Bright Lights in a Big City

After all the excitement of Japan, I arrived in Hong Kong late-ish Friday night. Friends of friends had very kindly offered me somewhere to stay and Robin even gave me a lift from the station. I'm staying in Stanley on the southern tip of Hong Kong island, where allied troops made their last stand in WWII before surrendering HK to the Japanese.

On Saturday I discovered that I had somehow managed to bring the less-than-brilliant weather with me from Japan, and a message later from Marthe confirmed this. In the afternoon I went for a walk around Stanley, visiting the market (where you can find everything from solar-powered waving cats to shops that blind you with the quantity of shiny objects in them to rather peculiar T-shirts) and the waterfront. Unfortunately the weather meant the view wasn't the best, but it was still a nice temperature.

That evening Robin and I went up to The Peak, hoping to be able to see views of the harbour, but alas it wasn't to be. There was instead a large amount of dense fog which wasn't quite as exciting, although he did take me on a mini-tour of the city side of the island on the way back.

Robin and his family are members of Jackie Pullinger's church, which is very charismatic, so it was a little bit of an experience on Sunday morning when I went on a prayer walk to pray for the government and those in power in Hong Kong with a few of the other English-speaking members of the church. While it was a little unusual, it turned out to not be hugely different from what I was expecting. Afterwards we went to a Beijing Dumpling place for lunch and then I decided to set out on a bit of an explore of the city by myself.

I didn't really have much of a plan, so just set off in a direction where there appeared to be people and eventually saw signs for the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens. One of the things I've really noticed here is how there are patches of jungle and forest mixed in closely with the ubiquitous skyscrapers.

The gardens were nice, although some of the animals weren't in the largest of cages and you could still hear a fair amount of noise from the roads around the outside.

As I was admiring the fountain near one of the entrances I thought I heard some kind of Wind Band music in the distance, and so with no other plans I left the gardens and headed roughly towards where the music was coming from. The first sign that there was something going on was the sheer volume of police officers, it seemed like the entire police force was out and about on this one street. I found where the music

had been coming from but there was a no-entry sign and people coming out, but no indication as to what was going on. Mildly bemused, I carried on following the wall around past many more police officers until I found what appeared to the be the entrance, where bag searches were being carried out. It turned out that this was in fact the Government House where Hong Kong's leader resides and it was open because the remarkable garden was in bloom.

This was clearly a popular occasion as the path was packed with

people taking photos of almost every single flower they could see.

After winding it's way through the garden, the path led up to the house itself where there

were a few displays and rooms which you could look inside. Continuing on through the house I came out the other side to discover the music that I had heard earlier had been performed by the Hong Kong Police Band. Shortly after I exited the building, some of them took to their feet for another performance, including a slightly unusual arrangement of 'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga.

Eventually I left the house and headed down the

hill through Hong Kong Park and after some wandering came across a small pub/bar which was showing India v. West Indies and had a remarkable selection of beers from across the world. After having my age questioned (as usual), I had a few drinks and did a spot of people-watching before heading off to the bus to head back to Stanley.

On Monday the weather finally changed and we had a day of blue skies, fluffy clouds and blazing sunshine. I decided that this wasn't a day for strenuous exercise and instead went for a walk on the beach in Stanley before finding a cafe on the waterfront to have lunch and enjoy the sun.

After lunch I still wasn't feeling particularly energetic so I went and got a book and sat out on the waterfront for most of the afternoon. A day well spent I feel.

Tuesday brought the overcast weather back, so in the absence of an excuse not to do anything I headed back to the north of the island and had another day of wandering, including some rather nice Thai food for lunch. After perusing some of the shops I found myself near the ferry terminal for the Star Ferries over to Kowloon (the mainland) which have been running since 1888 and are supposedly in the top 10 ferry journeys in the world. After finding a nice, if slightly expensive, place to eat I was ready for the real reason to come to Kowloon; to see the Hong Kong skyline lit up. It is truly quite a spectacular sight to behold.

Today the weather still hadn't really improved, but I was taken for lunch at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club by some old friends of my aunt and uncle. It's quite a fancy place with just about every facility you could want, from bowling alley to swimming pool to multiple bars. There's even a bell in the main bar that people try to climb without ringing, and if you ring it then you have to buy a round for everyone who makes it to the bar within 5 minutes.

Although I'm not normally a huge fan of big cities, I am really enjoying my time here, and with the Rugby 7s starting on Friday things can only get better!