In Transit in Hong Kong

Last Tuesday in Hanoi, I got up at 4:30am to start a long day of journeying to Hong Kong and then on to San Francisco.  I had half a day in Hong Kong between flights so I enjoyed taking the fast train into the city and then catching a bus to the top of Victoria Peak.  Some good veiws but was very chilly and also quite crowded thanks to Chinese New Year.  Like Singapore, there are a lot of Filipino maids in Hong Kong.  Also like Singapore, they enjoy their days off (Tuesday was a public holiday for CNY) and like to gather together in parks or outside the shops.  Unlike Singapore, it was only 15 degrees on Tuesday, so not quite as conducive to outdoor gatherings.  I was intrigued to see in one section of a covered walkway that groups of ladies had built little shelters out of cardboard boxes, to give them something to sit on and to block the wind.

In the US, I was attending 2 days of work meetings, held at the very scenic Mountain Winery in Saratoga.  On the edge of silicon valley (south of San Francisco) it was a very pleasant spot to be for a few days and very beautiful on a couple of mornings where we were above the fog.  While it was only a short visit to the US it was very useful for me to meet a number of people in person from the US and Europe.  On Friday afternoon I did my standard pilgrimage to Frys (think Bunnings, but for IT and Electronics) before heading to Shoreline Park where I hired a bike and went geocaching.

One thing that really struck me in the US was how much pedestrians have right of way.  If a driver even got a glimpse of me, a good 2 metres before crossing a road or driveway, they would stop and wait for me to cross.  Very different to the Singapore mentality where the drivers own the road and get quite cross if a pedestrian dares to step out in front of them!

I'm currently sitting in Hong Kong airport. I have 14 hours of flying behind me, and only 4 more to get me home again to Singapore...