Poms to Oz: Hong Kong Phooey!

19th & 20th November 2016

The flights were pretty much on time. We got a taxi to Oxenhome Station, the train to Manchester Airport and flew by Emirates Airlines. It was two, seven and a half hour flights, first to Dubai where we had a three hour change over. The second flight was into Hong Kong. I sat next to a Hong Kong girl who worked as cabin crew for Emirates. She was quite informative (in between long periods of sleep). This second flight was a nighttime flight so many people slept. I managed two periods of a quarter of an hour but Janice can sleep for the Olympic team and she had about four hours of drifting in and out of sleep. I regressed to childhood, watching some in-flight movies, including The Jungle Book, The BFG and Rescuers Down Under!

Talking of being childish, I thought you might be able to remember the Hong Kong Phooey cartoon and theme. If not here is a little reminder of the words.....we have been singing it already!

Hong Kong Phooey, number one super guy.

Hong Kong Phooey, quicker than the human eye.

He's got style, a groovy style,

and a car that just won't stop.
When the going gets rough, he's super tough,
with a Hong Kong Phooey chop (Hi-Ya!)

Ahh, it's amazing what you remember! Especially if it's totally pointless.....you forget the more useful stuff. Hong Kong Fooey actually lived in America which also reminded me that we read recently that chow mien, chop suey and fortune cookies were all invented in America too! It begs the question...what have the Chinese given us? Answers on a postcard please (or email).

As always with a double flight we were especially relieved to collect our main suitcase at Hong Kong airport. We got the express train into Kowloon and. Free shuttle bus to near our hotel...The Perkin Hotel. By the way daytime temperature was 27 degrees and at night it was 24. Quite a pleasant temperature, not too humid either, certainly a lot better than back home.

The hotel is great. The room on the 11th floor is clean, spacious and modern (with a nice walk in shower, which I prefer to a bath). There's no view but hey! The street is Knutsford Terrace which has no similarities with a motorway service station on the M6. It is a narrow pedestrian alley of trendy bars. I know they are trendy because a pint of lager costs around 80 Hong Kong Dollars (around £8), although a haggled the price down to 55 HKD and got a free coke for Janice!

It isn't exactly the Chinese cultural experience yet but the area is very bustling and a real mix of old and modern. In Hong Kong, there is a very British legacy, they drive on the left, have double decker buses, our style traffic lights and street names in English. They drink in pints not litres and most people speak some English.

Despite the jet lag we went out seeking to explore and find authentic Chinese food (not difficult, although there is plenty of international food places including McDonalds and KFC). The hotel reception pointed us to Temple Street Night Market, which wasn't far away.

Here was some of the food on offer a the street restaurants. We avoided the deep fried frogs and the stir fried pig intestines and had chicken and peppers in black bean sauce with garlic pak choi and rice.