Diary 9 - 16th November 2000 & Images
from my time in Hong Kong

Thursday 9^th November

The flight to Hong Kong was uneventful and lasted three hours. At the airport I had to wait half an hour before the minibus was ready to leave for the City Garden Hotel but was fortunate to travel in with a gentleman who knew Hong Kong quite well as he was coming on one of his frequent business trips and pointed out the various sites from the new airport right in to the city centre.

I was the last passenger off the coach and after completing the usual formalities I found my room on the 12th floor and settled in very easily.

I tried to set some contacts was I was still in the UK. One of the people who had responded was a guy called Kelvin, who had e-mailed me with his telephone number. He'd asked me in the e-mail to call him when I got to Hong Kong. Unfortunately he was going out to dinner with friends and was unable to see me but advised me where I would find bars that I might be interested in. I discovered that these were some considerable distance away so in the end I just went to the local area to look for some food and to my surprise, found that hardly anybody at all spoke English. The menus were written in Chinese with some English translation but insufficient for me to assess the true content of the dishes. I managed to find a steak and hash browns with beans in a local eatery. After dinner I went back to my hotel and since I was feeling very tired I stayed in for the rest of the evening.

Another net friend named Andrew phoned in reply to a message that I'd sent to him earlier and suggested we meet the following evening.

Friday 10^th November
I rose, dressed and went out to find some breakfast and explore the local area. The weather was horribly grey but warm. In the afternoon I went on the underground railway, known as the Mass Transit Rail or MTR for short, to Causeway Bay and took a wander round. The buildings were enormously high, the streets were very narrow, the day was very muggy and the humid air was permeated by an unpleasant odour that I found a little uncomfortable. By the time I returned to my hotel it was nearly 1800, the time I arrangedif to meet Andrew. After freshening up I met him in the foyer, he was wearing charcoal grey slacks, a dark brown dog tooth checked sports jacket over an open necked white shirt and was carrying a briefcase. He recognised me from my photograph, introduced himself and explained that he had just left his office.

He took me to a local restaurant where we had dinner. He chose the dishes from menu after consulting me about what I might like. I explained that I had little knowledge of any of the local cuisine but that anything spicy hot was to be avoided. He turned out to be a very pleasant person about five food eight inches tall and on the stocky side with a slightly plump midriff. if The bill came to HK $152 which we split down the middle and left the restaurant shortly after 2000.

After discussing a few options Andrew suggested we go back to my hotel room where he could leave his briefcase before we went to a bar or a discotheque. Back in the room he suggested we spend a little time together before going out as it was still early and the scene in Hong Kong didn't really get going until after 11 o'clock. if

I suggested going to the Victoria Peak on the tram instead of going to a bar and Andrew agreed that we had time to do that before visiting the discotheque. We took a taxi to the tram terminus and then went up to the Peak. I marvelled at how the buildings appeared to be sticking out of the hill at unreal angles as though they were about to fall over. This I remembered from when I had been here before but of course now there were far more buildings and they were much higher than they had been on my previous visit.

The view from the top was spectacular and we spent about half an hour wandering around the different levels and viewing the aspects of the harbour. We left the Peak on a bus and went to a gay discotheque called Works. Andrew paid for both of us to go in. The admission fee was HK $18 each and included the first drink, he had beer while I had a whisky. The disco was small and crowded with about 40 percent of the people being Westerners and 60% appeared oriental. Andrew danced for most of the evening and I joined him from time to time. I enjoyed the music and the atmosphere and we left around 0130 and took a cab back to the hotel.

Back in the room we drank a whisky and coke before going to bed. I was pretty exhausted that we lay and chatted before going to sleep. We lay comfortably on the twin beds chatting for 40 minutes andI don't remember which of us fell asleep first but I certainly I felt content, satisfied and comfortable .

Saturday 11^th November
We woke in the morning at 0730, Andrew was feeling energetic and was soon up and about ready for the new day. After he left I prepared the cereal breakfast that I'd purchased yesterday afternoon and them spent some time on my computer as the weather was still pretty nasty and I had developed a heavy cold. It was midday before I felt like going out. I took some clothes to the local laundry then boarded the MTR to Causeway Bay. Here I changed to a bus as I wanted to take a trip on a Sampan round Aberdeen harbour area.

The weather was warm when I left the hotel but now turned colder and I was wearing only a shirt on my upper body which was a mistake.

Houseboats in the harbour at Aberdeen with the high rise skyline behind.

There is little space in the crowded waterways of Hong Kong.

Sampans in the harbour

This old lady is preparing her food.

I wandered around talking to the boys as they worked and taking some photographs of the fish that had been caught earlier.

The catch is brought in by the good-looking fishermen. Then stacked on the quay it stays fresh. Eventually there are loaded on to transport wagons.

The Sampan owners hustled me and I bargained with one boat owner and paid HK$30 for the round trip which lasted about 25 minutes.

A Chinese junk

'Tempo' is a floating restaurant in the harbour.

The boats are moored in tidy lines that allows access betwixt and between.

Back on dry land the Chinese play checkers.

By the time I got back to the hotel I had a runny nose and didn't feel very much like doing anything other than resting for the remainder of the day. At 1730 I went to the hotel sauna and tried to sweat out some of the cold before going to find a laundry at 1900.

I spent the evening on my laptop advising my friends that I was in changing my e-mail address because I was so pissed off with the way that AOL had been ripping me off with their UK £6.00 surcharge for each hour or part thereof that I spent online. Before I went to sleep I put an advertisement on an Internet notice board that I come across on a Hong Kong information page called the Brick Wall. I advertised to meet someone to show me around Hong Kong. I went to sleep at 0630.

Sunday 12^th November.

The telephone ringing woke me at 12 minutes past ten. It turned out to be the first reply to my advertisement. The guy on the line told me his name was Brian, that he was 30 years of age and weighed 150lbs. I had a short chat with him and tentatively arranged to meet him at my hotel at about 1400. This conversation finished and I decided to make some coffee before popping back into bed but as the kettle was boiling my attention was grabbed by the phone ringing again. This caller asked if I was Mr MacLeod and when I confirmed he told me his name was Johnny.

He straight away asked me to describe myself and when he asked my age I lied by knocking a few years off. We talked for some length and he advised me that unfortunately he could not meet today as he was committed to doing other things with some friends. He eventually rang off telling me that he would phone me at my hotel tomorrow evening after 1800 with the intention of meeting some time after that.

Brian arrived at 1330 and I was not ready for him so he sat on the bed and waited while I finished dressing and then we left. We went to Mong Kok market in Kowloon by MTR and ferry.

Unfortunately there were light showers of rain on and off during the course of the afternoon but nevertheless I enjoyed browsing around the stalls. I managed to buy a baseball cap for Paul and a spare watch for myself. The watch cost me of HK $20 which was surprisingly cheap and I was pleased with my purchase. We went to a restaurant where I had steak and chips and Brian had some Chinese food. He paid the bill and we left.

As the weather was so miserable we returned to the hotel at 1830. He is5' 8" tall, very slim, reasonably attractive and 28 years of age with small gold rimmed spectacles and short cropped hair.

Kelvin phoned while Brian was towelling himself dry after emerging from the shower and asked if we could meet at 2100? I told him that would be fine. He told me he would come to my hotel and take me to the bar in Sheung Wan called 'Rice'.

Brian, who had heard my conversation, advised me that it was a nice quiet bar and that I would like there. He finished dressing and left just before 2000. I showered, dressed then went to the supermarket to buy some milk and soft drinks and returned to find Kelvin waiting in the foyer. He was wearing a pair of tight back jeans and a grey long sleeved T-shirt. On his small oval face he had black rimmed spectacles, an attractive countenance and very short cropped hair. I put my groceries up to the room and we left in a taxi to go to the bar. He paid for the taxi then he paid for the drinks refusing my offer of any contribution to. I enjoyed an intelligent conversation and his clear-cut English was a welcome change from the afternoon when I had to ask Brian to repeat most of things he said to me.

When we left the bar at 2345 I told Kelvin that I was feeling hungry and asked him if he could find somewhere local where I could have a snack. As it was late most of the conventional places were closed but he took me to a rather seedy dive where only locals would be likely to go. No one spoke any English and what passed for a menu was written on a scrap of card. After explaining what was available Kelvin ordered some special fried rice and a can of beer for me. He did not wait while I ate as he had to get to bed early, telling me that with Monday being a working day he started heading for his home. I was disappointed as I really found him very friendly and amusing and he was certainly the most intelligent partner I'd met since arriving on the island. When I finished eating I took the MTR back to Fortress Hill Station to my room where I took another flu and cold pill as my condition has not improved over the last 36 hours. Heavy sneezing and a terrible running nose had persisted all day, all-night and showed no signs of abating.

I spent the next 4 hours putting the final touches to the Singapore web page and uploading it to my site. I went to sleep at 0530.

Monday 13^th November

What I thought was a cold began to feel like a very mild kind of Flu. In order not to aggravate the situation I computed in my room all day and only ventured out for medicine and food at 1500. I ate again in the Hotel at 2345 and immediately returned to my room and went to bed were by the time I was ready to fall asleep it was 0300.

Tuesday 14^th November

When I awoke this morning at ten o'clock my nose was running far less than it had been, and I felt much more energetic and able to face the day. Fortunately the sun was shining and that is always like a medicine or tonic for me. Breakfast consisted of the usual cornflakes followed by a cup of coffee. I went downstairs at 1140 to find out if there were any Tours that I could take this afternoon. I wanted to see something of Hong Kong before I left and it seemed to me that a coach tour would keep me warm and secure until I was feeling 100% again. I was told that a tour of the new territories would be leaving the hotel at 1240 so I decided to go on that. In the meantime I went to the local streets and eventually found someone who spoke English, it happened to be a very dishy policeman, I inquired about location of the Post Office and when I found it I bought some stamps to send postcards to my friends in England.

The small coach left at 1300, some 20 minutes later than scheduled due to heavy traffic. It picked up some people at other hotels on the island and then crossed to Kowloon and picked up a couple from an hotel there. Our guide for the afternoon was very amusing girl called Rita.		We went north along the Kwai Chung Highway and over the massive Ting Kau Bridge to visit the Tin Hau Temple, aka the Queen of Heaven and Goddess of Sea.		Inside the Temple people came to burn incense and we were able to see the immense coils hanging from the ceiling in a section known as the smoke tower. I believe they burn for three weeks after being lit and the person's wishes go up on the smoke and are fulfilled by the Deity. It was very dim inside and out of respect I did not use the flash to take pictures.	Banyan tree
I took this picture of a Welshman called Peter throwing his written wishes into the large 'Banyan' tree which is covered in colourful paper wishes, each tied to an orange thrown and left suspended from the branches in hope that they'll carry the wishes and prayers of the worshipers on their journey to the gods.		Rita insisted on taking a picture of me by the Banyan tree.		Outside the temple building I came across this toilet which seems to have a very strong French influence as one has to squat rather than sit on a seat.

After leaving the Temple we came to the Tai Po traditional Chinese open-air market which sells all kinds of fresh products, fresh live fish, dried fish, salted eggs, bean curd and sea food.

Here they eat snakes and turtles which are kept in cages ready to be killed to order.

An arangement of cane that will grow in the circular formation

Our next stop was the Bird Garden where I saw hundreds of birds on sale at prices which often reveal that the birds singing abilities are valued more than the exquisite plumage and feather. It's the only bird garden in Hong Kong and is situated next to the flower market which I also visited.

Finally we stopped at a jewel factory and were taken on a tour where we could see the workforce making the jewellery, polishing the gold and inserting the gems. This factory makes some of the most expensive jewellery available. We were offered items from the display at a very substantial discount but the rings that interested me were still priced at over £500 even after the discount.

I eventually arrived back at my hotel at 1830 feeling pretty exhausted but none the worse for wear. I rested for a short while in my room before getting ready for dinner.

Since I was feeling so bad over the last few days I decided this evening that I would go to the restaurant in the hotel and check out what was on the menu for dinner. As it turned out there was a huge buffet laid out for guests to help themselves. I started with a bowl of cream of asparagus soup. It looked like cornflour but surprisingly tasted exactly how I would expect asparagus taste. I ordered a glass of white wine from the waiter which he dutifully fetched while I finished drinking my soup.

After that I returned to the buffet where I had a look at the hot Chinese dishes, there was a choice of a beef stew, stewed chicken, boiled chicken or some kind of fish in a liquid. I passed on to the cold dishes. There were beautiful oysters on ice. I put a few on my plate, the smoked salmon was sliced as thick as one would normally carve beef so I had about four slices of that, there were muscles that were still in their shell but baked in some kind of breadcrumbs so I had four of those and a small crab. I now my plate was almost full and my mouth was watering. I took a few leaves of lettuce, half a tomato finely sliced, a few slices of what I think was cucumber and a spoonful of potato salad from the bowl. Now my plate was really heaped up and my mouth was watering.

Everything was absolutely perfect. Delicious. Faultless. The worst aspect of the dinner was the coldness of the restaurant and as soon as I finished my main course I went up to my room and put on a sweater. I think the extremes of temperature from warmer outside to simulated Arctic inside the air-conditioned buildings was a contributory factor to my getting this malady in the first place. The difference in temperatures, twix out and in, whilst I was in Singapore was even more radical than it is here in Hong Kong.

On my return to the restaurant I finished my wine congratulated myself on how well I was feeling and went to the sweet counter where I had some jelly, gateau and what was listed as an orange pancake but we would probably call a crepe. Back at the table I leisurely devoured the desert, signed the check and returned to my room.

I decided to go online and check my e-mail. Over the last couple of years I have made a cyber friend called Donna. She is a strong woman who has had a lot of problems in her life but is still able to show much compassion, tolerance and has an interesting sense of humour. Her letters have always been upbeat and when she learned of my having been laid down with the flu for the last couple of days she sent me a long and uplifting Oracle filled with concern and worry over my condition. I replied to her, telling her how much better I felt and that I had been out today and felt that I was over the worst of it.

She avidly follows my travels and gives me every encouragement to keep my travelogue up-to-date with pictures and copy

The I decided to download Thumbs + version 4 but unfortunately due to some glitch in the system the whole job took almost 3 hours. It is a superb program for dealing with images and can automatically make a thumbnail for each picture complete with the HTML code. It was nearly seven o'clock before it finished and I was able to get to sleep. At least I can make my web pages now direct instead of having to resize everything in Adobe Photoshop so that should save me an enormous amount of time.

Wednesday 15^th November

I was awakened by the telephone at 1015, it was a chap called Dominic who was ringing to find out if I was still interested in meeting anyone as he'd read my ad on the Brick Wall. Naturally I was delighted to hear from him as I had made no plans for my last evening in Hong Kong. After a short conversation which established a mutual interest he gave me his phone number and asked me to ring him at 1800. I was so knackered I went back to sleep.

I didn't feel very much like going out today and in any case I couldn't think of anywhere that I wanted to go. Hong Kong is not a place that is very interesting to me for sightseeing purposes. Instead I fixed my web pages and made use of the hours for which I paid to be online and actually managed to get my Singapore page completed. I telephoned Dominic at 1800 and made arrangements to meet at the local MTR at 2100. After packing all my bags and making sure that everything would fit in I showered and went down to the Admiral bar where I had a drink before going up to the restaurant to have dinner at 2030. It was a very good buffet and I had Minestrone the soup followed by a fish course of smoked salmon, oysters and king prawns before tucking in to a selection from the various hot dishes on the buffet. I had almost finished my main course when I realised it was 2100 and telephoned to Dominic to find out if he was the close by.

He told me he was outside on the corner and when I went to the restaurant window we waved to each other and I told him I would be down within the next five minutes. I met this charming young man dressed in tight black trousers and a short-sleeved back shirt. His black hair was a little longer than average, he was very slim and about five foot six inches tall. He suggested we go to a bar called Zip in the central area and we proceeded to catch tram. I'd wanted to go on a tram since I arrived in Hong Kong but this was the first time that an opportunity presented itself. It was a smooth journey and took about 15 minutes.

The bar when we arrived was practically empty but we had a drink and chatted about his time in Australia as he had been spending the last nine years in Adelaide studying for a degree in technology. He was soft-spoken with good English and very charming. I bought us a drink which I paid for with my Visa as I only had HK$100 left in cash and I wasn't sure how much I would need for the morrow. We spent about three-quarters of an hour in the bar when I asked him if he would like to move on to another bar. He told me he would rather go back with me to my hotel and spend some time there. I was delighted to hear this and immediately suggested that we do that. We flagged a taxi from outside the bar and arrived back in the City Garden Hotel before 2300.

I poured a drink for each of us from the bottle of whisky, popped in a couple of cubes of ice and topped it up coke before sitting on the bed beside him. We chatted for a short while, he told me he was 28 years of age. He asked me about my past experiences and my marriage which he had read about on my web page and I was happy to relate some details to him. He pointed out that he had never done anything like this before and when I asked him what he meant he said, "I've never replied to an advertisement from anyone and I never went out with a stranger to sure them the city."
"In that case I am delighted that you have chosen to do this with me. I certainly enjoyed your company during the time we've spent together and I feel content and relaxed with you as you seem a very genuine person." I said.
He smiled and appeared to be a little embarrassed by what I told him. "Well you made me feel very relaxed as I'm usually very nervous about meeting people." He put his arm around my shoulder and looked into my eyes. "Why did you advertise on that notice board?" He asked. "How did you get to know about it?"
"A chap called Edward from the North in mainland China e-mailed me and told me about it. I had hoped I might meet him when I came to Hong Kong but it turned out that the distances involved made it quite impossible. He sent me the link and suggested that I might be able to find someone to show me around by placing an ad on that." I told him.
"How long was it before you had the reply? I think your advert was on Sunday." He inquired.
"I had a reply on Sunday morning at 1030 and another one a few minutes later." I informed him. "The only other reply I had was from yourself when you phoned today."

I asked him if I could take a picture of him for my memories and he told me "Okay but let me look in your bathroom mirror first." I laughed and said "OK."

Finally he emerged, I took my photographs and he was ready to leave. We embraced warmly inside the bedroom door. He promised to send me an e-mail and I closed the door behind him retaining for myself only the memories of the evening and the lingering fragrance of the eau de cologne he'd splashed onhis face before I took my pictures.

Back in the room I downloaded pictures to my computer finally turning in for the night. My last night in Hong Kong was one of my best on the island and was certainly one to remember.