ok so heres where it starts getting exciting!

After spending the whole evening in the back of a diner glued to The Da Vinci Code (found myself an english bookshop – result!) i admit defeat and return to bed (missing the lift again and having to walk the 14 flights of stairs – if theres one thing Im not gona miss about china/hongkong its their obsession with steps!) So pretty knackered by this time and crash out – only to be woken at 3am to raised voices outside my door. Attempt the pillow over the head trick but decide the not overly clean pillowcase probabaly posed more of  health risk than a few hours of lost sleep. By this time im actually really hacked off cos I have to check out at an ungodly hour of 10am in the morning. Then they start banging on my door and Im thinking – ruddy briliant, not only am i going to have a sleepless night im also going to get my door kicked in by a bunch of rowdy chinese. Its not looking good. So now the banging is pretty intense and i decide either i can open the door or theyre going to break it down anyway – so theres me, my stripy Pj’s on, walking boots, and a can of hairspray ready to cause serious damage. (hesitate slightly when the thought crosses my mind that there might be a fire somewhere and theyre actually trying to save my life – dismiss this quickly) 

So i open the door – you can imagine the picture – me vursus five Hongkong Policemen. To be honest I think they were more scared of me than I was of them – especially those of you who have seen me in the morning, makeup halfway down my face and hair resembling a discarded birdsnest. Quickly establish i dont speak Cantonese so I offer my passport. Try to explain that the person pictured is actually me and that I can actually look half human with a bit more preparation… they dont understand. For a minute I have images of me being carted away as an illegal tenant, but they seem satisfied with my visa and quickly close the door again leaving me standing alone, extremely bemused and more than a little cheesed off.

A few seconds later there is a tentative knock on the door. I open it again – a policemen pokes his head in looking quite apologetic and asking soemhting about a housekeeper. I tell him I dont understand – if they want me to help with their enquiries, they need to start learning some people skills. jeeez.
Posted from Nepal:

posted Tuesday March 2006