Panic stations! Sue went to draw some money off our TravelMoney card and the money didn't come out! We rang the number on the machine and they said that it had been refused by the bank. Whew. I guess it was just a communication issue. Just to check, put the card back in and check the balance. HK$500 (=A$60) Whoa! Panic stations again! Thats all the spending (ie food, accomodation, transport) money we have left for the rest of the truip! Back to the hotel in a daze and log on. Whew! The balance there is correct (substantially higher than A$60). Everyone can relax!!!
This morning was our usual pattern of breakfast and read the paper. More floating pigs. China investing in minerals in Afghanistan. New pope (missed that yesterday - I don't think it made the front page here because the Pope is not on good terms with China (or vice versa)
After breakfast, we crossed the road to the Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame exhibition. It was very interesting. I really hadn't known too much about him despite the iconic imagery around him. The exhibition presented him as a very down-to-earth guy, and an interesting and amusing one at that. My takeaway message was "Art is all around us - even in campbell soup cans.". We didn't stay though for the 8 hour movie "Empire State building by night", but checked out a few Ming vases. Saw some sophisticated 4000 year old chinese pottery.
Then onto the ferry to Central, and an exciting ride up the escalator. It took us about 750m (vertically) up the mountain in about 20 stages (though one stage was under repair). Then down again by minibus, and onto a tram to Causeway Bay. It was a slow ride but probably still more interesting than the Empire State by night.
We went to Victoria Park where there was a flower show on. Masses of flowers, but I suspect that there were almost as many photographers as flowers! Needless to say, we joined in the fun, taking lots of unnecessary photos. Started to look for anything else I couldn't see (following on from one of my earlier themes), and realised I couldn't see any facial hair. In the whole morning I only saw 3 beards (Sue saw 4). One was a Jewish rabbi, one a moslem and the other some sort of wild and wooly person. I also noted to Sue that I had not seen any joggers here, but she thought that might only be because i was looking in the wrong place or the wrong time or both. Perhaps she was right. After that I needed a coffee to recover from the effort.
Meandered over to the Convention Centre which puts Brisbanes a bit to shame. Onto the ferry and back to the hotel to give the feet a break. We then took our clothes to the laundry and did a bit of shopping, running the gauntlet again with the bespoke tailor salesmen.
We wondered where to eat dinner tonight, so just wandered into a chinese residential area looking for something clean and with some english on the menu. We chose a clean and simple place and had a delicious dinner. Lots of different mushrooms in the meal.
Leaving dinner, we encountered the Avenue of (Chinese) Comic Heroes. Some looked vaguely familiar, but no "Mr Walker", or Clark Kent. Amongst the statues were people doing Tai Chi (or is it Chai Tea?) and Kung Fu. I mistook one guy for a comic statue at first because be was standing so still in an unusual pose.
Then back to the hotel and the aforementioned money disaster.
It was another interesting, if not overly exciting day. We are beginnning to feel very comfortable in Hong Kong, and enjoying just wandering around the town.
The end of another day.
