4 July - Reporting from Hong Kong.

Today I was reminded of my ancestry when I was out walking in Hong Kong - "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun".  Yes, I was walking up Nathan Road at noon in a temperature of 34C plus - it seemed to me a hell'uv lot more.  Eventually I got back to my room that overlooked a large swimming complex in Kowloon Park.  The locals don't  even go into the water at noon!

From my hotel room window the swimming pool in Kowloon Park

 Had a quick lunch and laid down for a rest.  The next I knew it was 4.00 pm.  Had a quick wash and back out to those hot streets, walked around for a bit looking for some place to buy some presents for my two granddaughters, and my kids and their spouses.  Eventually I found myself in a market being shunted about by cars, bicycles, and people pushing trolleys,  all trying negotiate the narrow piece of road that was left between the stalls.  Here I got a couple of T-shirts that showed a Hong Kong origin for my two grand children.  Remembering that my daughter had told me, via Skype, that the temperature back home had got down to -1C and she had turned on the under floor heating in my Villa I bought some woolen scarves for the grownups.  Can you imagine standing in the sun, with a street temperature in the mid 30s buying  woolen scarves for those at home?

Back to the hotel all hot and exhausted.  Passed the bronze statue of three Boy scouts and up a grand marble – maybe imitation – staircase and sat myself down in comfortable tub chair in the bar.  This is a good time to use my free drink voucher – it didn’t matter what it was as long as it was long and cool.   

After a long cool beer, I ordered a gin and guava juice, also very nice.  Here is where I start to get into a bit of trouble because I thought I could cope with a gin tonic before heading off to my room.  So I ordered one and the waitress said something about happy hour, but not having my hearing aids in I ignored it.  The G&T dully arrived, I grabbed a paper and caught up on some overseas news and finished my drink.  Just as I was to ask for my bill, another G&T arrived – happy hour two for one drinks.  So that’s what the waitress was so kindly trying to tell me.  I should have known because back in 1990 when staying at the Sheridan, four of us ordered exotic drinks while seated in a booth.  To our surprise, the waiter turned up with eight drinks— two for one happy hour— completely  covering the table with glasses, drinks of all colours, straws, and some of those little umbrellas.

Anyway, on the way to my room I booked in for dinner, headed up in the lift, had little rest, change my clothes and went down to dinner.

 

Now back in my room I am looking at the large public swimming pool, it is 7.30 and getting dark, the lights are coming on, and the swimming pool has swimmers.  It seems that  in the morning and at night when the temperature has dropped a couple of degrees people her go swimming.

Had my dinner and then headed up to the Temple Street night market.  Much superior, for us blokes, to the Ladies Market I visited last night.  Just a short walk from the hotel, but the heat made it seem further.  The market has  wallets, belts, torches, umbrellas, clothes, battery operated toys, bags, tools especially those transformer type that give a whole work shop in one belt pouch, and many, many more interesting items.  Shopping is easy once you can calculate prices back into your home country prices.  For me it was $NZ1 to $HK6.4 so at first everything appeared expensive.

Walking through the Temple Street Market.

 While, in the market I took some photos and learnt taking your camera from an air condition room and then taking it out of its camera bag in the hot humid everything fogs up.

Finally after a couple of hours I get back to my room knowing that all the drinks I had dad early are now well and truly sweated out.  Shoes off and a bottle of cold water beside me the end has come to my first day in Hong Kong.