Pick a side, any side

While walking to catch the tram this morning, I was again annoyed how Hongkers walk on all sides of the sidewalk, in all directions.

Sure, the cars and buses "keep left", but you will be surprised to note that there is no equivalent rule for pedestrians, not even for escalators! Sometimes it's keep left other times it is not. The randomness creates a system of sheer chaos on sidewalks. Not only are you dodging men lugging produce or construction materials, you need to cris cross yourway to keep up with the particular group of people you happen to be walking with.

And while I'm venting about sidewalks I should also say -- for a country (or should I say Special Administrative Region) that runs commerce and industry at lightning speed, people in Hong Kong walk slow. Much slower than people in NY and slower than some parts of Manila. Isn't that odd? You can arrange for mutiple "real-time" wire transfers on line, but you can't walk 50 feet without bumping into a dozen people.