It's our last day and as we dont fly out until Midnight, we arrange that we can stay in our rooms until 6pm, so we can have somewhere to relax, shower, etc later on. First off we head down to the Airport Express to check our bags in. The traffic is lousy and it takes forever to get here, which, as the crow flies is less than half a mile, but hey it's Hong Kong it gets like this. So out we hop, go through the rigamarole of buying tickets as you you cant get into the check in areas without one. We get to the counter and all's going swimmingly, then the nice lady says "Passports Please..." Great, I'd left them up at the hotel, so it's jump into another cab and go through more traffic hell. Eventually I get back and then they wont let me in as the ticket doesnt work. So it's the usual nonsense explaining stuff to people before I'm let back in. So we start again, get the bags sorted and then plan for a journey down to Wanchai. We're wondering if Wanchai market is still going as everyone we asked didnt seem to know. I dont think any of the new breed of Expats have ever been there.

We take the MTR and get off on one of the new exits, which takes us out into a new weird part of Wanchai, we get out into the light and there's all posh shops, posh cafes and massive Chinese New Year Decorations, it was nice but not what we were after. We actually wondered if Wanchai Market had been closed down due to the Bird Flu scares over the years and that this modern nonsense was built in it's place? Something has gone on, but a bit of a walk and we find it, ye olde Wanchai Market, but it's definitely a bit smaller. Many years ago Lord Gibbs from the Foreign Office had paid the old surprise visit to Hong Kong and copious amounts had been consumed, so the following morning I took him for a walk through Wanchai Market, to give him a taste of the Orient, the place I chose was an area we used to call Freak Street - It was the Meat Market and this was where live fish, poultry, snakes, frogs...actually you name it, it was there to be bought and slaughtered in front of you and tossed into a blue plastic bag with the meat still wriggling as you continued with your shopping. It was a hoot taking the old boy down there, he was fragile to say the least from the night before and was jumping out of his skin as fish flew from people's hands and live snakes were torn apart after this rather gifted chap used his teeth to bite them open. All truly horrific and I'm sure Father remembers it fondly. So for fans of the gory, the good news is it's still there, just a bit smaller. Jayne has gone soft, in the old days she was more than happy to take a stroll down there but now she refused point blank, but you could see from a distance that it was all still going on there. For anyone visiting Hong Kong, I would recommend a trip down here. It's brutal and yet fascinating.

As Chinese New Year was about to kick off, there was a good buzz going on and we dived into the shops that sell traditional New Year paraphenalia, it's great fun and we always loved this area. You can get cheap clothes, watches, belts and curious Chinese stuff like Chairman Mao badges, his little red book, just about anything. We really enjoyed it, rummaging round. We then thought we'd head to Victoria Park to see the Flower Displays that they have there at this time of year, but we couldnt get on a tram or get a taxi, so we had that flagging feeling that you get in Hong Kong when you simply cant be arsed to deal with the constant flow of human traffic, so we headed into Churchill's Boozer on Lockhart Road had some food and a couple of beers.

Time was getting on and we wanted to have a bit of a relax before heading to the airport, so we headed back to the Bishop Lei Hotel for a bit of a chill out. Soon enough it was time to make a move so we walked down Mid Levels for one last look. We then jumped on the train and into the Airport - We strolled around and bought some booze for the folks back home. It's a massive airport but they dont really do normal shops there, it's all Cartier, Lamborghini, Rolex etc. We then head to a place called Spaghetti House, which is a bit of an oddity, they used to be a Restaurant Chain in Hong Kong years ago and there used to be one every few blocks, this is the only one I've seen and I dont want to see another, the food was stodgetastic......far too much and overinflated, but it served it's purpose. We then headed up to the boarding gate, there wasnt long to wait and we then boarded. Pretty soon the Captain announced that we were just backing out and would soon be on our way. There was a bit of a noise and the plane stopped. The captain announced that as we were backing out, somehow a metal rod had gone through the two right landing tyres and that help would soon be at hand. Six hours later they conceded defeat. How they ever thought they were going to fix two massive blown tyres was optimistic to say the least.

As I said, SIX HOURS LATER, we were let off the plane, Virgin would put us up in some hotel and pay for grub, taxi's etc, just speak to the Virgin Representatives they said, there was no chance, they were besieged by the locals all screaming at them. It took about 2 hours before we could make any sense out of what was going on, but eventually we did and were told to go by a Taxi Rank and we'd be shipped off to an hotel. As I was leaving I said to one of the Virgin Reps, what about the booze that I brought...."Oooh" he said - he would take it and I would have to pick it up at the boarding gate tomorrow. Fair enough.

The Hotel we were shipped to was in Hung Hom and it's a bit crowded there plus the hotel was full of mainland Chinese on holiday for the New Year......it took over an hour to check in. We were knacked. The room was fairly big but stank of Wee. We were past caring and crashed out. Later we went for food downstairs and I was thinking it was going to be the full mainland job but we were pleasantly surprised as the food was top notch. We were joined on our table by a Hong Kong Chinese lady who was a Lawyer and we had a chat about why Virgin had kept us on that plane so long - Insurance reasons and also Virgin would have to sue the Airport Authority said our new friend. Her name was Rowena and she was going on a jaunt to Blighty to get away from Hong Kong for Chinese New Year.....she also told us that she thought Hong Kong was not the place it once was, she then plainly stated "It's these Mainlanders!". So there we have it then.

At 8pm we were shipped off in Buses and we managed to get the first one and were feeling delighted with ourselves for barging everyone out the way and getting the front seats. All was wonderful until we hit the motorway and on the busiest junction, the bus broke down. The lights went off and the temperature got hot without the trusty aircon. We were there for about ten minutes. The driver, another genial welcoming sort was on his "Dingwah" (Cantonese for Phone) to his mate, probably asking if there was a knack to starting this piece of crap.......whatever his mate told him worked and he managed to fire it back to life. So off we went again, of course we were now behind everyone else in the queue to check in, so that took ages and then I asked about my booze. No one was particularly bothered about my booze and in the end we had to get a manager bloke, who first tried to fob me off by saying we'll give it back to you and you can take it through security. Really - because everyone carries liquid through security - I wont bore you with the details, it took about two hours to get my booze sorted. It had to be boxed and checked in. Finally free we went to a pub in the airport and got a few down us......purely as stress relief...we then went to the boarding gate at 10.45pm - at the boarding gate it said the plane was delayed and wouldnt be leaving until 01.30am - Great, then Grant said there's another pub at the top end, so we headed there and bought ourselves a drink...GBP10.00 each. I then thought I'd check the departure board before we sat down. Virgin had changed the Departure Gate and the Flight Number and it was now flashing FINAL CALL!!!. You cant beat a bit of panic. I told everyone we had to hop pronto...and told Grant to run down to tell them we were on our way. Grant hadnt bothered to look at which gate we were meant to be at and he took off like Thumper.........which then attracted the attention of the security services who joined in the chase........but fair play, one of the Virgin guys actually out ran the security guys and grabbed Grant and told him he was going the wrong way...........so we all eventually got to the boarding gate....we were told to run...yeah right. and we were the last ones aboard............we took our seats and the Captain announced that we would shortly be taxiing and would be on our way. Ten minutes later he announced that there was a "Technical Problem" - you could hear everyone on board groan at the same time. Whatever it was though wasnt as bad as the night before and finally we got underway. We arrived in Blighty twelve hours later...knacked and it was minus 7 Deg. C. I then had the joyous prospect of driving for the next four hours. Welcome back to Blighty.