Irish Born Chinese

• You get into a crowded lift and smell mothballs everywhere.

• People opening doors for themselves and let it close in your face instead of holding it open.

• You get followed and pestered by store staff with patronising English “Welcome to [insert store name], how may we help you, sir/missy?” and smirking.

• Wondering where all those pesky store staff disappeared to when you really want one.

• All people who eat fast food are skinny according to their ads (KFC, Mc Donald’s).

• Food is so cheap, it’s the price of a cup of coffee over here for a meal for two at lunch time.

• You see poor ol’ grannys pushing the carts picking up cardboards and newspapers just to make a few bucks.

• Markets and shopping plazas are unbelievably clean, there are staff cleaning everything from door handles, air-con systems, lights, etc.

• January sales are between 50% and 90/95% off, and additional purchases get more money off, and on top of that, you can use the money off voucher, and in conjunction with a loyalty card, more discount.

• First thing in the morning, all you want is a custard tart or “Gei Mei” bun from the local bakery.

• Mini-bus drivers only know stop and goes really fast on the roads, regardless of the speedometer display to the passengers (digital display, it beeps when the driver goes over the speed limit).

• Pestered by Indians to make you a shirt/suit (Golden Mile, who would have thunk, ay!)

• Huge LV stores on both sides of the harbour (and another being built), that’s just ludicrous!

• You can “beep” yourself on any public transport and buy things from shops, let’s hear it for the Octopus Smartcard, huzzah!

• Everyone walks in a snail’s pace, and you can’t seem to walk around them, worse than a maze, even in the city itself.

• You are surround by cheap electronics, it’s like mini-IT-Direct/Komplett all around the place.

• You buy electronics, the price may not be all that different to Ireland (apart from Apple), but there are lots of freebies that come with them. Say a camera, bigger mem card, carry case, etc.

• People wear flip-flops even when they are “frozen”.

• You see Japanese sushi and noodle restaurants everywhere.

• Stand and wait for your ticket number to be called out for dinner or Dim Sum.

• Mark all those bits of paper for Dim Sum, only problem is, it’s all in Chinese.

• Everything on the menu in any diner, restaurant has to be read out to me, as I don’t understand Chinese.

You know you still miss home when:

• You check up the list of Starbucks store locations in Hong Kong.

• Get internet access as soon as possible, when one is out and about (yes, I miss my internet access at home).

Ok, the latter list is miniscule, but at least there are some! Hong Kong is still cool place to visit.