It's all coming back to me

I’ve been having a few flashbacks, mainly due to smells – they don’t call it the fragrant harbour for nothing. Here are few things I remember from the first time around, and how they compare to today’s Hong Kong:

The heat – I remember a sweltering oven. Perhaps because we have arrived in February, or rather because this is the coldest weather HK has experienced in the last 40 years, it is actually colder than in London at the moment. Just my luck. (Don’t worry, I’ll be complaining about how hot it is before you know it.)

The cockroaches – Never have I seen such shiny, long, crunchy creatures as those that I encountered last time I was here. But I haven’t seen any so far... It looks like SARS did a lot to clean HK up, from encouragement to wash your hands to more frequent hosing down of the pavements. There are even automatically flushing toilets!

The toilets – I remember disgusting toilets with no one flushing them for fear of actually touching anything. Most toilets are now relatively clean and the automatic flushing is a godsend. Would be nice for the trend to extend to every single bathroom on the island though, as it makes the bad examples even worse to put up with...

The shuffling, the snuffling and the spitting – Girls continue to shuffle along dragging their feet, and many continue to hack up their flegm and spit it out in the middle of the streets or, more notably, in the toilet next to which we were sitting in the plane. This time I am determined to get to the bottom of this phenomenon – laziness, impoliteness or just a tradition that I am unaware of?

The birds – I had completely forgotten about the circling black eared kites. Probably the most serene thing in HK and they are just outside my window all day. Very relaxing.

The service – I had also completely forgotten how your plate is immediately removed from under your nose as soon as you have finished, even if your fellow diners have not. It will take me a while to get used to that again. Or maybe I should just start eating really slowly.

The islands - I knew there were many, but I had forgotten that HK = 260 islands in total! It's huge! We'll have to jump on a ferry this weekend and start checking them out. Come back sunshine!