SARS

Well as a small little extra bit of tourist information It was confirmed last night that opposite our hostel is the infamous hotel where the SARS virus broke out. Lovely.

It is sunday today so we do not have school or training thank god. We have just been shopping at a mall near the star ferry and are both shattered. Sunday is when all the houseworkers and other domestic staff are let off from their duties, so all the markets are jam packed with people eager to make the most of their free day.
Here is a picture of some of the weird and wonderful things you can pick up at the market. I need to find a translator to let me know what some of the stuff is, but the dried fish need no such explanation. I was walking down the street the other day and i saw some being dried on the pavement in the sun. It was right next to the main road where everyone was walking and people were having to step round them. I can't imagine eating something which has been dried in Hong Kong pollution.

Having said that though, Honkers is amazingly clean for a city of its size. It is rare to see litter on the floor and there are strict penaltlies if you drop some. I think alot of this cleanliness is a result of the SARS outbreak. You never see people spitting, and even if someone coughs on the tube they are given a wary look. At school, if a teacher has a runny nose or sneezes, there is pressure from the other staff for that teacher to wear a blue sterilized mask. Even when you walk through the markets or on the streets you can almost guarantee that you will have no physical contact with anyone else on the pavement no matter how busy it is. Walking down Oxford street in London you expect to be bounced around all over the place. Here you hardly ever even brush against someone, its quite strange.

Miss you all, Robyn says hello. She has an interview to work for one of the local Uni's helping with drama production. She is trying to sort out a CV to give to them.

B x