(Edited from an email to M at the Lao Cai Railway station on 7th Mar06.. continued)
TREK TO LAO CHAI -TAVAN VILLAGES
The next day the weather was fine with the sun coming out though there was still a lot of fog. Had wanted to walk to the valleys myself but was stopped at the ticket booth (yea, u hv to pay to go to the villages! ), they insisted i hv to hv a guide else they won't sell me the entry ticket! So i walked all the way up back to the hotel & they got me a Black H'Mong girl to bring me for the trek for 8USD. i was looking out for Zi but didn't see her. i got this girl called Za, pronounced 'Ya' instead. She claimed she's 16 too and knows Zi. Ya is a very pretty girl with rosy cheeks, flawless skin and v clean appearance. She speaks much better English than Zi, is more mature in thinking though still mischevous n she's certainly much more professional n considerate than Zi where leading the trek is concerned. i must say the terrace fields here are also beautiful works of sculpt but really nothing compared to those in Yuan Yang.
i had a great time with Ya who brought me on a route different from the last we took with Zi . We walked into the paddy fields instead of on the mainroad n though it was quite a difficult walk, the views and the people esp. the children we met along the way were worth it. She showed me the schools & hospitals of the Zao people and explained the customs and life of the H'mong along the way. i really liked her a lot. :) She said girls in her village go out to find work at a very young age or help out in the fields when young, education is not a priority for girls but i must say her English, picked up on her own through tourists, is really impressive. Indeed, i met girls at ages of four or five, already selling handicrafts to tourists along the trek, without any adults in sight, and they spoke good English too! (much better than some of our Singaporean hawkers, ok?) She also said girls in the village at her age are mostly of marriage age and people of my age in her tribe and village would be a grandmother by now, hmmm, can't imagine me a grandma though many would say i'm already as grumpy as one, ha ha. And she's given me her email contact! Yes, the H'mong guides mostly hv email addresses now !!
Finally saw Zi outside The Royal in the evening. She saw me too but didn't seem to recognise me. I didn't call out to her lah, just in case she has no idea who i am. Afterall, she only has yr pic :)
COC LY MARKET cum BOAT TRIP
Just came back from the Coc Ly mkt plus the boat trip along the Red River. The long drive there, the relatively much smaller mkt, with the same kind of Flower H'mong pple and the boring river trip was all together not very worth the effort n cost (USD20). Think i should hv just stayed in Sapa to enjoy the town. The market and the church square were interesting with some stalls around and old tribal ladies hand-sewing away.
my one hr is almost up, hv only just enough VND for 1 hr access. So bye for now!
(Edited from an email to M at the Lao Cai Railway Station on 7th Mar 2006)
Once over the Vietnam side, i can tell the diff in the efficiency n quality of the service, esp where transport is concerned. The Chinese r definitely a shade ahead. i had an exasperating time waiting for the bus to set off from Lao Cai to Sapa. i got on the minibus (12seater) at 2.45pm,(Vietnamese time) the bus moved off to all over Lao Cai to collect passengers before returning back to the original spot again to wait for some more passengers! Finally, we only get to really set off for Sapa at 5.15pm! i was already developing a headache after no water n no food for the whole day thru the ardous journey YuanYang to Hekou that i told myself i should hv just remained in Yunnan and not come over to Vietnam at all !
Sapa
When i arrived in Sapa, it was already sunset and as expected, foggy all over.The saving grace was The Auberge where i stayed. It's really got some class, its boss n staff, except the manager(the boss' son) r really nice, warm and welcoming, the rooms are built in a French villa style building with mini gardens along the corridors, the USD15 rooms came with real fire places but i decided to take the USD10 room which was already v spacious, with a bathtub, an electric Ariston water heater n TV. Had a good night's rest, though the damp and cold was as bad as Yuan Yang's. Could really do with a cozy fireplace...:)
Early morning view of Sapa town from The Auberge:
Sapa Bac Ha Sunday Market
(Markets in the villages around supposed to be a social place for the young men and women from various villages in the mountains to meet up and get to know each other and hence start a relationship, hence the weekend market in Bac Ha used to be called 'love market' but due to the influx of curious and nosy tourists, you hardly see any 'action' at this 'touristy' market between the young men and women but apparently, the 'love markets' are still quite prevalent in the more remote parts of the mountains.)
The next day was a rainy day in Sapa, still i went to Bac Ha (USD10) with a very lovely Swiss couple n their very very adorable 4yr old girl, another elderlyFrench couple with their Vietnamese friend who speaks French and is the boss of a hotel in Hanoi. He invited me to stay at his place when i return to Hanoi. Bac Ha was not raining, but the weather was rather gloomy and somehow the market wasn't quite as interesting as the last time we were there, some stalls were missing. Come to think of it, it's very similar to the ShengCun（ 胜村）Market over the China Yuan Yang side. Maybe, due to the proximity of the two places which are near the border, the people have similar culture, might even be from the same origin. Took a lot of pics of the Flower H'mong with the digi as well as the film camera.
When the market buzz died down, we went on a shorter trek (compared to the last time you were here), this time into the village very close by.
We had a little time left due to the shortened trek and were lead on a stroll along the Vietnam-Chinese border which i found a waste of time since i had walked over from the other side the day before.
That night i shifted to The Queen 'cos they had a room with fireplace that only cost 4USD, but room was right at the top and it's definitely no joke climbing up and down the steep stairways of Vietnamese houses esp. when u keep forgetting something u want to say to the staff downstairs at the lobby and there's no intercom. i had a good taste of that when i was abt to take a bath and found out the heater didn't seem to be working, had to put on all my clothes again, run down to the lobby, asked the staff to come fix it and then run up again. After she's 'fixed' it, (actually the switch was in off position lah but no indication of it mah), i attempted to take a bath again to find that it's still NOT working, this time i just put on the towel, ran down 4 storeys again to tell her. She said i would have to wait for 30mins for the water to get heated, well, she could have told me earlier b4 she went down , right? i was freezing in my towel and quickly ran up again. Finally after the bath, i still felt cold and decided to have the fireplace lit. Afterall, the fireplace was the main reason i shifted over. Well, i've never have to start a fire in a fireplace or keep it going in my life so that was quite an experience, not one i would like to relive again. It wasn't quite like a BBQ fire, somehow the papers and the damp wood that was supplied to me by the staff didn't burn too well and i had to keep on restarting and fanning the fire to keep it going, else it died quickly. Can u imagine me, getting in and out of bed the whole night, trying to fan and keep the fire going cos it was really really cold, think most of the cold air come in from the chimney, and the hotel didn't supply thick blankets like those in China.
(Edited from an email to M from Vietnam Lao Cai Railway Station on 7th Mar 2006)
Hi !
i'm in an internet station outside LaoCai Railway stn right now, 3 hrs more before my train departs for Hanoi n nothing to do, it's only 20c per hr for internet access, so let me update my last few episodes.....
UPDATE ON YUANYANG :
When i called from Kunming to try to book a room in Yuan Yang, i was told the weather was sunny with some fog and clouds, and i smiled to myself, thinking- "perfect for picture taking". Sigh, weather turned drastic when i arrived. The vis overall was less than 10m. The first 2days in Yuan Yang was really depressing due to heavy fog that covered almost everything from roads to houses, let alone see any rice terrace fields. i caught only glimpses of the famouse rice terraces here and there and was not at all satisfied. It was like the day we were trekking in Sapa in '04, the day after the Tsunami.....
Actually, i thank God our bus managed to arrive safely from Kunming, after a window pane behind me shattered to pieces due to the extreme change in temperature , miraculously without injury to anyone, after winding round and round the hills with the driver constantly sounding his horn cos the vis was so bad i could hardly see anything more than 2m ahead of the bus and i was sitting right behind the bus driver. i thank God he was a safe driver and didn't attempt to speed or cut lanes despite the fact we were getting quite late; there were a few occasions when a vehicle suddenly loomed into sight from the reciprocal direction just when we thought there was nothing ahead.
Yuan Yang town is very very like Sapa, with gentle slopes all over, and the hill tribe people (mostly Hani and Yi) still dressed in traditional garb except they don't harass travellers like in Sapa. Food is dirt cheap here, a bowl of noodles 1.5yuan, internet access 2yuan per hr with good speed n software, but transport n accomodation is relatively more expensive and standards relatively lower. i had a room which had a door that couldn't close properly and a heater that runs only for 2 hours in the evening and if u miss the bathing hours, that's it....
There were a lot of photo enthusiasts here waiting for the fog to clear, they were always in a ever-ready mode with tripods all on standby already cos one never gonna know when the fog will move away and even then u might only have a few moments of glimpses of the beautiful rice terraces, so cannot afford to miss it :)
i saw from the news that the bad weather is all over China,Hong Kong n i believe it's raining also in S'pore. It's apparently due to a cold front, shifting southwards, n some areas even unexpectedly snowed.
i had to postpone a trip out to the terraces with a beijing lady and a 70++yr old Shanghainese man residing in HK 'cos of the poor vis. I was afraid i might hv to extend my stay here n might have to skip the Saturday Can Cau mkt or even the Bac Ha mkt in Sapa but......
thank God the last day at YuanYang was quite fruitful for the Good Lord kindly blessed the land with sunshine and markedly improved vis though fog was still prevalent. Took quite a number of shots because the rice terraces were really impressive: great works of sculpted land by man's labour made possible by the elements of nature provided by God; the mushroom huts of the Hani people also made picturesque spots on the beautifully scultped terraces and the markets were also colourful with the Hani and Yi people. Regretfully though, i did not hv enough faith to wake up for the spectacular sunrise that morning over one of the most captivating rice terraces, could hv kicked myself when i saw the pics of the other photographers. Sunset, however was a disappointment to all who hv patiently waited for hrs at their 'choped' spots, the fog came in to mask the sun at the very last crucial moment!
Yuan Yang is really very similar to Sapa but i think i like it better here. u must really come n take a look if you had liked Sapa. Firstly, it's easier to get here from Kunming than to Sapa from Hanoi. Most of all, trekking is free and language is not so much a barrier. Throughout the places we've seen in YuanYang, the hill tribe pple r mostly kind, honest,helpful and r much less mercenary than those in Sapa. Nobody pesters you here, except at that sunset spot(Laohu Zhui), where i think tourism had spoiled the locals. The children had been taught to sing jingles that 'suan' tourists for not giving them money or buying anything from them and the local adults had stationed themselves at the most strategic spots to demand unofficial payment from pple taking photos of the rice terraces. Else, it's truly a beautiful place worth coming back to.
The World Vision has just started a project here this month to help the hill tribe pple by training them to be guides n they r also promoting responsible tourism here. They hv been v helpful in providing info even tho we didn't give them any business. Hopefully, they remain as helpful always.
On the last night before i left, i shared my room with a nice Taiwanese girl also travelling on her own. We had a good time watching and discussing the characters and plot of yr favourite show "金枝欲孽" ( which is a rage right now in China ) till late night... looks like me hooked onto it liao :) We r at the part where the emperor had just slept with Yuying n An Qian is planning to leave the palace.
Can u tell me what happened in the end huh? Did the 3 girls (an qian, er chun, yuying) reconcile with each other? Did the two men (bai yang n kong wu) turn evil? Did anybody die ? i probably will not get to watch anymore once i leave YuanYang, so pls pls pls, tell me ! tks :) hmmm, must see if i can get the pirated version b4 i come back....hee hee.
Oh..i must tell u abt the inspiring pple i met the last few days here. 3 Guangzhou young nurses, a 75++ old gentleman with his 50++yr old employee and i got together while having dinner at the famous "小余饭店" where we had a sumptuous dinner. The next morning, we went by foot to look for this rice terrace field (龙树坝）despite the fog. Well, all would hv been less adventurous if we didn't take the wrong advice from a local and ended up on a v tough 3hr trek on a path into a village with dogs barking at us; climbing n descending thru muddy,steep & narrow paths like those we walked thru in Sapa with Zi on that raining day; worst, we ended up treading on the thin steps of the rice terraces that were already filled with water. All these, thru the fog was already a little difficult for me with my bag n cameras, imagine the 75++ old gentleman, carrying his Canon EOS 1, with 3 long n short lenses plus lens hood n what not, plus he's quite big size and has Parkinson's disease.
i take my hat off to him and also to the 3 Guangzhou girls who, though on a very tight schedule (they had a bus to catch to return to Kunming just after noon), slowed down their pace, took turns to patiently hold onto the old gentleman and literally moved step by step with him across the rice terraces. It was a tedious n'precarious' task 'cos all might end up falling into the water-filled muddy fields if one slipped but thank God we all made it thru. Even though we didn't get to see the beauty of that place that morning, i saw beauty that really inspired me: the old gentleman who did not at all complain, who showed me if u have to n really want to do something, u will be able to do it regardless of age, disease or size. i was even more inspired by the 3 girls ' selflessness. Even as they rushed off to catch their bus, they did not forget to call the old gentleman on the handphone to check if he had reached the main road and they even gave him a driver's number to call in case he needed transport back to town due to exhaustion.
i thank God for all the kind pple i've met on my trips, incl. this round. The encounters alone r worth the journey already even tho this time round, weather has not been as fantastic as the Meili Snow Mountain trip.
YUAN YANG TO HEKOU
The bus from Yuan Yang to the China-Vietnam border Hekou, was supposed to take only 4hrs so i didn't pack any food but i started off at 7a.m and ended in Hekou at 3.30pm Chinese time.(8 & half hrs!) China is in the process of building the highway from YuanYang to Hekou * and there r a lot of road works and road blocks along the way. It was a torturous journey with many hours stalled at road blocks and jams, didn't help with all the unavoidable inhalation of second hand smoke in the bus coupled with a madly impatient driver using all sorts of unscrupulous ways to cut queue. At one point he detoured to the works area by the river in an attempt to cut ahead of the queue that was stalled by the road block ahead and ended up with the bus unable to move up the slope back onto the road even after several 'bull run' attempts due to the steep angle. Finally, we all had to get down the bus to help push it up....'gey kiang'!
The whole journey was along the road just beside the scenic Red River (红河) n i believe it will be a v pleasant ride once the highway is completed, but till then, no way i want to do that again.
* update : as of 28th Feb 2008, the highway from Yuanyang to Hekou is officially opened
Hekou is , surprisingly a very modern, thriving town, with good wide n clean roads, modern buildings, expensive looking hotels. The crossing of the border was relatively fast n uneventful though i did notice the customs officer at the vietnamese side trying to 'eat' the 'tofu' of the groups of Chinese girls crossing over. Thank God me no tofu :)
Arrived Kunming from Dali wee hours of 24th morning and contemplated going back to the Carmellia hostel to get my clothings but changed my mind and took the next available morning train direct to Luoping（ 罗平）. That was a big mistake.....
Weather was wonderful in Kunming but as they say here: yunnan 'shiba guai' (云南十八怪), Luoping was drizzling and freezing cold!! I left my thick clothings in Carmellia Hostel before leaving for Dali ‘cos Dali wasn't cold and Luoping was not expected to be. It was supposed to be the sunshine clear weather season and the rapeseed (油菜花) fields are supposed to be at their most beautiful, best amongst the country, golden with full bloom and sunshine. As such, the town was flooded with many people who had come to seek the famed flower fields and even though the rooms there all do not hv heating service i had difficulty getting a decent room at an affordable price. Had to make do with whatever price i could bargain to for whatever room they had left to spare me. And it was a damp and cold room with no electric blanket but at least there was enough hot water for a bath (the heater runs on solar and the skies then weren't too keen to supply the solar energy) Sigh! as long as i get to see the beautiful flowers, i'm ok lah, i told myself.... i was told they had held the Rapeseed Flowers Festival (油菜花节) for consecutively 8yrs and this is the first yr the weather turned gloomy, in the past, it's bright n sunny !
Well, the rain didn't stop the next day still and i decided to waste no more time, took the bus to '金鸡岭' (Jinji Ling) to see the famous fields. The rapeseed flowers (油菜花) were really really astonishingly beautiful. It cheers me up just looking at them when i was on the bus from Kunming to Luoping. Think: acres and acres of land all filled with bright yellow(golden in sunlight) blooms of the flowers, it's like 'hong tu di'(红土地) in Dongchuan except it's less terraced-like and not as multi-coloured though there are also blooms of other flowers; would really be very very pretty in sunshine had it been clear weather, nonetheless, they were still beautiful, in a sad way on a cold rainy day..... i cut the stay there by one day 'cos i really couldn't tahan the cold(10deg & below), eventually only did the Nine Dragons Waterfalls (九龙瀑布群）, which is worth the 60yuan entry fee (was 30yuan last Sep). The several falls at different altitudes were quite impressive though they were not the most spectacular ones in China. The view from the higher vantage points ovelooking the river and the rape seed fields was worth the climb up the slippery and wet path. Didn't do the river rafting trip down the supposedly very scenic 'duo yi' river (多依河), didn't visit the 'Buyi' tribe(布衣族) too but saw their villages around the waterfall, maybe next time.
Dinner was at a shop in town that supposedly sold claypot rice but turned out to be more like a Korean cuisine with rice served in a claypot accompanied by a course of about 8 to 10 small dishes of what looked similar to those served in a Korean meal...no complaints 'cos it was delicious and cheap. (15RMB for whole course)
Click for Luoping Slideshow
Back to Kunming
Kunming was bright n sunny again. Really like the Camellia Hostel. They should be a model for all other hostels in China. Stayed with a Korean nun one night and another with a China lady looking for job in Kunming, strange guests. Went to Xinhua Bookstore n found they have v good guide books on Vietnam, taiwan n HongKong but i couldn't carry so many things lah so i just bought the Yunnan guide. Went back to the City Cafe but the cute waiter no more there, :(
(Edited from an email to M from an internet cafe in Dali (Yunnan) 23rd Feb 2006 )
Hello ! Greetings from Dali !
I'm in a very very nice cafe (Cafe de Jack) in dali right now, it's got wonderful ambience n music n food is reasonably priced n delicious. i had this 'la banana flambe' thing yesterday night which comprises of three bananas cooked in brandy n orange juice in a pan that goes into flames right in front of me, 12 yuan only!!
Dali, like Lijiang has changed considerably from my last visit 12 yrs ago as Yunnan is now a popular destination in China and there's an influx of tourists doing the Dali-Lijiang-Shangrila route on tour buses. My first impression of the present Dali was less than lukewarm after having been to Lijiang but i've come to like it for what Lijiang is not. It's definitely got less attractions in its surroundings c.f to Lijiang but it's got a correspondingly much less tourist crowd. i didn't see a single tour group here at all, at least not those with flag-carrying guides. Its old city is smaller than Lijiang but this means navigating is fairly easy. I'm kind of glad there isn't any Disneyland or theme park feel in Dali as there is in Lijiang. Most of the tourist cafes here r empty n they certainly don't hv the noisy bustle at night like Lijiang. Most shops in the old city r actually still v much catered to the local pple, and all housed in v traditional buildings-the Bai tribe architecture. Prices here r certainly cheaper than in Lijiang incl. accomodation. And unlike Lijiang where they have gone all environment friendly, u do find pple here spitting n splashing water on the cobbled streets though not as bad as elsewhere in China.
i felt kind of sorry for the 'touts' trying to get pple to go on a day trip with them. It's easy to cycle around here n most backpackers would do so whilst those who would take the day trips out on vehicles would have been cornered by their guesthouse staff already so the 'touts', mostly old pple, didn't appear to get much business.
i went to view Mt Cang and Er Hai 苍山洱海 and the 3 famous pagodas (大理三塔) and met this v nice pony-cart driver uncle who has 3 daughters; he was so upset that at my age i'm still unmarried that he went on and on quite seriously abt introducing some 'nice' fellows to me and kept stressing that it is not good to remain single :) ha ha ! 'jia-lat'
On my way back to the guesthouse after the 3 pagodas visit, i passed by this park that's just next to the alley where my guesthouse is situated and decided to pop in since the guesthouse staff did say there are some 'cha-hua' (carmellelias) still in bloom. The flowers were not at their most beautiful, however i had an enjoyable time watching two groups of very interesting ladies, one group of middle age and the other all senior citizens practising dancing inside.(They call ladies 金花 here in Dali, remember they call them ‘胖金妹’in Lijiang ? :) ) It was very interesting and heartwarming at the same time watching them and my heart wished for our people , at their age, to be as active, as hale and hearty and strong as these people ...
Oh, i must tell u abt this hair salon i just went to. It's run by this guy who was the designated hair stylist for 'Pin Guan 品冠' of "WuYin LiangPin 无印良品" when they came to Dali. The hair sytlists there all wore v 'hip' hair styles n their skills were also not bad judging from the customers who had their hair done there. i just had a wash, trim n blow, all for 8 yuan. It's 6 yuan if u choose Pantene or Head n Shoulders shampoo. i like the meticulous ways the guys do the cut for their customers. They took an hour average for every customer n for mine too, even though it's only a trim!! So if u ever come to Dali, u must visit this salon. :)
Ah..my dinner is ready , so bye for now.
p/s: i'm leaving on the night train back to Kunming. Happy Working !
(Edited from an email to M on 21st Feb 2006 from the Dragon Hostel HK )
Gd morning!
i just had the 'ham chee fun' (咸糍饭）below the hostel. Didn't plan on it, wanted to eat sesame dumplings but they don't hv it in the morning, instead they hv yr 'hamchee fan' !!
btw, Alice didn't know wat I meant when i asked her abt this 'ham chee' till i described it to her and she said it's 'ham chee FUN' !! Yesternight, i had the much acclaimed claypot rice at Temple st. It's quite deceiving on the looks, whitish rice like tasteless but all the taste oozed out when u dig into the rice as the ingredients are all well blended inside but i personally prefer the Singapore chinatown kind. To make u itch more to come to HK, let me tell u i had a wonderful time yesterday night watching the enchanting 'symphony of lights' mutlimedia show at Victoria Harbour; think: our sentosa musical fountain sound & light show. Theirs is the whole of the Central buildings illuminated with laser beams, lights beaming in accordance to music n commentary, v impressive n all FREE of charge. It helps that weather has turned finer & there's no drizzle yesterday & tdy. There's a newly erected Bruce Lee's statue at the harbour promenade, on the Avenue of Stars and the 'ang mos' were so crazy over it, while the Japanese rushed to take photos with Jackie Chan's handprints & the Taiwanese with Andy Lau's. :) Their avenue of stars is really a success, watever happened to ours? Hong Kong is REALLY REALLY nice, i've decided to come back end of the year when skies r clearer then. i'm staying at the Dragon Hostel, u can check it out from the net. V conveniently situated, price cheaper than Anne Blacks by much. Spent 6h travelling to n fro from ShenZhen yesterday to get my e-ticket, still worth it. Shenzhen looked much less congested and more mordenised than HK though i've just discovered i was handed a fake 10yuan note yesterday !!:( Anyway, i got to leave now for Shenzhen to catch the flight. Till i find another internet service, happy working. My plan: Shenzhen to Kunming , Kunming to Dali back to Kunming, then to LuoPING, LuoPing To Kunming, Kunming to Yuan Yang, Yuan Yang to Hekou, cross the China-Vietnam border at Hekou to Lao Cai, take the bus to Sapa. From Sapa to Hanoi n then back.....telling u all this in case i go missing and a search needs to be conducted, ha ha :)
(Edited from an email to M from the Dragon Hostel HK on 19th Feb 2006 ):
Hi ! goodnews for u!
i've gotten yr cd, but it's at HMV, so not so cheap u know: HKD115. Didn't see many cd shops around. Alice says cos most pple buy pirated ones and yet these are sold discreetly to 'familar' customers only. Hope yr cd can survive my trip till back home. :)
i just had my pig's organ congee (及第粥), yum yum, but they've run out of the famous fried fish skin , :( The weather over here is not too great, grey skies with drizzle, so didn't get to the peak at all. But i had a wonderful day tdy with Alice who brought me to her church in the morning and we attended a talk on caring for mental patients in the afternoon. She also treated me to yummy yummy dim sum at 'Lian Xiang Lou', v v traditional place, service n food. The waiters and waitresses ， some quite senior looking, were all dressed in the traditional white uniform with black pants and there's a pushcart with all the plates of delicious dim sum on it but it had to be left stationary at one spot cos the place was just too crowded, so we helped ourselves to the food or place our orders through the waiters/waitresses. The place was buzzing with business ,and the waiters and waitresses were shouting above the chatter and the clatter of dishes and cups, just like the 'cha -lau' (茶楼） we see in the HK shows :)
After that I had a delightful ride on the tram n my all time favourite star ferry :)
i had to stay one more night in HK cos 'gey kiang' me didn't pay for the Shenzhen-Kunming ticket online, i had thought i could get it at same cheap price on the day of departure, i.e when i reach Shenzhen airport tomorrow but i just discovered from the internet that the price has escalated by more than 440Yuan now! So i've decided to make a trip to Shenzhen airport tomorrow morning to buy the Tues ticket, then come back to HK again. Stupid huh? but accommodation in Shenzhen is ex, dunno where r all the budget places so it's still more economical to return to HK for the night....Only consolation: i managed to catch a black n white Cantonese film wee hours this morning with all the classic actors/actresses- Patrick Tse, Siu Fong Fong, Lydia Sum, Liong Seng Po n Lum Chong , hee hee! satisfied liao :)
The hostel is v clean n friendly, right opp Ladies mkt. My only complaint: the toilet is really tiny.....but still clean and comes with hot showers :)
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十多年后旧地重游。。景物新旧参半，人事已非
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