Truckshunters

489

I've been trying to think of a name for my great adventure, along the lines of Robinson's Grand Tour and Robinson's German Journey - the names of my first two long-distance trips. Robinson Round The World sounds too portentous; Brace Yourself, Sydney sounds too flippant for a trip involving 10 flights, 3 train journeys and 2 ferries.

And then it occurred to me...

There's a book called The Place Beyond The Pines. It's recently been made into a film - which Virgin Atlantic chose to show on my flight from London to Hong Kong. And outside my hotel when I got there, there was a poster advertising the selfsame film. Someone, I decided, was trying to tell me something.

All the places I'm visiting will follow on from my viewing of that film, so I'm calling my 'journey of a lifetime' The Places Beyond The Place Beyond The Pines - TPBTPBTP.

I love it.

While you digest that priceless piece of trivia, take a look at this lot...

This utterly exhausted family was sitting next to me on the flight from Hong Kong to Singapore; this is what happens when you bring a boisterous toddler on holiday, I suppose...

The baggage hall at Singapore Airport.

It made me realise that I was only about 80 miles north of the equator. I was in the tropics!

Most building interiors here are air-conditioned,

so Singapore is where your glasses steam up when you step outside...

My hotel - the Lai Chun Yuen - is a converted Chinese Opera House built in 1887. The atrium used to be the auditorium; all the rooms run off this area on four galleried levels. It's quite something...

Scenes from Chinatown's street-life - completely captivating and irresistible,

like the Chinatowns you imagine in books or see in films - only real and here and now.

Erich - serving up a bratwurst on the right - has been in Singapore for 17 years.

As his stand proudly says - his is 'the last sausage kiosk before the equator'.

Men playing Singaporean draughts - there were many groups like this.

The game is taken very seriously and the onlookers are highly, and very vocally, partisan.

A coconut man. You pay two dollars (£1); he hacks off the top and gives you a straw and a fork.

A Thai pomelo stall. Don't ask because I don't know.

Two stalls selling lanterns, blow-up fish and birds and weird netted bags of treats (below).

The Temple of the Buddha's Tooth Relic - it's just behind my hotel

A full moon above the Temple on my first night in tropical Singapore

It seems to be a legal requirement for high-rises to be

adorned with hanging and rooftop gardens like this; they're everywhere - and very pretty

The entrance tower of the Sri Mariamman Temple at the bottom of the street.

As you can tell from the next photos, I was transfixed by the decorations there

Singapore - ancient and modern

There are mosques and churches in Singapore, too - and everyone seems to get along just fine.

In fact, harmonious co-existence is government policy.

There are severe penalties for being unkind or disrespectful of other cultures.

As I was writing postcards this afternoon, this old man sat down opposite me,

folded his legs up under himself and fell asleep...

And sleep is beckoning me, too. Tomorrow afternoon I'll be flying off to Australia - to a rendezvous with my cousin...

Distance travelled so far: 7,882m / 12,685km

Watch this space...

488

In Wan Chai - my favourite part of 'downtown' Hong Kong. Streets teeming with workers and shoppers, buses and trams and taxis - and huge numbers of very expensive cars. All those Mercs and BMWs and Bentleys mean that there must be a lot of very wealthy people here.

Street-traders like these are everywhere. The one nearest to you is a locksmith; next door to him is the only street-trading estate agency I've ever seen.

Across thr road...Ada (!), a favourite street-food outlet for locals

Not forgetting good old Marks and Sparks, directly opposite Ada. I was so surprised to see this

that I went inside and bought a sandwich.

It genuinely amazes me that M&S finds it profitable to ship a big range of their food 6,000m

to a solitary outpost like this.

(The sandwich was cheaper than it would have been at home.)

Hong Kong is relatively cheap, although I didn't think so when the taxi driver charged me 60 dollars to get me to the hotel. It sounded like a lot - but the Hong Kong dollar is worth about 8p so the ride cost me less than a fiver...

Everywhere - the Lion of Hong Kong

The old British colonial offices overshadowed by the brash - even shameless - modern Hong Kong.

This 'International Fireworks Display Contest' looks like great fun but it's taking place on dates when I'm not here. The list of participating countries includes Portugal, Spain and France -

but not Great Britain.

The Lippo Building. It's meant to look as if there are koala bears climbing up the outside - the architect was Australian. There are large numbers of Australians here - Hong Kong is one of their key markets.

The other side of Hong Kong wealth. Thousands of Filipinos and Malays live here, working as maids, cleaners, hotel domestics - the jobs that Hong Kong people won't do. They gather here in Statue Square every day - specially on Sundays ( - their only day off).

The only loitering allowed is, presumably, authorised loitering.

The cenotaph behind the sign above. I think it's an exact copy of the one in London.

Pok Fu Lam - the ancient village over the road - is preparing for the Autumn Festival of Lights this coming weekend. Everyone says it's great fun - specially the dragon dance -

but I will have left by then.

The use of cum to mean 'with' is unsettling - and potentially confusing, don't you think?

The animated video floor outside the hotel's 'guest lounge'.

The T Hotel is actually part of Training Centre for 'Hospitality' Trades - receptionists, assistants, cooks, wine waiters, hotel electricians, security staff, cleaners. So I'm being VERY attentitively looked after...

Watch this space...

487

Where to start...

It's now the close of Day 3 of my Great Adventure. As I type, I'm looking out of my hotel window across the wide sweep of the western channel of the Hong Kong Sea. The sun has just set over the distant islands and the hills of mainland China. Container ships and ferries are still plying the waters...

My dear truckshunters...I don't know how best to tell you about my grandest tour as it unfolds. Already, I'm fairly sure I won't have time each day to write my normal, verbose posting for you. I'm really sorry about that - but there's simply too much to see and to do. My mind is still reeling from the sensory overload that is Hong Kong...

Day 1 didn't really start until my flight left Heathrow at 2300 on Saturday night. The time difference is unsettling - so I did what I do on flights to France; as soon as the undercarriage was lifted, I set my watch to the time at my destination - 0600.

Which means that, by the time we landed here after a 12-hour flight, it was already 1800 on Sunday evening. I'd managed to sleep for a couple of hours, and also watched Virgin's featured film - The Place Beyond The Pines, a peculiarly unsatisfactory presentation for a chap as exited as I was.

So it was already the close of Day 2 when I got here.

And already comes the problem...

I could carry on typing for hours about the adventures and sensations and encounters I've already had - but that would prevent me from having any more! So instead, I've decided that - at least for the moment - some of the photographs I've taken will have to tell the story for me...