Hong Kong Phewy

After 14 long hours sat in various airports in Australasia, we eventually arrived in Hong Kong to start the latest leg of the adventure. The second we stepped out of the beautifully air conditioned plane the humidity struck and since that point I've been steadily perspiring. I'm the Lynx advert "before" type at the best of times but in this weather I'd need more than a can of antiperspirant to keep my dry. Anyhow, after cursing about dampness for about 3 hours, we headed to the hostel we booked a few days previous. We had the address and a map but for the life of us couldn't find a so-called, Sincere House. We knew we were on the right road as the road signs were in English, but due to the fact neither Rory or I can understand Chinese pictographs, Sincere House was proving rather elusive. Eventually, after hiking through several 2nd hand phone stalls, we found the hostel and to our delight it was on the 14th floor. I can assure you this didn't help the sweating situation, but we eventually got checked in by a very helpful young lady and had a well deserved wash. Safe in the knowledge I was no long a nasal hindrance on the people of Hong Kong, we went out for some food and the old language barrier became a issue for a second time. Luckily they had a few pictures so we just pointed to something that looked reasonably edible and within 10 minutes we were armed with our chop sticks and rearing to go. Now, if you were on family fortunes and had to think of something that could prove impossibly difficult to pick up using two small sticks, noodles or rice would probably win you a car. I'm reasonably dexterous with the chop sticks, but my poor friend Rory spent about 45 minutes pushing various grains of rice, sweetcorn and noodles around a bowl before calling it a day. He's going to wilt if he doesn't pick it up soon.

Other than the minor annoyances mentioned above, which aren't really annoyances and generally keep things interesting, I thought Hong Kong was a really vibrant, interesting and surprisingly clean and well maintained city. I also found it's incredibly cheap for electrical goods. I've been in the market for a new SLR camera for some time now and due to the benefits of Australian tax back, this was an ideal time to splash out. So armed with my new camera and a bag full of sweaty unwashed clothing, its off to China tomorrow where things could get even more interesting and hopefully a little less sauna like.