hong kong

The biggest news first: Chewy remembered us!!! The smelly round-butt was so excited to see us he didn't know what to do. I sure do miss that wriggly squirmy peanut-butter-lovin little booger

Hong Kong is insane. It's crowded, and hectic, and full of people talking loudly and quickly in a language we didn't understand. I can speak a little Mandarin, but Hong Kong is all Cantonese. That said, it's actually quite navigable because there are lots of signs in English, and most people in commercial districts could speak some English (with a lovely British-tinted accent).

It was also a lot of fun. Food is cheap (Asian, at least), transportation is reliable, and there's plenty to do - and quite a bit of it is outside of the city.

HK has 7 million people living in its 426 sq miles, but it's also quite mountainous and therefore the populated area of the island is much smaller. 40% of the island is parkland, providing a much needed escape from the teeming masses.

Surprisingly though, despite being Chinese, there was actually not too much pushing and shoving going on, and people formed lines instead of mobs.

We got around mostly on the subway, buses, or taxis. The subway serves the major commercial hubs, as well as the airport, which makes it a pretty straightforward way to navigate long distances. The stations are enormous, spanning several blocks with a multitude of exits. The walls are lined with funny ads (to our Western eyes, at least) for a variety of services, as well as the normal cautionary pleas, but served up in cute animal cartoon figures. (I loved the MTR penguin!)

The bus system is interesting - there are big double decker buses, and along those same routes, are small 16 seater vans operating as "light buses." They come a bit more frequently and also serve areas where the big buses don't go. Apparently the aggressiveness of minibus drivers caused the HK government to mandate large speedometers in the front of the vans so that passengers can see how fast the driver is going, and it'll beep if he exceeds a certain speed.

Taxis were what we usually used if it was late, we were late, or had a lot to carry. They are ubiquitous and fares are quite reasonable, and the driving, well, god bless seatbelts and make sure to look both ways before crossing.