Ever since we got back to Hong Kong, the weather here has been relatively nice. It's getting into the muggy/humid season, but it's still been manageable. Up until Tuesday night, anyway.
Typhoon Fengshen wreaked havoc on us all Tuesday night and into Wednesday. We were perfectly safe, though, and didn't really feel the effects of it until Wednesday morning. We woke up to a Typhoon 8 signal, which basically meant that everyone should stay indoors and most modes of transportation (busses, taxis etc) would stop. Maya's school was canceled, but Sam needed to get to the hospital. Poor guy stood in the rain for over an hour until he could get on a bus! (All taxis were already full). He arrived at the hospital only to stay for one hour and then be sent back home. Then he got called back in a couple of hours later! (Luckily by then the rain had slowed, somewhat.)
But that was nothing compared to today. Today really was Nuts, Crazy and altogether just too wet!
We are house sitting for our friends out in Stanley, and it takes a little less than an hour by bus to get back home. Since we pay for a school bus to pick up Maya every day, we try to get home in time for her to catch it while we are house-sitting. Well, we got to our bus stop just as our bus was pulling away (hate it when that happens!) and then waited, and waited, AND waited (in the pouring rain) for another bus to come by. I started to panic and knew that we wouldn't get home in time to get Maya's school bus unless I took a taxi. So we waited and waited for a cab, and finally got one. Yeah, it was a great idea until we actually got on the road heading out of Stanley. Traffic was backed up and it was basically stop and go. I started to panic again, because I realized as we inched along that the price was going to go up up up, and I wasn't sure if I had enough cash. I started praying right there that I'd be able to afford the ride!
Meanwhile, I was texting with Sam. It would usually take him about 15 minutes by bus to get to his assigned hospital from Stanley, but he had also been standing in the rain for about 30 minutes waiting for a bus. He finally got on one, only to be stopped down the road by police because of water flooding the roadway. (He was traveling in the opposite direction from us.) Cars in front of him started turning around, and then they received reports that there had been a mudslide further down the road. Police were directing them to turn around at a small shopping center that was nearby, only for the road to be closed in the opposite direction because of flooding, too. Finally, Sam just got out and walked in the pouring rain for 20 minutes to get to another bus stop that would take him the way that Maya and I had gone.
Back to us... We were inching along, and finally when we got to Repulse Bay (normally a 5 minute drive, stretched to about 25 minutes), we found out the reason for the slow down. The road was flooded and cars were inching their way through it. As soon as we passed the flooded part, though, traffic picked up speed considerably and it was basically as if nothing had happened. By this time, I knew there was no way that we'd make it in time for the bus, so I decided to take Maya straight to school. Her school is not as far away as our house, so I was just crossing my fingers that I'd have enough money to make it to her school. We got there at 9:18am (school started at 9am, left the house at 8:05am), and I had just enough money to pay the driver!
Meanwhile, Sam got on another bus to take him into town where he could catch the MTR (subway) to get to his hospital, but got stuck in the same traffic that I had just been in. Then he got through that and got stuck in traffic in another part of town. Finally he made it to the hospital at 11am, 2.5 hours after he left the house!
We're in for more thunderstorms in the next few days, but we're hoping that it will start to ease up soon! It looks like it has stopped raining for the time being, but who knows how long that will last.
