Hong Kong (1/15 - 1/17): Settling In

Monday - January 15

Besides hanging out at Pat’s until the house-cleaner left, I spent a fair time of the afternoon in the office. However, I had an appointment to go check out those apartments in Ma On Shan in the evening so I was planning on leaving around 5:30 or 6:00 to get out there. As it turns out, I got a call from the agent saying that the landlord for the units wasn’t in Hong Kong and asked if I could see them on another day. I also got some more information about the units. They were 2 bedroom, not 1. They also were a bit more on the pricier side than what I had seen in Shatin. I mean — for a 2 bedroom $11,000 isn’t bad, but it’s still out of my price range. Especially living by myself.

Pat’s housecleaner doing her thing

The walk to work

Stephen hard at work

Kim at his desk

A view from the cockpit

So I made a command decision and after having mulled things over in my head for the past day or two, decided to go ahead and take the 1 bedroom apartment at the Merton in Kennedy Town. It had the most pro’s going for it and the cons weren’t really all that bad. Yes, it was about $2,000 HKD / month more than the place in Shatin, but honestly it’s a much better place. And much more convenient for where I’ll be spending most of my time (work).

I called up Bon, the agent who showed me the Merton unit, and asked to come meet with her in the evening. Which I did. She explained the procedure. I would pay the one-month deposit to reserve the unit and then pay the first month’s rent to get the keys. I would also be paying a half-month rent to her agency, but I was expecting to do that — they do provide a value-added service, after all. We set the move-in date for February 4, but she said that pretty much as soon as I pay what I’m supposed to pay she can give me the keys and I can start moving in. That gives me 2 free weeks of residence if I get her the money this week.

I told her I would come back the next evening to sign the paperwork and put down the deposit.

After that it was back to the office. I got a call from Pat who had just landed at Hong Kong International. After another 30 minutes Stephen and I walked over to the IFC to meet up with him and get a bite to eat at Triple O’s. Not a bad burger. Pat gave us the skinny on his trip to Beijing, which turned out to be pretty fruitful, business-wise. Then we all walked up the hill to their apartment and I ended up getting sleepy and falling asleep just a bit after midnight. The earliest I’ve slept in a while …

Pat and Stephen at the IFC

Pat at Triple O’s

Stephen looks a little tired

We spotted the Elvis of Hong Kong

Tuesday - January 16

I woke up a bit earlier, took a shower, and walked down the hill to the office. It felt a little muggy so I was sweating a little more than usual. I also grabbed a quick bite at 7-11 and ate that at the office for lunch. After a while Pat showed up at work too. And then Stephen … and then Terence. And Kim as well. We were all there grinding away on our computers doing work — sort of like the old Design Reactor days back in Berkeley. It felt very “start up” and productive.

Stephen working hard

I had to take a break in the evening to go pay my deposit. I ran by the bank in Kennedy Town on my way to the agent’s office and, with the help of Xtina on the phone, was able to get everything squared away with the agent. We also agreed to meet on Monday when I would pay the first month’s rent and get the key. I realize that I’ll be gone for pretty much the rest of the month, but it gives me a few days to settle in and get a feel for the place. I won’t have any furniture, but it isn’t the first time I’ve had to sleep on a floor. But hey … I have a roof over my head so that’s the most important thing, right?

After making the deposit I went back to the office. After a while Raffi showed up and the four of us (Raffi,Pat, Stephen and I) went back to the apartment, dropped off our things, and then went to go eat at an Italian restaurant next to the escalators. Food wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t super hungry to begin with so I felt a bit stuffed afterwards.

Then we went down the hill, Raffi went back home, and the three of us took a Tram down to admiralty to meet up with Terence and some of his friends at Pacific Place AMC to watch “Babel”. While we were there waiting to go in Pat spotted Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung. Terence knew them and stopped to chat with them for a bit before we headed in to our movie.

Raffi mulling over the menu

Pat at Fat Angelo’s

My family will not know who those two people are (and actually, aside from recognizing their names, I didn’t know either — but that’s because I just don’t watch enough HK movies) but they are actually quite famous in Asia. They’ve both been in a whole bunch of movies. I guess Nicholas Tse would be the equivalent of a Tobey MacGuire, fame-wise. Or maybe an Ashton Kutcher. Somewhere in there — not quite the Brad Pitt that Dan Wu is, but certainly everyone has heard of them over here.  Here’s a couple pictures of them:

Anyway, we went in to the movie and it wasn’t all that bad. I wrote up a review on my RT blog, but basically I think that the acting and basic ideas were good, and it was more-or-less well executed. It just seemed a bit overly dramatic and was working a bit too hard to be “substantial”. And when a film feels like it has to work hard to be important, it feels less important to me. But, the acting was quite good. It’s also a rather tense film, so don’t go see if if you are nursing a weak heart.

After the movie the four of us (Terence, Stephen, Pat and myself) said goodbye to Terence’s friends (one was a model who looked a lot like Jessica Alba, and the other two were friends of his) and then sat outside on the sidewalk discussing the movie for a while. Then we caught a cab back to the apartment and after laptopping for a while people went to bed. For some reason I had a really hard time falling asleep and even though I was sprawled out on the couch tossing and turning I couldn’t get any shut eye until after 4 a.m.

Terence, Stephen and Pat discussing the movie

Pat at his laptop

Wednesday - January 17

Pat and Stephen left in the morning for the airport. They were flying back to Xiamen for a few days. Pat’s birthday is Friday and on Thursday night they are having a big party in Xiamen to both celebrate his birthday and also the opening of a club that his friend is partial investor in (New Labomba). I was looking at flight times and prices and realized that it would be possible for me to fly over to Xiamen for a day on my way back to Shanghai. So Thursday I would take the 2:30 p.m. ferry to Shenzhen, catch the 5:40 flight to Xiamen, and be able to meet up with them for dinner around 7:00 p.m. Then the next day I would fly up to Shanghai in the afternoon.

The whole evening before and in to the morning it was raining quite hard. I was going to meet up with Xtina for lunch in LKF (which I had never been to) so I decided to work from home until I had to leave to meet with her. We did some shopping and walking around and had a quick bite/drink at MiX near the escalators but she had to go back home and I had to get back to work so I returned to the apartment and mostly just worked on stuff for the rest of the afternoon.

Looking down a shopping street in Hong Kong

Xtina doing some shopping

Waiting for our order at MiX

I did grab a bite to eat at the small place downstairs for dinner and I also went across the street and signed up for the video rental place. I got “Rob B Hood” and “Dragon Tiger Gate” and watched those in the evening. Not bad movies. I’ll have to put up reviews on my RT blog when I have some time. I recognized that Nicholas Tse guy from the theater the other day though. I think I like him better without the crazy bangs.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I’m catching the ferry to Shenzhen and a flight over to Xiamen to join up for pat’s birthday party. Then Friday afternoon I fly up to Shanghai for a couple intense days of cleaning, organizing, preparing and blah blah blah. I’m sure I’ll write all about that after it happens so no need to bore you with it now.