I flew into Hong Kong on the back of a monsoon. Or perhaps a typhoon. Or just really hard rain.

Air Canada lost my luggage; I am work traveling for the coming three weeks, beginning tomorrow, and Air Canada lost only one bag on a flight from Toronto to Hong Kong.

Come to think of it, I believe I flew in on the back of heavy tears and the hiccups.

I arrived yesterday; it’s currently 4.30 am local time. I, in my hotel room, wearing a very thick bathrobe, overlooking one of the main streets of Hong Kong, and drinking coffee from fine bone china. The useless stress of the last 48 hours is lifting along with the fog which covers this City’s harbour.

Notwithstanding the wardrobe malfunction, Hong Kong itself has welcomed me in a most surprising manner. The drive in from the airport (to Kowloon’s The Langham Place Hotel) was above water, and so most everywhere I looked I saw either large apartment buildings by the waves, the cleanest and most organized shipping docks, and sheer rock cliffs drowning themselves in the water. Beautiful massive, green covered sheers which I only imagined owned with copyright by the UK.

Of what I have seen so far, the City is massive with excellent infrastructure. We are in the heart of Kowloon and it is extremely clean, the fashion know-how of most locals far trumping that of a visitor’s.

Note 1: The driver sits on the right side of the car. Hias, British occupation!

Note 2: The airport is the size of Ottawa. When I enquired about an ATM, I was told it was an approximate 15 minute walk, up on the 6th floor.

Note 3: It’s true! People wear pointed hats so the rain drips off. I didn’t bring a poncho; am without luggage; will buy pointy rain hat, and stay dry.

Note 4: In above Note 3, “people” = 2.

Note 5: “Arcade” here means something very different than in Canada, either “very large building” or “spend money here”. Will let you know as soon as I find out which.

Note 6: Upon entry into the hotel, we were greeted with live violin music and the scent of fresh roses. That made up for the missing luggage.

There is a painting in the main hall which I would like to thieve. It is a breathtaking allusion to modern China meets traditional China, rolled up in the strength and pride of both. (Of course a photo is going to be taken and posted. Speaking of which, your requests re NYC and Berlin photos has not fallen on deaf ears. All forthcoming.)

Note 7: I watched a Buddhist monk emerge from a Mont Blanc store with a large bag. Are there different rules on this continent?

Note 8: Everyone here is shopping for either makeup or perfume. Everyone here also smokes. What is unmentioned in the brochure is that being in Hong Kong is like being in Dubai, only with different facial recognition requirements.

Note 9: My favourite site so far were (what appeared to be) the broken piers, legs without bodies found next to the sheer cliffs on the drive into the City. They have all been replaced by state of the art highways and bridges, so they stand looking crippled and haunted. There is more beauty in them than anything sold inside of the plethora of fashion houses across this City.

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