And here's Santa!

Oh yo-ho-bloody-ho!

Here's me thinking I'd left the pre-Christmas madness behind, when what do I see!? Heeeere's Santa!! Now why on earth did I think that being Christian had anything to do with celebrating Christmas? I forgot that Asians LOVE pretty packaging - apparently the wrapper may be more important than the gift in some cases. And, as we all know, Chrismas is just ALL about the packaging!

So here he is, man of the hour, swimming with turtles, laughing with snow men, or in one memorable instance, as a little baby-Santa wearing his trademark hat, but also sunglasses and a diaper.

Well, let's hope he's bringing gifts for all the good little doggies in this town. If you lot thought you had your pooch well trained, I ask you; does it only make its bowel movements directly onto paper placed on the pavement - making it ever so handy to wrap up and throw away? Local doggies do! But before this turns into a long discussion about dog turds, here's the latest.

Final full day in Hong Kong has rushed past. All my grandiose plans to visit recommended sights such as the giant Buddha turned to ash as I simply hadn't the energy and ended up just wandering around town taking in the sights. But it's that kind of city where something seems to be happening all the time, so just wandering around is great fun.

Oh, and I've thought of a few more things in which the Hongkongese are unlike their mainland Chinese counterparts; traffic is on the left side of the road, buses are double deckers and people don't spit as they do in China. (Well, I say spit, but in China it sounded more like they were trying to regurgitate the dumpling they had for lunch. Not something I miss...)

Visually on of the most distinct things about the place, right after the view over the strait to Hong Kong island, are the signs. They clutter up all the little roads and side lanes and create a very pretty picture. Chinese characters are absolutely more fun visually that our boring old alphabet. Though often the signs are in English as well - such as the sign in this image for the Spanish hourly hotel 68. Why 68 on wonders? Was 69 already reserved?

In fairness, there doesn't seem to be a very much of a girlie industry here, at least not a very visible one, though a few saunas and "oasis of man happiness" establishments have been sighted.

So tomorrow it's hop on a plane and head for Manila. If the weather profets have their way, I will be stranded in rain. Not any old rain, but the kind that made Noah glad he built the arc. So maybe future installments of the blog will open with entries such as: top 10 things to do on a rainy day, or, how to build your own life raft. C'est la vie!