Ten Things I Love And Hate About Hong Kong: Part 1

#1 - Hate - Cockroach-dodging

In London, the myriad dirty grey splodges you see scattered all over the pavements are usually easily discernible as the remains of people’s chewing gum, well and truly trodden on throughout the ages. I don’t seem to notice many chewing gum chewers in Hong Kong, though. So whenever I spy a big black splodge in front of me on the pavement I have to wonder whether’s it’s gum, or the most likely alternative: crushed cockroach carcass.

To be fair, I haven’t see all that many cockroaches here, and certainly not where you’d most hate to see them, like in my flat (unlike in the Philippines, where my fellow travellers woke up one morning to find a curious little friend perched on top of the tube of toothpaste… somehow I managed to sleep through the squeaking, screaming and shoe-throwing that followed). However, they do exist, and on more than one occasion, on a slightly tipsy walk home, I have had to employ some super-fast reflexes to dodge those mo-fo’s in the street. Let me tell you, they move FAST, and it can be extremely unsettling when one suddenly darts into your path, especially when you’re wearing flip flops and they charge perilously close to your bare foot. Urgh,

And if that wasn’t bad enough, turns out that the little bastards have the ability to fly. FLY, I say. As if they needed any more help in the terrifying and disgusting department.