Flamingoes in Kowloon Park

It was a heavy downpour when I woke up, but after lunch it cleared enough to venture out. I wandered along to Kowloon Park. The concierge had told me it was wheelchair accessible. It was…very. Inside was a haven of peace from the city. If you listened carefully, you could hear the traffic, but only just. Dotted about were kiosks to buy coffee and lots of places to sit.

There was an “Avenue of Comedy” full of statues of the comical characters. In another square was a collection of odd shaped structures. There were three large swimming pools of different shapes and depths, all connected. Best of all, was a lake with flamingos. There were also swans with black necks and lots of ducks and fish. But it was the proud flamingos that caught my imagination.

I made it to the harbour this time. I didn’t take a trip around it because none of the boats were wheelchair accessible. Neither was there anywhere safe on the quay where I could leave my scooter. But it didn’t matter. The cloud was so low I probably wouldn’t have seen a lot anyway.

When it got dark, the Temple Street Night Market was buzzing. It was full of what my mother would delicately call “tat”. But I did find some purple ear-phones for my Ipod. There were outlets with buckets of live seafood, waiting to be freshly cooked. I declined to experiment, but every one of them was full of customers.

I thought I’d treat myself to a cocktail for my last night. While I was trying to decide whether I wanted a second, or should I go upstairs and pack. The waitress arrived with another glass. “I didn’t order another cocktail,” I said. “It’s happy hour,” she said. “It’s buy one, get one free.” How could I refuse?

My plane home got lost in Hong Kong airport. It had arrived early morning and had been parked at a distance gate, until its departure that evening. Only they seemed to have forgotten where they parked it.