It has been a very long delay in between my post, that's why I think I should start writing again. I have been living in one of Asia's heart of business, the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong, for about 4 months. As an Indonesian who rarely travel, I automatically became an observer. Below are only the few things that catches my attention.
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| Figure 1. A glimpse of Hong Kong Island from Victoria Harbour |
1. Skyscrapers
With only around 1104 square kilometers of land, it seems finding a place to live is going to be hard for 7,2 million residents of Hong Kong (year 2012). Maybe that's why they have tall buildings everywhere. A fun fact is these tall buildings make pollution worse in the streets, because small roads and tall walls make exhaust gases from vehicles literally trapped in our breathing level. To my surprise, my hometown Jakarta is actually more crowded than Hong Kong (740,3 square km with resident >10 million).
2. Unfriendly Service
Not basing on any statistics, but 3 of 5 waitresses I encounter happens to be grumpy. Of course back in Indonesia, this would make me furious! We were bossing around the waiters in Indonesia, and I mean bossing. Customers can even scold waiters for not giving appropriate service. I still meet people who thinks "they should be scolded to service right". Little do they know there might just be an additional spit in their soup.
In Hong Kong, on the other hand, I would think again before asking the waiter for help. Last week I had a yam cha with my cousin, and when we asked her to cut the cake for us, she were grumbling right in front of us. Though she is talking in cantonese, I think what she said is "You ask me to do THIS KIND OF THING? You can use your chopstick to cut it yourself!" (In which she uses a chopstick to cut the soft cake and throws it angrily to the dirty dish basket). Well that pretty much sums up most Chinese restaurants in HK. Younger waiters are, in general, kinder at giving service. Its the old ones we should be careful of!
3. Never get lost
I am but just a third world country citizen who is occasionally raped by the stupid public transport system back home. A little exaggerating, but yeah you'll get the picture once you spend one month in Jakarta. In Hong Kong, I think the MTR train covers 80% of Hong Kong. Add the ba si (big bus) and siu ba (mini-bus) there, I can get anywhere by a simple browse on the internet. My friend dropped something like "In Hong Kong it is very hard to get lost, as the MTR is literally everywhere". Never bother driving a car, the public transport system is more than enough. Probably that is reason I see more Porsche and BMW in the streets, because only filthy rich people buy cars. Oh fun facts, in HK there is more BMWs than Toyotas. Yeah, What the F.
4. Rich Javanese Maids
Don't know if I should really say rich, but if I compare their salary with fresh grads in Indonesia, they do make more. They get an average of HKD 4500 per month, free rent, free food, and weekends for vacation. In addition, their workload are fairly little. HK homes are not that big, you'll get all things done before 3 pm. Want to sign up for becoming a HK maid?
These are really the outside skin of HK that I happen to notice. I hope I can linger more in the city to find out more of its unique features!
