Food notes

 I embarrassingly ate at McD’s more times than I’d like to admit.  (Although I had a very good Chinese meal with a friend one night).  Much of this was related to convenience more than anything, although cost was also a factor when considering the price of meals at my hotel.  Many of the restaurants in the hotel neighborhood did not open until after I was ready to be out exploring, but the McD’s was open 24/7.  The McD’s had touch screen ordering and, as expected, some local variation to the menu.  They had some traditional noodle dish for breakfast, and corn niblets as a side dish, among others.

 On my own I was a little worried to go to a local restaurant.  Although I found many people spoke enough English to make myself understood, I wasn’t sure some of these small local restaurants would.  And, I have to admit, the ducks hanging in the window were a little off putting as well.  I did find a nice local bakery where I got rolls for breakfast for two days.  On the second day the lady recognized me and greeted me with a big smile.

Lions!

I love lion sculptures.  I was able to add several more to my picture collection.  My friends told me that the female Chinese lion is always featured with a baby lion (seen here under her foot). 

Shout out to an honest cab driver

I took a taxi back to my hotel from the ferry, not knowing how much taxis might cost, but thinking I had enough cash.  The meter was set at 20HKD to start (about $2) and did not appear to move when sitting still.  The driver was not certain where my hotel was, but we agreed on a road that was near by.  He headed in the right direction and then came within a block of the hotel and kept going. (The meter read 40 HKD at this point).  I wasn’t sure if he was trying to approach the one way street by going around the block or not, but it became clear he was headed to a destination farther way.  I said ‘you know you passed the hotel, right?’  He asked me to write down the name of the hotel and then pulled a u-turn and headed back the other way.  When we pulled up to the hotel, the meter was 60HKD.  I was annoyed, but glad I didn’t have to walk after hurting my ankle.  He then asked for just 40HKD, recognizing he had missed the mark.  I can’t imagine in a million years a NY cab driver doing that!

Random observations

•   I was prepared for rain before the trip because I had read in “10 things NOT to do in Hong Kong”, that I should not to go during the rainy season, which includes June unfortunately.  I never did see the sunshine in my whole time here. This shot of the weather tells it all. 

•          I found people very helpful and friendly. I did not have a single experience where I felt unwelcome.  I also felt quite safe (not that I ventured widely, but everywhere I went throughout the day and evening I never felt worried).

•             I know that China struggles greatly with pollution in many forms, but I wasn’t sure was to expect with regard to environmental efforts in HK.  I did see some recycle bins, particularly in the metro and train stations, but they were not everywhere.  In fact there weren’t that many public trash cans.  Surprisingly however, the city was quite clean, especially considering how many people live here!  I even saw a lady sweeping some mud and broken brick up from the gutter and putting it in a trash bin.  I don’t know if she was a employed to do that, or was a dilligent resident keeping her gutter clean.

            I did notice however, that McD’s is NOT doing its part to help cut back on the use of plastics.  Every person who walked out with a drink in a cup had that cup placed inside a small drink-sized plastic bag for easy carrying (even those who appeared to be eating in).  Talk about a waste!

•          At first I thought that the norm was to walk on the left in the metro, just like they drive on the left, but then I discovered that there were some metro tunnels where the guidance arrows were on the right side.  I never could quite puzzle out why this changed from station to station, but it obviously had something to do with the flow of the passengers.

            I was also startled to discover that there were areas of the stations where you could pass through without going through the pay turnstiles and these were separated by a simple low level fence.  In most metros that I’ve been in, this would invite a lot of “fence jumping” to avoid paying, but I didn’t see any of that at all.  Perhaps the omnipresent CCTV played a role, or just the culture of rule following.

•   Its interesting in every city to observe how quickly (or slowly) people walk.  I tend to walk quickly and have a hard time slowing down in cities where people move at more leisurely pace.  HK moves fairly quickly, but not as crazy-fast as NYC.  People are very good at maneuvering around others who are moving in different directions (with the exception of walking on the sidewalk when everyone has an umbrella up).

•  People are pretty polite getting on the metro.  There are arrows on the boarding areas showing entry to the sides and exit in the center.  I'm amazed at how many people can quickly mount the escalator steps as they move from level to level in the stations (the escalators move pretty fast).

•          I thought it was interesting that many of the apartment complexes were designed with two levels of windows, so you could mount an AC unit in the top one, and open the other one for laundry, a breeze, etc.

•          I did not observe any obvious homeless people (not that I had a lot of opportunity), but it made me curious whether people are allowed to live on the streets at all.  This picture might appear to be homeless people camped out at first glace, but it was actually a bunch of kids (apparently high school age) who were sitting on collapsed boxes and eating their picnic lunches near the main pier.  There must have been at least 100 of them all underneath this elevated roadway.  Since there were virtually no benches or anywhere else to sit down in public, it makes sense that they were seated on the ground out of the rain.

•          I can’t imagine the energy usage in this city.  Its obviously necessary to cool the metro stations and tunnels or they would be unbearably hot, but so many businesses have the air blowing and their doors wide open.  This is the lobby of the Marriott. You can see the extra tall (and wide) sliding doors that opened for everyone coming in.  There was no point really in even trying to cool the lobby because all the AC rushed out the door every time it opened!

•          These ferry seats were fascinating.  The back supports flipped forward and backward so you could sit one way or the other.

•          Had to laugh at the supposed capacity of the small elevator in my hotel.  12 people – ha!

•          Lots of 7-11 convenience stores everywhere!