I left Moncton on November 18 with light snow on the ground and -1 temperature. We left one half hour late and I arrived at the departure gate for Hong Kong just as the boarding was commencing. My boarding pass had already been printed out and was awaiting my arrival. We left Toronto one half hour late.

After passing through customs and immigration I bought my tourist transit pass which entitles one to a return trip on the airport express train and three days unlimited rides on any of the seven subway (MTR) systems. Travelling on HK's MTR is a breeze. It would be difficult to get lost as all routes and stations are so well marked and you can always tell in what direction you are supposed to go.

After transferring from the express train at Central on Hong Kong Island I boarded the MTR to go under the harbour and into Kowloon. No problems – until I came to the surface. Then, I turned the wrong way on the street and had trouble finding my hostel. Unlike the subway system, streets aren't always so easy as the numbering ( if there is any) is not like you would find in a Canadian or US city.

Once I got in the right direction I found Sincere House within which, on the 14^th floor was Ah Shan hostel. Hostels, guest houses and inns in Hong Kong are most usually found several floors up on a high rise building and not as a separate self contained building as in many countries.

I arrived and found I had screwed up my reservation. I thought it was Sunday , but it was only Saturday and I had not reserved for Saturday. Fortunately it was early enough in the day that there was still a single room with shared toilet still available. So I slept there and next day moved into a four bed dorm. Actually the dorm was very comfortable and had very sturdy wooden bunk beds in a quite spacious room ( for Hong Kong that is). Much better than the Paris Guesthouse in the Chunking Mansion where I stayed last year.

The next morning I am up bright and early to catch the 6:00AM MTR to Victoria Park on HK Island. This park has, among other things, a 600 m running track. (20 gets you 12). The park is always full of activity early in the morning with various Tai Chi groups, walkers and runners, basketball and tennis players and so on.

Tai Chi, Victoria Park, HK

Jogging Track, Victoria Park, HK

So I have four days in HK wondering what to do and the day before scheduled departure I realize that my planned stay in Thailand exceeds my automatic 30 day allowance without a visa. What I need is a 60 day visa. So I scurry over to the Thai consulate and fill out the paper work and pay the fee, only to find that the visa wouldn't be ready for pick up until the following day. That didn't work of course as my flight to Bangkok was scheduled to leave at 10:00 AM. So cancel that and berate myself for not having looked into this a couple of days before. Oh well sometimes the lack of planning leads to change in non-plans.

So non plan B is to do a “ visa run” from Thailand into Myanmar or Laos later in December. Re-entering Thailand by surface means allows a 15 day stamp for Canadians as opposed to the 30 day stamp when entering by air.

Meanwhile here in Chiang Mai I am acclimatizing to the weather and trying a vegan diet. I decided to change to non - animal - protein after reading “Senior Fitness” by Ruth E.Heidrich, PhD. Interestingly enough, after reading that book and while on an Air Asia flight, there was a short piece in the Air Asia magazine “Better Late than Never” citing Researchers fro University of Toronto who had come to the same conclusions as Ms Heidrich had written about back in 2003.