23 May 2009: Farewell dinner

Because we will be moving to a serviced appartment next week, last Saturday we have organised a small farewell dinner for friends, colleagues and neighbours. In Malaysia that's quite easy and convenient: you just hire a caterer... On Friday they brought a big red tent that was placed in front of our house and the tables and chairs. Saturday afternoon around five the food arived and everything was neatly arranged. Just before 7pm the first guests arrved and ultimately the last people left around 1am in the morning. Throughout the evening about 100 people came to say goodbye. Emily apparently enjoyed herself because she only wanted to go to bed around 11pm....
See the photo's at the right hand side.

30 May 2009: Movers

This weekend we have moved from our rented house in Damansara Legenda to the serviced appartment in KL. Thursday morning at 9.30am sharp the movers arrived. Because all our stuff will be stored in a warehouse for a month, there was no sea container yet, but everything was transported using a 'regular' truck. The estimation up front was that everything could be done in one and a half day, but finally it took two whole days to pack everyting. Mainly because for a lot of items the movers from Alied Pickfords had to make special boxes. Saturday afternoon around 5pm the house was finally empty (except for the furniture that belongs to the owner). Emily was at school on Friday and went to play with some friends on Saturday, hence she has not seen much of the move. With the rest of our things we need in the coming few weeks, we went to "The Nomad" where we'll be staying for 4 weeks.
Click on the photo at the right hand side for an impression of the move.

7 juni 2009: The Nomad - Bangsar

1 July 2009: Hong Kong

Yesterday afternoon we have arrived in Hong Kong. At 6.45am we left the apartment in The Nomad in Bangsar. Unfortunately there was one of these typical experiences with the taxi: we had pre-ordered an Airport Limo, but after being already 15 minutes too late the taxi driver gave us a call and said he had a problem with the car. On top of that Airport Limo even informed us that they did not have an alternative...... Fortunately we had already managed to contact a local taxi drive via one of the security guards of The Nomad and he still managed to get us to the airport in time.








The flight to HK was very smooth: departure on time and also arrival in HK on time. We had quite a lot of luggage, about 70 kg, but even that was not an issue.
After arrival we took the Airport Express train into the centre of HK (took about half an hour) and then a 5 minute taxi ride to our temporary apartment.
The apartment is ok but (as you might expect in HK) not very big: we have a small living room (see photo's), two bedrooms, a small kitchen with fridge and microwave and we have a bathroom with shower. For now it is ok, but we'll try to find a permanent (bigger) place as soon as possible.

For now it will probably be a matter of finding out the 'regular' things in HK: where to do shopping, how to get somewhere using public transport, getting a mobile number etc.
Tonight we'll probably take the ferry from HK Island into Tsim Tsa Tsui (to admire the HK skyline by night).

Tomorrow morning an agent who has been arranged by Fortis will be visiting us to explain several things on HK and to take us to a number or apartments that are available.

Finally the view from our apartment in HK.......

9 July 2009: Apartment

We have found a permanent apartment and most probably we'll be able to move in on 31 July. An agent arranged by Fortis has shown us a number of apartments in and around the centre of Hong Kong. Because the office of Henk lies in the district Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island it was obviously our preference to find something not to far from there.

Firstly we have looked at the centre of HK Island (Mid Levels and Happy Valley) and although we could find a number of possible apartments that were big enough for a family of 4, there were not many with facilities for children (or the view from the apartment was real terrible....) Eventually we have found something we like that lies a little bit outside of the centre in the district Pokfulham. About a 20 minutes bus ride from Henk his office lies a new high-rise complex called Bel-Air. We found a large condominium on the 26th the floor with a splendid view of the sea (to see the photograph above). There are among other things a large number of outside swimming pools, a large inside pool and plenty of play facilities for children. Part of the area around the apartments is car-free so you can walk and cycle. The boxes with all our stuff will be shipped on 17/7 from Malaysia to Hong Kong and therefore if all goes well we'll be able to move in end of the month!

11 July 2009: Disneyland

Today we have been to Hong Kong Disneyland. Although they predicted some thunderstorms we had the advantage that it was not that warm anymore and every now and then there was a pleasant breeze. Disneyland is situated on Lantau Island, close to HK Airport on a 40 minute MTR ride from HK Central. The last part uses a special train where almost everything is using the shape of Mickey Mouse. Fortunately it was not very busy, so for both buying a ticket as well as getting into the rides there were hardly any queues. Since this will not be the last time we're going to visit the park we have bought an annual pass that gives us unlimited access to Disneyland (except for Xmas and Chinese New Year) for one year.
Especially Emily loved the Park and all the Disney characters (and this 1st visit we have only seen a small portion of the park). HK Disneyland is a bit smaller than the version near Paris, but the idea and layout is quite similar.

Unfortunately there was a Typhoon level 1 warning which later rose to level 2 (that meant some strong winds and thunderstorms). In Hong Kong there are typhoons every now and then and hence the governement has formal procedures to warn people about the state of the weather. Apparently at level 2 the outdoor facilities of Disneyland have to be closed.

The other indoor activities remained open, so that's where we have spent most of the afternoon. There are also a lot of places to meet some of the Disney characters and it is possible to have your picture taken with them.

Obviously there is a professional photographer who shoots a number of digital pictures (with the objective to sell them for a huge amount of money) but it is also possible to hand your own camera to one of the staff and he/she will then take some pictures. We obviously opted for the latter option, see the photo's on this page..

If it is up to Emily, we go again tomorrow .....

31 July 2009: Moved to Bel-Air

This Friday we have moved to our permanent place in Bel-Air. Early in the morning, Henk had arranged for a company car with a driver to bring us from Bauhinia hotel to the new apartment. When we arrived around 915am, the truck from Allied Pickfords was already there and a few men were already unloading the boxes and were bringing them upstairs. The owner and our agent were also there and after the handover of the keys, the movers could start to bring in and unpack all the boxes. The movers managed to unpack the first truck load of boxes before lunch time. Our place in Hong Kong is obviously much smaller than the house we had in KL and hence after a while the apartment was completely filled with boxes. Eventually we managed to organise everything in a very ecomomic way. We only have to get some shelves from IKEA to organise the last couple of boxes in a neat way, but it looks that everyting just fits. We have bought a new bed for the master bedroom and a pair of sofas, but that should be it (and we don't have any more space to buy something more anyway ...)

Despite the fact that we have less space than in Malaysia, we still have a reasonable large sized apartment (compared to a lot of other places in HK). We have a fairly large living room, 3 smaller bedrooms and one master bedroom, 3 bathrooms and a fairly large kitchen with a lot of new, modern appliances (washing machine, dish washer, oven, microwave, vegetable washer and a steamer). Finally there is a small storage room. We live on the 26th floor and coincidently that is floor with only one apartment. We can hence also use the area in front of the elevators to store certain things such as our bycicles.

Today (Saturday) we have taken the bus from Bel-Air to Hong Kong and that takes indeed approx. 25 miuntes. The Bel-Air complex has its own shuttle bus service that goes to HK roughly every 30 minutes and ends close to Henk's office in Sheung Wan. Close to Bel-Air there is a small town called Aberdeen (about 10 minutes by car) and we can do most of our shopping there. The location so far therefore looks perfect !

23 August 2009: Swimming pools

Bel-Air has a fair number of facilities we can use (included in the rent of the apartment). The developer built all the apartments using a number of phases, and each phase has a number of recreation facilities. In our area there is a members' club with an indoors swimming pool, fitness facilities and an indoors childrens' playground. Outside they have created a number of playgrounds as well. When we leave the apartment complex we can almost directly go into the outdoor swimming pool. Right in fron of our apartment there are about 6 pools: one large pool (with ocean view), two smaller pools for children three whirlpools and two small pools for babies and children.


Today we have taken Sophie to the pool for the 1st time. The last couple of days it was quite hot, so the water in the pools at the end of the afternoon was warm enough for her to take a swim. As far as we could tell she really liked it!

Emily also really likes the pool. Besides the baby pool there are a number of water fountains. Emily really likes to run around and play with the water coming from the fountains.

Swimming goes ok; Every now and then she also wants to go into the large pool and moves her feet a little bit, but it will probably still take a while before she can swim herself....