3 0 4 D O C . 3 7 9 T R A V E L D I A R Y N O V E M B E R 1 9 2 2 home, where I had to provide autographs for a small batch of albums. Then we drove through the Chinese quarter (awful thronging but there wasn’t enough time to look, only to smell) to Croesus’s dinner, a pompous meal in an open hall for about 80 people. The meal was wholesome and endless. I had to get up at last because I couldn’t even look at food anymore, let alone eat it. Then the familiar band returned and merrily went at it again, The ancient and everyone danced. Not even Croesus spurned doing so, after having shown how mightily fit his 80-year- old stomach still was. At last the well-planned assault by Weizmann on Croesus took place (about contribution to Jerusalem University) I still do not know whether despite much effort one of my bullets could penetrate Croesus’s thick outer skin.[33] Then we drove home and (after finishing off a few more albums) slipped into the well-earned mosquito cage. At night, enormously hefty tropical downpour with thunderstorm. I quickly secured all the window shutters, which nevertheless only partially helped against so much water. Throughout the stay, the temperature was not particularly elevated, but the great humidity makes one think of a greenhouse. There is something orientally intoxicating about it. 3rd November. After breakfast, wonderful drive over rubber plantation hills to the harbor. Splendid vegetation cheerful-looking Chinese villas. View over sea with islets. Another fine group of trusty Jews come onto the ship. Cast off only around 11 o’clock in a scenic trip between green islands. The Chinese may well surpass every other nation in diligence, frugality, and progeny. Singapore is almost completely in their hands. They enjoy great respect as merchants, far more than the Japanese, who are deemed unreliable. It may be hard to understand them psychologically, I hesitate to try ever since the Japanese singing remained so entirely incomprehensible to me. Yesterday I heard another one singing away again to the point of making me dizzy. 7th Nov. In the interim, rainy weather in greenhouse air. In Singapore, addition to the company on the steamer of two old congenial Swiss officers and a young German salesman. From evening of 5th to evening of 6th, typhoon with huge waves, wind, and much hefty rain. The ship danced about mightily. Wonderful show at the prow. Many flying fish startled by the steamer powerful vertical motion. Today the sea still shows reminiscences in its motion. Fatigue from eternal balancing. Women much more seasick than men. 10th. On the morning of the 9th we arrived in Hong Kong. It is the prettiest land- scape I’ve seen up to now on the entire voyage. Mountainous, stretched-out island next to the similarly mountainous mainland. Between the two, the harbor. Many small steep islets. The whole thing like a half-drowned area from the Alpine foot hills. The city lies terrace-like at the foot of a gently sloping, roughly 500-m high mountain. Air pleasantly cool.[34] [p. 10v] [p. 11] [p. 11v]