Hong Kong Chronicles: Bike Notes - aka Reasons to Appreciate Your Car

First Bead Giveaway Winner: Kristin at KS Jewelry Designs! (There was no competition, so I didn't do an actual drawing...hee, hee...) Kristin, email me your contact information and I will pop these in the post by tomorrow. Kristin, also has her own giveaway for one of her pendants. I love her work...it looks like it's soldered silver work, but it's wire-wrapping! She has a cool tutorial showing you how to achieve some of these looks. Buy it. You'll be happy you did. I can't wait to try out her ideas.


Today's post is sans beads and jewelry. I thought I'd share some of stories about adapting to Hong Kong life.

This is kind of like Cliff Notes, only for riding a bike in Hong Kong in the summer.

1) Keep tires properly inflated. As the .33 hp (using the reasoning that a horse runs about 40 mph and I ride my bike at about 13 mph, I am therefore the .33 hp motor for my bike) I recommend keeping the tires of your car properly inflated. I have noticed that I ride with much less effort when the tires of my bike are freshly inflated. (See 2c)

2) Appreciate your windshield. I'm thinking I need something. Otherwise, I have to do the following:

a) Keep my mouth closed while riding. It is mosquito season and it has freshly rained. Fresh, giant crop of mosquitoes. And I hear there is a fly season coming up, too. I have been pelted with bugs while riding home at 13 mph. I, therefore, keep my mouth closed.

b) Don't wear lip gloss. My friends who wear make-up (i.e. lipstick and lip gloss) have reported having bugs adhere to their lips while wearing freshly applied cosmetics.

c) Try not to breath deeply through the nose. While I caught on pretty quick to keeping my mouth closed, it's still hard not to breath deeply while riding uphill. It's not fun to snort a bug. Trust me on this one.

Therefore, I think I will need to:

1) get some kind of face shield, or

2) look like a outlaw of the wild, wild east (sunglasses, bandana over my mouth, cowboy hat)