Hong Kong - Good Bye Mandarin

The day had come. We were to move out of the hotel into the apartment on Old Peak road. It was good to know that come the evening we would be sleeping in our own room and the girls would have their room. Even better would have been that each of the girls had their own room but it was a good start.

After breakfast we re packed the things we had out of the bags and got prepared for the bus which was due to come and collect us at 10am. I had the morning off work so was available to help out which was great. We were duly ready and called for our luggage to be collected. It was once again amusing to see the look on the face of the poor individual who had to collect all the bags.

We went downstairs to reception and settled our bill and moved outside where our bus was just coming through. It is amazing how well a place in a location and of this size works and it never ceased to impress me. They loaded all our gear into the back and we were driven to our new apartment.

The drive up to the apartment was amazingly steep. It reminded me a lot of the hills coming up from the beaches of Akaroa in the south island of NZ. My plan of walking home will need to be seriously reconsidered.

The apartment itself is fine. It is at the rear of the building as we thought with a view up to the Tram Station (the flying wok) and over all the jungle. It is a 2 bed apartment on the 20th floor of an apartment complex so as you can imagine and will see in the photos it is surrounded by more apartment buildings. We went to the supermarket near by and bought some provisions before I headed back to work.

When I got back down to work I met up with the team for a team lunch at Jardine near the IFC. It was a fantastic "Dim Sum" lunch with a huge range of dishes ordered and I am pretty sure I tried at least one of everything. The thing that stuck out was a chicken that had been flattened, It had been fried and laid on a plate with its head also presented. As my colleagues had told me that they were going to get me eating chicken feet I was slightly concerned the head maybe on the menu.

We had also arranged a dinner with my direct team and Catherine at Lei Garden in the IFC. It was a fantastic Chinese meal and I could not tell you what all the ordered dishes were but it included Scallops, Beef, Pork, Vegetarian and a host of others. The restaurant was great and looking into the kitchen you could see the tanks of fish, Lobster, Crab and they were all swimming and looking perfectly healthy.

An enjoyable day by rights and the fact we are now in the apartment has given us hope of a full nights sleep. Also the taxi fair between home and the IFC is only the equivalent of £2 so if we do need to get into town it is not the end of the world if we do not want to take the shuttle bus.

Before I forget, Today was the first "Amber Rainstorm Warning". It was issued at 16:30 and then removed later in the evening. Atleast it is hot and wet not cold and wet.