76- At the races - Hong Kong 10th of June 2010.

Our final day in Hong Kong; and indeed the final day of our four-week trip included the purchasing of jewellery, a fantastic meal at a steak restaurant (Our first steak in a year!!!) and a visit to Hong Kong's famous 'Happy Valley Racecourse' where we ticked off another 'first,' it being our virgin experience 'at the races.'

But first to the jewellery! Rewind to 2007 and back to the by now well known story among family and friends of the night I proposed to Silvie on top of the Empire State Building. I won't go over the details of that perfect evening again or tell the story about the Japanese tourists for the umpteenth time.

The ring that I presented Silvie that day though obviously holds a special place in our hearts; mine just as much as Silvie believe it or not, bearing in mind that I'd gone to such great lengths to choose it, not to mention the arduous task of measuring her finger size while she slept obliviously.

Before leaving for China we'd made (what we thought had been) a shrewd decision by leaving the ring behind in the van Steensel family safe. As dearly as we'd held it, we just didn't want to risk it being stolen or losing it in some way. Smart eh?

Well, no. Needless to say the van Steensel household suffered its very first burglary in 31 years, and the safe, along with our ring which was nestled within, was ripped out of the bedroom and carried away never to be seen again.

So… having eventually received favourable news from the insurance people and deciding that simply replacing the ring 'like for like' didn't seem appropriate (what is gone is gone) we decided to get something a little different. And Hong Kong seemed like the perfect place in which to do it.

To cut a long story short we ended up purchasing a golden necklace with diamond pendant and two matching diamond earrings. The rather creepy fawning shopkeeper (pictures in this blog's photo album) was naturally delighted to have secured our custom, so much so that he was even happy to pose with the jewellery in question and have his picture taken.

In the evening we were very well fed indeed at 'The Outback Steak Restaurant' in Causeway Bay before taking an early evening tram to Happy Valley.

First built in 1845 to provide horse racing for the British in Hong Kong, the area that is now Happy Valley used to be a swampland, but was chosen due to it being one of the only extended flat areas in the entire city suitable for horse racing.

The first race ran in December 1846 and its popularity with tourists and locals alike has grown steadily ever since with Wednesday night being 'race night' in the city.

We had a great evening, despite the rain, learning how to fill in the forms and choose our winners or top three finishers from the lists of runners. In the absence of anything representing sound knowledge of horse racing we chose our horses based on their names, meaning that we just went for the 'wacky' ones that caught our eyes or that struck a chord with us in some way.

There were eight races that evening with a half an hour break between each. Our record was truly abysmal as we failed to predict any winner or indeed any horse that managed to finish second or third. The races were really quick, with just two circuits of the course completed and it was all over. We could barely keep up and by the end were reduced to scanning the large information screen to work out who had finished where.

The atmosphere was excellent with excited tourists and expats in fine voice, accompanied by plenty of cheering for the victorious and an array of unrepeatable expletives when it all went pear shaped.

In stark contrast were the hardcore locals who gathered conspiratorially in the betting office watching on TV screens. With pencils behind ears and newspapers under their arms they clutched their race forms tensely and looked very much like the whole thing was a matter of life and death.

They suffered defeats with a weary shake of the head and gritted teeth. Equally a victory was celebrated, (if that's the right word) with sharp nods of the head and a half smile that could have easily mistaken for a grimace.

They were an odd looking lot, almost exclusively middle-aged, scruffy and introverted with an ever-present air of superiority that hung over them like some kind of impenetrable force field.

In between races, I felt compelled to photograph them for your enjoyment. I hope you are happy with the results.

Walking back to our miserable hostel that evening we were both very aware that our trip was finally over. We'd had a great month where we'd packed in an awful lot, whilst at the same time managing to get a really good feel for each destination before moving on.

Far far away, with its haze, honking, spitting, pushing and all the rest of it, Beijing awaited our imminent return.

-Leighton & Silvie-