Our hotel room does not have blinds or curtains but wooden slidy things which very effectively shut out the world beyond our window. Hence, it was not until we were showered and dressed this morning that we made the somewhat disappointing discovery that it was absolutely tipping it down in HK. A quick check on the local weather forecast further compounded the gloom when we saw the black cloud + lightning symbol hovering ominoulsly over today (and tomorrow's) forecast, and read about tropical typhoon Jebi heading this way. Kent was all for taking the next available flight home but I (uncharacteristically perhaps) refused to let us be cowed by a few raindrops and insisted that we stick to our morning sight-seeing itinerary come hell or highwater (the latter of which, as it happened, turned out to be a very distinct possibility as we were to discover).
First stop Maccy Dee's for breakfast (they do a nice pancake or 3 for hardly any money at all), then onto a bus to the Star Ferry Terminal. As I mentioned on Facebook, The last time I was on a Star Ferry crossing over to Hong Kong Island the Beatles were still together, man was about to set foot on the moon for the first time, the Vietnam war was in full swing and Jimi Hendrix was still alive. This revelation totally blew the kids' minds and made me feel positively ancient, however the interesting thing is, that in a place where the skyline has undoubtedly changed completely since the late 60s, the ferry crossing was reassuringly old-school - in fact the boat we travelled on was built the year I was born (just imagine, it must've been cutting-edge nautical technology when I first ventured forth on it!)
On landing at HK island we took a bus to the equally old-fashioned funicular railway for a steep trundle up to the Peak. Wasn't overly keen on that journey I must admit (and I say that as one who still has nightmarish flashbacks to the Langkawi cable car trip). Wasn't expecting to be nervous on such an apparently tame ride but I think I have developed something of an aversion to travelling upwards at a 90 degree angle to the ground. At the top we were ejected into the maws of a great big emporium selling loads of tacky tourist junk, with a Madame Tussauds thrown in for good measure- fortunately, just before claustraphobia took hold we found an exit into the fresh, open air. A fabulous view of the harbour lay at our feet but in the time it took me to get my camera out of my bag and the lens cap off the entire view had been completely obscured in a vast swathe of low-lying white cloud. Thankfully, owing to the high winds the cloud drifted out again as quickly as it had rolled in so we enjoyed fabulous but intermittent views of Kowloon and the island.
Back down to sea level and the weather took a turn for the worse with torrential rain falling on and off for most of the afternoon and evening. This tested the Harris Family Resolve to the max and I think it's fair to say that the next few hours were not the absolute pinnacle of our Far Eastern Odyssey. In fact I think at one stage x had managed to upset y who had royally pissed off z and all 3 of them were in danger of being pushed off the top of the tram by Psycho Maz. Isn't it funny how a little rain (or even 3 inches in an hour of the wretched stuff) can dampen the mood so? And even odder how, the worse the rain got and the more puddles we waded through and the more umbrella spokes we had jammed into our hair, the more amusing the whole thing became - well you have to laugh don't you? The rain really was ridiculous. I had to blow-dry George's sneakers when we got back to the hotel.
We had hoped to meet up with one of Kent's colleagues this evening but he has unfortunately been detained in China so we decided to bring forward our visit to the Club Lounge at the Intercontinental Hotel - a place that Kent does the music for, and whose General Manager had kindly invited us to sample the delights his special lounge has to offer. It overlooks the harbour and we discovered the good news that there is an amazing light show every Friday at 8pm , when all the buildings get lit up by lasers, a scene so awe-inspiring and magnificent it's even in the Guinness Book of Records. How fortuitous that we decided to visit tonight and not tomorrow night - except, they don't run the light show when there's a Level 3 Typhoon Warning in place, so instead we watched Typhoon Jebi (or at least the tail-end of it) roll across the water, magically making all the neon lights completely disappear and bringing with it more inches of torrential rain. It really is no wonder that so much of HK smells musty, with this much moisture around!
The forecast for tomorrow is not great either so we have decided to concentrate on visiting record shops and meeting up with my friend Jane later in the afternoon. Tonight is our last sleep in Asia, we fly out of here tomorrow at midnight and it's straight back to Blighty for us. We will be so sad (but I have to admit, a part of me is looking forward to Home Sweet Home too).
Night all!
Maria
We did have a laugh at this one - we've come to look forward to these daily reports,so much so that withdrawal symptoms may well ensue when they cease. Why not stay out there in HK, in the rain, a bit longer? On seconds, it's good to know you'll soon be back in good old C'field!
ReplyDeleteLoL M&D XX. PS: 2 days of tropical heat here - temperatures in the 90's!