On Saturday, 4th September I was woken at 4.30am by my brother, Jeff ringing to wish us a good trip plus asking if we had rung Cameron to see if all was well with them down in Rangiora after the big earthquake. After talking to him and he telling me about the earthquake I rang them and got hold of Melissa. Fortunately all was well with them. We then stayed up and got the last minute jobs and packing done before getting a ride to the bus station. With Dave still in a very painful state we boarded a mini bus at 8am for the 3 ¼ hour trip to Kota Kinabalu and from the bus station got a taxi to the airport. We were well ahead in time and our flight was due to leave at 2.20pm but was delayed so was after 3pm before we took off. Arrived in Hong Kong 3 hours later and their airport was a new experience for us - had to catch a train to immigration and to pick up our baggage. We then had quite a walk to the bus station to catch a bus into Kowloon to our accommodation and to meet up with our friends, Jim & Joy Carey. Finally met up with them at 8pm and after settling into our accommodation went and had dinner.
Yesterday we ended up doing a fair amount of walking which was not good for Dave's leg and ribs and in the afternoon Joy and I went out and bought a walking stick for him. We bought dinner into our room for the night so had a reasonably early night.
As Dave's leg does not seem to be improving he and I caught a taxi early this morning to Queen Elizabeth hospital for him to have an X-ray. Were there three hours but all was fine - no broken or cracked bones and no damage to the artificial joint. It is a bit better today after resting yesterday afternoon and he has been resting all day today.
When we got back from the hospital Joy and I took the ferry across to the main island and went to the Visa application place to get our Visas for China but got there at 12 noon and they were closing up until 2pm. Got back there at 1.30pm and had to join a long queue outside and then people went in group by group. However by 2.45pm I had our application lodged and will go and pick up our Visas tomorrow afternoon. There were still long queues outside when we came out.
I reckon I have never seen so many shops in all my life and there are certainly plenty of touts out there trying to sell you something. The lights at night look fantastic. Tonight we are going to go and have a look at a lighting show which you watch from the promenade.