21 December 2014. Last day before the night flight

I packed, checked out and took my bag to the Central check in to get of of it. Then I set off back to Kowloon, repeating and expanding upon yesterday's tour. I went up to Mong Kok and had a look at the various market streets off Nathan Road. I gradually walked back towards the harbour, passing the Yau Mau Tei theatre on the way. It looked worth a visit on a future holiday. Then I was back in the Gascoigne Road area and I spent some time visiting the large Tin Hau Temple, which was thick with smoke.

Carrying on down, I went past the King George V Memorial Park. It seemed a bit incongruous in this very Chinese part of Hong Kong; and also a little sad and cramped. On a larger scale is the Kowloon Park. The border flowers looked splendid in the sunlight.

I was attracted by the noise of drums. Investigations led me to a children's martial arts festival.

I took the ferry across to Wan Chai and decided to see if I could find the Cricket Club. I started off going past the race track, reached via a long pedestrian subway, which was sheltering about a dozen homeless in a strange cardboard shanty habitation. The walk from the race track was all uphill and at a certain point I could see the cricket club was still a good way off and I called it a day and decided to head for the airport. To be resumed!

20 December 2014. A sprint around Lamma and a tour of Kowloon

I got going reasonably early as I was meeting a couple from my talk who had volunteered to show me a bit of the 'real' Hong Kong in the afternoon.

For the morning, I decided to take the ferry to Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island, then do the easy walk to Sok Kwu Wan for the ferry back. It was a pleasant if undemanding walk in bright sunshine that included seeing a selfie taker almost falling into the sea to get her picture. I also came across the beehive of Lamma..

Once back in Hong Kong, I went to meet the couple who had kindly volunteered to give me a small tour, starting with lunch at the famous Tsui Wah restaurant, a 24 hour restaurant near Lang Kwai Fong (LKF). We then crossed to Kowloon, alighting at Jordan and had a wander around, taking in the Temple Street night market that was just setting up as well as the dense housing estates by Jordan Road.

That evening I went back to LKF for a drink and a bit of people watching.

19 December 2014. Rainy day at the art gallery

It was a dreary day weatherwise and so I went to the arts centre in Kowloon. A lot of the rooms were closed but there was an interesting exhibition of sculptures as well as a room of randomly selected works from the modern arts collection.

Taking the ferry back to Central, I came across a group of determined selfie-takers as well as a Henry Moore sculpture.

In the afternoon, I met a couple of local psychologists for what seemed like a TGI Friday early glass of white wine. My first wine since BA on the way to Bangkok!

That evening, I made my way in the rain to a small restaurant a bit beyond Causeway Bay. No-one spoke English, so ordering was a bit of a hit and miss struggle.

18 December 2014. Stanley excursion.

I got the bus to Stanley and essentially repeated my day there the year before. It was a quite chilly day but that didn't seem to put off a man with his new drone which he was trying out on the pier.

At the time I was at the prison museum, they had a parade on the drill ground. It was slightly surreal, taking me back to days of the CCF at school!

I got back to my hotel mid-afternoon as I was giving a talk to a group of psychologists in the evening and did not want to be late. As it turned out, the meeting was in a very nice restaurant and I would gladly have just carried on eating rather than having to get to my feet and talk for my meal!