Team Movers

At Crossroads, we have so many short term people that come and go, so we have a team called “Team Movers.” These people are drivers who do airport runs for the team.

I love to drive, and decided I wanted to be on the Team Movers. The only catch to driving in Hong Kong is they drive on the left side of the road (British style), meaning the driver’s seat is on the right of the car.

Despite this, I felt pretty confident I would be ok. And then as the day of my first drive approached, which was last Saturday, several people asked, “Have you practiced yet?” So, I took this as a sign and found a brave soul to practice with me.

Christy, an American who has been living in Hong Kong and Australia for the past 8 years (and has gotten used to driving on the left), went with me, and was very sympathetic.

But, it was still weird to drive on the opposite side.

I think the hardest part was the blinker is on the right of the steering wheel instead of the left, and the windshield wipers are on the left instead of the right (basically, they’re swapped from how they are in the U.S.). So, this meant I kept turning on the windshield wipers when I was changing lanes and trying to signal. Also, you push it up to go left, and down to go right, which again is opposite from the States.

The other hard thing was all my natural reactions were opposite to how I needed to react. This just meant I really had to pay attention to what I was doing (not that I don’t always when I’m driving!). I felt like I was 15 in Driver’s Ed again.

When turning left, I had to remember to stay to the left. When coming to the window to pay the parking fee at the airport, I almost gave the money to Christy, thinking she had to pay because she was on the driver’s side. And there were moments where I would be going to the left, then think, “Wait, is this the correct way?” because I was getting my natural way of driving muddled with the new way of driving and forgetting which was the correct way here (but not so muddled that I ever did it wrong and endangered us, so don’t worry!). They also use roundabouts here, which made me a bit nervous, but it wasn’t too busy out at the time I went, fortunately.

So, I’ve had a new life experience, and I’m excited to do it again and get more comfortable with driving on the left, though I fear how this will affect my driving back in the States. Oh well!