warm beer

Nick and I experienced Honk Kong’s full fun in the 24 hours we were there, whiffing up the cabbage sewer smells whilst spinning out at the clean pavers, wet with air conditioners dripping on them from the rows and rows of shanty flats above. The busses and red taxis stack up within the tunnel formed by hanging neon signs in Chinese and English. There seems to be far fewer Caucasians there since I was there in 92, and not so many beggars either.
We found a luxurious cheap hotel named Stanford Hill hotel. There were chandleries in the foyer and the lift was lined with cherry wood and marble but it was not so plush as the other hotels in the downtown Kowloon district we were in. I love Honkas. We had a great meal of sushi, beer and fried rice for under $20. Compare this to the $20 we spent on catching public transport today just to collect the wind vane from Parcel force in Greenwich north. We did some shopping; new deck shoes, t shirt and pants and nick bought shoes, a shirt and mouse (blind as it turns out).
We visited the flower market and the bird garden which was raucous with the chirping of song birds in little plastic cages. I felt particularly awful when I saw the lovely big parrots, including major Mitchell’s ($1000), chained on aluminum flat bar perches that they could neither get a comfortable grip on or fly away from.

The Chinese girl I was crammed next to for the 12 hour Cathay flight had terrible flatulence. I noticed there are so many more bakeries and patisseries in Honkas - the new wheat diet is not good. Of course our seats backed onto the emergency exit space (and toilet cue) so we could not fully recline and the man in front of nick had his seat fully back so that nicks meal tray was pushed right to his tummy and his seat movie screen was at the end of his nose. Blanket, pillow, headset, shoes, socks, magazines and everything else smothering your legs. I am glad we are taking the long way home. I don’t think I could handle another flight like that for a long time.

But it was all worth it when we lugged and wobbled our way through Heathrow airport, straight through passport check and customs (customs day off) emerging into the cool bustle of Tower hill tube exit at 10.45pm on Thursday night. The tower of London and London Bridge were all lit up like a fairytale illustration, and the red tail lights of the London cabs whizzed past. St Katherine’s Docks are quaint and pretty trendy. There were lots of young crew hanging outside the bars at the far end of the docks and we trundled past them onto the boards of the marina. Karen and Boyed were still awake and I was enthralled at how comfortable I immediately felt with them. I had a moment of being overwhelmed by finally making it to the boat when we first ducked under the cockpit cover and looked inside; I had to excuse myself for one second as tears came to my eyes. What a journey (we are in for).

And then today, we got up super early and walked along the Thames for a few km before circling back, to greet Karen and eat breakfast. London is pretty tragic since I was last here. There are many wasted, heavily pierced, enormously overweight, dirty, and illiterate people everywhere. There is litter in all places the street sweeper can’t reach and the canals and docks have these strong foamy upwellings of water coming from some large submerged pipes or something. However, the weather is beautiful, sometimes cloudy and then shiny bright again. Generally people are pleasant when you persist with them. We walked around the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and the Royal Naval College that was built by Christoper Wren and inhabited by Henry VIII and his daughter when they got tired of their other castle. It is an amazing place to visit.