In the middle of July we found a good deal (unusual in high season and moreover so short term) for flights to Hong Kong with Turkish Airlines, which we picked and beginning of August we were on the way. I wanted to go to China into the mountains, so first part of the trip was in the China's province of Sichuan (2 hours flight from Hong Kong), the second longer part we stayed in the Philippines, island Cebu. At the very end we visited Special Adminstrative Region - Macau and had a day stopover in Istanbul.


Countries visited: Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Macau, Turkey
Travelperiod: 8/2011
Costs: 1300 EUR

finally in Hong Kong

just entered China - Shenzhen, Luohu

on the way to our hostel in Chengdu

famous Sichuan hot-pot (huo guo)

Panda bear found!

Chengdu - Tianfu Guangchang

blocked road on the way to Kangding

drive through the construction site by Luding

Kangding reached

look on the city from Xiao Song Lin

praying flags and stupa

Bai Hai Zi Shan

mountain lake Hei Hai Zi (4060m)

thunderstorm above the mountains

they brought me back to Kangding - thanks!

in Kangding

main street in the city

selling what found in the woods

back in Chengdu - Chairman Mao statue

Sichuan Airlines A330 rolling to the gate

next day - already Phillipines

landscape on the Cebu Island

the White Beach

colonial era church in St. Filomena

on a local bus

Cebu City downtown

Santo Nino Cathedral in Cebu City

Macau - remains of St. Paul's church

stunning - Hong Kong skyline by night

the Mong Kok frenzy

bye Hong Kong, see you soon...

the morning Istanbul

The flight from Prague to Hong Kong was quite ok, new aircraft (but as usual with not very friendly Turkish Airlines crew) and only a short transit in Istanbul - in total it took just 14 hours to get to Hong Kong. From airport we took the bus A21, which dropped us just some 500 meters from our Lee Garden Guesthouse on Cameron Road in Kowloon. But even the short walk with bags made us sweating - fighting with above 30 degrees temperature and very high humidity. Took a short nap in the room (Hong Kong standard - so very small with bed occupying perhaps 3/4 of the room’s space) and before dusk we got out into the evening hustle-bustle of central Kowloon. Walked around, got something quick to eat and later met with Reny’s friend Lenka, who lives and works in HKG for couple of years. Together we head to a small chinese restaurant for a dinner and afterwards we move to a nice bar, where Lenka’s husband Rafael joins us. We end up chatting till almost 1AM.
Next day we sleep a bit longer and then head to Hung Hom station, from where the suburban trains to border with Mainland China depart. After 40 minutes ride we are there, passing Hong Kong immigration and finally entering China. On the chinese side we go straight to take subway to the Shenzhen Airport, which lays on other side of the city. Fortunately one line connects it with Luo Hu border, so no pulling backpacks thru any transfer station will be needed. After well over 1 hour long ride we get off at the airport, wrap our backs, go thru check-in and security check – all straightforward, so at four o’clock we board the Air China flight to Chengdu. Quite a good meal was served on board, all other went fine as well and after bit over 2 hours, some 20 minutes ahead of schedule, we reached the destination.
Right in front of the arrival hall stands line of buses going to downtown. The ride takes surprisingly only a bit over half an hour. After short walk we find bus stop of bus no. 62, which stops close to the Loft Hostel, place we picked for our stay. By mistake we go 2 stations over and have to walk it back. It turns to be quite challenge to find the right side street to turn to. Already after dark, we get to the right spot. After check-in, we ask for booking of tickets for our next destination – Kangding, laying some 350 kilometres to the west from Chengdu, in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Later in the evening we go out into a nearby restaurant to try the famous hot-pot (huo guo).
Getting to bed late, means to wake up late - short before eleven we head to Panda Reservation, which is just north of Chengdu. However as we were in China, even a short distance took some time to beat. First 40 minutes were eaten by getting to the bus station. Inside the totally packed hall, after finding information counter, i’m getting a nice and quick answer in chinese, from which i got only, that we are wrong here and have to go out, somewhere to the right. Finally correct departure spot for buses to Panda Reservation found, just missing to wait for 30 minutes and take over an hour long ride – finally got there!
We pay the entrance fee – 58 RMB and head to search for the pandas. Finally one found and luckily not sleeping. Later we have seen few others including the much smaller Red Pandas. At 4 PM we are at the bus stop and start waiting. Yet again. Quite a lot of people waiting with us, but bus nowhere. The locals discuss something about, that the bus got broken or what. After 30 minutes of useless waiting, we join a chinese couple, who takes a car which stopped at the station and offered ride to Chengdu. In 30 minutes, we were dropped off near the central square.
I yet had to change some cash, so headed into one of the Bank of China branches and the typical painful procedure starts – fill out form, copy passport, wait, wait. Then go to counter, explain in chinese that you really want to change money, your form is checked, your passport is checked. Then follows typing into computer and printing of first, second and third paper. Last step is to make 2 signatures and get your money. If all goes well, you are done in half an hour.
Right next to the bank was some fast-food restaurant with terribly slow service, but quite delicious food. We order some noodles, pork meat, vegetables and rice and flush that with cold Snow beer. Afterwards we made a walk thru the shopping streets in the downtown (most of the stuff much more expensive than in Europe) and central Tianfu Square, stopping to shop some food and drinks for next day long ride to Kangding. The rest of the evening we just relaxed in the hostel lobby.
Next morning we wake up after 7 AM, quick packing of the last few things, check-out and heading to Xin Nan Men bus terminal. The city bus was packed fully, no chance we get in with our backpacks. We don’t risk waiting for another one and taking a taxi instead of a bus. The bus terminal was again under chaos. I’m asking where the Kangding bus departs from and being pointed to wait by the gate number three. Later it turned out, that indeed we should had been going thru gate number 3, but the bus was standing in front of gate 9 – so one had to push thru hords of people boarding other buses.
At 9AM sharp we start moving, first almost an hour digging thru the Chengdu morning traffic jam, then follows a nice, around 150 km long, part on a highway to city called Yaan. Afterwards the road conditions change significantly – just 2 lane road, swinging up thru a river canyon, heavy traffic and permanent risky overtaking of other cars, trucks and buses. Anyway, somewhere high in the mountains we stop behind a neverending line of vehicles and keep on the spot for about two hours. Then we move ahead few kilometres and wait for another hour. The reason was road construction, which meant that one lane got closed completely and second one was passable only partially. We drive a long tunnel and begin a steep descent to city called Luding. Few kilometres behind city it turns to be worse again, regular road is non-existent and we drive a dirt road thru a huge construction site. Another hour of waiting. Finally at 7PM we reach Kangding.
For staying, we have picked up Zhilam Guesthouse, which is owned by an US family and located a bit up the hill from the city center. We wanted to take a taxi to there, but the tibetan taxi drivers either refused completely to drive us there or were asking ridiculous 50 RMB for those perhaps 4 kilometres. So we pick our backpacks and walk thru the city. After check-in we got beds in a room separated from the main building and for every single thing we had to walk out. Furthermore our room was in a building, which was still under construction and we did not have access to the main building after 11 PM, because they did not have enough keys – more than ridiculous.
Next day in the morning we talk to the owners wife. She was very helpful, moved us into a main building room for the next 3 days and all got set. But Ren was not feeling well (apparently the food we have eaten in the fast-food during the bus stop yesterday). We have planned a little trek in the mount Minya Konka area for the upcoming 2-3 days and it looks we will not be able to make it. I go alone down to the city, take the short cable car up to Pao Ma Shan (2920m), from where should lead a path to mountain lakes being more than 4000 meters above sea level. The view from the top of Pao Ma was wonderful, but i didn’t find the path, so bit dissapointed walked down to the city. Later in the afternoon i walk up to grassland called Xiao Song (3170m), being eastwards above Kangding. Wonderfull view from the top on few almost 6000 metres high peaks and down on the city. Also a nice stupa with praying flags was built on a small peak above the grassland. In one hour i’m back at Zhilam.
Next morning i’m waking up early and before 7AM heading to the main road to get a taxi to village Lao Yu Lin and want to make a one day hike in the mountains - as a little back up for the original plan. All the taxis in my direction were full, so starting to flag down taxis going in opposite the direction. The first one refuses to drive me where i want, the second one agrees, but wants 50 RMB. We agree on 40 and in 15 minutes i’m being dropped off in the village – height 3080m.
Starting to walk a path, which ends up 300 height meters higher at the mountain road leading to Xue Men Kou Pass (3948m). After 500 metres walk on the road i could switch to another path, which goes up over nice mountain pastures. Around half past eleven i’m at the pass and enjoying the breathtaking view of the Bai Hai Zi Shan (5985m) and Lamo She (6070m) peaks. South of the pass rises one smaller peak with height around 4600m, which i’m thinking about to climb, but in the end making another direction to Hei Haizi mountain lakes. There’s no set path, but one has to first walk towards northeast over the grassland and reach a minor ridge leading to the north. The air is thin in this altitude, but i’m quite fine sofar. Tons of flowers grow here at the altitude around 4200m, i have seen even Leontopodium alpinum, which is almost extinct in Alps and other european mountains.
Later the ridge sets to the east, closes the valley – i’m bit unsure how to walk further, but deciding to walk northwards to a moraine, behind which, the lake could be hidden. This turns to be wrong, just a grassland basin was there, but at least i have seen from quite a close a herd of yaks. The Hei Hai Zi (Black Lake) was most likely 1 valley to the east – to get there i had to climb over a little ridge at almost 4400m. Right after getting to the top i met a shepherd, who was really helpful and explained, where the Black Lake is and offered to take me there. Was surprising that he understood well my Beijing Chinese, while down in Kangding i have problems with it. We descended over 100 height meters and finally could see the lake, another good 150 meters below us. The shepherd explains me, that somewhat higher is one more smaller lake and shows me how to get there and how i could descend on the other side of the valley and thus make a nice round. I shake hands with him, say good bye and start walk up to the smaller lake. However weather turns bad quickly, dark grey clouds covered the peaks and getting as low as 4600 metres. After heavy thunder sounds, i don’t think twice about turning it downwards. It’s dissappointing, but not the right place to walk in a thunderstorm.
Under rain, but quite quickly i got back to the road, actually below the Xue Men pass, so a bit of a walking upwards was ahead of me. Up in the pass, few cars with rich Chinese stopped and apparently waiting until the rain stops, so that they can make photos outside. I walk the road down and after some 30 minutes the weather gets better and rain stops. Later i switched from road to path and walk again over the nice meadows and grasslands. In the lower part it’s again needed to walk on the road and my legs slowly starting to be tired (i already have good 35 kilometres of walking and 1500 metres in height behind me). I start to hitchhike and maybe tenth car stops – a young couple from Chengdu, with their small Suzuki. On the folded backseats is dismantled mountain bike and bags, second half is occupied by dog Snowie. But we managed to get all inside – Snowie was sitting on myself. They drop me in Kangding, i want to invite them for some meal, but they have to rush to Chengdu – the drive will be long. Short before 6 PM i’m back at Zhilam. Long day.
The tibetan guys working at Zhilam brought some local medicine and Reny starts to feel better. We will stay yet 1 day in Kangding and then move back to Chengdu. We spend larger part of the following day in Zhilam and later in the afternoon we make a short walk up to 3000 metres and then some shopping in the city.
We had to wake up after 7AM on the next morning to catch the 9AM bus to Chengdu, as it was good 40 minutes by foot to the bus station. Under the morning sun, we walk slowly thru the already woken up Kangding. Close to bus station were mushroom sellers offering what they found in the woods above the city. Sharp on time, the bus starts moving. I was again expecting, that the journey will last something around 10 hours, because of the road construction, but suprisingly we didn’t have to wait before Luding at all and just stopped for less than an hour ahead of the long tunnel. Afterwards we drove straight to Chengdu without any delays (just a short stop at some bistro, with robably the most awful „toilets“ on the world - one would not place pigs). Right after 8 hours of drive we are kicked off at the Chengdu Xin Nan Men bus terminal.
The Sam’s Guesthouse we chose (really not a good place), should be just a relatively short walk, so we don’t take a taxi nor bus. A painful check-in procedure and being led to nearby Rong Cheng Hotel, where we got entrance card and then were taken to yet another building, where our room was. So the hostel is just an office on a main street using rooms of a nearby chinese hotel.
Following day we wanted to buy the air tickets from Chengdu to either Shenzhen or Guangzhou, but the prices shot up northwards. Much more expensive than what we paid counterdirection. A cheaper option turns to be to take a fast-train to Chongqing (2 hours, 98 RMB) and fly from there for half of the price. As the hostel staff was useless for any train/air tickets booking, i headed to the Chengdu Railway Station to buy the tickets first. As usual real inferno, neverending lines of people. I found the CRH trains ticket vending machines and started to wait one of the 12 queues. After 30 minutes of waiting, it turned out, that it was totally useless, because the right to buy ticket is reserved solely for chinese nationals (you have to have chinese ID to buy a ticket) – just a little piece of chinese rasism! I tried to find out if i could buy the ticket at one of the counters, but everytime i mentioned „He Xie Che Piao Dao Chongqing – tickets for fast trains to Chongqing“ i was pointed to the damn vending machines. Getting back to hotel, olalala, internet was down (and stayed so until our departure). We walk to a nearby Starbucks to try the wi-fi there - finally got online and purchased the tickets with Sichuan Airlines from Chengdu to Guangzhou.
Next day before noon, we start the long move to the south, which was full of transfers - from Chengdu via Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong to Cebu in the Phillipines. First part was to get to Chengdu airport, which went fine – after short walk we were by the Minshan Hotel, bought tickets for the shuttle bus and in just 40 minutes reached the airport. We wrapped our bags (most chinese airports don’t offer this, so it’s good bring your own foil), checked in and waited for the flight. At our gate parked large, wide body Airbus 330-200 aircraft, which is used for flights from Europe to Asia and we had that for a just a 2 hours long „jump“ to Guangzhou. The plane took off with a slight delay, no meal was served, just snacks. At 6PM we land at Guangzhou Bai Yun Airport.
When collecting bags, my bag (fortunately i had it wrapped) and few other bags are poured with some sticky sauce – some idiot had in a checked-in bag bottles or what with this s**t, which of course got broken during the handling. The airport is connected with downtown by metro, so we take it to get to the railway station, where we have to change to train to Shenzhen. At the train station, another shock – for the trains, we need to take, are lined up queues perhaps 300 metres long. Fortunately it moves relatively fast, so we get tickets for 20:25 train (again, as foreigner can’t use vending machine, but this time, there is at least a extra counter for waiguoren).
The train moves sharp on time and at half past nine we are at Shenzhen railway station and follow the crowd which heads to Hong Kong. Walk up few stairways, thru couple of corridors and we are at China immigration checkpoint. Passing thru was a breeze. Another walking thru corridors, filling out Hong Kong arrival card and passing the passport control. Short after 10PM we jump on MTR to Hung Hom, where we quickly find stand of A21 line to the airport. Paying the 33 HKD and 5 minutes after midnight we are dropped in front of the HKIA Terminal 1, from where our flight to Cebu departs. We yet wrap our backpacks and go to the check-in. But ooops... we forgot to read something - one needs to hold return ticket to enter Philippines without visa, which we did not have. So we yet have to quickly purchase ticket for return flight Cebu - Hong Kong at the nearby Cebu Pacific Airlines counter.
At after 1AM we are boarding into the aircraft - incredibly small leg space and worn out seats. Fortunately i fell asleep short after take-off. After roughly 3 hours we are landing at the Cebu Airport. There is no time difference between China and the Philippines, so it's half past 4AM. We have no philippine pesos, so wanted to change some in the only exchange office open. But sorry, run out of money. Later with help of one policeman we got money exchanged in another airport building and we can move ahead with taxi to the bus terminal and further to Moal Boal in the south of the island.
The taxi driver was totally off and drives us to wrong bus terminal and from there thru the whole city to the right one. The bus leaves in quarter an hour and short after depart, both of us fall asleep. I woke up when we were passing the mountains to the western coast of the island - wonderful views on the misty morning landscape. After 2 and half hours drive we reached Moal Boal, grabbed something small to eat in a local bakery and took tricycle to beat the last 4 kilometres to the Papasgama Beach, which will be our base for the next 5 days. It was too early to check-in to the room, so we go to check out what's around our Moal Boal Backpacker Lodge and end up in a nearby restaurant Sunset View (we made it our canteen for the whole stay) for breakfast. Food was delicious and as we found later a good quarter cheaper than elsewhere around. In the afternoon, the almost no sleep last night forces us to hit the hay.
Next day in full power we start to walk to nearby White Beach, some 7 kilometres away. Instead of taking a tricycle made a nice, around an hour long walk. The road leads thru several small villages and along houses of the local farmers. Packs of fruits grow on trees around (mango, papaya, bananas, pomelo etc.). The beach was nice, indeed almost white sand, nice wooden cottages and nearly no people. Just some 20 metres from the shore were wonderful corals with various kinds of rather small colorful fishes.
Following day we rented a motorbike (250 PHP) and made ride along the coast roughly 40 kilometres to the south. In one of the villages we are almost out off gas. Stopping at a small shop with drinks, where we can find nearest gas station. The answer is quite surprising - here. The take out bottles from Coca-Cola filled up with gas and tanking us full. In village St. Filomena is nice church from the spanish colonial era, one can also see mangroove trees along the road. On the way back we wanted to stop at Kawasan Falls, but around 20 touts shouting at us ÿet before we stopped the motorbike, pretty much distracted us. We yet made a short stop in Moal Boal market to buy some fruits and then headed to the beach.
Nothing extra happened the next day - one thunderstorm was following another one. At least the dinner at Sunset View was delicious - grilled fish with vegetables.
We woke up a bit earlier today. Weather was fine, no morning rain as the days prior. Together with Victoria, who stays in the same place as us, we took a breakfast and spend some time chatting about travelling. Then we take tricycle to the beach. Two short thunderstorms did hit, but otherwise nice weather, perfect for relaxing and snorkeling. The day was closed with again very tasty tuna fish made on grill.
The time in Moal Boal is over, move back to Cebu City is needed. We pack all our stuff and at 12 AM we jump on the bus and head towards northeast. The ride is little bumpy, but bus is not packed, so a relative comfort on-board. The last almost an hour is digging thru the wild traffic of Cebu City southern suburbs. We walk from the bus station to the downtown, explore a bit the area around Colon Street and Santo Nino Cathedral. Cebu City is the second largest city in the Philippines, for sure over 1 million people live here, so downtown is a real hustle-bustle. We walked all the way to the sea shore, yet visited the Fort, which was built by spanish colonists in the second half of the 16th century. Before dusk we take a taxi to the airport, wait for 3 hours at the airport and after 10PM we are on the way to Hong Kong.
Arriving at HKIA around 1AM in the morning, we spent few hours sleeping at the airport and at 7AM move by bus to Hong Kong Island - this time we stay in Causeway Bay area. The hostel is quite nice, 50m metres away from MTR, bus and tram station and most important - it's not Chunking Mansion. We did leave our bags in the reception and headed to Macau, which is on the plan for today. We took tram to the Western Market, which right across the street from Sheung Wan mall, from where the fast ferries to Macau depart. Oneway costs 150 HKD and the trip takes a bit over an hour. Half an hour before noon we land in Macau.
The arrival hall is totally packed - 80 % of the crowd are Mainland China tourists, we have to wait long queue for the immigration clearance. Right in the next hall are dozens of touts trying to grab the arriving tourists into their casino. We walk straight out and under temperature of 35 degrees walk into downtown and later into the old portuguese part. Inside the narrow lanes one feels a little bit like somewhere in southern Europe (just to imagine, that the streets are not totally peoplepacked). The major attraction are remains of the St. Paul Church standing on a small hill above the Old Quarter. The heat was really unbearable, i had problems even to walk up the hill to the church.
Later in the afternoon we took bus back to port and ferry to HKG. In the evening made the compulsory visit of Tsim Sha Tsui to see the night skyline of Hong Kong - one of the most stunning views in the world i know.
The following day we headed to Shenzhen, which is right across the border with HKG. Thirty years ago it was a small town, then became one of the China's first Special Economic Zones and today it has over 11 million inhabitants. At the border we bought the 5 day visas (for most EU citizens it's 160 RMB). Getting the visa was a breeze - in 10 minutes we have them sticked in the passports and can pass the immigration. Right behind the border is a famous shopping mall Luo Hu. However, vendors were really not wanting to bargain much. We tried to move 2 subway stations to Dong Men shopping area, but found just crappy stuff there, so got back to Luo Hu and spent more or less rest of the day there. Before midnight we are back on the Hong Kong Island.
Next morning we enjoyed somewhat longer sleep and short before noon, with all packed, checked out. We took bus to Hung Hom and walk to Lenka's and Rafael's appartment, where we could store our bags and head for final stroll and shopping around Mongkok. With the sunset got back, had some time for short chat, shower and walked to the airport bus station. In another hour we are at HKIA and at 11PM follows the take-off of our Istanbul bound flight.
Old aircraft, broken seat, broken tables, AVOD working only in turkish and rude and chaotic staff - that was this Turkish Airlines flight. But we landed in Istanbul an hour earlier, so had plenty of time to change money, get a coffee before we took at 6AM the first subway to downtown. Istanbul (for both of us a dejá-vu) was still a bit sleepy, the Grand Bazaar would be closed anyway, so we take tram over the Galata Bridge and at Karakoy Pier jump into a ferry to Haydarpasa and Kadikoy on the asian side. Wonderful hour long boat ride for less than an euro. Afterwards we headed to the already waking up Grand Bazaar - actually much better and cheaper shopping than in China.
At 4PM we are in the air on the way to Prague (THY a bit recovered reputation after the horrible flight from HKG), where we safely land short after 6PM and the game is over.