Recovering from jet-lag is always the hardest thing for me. It’s 4:15 in the morning and we’re both wide-awake, and as there’s nothing better to do we’ve raided the mini-bar. So far we’ve had two packets of cookies, a cup of tea and we’re just contemplating that large bar of dark chocolate that’s just begging for a devouring.

The flight over was a pretty typical sardine-in-tin-can affair, and including delays took about 13 hours in total. We took the precaution of eating before we left, which turned out to be a sensible move as the beef dish they were serving on-board had to the potential to be problematic at best. I managed to get a few hours sleep (in no small thanks to the large swig of Night Nurse I took before departing), but was no match for Emma - she was out like a light from the moment we took off.

We landed in Hong Kong at about 18:30ish HKT. It’s Chinese New Year tomorrow, so there were decorations all over - there were a lot of kumquat trees lining the halls, which is apparently a symbol of good fortune. Immigration was quick and painless, and were even offering travellers complimentary candy!

The transfer from the airport to our hotel took about an hour, with impressive view of the city from Tsing Ma bridge. The road system here is elaborate, with massive spiral ramps leading onto express ways.

We checked in at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Wan Chai (Hong Kong Island) around 8ish. Our room is a tad smaller than we are used to, and there’s no view (literally - the windows are frosted) but is actually quite comfortable.

After a bit of pottering around we went down to the restaurant to get some dinner. It was here where we had our first communication block because although the restaurant itself seemed quite posh, the menu we were presented contained everything you’d expect from your average bar and grill back home (ie burgers, caesar salad, spaghetti etc…). Disappointed, we grudgingly ordered pasta dishes.

After about five minutes, we noticed other patrons ordering dim sum, rice, noodles and other Asian dishes. It didn’t take us long to realise that there were actually two menus - a green one containing asian cuisine and another red one with more Western and European dishes. Of course, we are in Hong Kong to sample the local cuisine and not eat spaghetti bolognese so we called the waiter over. After a little bilingual chatter with one of the other (apparently more senior) staff he went away and got us the other menu, and proceeded to recommend a pork dim sum dish as a starter.

Thinking that we had sorted it all out, the waiter comes back five minutes later with two hot steaming bowls of pasta. By this point, we were so hungry that we gave up and wrote it off as a miscommunication. We canceled the dim sum and tucked into our (actually very tasty) pasta dishes. Another five minutes later, and the waiter comes back with a bamboo steamer of pork dim sum… by which point we just didn’t care anymore. Interesting fusion though…

I was flagging a bit, and as soon as we made it back to the room I was out like a light - for a whole four hours. I’m wide awake now, and there’s no way I’m getting back to sleep.

Perhaps I should eat that chocolate after all…