Home Sweet Home (Part 2)

We arrived in Hong Kong six weeks ago today.  Our sense of time here is no different than in the States: we still constantly wonder where it went.  In our first six weeks, we have started new job roles, learned to navigate public transportation and a maze of city streets, tried lots of exotic foods and made many new friends.  Jeff's business travel has already taken him to the U.K. and Taipei, and next week he will be in Australia.  I took a quick trip to Shenzhen, China and spent a week here with colleagues visiting from the States and London.  We've managed to do all of this without getting lost or into trouble, and now as we travel throughout the city to work or on errands, things are starting to look familiar -- a good sign we are settling in.
 

Blocks 1 and 2 of 80 Robinson Road

We have moved to a new apartment which we hope will be our home for the rest of our stay in Hong Kong.  Our new address is: 80 Robinson Road, Block 1, 20/F, Apt. C, Hong Kong S.A.R., China

The 10th floor entrance of 80 Robinson Road

80 Robinson Road is a complex of two 48 floor apartment buildings, with four apartments per floor, situated between Bonham Road and Robinson Road.  The first eight floors are a parking ramp.  The ninth floor contains a 'clubhouse' with a pool and gym, to which we have access but haven't yet had time to visit.  The tenth floor is actually the lobby/ground floor entrance on the Robinson Road side of the building, and the rest of the floors are apartments.  To avoid the bad luck associated with the word 'four' (which sounds like the word 'die' in Cantonese), the towers have no 14th, 24th, 34th or 44th floors.  There is a 4th floor in the parking ramp, so I guess the bad luck doesn't extend to automobiles.  The first person we met in our new building, the head doorman with the adopted name "Ringo," immediately inquired if we are fans of The Beatles, to which we replied "of course."

Floor layouts are configured so that every apartment has at least a couple of windows facing the harbor and the Kowloon peninsula.  That means we have traded the wonderful view we had on Macdonnell Road for a very similar view.  Our building is further west so we see less of the Central District, but more of Victoria Harbour and Kowloon.

View to the northwest from 80 Robinson Road

View to the north of Kowloon from 80 Robinson Road

As we searched for more permanent housing, we learned that furnished flats in Hong Kong are the exception rather than the norm -- the opposite of what I expected based on my experience in London, where virtually everything was furnished.  But through  business school connections we found a great property agent who located five nicely furnished places, any of which would have worked.  Our new apartment is slightly more than 1,100 square feet, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a small office where Jeff can work when he's not traveling.  And while the kitchen is still small, Jeff can no longer refer to it as a "Barbie" kitchen, because it has full-sized appliances, a basic set of cooking utensils and a complete set of dishes for four.  I'm spoiled by a well-equipped kitchen in Minnesota, so I don't think I'll be cooking any elaborate meals here, but we have what we need and we certainly won't starve!

We chose Robinson Road because of its proximity to various modes of transportation.  Sadly, our new location does mean I no longer have my lovely morning "commute" through the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, but I can still walk to my office or jump on one of the city buses, which stop right outside both the front and back sides of our building.   Walking to my office from Robinson Road takes about 20 minutes, and as long as we have the cool early spring  temperatures, it's a very pleasant walk.  

The red "A" marks the location of 80 Robinson Road