Hong Kong: First Impressions

It's been close to two weeks since the last post, and they've been a busy two weeks, and I've got lots of exciting things to say!  But for now, they'll have to wait.  Right now, I'm exhausted, and it's definitely bed time...  Yes, I know for most of you it's only 11 am (at the latest), but I happen to be in Hong Kong right now, where it's 11 pm, and after 24 hours of traveling, I'm very excited about my hotel room's bed!  But before I do, I felt moved to throw a few thoughts out there, because this place is quite a city!  For those who are confused, asking "Why are you on the other side of the world?", I'm here for a robotics conference I'm presenting at.  ICRA to be specific

So, I left the east coast on a 7 am flight yesterday (Saturday) morning.  A quick 5 hours later, I was in San Francisco, where I had a close to 4 hour layover (this was on purpose, as the Hong Kong flight leaves SFO once a day, and I didn't want to miss it just because my connecting flight way late).  I got on a Untied 747 at 12:30 pm San Francisco time, and got off of it at 7:00 pm on Sunday in Hong Kong!  Fully 24 hours of traveling, but the time was 36 hours later...  Surprisingly my internal clock is actually not that far off, despite the day changing without the sun having ever set.  I'm used to red eye flights at least at some point flying through night time, but that never happened on this flight.  15.5 hours in the air, and the sun was up the whole time.  I did get some sleep on the plane, but I never sleep well on planes, so I feel appropriately tired now that it's essentially bed time!

The sun reflecting off of one of Hong Kong's tallest buildings as my place came in shortly before sunset

But before I go to bed, just some thoughts on this city from my few hours here so far (in no particular order).  Hong Kong strikes me as what you would get if you merged New York City and Los Angeles into one city, and then placed it in Miami...  Oh, and throw in a splash of London or Sydney for flavor.

• They've outdone Times Square as far as the LCD's and LED's go.  Most of the buildings don't just have the name at the top in lights, but it's on a giant LCD panel that animates and moves.  All of the biggest buildings take that a step further with dancing light accents across the entire building, with several going so far as to make the entire side of the building a screen
• Like LA, the city is built to the contour of the land it's on, with every piece of flat (or flat-ish) land containing a building.  But more extreme than LA, in that none of these buildings seem to be less than 40 floors!  There are 7 million people in the city, and while its area is actually quite large, the islands its built on are fairly highly and mountainous, so the city squeezes into small niches wherever it can.
• When I checked the weather before I came, I basically just packed as if I was going to Florida.  It's supposed to be 80's to 90's, with a 60+ % chance of showers every afternoon!  And it sure is muggy tonight...
• Being a former British colony, they don't drive on the right side of the road.  And the waterfront is quite spectacular looking, as the city lines the harbor on both sides with modern, glassy, colorfully lit buildings!
• Hong Kong is the financial capital of Asia, and as such is definitely not a cheap city.  I considered the $7-8 beers in DC to be on the pricey side, but the cheapest one on the menu at the place I went for dinner tonight was 70 Hong Kong Dollars (HKD), which is about $9, with some as high as $12-13 for a normal bottle.  Also, probably for similar reasons, there is quite a mix of world foods available, many of which are much fancier than I'd expect.  For dinner tonight, I wanted three things: a) close to my hotel, b) quick, c) inexpensive.  I was tired, just wanted a quick bite before bed.  I ended up getting 1 out of 3...  and that was close.  I picked what looked like a nice bar that would probably have sandwiches.  Cheapest thing on the menu was a $20 hamburger...  And next door was a very nationality confused place call Chez Patrick's Deli that looked way t0o fancy for its name!  I'll have to explore a bit more as the week goes on to find some good food places, because clearly the places close to my hotel (and therefore close to the convention center) cater to tourists and business travelers.

French?  Irish?  Jewish Deli?  No idea!

• Lastly, I'm so far finding my limited navigation around the city challenging...  The train from the airport was a piece of cake, with an easy to catch bus from the train station right to my hotel.  But on foot, this city is a maze, and a multi-level one at that.  There seem to be at least two levels of city, some places have more, with elevated walkways and escalators going between buildings above the street level.  Makes following Google Maps just a little bit harder!

Well, those are just my first impressions.  It looks like an amazing city, and I can't wait to explore it more!  I'll report on my adventures here, so don't worry!  In the mean time, enjoy your Sunday, I'm going to sleep!