Happy Valley Apartments??

March 14 – Today I looked at some apartments in a part of town called Happy Valley. This is well known because one of the two horse racing tracks is here. Horse racing is HUGE in Hong Kong, everyone bets on them, I mean everyone. On the day of a race you can’t get near the Hong Kong Jockey Club offices that are scattered around the city because so many people are lined up there to bet. We have not attended a race yet, but we will when my mom & sister come in a few weeks. It is supposed to be really fun. For HK$10 (UA$1.30) you can go to the area with the regular people ( as opposed to the “members” area that is enclosed & I hear very fancy). It is right next to the track and I hear very exciting. Another day another blog topic.

Anyway I had called the guy about the apartment in Central that I tried to see yesterday& nobody came to the door. He said to come see the ones in Happy Valley, they were the same. The ones in Central were being renovated. I had been at the office earlier in the day, but forgot to get a map showing where this place was (I’m totally lost without a map). I had gone to the bank also, and that was when I realized I’d forgotten to print out a map (like mapquest). I asked the women at the bank to help me & they did their best. They’d never heard of Hong Kong’s version of map quest & were fascinated by it. They found the location I was looking for, but for some reason they could not get it to print. So they wrote down for me where to go & told me to take the tram towards Happy Valley & get off at the end. This I could manage.

The trams are great this time of year, because it is cool & they don’t smell. They are not air conditioned, so once the hot weather hits you want to avoid them. I hoped on the tram right outside of the bank that was heading for Happy Valley. The trams are very popular with locals because no matter how far you are riding it is always only HK$2 (25 cents). It was a pleasant ride & once you get near the race course it looks almost suburban. The race course is really a huge sports complex with various fields for soccer, rugby, tennis courts, a large track. There were lots of people using the complex, walking dogs, running, playing all sorts of sports. I liked the feel of the area. I found the apartment building (not promising looking) & when he showed me the room I had to keep from laughing. I knew Hong Kong apartments had a reputation for being small, but this was ridiculous. Calling it an apartment was really pushing it. It was more like a hallway with a bed squeezed into one end and a toilet at the other. They had a table with a hot plate on it & a tiny frig, which is why I guess they called it an apartment. It wasn’t really that cheap either.

I think he could tell I was not impressed, so he sent me to another building a few blocks away. This was only slightly better. In the 250 sqft “apartment” included a balcony, so not much room left for the room. Also, not elevators. It was only 5 floors, but I’m sure our people do not want to walk up in the heat without A/C in the stairwell. Another scratch. But I got to see another part of the city, and you know how much I enjoy that.

March 15 – I looked at more apartments today in Central, but they all turned out to be WAY more expensive than advertised. So more scratches off the list. It is a very short list now. Nothing else exciting or interesting.