Hong Kong Lights and Heathrow Nights

We're here!!

We left Perth very early on Thursday morning and arrived in Hong Kong at 9:00am. The airport train gave a beautiful view of the mountains behind the foggy harbour- so serene- and then we emerged into Hong Kong itself and immediately felt overwhelmed. The smells, the grit, the press of people hit us immediately, as did the hawkers..."Sir, sir, three piece suit...special price..."

After a shower at the hotel we felt much better prepared and ventured out again and explored Kowloon on foot. Later we walked down to the harbourfront which was buzzing with preparations for the Olympic torch relay. We caught a ferry across to Hong Kong Island and had a look around Soho by way of the Mid-Levels Escalator (the longest in the world) which runs up the hill for over a kilometre. We found a cafe for dinner (mmm, dumplings) and then headed back to the hotel by way of the Temple Street Night Markets. In the end we didn't buy anything but felt like we'd had a good taste of Hong Kong.

It was back to the airport the following morning, winding our way through the crowds of people with flags and school groups making their way to or from the relay. We weren't able to sit together on the flight but each had a window seat a row apart. Because we were following the sun we had spectacular views for most of the way. We saw rolling sand dunes in Mongolia, huge wind farms across Germany and, because we had to do some circuits when we got into London, a great view of a few landmarks including Wembley Stadium and the Millennium Dome.

We were so excited to be on the ground that we forgot how tired we were and happily headed off to Customs unknowing off the trap that Eddy had set for himself...
We had filled out our immigration cards on the plane. We didn't have Lynn and Craig's address on us so had not put their address on the card and whilst I had listed my profession as "musician," Eddy had simply listed his as "traveller." When he was called up by the Customs officer she started questioning him about accommodation and whether he actually had any money and seemed reluctant to let him through. She eased off a bit when I went to the next counter and we explained that we did have an address, we just didn't know it, but it wasn't a warm welcome. We collected our baggage feeling a bit stunned and then found Eddy's cousins, Katrina and Craig, and Craig's wife Lynn, who seemed much happier to see us. They were able to enlighten us about why the reaction had been so cold. "Travellers" is what the English commonly call gypsies and their reputation is not good...So Eddy, with his dark curly hair, no fixed address and general dodginess seemed to fit straight into this category. I don't think the story is going to be kept quiet...especially by his relatives!

Anyway, we're here now, have had a great night sleep and are just waiting for Craig and Lynn to get back before we go walking to a place in the forest that is apparently carpeted with bluebells. Life's good.

Xox Susie