Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas back home in the states. Hope you all had a wonderful time with your close friends and family. Though it's not a major holiday compare to Chinese New Year, people here do celebrate Christmas. On Christmas eve, the popular Kowloon area, Tsim Sha Tsui, is closed off to motor vehicles so thousands of pedestrians can roam the streets freely; very much like NYC's Time Square on NYE. For those of you whom have never been to HK, Tsim Sha Tsui (aka TST) is the heart and soul of Hong Kong situated at the very tip of the Kowloon Peninsula. Usually, in movies when you see the HK skyline, it is usually filmed from TST with a view of the skyscrapers on the Hong Kong Island side.

Every night, there's a light show on the HK Island side. Streams of lights are beamed from the top of the skyscrapers.


Hundreds of people line the piers from the Kowloon side to watch the show.


Check out all the people on the stairs to Harbor City mall.




Wan Chai, which is where we live, is on the HK Island side. Central, which is the business district, is also on this side. The cheapest form of transportation to HK Island is by ferry, $2.20 HKD one-way. However, if you don't mind sitting in the lower deck, it's only $1.75. Acrossing the harbor on the MTR (subway) will cost you $7+. Taxi is much much more.

This is a shot from the lower deck of a ferry looking over to another ferry and the HK Island.


Another form of transportation which is really affordable is called the Ding Ding che (electric double-decker tram). It's only $2 for a ride. It's open air so while it's a wonderful ride in the winter when the weather is nice, but not so great in the summer when it's hot and humid. It was invented in the early 1900s and runs 8 miles on the HK Island side. Lots of locals take it to and from work while tourists take it for fun; very much like the cable car in San Francisco.

As you can see, most of them are very colorful with unique designs. Riders enter from the rear of the tram and exit from the front. The trick is to move closer to the front as your stop nears. Move too slow and you're trapped behind many people unable to get off. The walkway is very narrow so you have to push your way to the front most of the time during peak time.






Of course, there's always the taxi if you want to want to get from point A to point B directly. The meter starts at $16 when you get on. Riding the taxi here is much cheaper than in NY. That's probably the most used transportation in HK. What I just learned from a taxi driver who drove me to work is that he makes about $15000/month, which is approximately $2000 USD, tax free! Not much income to western standards, but a good living for them.

We were waiting in the taxi line after shopping at the Time Square mall in Causeway Bay, probably the most crowded area on the HK Island side.

First Eight Days

Yesterday marked my one week anniversary living in HK so I think it's time to recap my experience. I'm hoping to share as much of my experience with you as possible by blogging on a weekly basis at the minimum; depending on whether there is any news worthy event to reflect on. Feel free to comment as much as possible since that's the only way for me to know if I'm reaching out to any of you out there; positive and negative comments are welcome! I'm quite certain my perspectives or opinions may offend you down the road. With that said, here's a chronology of last week's events...

12.09.08.7AM - Landed in HKG after a 15hr flight on Cathay Pacific. The HK airport is on Lantau Island, designed by a famous British architect and built in 1998. It has been voted as one of the top 10 construction achievements of the 20th century! It is a thing of beauty but what I really like is the convenience of getting into the city. Having lived on a similar metro "island", I think HK's infrastructure is way better than NY's! Getting into Manhattan from JFK International takes over an hour from airtrain to Subway train to taxi where as a 25-minute train ride on the HK Airport Express ($100 HKD/one-way) train got me into the Hong Kong station and then, a 10-minute taxi ride to the apartment in Wan Chai. Taxi is super cheap here compared to NY but if you transport luggage in the trunk, you get charged $7/item. Current exchange rate is $1 USD = $7.75 HKD.

Here's our 650 sq.ft., 2br gargantuan apartment Wan Chai. I'm still in search of the 2nd bedroom.

From the living room, we have a view of the Peak, a very popular tourist destination to view the entire HK skyline. Since the apt is in the hills, it's much quieter than being down in the city. It is surrounded by lots of trees and hiking trails.


The 32" LCD feels like a big screen in this living room.




There's no room for an oven or a dish washer in the kitchen. In place of that is an all-in-one washer/dryer.


Usually laundry is dropped off at the cleaners where they wash and dry your clothes for about $4/load USD. Tao prefers washing our own under garments and then hanging them to dry in the walk-in closet (aka....2nd bedroom)


A view of the apartment building from the main street. A 5-min walk around the corner and then an elevator ride down 17 floors leads to the supermarket and of course Starbucks!


This is an alternative route to the apts, very steep going up but it's a great workout. It leads to the cleaners, bus stop and the mall.


12.10.08.5AM - Woke up at 5am local time (1pm PST) to start my first day of work in HK. Since I'm telecommuting from HK, my work hours have to overlap with half of the US work day and India work day. This is my agreement with Cisco while I work out here. My first shift starts at 5am and ends at 10am. After 10am, I'm free until 4pm when I log in again to work with the India team. My work day ends at 7pm. Other than waking up before dawn, I think this schedule works out pretty well for me. I get a lot of daylight to run around the city in between my two shifts.

12.11.08 - One of the best things about HK is the the wide range of food selections. However, you have to be wise about what you choose to eat from a health and financial perspective. You can easily spend $50 USD at a high end restaurant with nice decor and prestine quality control or you can spend $2 USD for a bowl of fish ball noodle soup, where you have to pay extra for a packet of napkin tissue and sit on a short stool, sharing a table with strangers close enough to you to rub your elbow. For me, my budget outweighs the dietary risks and comfort =)

Breakfast for $3 USD at Fairwood. You can't get food this cheap at IHOP or Hobees!



$2 USD for a lunch box with two types of bbq pork AND you get a plastic spoon, chopsticks, toothpick and a napkin! A napkin!


12.13.08 - We went grocery shopping at Taste, which I heard later is where all the expats shop. They have a nice selection of western products like cheese and different types of sauces/spices. It's a bit pricier than local grocery stores though.


The first floor of Taste is the bakery and has convenient take-out lunch boxes. It's filled with hundreds of hungry people during lunch hours.


People here love custards...


Getting in line to check out our $200 USD groceries. They deliver non-perishables to your home the following day if you spend over $500 HKD.


These little convenient food stands are as ubiquitous as Starbucks in HK. There are so many on the way to the Cisco office. It's a great snack in between meals if you like fish balls, intestines, and octopus. I pack Alka Seltzer in my backpack when I go to work.


Oops...I just realized it's actually been more than 8 days since I'd arrived. It's actually 9 days! Hong Kong is 16 hours ahead of California. I get thrown off because I live in the far east time zone but work in the west coast time zone. I'm hoping to receive a dual timezone watch for xmas =)