Days one and two of THE TRIP.

We left Brisbane a little late owing to some hold up and had a very good flight to HK. Arrived a little late owing to dodging some weather. We have never been through Customs ANYWHERE so quickly and smoothly. We were so quick we had to wait about 20 or 30 minutes for our bags at the carousel. Our transfer from Airport to the Hotel was a labour intensive operation. We were attended in turn by about 8 different people, going from one ‘staging point’ to another and that does not count the bus driver.
Ann wanted to ‘put her feet up’ and I wanted to go shopping for a new pair of sport shoes. I had done some research on the ‘net’ and knew to go to Fa Yuen Street, known as sport shoe street. It has that name for good reason, I reckon I had passed over 20 sport shoes shops before I even got to Fa Yuen Street. I ended up getting a pair of Adidas for $320. That translates to about $46 Aust. Ann had room service bring a burger to the room and ate there. I intended to get something while I was out and about. I found it all very confusing as all the signs are in Chinese characters and I have trouble reading that! I was unsure of what that they were trying to sell me. I ended up going to KFC and even that was confusing. I had to make my choice from a picture menu and what I wanted included a cup of Pepsi. I could not convince the girl that I wanted it without the Pepsi and she then wanted to sell me the other items separately , in bigger quantities and at much higher prices. In the end I took the Pepsi!
This morning we were to go on a half day Hong Kong Island tour. The pick up point was at another Hotel so we got a taxi. The doorman at our Hotel got the cab and told him where we wanted to go. The driver could not speak English, drove like an American Nascar driver and had a never ending conversation in very loud Chinese over his mobile the whole time. He dropped us off at the Hotel, helped himself to a tip (which I didn’t realize until after I had given him another tip) and went about his business. We went into the lobby to wait as instructed and waited, and waited, and waited. Thought they must be running a bit late so we waited some more. I eventually got to doing some checking and found out that we were at the wrong hotel. The tour has now been re-scheduled for tomorrow. We thought we would have a look about where we were (the wrong hotel) and walked out into the street and the heat. After about 100 metres of less Ann was feeling off colour and decided she had better get back to our own hotel. Another thrilling taxi ride!
We had a cuppa in our room and Ann decided that she had better have a rest until she felt better. I wanted to look for a couple of items so went our walking. I wanted to see if I could find a fishfinder for my kayak and wanted to look at ipod’s and Nintendo DS’s. I don’t think that anyone in HK knows what a fishfinder is and even if they do they don’t sell them. Someone sent me to some markets which turned out to be literally gold fish markets! After trudging several miles I finally came to the conclusion that electronics are no cheaper in Hong Kong than in Brisbane. What a fizzer!
Came back and took Ann out for a sandwich for lunch (that took some finding!) and a bit of a look at the shops in Langham Place Mall. By then it was my turn to want to ‘put my feet up’ so we again returned to hotel and I even caught a few Z’s.
After that we went to the Ladies markets and Ann bought a couple of things and had a bit of a look about. We followed that with a meal and now are back in the room waiting to watch the evening lazer show which is on every night at 8pm allegedly. I will try and download this a bit later this evening. Ann is feeling a lot better now, I think she got a bet stressed over the tour mix up this morning and also something from breakfast kept repeating on her. All seems well now though we are both pretty tired and have another early start tomorrow. More later. Love to all. Dave and Ann.