Liz, Miranda and Ruth

Crashing later than intended meant getting up a tad later than intended. Woke to a chillier day than I've had in ages, but it humid-ed itself out later and warmed up. Due to my perfect timing, I've arrived in Hong Kong to an unseasonal typhoon. ie - it's been chucking it down all day.

Sidenote: this seems to be somewhat of a thing with me, Asia and the weather. In Tokyo, in the almost-year I've been there, it's been colder than normal, wetter than normal, had more typhoons than normal and had more and bigger earthquakes than normal. Oh well, maybe I'm a deity and just not aware of it?

Anyhow, I'm not too bothered. It means there's no danger of burning.

This morning then, I had the plan to try and get a trip on a Chinese Junk (there's only a couple a day and you have to pre-book, even though it's free). Going down in the lift from the hostel there were a couple of other foreigners, so I asked them the best way to get to the place to book the Junk, down by the ferry terminals.

They were both heading that way (separately) so we all travelled down together. The guy went off and the girl, Liz, said she planned to try and get a ticket for the Junk too. We were unsuccessful, unfortunately but decided to go and get a coffee and then went and had dim sum together.

Now, this is another reason I like travelling alone: random encounters. Liz is a Brit, in her early 30s and about 9 months into a round the world. With her arms covered in tattoos, back in the UK she worked for a motorbike company (some kind of salesy thing) and is also a trained mechanic. She comes from a small village and hadn't done any non Brit-by-the-sea holidays (Lanzarote, etc) before embarking on this trip. Interesting couple of hours but I had to leave to hop onto the ferry from Kowloon over to Hong Kong Island, where I had plans to meet Miranda - someone who posts on a bulletin board I frequent. Hong Kong Island, near the ferry terminal is full of very tall buildings, including a very interesting one with round windows, that's nicknamed the building of a thousand arseholes, or something like that!

Anyway, after a couple of gallons of tea at lunch time I was desparate for a pee... and headed into a nearby building in the hope of finding one. Didn't see a single sign until I reached a Starbucks that, although it didn't have one, had a sign for one. I stood looking around. The staff asked me if I was looking for a toilet and passed me a key! How sweet!

Met Miranda in Central Station which is massive and went to MARKS AND SPENCERS. I'm going to have to go back there and do some proper shopping in the next couple of days, I think. I've also seen loads of British brands here, many that I also saw in Taiwan, that they don't have in Tokyo. We wandered around a few more shops, went up the world famous longest outside escalator (longest anywhere maybe? I'll have to check) and ended up drinking wine in a bar as the heavens opened up again. Very nice.

I had to leave and head back to the hostel though since I'm meeting up with Ruth (another poster on the same board as Miranda) and her family half an hour ago! Apparantly, they are stuck at the airport though....

Never mind, I can figure out what I'm doing tomorrow in the meantime. I like Hong Kong!

____________________________

Okay, so Ruth and her lovely family finally arrived and we tumbled out in to the rain to go and find some food... I want her daughters' amazing red hair. They are both gorgeous kids. Ate, came back, got soaked again and managed to lose one daughter. Meanwhile, Ruth and I were in a convenience store getting water, and hubby and other daughter came up (and got stuck in lift) thinking younger daughter was with us.... Mini drama but younger daughter was found waiting by the dead lift (Ruth and I had gone there first but, finding it not working, had come up in a different one) and all ended well.

And meanwhile, the rain continues on. I think I'll just get used to being damp over the next couple of days!