As we landed and I could feel the tension and stress of the last few months lift. I subsequently found out that we landed in a level 3 typhoon which would in some part explain why it was cats and dogs on the ground. The airport was very nice as you would expect from Fosters – modern, clean and efficient i.e. the opposite of shitpot Heathrow. My first glimpses of Hong Kong were from the taxi and it was hard to make it all out through the heavy rain but it looked hilly and not as urban as I had expected. As we swung into central Hong Kong however the landscape changed and the big skyscrapers came into view and I felt much more comfortable.
Our hotel, gratis care of the company natch, is great if a little small and tomorrow we look for somewhere to live which is music to the ears of every cowboy estate agent north of the Pearl River estuary. My wife says she has a contact through a friend of a friend but I’m not so sure. In the evening we had noodles in one of the many thousands of restaurants that line the roads here and it was as cheap as chips, about £8 for two, which quickly dispelled my fears that this city was going to be as extortionate as London and I think the most expensive outgoing is rent after which the rest is fairly reasonable. It not that odd to be here to be honest as the amount of time I’ve spent in Thailand has prepared me to be in the minority and it’s not a feeling that bothers me either way as I’d sooner be surrounded by Chinese than some of the dregs I’ve had to share breathing space with back in the UK. So all in all, I’m very relived to be here but I’m still in tourist mode so ask me in a couple of months.