Loosing My Train of Thought

Our baptism into our new life in Hong Kong was by full emersion today. We got in rather late last night and today is our first full day in China. We have so much to do, but the first order of business is to make a trip to the immigration office on the main island to fill our some paper work. Thank goodness, we will be escorted by Ms. Gostick Kan from the human resource department at our school. Of course, we will be traveling by train. Six of them to be exact. You see, you can’t actually get there from here. What you have to do is take the brown line to Tai Wai station and then transfer to the blue line and go to Kowloon Tong where you will pick up the green line . . . well, you get the idea. So for almost an hour and half, it was walk, walk, walk, walk, get on a train, walk, walk, walk, get on a train, walk, walk, walk . . . well, you get the idea.

(Before our arrival I was concerned that I would be able to find a means to get some exercise while in Hong Kong. But with all of this walking we’ve been doing, I don’t think that is going to be an issue.)

The trains in Hong Kong are incredibly clean, very efficient, and generally quite crowded. But because we didn’t start our little quest until almost 10:00 in morning –well after rush hour- I suspect we have yet to see what a really crowded train in Hong Kong looks like.

The trains are both high-tech and very user-friendly. Every rider has an electronic card called a “value added card” because whenever the amount of money left on the card runs low, you simply go to one of the kiosks in any of the train stations, insert your card, and put in however much money you choose. Don’t put on too little or you will just have to do it again in a couple of days. Don’t put on too much in case you loose your card. When you get to your destination, swipe your card again and the proper amount will be deducted from your card depending on how far you've traveled. Oh yeah, don’t forget to glance down at the turn-style as you pass through, it will not only display how much it deducted from your value added card, but it will tell you how much you have left.

If you enjoy people-watching, then trains are the place for you. The girls and I enjoyed soaking up all the diversity we saw on the trains. The people of Hong Kong come in all different sizes and shapes. Some are short, and some are tall. Some were nattily dressed and some were disheveled. Many of them were listening to music, playing video games on their hand-held devises, or even watching movies on their ipods. More than a few were on the phone. Some of them were trying to get some sleep. Some of the schools must already be in session because we saw more than one student in uniform.

If you are ever in Hong Kong for the day and wanted to get a feel for the city, you could do a whole lot worse that riding the trains for a morning.

-Jack and Annika