It's much cooler too. For a moment in a huge open-fronted part of the airport, I thought that they were being rather excessive with the air-conditioning, until I realised that the weather was genuinely cold.

Hong Kong is even more fond of futuristic concrete structures than Bangkok - the gently curving roads and rail flyovers snake out like tentacles from the new airport island towards the mainland. I took the bus from the airport, trying to mentally readjust to the prices here - at £3 this was about the most expensive bus ride I've taken to date. On the way I stared out the window as Hong Kong opened up. In Bangkok you hardly notice all the buildings and tower blocks because they are all painted on a backdrop that consists of other buildings and tower blocks. Here the contrast is remarkable. Giant white concrete skyscrapers are stacked together on the sides of giant mist-shrouded green hills. It is as if central London had been transported to Lake Windermere. As we rounded a bend, the bay came into view to reveal distant shadowy peaks, looming skyscrapers, cranes and a multitude of boats plying their way in and out of the foggy waters.

It all looks very incongruous. You want to ask "Why here?". The answer is probably as much geography as politics. Trade has pushed up land prices and these, in turn, have pushed up skyscrapers. I've found it hard to find a building less than four storeys high and most are a lot more. My small room is on the 14th floor of an enormous tower block that contains apartments, hotels, offices, shops and restaurants. I could spend my entire life in one and never have to leave! Never have I more appreciated the usefulness of lifts.

The piling up of shops and services means that there is less of one essential retail commodity: shop frontage. So, without an obvious door onto the street how do you advertise your presence? The solution is to bolt bigger and bigger neon signs to every available vertical surface. At night these light up, flickering in red and green to announce the presence of restaurants, electronic gadget shops and a hundred other unknown things described by six-foot high Chinese characters that hang, ghostlike, in the night sky. This is quite a spectacular sight, but it has nothing on the view of Hong Kong Island across the bay.

I discovered that Internet access in Hong Kong is somewhat more expensive than in India or Thailand (about three times as much), but luckily as I was waiting for the lift in Mirador Mansions I received a gift. On a map of Hong Kong that was taped to the wall, an anonymous, yet helpful, author had added that there was free Internet access at the City Library. Hurrah! It can't be a widely known fact as I appear to be the only tourist here.