I am adrift in cybertime, my blog talks about Hong Kong when really I'm in Sydney several thousand miles, several days and three hours (changing time zones) away.
First leave Hong Kong - though we're sorry to go. We did lots of things I didn't bore you with but here are a couple of sights I remember, both while wandering around the back streets surronding Nathan Road.
First, down a little alleyway a small group had errected a makesift awning and were performing Cantonese opera. Two very respectable looking ladies were singing and waving fans and a red handkerchief in approriately theatrical gestures. The 'orchestra' were two men on fiddle like instruments with a long necks and bowls the size of a grapefruit; there was a drummer and an elderly man playing a zither like instrument, tapping the wires with sticks. The zither player would have looked at home at a vicarage tea party in the home counties: well shined shoes, grey flannel trousers and a tweed sports jacket. The drummer was, well, like drummers everywhere. You could see he was dying to hurl himself into a frenetic rock solo but had to limit himself to the occasional 'dong' on a temple bell or dramatic 'bong' on a hand drum. Eventually a smartly dressed elderly gentleman passed. After making a donation he walked on to the 'stage' to inspect the sheet music and discuss technical issues (as far as we could judge) with the singers. It all had the air of a scholary recital, but performed in an alley with an audience of about five including a crazy tramp who waved his arms and did dance steps on an adjacent stretch of pavement. We made a small donation and were welcomed with open arms; we were offered the best seats in the house (two small stools) but life is too short to listen to a whole Cantonese opera.
Finally for H-K, the oddest shop we saw. Again down a back street. A small shop selling armour. Not Chinese, not 'antique' but shiny new, Knights of the Round Table suits. The window had the sort of outfit that Prince Hal might have worn ( maybe my dating is out by a couple of hundred years, 100 years war? whatever). Is there a big jousting scene in Hong Kong?
And so to the airport and an overnight flight to Perth. Still Quantas, still the same movies and the same food.
