Hong Kong is no midget. With so little space to work with on the ground every building is tall. One of the consequences of this is that you spend a large amount of time waiting for and then travelling in elevators.
In London you seldom get in a lift unless you live near a very deep routed tube station. Here almost every visit to a building requires a trip in one of those mysterious steel lined boxes.
A direct consequence of this is a lot of clandestine checking of your appearance. Almost every elevator has a mirror or four and you spend a fair amount of time staring at yourself whilst travelling between floors. Perhaps this is the reason why the residents are so impeccably attired. I think the level of vanity must increase in tall cities.
We visited the 'Felix bar' the other night in Kowloon. It's a roof top bar and has a very impressive elevator. The interior looked a little bit like being inside a rather old rectangular gnarled tree. Just before you arrive in the bar proper the lights in the elevator dim and change colour to mark your arrival. Very cool.
The Felix bar also features possibly the most impressive toilet I have ever had the pleasure of passing water in. It was so good I was tempted to drink more so I could use it again.
When you enter the 'rest room' as it is so whimsically entitled you are greeted by an attendant and ushered towards a white billowing curtain. On the other side are three glass urinals looking out over the city and the most incredible view, very reminiscent of 'Blade Runner.' I like to think that perhaps Ridley Scott got his inspiration for the film whilst visiting the lavatory here. There really doesn't seem to be anything between you and the world below, vertigo sufferers be warned. The net result is rather like taking a piss off the side of a very tall building.
I just hope the window has tinted glass.