first week anniversary in HK

sitting in my service apptment on a sleepy sunday morning and i am thinking of how easily and quickly i have made the transition from being in mumbai to hong kong within a week. it would be too much and too condescending to both the great cities, one where i have spent my whole life and the other which is going to be my home for the next few years to start writing and comparing them. but yes, this much is true, infrastructure plays a big difference. in a 7 odd million population squeezed in a land mass which is roughly equivalent to mumbai (around 1000 sq miles) and its suburbs and less than half of the population in mumbai, the underground trains, the trams, the buses and the ferries are what keeps this city bustling, ticking and more importantly safe. i have been looking for appartments to rent in the past two days and teh choices and the variety, though the sizes are smaller than back home, are really varied. what i was struck by is ppl dont ask questions to property brokers like: is it a safe neighborhood? what about hidden charges? everything is above board and in your face. what you see is what you get. in one day i have gotten a telephone connection, rail passes, bank accts, a temporary identity card. i guess the only way to sum up is what a former bureau chief once told me on HK: "things work"