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Repeat after me…

(preferably in a female BBC presenter’s voice)

Escalator safety is easy to learn, and easy to remember

I kid you not – this was part of the message I kept hearing on the MTR (subway system) in Hong Kong. It all felt very British to me, with so many pointless safety announcements and signs everywhere. For someone straight from the UK, I guess they would notice the Chinese influence more, but the whole place felt quite British to me – perhaps the large number of people from the sub-continent were part of it.

This is not to say it was bad – for one thing people were not staring at me. Another is that I have found the Chinese are not genetically incapable of good driving, as I had suspected. Remarkably few horns were in use, and I even saw one driver let another in. It did make for some odd moments though, as I would just waltz across the road when I felt like it, only to look back and realise that everyone else was waiting for the “cross now” signal. Someone else commented that they liked it because they felt like just another expat – perhaps that’s what I didn’t like, that I wasn’t special any more. Overall, I was glad to visit Hong Kong, but I’m not sure that I would want to live there.

I had two reasons for visiting Hong Kong – one to get a new visa, two to do some shopping. Visa was absurdly easy – used an agency to get a 90 day dual entry visa – all done on the same day. Easiest process ever. It’s like a big shopping mall there, so the shopping was easy too. This message is coming from my new iPod touch – a rather sexy little piece of kit that does music, videos, photos and can browse the net with Wi-fi. All with a very cool finger-operated display.

Flew back to Beijing, going to be here for a couple more days, then make my way to the ocean. Rather worryingly, I’m having a mechanical issue with my Rohloff hub – they’ve given me something to do, to try and fix it – need to get my hands on some kerosene. Hopefully it will hold together long enough to get back to HK, where I can go back to the “Flying Ball” bike shop – they are the regional distributors. Or maybe it will all come right, would save me a lot of hassle if it does.

Oh and thanks to all who sent me birthday greetings, much appreciated