Hi all

Have never tried this before but I hope this keeps us in touch a little while we are exploring a small corner of  other part of the world!!!!!

Well, we are finally on our way after nearly three years planning.  Hopefully, we are better prepared for this adventure than we have ever been in the past.  We have certainly put more effort into it this time.

I really hate airports and the security routines seem to get even more onerous and offensive every time.   We were both hauled out of the line to be 'randomly' checked for explosives as usual. Nobody will ever convince me that it is at all random - or maybe I am just randomly unlucky 98% of the time.  I realised again how much I hate flying now too. It is always so cramped, unbearably hot and drying - and it was a very loooong 7 1/2 hour flight - but at least there was the bliss at the end of the flight when the terminal came into sight: also hot, noisy and crowded, but a whole heap better than the confines of seats 45A and B.  I got about 20 minutes sleep on the plane: Heather got a bit more, but still not a lot.

We got a main meal at about 1am and a hot breakfast that could easily have doubled as a main course at a little after 5am.  Surprisingly good and in my experience, only Cathay years ago has challenged it for quality.

We had a couple of hours to kill in the Transit Lounge at Singapore.  Queuing for the toilet helped while away some of the time until I realised that I had left my glasses (readers AND sunnies) on the plane.  It was about 800 metres from where we were sitting to the enquiry desk and with a bit of help from the travelators, I walked it four times before being told that a search on the plane failed to find them (my glasses, not the travelators).  We both did a couple more searches of all our hand luggage without success, but decided that Hong Kong was a good place to replace them.  Of course, when our flight was called, we collected all our hand luggage and found them under the seat where they must have fallen when we first sat down.

Our second leg, Singapore to Hong Kong, gave us as good a view from the window as we got on the first leg - nothing!  It was completely dark all the way to Singapore except for an occasional small group of lights.  En route to Hong Kong, it was cloud all the why so I saw basically nothing from 5 minutes into the flight.  Meal was good again and took me right back to the Beach Restaurant in Bali.  It was a rice and omelette dish with other yummy things in it, including ikan bilis that instantly had me back in Bali with my favourite spicy fish dish, ikan pepes.  Tried to catch up on some puzzles, mainly so I could toss some paper away, but I was just tooooo tired and gave up.  Heather read a lot of her accumulated papers and lightened the load considerably when they went into the bin.

The bus took us on an extraordinarily circuitous route to hotel, where we were very glad of a coffee, shower, toilet and time to sort out some of our travel bits and pieces.  We got an upgrade to a really good room that gave us free internet access from our room as well as free calls to almost anywhere using the special mobile in the room.

My impression of Hong Kong was that it was ugly and grubby, but massive. We must have driven well over 20 km getting to the hotel and there were huge residential high-rises everywhere, cheek by jowl with massive industrial developments.  Container terminals that went on for kilometres, new construction everywhere all held together with a bit of bamboo scaffolding all held together with string. Simply amazing.  25 floors high and all dependent on how well some unknown construction worker tied a knot on Day One.

Sitting over a coffee in our room, I spied a couple of birds on nearby buildings to start our holiday list.  Spotted turtle dove and Eurasian tree sparrow.  The dove is one of the commonest at home, but first time I had seen either in Hong Kong.  I also saw a few gulls or terns as we drove in, but there are so many alternatives here that I wouldn't even try to guess without a much closer look.
 
We went for a walk already tired and the excursion was even more tiring after no overnight rest. Not what I imagined. Few Westerners and very little spoke any English. We went to an outdoor market that seemed typical of many of the established shops. Small and with many products I don't think a lot of people would want - but they obviously do. Mountains of bling as well as lots of unpleasant smells, especially around food shops.   Interesting walk, but we were very tired and achy by the time we got back to the hotel.  Heather's feet were bad and I had kicked the corner of our case so I have a broken or bruised toe as well so we were certainly done for the day.

We had not even reached the end of the island down Nathan Road as intended.  We had seen a few birds and I identified them using the wifi back in the room, but we're just needed food and sleep.  We had a drink in the hotel bar while we decided what to do for dinner. I had seen a little restaurant 50 metres from the hotel and despite Heather's painful feet we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, there was no English interpretation of what the menu might have been offering so we went back onto Nathan Road and went to the Satay King. Three floors up in the most amazing labyrinth of tiny shops, many a bit like hobby shops with many, many thousands of miniature models of everything imaginable. The restaurant was a bit glitzy but again, nobody spoke English - and there was no satay anyway.  After lots of pointing and consultations between the staff, we ended up with an acceptable meal, somewhat different from what we thought we had ordered and a bill that reflected different things again, but fed, we rolled back to our room and collapsed into bed.

Here endeth my first blog post ever!

Lindsay