I did not sleep well last night. There were a platoon of mosquitos intent on sucking all the blood from my body while I slept and threatening me with their horrendous whining, without doubt the worst sound in the world. So I was still mostly awake when the alarm went off at 6. We picked up our bags and ran through the rain to the station, and had to wait a few minutes for the train. The train arrived, we tried to doze, and then we got to the airport and took trolleys up escalators for a bit. I'd forgotten to post the cards and we weren't allowed back out of the departure area ("America's attacks on Iraq" had led to hightened security) so I had to trust that the nice security guy at the Cathay gate would post them for me.

The flight was fine and I think we could see some sort of swirly tropical storm above the country when we got high enough. The food was the strangest combination I'd ever had, with huge prawns and cold sobo noodles and something that might have been artichoke, and some uncooked pastry with brown goo in it, and then ice cream. When we arrived in Hong Kong we ended up missing our bus stop and going to the depot with the driver who then allowed us to continue riding with him until we reached our stop again. We went to our guesthouse to be shown where we'd be staying for a couple of nights. It seemed to be the private house of a Chinese family who spoke no English (except 'bye-bye').

Then we took some clothes to the laundry lady, went to visit the puppies in the pet shops, had a bit of supper and then went to sleep.