Second day done and I have to say that I am glad it is over. Today was a rainy day in Hong Kong with every type of rain from drizzle to downpour. I had planned to go to Victoria Peak, but it would have been pointless because all I would have been able to see was clouds, so I decided to head to the harbour and go on a harbour cruise instead, not the best day for doing anything outdoors really, but when you have lemons, ...................!.

The harbour cruise was not greatly exciting except for the fact that it gave you a different perspective of the city. I met some nice people on the cruise and spent the time on the water in pleasant company. After we got back to the dock, I decided to head back to Temple Street Markets and get myself another pair of long pants for the rest of the trip and I picked up some souvenier t-shirts for the family.

While I was at the markets I had a couple of interesting experiences, the first happened while I was walking along the footpath minding my own business, trying to stay out of the the rain and I walked past a woman who I thought was just standing out of the rain in a doorway, but how wrong can a guy be, before I knew what was happening, she steps forward and grabs me by the arm and tries to lead me towards the doorway while at the same time asking me if I wanted a massage or s**, I didn't know whether to to be flattered or frightened, so I just politely said no and moved away as quickly as I could, feeling a little flushed and embarassed about the whole episode. I continued to look at the market stalls and found myself having to go back the way that I came and this meant having to go back past where this lady was standing, so I braved the rain pouring into the walkway from the rooves of the stalls to avoid walking near her again, but she caught sight of me as I was walking down the stall row and she tried to get me to go her way again, but I again politely refused and increased my pace to about double to get the heck away from there.

The second experience I had was when I walked into a Karaoke Bar to listen to the singers for a little while and found that things are done differently here in Hong Kong. When I walked in it was pretty evident that the people who ran the place did not speak english, so communication was tricky to say the least. After a few futile hand gestures on my part to try to show the lady serving me that I just wanted to listen, she seemed to get upset and thought that I asked her if I could take a photo, obviously charades is not my strong point, luckily there was a lady sitting at a table close to where I was standing who could speak english and she smoothed it over with the lady owner, who then ushered me to a seat at the translating ladies table and put a cup of tea in front of me, then it got even more awkward when the man who was singing when I walked in, explained to me in broken english that if you walk into the club you must either buy a bottle of beer or pay to sing a song, both of which cost 100 HKD, so there I was a tea totalling, non chinese speaking or reading white aussie tourist sitting in a licenced, chinese language karaoke club, talk about the proverbial fish out of water, and to make it just a little more awkward, the karaoke singing owner who set me straight on the way things are done, gave me a glass of beer for free from his own bottle, which was quickly poured and placed in front of me, now it was really awkward. There I was sitting in a chinese langauge karaoke club with a glass of beer sitting in front of me which I did not pay for and did not intend to drink. All I could think about was to try not to insult the owner who gave me the beer in the first place, so I sought the assistance of the english speaking lady again to see if I could buy the owner a beer to avoid insulting his kind gesture, after a little bit of discussion it was worked out that I only had to pay 20 HKD for the tea and I could sit and listen for as long I wanted. Honestly, I felt like running out the door then and there, but I stayed for at least five songs from different people, all singing with the kind gent who offered me the beer. It was just like karaoke in other parts of the world, some can do it, some think they can do it and some just should not do it, ever!

While I was sitting there listening, I soon realised that I was not in a threatening place and that I was welcome if I was respectful. I was not the only white man in the place, there was another chap at the table I was seated at who was the husband of the translating woman. It turned out that the chap who was on stage playing the keyboard for the singers was her father, they were over from Tennessee in the good old U.S of A on a visit to the relatives with their kids.

Another day where doing something a little left of centre had an unexpected outcome and enriched me with another experience that I can put under my belt.

I had planned on going on a night time harbour cruise to view the Symphony Of Lights, which is a light and sound show using the skyscrapers and various buildings around the harbour to shine lasers and flash sequenced lights to music, but the weather was absolutely crap and I did not feel like paying good money to go out into the middle of the harbour in the wind and rain and not seeing anything, so I opted for trying to watch the show from the shoreline, which really did not work out that great either, because wouldn't you know it, right at the time the light show started, the wind and rain whipped up and made it pretty bloody miserable to be standing in the open, even with an umbrella and a rain poncho on, so I gave up on trying to film the event and tried to just watch it instead, but even that proved difficult, so after the show finished, I called it a day and headed back to my dig's in Hong Kong, where I found Ruth my host waiting with a friendly hello, a smile and some hot soup that she had made and glady shared with me, she is just lovely. So now I am warm and rested and ready to hit the sack, hoping that tomorrow will bring better weather and more great things.