Took 1 week leave from work to find my love in HK. Good trip overseas on the whole, with occasional hiccups that spoils out mood once in a while. it really upsetting, that given such a short time to be together again, we still wasted time getting angry with each other. but im glad, that happy time are always much much more than unhappy ones. and the most important thing is, we still love each other as much as we do before :)
the air in HK was not so good, but that's probably one of the few things that is bad. the other bad thing was too many domestic maids conglomerating on many streets and overhead bridges and piers on weekends, hijacking all the restaurants along the way during peak hours. that's about all the bad things of HK. at least those are what i've noticed during my short stay.
Transportation and moving around
Their system is super good. Plenty of modes to choose from regardless of your start off point and destination. MTR, airport express buses, electric-runned 'teng teng' buses, city buses, mini buses, taxi. Multiple lines of the MTR all interlink each other, which makes travelling across the seas and all over HK easier and convenient.
everywhere has direction signs that are straightforward and accurate. so getting around isnt much of a problem unless you got chronic directional disorder. places are generally easy to find and navigate around. traffic light system is quite efficient, so you wun have to find yourself waiting and stuck at the side waiting for the light to change for long. if you really want smooth walking without much stopping, they have plenty of well-linked overhead bridges in main CBD area at central and HK station area. Those are places with big shopping brands. underground tunnels of all subway stations are clear and easy to walk around too. if you dun mind spending some SGD12 on a guide book, it serves handy at most times too.
Food
what's more for me to say besides great?! simple roadside stalls, cafeteria, restaurants, canteens, cha can teng, etc... sedap man!!!! their fastfood has much more variety to offer as compared to SG, some taste better, some is not as good. and the best thing about their K FC is that they have egg tarts!!! set meal has 2 sides for you to choose from 6 options.
they have 2 uprising cafeteria franchise brand (meixin and "dai ka lok" 大家乐) that i feel is out to replace the cha can teng 茶餐厅 and dominate the business. there's like 1 of each in every street cluster that you walk past, and it definitely provide convenience for people. their business model is good, and you see their profitability in it. they place menu boards at the entrance, of which you are supposed to decide what you want to eat and place your order at the cashier next to the boards. after payment, they will give you the receipt, of which you will need to queue and use the receive to collect your food from the respective food catgory queues. their system is very well-organized and customer-friendly. food prices are averagely ex as compared to SG, but their good standard is much better, and seem to follow a certain ISO std for food taste. its almost the most important criteria that has an advantaged over SG food since we always encounter uncertainty or dissatisfactory when it comes to ordering food in SG food courts or hawker centre or coffee shops.
Environment
its pretty much the same as SG. seriously. except that in HK, you get to see an infusion between nature and man-made, traditional and modernity, the urban and sub-urban all coexisting as one. their urban planning is pretty interesting. you see a whole deal of place making interacting with place marketing, against and parallel to each other. its definitely a good place for some urban soci research to be conducted for rich information to be collected. and i finally got to see peope demonstrating and protesting! that's one impossible thing for you to see back here. good for people who are into studying social move ments and activitism (be it political or economical or social, etc).
most of the buildings are constructed along the hill/mountain slopes. as such, you often find yourself travelling up and down, at slopes with varying gradients. cool experience and its definitely some good daily exercise that you can do at the mininal without even realising it. Plenty of reminders present in the environment for a work-life balance and healthy lifestyle in the form on parks and playgrounds, appearing probably every 500m that you walk.
People
The people there are generally quite ok. it will be best if language wont be a problem, meaning either they can speak english or you can speak cantonese. most of them can speak chinese, though not very proficient. but its good enough to get you going most of the time.
some are not as good tempered as the taiwanese, you just need to know how to observe their rules. they are quite particular about following the order, meaning queue. there's no such thing as cutting queue and they can get nasty with you for that. (thats quite similar to SG, though not exactly)
Shopping
things are cheap. some. you just need to know where to go for what products. you definitely need to know how to bargain and cut price. and know the tactics of doing that. it'll prove you some worthiness and save you quite a sum of money if you can do it well. speaking their langage do give you more than just some cut above the rest who only noes how to bargain, definitely.
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