Power

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, and I have 2 other unfinished posts that I just couldn't quite find the motivation to complete, so here goes.  First, the easy part.  Power stateside is 110 volts and power here is generally around 220 volts.  The outlets look mostly like the photo below.  Both outlets are actually the same, but I have plugged in a travel adapter to the outlet on the right.

The travel adapter - I think it was a couple dollars - allows me to plug in anything that can take 220V.  You might or might not be surprised to learn that many of the things you use every day can take either 110 or 220 which is nice since we only have one pure 110 outlet in the house.  The outlets here are described as UK/Hong Kong style 3 prong.  I can only assume this is because - and I'm taking a real leap here - these outlets are common in both the UK and Hong Kong.  For most small appliances - lamps, phones, etc - we just plug things directly in to the wall outlet.

For larger, more sensitive (read expensive) items, we use a voltage regulator.  Seen at left, it plugs in to the wall and then has 2 output outlets on the back (in most cases one 220 and one 110).  The item on the right is commonly referred to as a "step down" and changes the power from 220 to 110 but without providing any voltage regulation.  We have common power fluctuations and the voltage regulators help counter these.

Power outages are fairly common here, and we have a large generator out back to assist with this.  On a bad day during the heat of summer, we could have as many as 8 or more outages lasting over an hour each.  Luckily, the generator will kick on after about a minute, so we're rarely truly incapacitated.  Most appliances even turn themselves back on, so really we have very little disruption.  One notable exception is the oven.  We have a gas stove, and the burners on top will continue to burn whether the power is on or not (they just need power to spark), but if the power goes out while I'm baking, the gas supply to the oven shuts off.  Now that cooler weather has arrived with the rainy season, we can actually go several days without experiencing an outage - which is a nice change.  On the advice of other world-weary travelers, we brought with us several battery powered clocks to hang on the walls so at least I don't have to reset all the clocks every time the power goes out!