Matt in Hong Kong

Matt and Benedickte stopped over in Hong Kong on their way back from New Zealand.   The night they flew in, Matt and I met up after work and had a nice time at Ozone Bar on the top of ICC.  It was a lovely clear night.

Video:  View from ICC and Ozone.

I took the next day off work to take them sight-seeing.   In the morning Matt and I took the Star Ferry over to HK Island and the cable-car up the Peak.  We had a nice walk in the sun around Lugard Road.

Matt met Bruce Lee at the Peak Galleria

IFC from Lugard Road

We met up with Benedickte for posh lunch at the Peninsular Hotel (where the Brits surrendered Hong Kong to the Japanese in WW2).

Then we took a taxi through Sham Sui Po to the Kam Shan Country Park to walk along Section 5 of the  MacLehose trail over Beacon Hill to Lion Rock.

I'd sold the walk to Benedickte with the promise of seeing wild monkeys.   But although we went back to the section of the track that had been swarming with monkeys last October (see previous post), there were none to be seen.   It seems the monkeys don't 'work' for the tourists on weekdays.  Luckily we later saw a couple later.

We enjoyed the 3hr walk over Beacon Hill and the nice views of Kowloon and Shatin valley.   My iPhone batteries ran out so I didn't get any photos.  But the shot above gives a good idea of the view, although visibility wasn't quite as good for us (source).

For dinner we met up with Hannah and Rika and went to Mask of Bejing and Si Chen, a restaurant in East TST known for its sichuan and vegetarian dishes.

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Home in January

We returned to Hong Kong in early Jan and immediately noticed the pollution.   In the taxi from the airport we could feel the air irritating our eyes and throats, and the visibility was very poor.

Low visibility:  ICC from Stonecutters bridge

This wasn't just the comparison with New Zealand.   While we had been away light winds and lack of rain had allowed the level of pollutants to build up to an unusually dangerous level  (scmp link)

Low visibility:  sunset over Shatin

Low visibility:  Victoria harbor from ICC

This motivated us to buy an air-purifier for the bed-room.  An Paralda HEPA filter from Alenair.

Minimi was very pleased to see us at home.

Soon after we returned Rika was smitten by very bad headaches.   She was even hospitalized for 2 nights while the doctor ran tests like MRI scans to rule-out the most dangerous of the possible causes.  Fortunately she didn't have a brain tumor or a stroke and the headaches eventually cleared up.

While Rika was ill I had to look after Hannah and make sure she was properly fed.

Hannah took these photos of her Papa diligently looking after her.

In mid-Jan Hannah was very excited to get a 'Landseru'.  This is the traditional Japanese children's school pack, which she had really, really, really wanted for months.   I think it is based on a Prussian model.

Rik had not wanted  to buy a Landseru since they are very expensive, heavy and a bit impractical.  And we thought Hannah would eventually lose interest.  But she didn't, and after 6 months of nagging wore-down Rika enough to get a somewhat less expensive Chinese copy.   It is vinyl not the traditional hand-stitched leather, but was very well-received all the same.

Hannah says:   "I love it!"