Well wouldn't you know it, but the place where I thought I'd probably have the best access to WiFi has turned out to have an incredibly slow connection... and then last night no access at all although that was no fault of the hotel!

So my last two days have been spent exploring, mainly Kowloon, but a little bit of Hong Kong Island as well.  I've spent a lot of time just walking the streets,  that really is the best way to see this city.  There are public buses (in fact they're double-decker buses and do carry a lot of people) but there are no published route maps so getting on one of them would really be an adventure.  I'm very fortunate with my hotel location though - right beside a beautiful park (and Hong Kong doesn't have a lot of green space), near lots of the great shopping areas that Hong Kong is famous for (not that I'm shopping but they're still nice to wander though), and about a 10 minute walk to the ferries that go between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

The city is constantly in action - except for first thing in the morning.  Most of the stores etc. don't really open until around 11:00 am (and some even later than that) but EVERYTHING - big and little, in a mall, on the street, etc., is open late!  It's a great city to walk around at night --- and the view from my hotel window isn't too bad either!

It's also a very interesting mix of new and modern skyscraper right next door to buildings that are clearly older, and then you turn a corner and come across a building that was built in 1881.

I thought this was kind of neat - it's an old ship's mast that was used to hoist typhoon signals and the round tower (which is next door) was used to mark the time for ships coming into the harbour.  There's been so much land reclaimed on both the Kowloon side and the Hong Kong Island side that the distance in between the two is significantly less than it was - since the building boom really started here about 30 years ago.

There's a promenade along the edge of Kowloon that has the most spectacular view --- the skyline of Hong Kong Island.

Last night I met a wonderful lady who is actually a friend of a friend and has been living here in Hong Kong for 7 years.  It was super nice to share dinner with someone (haven't done that in a while) and we also went to a very special place - the infamous Jumbo Kingdom Floating Restaurant.  It's actually in Aberdeen and so I had seen the restaurant the day before on my sampan ride, and then to go back there and see it at night was really special.  Plus the food was great and the company was lovely!

And one of my best learning experiences so far in Hong Kong happened last night on our way home from dinner.  It had started to rain while we were eating - and the clouds,which you can see in some of the photos had been building all day, so I wasn't surprised that it was raining.  What was unbelievable though was the quantity of rain!!!  Not surprisingly, Hong Kong's weather is being affected by the typhoon off the Philippines ... and it was an eye-opening amount of rain we got last night!  Hong Kong also has a colour-coded 'heavy rain warning system' - for a 'regular', Canadian rain wouldn't even rank,  but when it gets really heavy here they issue amber, red and black warnings.  Last night was a red warning.
So that's the reason for no WiFi last night... good excuse I guess.

So I've definitely had two very interesting days - and looking forward to more things to see tomorrow.