The streets are alive with incredible cooking smells emanating from the street stalls or the thousands of restaurants that dot the streets. Many restaurants are inside tall buildings, so we keep reminding ourselves to look up!
Juz and Vegas have been here a month now, but it feels like so much longer. We have done an incredible amount in that time, so I will indulge myself here a little as I reminisce and fill you in on our past month in HK.
We moved into our apartment the day after Juz arrived (and Vegas arrived that night, very unhappy with us but safely thankfully) and we spent the following 5 days madly shopping for furniture and electronics. Those that know me well will know that I like things done - NOW :-)... so suffice to say we had the place pretty much fully furnished in under 2 weeks - the final pieces arriving yesterday (an arm chair for the bedroom and a coffee table for the living room - oh and yes, excited that our bedroom fits a king size bed and an armchair with poof!).
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| The day Ikea delivered |
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| He managed to sit on every box as we unpacked |
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| Home Sweet Home |
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| Getting the place set up |
So we have had an amazing 4 weeks setting up our apartment (Juz loves building IKEA furniture so he played Tim the Toolman for quite a few days). In between doing that, we have been getting out loads and enjoying all HK has to offer. Suffice to say, many of our outings involve food - and trust me, HK is the place for all kinds of food, both high end and street food.
Man Wah - a Michelan Star Cantonese restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental (level 25). Amazing food matched with incredible service, all while enjoying the light show the HK buildings put on every night at 8pm.
http://www.mandarinoriental.com/hongkong/dining/restaurants/man_wah/
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/attractions/kln-symphony-lights.html
The Press Room - in Central, where there are just so many eateries, this place gets packed. Food was nice, service ok. http://www.thepressroom.com.hk/
Pastis - a tiny French bistro where I had lunch on my first day in HK (it is owned by our Real Estate Agent's boyfriend). Lunch is great in HK as the restaurants are not as busy as dinner, and they do super cheap 3 course set menus. Juz and I had dinner here last week followed by drinks at a fantastic cocktail bar which is right next door and run by the same people - you would not even know it was there unless someone told you. Le Boudoir is down about 6 flights of stairs, holds about 50 people and has the most amazing cocktail list.
http://www.hkclubbing.com/directory/restaurants/pastis.html
http://www.hiphongkong.com/drink/bars/nightclubs/lounges/le_boudoir
East End Brewery - this is our local down at Causeway Bay. An easy walk down the hill - not such an easy walk home afterwards :). We have been here quite a few times and it is generally packed with both expats and locals. Great food and yet another place that serves breakfast all day!!
http://www.elgrande.com.hk/outlets/HongKong/EastEndBreweryCB/page1/
Coast - great casual, yet modern and classy, place run by some Aussies (I think) right in the heart of SoHo. Food is yummy and they show all the Aussie sports. http://www.coast.com.hk/
So besides eating, we get out and about all the time and take Vegas with us to get him out of the apartment. We took him up to The Peak a few weeks ago - but we were quite literally walking in a cloud and it was just too cold and wet so we gave up and jumped back in a taxi and went home!
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| He isn't super keen on going in the taxis... |
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| Walking in the clouds at The Peak |
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| Our first photo in HK together, same day up at The Peak |
We ventured over to Lamma Island one day for lunch - you can take dogs on ferries here, but of course - Vegas is not a fan of transport. he was however very happy when we ordered him a pork chop for lunch. I know, I know. But we didn't have a fridge at the time so he was eating out with us.
Wednesday night is race night at Happy Valley - and it is a brilliant night out. Only HKD10 entry (AUD1.30), 2 for 1 beers up until the end of race 3, dumplings or McDonalds..., races every 20 or 30 minutes and about 20 - 30,000 people (lots of expats). And you get to see grass.... (more on that later). http://www.happyvalleyracecourse.com/
We have been researching suitable 'dog sitters' for our little man given we are keen to start heading away on weekends now and then. There are many vets and dog parlours here, but the boarding facilities are almost third world, excepting Dogotel. A fab place with 24 rooms over in Kowloon. Juz and I went to see it last weekend and we have booked Vegas in for this Friday night as a trial run. It's an awesome place where the dogs have their own 'room' and get lots of play time with each other. http://www.dogotel.com/
I finally joined the gym, California Fitness.. not my preferred gym but this works location wise. There are branches close to my office and close to home, which is good, but the gyms themselves are not nice. Lots of machines over 3 floors, just not a very nice place aesthetically, but I am not focusing on that - focusing on needing to go to the gym given the great food we are enjoying! http://www.californiafitness.com/hk/en/
The television options are pretty bad - out of many channels we have from NOW TV, I think we might only use about 6 of them. But that's not a bad thing - we didn't come to HK to watch TV! We get to the movies quite a bit - they serve hot dog, popcorn and drink combos so it is a fun night out.
The South China Athletics Association club is just down the hill from where we live. They have lots of facilities including a 60 lane 10 pin bowling alley, pools (which re-opened 1 March as they close all the pools here during 'Winter'...) and a golf driving range (Juz hasn't picked up a club in 6 weeks!!). We are planning to join so should be fun once we start going. http://www.scaa.org.hk/catalog/index.php?language=en
What about shopping I hear many of you scream. Amazingly, other than the boots and heels I acquired in the first week here... I have not been shopping (I am hearing gasps). Well, not shopping for clothes or shoes - we were all shopped out after spending days on end searching for beds and couches. But there is plenty of time to shop!
We haven't made any new friends yet - been too busy exploring and finding our way around but that will come. Juz has slowly started to put some feelers out to see what jobs are around - but at the moment I am selfishly loving coming home to a cooked dinner 3 nights a week and of course Vegas is thrilled he is home to take him for long walks every day. We do have a part time domestic helper starting tomorrow so she will come a few hours Mon to Fri and walk the dog and a few other bits and pieces around the apartment.
The next few months are pretty busy, and we will be welcoming our first visitors next week. The weekend after we are heading to Macau for the weekend to celebrate my 29th birthday ;-) - Juz is planning so no idea what we are doing, but we are both looking forward to it so should be fun no matter what we do - will fill you in on my next post. Then we have the Rugby 7s followed by a trip to Beijing for work early April - so lots of fun things keeping us busy.
What are we missing the most I hear you ask. Baked dinners? Our friends (well that goes without saying of course). The beach? Australian Cadbury chocolate (you can get it here, albeit at a premium)? Fox Sports News? Nope..... Grass. There is very little of it (on HK island) and the little there is, no one is allowed on. Juz has done some research though and there seem to be some better options in Kowloon and New Territories, so we will head there this weekend to try and find somewhere for our boy to have a run around.
So, that's our HK adventures of the last month. Look forward to seeing lots of you when you come to visit - as you can see, you won't be bored!
G
xxx
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