Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Crowded buses, as in crowded by buses

image of a row of buses queueing up to collect passengers between Mongkok and Prince Edward MTR stations, just off of Tung Choi Road
Dear Gentle Reader, 

Permit me to follow-up on Monday's post.

This is a picture of a bus queue in Hong Kong, that is, a queue of buses. 

Everything with a red top is a red-topped mini bus. Each one seats about 25-30 people, plus standing room. 

As you can see, there are a lot of mini buses.  

Hong Kong is profit-oriented city and the bus companies are private.  If this many buses were not profitable, they would not be there.

Also, you can see a taxi turning down a street and cutting off two lines of buses.  

What you cannot see is that that taxi stopped, after your Hero, Pommes the Wonder Cat, took the picture, so that the passengers in the taxi could alight. 

That taxi blocked the path of two columns of buses. Not that the buses had anywhere to go, but it illustrates the point that the cars do the same thing as the people on the moving walkways do. 

Everyone cuts everyone else off. It might be a game, but I don't know who keeps score or where to look up my opponents' statistics.

Hopefully this further illustrates the crowded nature of Hong Kong that I was talking about on Monday (50, 837 people per square kilometer or 131, 792 people per square mile)...

Tschuess,
Chris, Regina and Pommes with a steady paw for night photography

9 comments:

Cloudia said...

Thanks for the vicarious visit, Pommes! Aloha-

Junosmom said...

That photo is exactly what I would imagine HK to look like at night!

Grace said...

Wow! very nice picture and post. I hope God will enable me to visit Hongkong before I die. :)

Sepiru Chris said...

Thanks Cloudia and Grace,

For Junosmom, if you liked that night picture, then I might suggest that you take a look at the very first post I ever made for its introductory picture which is of Hong Kong from The Peak. (This is the only post in Jun 2008)

Then go to August 2008. Only two posts in that month, but visit the "Fine Plan/Fire Plan" post for the iconic night shot of Hong Kong from the apartment building.

Those are Hong Kong by night...

...Minus the people, and they are not visible in this posting's bus shot either...

Cheers,
Chris

jjdebenedictis said...

Hi Sepiruoth,

(um... That's a geek-reference; google "Sephiroth" if you don't know what I'm talking about)

Since you're exploring writing via blogging, I thought you'd find the following link interesting. I don't know the writer, but I thought she said some sensible things here:

Urban Muse Writer: Why writers should blog

Sepiru Chris said...

Heya OxyJen,

Cool reference. Thanks for sending it over. Interestingly enough, re: Sephiroth, I did know it. But not the way you know it, and I was pretty positive that that would be the case.

As is the benefit of a wide-ranging, eclectic, and esoteric classical education, I learned of the Kabbalah long before M. Ciccione from Michigan made it popular. So I knew of Sephiroth.

But I had no clue about the Sephiroth of Final Fantasy. Your pop culture otaku knowledge beats mine everyday. Where though, OxyJen, do you learn about Final Fantasy? Because I am thinking that Final Fantasy is not a subject that the Professor would be geeking on.

That strikes me as an OxyJen otaku.

But, I would be game to add Final Fantasy flics to the Tarzan flics that are ongoing each time I come back to Canada...

They can't be scarier than that snake, right?

mit Bussis,
Chris

jjdebenedictis said...

Whereas I had absolutely no idea Sephiroth existed outside video games. Heh. Mayhap I'm the wrong sort of geek, eh? I only knew of him because, er, other people consider him to be a bishounen.

So...who's the real Sephiroth? (And is he bishy?) You'll have to educate me, since Mme. Ciccone and her gristle-arms rather frighten me, these days.

I've actually never played the Final Fantasy games, and probably never will because I find most games where the baddies leap out and try to kill you to be highly terrifying.

And if those games scare me, they might be a bit much for you also. :-)

jjdebenedictis said...

Oops, I forgot the bussis.

*bussis*

OxyJen

Sepiru Chris said...

Heya Liebe OxyJen,

It seems weird to communicate with you like this, instead of via a telephone. Anyways, isn't Final Fantasy a movie? We could watch those in between original B&W Tarzan movies...

So what, as opposed to who (which should answer the bishy query), is Sephiroth (aka Sephirot aka Sefiroth)?

The Sephiroth are the ten attributional manifestations, physical and metaphysical, of God, from a Hebraic perspective.

Kabbalah is a very old mystical branch of Judaism which is respected and accepted.

Before I lose you, Sufism is one mystical side of Islam and Christians have had mystical Christianity since it began.

I think the point of the various mystical forms of organized religion are best summed up by Athanasius of Alexandria who said "God became Man so that Man could become God". Well, OK, he did not say that in English...

There are many traditions where the godhead is seen as aiding others to achieve a measure, hopefully a full one, of divinity.

Hence, in Buddhism you have Gautama Buddha breaching the maya of existence and becoming one with the reality of nothing and everything... and subsequent followers attempting to do the same.

I would argue that the Arhat tradition in Buddhism is similar and mystical (Arhats achieve Nirvana, but then stay to assist other mortals achieve Nirvana too.)

Cheers mit Bussis,
Chris