| Tuesday, 17 June 2008 |
| back from the habour that's supposedly fragrant |
10 things I learnt about Hong Kong
1. Hong Kongers are some of the fastest walkers in the world. They walk so quickly and close to each other that falling down or tripping is simply not an option, lest you desire to die under the footfalls of thousands of relentless Hong Kong feet.
2. Hong Kongers do not like it if you enter a restaurant/cafe and do not order anything to eat/drink. In fact, they can charge you 10 HK dollars for just simply sitting in the cafe without tasting any of their wares.
3. Filipino maids are really rich in Hong Kong, so much so that they are more well to do than a large number of locals and can afford to flock department stores and engage in orgasmic shopping sprees every weekend.
4. Chicken flu, SARS, Red tide. Is there any wonder why Hong Kong seems to get afflicted with all these unfortunate health problems? Not really, considering that it really is one of the dirtiest of wealthy cities in the world.
5. Where are all the pretty, sexy ladies in Hong Kong?!? There seems to be a severe lack in pretty females here. The guys on the other hand love to dress up: they end up becomeing trendier and prettier than the girls themselves. So S'pore ladies, go to Hong Kong to get your trendy/pretty/hot boytoy.
6. Its public transport system is much much better than Singapore's. In fact, we've been copying a thing or two from the Hong Kong system (HK had EZ-link way earlier than we did). The most sensible thing they did: more lines, each with less stations and multiple connectivities - which ultimately resulted in a system that's highly connective and has less waiting times.
7. Food, glorious food! The food here is still, and probably will always be, fantastic. I have never eaten that many bowls of Wanton noodles in my whole 21 years of existence. A wanton Wanton lover indeed.
8. With the HK dollar being much weaker than the S'pore dollar, things that are seemingly expensive in Hong Kong are actually freaking darn cheap. For example: a 10 course gourmet Chinese dinner that would easily cost around S$1000 only costs HK$560, which is roughly S$100. What would we do without the wonders of Foreign exchange.
9. Hong Kong is a city of extreme unhealthiness. Smokers and drinkers are everywhere. The food here is unabashedly filled with oil, fat and sugar. The people here live astonishingly stressful and fast paced lives. Which probably makes a lot of you future doctors out there very very worried (or happy, depending on which side of morality you are on.)
10. Hong Kongers can appear to be very very unfriendly, but really, deep down inside, they are pretty nice people. Its just that they don't show their nice sides to people they aren't familiar with. Oh and the way they blabber non stop in Cantonese serves to intimidate too.
Well, this trip's the second time that I've been to Hong Kong and back. I remember going there when I was 8 or 9 and I absolutely hated it because it was so dirty and old and grimy, and since then, I've been resisting any effort on my mom's part to get me to revisit that city. But I decided it was time to revisit the city again. I guess I was hoping that the city would have undergone a miraculous change and thus, my opinions of it could be completely reworked. Well, its certainly gotten more modern, more claustrophobic and slightly cleaner, but it has NOT changed a big deal at all. Its still that grimy, squeezy, overly sardine packed city that it was 13 years ago. I mean, I have nothing against cities and I'm definitely a city goer, but Hong Kong's really just too much. (Its the MOST packed of all the many cities that I've been to.) So I'm going all out here and say that I'll probably not visit the city again anytime soon, not unless one of my friends living there volunteers to be a guide and provide me with free lodging and food. Muahahaha.Labels: list, randomness |
posted by voldemort33 @ 12:33  |
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