Day 1 - Arrival

Finally.. after a 2 hour delay, a 12 hour flight and another hour of getting from the Hong Kong airport to the center of Wanchai, I arrived at my new (temporary) home.

View from my Window

My apartment is in the heart of the old part of Wanchai, in a (for Hong Kong experiences) fairly "quiet" street.

Luckily in back in the Netherlands I already lived in a fairly busy street, so I think I won't have a really big problem adjusting here to the 24 hour noise.

Even the trams I have back home appear to be passing here as well so I won't be missing them :-)

Normally when I work in HK I am staying in a hotel, but as I'm staying for a minimum of 3 months, my employer has arranged a serviced apartment.

I didn't really know what to expect from this apartment so I decided not to bring anything but clothes. I figured that whatever I need I can probably buy here, and it's probably even cheaper than in Holland :-)


So what do you do, when you notice that you are missing towels, toilet paper, household cleaning stuff, etcetera? Right... you go to:



:-)









Even my all time favourite was present :-)

Throughout the last 6 years I have been in HK at least a dozen times, and with every visit I try to get impressions of the city and the daily life of the HK citizen and compare them to the impressions I have from my previous visits.
The best way to start this is by doing a walk in the city, and as Ikea was several blocks away, I took the opportunity to look around on my way home.

During my stroll I discovered a lot of new wine shops that were not there before. They (for what I could see) are selling expensive imported wine from Europe and other regions. I knew wine was getting more popular in Asia, but I didn't expect so many new shops open in such a short time. I should do some research about that.

On my normal walking-route (to work) I also saw that at least two new Porche showrooms opened, and the Maserati dealer hang a new (Huge) sign on the building showing it's new imported model.
I guess business is still going great here, especially when you see the amount of expensive cars driving on the road. All brand new mercedes SLK's, BMW's, Porches, and everything in the most expensive configuration.

The last thing that struck me as the increased amount of pet shops. In almost every street you can find a pet-store that sells dog&cat food and gatgets. Are people getting more pets at home? I suspect a trend here.

I got 'home' again and now it's time to continue unpacking.
Tonight the first food and drinks are planned!