hong kong v1.4

sent a care package home by ship. after it has picked up/dropped off all of the human slaves and drugs it should make it to toronto in 2 months.

last night lyds saw a cockroach climb out of the drain in our bathroom sink. i sprayed him with the shower head and he retreated up the pipe. we may have won the battle, but a longer psychological war has begun. are there more? did i scald him to death? will he wait until we have fallen asleep to emerge again? perhaps we should set watches. lyds now stomps around whenever she heads to the bathroom to scare it off and drive me crazy. we are so smart because we went to university! we have begun using sound like in apocalypse now: we use flip flops instead of wagner against the roach.

as lyds felt the need to shop i took the mtr to shau kei wan on hong kong island and toured the hong kong museum of coastal defence. the museum is in lei yue mun fort which was built in 1880 to defend the eastern approach to victoria harbour. at the time it was the most sophesticated coastal fortification at the time. it was also here on december 18, 1941 that fierce fighting took place between the japanese troops and british defenders. bullit holes mark the walls, and there is a monument to the canadians who died in the attack. the place is massive, and was empty so for the first time since arriving in hong kong i have some personal space. i thought of you dad at the fort. it would have been great to share the experience with you. later i met up with lyds for a kung fu demonstration in hong kong park. i think we were both a little disappointed. we had wanted a little more crouching tiger, hidden dragon. that night we visited in kowloon the temple street market and the tung choi street market looking for bargains.

the next morning when we awoke we realized that our flight was that night and not the next day as we had thought. we had just enough time to view the hong kong stock market during trading, and see the hsbc building (the robot building). it is at the latter where there are two bronze lions guarding the enterance named stephen and stitt. we both got a chance to see and fell the bullit holes left on stitt from when the japanese used him for target practice during the occupation. we also didn't pass up the chance to ride the central level escalator, which is really 3 elevated walkways and 20 elevators that streches for 800m. it moves 50,000 people a day on their way to work. of course we rode it to the top.

after a mad dash to the airport we were airborn for melbourne. you could still see the victoria harbour lights as we left, and i watched them till they disappeared.

final notes on hong kong:

have lots of money - this is a world class city and you need world class dollars to enjoy it fully. get a nice play to stay, eat well. if not you might not have the energy to see all that hong kong offers.
it is a different culture - you might think it is rude to spit in public or push people as you pass, but people in hong kong don't. keep your head up, at times dip your shoulder, and watch out for the guy with the bad chest cold.
there is no personal space - it is clausterphobic. there is just not enough room.
weather - we haven't been rained on since we left toronto.
wildlife - no one wins in a cockroach war.
history - the city is changing. due to economics the junker villages in aberdeen and rickshaws on hong kong island have all but disappeared. who knows what the future will bring, but this is a new hong kong that we visited.