So, this time I'll be talking about transportation and international travel as stated in the last post. As far as transportation in Hong Kong, there are quite a few options. Obviously, as in all major cities walking is the best way to get from point A to point B when the distance is short. On that note, if you do plan to go to Hong Kong, make sure you have comfortable shoes, you'll probably end up walking a lot and uncomfortable shoes are a bad idea. Also, as in the US, there are quite a few cars on the roads for most of the day....including late at night; expect loud nights. If you're like me and don't like the sounds of cars in the middle of the night, bring earplugs. When talking about public transportation there are 2 options, the MTR and bus. The bus operates as you'd expect it to so there's not much to talk about.
MTR stands for Mass Transit Railway and is the subway system that pretty much holds up all of Hong Kong. There are a multitude of stops, I'll show a map at the end of the post, that take you pretty much to any place in Hong Kong minus a few places. Now, there are two methods of payment for the MTR, tickets and the octopus card. Tickets are as expected, you buy one with the route you'll take and you pay. The octopus card however is a different story. For those unaware, the octopus card is like a debit card that can be used at all MTR stations and multiple other places. It carries an RFID(Radio Frequency ID) chip inside it that allows scanners read data on it easily. This expedites travel since you don't have to buy a special ticket every single time you take the MTR. In addition, costs between tickets and octopus card actually vary slightly so sometimes it's cheaper to use the octopus card. Mainly it's just convenient. I'll have pictures of those at the end too. Now, it should be noted that the MTR has really high traffic pretty much all day, I'll show a picture at the end as well. As such, if you don't like getting on crowded trains, stay away from the MTR. However, it should also be noted that a trip on the MTR is often much cheaper than driving and the wait time is much shorter than for buses. For example, a trip from Tsuen Wan to Ngau Tau Kok costs $8 HK, exchange rate is roughly 7.75HK : 1USD, so about $1. So even with all the troubles, including being slower than driving, the MTR is very likely the most used form of transportation in Hong Kong.
Now for a quick note on international travel to Hong Kong. When taking a flight to Hong Kong, assuming it's the final destination, you have to fill out a card with a bunch of information although I hear on the way back to the US it's much worse. From SFO or the San Francisco Airport the flight is about 13 hours long so make sure to have something to do or sleep. On another note, I'll be using EST for most of my times since it's exactly 12 hours different from Hong Kong's time which makes it really easy. If you don't know, outlets in Hong Kong are not the same as in the US so buy a converter for any electrical appliances you plan on bringing with you. I believe that's all for international travel...at least for now? So enjoy some pictures.
*note: the ROUND 1 page has changed
--CsMiREK
