first weekend in HK

So, it seems that I may be unable to post pics up for a while since my laptop is currently being repaired. I'm hoping that it will be fixed soon so I can show you all the sights of hk as well. Well, the weekend finally arrived in HK. Didn't do too much on Saturday since I was still feeling under the weather. I was actually looking forward to going to 180, a fellowship that a few of my friends in HK attend on Saturday night. But, since I was still sick, there was probably no way that I could last throughout the entire fellowship. It's actually quite painful to be sick and moving around in HK. You can't slow down because if you did you'll probably get run over or hurried by people behind you.

Hong Kong is very fast paced. Definitely not good for people who enjoy the leisurely life. Everything is geared towards convenience & time saving solutions. The Octopus card is one such example. Any type of public transportation uses this card. You simply load money on it and you can use it to take the metro, bus, small buses, tram, rail and the ferry. You can even use it at a 7-11! They say the standard transaction time is 0.3 sec- octopus card. This is super fast since you must swipe the card as you enter the metro and swipe it again when you leave. So if it was any slower there would quickly be a line up and that would be no good during busy hours. In a way it's sort of like the ticket system for the Paris subway except in this case you're using one card to do everything and the machine simply deducts your money depending on how far you travel. The other thing I marvel at is the ability to use your cell phone in the metro. That too, is another time saver. Never again will you be lost (in my case) or never again will you lose time on that much needed business transaction (not in my case :P ).

Anyways, enough rambling about this amazing Octopus card. You'll just have to try it out for yourself when you come to Hong Kong. So, Sunday. Attended church with my parents at the church they use to attend - Hong Kong Baptist. As an aside, sometime this week, it was also pointed out to me that my grandparents used to go to a very charismatic Pentecostal church! Who would've thought! Anyhoo, after church we met up with my relatives for lunch and then I proceeded to have my own adventures and travelled all the way to Hung Hom from Central station to meet up with friends. The neat thing was I finally made it to a Muji store. Ooh this place has the coolest pens!! Gel pens were only 5 HK$ which is about 1$ CAN. :) So, neat and so many awesome colors to choose from!

Anyhoo, this is a very long post now so I will stop now.

Cool thing from today: watching the light/laser show across from Hong Kong harbor & taking the ferry by myself (hehe, no I did not get sea sick! :P)