This is Hong Kong!

Most important thing: pedestrians do not have the right of way. Cars do. Cars with bad drivers. And double decker busses. With fast drivers. Heads up when crossing the street, people! This is no joke!

And cars drive on the "wrong" side of the road here which means you need to look the opposite way before crossing the street. I am going to make a recommendation that you just go ahead and look both ways two or three times (even on a one way street!) before you run for your life to cross the intersection.

Since the cars drive on the left, this also means people tend to walk on the "wrong" side of the aisles in stores and on sidewalks. And it also means that the up escalator is on the left.

Four is a bad luck number, kind of like 13 or 666 in the US. But the Chinese take this very seriously. They skip entire floors in buildings! That's right, you get into the elevator and you see 1,2,3 and then 5. No 4. 4 means death. Also displaying a close-up/head shot photograph of someone means death. And also gifting someone a clock means death. I am sure there is SO much more but all this info has actually been addressed and discussed with us since we arrived last week.

It is very crowded in the city. I think especially this week since it's a huge holiday here. This Chinese New Year celebration is a big deal for them--I understand it as their Christmas equivalent. It's the celebration of the new lunar year by the way. When walking down the street you have to weave your way through. We have taken to calling it The Basket Weave because everyone is weaving in and out of each other's way to walk where they are going. I overheard an Australian guy call it the Hong Kong Shuffle. This is a good name too because there are also times when it is SO crowded that you literally walk about 2 inch steps. For hundreds of feet. It's crazy.

Everyone we have met talks about how safe it is here in Hong Kong. The Chinese are very kid friendly people and all in all people seem happy and are not aggressive. Except the stall owners at some of the markets... those women can be aggressive trying to make the sale! Ha! It does feel "safe" compared to other large cities where I've spent time. Of course you shouldn't get complacent and should always be aware of your surroundings and possessions but it is nice to know that the city has a safe reputation.

Chinese laundry. It's a brand of shoes in the US. Here in Hong Kong it is a way of life. It seems that most households have a washing machine but no dryer. Or some washers are combo washer and dryer, but supposedly these don't dry very well. It's very rare to have a washer AND separate dryer. People wash their clothes and then hang them to dry outside on clothes lines right outside their windows. So there are always clothes hanging outside everywhere all the time. Yesterday it was windy. Lots of clothes pinned to hangars strewn in the street that had blown down from above. What a bummer it would be to lose your lucky bra like that! And imagine walking down the street minding your own business and having a pair of someone's underwear fall on you! I am sure this has happened...

Since we are staying in the hotel for an extended time we had to find a laundry service last week. The hotel offers laundry service but they want $30HKDs for a single pair of undies! That's over $3USD. We had no luck finding a US style laundromat, but it was not difficult to find a place to drop off the laundry to be done for us. We had several kilos of laundry done for $80HKDs ($10USD) at a little laundry business called Purity Laundry in the Chung King Mansion building in Kowloon. That was an interesting and fun errand to run!

This city is one big mall. That is not an overstatement. Seriously there is shopping in every single nook and cranny. Entire shopping arcades are tucked everywhere. Up unmarked elevators, down narrow alleys, underground between MTR (subway) stations. Then there are the labeled real malls that are several stories high and (as stupid as it sounds) you literally get lost in them and can't find a way out. The other weird notion about all the shopping is that there are multiple locations of a single store in the same mall or on the same city block. Which really adds to the complexity of finding your way around. I have seen stores here with the couture glamourous brands that previously I have only seen ads for in fashion magazines. There is a mall in the Landmark Building in Central that I need to go back to sometime after I find something suitable to wear TO this mall. This mall is so upscale it makes a Coach store seem like Target. Same for one of the shopping arcades next to our hotel--looks so upscale I almost hesitate to walk through it!

And let's not forget about the street markets! Copy watches, copy handbags, all kinds of junky trinkets and cool stuff alike. Yesterday we found ourselves in a stall in the market with tons of hand painted art on canvas. Some of them were stunning! They were asking about $50USD for big pieces of original artwork!

There is so much to see and do... I can't imagine only being here for 2 weeks. I am super excited to explore this place at my leisure.