Wednesday April 4. Daytime flight to HK marginally less tedious than at night - Tiwi islands green-khaki cutouts on a glassy sea. Watched Pirates of the Caribbean from the row in front and Iron Lady twice, once with English, once with Chinese subtitles. Landed in thick sea fog - heavily wooded mountains looming through the mist reminiscent of lower reaches of the Hawkesbury. Feeling a bit seedy on arrival, picked up on realising amazing cheapness of everything. Hotel full of tour group I guessed to be Dutch from their demeanour. In morning L and I walked all over the older parts of the city - little remains, but what does v grand. Spent some time finding St John's cathedral - pleasing building in white stucco. Original clear glass windows in wrought iron frames with external wooden shutters make for a tropical feeling reinforced by ceiling fans, etc. Modern stained glass, one window of the miraculous draught of fishes, one ascension, one crucifixion, I found undistinguished and ugly. A side chapel with threadbare regimental banners as from a ghost army seemed appropriate. Trees are clearly cherished, scaffolding built around therm, etc. A long queue of people waiting to catch tram to the Peak, so we hailed a cab which cost almost nothing but short-circuited what would have been a good hour's wait. Vistas rather obscured by fog, but another Dutch person at least able to tell us which direction we were looking.
On top of precarious-looking structure on the harbour side, fog cleared enough to see across to Kowloon and high hills behind. Coming down caught the tram for which there was no press. L rode almost vertical section standing up so she could take pictures to admiration and apprehension of Indonesian woman who pressed her to visit in Jakarta. Later wandered through the downtown looking for somewhere to eat. Shop assistants on lunch break spread rugs on any unused part of the roadway, such as bus zones, and spread out picnics & play cards. Ditto in pedestrian overpasses, etc. No success in finding anything suitable, so back to hotel area to cheap and echt eatery with all the menu in Chinese. Bowl of noodles plus all the bits of a duck they couldn't sell. Rested up in hotel for 1 am flight - looking out the window reckoned that you could tell the time by taxis - by the time 40 have passed a minute has gone by. Late evening enlivened by surprise meeting with V - old friend from police days at the airport to greet his daughter returning from Korea. L had ferreted him out from the police website. He shouted pork dumplings done in 5 ways - v toothsome. V now president of HK lawn bowls, which could be a handy introduction if one played. And so into the long night flight to Milan.