I got lost in the Harbour City Mall yesterday. Actually I got lost twice. The first time was on the way to the mall when I got confused about which train stop to exit. I first left the train at Yau Ma Tei when I should have gone on to Tsim Sha Tsui. Those who have been to Hong Kong will know that confusing the two is a fairly glaring mistake--one you notice immediately once you've made it. Yau Ma Tei is at the top of Nathan Road and is where all the small stores and markets are. Indeed, there is a Jade market just off one of the subway exits. It is also the area where regular Hong Kong people shop--the operative word here is regular as in those who do not tend to spend a month's or even a year's wages on a pair of shoes. There are enormous differences between those at the top of the pay scale and those at the bottom here in Hong Kong and while the average wage is about HK$224,000 ($28810 (US) or £18,500) there are those in employmnet who only make $HK5000.
At the other end of Nathan Road and at the tip of Kowloon is Tsim Sha Tsui. This is where the designer shops are located as well as The Penn, the White Star Ferry to Central, and where the cruise ships dock. The Penn, or the Peninsula Hotel, was built in the 1920's and still exudes that old style British elegance that one might expect from a hotel that was the final stop of the Orient Express. It is in the same league as the Taj, the Ritz, or the Savoy. Ordinary mortals can have high tea in the lobby at the Penn, but be warned that they do not take reservations and while tea is served from 2-7 seating is first come first served--meaning that the que at 4pm is quite long. Along the waterfront, on what is infill (the Penn used to be on the waterfront but is no longer) and to the right of the Penn a couple of blocks is the new Harbour City Mall. This is where I got lost the second time.
According to the information produced by Harbour City, this mall is "the largest shopping mall in Hong Kong with an area of 2 million square feet." The mall itself has over 700 shops, plus there are several office towers reaching at least 50 stories and a hotel. The mall is actually 5 buildings comprising of the Gateway Arcade, Ocean Centre, Ocean Terminal, Marco Polo Hotel Arcade, and Star City. You will not find the equivalent of a Pound shop or Dollar General Store in this mall. Instead there is Gucci, Prada, Armani, Louis Vitton, Chanel, Ferrigamo (that is for you mom), Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo...I will stop here as the list of designer names goes on and on--remember there are 700 shops. Firstly these stores are also not small. The Vitton store covers three levels. Secondly, these are also not just the high street versions of these designer brands. While you can, for example get the Anglomania brand of clothes by Vivienne Westwood, you can also buy Red. Perhaps more illustrative of the designer availability is that while I was having a coffee I looked through a Vogue. In Vogue there are always lots of adverts for about a million different designer labels with young, attractive and extremely skinny models in impossible positions wearing the most fantastic clothes--clothes you see on the catwalks but that never seem to make it into the shops that purport to sell these designer items, at least that is my experience. I now understand where they all are; they are all here in Hong Kong at this mall. If you see something in Vogue, have enough money, and want to buy it, you now can. All you need do is go to the Harbour City shop of that design house. Even in New York and London I have not seen this sort of display (no I did not buy anything). So while Yau Ma Tei and Tsim Sha Tsui are only three subway stops from each other, they are worlds apart.
While some of you won't question my presence in this mall at all, others may be wondering why I was in such a place in the first instance. I was there because for our 15th anniversary Adrian purchased a spa afternoon for me. I got lost trying to find the Oasis spa, which turned out to be on the 10th floor of one of the office towers at the Gateway Arcade part of the mall. Because the spa was not in the main shopping mall it was not listed on the map. Because the office towers are not officially part of the consumption experience either, they are similarly not shown on the map, so I got lost trying to find tower 2. I found the elevator eventually next to the HSBC and just up from the Emporio Armani.
The spa itself was lovely. Not like European Spas that, to my mind resemble a doctors office more that a place to relax. This spa was all sliding doors, waterfalls, soft music, dim light, neutral colours, subtle tropical smells. Adrian had purchased for me a triple treat that included a whole list of things from which I could choose. I opted for the rose body wrap, the Hot Strap slimming treatment, and the Parafin Hand treatment. The Rose body wrap was first and it was wonderful. I was led into a room and laid down on a bed. The lights were low and I was covered up in towels. Soft Zen music played in the background. The lovely women who administered the body wrap spoke not a word of English. She was wonderful. Getting the body wrap involved having first some type of scrub rubbed all over my body--this is all done very discretely and is not embarrassing as I was covered the whole time by towels that are strategically folded back to reveal the portion that is being worked on at a particular moment. A sort of oil follows the scrub and then a kind of mud stuff follows that. It is both warm and cool at the same time. Then once covered in all these layers of stuff and strewn with rose petals, I was wrapped first in a kind of plastic wrap, then towels, then a sort of heavy blanket to steep for about 20 minutes. This sounds not particularly nice, but it was great and very relaxing. The lights are turned down low and it is calm. I think I must have fallen asleep because I woke with a start and scared both myself and the technician when I lurched awake. Once I was done stewing I was unwrapped, covered in towels and a robe and led to the shower which had both a normal shower head and a rain head. It was really wonderful. I shall leave the description of the slimming body strap to your imagination, but I will say it was also not embarrassing and quite nice, though I am not convinced I am any slimmer as a result. The whole event took about 2-2.5 hours. I felt pampered and it was something I would certainly do again. This particular spa offers other treats as well such as the Red Wine Rosey Fantasy and the Chocolate Cream and Ginseng Powder Body Wrap, as well as Stone Massages and Facials. The best thing is that they have offers so one does not have to take out a bank loan to participate, and even at normal price, the cost is comparative to what one might spend on a nice spa treatment in Seattle or in England. One need only put aside the guilt of participating in class privilege.
Monday 23 August 2010
Monday 16 August 2010
It is the little suprises
It is the little things that make living in Hong Kong so great. Here are just a few:
1. Bread. The bread products are absolutely wonderful here. Not really what I expected. Today's selection is a wonderful crusty loaf that is pretty much dripping with butter, a walnut, hazelnut bun, a fruit loaf that is similar to the crusty loaf but with fruit bits in it, and something referred to as a Mexican bun (though we saw nothing like this in Mexico--it has some sort of custard in the centre).
2. Juice. I have taken to buying the Wheat Grass drink. I prefer this to the stuff with Aloe in it as well as when one drinks the Aloe version you end up with bits of Aloe pulp, which is a bit off putting. The plain wheat grass drink, however is really yummy in its vivid greenness.
3. Octopus cards. I have mentioned these before, but they are worth including in the list. You can go anywhere with them and quite often use them to buy things as well. Starbucks, for instance, has a card reader to you can pay for your drinks with the card. Simon has one with his picture on it and will use it to sign in to school.
4. Transportation system. The trains go most places, the buses make up for what the trains won't do, and there are Taxi's everywhere and they are very cheap. it is HK$18* for the first couple of Kilometres and then HK$2 for every Kilometre after that. Then there is an army of delivery people. When I purchased the plants for the flat at the market, the woman who sold them to me made a call to a man with a van who showed up in about 10 minutes, loaded up my plants and transported both them and me to the flat--all for $HK82. We can then add in all the public escalators, elevators, trolleys, cable cars, and ferries. And what is more, they are really frequent. I have yet to wait more than 5 minutes for anything.
5. Variety. It seems that whatever you want you can get here, and if it is not readily available it can be made for you.
6. Friendliness. We have found most people to be both friendly and helpful. It is really wonderful. People explain things to you to make sure you understand but in a way that is not patronising. I really appreciate this. M-Goy and Jo Sun are key phrases (M-Goy is thank you/please and Jo Sun is good morning--I've not learned good afternoon yet). At times this helpfulness can be a bit overwhelming--for instance in shops where shop assistants follow you around suggesting things that would be more suitable for you than what you have selected or if you have not selected anything. But overall, and in most other situations the friendliness is really nice. Some of the younger people want to try out their English with you, which can lead to some strange conversations at times. We find that the people at the front gate to where we live are particularly friendly and each of us has our favourite. Mine is the woman who opens the car barrier for me so I don't have to walk around. I was quite sad to learn from one of our friends here that a number of the residents just ignore the gate people. Don't really understand that behaviour.
7. Weather. I think the weather is wonderful here and we are supposed to be in the season that has the worst weather. It is hot, but what we find is that there is one day a week or so when it rains all day. Most days start warm and sunny and then mid morning a storm will go through and then the sun will return in the afternoon. I might sing a much different tune when I live through my first real storm, but so far nothing to drastic yet. Simon is getting quite tan from all his swimming. I love being able to wear all my summer clothes that I have not had opportunity to wear since I think I lived in New Orleans--I only wish I looked as good in them now as I did when I lived in New Orleans...
8. Opening hours. We still do not have a TV--though Simon has one for his XBox (complete with XBox live). Instead we can choose to go out in the evening and do things because everything is open quite late. In fact, while the Starbucks opens at 7 in the morning, most things do not open until 10 or 11 but they stay open until 10:30 or so at night. This means that we can meet somewhere for dinner and then do errands after--including visiting the dentist or doctor, getting one's hair done, going to the bank, etc. etc. And this is 7 days a week more or less. There is none of that mad dash to get everything done during what would be called "working hours" in the UK. Mind you these are "working hours" for some other poor person who has to stay up late serving in a shop or looking at people's teeth.
9. Scenery. It is beautiful here. Every day when I go to bed and when I get up and look out the window I am reminded of how lovely it is. We are, of course, lucky that we live where we do and can see nature as well as city. I think that might be different in some of the High rises in Hong Kong and on Kowloon. Particularly on Hong Kong Island where there are so many very tall buildings that one could find oneself looking at the wall of the next building over and never seeing the sun. But, no matter where one lives, there are opportunities for finding nice views very easily. There are so many parks and beaches that one can visit.
10. English. While a lot of people do not speak English, many do and all the signs, labels, etc are in English so it is fairly easy to work out what it is that you are getting and how to work it. There are also English films at the cinema and several English bookstores. There is one bookstore called PageOne in the Festival Walk mall that has probably the largest selection of cook books I have seen in one place as well as a huge selection of architecture and design books, as well as the usual popular books. The bookstore in our mall appears to have academic press and education books, so I will have to check that out soon.
This is just a short list, there is much more that I could add...
* Broadly the exchange rate is 1£=HK$12 or US$1= HK$7.
1. Bread. The bread products are absolutely wonderful here. Not really what I expected. Today's selection is a wonderful crusty loaf that is pretty much dripping with butter, a walnut, hazelnut bun, a fruit loaf that is similar to the crusty loaf but with fruit bits in it, and something referred to as a Mexican bun (though we saw nothing like this in Mexico--it has some sort of custard in the centre).
2. Juice. I have taken to buying the Wheat Grass drink. I prefer this to the stuff with Aloe in it as well as when one drinks the Aloe version you end up with bits of Aloe pulp, which is a bit off putting. The plain wheat grass drink, however is really yummy in its vivid greenness.
3. Octopus cards. I have mentioned these before, but they are worth including in the list. You can go anywhere with them and quite often use them to buy things as well. Starbucks, for instance, has a card reader to you can pay for your drinks with the card. Simon has one with his picture on it and will use it to sign in to school.
4. Transportation system. The trains go most places, the buses make up for what the trains won't do, and there are Taxi's everywhere and they are very cheap. it is HK$18* for the first couple of Kilometres and then HK$2 for every Kilometre after that. Then there is an army of delivery people. When I purchased the plants for the flat at the market, the woman who sold them to me made a call to a man with a van who showed up in about 10 minutes, loaded up my plants and transported both them and me to the flat--all for $HK82. We can then add in all the public escalators, elevators, trolleys, cable cars, and ferries. And what is more, they are really frequent. I have yet to wait more than 5 minutes for anything.
5. Variety. It seems that whatever you want you can get here, and if it is not readily available it can be made for you.
6. Friendliness. We have found most people to be both friendly and helpful. It is really wonderful. People explain things to you to make sure you understand but in a way that is not patronising. I really appreciate this. M-Goy and Jo Sun are key phrases (M-Goy is thank you/please and Jo Sun is good morning--I've not learned good afternoon yet). At times this helpfulness can be a bit overwhelming--for instance in shops where shop assistants follow you around suggesting things that would be more suitable for you than what you have selected or if you have not selected anything. But overall, and in most other situations the friendliness is really nice. Some of the younger people want to try out their English with you, which can lead to some strange conversations at times. We find that the people at the front gate to where we live are particularly friendly and each of us has our favourite. Mine is the woman who opens the car barrier for me so I don't have to walk around. I was quite sad to learn from one of our friends here that a number of the residents just ignore the gate people. Don't really understand that behaviour.
7. Weather. I think the weather is wonderful here and we are supposed to be in the season that has the worst weather. It is hot, but what we find is that there is one day a week or so when it rains all day. Most days start warm and sunny and then mid morning a storm will go through and then the sun will return in the afternoon. I might sing a much different tune when I live through my first real storm, but so far nothing to drastic yet. Simon is getting quite tan from all his swimming. I love being able to wear all my summer clothes that I have not had opportunity to wear since I think I lived in New Orleans--I only wish I looked as good in them now as I did when I lived in New Orleans...
8. Opening hours. We still do not have a TV--though Simon has one for his XBox (complete with XBox live). Instead we can choose to go out in the evening and do things because everything is open quite late. In fact, while the Starbucks opens at 7 in the morning, most things do not open until 10 or 11 but they stay open until 10:30 or so at night. This means that we can meet somewhere for dinner and then do errands after--including visiting the dentist or doctor, getting one's hair done, going to the bank, etc. etc. And this is 7 days a week more or less. There is none of that mad dash to get everything done during what would be called "working hours" in the UK. Mind you these are "working hours" for some other poor person who has to stay up late serving in a shop or looking at people's teeth.
9. Scenery. It is beautiful here. Every day when I go to bed and when I get up and look out the window I am reminded of how lovely it is. We are, of course, lucky that we live where we do and can see nature as well as city. I think that might be different in some of the High rises in Hong Kong and on Kowloon. Particularly on Hong Kong Island where there are so many very tall buildings that one could find oneself looking at the wall of the next building over and never seeing the sun. But, no matter where one lives, there are opportunities for finding nice views very easily. There are so many parks and beaches that one can visit.
10. English. While a lot of people do not speak English, many do and all the signs, labels, etc are in English so it is fairly easy to work out what it is that you are getting and how to work it. There are also English films at the cinema and several English bookstores. There is one bookstore called PageOne in the Festival Walk mall that has probably the largest selection of cook books I have seen in one place as well as a huge selection of architecture and design books, as well as the usual popular books. The bookstore in our mall appears to have academic press and education books, so I will have to check that out soon.
This is just a short list, there is much more that I could add...
* Broadly the exchange rate is 1£=HK$12 or US$1= HK$7.
Saturday 14 August 2010
32C and 78% humidity
I think I could get used to this life quite easily. This past week has been busy getting the children settled into school (not quite achieved yet but we are hopeful for Monday), securing additional furniture for the flat, buying plants at the flower market, visiting stanly and generally beginning to settle into a more ordinary existence.
Adrian took two days off at the beginning of the week as holiday, which was nice though we were a bit jet lagged and overwhelmed. Simon Adrian and I went up to the Peak on Monday as it was a beautiful day. We got there by taking a train to Admiralty, which has some extremely nice shops and then walking through Hong Kong Park. The park is a real urban retreat. There is a glass house, which is kept cooler than the ordinary outside temperature housing exotic plants and birds. There are over 200 different birds in this house, and they are really lovely and exotic. You walk through and then at the other just a bit further on the path there was a restaurant with Thai and Italian food (sounds a bit weird, but the food was good and the setting was lovely). I had a nice salad with seafood for lunch, Adrian had some other salad and Simon had BBQ ribs, which he enjoyed. We then rode the tram up to the peak to look out at the stunning views. On one side you can see Hong Kong Central and Kowloon with Lion Rock in the background. On the other you can look down on Stanley, Repulse Bay, and Deep water bay. Really nice. There is, of course the usual assortment of shops etc as well. Simon purchased a watch that he is very proud of. We learned that one can bypass the line of people waiting to get a ticket if you use your octopus card. Another reason anyone visiting Hong Kong should buy one of these very handy things. We then walked back down from the Peak on the path, which took us about 45 minutes. We were quite sweaty by the end.
The next day was not quite as good as both Simon and I lost our wallets. Fortunately mine was found as it was lost just outside the gate of where we live. I must have dropped it when I got off the minibus. Simon was not so lucky as he left his somewhere in the mall and someone picked it up. It could have been worse as he did not have all his relevant cards etc yet so very little was lost. Just a bit of money, but not a nice thing to happen none the less.
On Wednesday we went to the school to discover why they did not yet have Grace on their system. This is a situation that did not set well with her. Apparently they sent info to us in early July, but to our old address in the UK. We were able to get all of Simon's items. They both will be taking an English exam on Monday to determine if they are able to keep up with the other children's English skills. I don't anticipate a problem. Then on Wednesday Grace will have an orientation with the other children who are starting in her year group--there are 10 mostly from the US but one from the UK. I think she is hoping that she will make some friends. Unusually it rained most of the day, but cleared at the end. Grace, Simon and I finished the day by meeting Adrian in Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong for a dinner out. It was a nice end to the day.
Friday represented what I hope will become a more normal routine. I went with Adrian to the coffee shop in the early morning and did some work. At about 10:30 I went to the shops and got some food for us for dinner, then got the bus back home. My groceries included some wheatgrass drink that was really good and some soup mix that is supposed to improve your liver and eyesight. When I got home I made up the soup and started some laundry then went for a swim while the laundry was washing. After my swim I met one of our friends here at the flats and had a cup of tea and arranged with her to go out this morning to the plant market. A bit more work in there somewhere, but the lunchtime swim was wonderful.
Also wonderful was the plant market today. We now have a full complement of greenery for the house and the deck. I shall elaborate on this later as it is now probably time to sign off...
Adrian took two days off at the beginning of the week as holiday, which was nice though we were a bit jet lagged and overwhelmed. Simon Adrian and I went up to the Peak on Monday as it was a beautiful day. We got there by taking a train to Admiralty, which has some extremely nice shops and then walking through Hong Kong Park. The park is a real urban retreat. There is a glass house, which is kept cooler than the ordinary outside temperature housing exotic plants and birds. There are over 200 different birds in this house, and they are really lovely and exotic. You walk through and then at the other just a bit further on the path there was a restaurant with Thai and Italian food (sounds a bit weird, but the food was good and the setting was lovely). I had a nice salad with seafood for lunch, Adrian had some other salad and Simon had BBQ ribs, which he enjoyed. We then rode the tram up to the peak to look out at the stunning views. On one side you can see Hong Kong Central and Kowloon with Lion Rock in the background. On the other you can look down on Stanley, Repulse Bay, and Deep water bay. Really nice. There is, of course the usual assortment of shops etc as well. Simon purchased a watch that he is very proud of. We learned that one can bypass the line of people waiting to get a ticket if you use your octopus card. Another reason anyone visiting Hong Kong should buy one of these very handy things. We then walked back down from the Peak on the path, which took us about 45 minutes. We were quite sweaty by the end.
The next day was not quite as good as both Simon and I lost our wallets. Fortunately mine was found as it was lost just outside the gate of where we live. I must have dropped it when I got off the minibus. Simon was not so lucky as he left his somewhere in the mall and someone picked it up. It could have been worse as he did not have all his relevant cards etc yet so very little was lost. Just a bit of money, but not a nice thing to happen none the less.
On Wednesday we went to the school to discover why they did not yet have Grace on their system. This is a situation that did not set well with her. Apparently they sent info to us in early July, but to our old address in the UK. We were able to get all of Simon's items. They both will be taking an English exam on Monday to determine if they are able to keep up with the other children's English skills. I don't anticipate a problem. Then on Wednesday Grace will have an orientation with the other children who are starting in her year group--there are 10 mostly from the US but one from the UK. I think she is hoping that she will make some friends. Unusually it rained most of the day, but cleared at the end. Grace, Simon and I finished the day by meeting Adrian in Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong for a dinner out. It was a nice end to the day.
Friday represented what I hope will become a more normal routine. I went with Adrian to the coffee shop in the early morning and did some work. At about 10:30 I went to the shops and got some food for us for dinner, then got the bus back home. My groceries included some wheatgrass drink that was really good and some soup mix that is supposed to improve your liver and eyesight. When I got home I made up the soup and started some laundry then went for a swim while the laundry was washing. After my swim I met one of our friends here at the flats and had a cup of tea and arranged with her to go out this morning to the plant market. A bit more work in there somewhere, but the lunchtime swim was wonderful.
Also wonderful was the plant market today. We now have a full complement of greenery for the house and the deck. I shall elaborate on this later as it is now probably time to sign off...
Sunday 8 August 2010
Lift off and landing
This has been an eventful week. Perhaps this is an understatement.
This week we sold our house (finally--long and very stressful story), got on a plane, and arrived in Hong Kong as residents. I am now sitting in the lounge of our flat at about two in the morning local time--Jet lag takes its toll. The flat is great. It has a wonderful view. There is a balcony and a large glass window across all of one end. Looking out one direction we see mountains and out the other 50+ story housing buildings. Our building is located near the top of a tall and steep hill and the housing we see is located below us about half way up the hill, but the tops of these buildings extend higher into the sky than our building. Looking out between these closest buildings we can see the bay. As it happens, the area we see is called Fo Tan and it is built on reclaimed land as the valley was once part of the bay. In fact, I learned recently that this bay is on a fault line. I will try not to think about that too much.
We've been here two days. In that time, we have visited the IKEA to buy hangers (it is in the mall that is at the bottom of the hill, so very convenient), seen (by accident) a light show of the buildings on Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side, ridden the ferry across the harbour and the mid-level escalator up into SOHO, visited the markets in Kowloon, watched a thunder and lightning storm from our flat, witnessed the domestic helpers on their day off and had glorious, sunny weather (yes, with blue sky). It is warm, but it is also easy to escape this as air-conditioning is readily available, all one need do is enter a shop or jump on a bus. There are wonderful smells here and great fruit, fruit juice, tea, and fish to be had though I do not feel hungry. Today I had a green tea frapachino at Starbucks (yummy) in a shop on the mid-levels and a lemon grass and green tea drink at the RBT in Mon Kok. We had intended to buy curtains for the children's rooms, but we ended up with a TV for Simon instead. I had promised him the TV for doing well on his exams (Grace got a trip to Rome). The man will deliver it on Wednesday and another will come and set it all up.
The TV is Simon's and will live in his room for his xbox. He has xbox live, so should be able to meet up with his friends once we figure out how to make the broadband wireless. The TV is all Internet based here, so I am not sure how that will work. To be honest, I have not missed watching it. There is so much to do here in the evenings. Shopping centers are open until 10:30 at night and there is a pool here in the compound. The pool is open from about 7 in the morning until 9:30 at night, with closure during meal times, and also has a life guard. Simon has taken full advantage of this facility. He is using it as a way to meet people in the compound and to "get fit". He has decided that he will be swimming to exercise. He has actually jumped into the life here with both feet. There is a confidence about him that I did not expect or even that one would not normally expect from an 11 year old. He is happy to go to the pool by himself. I can see him making his way down the hill via the minibus to the mall in no time. In six months I expect him to own this city.
Grace has been somewhat more reluctant. She spent the first day locked in her room refusing to talk to anyone--she is a bit angry about having to move and wants to make sure everyone knows. We did manage to wedge her out of the house yesterday. By the end of the day there was enthusiasm. I am sure she has come to realise that the opportunities here are endless and that it is not difficult to get around. While it is certainly very Chinese and nothing like Ilkley, it is also not too hard to navigate. People are friendly and speak English so she was able to manage much more than I think she thought she would be able to do. She, of course won't admit finding Hong Kong to her liking though. She continues to behave as a 14 year old in the extremes of selfishness that only 14 year olds can manage.
As a family, we have pretty much decided we prefer the buses to the trains. The trains get you to where you want to go much more quickly, but they are crowded and you have to stand. The buses afford a view and so far we have been able to sit. We all have Octopus cards that allow us to ride the transport without having to dish out change each time. Much easier. I would recommend this as a first purchase for anyone visiting Hong Kong. One can even ride the ferries with this little card. Our little bus is the 69K, but there are others that will be key--the 7 goes along the bottom of Kowloon down to the Star Ferry.
In an early post I indicated that I was quite worried about how I was going to manage the shopping. I am now less worried about this. In the housing half way down the hill there is a small market with fresh veg and a small Park and Shop (kind of like Tesco or Safeway). The Park and Shop is pretty basic, but very cheap. In the big mall there is a very fancy--kind of like whole foods--store that sells groceries and also ready made food. Simon and I had Sushi from there for dinner tonight. Everything is available from this store from Belgian beer to designer chocolate to tortilla chips to American peanut butter. It is more expensive, though some things are very good value. The sushi I had tonight was wonderful and fresh with about 9 pieces for about £4. There is also a Taste in the big mall near where Adrian works. This store is somewhere between the Park and Shop and the fancy store. It sells Waitrose branded food and has a stunningly deep fish section and fruit and vegetable section. I think I could quite easily live off the fish and fruit with a bit of rice thrown in to bulk it out (Adrian bought a rice cooker and we are making rice in volumes--everyone should have a rice cooker as they are great).
While people do speak English, I realise I will need to expand my language skills fairly quickly. I have learned to say the name of the bus stop where we live: Souk Say (it means quarters). One can throw in a "m-goy" at the end sort of as a please. This is important to know as you have to shout it out to get the minibus that brings us up the hill to stop where we live. No bells to press, so shouting is necessary. It isn't actually the end of the world to go beyond the top as it is only about a 10 minute walk down from the end of the line. Felix, one of my work colleagues in Sheffield said numbers would be useful and he is right. The way the numbers work is not difficult as it is all base ten. To say twenty, for example one would say two tens; twenty two is two tens two. A bit like listing out the units on an abacus. But one still has to learn the basic numbers to begin with, which I have yet to do. Also, you bargain for about everything apparently. Even in some of the big shops--though not in places like IKEA. This will be a bit hard I think.
There are stores for everything here. Adrian got some coffee for us at a shop that sells only Egyptian coffee beans. We went into a place today that sells only orchid plants. There is a chain of English language book stores here that we went into today and I was able to buy a Big Red Book, which is sort of a directory of places to purchase things that is indexed. As a listing it feels a bit to focused on Ex-Pat folk, but it does provide a listing of where one can find Louis Vitton handbags at 50% off and purchase hand made shoes and tailored dresses-- The tailors will even copy a picture for you or work from your own designs. I can't wait to visit these places!
I have now been up about an hour in the middle of the night. I am off to fix myself a cup of tea and try to go back to sleep. I have brought my camera, so in some future post I shall try to upload some photos. It is really lovely here and exciting. I look forward to some opportunity to just rest a bit--Adrian has taken some days off work so we are being tourists quite a bit. I am also looking forward to a chance to do some exploring on my own. There is so much near by, but getting further afield is not difficult to do (the 80M bus that leaves from Sui Wo Court goes all the way into Kowloon Tong). So far, I am glad we've come.
This week we sold our house (finally--long and very stressful story), got on a plane, and arrived in Hong Kong as residents. I am now sitting in the lounge of our flat at about two in the morning local time--Jet lag takes its toll. The flat is great. It has a wonderful view. There is a balcony and a large glass window across all of one end. Looking out one direction we see mountains and out the other 50+ story housing buildings. Our building is located near the top of a tall and steep hill and the housing we see is located below us about half way up the hill, but the tops of these buildings extend higher into the sky than our building. Looking out between these closest buildings we can see the bay. As it happens, the area we see is called Fo Tan and it is built on reclaimed land as the valley was once part of the bay. In fact, I learned recently that this bay is on a fault line. I will try not to think about that too much.
We've been here two days. In that time, we have visited the IKEA to buy hangers (it is in the mall that is at the bottom of the hill, so very convenient), seen (by accident) a light show of the buildings on Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side, ridden the ferry across the harbour and the mid-level escalator up into SOHO, visited the markets in Kowloon, watched a thunder and lightning storm from our flat, witnessed the domestic helpers on their day off and had glorious, sunny weather (yes, with blue sky). It is warm, but it is also easy to escape this as air-conditioning is readily available, all one need do is enter a shop or jump on a bus. There are wonderful smells here and great fruit, fruit juice, tea, and fish to be had though I do not feel hungry. Today I had a green tea frapachino at Starbucks (yummy) in a shop on the mid-levels and a lemon grass and green tea drink at the RBT in Mon Kok. We had intended to buy curtains for the children's rooms, but we ended up with a TV for Simon instead. I had promised him the TV for doing well on his exams (Grace got a trip to Rome). The man will deliver it on Wednesday and another will come and set it all up.
The TV is Simon's and will live in his room for his xbox. He has xbox live, so should be able to meet up with his friends once we figure out how to make the broadband wireless. The TV is all Internet based here, so I am not sure how that will work. To be honest, I have not missed watching it. There is so much to do here in the evenings. Shopping centers are open until 10:30 at night and there is a pool here in the compound. The pool is open from about 7 in the morning until 9:30 at night, with closure during meal times, and also has a life guard. Simon has taken full advantage of this facility. He is using it as a way to meet people in the compound and to "get fit". He has decided that he will be swimming to exercise. He has actually jumped into the life here with both feet. There is a confidence about him that I did not expect or even that one would not normally expect from an 11 year old. He is happy to go to the pool by himself. I can see him making his way down the hill via the minibus to the mall in no time. In six months I expect him to own this city.
Grace has been somewhat more reluctant. She spent the first day locked in her room refusing to talk to anyone--she is a bit angry about having to move and wants to make sure everyone knows. We did manage to wedge her out of the house yesterday. By the end of the day there was enthusiasm. I am sure she has come to realise that the opportunities here are endless and that it is not difficult to get around. While it is certainly very Chinese and nothing like Ilkley, it is also not too hard to navigate. People are friendly and speak English so she was able to manage much more than I think she thought she would be able to do. She, of course won't admit finding Hong Kong to her liking though. She continues to behave as a 14 year old in the extremes of selfishness that only 14 year olds can manage.
As a family, we have pretty much decided we prefer the buses to the trains. The trains get you to where you want to go much more quickly, but they are crowded and you have to stand. The buses afford a view and so far we have been able to sit. We all have Octopus cards that allow us to ride the transport without having to dish out change each time. Much easier. I would recommend this as a first purchase for anyone visiting Hong Kong. One can even ride the ferries with this little card. Our little bus is the 69K, but there are others that will be key--the 7 goes along the bottom of Kowloon down to the Star Ferry.
In an early post I indicated that I was quite worried about how I was going to manage the shopping. I am now less worried about this. In the housing half way down the hill there is a small market with fresh veg and a small Park and Shop (kind of like Tesco or Safeway). The Park and Shop is pretty basic, but very cheap. In the big mall there is a very fancy--kind of like whole foods--store that sells groceries and also ready made food. Simon and I had Sushi from there for dinner tonight. Everything is available from this store from Belgian beer to designer chocolate to tortilla chips to American peanut butter. It is more expensive, though some things are very good value. The sushi I had tonight was wonderful and fresh with about 9 pieces for about £4. There is also a Taste in the big mall near where Adrian works. This store is somewhere between the Park and Shop and the fancy store. It sells Waitrose branded food and has a stunningly deep fish section and fruit and vegetable section. I think I could quite easily live off the fish and fruit with a bit of rice thrown in to bulk it out (Adrian bought a rice cooker and we are making rice in volumes--everyone should have a rice cooker as they are great).
While people do speak English, I realise I will need to expand my language skills fairly quickly. I have learned to say the name of the bus stop where we live: Souk Say (it means quarters). One can throw in a "m-goy" at the end sort of as a please. This is important to know as you have to shout it out to get the minibus that brings us up the hill to stop where we live. No bells to press, so shouting is necessary. It isn't actually the end of the world to go beyond the top as it is only about a 10 minute walk down from the end of the line. Felix, one of my work colleagues in Sheffield said numbers would be useful and he is right. The way the numbers work is not difficult as it is all base ten. To say twenty, for example one would say two tens; twenty two is two tens two. A bit like listing out the units on an abacus. But one still has to learn the basic numbers to begin with, which I have yet to do. Also, you bargain for about everything apparently. Even in some of the big shops--though not in places like IKEA. This will be a bit hard I think.
There are stores for everything here. Adrian got some coffee for us at a shop that sells only Egyptian coffee beans. We went into a place today that sells only orchid plants. There is a chain of English language book stores here that we went into today and I was able to buy a Big Red Book, which is sort of a directory of places to purchase things that is indexed. As a listing it feels a bit to focused on Ex-Pat folk, but it does provide a listing of where one can find Louis Vitton handbags at 50% off and purchase hand made shoes and tailored dresses-- The tailors will even copy a picture for you or work from your own designs. I can't wait to visit these places!
I have now been up about an hour in the middle of the night. I am off to fix myself a cup of tea and try to go back to sleep. I have brought my camera, so in some future post I shall try to upload some photos. It is really lovely here and exciting. I look forward to some opportunity to just rest a bit--Adrian has taken some days off work so we are being tourists quite a bit. I am also looking forward to a chance to do some exploring on my own. There is so much near by, but getting further afield is not difficult to do (the 80M bus that leaves from Sui Wo Court goes all the way into Kowloon Tong). So far, I am glad we've come.
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