Hong Kong Day Two

Breakfast in this hotel is a sumptuous affair, both Chinese and western cuisine on offer. To be honest there was so much food on display it was a bit overwhelming! I decided on scrambled eggs, toast and fruit juice and the bit I managed to eat was delicious.

Pierre had been there since 9.30 - grazing - and we made our plans to head out exploring. A couple of hours later we were on our way to the Central MTR station to get the tube to Mong Kok for the Ladies' Market. I was on the hunt for handbags, I suspect the boys were secretly hoping it was a different kind of Ladies Market!

Obviously the counterfeiting laws are stronger here than in Bangkok, because there was very little on display. Every stall had catalogues full of just about every designer bag in the world, ever, but to see them for real you had to go into a showroom somewhere off the main street. I had visions of being wrapped up in a rug and shipped off somewhere as part of the white slave trade, so declined the numerous offers.

I did manage to stock up on insense, which I am sure cost way more than my quick mental reckoning came to, but I got ten bags of sweet smelling cones, the like of which you can't get here at home.

It was raining, aparently June is the wettest month of the year here, and it was living up to the statistics so far. We found a little cafe that seemed to specialise in melon products, and John and I had the best tasting Watermelon juice ever!

Wandering down Nathan Road, John found an electronics shop and got himself the coolest digital camera for around £50 less than it would be at home. We had lunch in an Italian restaurant, then headed back to the hotel for a pre-gig nap.

It's bizarre, until then I'd kinda forgotten the main reason we were here!

I was a bit nervous as I waited to go on, but the audience seemed really great, and John was doing an excellent job as MC, so as it turned out I'd no need to worry at all. I had a cracker! What a relief!

Whenever you do a run somewhere the first gig is always the most pressure, you don't know the room, or the crowd, and if you f**k up you still have to go back for two more nights! I'm getting butterflies just thinking about it now! Added to the usual pressure this time was the desire to do really well so that I would be able to come back again at some point in the future.

Pierre had a cracker too, and then after the gig we were treated to a feast of Indian food outside on the terrace. The food is probably the best I've ever tasted, and the view....breathtaking. It's like being in a movie! All the incredible buildings both on the Hong Kong Island side and the Kowloon side are all lit up...it's like a Pink Floyd light show!

After we'd eaten, we took a stroll down to Wan Chai, and ended up in a bar called Dusk till Dawn watching a Chinese covers band who were fantastic! The majority of the punters were ex-pats, and I have to say that people here have the most unusual pallour...people much younger than me have this alcoholic glow about them. I guess it must be a pretty hard drinking lifestyle. Its been a long time since I looked like the healthiest person in the room!