Cool automotive notes about Hong Kong:

1. Ya gotta wonder about color and car choices over here. One can never go over 35-40 MPH, it would seem, and usually not over 30. This picture of a BMW M3 is in the Central district, where one can never exceed 5 MPH. Spell that, foot never off the clutch (or an automatic, which seems downright wrong in a car like that). And OHHH, the color!
   
2. The taxis have nice upper strut tower bracing, all the better to corner with, oh customer! And they do! They take great pride in cleaning their taxis (take a hint, US!), and that includes the inside of the engine bay. I get to see the insides all the time.
   
3. The minibus drivers all have this water bottle hanging in plain sight, and at first I thought it was a tea or something, until you notice the little hose at the bottom of it. What a clever way to enable the driver to see his coolant level without a bunch of idiot lights, etc. Simple!
4. Ohh, can these bus drivers drive. They know EXACTLY where each part of the bus is, and how to get around in VERY tight quarters. It is quite an experience to be on the upper deck, right in the front, and see just how close we come to man, nature, and concrete!
5. Being a pathetic RH driver from the US, I try to see if I can guess ahead of time what the driver will do in a sudden situation, dealing with intersections, roundabouts, etc. Every trip I go out on, I crash inside my head at least once (good thing you're not driving, Jon - you would have messed that one up pretty bad!). This LH thing takes some getting used to. 4 weeks into living here (not to mention how many times I have visited), I am just now getting instinctive about which way to look at intersections while crossing the street! Stay tuned for my review on hospital beds, for it is now that I probably am most dangerous!
   

Well, we are here.
Some interesting items of note, that hightlight the differences between LOTS of space and NO space:

1. Strollers, shopping carts and some buses have all four wheels swivel. Not so good for high speed, but great for maeuverability.
2. Our apartment is 1/3 the space, for 4 times the cost of our house back home. And it is big, by any local standard!
3. We have some fairly reserved children by US standards; they listen, and don't run totally out of control when at a playground. Over here, other parents view our children as crazy at the playground! Swinging until the chain starts to slack at the apex of the swing, running along the 16 inch high concrete wall that holds a simple garden in the playing area, swinging from the monkey bars (that is what they are there for!), riding the teeter totter without a parent holding the child, is so alien to them. This last point may be more a result of parents only having one child, and the clear attempt to protect them from all risk right through adulthood, but it also highlights the close quarters and constant attention children are under over here.
4.