The Bus Ride from Hell

Hello everyone, this is Chris.

I know over the past month or so Erin has kept you filled in on her weekly exploits. I’ve wanted to write a few things also, but just haven’t gotten around to it. I will try to be better going forward.....

Now on to the Ride:
On Friday around 2pm I had just gotten back from lunch when I noticed everyone in the office standing in groups talking loudly. This isn’t that uncommon, and since they were all talking Chinese, I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Anyway I didn’t really think twice about it. After a few minutes one of the finance managers came up to me and said “Chris, the national weather alert has just informed us a level-8 typhoon is about to hit Hong Kong, you need to finish up what you are doing and go home”. I agreed to finish up and shut down.

For all those who don’t know, a typhoon is a hurricane in this region of the world. They are not all that uncommon; in fact, a level-1 typhoon had actually passed through Hong Kong that morning. Basically it was rainy and windy. Not really a big deal. Apparently what had happened was the level-1 passed through Hong Kong, went out to sea and got stronger, then turned around and came back at Hong Kong.

When a level-8 typhoon is declared, everyone must go home immediately and you are not allowed to stay in the building. The winds are very strong, so it is very dangerous to be outside. Basically as soon as they know a level-8 typhoon is on the way, they send everyone home.

As I was finishing up about 20 minutes later, the same finance manager came back to me and saw I wasn’t ready to go yet. She informed me I had to leave NOW. I got the message and left with my boss and two Chinese finance managers. As we walked outside I could see we were going to have a problem. I work in Kowloon Bay, which is across the harbor from Hong Kong Island.....I will now give you a minute to Google a Hong Kong map........Kung Tong (where Kowloon Bay is located) is one of the most densely populated places on earth. Something like 100,000 people per square meter live there. I don’t know if that’s correct, but I do know when I walked outside and everyone was trying to go home at the same time, it was chaos. We managed to get into a bus and get a seat. Getting a seat doesn’t seem like a big deal until you realize you can’t stand straight up on a bus unless you are under 5’10”, sort of a problem for me. After 45 minutes of sitting on a packed bus in traffic I could still see our office building 2 blocks away. We had only gone around the block. It was during this time I found out they had no idea when the typhoon was actually scheduled to get to Hong Kong and because there are so many people, they make everyone leave hours early. Just to be safe.

After another hour or so we made it through the tunnel and back to Hong Kong Island, where I had to transfer to a train to get me closer to home. Because I live the in the Midlevels area (basically halfway up the mountain) and there were no cabs to take us, we walked home. The good news was since it was Friday at about 430pm we decided to stop at Lan Kwai Fong, which is a big bar district on our way home. Since it wasn’t even raining yet, the place was packed with expats also on their way home. The final line to the story is this, we stayed at Lan Kwai Fong for about 2 hours or so before I went home. The level-8 typhoon never came back to Hong Kong, and, other than a little rain, Erin and I ended up with a quiet night at home.

The next time a level-8 warning is issued I’m going to wait an hour at work, then hop on the train home (of course stopping by Lan Kwai Fong on the way). No more 2 ½ hour bus rides for me.

Take care, talk to you soon!