Part of traveling to a foreign country is learning how to get around from place to place. Driving in Hong Kong would be extremely expensive, on the wrong side of the road, and among a lot of psychotic drivers with expensive cars, so it just seems like a bad idea. So, I’m at the mercy of public transit - taxis, trains, and ferrys.

Taxis tend to make up the majority of my trips here because they’re fast, cheap, and guaranteed to give you a wild ride. It’s a little more sane to drive here than other places I’ve been, but often that depends on the driver. The guy I got earlier today was wearing those racing gloves with the fingers cut off - never a good sign. Now, most of the taxis in Hong Kong are these ugly-assed Toyota LPG (propane) things, so they’re not the speediest things in the world, but what this guy lacked in acceleration he made up for in pure aggression. He had some sort of Chinese bell thing hanging from his rearview mirror and every time he would pull some insane move to get around someone, there would be a little ‘ding’ to punctuate the insanity amongst the squeal of the tires. So, it’d sound something like this: screech-ding-OMGWTFWE’REGONNADIE-screech. The middle part was in my head as I white-knuckled the seat. I guess there’s a Disneyland Hong Kong, but who needs that evil rat empire shit when you can just ride around in taxis?

The alternative is the subway, which is actually the cleanest, quietest one I’ve ever been on. It’s seriously immaculate and very efficient. But, like other places I’ve been, being the tall gweilo in the car is kinda no fun during rush hour. The car is packed wall to wall with people and they’re all looking up at me. I always like to blend in that way.

Tomorrow on my way to work I’m going to take the Star Ferry over from Kowloon to Hong Kong. The Star Ferry itself has been running between the two for approximately 974 years, during which it has been maintained twice. But, it’s something like a dollar for the trip across, and on choppy days, it’s a kind of fun ride. I’m guessing my students will like me throwing up into a bucket while teaching. Adds color.