Dangererous bus stop

This morning, while waiting for the trusty 54 green-top bus to whisk me to Central Hong Kong station, I noticed a few guys getting out of a van.

One of them started to dress himself in what appeared to be a space-suit. It took him about three minutes to get into the all white suit, strap on the goggles and gas mask and have a really heavy machine with what appeared to be a compressor and a tank of chemicals affixed to his back.

He looked like the guys who came for E.T.

Then he came for me.

He crossed the road, walking towards me and grunted. I couldn’t understand what he was saying. For one, it was in Cantonese, and for the rest, anybody speaking through a gas mask, would be hard to understand. But from the gesticulation, it appeared that he wanted me to stand aside. Probably so that I don’t get any of the whatever-was-in-the-tank-and-so-lethal-that-he-had-to-wear-a-all-that-gear on me.

Waiting for the bus, in Hong Kong, can sometimes be a dangerous business.

It’s raining, time for sunglasses

Now is very much the rainy season in the Fragrant Harbour. In fact, we’ve already had a spell of Black Rain, several treats of Red Rain and a T8 warning. Which is shorthand for maximum typhoon warning.

Every couple of days, the city is cooled down by torrential, tropical rainstorms. An umbrella is something you now carry with you, even if its sunny in the morning.

But with that, comes a warning. Slow-walking pedestrians now also sport their umbrellas, and because of the differential in their mean height and my own, their umbrellas are at eye-level to me. Which could mean that you could literally be blindsided by an umbrella any moment.

So when it’s raining, and you are around six feet tall, don’t forget to take sunglasses. Because it’s no fun when somebody loses an eye.

French spiderman raises awareness of dangers of climbing

A week or so ago, Alain Robert, the so-called French Spiderman scaled the exterior The Four Seasons on Hong Kong island to “raise awareness of the dangers of climate change.”

He is known to climb up skyscrapers using only his hands and feet.

Frankly I think he has succeeded only in raising awareness of the dangers of climbing. Though not the tallest hotel in Hong Kong, the gaps between the slabs are really quite something.

Fragrant Harbour

The words Hong Kong, literally, in Cantonese, means ‘fragrant harbour’. It is said that in years gone by, weary sailors, crossing the South China sea, could smell the sandalwood forests and knew there were close to land.

How ironic, that nowadays sailors using the same old ancient traderoute can probably also smell Hong Kong a mile off. Except, it’s not the aroma of sandalwood, but something a little more yellow. A little more pungent.

Except for the pollution, Hong Kong is actually an incredibly amazing place to live. Yes, it’s dense. Almost 7 million people live in just over a thousand square kilometers of land – of which almost 75% is unspoilt forest. This then explains why there are over 7000 skyscrapers in the city – slim slabs of concrete that tower hundreds of feet into the humid sky, balancing precariously on narrow ledges, in valleys, on hills and in the path of the next typhoon.

Hong Kong is easily the smallest big city in the world.

This blog is about Hong Kong and the incredible people who live in the city. It is about their ways, beliefs, customs and nature. It is also about surviving in Hong Kong. What to really see and what to really avoid. It’s also about bars and restaurants. Where to go, and where to not go.

So bookmark, add to your RSS reader and enjoy. Vertigo City. You’ll have the time of your life, as long as you don’t look down.