Driving in Hong Kong

This past weekend, I drove for the first time in Hong Kong. It was an exciting experience.

Driving in HK is a little different than in the US. The first obvious difference is that people here drive on the left side of the street and the steering wheel is on the right. Then there are the roads. The highways weave here and there, twisting all about like like a bowl of spaghetti. There are road signs which are helpful if you know the names of the various parts of town, but there's little time to recover once you see that you need to change lanes. Lots of one-way streets make it challenging as well. Finally, there's the traffic. It gets really thick and the driving is somewhat aggressive.


I received my drivers license and keys to my car late last week. Our new car is a 2005 Honda Accord. It's a nice car. Ironically, it is very similar to our 2004 Honda Accord that we just sold in the states. There are a few minor differences (and of course the fact that the steering wheel is on the other side of the car), but overall it feels very familiar to our old Accord, which is good.





After almost 3 weeks here of just using public transportation, I was more than ready to venture out on my own. So on Sunday morning, I got up early to hit the streets before they began filling up with other cars.


For several weeks, I had been trying to mentally prepare myself for driving on the left side of the street by paying attention in taxis and trying to anticipate the turns. Once I started driving, being on the left side of the street went okay. What threw me off the most however, was the fact that the turn signal and windshield wipers are reversed. Every time I tried to signal for a turn, my windshield wipers flipped on. It was second nature to use my left hand, and time and time again, I hit the wipers every time I turned or changed lanes. It got better towards the end of the day.


I went on three drives that day. My early morning drive took me to a part of the city to the north, and my other two drives took me to Hong Kong Island. I went 2 different routes to the Island, and drove down to the south part of the Island each time. My second drive was via the Central and Aberdeen Tunnels down to an area called Stanley, and then to Aberdeen. My third drive was to an area called Tai Tam via the Eastern Tunnel. It was really easy to get off course, and I did so a couple of times. I was able to get back on track though and ultimately made it to where I was trying to go.


Gas stations are a little different here as well. The stations are full service, they are much less frequent, and the gas is really expensive. At one point I started getting concerned about my low fuel level. I finally found a station, but the transaction wasn't easy. The attendant couldn't speak any English and I couldn't speak any gas-station-Cantonese. Through some various gestures and sounds we ended up sorting it out, and I left there happy with a full tank of gas.


The other exciting part of the drive was the very narrow road down to Tai Tam. The road is very very narrow in some spots. So much so that 2 buses can not pass each other over one portion of the road. During that stretch, you had to slow down and squeeze by on-coming traffic, which had to get pretty close at times. It was a little nerve-racking - I thought for sure I would return my car after my first day of driving with a big mark down the side.


Despite the challenges, somehow I managed to figure things out that day and had a pretty good day of driving. It was intense, but fun, and it was liberating to be able to drive around on my own for the first time.