When we first looked for information on setting up home in Hong Kong, we found that it was quite common for new arrivals to spend their first month in a hotel, while looking for an apartment at their leisure. This seemed like a sensible course of action, so I examined an internet map of Hong Kong to see what hotels were available in the vicinity of my school. It didn¡¦t take long to come up with the answer ¡V none at all. Kwun Tong is a poor area with mainly public housing and absolutely no hotels. It¡¦s not the sort of place people would go either for business or on a holiday.
The EMB (Education and Manpower Bureau) sent us a list of hotels that offered special monthly rates for new NETs, so we started researching to find the most appropriate one. Some sounded like very good deals until they turned out to be way out in the New Territories. Several were located around Mongkok and Tsim Sha Tsui, very crowded and touristy areas, and quite far from school, but at least on the Kowloon side and on the same MTR line. We soon narrowed it down to two hotels on the eastern end of Hong Kong island, in the area known as North Point. It meant crossing the harbour twice a day, but both were actually only five train stops away from Kwun Tong. This turned out to involve two changes of train, but that was not a real problem given that the average wait for a train is under two minutes.
I researched websites about both the hotels, including reviews by former clients. There was a sprinkling of negative comments (mainly about lost reservations and constant renovation work) but both had generally favourable reviews. City Garden¡¦s rooms were described as larger than other nearby hotels and it was significantly closer to Central than the Harbour Plaza, which was about the same distance from the eastern cross-harbour tunnel, but on the other side of it, so I decided to book it for the first month. Yoong, of course, tended to favour Harbour Plaza, just to be difficult. Fortunately, I turned out to have made the right decision. We both loved the local area ¡V colourful and non-touristy, with lots of little restaurants and shops. We did take a walk to Harbour Plaza to check out their rooms. It was a decent place but somehow didn¡¦t appeal as much as City Garden; the surrounding area was not as interesting and, most importantly, it was practically next door to a funeral parlour ¡V a big no-no for Yoong.
Not that everything went smoothly at first. After having built up a substantial series of e-mails to and from the sales department, we arrived with all the luggage we would need for at least two years in Hong Kong, only to find they had no record of our booking. Of course, being Sunday, the lady with whom we had negotiated our package was not at work. We were not pleased. This was the last thing we needed after an overnight plane trip and a long drawn-out process of collecting our unaccompanied luggage, one bag of which had been slashed open somewhere along the way.
Fortunately, we had proof. We printed out our contact history with City Garden Hotel, using the internet facilities on the top floor, and were given a room for the night. It wasn¡¦t long before the staff moved us, apologetically, to an Executive room on the top floor (25th). The reason they gave for the move was that noisy renovations were being carried out on a lower floor, but there may have also been a bit of face-saving involved.
The room had a view of the harbour ¡V well, provided you stood on the far right of the large window and looked to the far left. Apart from that the harbour view was blocked by the high-rise residences of the City Garden estate. Fortunately these were not too close-up, being separated by City Garden itself, which is a typical Hong Kong park, i.e. no grass, but well-used by old ladies doing Tai Chi in the early mornings. Yoong has now become one of these, but that¡¦s another story.
We began the search for a rental apartment we could call our own. Agents showed us around various estates, including Oscar-by-the-Sea, a new complex with beautiful harbour views but far too remote and sterile for Yoong, who wanted access to the hustle and bustle of local wet-markets, and Laguna City, also with good views, and about the closest estate to school, being at Lam Tin, one MTR stop away from Kwun Tong. But wherever we looked we came across the same problem. The rooms were so tiny. A bed big enough to hold me comfortably would take up a whole bedroom. We kept looking for a month, but could not bring ourselves to accept something that would be so much less comfortable than our hotel room. We came to the conclusion that the best solution for us would be to stay in the hotel, provided we could continue with the monthly arrangement we had so far enjoyed.
¡§Isn¡¦t it expensive?¡¨ is generally the first question people ask, when we say we live in a hotel ¡V well, Chinese people anyway. Admittedly it is more expensive than most of the apartments we have seen, but any apartment we would really feel comfortable living in would cost considerably more. In Singapore we had made the choice to live in a cheap apartment, well under the amount of our housing allowance, not just so that we could live on the rest of the allowance and save practically all my actual salary, but mainly because renting a local apartment enabled me to live ten minutes walk from school. In Hong Kong we were prepared to use the whole of the allowance for its intended purpose, but even if we spent it all on an apartment we would feel we were living in a matchbox.
The deal the hotel offered us for a two-year stay came to almost exactly the amount of our housing allowance. We have to pay more in the two peak months of the year, but this is offset by the fact that we are allowed to vacate our room when we go on holidays and have our luggage stored free of charge. This makes more sense to us than leaving an expensive apartment empty for seven or eight weeks of the year. Other advantages ¡V we have cable television, free internet access, and clean sheets and towels everyday. When we go out we come back to a freshly cleaned room. We never have to go shopping for tea and coffee, drinking water or bathroom items like soap, shampoo, tissues, toothbrushes or shaving equipment. We get a daily newspaper and weekly magazine (The Economist), ¡§welcome¡¨ drinks and a basket of fruit once a month, and, occasionally, the sales lady takes us out to dinner or breakfast in one of the hotel¡¦s restaurants. We have free use of the swimming pool, spa and gym (or would have if we ever used a gym). And we never have to pay gas bills, electricity bills or phone bills. It is indeed a life of luxury.
What are the disadvantages?
The first one that occurred to us is that we can¡¦t invite visitors to stay with us. Even in Singapore we managed to squeeze a whole family of friends from Australia into our apartment, and in Brunei we had a six-bedroom house, where we could put up far more guests than were ever likely to turn up in such a remote part of the world as Kuala Belait. Even in the little two-room apartment in Paris we could turn our living room into an extra bedroom if necessary. But, in fact, in all these places, guests were few and far between and, most of the time, we were alone in our accommodation. In any case, we can put one extra bed in our room if we get a single visitor. We have already done so for our son, Dylan, and our nephew, Mel. Any more than that and we will have to book a separate room.
The second disadvantage is that it¡¦s hard to invite friends over for a meal. Not impossible, mind you, just difficult. Yoong does cook in the room. At one stage we were given a microwave oven, but we preferred not to use it, so sent it back. We have cooked a meal for friends a couple of times, but generally it is easier to take them out to a restaurant, standard practice anyway in this society.
Thirdly, we are restricted to one room. We can¡¦t go and do separate things in different rooms. This is not really much of a problem as I am at work a lot of the time, and we are often out exploring Hong Kong anyway. After the first month we had to move out of the Executive room (to an equally large and pleasant room on the 21st floor) but we can still go up to the Executive Lounge to use the internet, and, of course, there is the pool area. Even though we have only one room (plus a bathroom) it is not much smaller than the apartments we have seen. By Hong Kong standards, it is actually quite spacious. So far, the close proximity hasn¡¦t caused any noticeable friction. After 35 years we are just about used to each other¡¦s company. I put up with Yoong¡¦s Tai Chi, and she puts up with my music. And would it really be any different if we carried out these activities in separate rooms a few feet away from each other?
The fourth, and only other, possible disadvantage is the air-conditioning. Normally we avoid it where possible in our travels and seek out fan-cooled rooms, though these are getting harder and harder to come by. However, when we consider the appalling air-pollution that mars this otherwise beautiful city, air-conditioning doesn¡¦t seem such a bad idea. Fortunately at this hotel it is fairly unobtrusive and can be adjusted so that we don¡¦t feel we are living in a freezer the way a lot of the locals seem to like it.
Some expatriate teachers would have difficulty with the fact that there are no other NETs living in this hotel, unlike a few popular places on the Kowloon side. This makes little difference to me. I have already joined two organizations where I mix with Western people (the Folk Society and the Welsh Male Voice Choir) and we occasionally see some teacher friends. Yoong, of course, is quite happy to make friends with the local people.
The only problem I see for the future is adjusting to living in a house when we get back to Australia. Who is going to make the beds and vacuum the floors?