photograph and the chance to get rid of the last lot of HKD.
Looking forward not to the final push to the airport, starting at 0400 tomorrow morning…uugghh.
As a final note, we have heard of the Typhoon that is due in, but we expect it to miss us, fingers crossed. I’ll keep you as updated as I can through Terry and Brian but hopefully the next message you’ll get is letting you know we are leaving Heathrow.
See you all tomorrow.
John
Hi all, really sorry, lost kids and other leaders just after leaving station. Good news though, I had all the cash and the weather in the Maldives is brilliant!
In reality though we are now checked into the Youth Hostel in the old part of Beijing and Martyn has organised breakfast for us tomorrow….really looking forward to meat pasties and boiled egg….good job there is an abundance of toilets on the wall!
This last week has flown by and I cant believe we are finally making preparations for a walk on the Great Wall of China tomorrow. Seems like only yesterday we were making the presentation to all of you.
The Scouts and Explorers really appreciate your comments and are really glad you are looking at the pictures. Home sickness hasn’t been a problem at all (sorry) and they are all full of beans especially when we fed them with KFC today.
Just in case you have picked up on the news that there is a Force 8 Hurricane in Hong Kong – we are not effected and managed to get away before it hit.
See you all in under a week (it can’t really be that quick, surely). Great Wall, Forbidden City, Bird Cage, Water Cube, Terracotta Worriors (meant) and BP House in HK to go – in 7 days…blimey!
John
I have uploaded more photos tonight of today and some more of other days and have also added a message’s home page along the top or click on this link. I have only received 3 so far but hopefully I should get some more to put on in the morning as its 11.35pm now.
At 9.30pm last night we arrived safely at our Hotel in Macau, after spending the day at Ocean Park and Pizza Hut
More photos have now been uploaded.
Hi everyone, hope you are all OK in Blighty. It is lovely and warm in HK. Your children are mixing in with some local scouts, hiking and canoeing. Breakfast was interesting with meat and noodle soup but all seem to eat it. We are all still recovering from jet lag the heat but hopefully all should be fully fit in the next couple of days. Air New Zealand were terrific, looking after us all really well. We’ll keep you updated as and when we can, try not to miss them too much. See you all soon. John
Photos on photos page
Hong Kong, CHINA