two reasons why it's time to leave Hong Kong

(other than having a plane ticket in hand and large amounts of stuff in boxes)

1. According to weather.com, Hong Kong is currently 97 degrees...and feels like 116. No, that's not a typo. Walking outside feels like being inside a really polluted radiator, except that radiators aren't this humid. Blegh.

2. Last weekend, a woman went hiking with her dogs in Sai Kung (one of my favorite areas of Hong Kong--a really lush peninsula with lots of great hiking overlooking the bay, which is dotted with tiny, green islands) and stopped to look at a lizard on the trail. When she looked up, her 22-kg Husky was being squeezed to death by a 4-meter Burmese python.

New York, here I come.