Hong Kong – its pants!

Monday 24th October
We slept surprisingly well given the beds are very hard. I expected to wake up aching all over, but not so, it was a great night’s sleep only to be woken by Janet ringing half an hour before breakfast to ask about the note by the bed which said if you left it on the bed they won’t change the bed linen -seems rather extravagant to change it every day. Breakfast is a strange arrangement; you get one breakfast voucher per room not per guest so Janet’s is inclusive and for us we have to pay for one breakfast. Never come across that way of doing it before. Still, apart from that the food is good and plentiful so we enjoyed it all and decided we had best set out to buy some clothes in case the cases didn’t turn up. Our hotel directed us to the Causeway Mall which was about a 10 minute walk away. As soon as we stepped outside the hotel the heat and humidity hit us, it was incredible and within a few minutes we were all drenched in sweat. Shops became a refuge and we frequently lurked in the doorways feigning interest in the shops whilst taking full advantage of the blast of cold air from the air-conditioning. The Causeway Mall was a bit of a disappointment as it turned out to be a designer shopping mall, with the exception of good old M&S. Thinking we were bound to find suitable clothes in there, we separated and each went to look. Janet found a top in the sale which was reasonably priced and we met up with Peter outside also carrying an M&S bag. He had bought some socks, pants and a belt, wait for it, for £95!! I had to repeat the price back to him several times and got him to show me the receipt before I would believe it. Even so I couldn’t comprehend him spending such an extortionate amount on a few undies. Under normal circumstances in the UK he wouldn’t dream of spending that much. I asked if he didn’t think it was a bit pricy when he got to the till, and he looked a bit sheepish and said he had thought so but put it down to Hong Kong being an expensive place. Still I’ll remember this when he next says anything about the price of something I want. After several hours exploring various back streets and markets we were beginning to wilt and went into a local café. It was the first one we saw that advertised English Breakfast Tea! Not an opportunity to be missed, the food was delicious and the tea was Twinings, doubly good.

Our hotel has a pool on the roof, the 39th floor, not a big one, but a lovely spot to relax and take in the views of the city and harbour.

Hong Kong is a very busy city, packed with high rise buildings both commercial and residential. There are skinny double decker trams running along all the main roads together with small single decker, battered up buses that are rusty and rather shabby but I imagine are cheap to use as they always seem packed with locals. This evening we got the underground from Tin Hau underground station right opposite our hotel to the Temple night market which was an interesting place to wander around. Peter and Janet had a chinese at a local café and I had a ghastly cup of tea, made with condensed milk and very strong. We asked for glasses of water but instead of refreshing iced water, were brought hot water, we repeated our request but simply got more glasses of hot water. By now our table was filled with glasses of steaming water however, glancing around the café we noticed that everyone else was drinking hot water. Returning to our hotel we were horrified to discover our cases, which had been promised by 18:00 had not arrived and it was now 20:00. Panic started to set in and we asked the concierge to telephone Emirates to chase the missing cases. After a call he assured us they would arrive by 22:00. We sat in the bar and were pleasantly surprised when he came down to us at 21:30 and, showing us a photo on his phone, enquired if these were our cases – they were!! Much relief and smiles all round.

Some pictures of the views from the top our hotel and the pool as well as the trams and the better cup of tea!Read more