Ugh..a 9am start – aren’t we supposed to be on holiday?

[Relates to Tuesday 10th June]

Ah, no Sarah – that must be the jet lag. Get over it. There’s a new life to start living, so get up! Today, at 8:40am, having overslept of course (always happens when you need to be up early), we leapt up to cram in toast and tea before a chap called Clifford arrived to whisk us off on a tour of the city.

Predictably, Clifford was early, and I barely had time to ensure that my Havaianas flip flops co-ordinated with my tunic top before we were running out of the door (well, we can’t have him thinking us English gals are lacking in the snappy dresser department, can we?) Clifford had brought with him a people carrier plus driver and once we were safely inside, he directed the guy to take us through the tunnel over to HK island to start our day of orientation. First stop was the HSBC building so that Colin could set up his local bank account.

The roads, as you can imagine, are as densely populated with cars as the streets are with high-rise blocks, which is further fuel to Colin’s fire that we don’t need a car while we’re here (added to the fact that they are expensive to run, insure and park). Eventually though, our very own Michael Schumacher of suburban driving dropped us off outside. And not content with just pointing us in the right direction, Clifford accompanied us up the escalator. And into the lift. And into the seating area while we waited to be seen by the relationship manager lady. He then also followed us to the door of her office, at which point, he took himself back to the seating area to wait for our return. It was client service the likes of which I’d not experienced until coming here; though it did kind of remind me of a dad taking his child to school for the first time, and then not really knowing what to do with himself when the child is led away to class…

Account set up complete, and an ATM card (curiously with no name on it) safely in Colin’s possession, we were then off on a whistlestop tour of the island. We started off in gridlocked Central and slightly less busy Mid-Levels and then proceeded west (to the mostly chinese Sheung Wan) and east (to some other expat-populated areas of Wan Chai and Happy Valley) with Clifford pointing out various streets and buildings (helpfully showing us the serviced apartment buildings which were closer to Colin’s office than the one we’re currently in); explaining why Soho is so-called (it’s because it’s south of Hollywood Road, pub quiz fans); showing us the best places to buy furniture and where to buy your own bird’s nests (should you want to make any of the dim sum specialities that include that particular twiggy ingredient). [Click on the link below to open up a map so I’m not just spouting foreign words at you.]

Hong Kong Island

Happy Valley was also where we stopped for lunch, Clifford taking us to a lovely authentic (well, if authentic means 1930s Beijing-style) dim sum restaurant. Food was amazing; and the second I took a sip of tea, my cup was refilled, which was very polite of ole Cliff but the more the tea stewed, the less keen I was – but didn’t want to appear rude! Oh, the intricacies of table manners.

In the afternoon, we got our first taste of house-hunting in Hong Kong. Not the greatest of starts, I must say. We saw about four apartments in Happy Valley and from the first one (bedroom wasn’t even big enough for a double bed) to the last (lovely big dressing room but couldn’t use it as a second bedroom because you have to go through the master bedroom) the kitchens and bathrooms were among the worst I think I’ve ever seen. For a region that has such a great cuisine, you can see why they eat out a lot if this is the standard of kitchens; seriously, they were ‘rooms’ that you couldn’t fit two people into, some of which had nothing in but a sink, others had essentially a camping stove-type get up for cooking on and one smelt somewhat like a men’s public toilet. And the bathrooms looked like they hadn’t been renovated since Britain first colonised the area in 1842. Added to which, the main draw of the area seems to be that a lot of the apartments look over the racecourse (er, not interested in the gee gees) and to get to work Colin would either have to get a bus/tram all the way there (which in the morning rush would take about an hour) or get a bus to Causeway Bay and hop on the MTR (and Colin is not a fan of a faffy commute).

So, onto some more places in Mid-Levels (nicer, but still with poor excuses for kitchens) and Kennedy Town (much more what we’re looking for – with decent kitchens, yippee – but clearly meant for couples with children as the second & third bedrooms were the size of a decent cupboards, plus the MTR won't reach as far as Kennedy Town until 2012). If only we could transport the spectacular views across the water to an apartment of our choice! Inevitably at some point, rental costs will come into it, and the bottom line is that apartments on Hong Kong island are quite a lot more expensive than anywhere else, and surprise surprise, you won't get much square footage for your dollar.

I think it was for this reason that Clifford (and estate agent woman Agnes) suggested that we consider Kowloon (which we already were) and Discovery Bay (which I’d read about but hadn’t really thought about living in). Reasons for that were primarily it’s location, on Lantau Island, meaning you have to get a boat there. But hey, I don’t have a job to go to, so why not? Agnes promised to be in touch with some more properties for us (i.e. me, as this was Colin’s last work-free day) to see and Clifford took us home, where I needed a rest! Too many activities will wear you out, especially when you essentially got up at 1:40am because you haven’t kicked that jet lag yet!