We spent the week at Mark’s flat, resting up, doing all our washing, and spent a lot of time doing pretty much nothing.
Among the items of business we had to attend to was getting our air tickets to Bangkok with Air Lanka which cost us £75 each one way; Linda bought the silk for her wedding dress from a Chinese craft store – 11.5 m of Dupion silk cost HK$1,105; I bought 8 rolls of film – 5 of Fujichrome 100, and 3 of Ektachrome 100 – which cost HK$285; I went to see a doctor about the infection of the bladder I had picked up in Nepal and he prescribed me some tablets which seemed to do the trick – that cost another 250 Hong Kong dollars; and I bought a set of SONY headphones and a small high-performance torch. We also posted a lot of stuff home.
At about 3 p.m. on Saturday we took advantage of a brief lull in the rain that had bucketed down all morning and left the flat, caught a bus down to Central, and walked around the Star Ferry terminal for the last time. As it crossed Hong Kong Harbour, we looked back at the cluster of glass and steel towers, backdropped by the green of the Peak, and down the harbour to where the Jumbos were landing, seemingly amongst the apartments.
We paused at Mac’s Bar for a drink then caught one of the air-conditioned buses out to the airport, leaving Kowloon to the rain and to the tourists. Everything at the airport was way beyond our meagre store of money and after we had gone through immigration we looked for something to spend our last HK$5-50 on, but the cheapest thing we could find was a plastic pencil sharpener which cost HK$10.
Our Air Lanka flight was surprisingly good for a cheapie! The wide-body Tristar 100 jet was comfortable and roomy and the service and food were excellent
We were kept amused by a group of Chinese, obviously on their first-ever flight or possibly their first-ever time on a mode of transport not powered by animals!
We landed in Bangkok at 9:30 p.m. local time and sped quickly through customs and immigration. We teamed up with four English chaps to catch a bus into town which only cost us to Bart each. As we stepped from the airport bus, the 33-degree air hit us like a solid wall! Once in the city we found Kao Sahn Road and took a room in a small guest house. The room was like an oven, with no window and only a small fan to circulate the already stupefying air. It was probably the hottest night we have ever spent.
CurseOfTheTraveller 