Hong Kong

Did I say Singapore was expensive? Whoops. Hong kong is.. less expensive than Japan is going to be, but still thrashes Singapore. Hong Kong does actually deserve the "bustling" and "vibrant" accolades, both of which my Lonely Planet fails to mention this time! Very good food, the source of Dim Sum, huge skyscrapers, weird artificial parks and a big hill. The book says the shops are real rip-offs with terrible reputations, but they are cheap. One of my friends bought a digital camera here (Nikkon Coolpix 885 if you're interested) and it was under 200 pounds, according to pricewatch.co.uk the best you'll do in Britain was 350. However, I don't actually need a digital camera.
Its very nice to be back in cold weather. 10-20'C feels like a freezer after the 32'C steambaths I've been in the last 3 months. Yes, Hong Kong is about as far south as Egypt, weird currents and stuff. Japan this Saturday, even colder.
I've been thinking about the most outrageous lies I've been told while travelling. I liked the "oh, so sorry, that hotel is full and it burnt down yesterday". Also the "I don't want your money, only a hundred rupees will do". A special award for enthusiam goes to the Kashmiri tout in New Delhi who patiently rang a non-existant number, had a conversation with himself for 10 minutes, and wrote down the huge numbers of people on the waiting list for every train for the next week. Of course, he had a car and driver available for hire seeing as I couldn't go by train... (None of the trains were full. This is an incredibly common scam). The airport in Bali that charges you 15$US as a service charge (over the airport tax), to provide no service whatsoever. The 3 Sweedish girls who want to go on a trek, but need 3-4 other people to fill up the group (told to us 3 european blokes... needless to say, the girls didn't turn up!). Taxis, everywhere.
I'm curious. Who's reading this? Send me an email on matthewharrup at hotmail.com (I'm trying to keep my email address away from robots).