Hong Kong Phooey
Arrived in Hong Kong after a short(ish) hop from Tokyo. We were collected from the airport in a stretched Mercedes limousine. I don't remember paying for this and certainly didn't pay anything when we were dropped off, so exiting the country tomorrow might be interesting.

Think of Oxford street on the last Saturday before Christmas. Then imagine there has been a news broadcast informing everyone in the UK that for "one day only" all goods are free. There is mass hysteria, all trains and all buses, all cars and bicycles, all the people and even their pets all race toward this one road. Double the density of people, run a dual carriageway full of buses through the middle and you have Kowloon high street on a Saturday afternoon. We left the serenity of Japan and ended up in this. Don't forget it is also 80 degrees in the shade, with humidity to rival a drug smuggler armpit passing through Chinese customs (huge signs warning in no uncertain terms you'll be killed). Frankly I wasn't too keen on the place.

After a while, and explaining initially politely, then less so, that I didn't want to buy a handmade suit, we settled in. A brief ride on the Metro took us across to HK island. Or did it, was this just a worm hole back to the UK? Marks and Spencer, British road signs and Pizza Express. Decided we'd had our fill recently of unusual food so opted for Pizza...

Tomorrow we join a tour around China until the 8th December, given the lack of internet access in Beijing our expectation for access in the provinces is pretty low. Next update probably from Shanghai, or perhaps Vietnam.

- and just to prove the Britishness there is a 100 pound fine for spitting on the streets!

- posted by Adrian @ 6:45:00 AM