12 Days in China. Day 9: The Chinese Cockermouse...

Checked out of China today and as I walked towards the lift I noticed what can only be described as a very fast; very big; bigger than a cockroach, but smaller than a rat (therefore I've taken inspiration from HIMYM); COCKERMOUSE. It darted behind the bin before I had chance to catch a pic (and I certainly wasn't going behind there after it), but it definitely wasn't from this world. Let's hope it managed to catch the lift and will be gone into the wilderness forever.

So I've mentioned this a fair bit, but coming back to Hong Kong from some long days in China is like a breath of fresh air (not literally, it's smog-central). It was almost emotional coming up the escalator with “California Dreamin'” on my iPod. I was giddy.

The first thing I did was check back into my HK hotel and wash China clean off me. The second thing I did was visit Stanley Market (it was Dragon Boat day, but I missed the Dragon Boats) and eat a big burger. Bliss.

You get to Stanley Market from Causeway Bay (I'm staying at the Mini Hotel, it's very nice) by taking the bus from the back of Times Square on Hennesey Road – They run every 15 minutes and the bus usually takes about 20 minutes to get there, but it was a little bit busy (think Bank Holiday traffic) today. I got off at Stanley Plaza (after being very amused by the videos on the bus – see below)...

  … and had a burger at Classifieds, a nice casual restaurant in the Plaza. There was a band playing that wasn't very in tune or in time, but the crowd seemed to like them. 

 

Stanley has a beach, a shopping centre and a market. It's good for just wandering around for a couple of hours. You can buy knick-knacks and “tat” (which is great for me because I have a shelf dedicated to the stuff at home) or knock-off handbags if you're into that sort of thing. Speaking of which, the market at the Shenzen/Hong Kong border is overflowing with knock off everything. Although I'm very in to brands because of my job I'm not a massive label hound to be honest, but I did have an amusing moment this morning in the Shenzen market where one of the sellers asked me, “Ray Bans?” and I replied, “I've already have some.” Her, “Hunters?” Me, “I already have some.” “Marc Jacobs?”, “Got it.” - She gave up in the end.

Anyway, back to Stanley... I bought a magnet for our fridge at home and our “ugly boiler” at work. This one in particular made me laugh a lot:

Toodles.