I'm writing this sitting in a coffee bar on the Peak (the highest spot in Hong Kong}. It is dark and there is a fabulous view of the lights around HK harbour. It is about as beautiful as a city can look at night.
The trip to HK was uneventful (which is a Good Thing on flights as far as I'm concerned). Are plane seats getting narrower or am I getting wider? I used to feel I knew how a sardine felt, now I think they have it easy, at least they have enough room for their knees. I thought including Enduring Love among the in-flight films was an inspired choice (it starts with someone falling to a very nasty death from a hot air balloon).
About dawn we looked out to see a sight like the landscape of Titan: an orange sky illuminating an endless rocky, partly snow covered, mountain range. Mongolia maybe (we were somewhere SE of Ulan Bator). The landscape changed slowly from snow to just rock as we got further soth. Occasionally you could see small towns.
And eventually after 11.5 hours we arrived in HK and got the bus to the hotel. It was, by HK standards, a winter's day but, despite that, all air conditioning (and there is a lot) was on the perma-frost setting. We turned it off and thawed out the room.
The hotel is owned by the Salvation Army (no, it's not a shelter for down and outs) which means no alcohol in the mini-bar but otherwise it's fine.
More later, "good customers use the net for only fifteen minutes at a time" it says here ...
Simon
