DDay -26

Observation #6: Being a tropical island, Hong Kong is a sportman's paradise. There are beautiful and challenging hiking trails here as well as surfing, parasailing, paddle boarding, swimming, wake boarding, marathons, wind sailing, skiing, etc. I didn't mention bicycling because there really isn't anywhere to do that here although lots of people do. The asphalt roads are tiny but the trails are too hilly so people choose to bicycle on the roads and they either slow/stall traffic or they end up getting hit. Buses and taxis are not concerned with pedestrians/cyclists and they will hit you if you don't get out of the way. We heard a terrible story of a parent at our school who was bicycling when he got hit by a bus and now he is paralyzed. We also heard about a helper who died saving the child she was watching. She got hit by a bus and was dragged a long the street and killed. We have personally witnessed 4 children, 1 teenager girl and 1 helper get hit by a taxi. Don't expect drivers to slow down to let you cross the street. More often than not, they will speed up when they see a person trying to cross. On the flip side, murder rates and personal crime rates are very low and kidnappings are almost non-existent (not true on the mainland). Aside from taking my life into my own hands every time I cross the street, I actually feel very safe here.