Typhooooooooon... and the first week of work

Wednesday was pretty uneventful until the evening. After work we went to Happy Valley racecourse to see the horses. It is a pretty amazing site in the middle of a city, and we made the most of the view from the 7th floor of the stand. It was very strange to be back in a place with so many Europeans! More importantly our first bet of the night paid off and we ended up in positive money for the rest of the night!

 

On Thursday I got up and got ready for work. Outside it was very empty and myself and Affie were a bit confused as to where everyone was. Maybe the MTR looking like this should have been a clue!

Seeing boards covering the doors at work we had our suspicions confirmed that it was indeed a typhoon. We rushed home (in case we got stuck anywhere) only to find out that typhoon level 8 which means you can stay at home / the whole city shuts down is little more than a strong breeze with some light rain in the UK. Affie wants these rules instated in Scotland as he will only have to work 2 or 3 days a year.

With a day off me and Katie put on some waterproofs and made the most of the empty streets.

 

After a long walk we met up with another friend and went to Kowloon. Here we were taken to a great little restaurant full of locals (including a man who had fallen asleep and the waitress was attempting to draw on his nose without waking him resulting in much giggling). Here we sampled some lovely dishes including frogs legs! We will return there and also head to the night market which was closed due to the T8.

This one's for you Jo!

TGIF

The working week ended well for Matt who, straight from work and still with bag, was taken under the wing of some colleagues and taken for a night out in the Irish pub. Katie meanwhile was taking advantage of the $10 coronas (about £1 - cheaper than the supermarket!) and headed into Lan Kwai Fong - an area full of bars and clubs that wouldn't look out of place on 'Sun, Sea and A&E'. A good night was had by all, followed by a quick trip to McDo - well, why not!

Just to note: Affie works with me and Kate is Katie's friend.

More signs that David Brawley could survive here in Hong Kong

Day out in Aberdeen

Katie had a day as a local celeb! She and Kate left for Aberdeen this afternoon to look for the fish market and floating restaurant. After a ride on a free boat which cost 40HKD they arrived at the restaurant called Jumbo but it was too pricey for them. Before reaching land on the free boat (this time with no cost) they were in demand for photos with the locals. Kate is now considering dying her hair brown to avoid attention.

After looking for local chinese food, they were directed to pizza hut where they enjoyed some good pizza! I arrived home from work and we visited the bank to get money for Affie's deposit (which is huge). Only thing to note at work (which was good fun and quite interesting) was being shouted at by a 4ft woman "no card, cash only, always cash" when I tried to top up the octopus card with my credit card. :(

Back with Katie we went for street food, which tasted like soggy skin (don't really know what it was) and subsequently ended up in the bin on the street. I miss English Chinese food! After this things went down hill when I had my most expensive meal yet from a dubious looking stall on the street (I didn't know how much it was) and it turned out to be mostly bone and fat. A packet of crisps and a banana later and here I am writing the blog...

Katie C - On a mission

--- Katie ---

Matt left early this morning to meet Affie and make their way to work. Smartly dressed, he left me in the hotel. I checked out and made my way into town (Matt: I had already paid). I had two hours to kill until meeting the landlord so I did some jobs (my own SIM card, cash withdrawl for rent etc) and sat in the shade opposite the designer shopping centre. With no shoes on, I think I appeared to be a tramp which prompted one American to ask if I "needed some help".

Soon enough I went to the flat and was met by the cleaner. I went to the supermarket and bought cleaning supplies, then I set to work cleaning. Thanks to Charlotte for providing my bopping music. Having cleaned up I went to Ikea and bought some goodies - not before trying Matt's card and being rejected, making a phone call and then re-entering the shop for a second time. It turns out it is if anything slightly more expensive than at home! Matt returned, we attended McDo for the first meal of our Hong Kong time and we went to the supermarket.

--- Matt ---

Important note for David Brawley - Del Monte pineapple chunks are available here too so don't worry, you would be okay!

Having bought our mostly chinese goods (*cough* definately not including coco pops and digestives *cough*) we went to Ikea for Katies third visit. With all this in hand we came home, read emails, tidied up and went to bed. Hence no update until today (the following day) - sorry Affie.

Backpackers on the Metro

Having gotten back to the hotel at 2am we felt very groggy when the alarm went off this morning. We had to meet the estate agent to move most of our bags into the apartment so we got onto the metro laden with our luggage. The metro is great most of the time but with many, many bags it is nothing short of a nightmare.

Having dropped off the bags we wandered into Wan Chai, the area next to Causeway Bay. It’s much more old-fashioned and there are lots of stalls and fresh goods markets. 

We took a break in a café and found a supermarket below that stocks... Waitrose essentials items! We are heading back tomorrow to stock up on lots of goodies when we’ve moved into our apartment. We continued to explore and ended up by the bay again which was lovely. That evening we took a stroll out to explore North Point with the aim to eat some street food. Unfortunately the skies opened and we ducked into a local restaurant, again choosing our meals from the pictures. Matt starts work tomorrow so we decided on an early night of ironing and reading. This is the life!

Day 2 – The House Hunt

Yesterday was dedicated to flat hunting. We were out of the hotel for the whole day traipsing across Hong Kong Island in a bid to find somewhere to live. We started off by buying a Hong Kong SIM and sat in McDonalds (first day in Hong Kong and already in McDo!).

We had a few viewings, one of which we could not escape from fast enough. In the end, we decided to go with a serviced studio apartment opposite a Bentley shop right in the heart of Causeway Bay. We are surrounded by designer shops and expensive cars so we felt it would be a great area to live in. It is within 2 mins of Times Square and 3 mins of the Causeway Bay MTR. 

Then came the kerfuffle with the deposit - $3,000 HKD – first we tried the credit card – no joy, a third and fourth attempt and it still didn’t work. We then had to try every single cash card – which triggered the fraud squad. In the end we managed to scrape together the cash. Perhaps the only saving grace of this was finding a HUGE M&S stocking percy pigs and bourbons - we won't be going hungry any time soon!

After this we made our way back to the hotel, got ready and went out for some Japanese – we’ve decided the easiest way to chose food is looking at the pictures on the menu. Katie realised she can use chop sticks (just)

Next we met Affie and made our way up to a roof top bar overlooking the bay which was a lovely yet windy experience. We think this will be our local from now onwards. See view below (As we found out: Hong Kong has twice as many sky scrapers as NY. Also we are sitting at the base of the tower which is featured in Batman - the IFC)

Hong Kong!

So... Katie has already broken the law. No fines yet but no eating on the mtr (underground)! We are in bed at 1am in our hotel watching sky news. Journey to heathrow yesterday was fine and met afnaan at the airport.

Photo 1: Trevor with Baggage (note absence of 3rd suitcase)

Katie's enthusiasm for long haul travel soon disappeared but she did enjoy the movie whilst eating pancakes. At hong kong international this morning affie found out he no longer had a bag as it was still in heathrow. We got the airport shuttle to town and found the hotel after a hot trip on the mtr with 50 kg or more of baggage.

Photo 2: Matt and Jack on the worlds longest escalator (to be looked up in the guinness book of records)

After showering we met Katie's friend and ate at a restaurant. I bought my first beer on a travel card (like an oyster card) which was a novelty and then we came back to find somewhere to live on one of the websites we have spent hrs staring at. Let's hope they work out tomorrow. Time for bed now though. Good night!

HK minus 3 days

This time in 3 days we will be on the aeroplane! Still have insurance to buy and bags to pack but most things are sorted including the visa which is a relief. Katie is busy making friends and arranging dinner plans. Hopefully we will have somewhere to live by Monday but failing that we at least have a sofa we can sleep on. Trevor now has an Elvis jumper thanks to mrs cochrane. He wears it backwards to hide the shame...

HK minus 14 days

The visa has arrived and we are now all set to go... apart from having nowhere to live! Katie has had confirmation about helping a charity and Trevor is packing his suitcase / has set up his own blog. By the way - Trevor is a pretty raar bear (no pun intended) who has now set up his own blog for all the kids in the UK. If he gets more hits than us we have done something wrong!