Hong Kong

While we were having the work done on the boat I took a $300 return flight to Hong Kong to visit Dave and his family for a week. The flight was easy and I knew I was in Hong Kong when I arrived and read all of the cautionary signs—hold the hand rail (it has been cleaned 28 times a day, in case you are worried about germs and decide therefore not to hold it!!), mind the gap—it is about 2 inches so you would have a problem falling through!! It is a society run by rules which does make everything work like clockwork despite the 7 million people living in such a small area. The bulk of the population live in massive high rise complexes which allows for a lot of green space and park land. Dave was tied up in China for work for the first two days of my visit but I made my way to his and Maya’s spacious 4 bedroom townhouse in Clearwater Bay where many expats are based. It was lovely to arrive and have Chris’s excited smile and cuddle—he is a very happy sweet child. The next morning I caught the underground (MTR) into the city visiting the flower market, bird market—Asians are crazy about caged birds--and the goldfish market. The contrasts of Hong Kong are amazing blending the fancy high rises and shopping malls with markets, street food and older apartment buildings all in a chaos of people. In one of the largest malls Apple has a huge 2 floor store—the top floor is computers and the bottom floor is iphones and ipads—there are tutorials being held and lots of staff to answer all and any questions. There is no duty or tax in Hong Kong so the products are cheaper than anywhere else in the world. I got back in time for after school to greet Arianne who at 8 is a lovely young girl and Alex at 4 is also very sweet. I watched Alex’s soccer game where he had told everyone his Nana would be coming it is nice to share a little of their normal lives. The next day Arianne had the day off school so she and I went to the space museum. It was our adventure day so we caught the MTR under the harbour and then the Star Ferry back across to the museum. Starbucks sausage rolls were on her wish list so after partaking of that we spent several hours at the museum. An Imax theatre was there and I was delighted to go to a film on the reintroducing of orphaned orangutans which was the programme we had visited in Kalimantan, Indonesia. We finished by walking along the Avenue of Stars, which is the Hong Kong equivalent to Hollywood and finished off with ice creams before taking the ferry, train and bus home again. I spent lots of time with the kids who we took ice skating once Dave was back. Despite all of the rules I was surprised that no helmets are worn—the sign of an absence of a hockey culture—they all aspire to be figure skaters. I was able to see Arianne perform in her huge ballet school’s performance of Copellia. Living in Hong Kong it is not often that grandparents are able to share those experiences and we both treasured the opportunity. She is a very serious little girl and tries very hard to be perfect. Sadly the week was up and on my last day I met Dave at his Nike office which is pretty impressive, he has 15 computer engineers working for him and they have just successfully launched the latest computer product—Nike Fuel, for those of you who wish to monitor your days activity. I had one more wander downtown before making my way to the airport—a 15 minute ride on the MTR—as opposed to 40 minutes drive—it is all so seamless. The flght back was easy and I made my way back to Cop Out where poor Ken had been working at the time I was away trying to get the boat “ship shape” once again. The work is finished now and we once again have water on the boat and are delighted with what was done. We are now ready to go and cruise the Hongs (caves and caverns in the karst formations which are typical of this area.) It resembles Halong Bay in Vietnam for those of you who have been there so we feel fortunate to explore such a region on our own boat.