We arrived in Hong Kong after an overnight flight crammed into economy class on Cathay Pacific. Any other time I would have gone straight to bed but I was so excited and Hong Kong just overwhelmed me! I don't think that the city ever sleeps. It is just so vibrant and alive!
We were shown around the very elegant Helena May Ladies Club when we arrived and unpacked. It is a beautiful old colonial building and we were very lucky to be staying there as you have to be a member of this very private club. Nikki Delport Wepener, one of our tour guides and embroidery teacher, is a member and hence she organised our stay. After a welcome meeting some of us went for a walk through Hong Kong Park to the Tea Ware Museum, another old colonial building, Flagstaff House. This was the home of the Commander of British forces in Hong Kong until 1978. There we saw a demonstration of tea making and various tea sets from the Song (960 AD) to the Ming (1664 AD) dynasties.
The same afternoon we all went to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for high tea. What a fantastic experience! Such elegance and opulence!
Still really excited we went back to the Helena May for a quiet evening. We had to get ready for our second day which was to be a quiet day of classes.
The second morning in Hong Kong we began our first embroidery class with Nikki. It was dragonflies embroidered on dupion silk. Some of the ladies were to finish the embroidery and use it as the cover for the address book we were to make in our book binding class the following week. I chose not to do this as I didn't want to feel pressured in to finishing something in a hurry.
After lunch at the Helena May we had a tassel making class with a lady called Lyn, an English expat. It was a fun class and great to have something finished at the end of the lesson.
That evening we caught the tram up to The Peak which is high above Hong Kong. The views are fantastic and I had to overcome my fear of heights. We had dinner up there at a lovely restaurant and sat outside in a court yard amongst the fairy lights.
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