Even Yet More Postcards from Hong Kong (#4)

Let me just clarify the situation for you. The last time I wrote here was yesterday evening, but I only wrote about the events which happened until the day before that. So I had better let you in on the story of my most recent two days here in the wonderful city of Hong Kong.

Not wanting to ruin the trend of the past couple of mornings, I got up nice and late for "work" (if you can call performing cube demonstrations, work :) ), and was sedentarily making my way towards the MTR (subway train) by about 8:50 in the morning. I say sedentarily, because it's the only way for an English guy like me to get to his destination in Hong Kong without making his appearance as a dripping wet with sweat, panting and heaving body. At least at this time of year. This was after a nice breakfast in the Salisbury Dining Room, overlooking the harbour and Hong Kong Island.

The 3rd day progressed along nicely, I performed the usual routine of 3x3x3 solves, 4x4x4 solves, blindfolded solves, showing the public my method for solving the cubes, explaining that I was UK number 1 and not the World Champion, and answering all the usual stupid questions the general public never fail to put forward. Had a nice lunch with Jane, who talked for about 55 minutes of the hour that we had for lunch, giving me a lot of insight into the way the world of sales and business people work. I have to say she definitely knows her stuff. After lunch, more of the same, and finally by 6 pm I had packed away my things and was ready to leave.

Now the trouble with finishing at the same time as probably thousands of other people, is that it takes you ages to get to your MTR station of choice due to the throngs of people that are also trying to use the subway. So, and it seems like pure folly to me now, I decided that I wouldn't follow the rest of the crowd but that i would take a completely new, unexplored route home. An hour later (and 50 minutes longer than it should have taken) I completed by huge round trip to arrive at exactly the same MTR station that I could have walked to by following the crowd. Who said it's good to be different.

It was a sweaty and exhausted me that collapsed into a heap on the bed upon reaching my hotel room, shoulders aching from heaving my demonstration equipment around deepest Wan Chai, and fingers hurting from so much cubing. The evening therefore was nothing to shout about, I changed, walked to the Internet Cafe to write in my blog (the previous two entries), and then explored the long Nathan Road which stretches all the way from the waterfront into deepest Kowloon, and is a constant riot of commuters and consumers trying to go about their business. It really is an amazing experience. The final act of the day was to stop off at "Kashmir Fast Food" situated in ChungKing Mansions (a very old and dirty looking shopping arcade/market), and in retrospect it was a pretty gutsy thing to do for it looked like a real ramshackle affair. The service however was friendly and polite, and when I asked for some serviettes I was kindly invited into the kitchen area to wash my hands (not sure how hygienic that really is though :S ). Tired and full, I made it back to the hotel by 9pm, and after using the telephone and digesting some Discovery Channel I shut myself down for the night.

And therefore we arrive at today's section, by the end of which I will have, for perhaps the first time, caught up with myself timewise by writing about the most current and up to date stories from my journey.

Feeling very business like, I had telephoned the concierge the previous night to request a wake up call for 7:30am. The wake up call came and went, like my consciousness, and it was with some small fortune that I managed to open my eyes and jump in the shower at 8:30am. No time for breakfast this morning, but a bit of a regretful rush towards the exhibition centre, where I once again arrived half an hour or more late. But I think that Intermed were pretty used to it by now, and when i arrived the boss wasn't yet there, so for the 4th time in a row I got away with it :) I'm sure it would have been a different story if I was an actual employee of theirs however. Today I took some pictures with the employees at the fair, who were quite sad to see me go. We exchanged email addresses, and I promised to send the pictures to them all. I was allowed to leave early, and so said my goodbyes, shook hands with the boss, and hurried out of the Exhibition Centre, a free man!

This afternoon/evening I ventured into the Internet Cafe to check if I had any emails from Lisa, which there were none (although this evenings session at the cafe proved to be a bit more fruitful :) ), before taking a trip to Hong Kong Island via the MTR. The plan was to visit the promenade on the Hong Kong side of the island, and also take a tour up to Victoria peak where I would be afforded stunning views of the central part of hong Kong and Victoria Harbour, complete with fireworks and light show. I intended to take the Peak Tram, but on arriving at the Peak Tram terminal came a slight snag. The queue was absolutely huge, waiting times of more than an hour, and being the impatient tourist I quickly made up my mind that I would sacrifice the Peak Tram experience and hail a taxi to whisk me along the twisty mountain road towards the Peak. The taxi driver was very friendly, and informed me of the best places to go and what to do when at the Peak.

Alas, it wasn't to be my day. I arrived at the summit to find the mountain shrouded in cloud, the bright lights of Hong Kong Central were nothing but mere specks of light through the thick curtain of fine droplets. Still, I enjoyed my time there, explored the shopping arcade, and had a nice dinner in the Mon Koi (I think) Cafe. Took some pictures of course, and after about half an hours sightseeing I found a public bus which made its way back down the slopes to Hong Kong Central. Finally, I walked twice along the promenade to view an amazing cultural heritage festival with shows, demonstrations of how to cook authentic Chinese delicassies, calligraphy, and fortune telling. I of course took plenty more pictures, Hong Kong at nighttime is a photographers dream (I would only guess, however, since I'm no professional :) )

I still have lots more to share, and I'm afraid I've had to truncate and compress some of todays stories but it will have to wait until another day, since I'm getting impatiently eyed up by the owner of the Cafe who wants to close I think ;)

Hope that you are all well, and I will see you again soon!
Lots of love to my Lisa.

Danneh

P.S. I apologise in advance for the appearance and detection of any spelling or grammatical errors, or just pure crap writing, in my postcards. Since I am paying for my time, I didn't bother to check to closely :) Goodnight!