Breakfast was the worst I have had in a long time and at 32 NZD one of the most expensive. It looked good at first, a buffet style layout lots of pots and food heaters as you would expect. Everything was neat but the first thing I noticed was that all the plates were side plates, no decent sized plates, so you had to use a collection of side plates unless you used mugs, of which more later. Then I tasted the coffee, come on how do people make coffee this bad? I suspect the dishwash water tasted better. The hash browns were small and cooked so hard they could have been used as amour. Much the same could have been said of the bacon. There were hard boiled eggs rather than fried or scrambled, they were still in their shells. They were supposed to be fairly soft but were so hard because they had clearly sat for a long time in the heater, possibly weeks. They were so hot that it was like trying to handle little red hot rocks. I left egg shell all over the place to punish the waiters. It's not as if it was just me being fussy, after all I eat most things, you could see the other diners also wondering about the food. People were making multiple passes over the buffet as you would expect except they were not picking up any food. In the end they would just pick one item up and retreat with a disappointed look to their tables.
I did have some entertainment. A good looking Indian chick turned up on her own shortly after me. In her 20's very well dressed but her attire was let down by having old trainers on? She started off by bossing the staff into providing her with stuff in cups, though I was not sure exactly what they were doing. When she had a collection of mugs in front of her she started mixing up various strange selections. For instance rice and yoghurt, or yoghurt and fish sauce. None of her selections seemed to go together, I assumed she was preparing food for a party following her but nobody turned up? I wish I had had the nerve to ask her what she was doing.
Out and about the district. Walked the streets for about an hour, again did not feel as entertained as before, saw more tailors but not as many as previously and they seem more desperate. Then I bought a ticket on the ferry, which I still reckon is the best cheap trip in the world. Nowhere as much traffic in the harbor but still enough to interest me. It seems that containerization has reached HK and the old harbor is slowly dying. A ticket for the upper deck was 2.5 dollars, beat that for value.
I walked way to fast to the peak tram, I blame the dad effect. I was boiling when I got there as it was further than the map suggested. Then off with the other tourists and their moaning kids to the top of the peak. They have a new viewing platform there that is supposed to give a 360 view of HK. However as I got to the top I had the strange feeling of a lid slamming on my head. Not a real lid of course but a lid of clouds descending and closing on me. You can see in my photographs that I lose my view half way around the platform. It really did come down in a straight line, very strange.
As there was nothing to see now I came out and had lunch at Starbucks. Yeah I know how terrible but I wanted to see what they were like. Tiramisu and sausage roll, filed me up. I bought some bottles of water at a horrible price. It will be a theme of this trip, bottled water, I will end up buying large quantities everywhere.
Around the place I was seeing a particular breed of women that I had heard about but not actually encountered before. The expat wife! How to describe this breed, well l30-40, slim, wearing a obviously expensive summer dress and with a certain air about them. On the way to the peak I had passed two standing under a tree sheltering from a brief shower, as they were in my way they had to step to one side. Most places we would have exchanged a nod but not these two oh no nothing! They could see that I did not belong to the right club. All I could thing looking at them and at the ones I saw in Starbucks was you would have to pay me a lot of money to put up with these parasites.
Posted some cards from the top of the peak and then down on the tram again. It was a better walk back to the ferry this time as the weather had improved. At the ferry people kept on trying to sell me stuff mainly tours. The fact that I was off soon did not dampen their enthuse one bit. On the ferry I realized that everybody I could see was a tourist. What a pity, I suspect with the opening of the tunnel it's only us which keep things going.
Back to the hotel for a cold bath and a rest. I was complaining about the heat but little did I realize that I was going to be hot and in some cases very hot this whole trip. HK is to up market for me, piles and piles of high priced junk. Why do people spend so much money on this junk. Though I have to say that the local girls spend more money and time on their appearances that their New Zealand sisters do. Almost out of cash, will I make it or will I have to get more, tomorrow will tell.
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