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 =)