It's 2.30am and my face is going to fall off. The temperature has dropped to 2C, my head doesn't fit in the sleeping bag so my face is feeling the chill. 5.30am: Having contorted into a position so that I fit in the bag I've improved my status from really damn cold to just really cold. I muddle together some twigs and chippings not burned yesterday to get a welcome fire started. After spending one night in the bush I've turned into a fully fledged fire worshipp...

It's 5:20am...b*****, my tour leaves at 5:10am. I appear to have fallen for the classic am/pm trick with my alarm clock and have only been awoken by a guy in my dorm going to the toilet. Managing to get myself ready in the dark in less than a minute I bound down the stairs of the hostel wearing pyjamas and hiking boots. Luckily I haven't missed it and have time to get changed before I'm picked up by Virginia, a guide from Adventure Tours a few minutes later. All...

If I used up all my bad luck at the racecourse it was HK$500 well spent. Arriving in Cairns airport with 45 minutes to spare and needing to negotiate immigration, baggage reclaim, quarantine, check-in, security and boarding isn't the sort of thing that fills you with optimism. I manage to accomplish it all through a combination of running everywhere and tutting loudly at anyone who takes more than 5 seconds to do anything. From the air, it really is clear that i...

Cyclone Fengshen hits in the early hours of the morning, pummelling my hotel window with rain making it difficult to sleep. The wind rating is increased from a 3 to an 8 (out of 10) and it is a code Red rainstorm, or at least that's what I can make out from the funny symbols at the top of a Chinese weather forecast. Later in the day the ratings are reduced once again to a 3 and amber rating as the storm is predicted to move away to the north-west, and people re...

Taking a look around Wan Chai this morning to see the tall buildings close up and to watch "all the pomp of the daily flag raising" - as my "Walks of Hong Kong" guide book reliably informs me. At Golden Bauhina square, where the Sydney Opera House lookalike Hong Kong Convention Centre is found, all I find are dozens of octogenarians doing Tai Chi. Are they going to raise the flag? It doesn't look like there's a lot of pomp about them to me. Th...