Hong Kong

We arrived in HK and were blown away by the high 'tech-ness' of the place. We'd both been here before but for me it was 9 or 10 years ago and the sheer height of the buildings and the number of skyscrapers never fails to surprise you.

There are moving screens everywhere - like Picadilly Circus X 100. The shopping areas are comparable to any city centre in the west but there are probably more than in any city I've ever been to. Every street seems to have a mall - if not 5 or 6!

I think they say that any street in Hong Kong at 3am on a normal day is as busy as London Oxford St on Christmas Eve..  well I wouldn't say any street but it certainly is busy at night and the shops open late every night. Life gets going after 6pm - like New York in Asia - and nothing like back home! Our neighbours in our little 18th Century street in Melbourne, Derbyshire - where we spent a year in a cottage told us that it couldn't be more different moving to HK and I think they were right.

We'd booked a cheap and cheerful guesthouse in Kowloon - one of the main parts of one of the islands. It was certainly cheerful and clean, but my god, you couldn't swing a cat anywhere. I was expecting it to be small but you almost had to stand on the bed to get changed- and the shower was actually positioned over the toilet! Not my cup of tea - I get very claustrophobic- especially on the 15th floor with bars on the windows.

We're planning to move to HK, and these few days were for interviews and to start thinking about where we'd live etc. I really started to panic that we'd have to live in a shoe box..However, we went to have dinner with the mum of a good friend of ours, who's been there for years and her place was great! I wouldn't say it was palatial, but she could certainly swing a few cats and her guest room even had an en-suite! She lived out on one of the islands; a tropical paradise called Lamma Island. You arrive into a fishing harbour and the houses are all 1-3 storeys. There're really nice beaches and no roads at all. You walk everywhere along small paths or walkways. There were even pubs and seafood restaurants everywhere full of both Chinese and expats. I loved it and really wanted to live there, but another night we went out with a girl called Shevaun, (another vet who Angel met a few years ago doing charity in Thailand,) who changed our minds!

She's Irish and after taking us for an Indian and a few beers (despite the fact that we hadn't been able to even look at Indian food after 5 months in India!), we went to the shop and bought some more beers and went out to the harbour seafront. It was really windy that night, and I had been making do with a tshirt and a thin scarf all week even though it was still winter in HK and the locals were wearing winter coats and boots. I told myself I was a tough Brit  - but it was more to do with the fact that I'd left my goose down jacket and my hoodie in storage in Bangkok with a load of other stuff that I (wrongly) thought I wouldn't need for the rest of the trip! While getting very merry, shevaun told us all about life in HK and her amazing social life. She convinced us that if we lived out on Lamma, we'd have to get the last boat back at 11.30 every night, when our night out would just be getting started.  She lives in New Territories, which is the vast jungly countryside area in the North. It's still on the metro line and it's only 20 mins in a taxi from HK Island for her. It's cheap, much bigger accommodation and quiet and peaceful, but you can still be in the centre of the city in 20 mins.

One thing that I wasn't entirely convinced about was the food.  I've never been such a fan of Chinese food but the menus with things like pig's blood jelly, tongue, chicken's feet or trotter soup may have lost something in the translation. Everything seemed to have offal and even if it didn't, it comes in a gloopy gravy without any of the layers of fresh flavours that Thai food has. I do love dim sum (Chinese dumplings) though, which is usually a breakfast or lunch dish served with jasmine tea.. Mmmmmmm! I suppose we'll be able to cook alot and we'll find out where the best places to eat are after a while.

Angel ended up having 5 interviews in 4 days and I was able find the main shopping areas(!) and to explore a bit.  We still don't know where we'll live or where we'll be working, but we have quite a few options. Angel has been offered 4 out of the 5 jobs so far (jammy git), so now he's trying to decide between them. It looks like he'll be starting in June, which won't give us long back home before we have to come back again. We're thinking about finishing the trip a bit earlier, so we can both go to Spain for a while as well as back home for Martha and Nat's wedding and to meet up with friends.

We're looking forward to getting a base in HK but being able to travel round Asia at weekends and during time off - who knows..maybe snowboarding in Korea, city-breaks to Tokyo, visiting mainland China and even direct flights to Samui and then a quick ferry to Ko Pa Ngan for full moon! The best thing is that the budget airlines have flights for £30-50! I've also never been to Australia or New Zealand, so definitely want to spend some longer hols there too.. and I'm sure my nieces'll be pleased to learn that there's even a Disneyland in Hong Kong! Supposedly the money is also really good here. The best thing is that even teaching English I could earn more than Angel! Woohoooo! Well, we'll see... now I have to concentrate on applying for jobs before I start counting my chickens!! Next stop The Philippines....