We finally got to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was a great movie! It's only the third movie we've watched since we got here.
We've gone to a different movie theater each time and these three are the best theaters on Hong Kong island. You pretty much need to pre-buy tickets in advance since all movie tickets have assigned seats. They're often sold out on the weekends if you try to get last minute tickets or you'll end up in the first row. However, it's really nice not to have to line up 30 minutes in advance to get a good seat. Actually, one of the theaters didn't even let you in to the theater area until 15 minutes before the movie.
The theaters we went to were pretty small but the seats are sofa-like, big and comfy. Since the theaters are small, even the seats on the sides have a pretty good view. Like theaters everywhere, the concession foods are expensive. Maybe because these theaters are pretty western, I haven't seen any foods that are out of the ordinary.
The other thing is that the American movies come out a lot later here and they rotate out after a few weeks. I think it's because there are just so many movies to fit in with American and Asian movies. So we have a small window to catch the movies and not everything comes out here. We haven't made it to an Asian film yet but I'm looking forward to watching some on the big screen while we're here.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Quick Note - 25 Random Things
It seems like the "25 Random Things..." note is going around Facebook. I'm trying to figure out if I should spend my time writting those 25 random things on Facebook or I should devote my time on writting another blog that's been long overdue...
I really wish there were more than 24 hours a day...
If you guys can't tell, I've been extremely busy at work and then on the weekends, I've been really busy unboxing stuff and shopping for furniture and organizing the new apartment. So that's how my new Chinese New Year has started.
Shin Ni Fai Lo! Gong Hei Fat Choy! (Cantonese)
Shing Nien Kwai Le! Gong Shi Fa Tsai! (Mandarin)
Happy New Year! Congratulations and Be Prosperous!
May the Year of the Ox bring you all lots of Happiness, Good Health and Fortune!
I really wish there were more than 24 hours a day...
If you guys can't tell, I've been extremely busy at work and then on the weekends, I've been really busy unboxing stuff and shopping for furniture and organizing the new apartment. So that's how my new Chinese New Year has started.
Shin Ni Fai Lo! Gong Hei Fat Choy! (Cantonese)
Shing Nien Kwai Le! Gong Shi Fa Tsai! (Mandarin)
Happy New Year! Congratulations and Be Prosperous!
May the Year of the Ox bring you all lots of Happiness, Good Health and Fortune!
Monday, January 12, 2009
I signed the lease for our new apartment (a.k.a. our new flat)!
It felt great to finally sign the lease to our "flat" as they like to call it here in Hong Kong. We spent the first 2 weekends here looking at apartments and the entire process was definitely very stressful especially since I had started work.
The way apartment hunting works in Hong Kong is that you need to work with an agent. Property owners can sign up with several property agents to list their property. There's no multiple listing service, so you can only see apartments that the agent's company has listings for. In order to find the right place for you, you need to work with as many agents as possible.
I thought I was ahead of the game back in LA by finding a few that I wanted to see on craigslist and lining up two agents to see places on our first weekend in Hong Kong. I was also trying to find direct owner listings to avoid paying the 1/2 month of agent fee but no such luck. We did end up seeing a dozen apartments on the first weekend and finding one we liked. However, by the time we decided to put a down payment to hold the place, it was rented out.
We stumbled on another agent on one of our walks and we met with him the following weekend. He showed us several places none of which fit our needs. However, after those visits, he got to understand what we liked and finally offered to show us a flat that belongs to a friend of his. It was listed for more than I had budgeted but it had everything we were looking for! A large master bedroom, good size open kitchen, decent size second bedroom and two bathrooms. On top of that, it actually has a full size refrigerator and a dishwasher (very rare in Hong Kong!) Given his relationship, he thought he could help us negotiate. Due to the economic downturn, rental prices have become very negotiable. We were able to get the apartment a little bit over our budget.
From there, we signed a preliminary agreement along with putting down a month's rent to hold the place. At this point, if we backed out, we'd loose the deposit and if the owner backed out, he's have to pay us twice the deposit. It's an interesting process... And today, I finally signed the contract, paid for 2 more months rent (deposit) and got the keys!
Here's a peak at our place:
We can't wait to fill it with furniture and our 24 boxes of stuff from LA!
The way apartment hunting works in Hong Kong is that you need to work with an agent. Property owners can sign up with several property agents to list their property. There's no multiple listing service, so you can only see apartments that the agent's company has listings for. In order to find the right place for you, you need to work with as many agents as possible.
I thought I was ahead of the game back in LA by finding a few that I wanted to see on craigslist and lining up two agents to see places on our first weekend in Hong Kong. I was also trying to find direct owner listings to avoid paying the 1/2 month of agent fee but no such luck. We did end up seeing a dozen apartments on the first weekend and finding one we liked. However, by the time we decided to put a down payment to hold the place, it was rented out.
We stumbled on another agent on one of our walks and we met with him the following weekend. He showed us several places none of which fit our needs. However, after those visits, he got to understand what we liked and finally offered to show us a flat that belongs to a friend of his. It was listed for more than I had budgeted but it had everything we were looking for! A large master bedroom, good size open kitchen, decent size second bedroom and two bathrooms. On top of that, it actually has a full size refrigerator and a dishwasher (very rare in Hong Kong!) Given his relationship, he thought he could help us negotiate. Due to the economic downturn, rental prices have become very negotiable. We were able to get the apartment a little bit over our budget.
From there, we signed a preliminary agreement along with putting down a month's rent to hold the place. At this point, if we backed out, we'd loose the deposit and if the owner backed out, he's have to pay us twice the deposit. It's an interesting process... And today, I finally signed the contract, paid for 2 more months rent (deposit) and got the keys!
Here's a peak at our place:
We can't wait to fill it with furniture and our 24 boxes of stuff from LA!
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Year's Eve in Hong Kong
So this is how small the world is and how soon we got to see a couple of friends from the US...
Over the New Year's break, we had Tina and James stop by for a couple of days to celebrate the New Year in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has only been celebrating New Year's with fireworks for the past two years. Previously, they largely celebrated Chinese New Year. Below is a little clip of the fireworks. I heard that the Chinese New Year one is 10 times more grand... which wouldn't be hard to do. It is pretty cool how they shot the fireworks sideways off of the IFC building though...
Over the New Year's break, we had Tina and James stop by for a couple of days to celebrate the New Year in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has only been celebrating New Year's with fireworks for the past two years. Previously, they largely celebrated Chinese New Year. Below is a little clip of the fireworks. I heard that the Chinese New Year one is 10 times more grand... which wouldn't be hard to do. It is pretty cool how they shot the fireworks sideways off of the IFC building though...
We got to enjoy the fireworks with several of us crambed into one of Tina's friend's hotel room at the Conrad Hotel (one of the top hotels in Hong Kong).
We hit up two popular party areas in the city - Wanchai and Lan Kwai Fong. Below is a picture of Lan Kwai Fong at 3AM. See how many people were still around hours later. I heard earlier that it was impossible to walk in that area right around midnight. This is what we call in Chinese "people mountain people sea" (aka. full of people for as far as the eye could see).
It was definitely an eye opening and fun NYE!
Happy 2009 Everyone!!!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Fast Forward 2 months later... We're in HK!
This will hopefully be the beginning of my Hong Kong adventure blogs. Ben and I have safely gotten to HK and settled into our first week here. Here's a short synopsis so far...
Dec 19 - Landed in HK after 22 hours of transit, paying $175 in excess luggage and overweight fees, and an unexpected stop in Taipei for refueling. We had way too much stuff with us! Luckily, picking up the boys at cargo was relatively trouble free. We lugged our 6 luggages and the 2 kittie carriers and hopped on 2 cabs to get to our temporary serviced apartment in Soho.
Dec 20 - With the day and nights still jumbled in our heads, we ended up with 6 hour naps in the afternoon into the day and catching really late dinners for the last two days. We did manage to check out some apartments and have found one we liked a lot. Luckily for us, rent prices have come down a lot so we are hoping to find a pretty nice place :-). We've been alternating between nicer restaurants in Soho and holes in the wall noodle places. We finally made it to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) for a dinner but not ready for drinks yet. Luckily we bumped into a giant dreidel who told us about the Chanukah festivities the following day. It'll be nice to have Ben join in a Jewish festivity here in HK!
Dec 21 - We decided to trek to Wanchai and get some much needed outlet converters since none of our appliances would plug in. We got converters and a small transformer for some electronics - laptop, electric toothbrush, camera charger, phone charger, etc. (you get the drift... ^_^). And then we joined my boss and what seemed like all the Jews in HK for the candle lighting ceremony right outside the Bank of China building. Quite an amazing and contrasting sight!
Dec 22 - Dec 24 - My first three days of work. I am getting used to my commute to work which is composed of several escalator rides down to the IFC building then a brisk walk down to the ferry pier and a 12 minute ferry ride to the mainland side. I'm loving the ferry ride! I get to have my morning breakfast and read the paper. Star TV is then less than 5 minutes walk from the pier. On my rides back,I get to enjoy the beautiful evening skyline of Hong Kong which are extra adorned for Christmas and New Year. Ben continued to apartment hunt and has found a couple of others that sound great so I got to take a look at them after work on my slightly shorter day on Christmas Eve.
Dec 25 - It's been weird spending Christmas outside of the U.S. I think today more than any other day so far I've missed not being in the U.S. and being close to family and friends. We enjoyed a nice American dinner at the Flying Pan and caught a "Tale of Despereaux" at the Pacific Place - this extremely ex-pat and high end mall, and then wrapped up the day with some Rioja wine from Spain and cheese. Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Really miss everyone!!!
Dec 19 - Landed in HK after 22 hours of transit, paying $175 in excess luggage and overweight fees, and an unexpected stop in Taipei for refueling. We had way too much stuff with us! Luckily, picking up the boys at cargo was relatively trouble free. We lugged our 6 luggages and the 2 kittie carriers and hopped on 2 cabs to get to our temporary serviced apartment in Soho.
Dec 20 - With the day and nights still jumbled in our heads, we ended up with 6 hour naps in the afternoon into the day and catching really late dinners for the last two days. We did manage to check out some apartments and have found one we liked a lot. Luckily for us, rent prices have come down a lot so we are hoping to find a pretty nice place :-). We've been alternating between nicer restaurants in Soho and holes in the wall noodle places. We finally made it to Lan Kwai Fong (LKF) for a dinner but not ready for drinks yet. Luckily we bumped into a giant dreidel who told us about the Chanukah festivities the following day. It'll be nice to have Ben join in a Jewish festivity here in HK!
 This is the giant dreidel and Ben |
 This is a pic of LKF - expat party central |
Dec 21 - We decided to trek to Wanchai and get some much needed outlet converters since none of our appliances would plug in. We got converters and a small transformer for some electronics - laptop, electric toothbrush, camera charger, phone charger, etc. (you get the drift... ^_^). And then we joined my boss and what seemed like all the Jews in HK for the candle lighting ceremony right outside the Bank of China building. Quite an amazing and contrasting sight!
 |
 |
 | Pic of our bed that comes off of the ceiling ^_^ right on top of our dining table. |
Dec 22 - Dec 24 - My first three days of work. I am getting used to my commute to work which is composed of several escalator rides down to the IFC building then a brisk walk down to the ferry pier and a 12 minute ferry ride to the mainland side. I'm loving the ferry ride! I get to have my morning breakfast and read the paper. Star TV is then less than 5 minutes walk from the pier. On my rides back,I get to enjoy the beautiful evening skyline of Hong Kong which are extra adorned for Christmas and New Year. Ben continued to apartment hunt and has found a couple of others that sound great so I got to take a look at them after work on my slightly shorter day on Christmas Eve.
Dec 25 - It's been weird spending Christmas outside of the U.S. I think today more than any other day so far I've missed not being in the U.S. and being close to family and friends. We enjoyed a nice American dinner at the Flying Pan and caught a "Tale of Despereaux" at the Pacific Place - this extremely ex-pat and high end mall, and then wrapped up the day with some Rioja wine from Spain and cheese. Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Really miss everyone!!!
| View of Kowloon from the ferry on my way to work | |
| View of Kowloon from the ferry on my way home from work |
Monday, October 20, 2008
I feel much better about relocating the cats now...
I had gotten quotes from $3000 to $4000 to relocate my cats. Gee!
Like all owners, I would hate it if my kitties had to spend any time in quarantine but spending $3k to $4k can't be the solution... So I started looking into everything that needed to be done.
1. Microchipped
2. Vaccinated
3. Import Permit from HK
4. Health Certificate and 2 other certificates
5. Booking them on air cargo
It all seemed do-able by me. So I compiled all the paperwork I needed and drew up the process and added it all to my MS Project Ghantt chart.
It came down to these tasks which seemed all too doable...
Pet Tasks
We'll see how well I do...
Friday, October 17, 2008
Moving to Hong Kong - Starting the Planning
We finally made the committment to move to Hong Kong (yes... at least for the next year or two). Let all the planning begin!
I started drafting everything that needed to be done in MS Project yesterday and there are already nearly 60 line items on there. Includes every detail from getting my two cats health certificates to holding a garage sale for all our stuff. It's daunting! But we've got to start somewhere.
I started drafting everything that needed to be done in MS Project yesterday and there are already nearly 60 line items on there. Includes every detail from getting my two cats health certificates to holding a garage sale for all our stuff. It's daunting! But we've got to start somewhere.
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