More Apartment Hunting

So yesterday evening I looked at apartments at the Grand Promenade. It's a very nice estate with lots of features and some beautiful views. The neighborhood is really nice and includes a cluster of restaurants known as Soho East. There are a few parks and play areas close to the building. Here is a picture of a play ground by the building.


We would probably travel a greater distance in the elevator than we would walking across the street. The building is right by the water. Here are a few pictures of the harbor.




There were a lot of people jogging and doing Tai Chi and I didn’t want to invade their privacy with my pictures, but here is a picture from a sitting area by the walkway.



This walkway probable stretches about half a mile. There’s also a path that runs parallel with tree cover and a few exercise stations. There are also these stone walkway things that I posted about earlier, as well as designated Tai Chi areas and public tennis courts. There were also a few games of Go going on. Here is a map of the park. I didn’t cross the highway and until now didn’t realize that I had missed so much.

So the apartments in Hong Kong are extremely small. Here’s a picture of a bedroom.



It is literally a room for a bed. The living rooms aren’t much bigger but the views are great.



Here is a picture from the harbor from the 6th floor (L6) which is really more of a lobby type floor.


The 5th floor has all the club house type stuff (including a ‘home’ theater and Glow Bowling, among many other things) and the 6th floor connects the different towers. Here’s a picture from the 6th floor to the 5th floor BBQ area.


This is the place we will probably end up in since it allows dogs, is not in the middle of nowhere and is not rundown. Here's a final picture from this trip of the harbor after I had dinner in SOHO East.


I know I’ve posted a lot of pictures of different harbors. I promise I’ll stop one of these days.

Symphony of Lights

So the other day I went back to TST to check out more places to live. I wandered back to the harbor. It was about dusk, so I thought I would wait around for the Symphony of Lights. I viewed it just behind the Hong Kong Space Museum.

Here’s a picture of the Space Museum as the sun sets.

Every night at 8:00pm, the tourism board holds the Symphony of Lights where about 40 buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour host a massive laser light show synchronized to music.

I took a few pictures and video, but they really don’t do it justice. I was on the Kowloon side and across the harbor is Hong Kong Island. I took a few pictures of the buildings across the harbor just before the show.









Here are two videos of the Symphony of Lights.

In other news, I was walking through the grocery store and I came across a piece of home.

This is the only flavor they had, but I’ll take what I can get.

Time to find a new home

So today I started looking for a more permanent place to live. They first place I went to check out is up in the New Territories. It’s a little remote and does not have all the hustle and bustle of the city. There are no fancy restaurants or shopping malls (that I found immediately), but it is still very nice. The building I was looking for was Pictorial Garden. Here is a picture of the building complex from across the highway.

There is a footpath that goes over the highway that I think will eventually get you to the mountains. On the other side of the building, there is the Jockey Club Shek Mun Rowing Centre (part of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club) located on the river where the Hong Kong China Rowing Association practice. Here is a picture of several people out rowing this afternoon.

There are several parks in the area. Between the building and the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) station, there is a park that has a pebble trail where I presume people take off their shoes and walk. There are stern warnings about not using the pebble walk if you are elderly of pregnant. Here is a picture of part of the pebble walk.

In addition to the pebble walk there is a basket ball court and a Tai Chi area.

And by the looks of it, skateboarders make use of the park too.

I then made my way to Jordan to check that neighborhood out. The buildings were a little run down, but there were a lot of shops and it’s centrally located. There are a few very nice buildings not far from Jordan, but these are likely out of our price range. Here is a picture of the places that are likely out of our price range.

I decided to walk down to TST by walking through Kowloon Park. This is an awesome park with lots of attractions and many beautiful places to take in the scenery. I could have taken a million pictures, but I decided to wait until I had a better camera to take them with. This is the water fall in the public swimming pool.

There is a wonderful flower garden. If you look closely, you can see the children's playground in the back.

And there is also a bird pond of sorts. There much, much more. And I didn’t even stray off the main strip.

I walked through TST. There are many nice shops and restaurants in this part of town. I then took a ferry across the Victoria Harbour. Here are a few pictures of the ferry ride.

I then caught the MTR back home. It was an eventful day. No doubt the first of many in my search for our new home.