Paradise Flats
Yay! I get to use an ancient 60’s song title by Status Quo for the blog title today. The new pad in Discovery Bay is truly a paradise apartment (flat). It overlooks the beach and the gentle waves lapping the shore, the sound of kids playing in the beach swing/play area, the sight of Indonesian maids walking the ex pat kids around the beach promenade!
So here we are in paradise, but hey there is still stuff to be done and mess in every room but it really isn’t that bad. The apartment is large too. It is on 4 mezzanine type levels which makes it interesting.
Now, let me recapon the last few days…
Friday was moving day and so was Saturday…..and so was Sunday. My brother and I packed up all that was left in the old serviced apartment and off we went laden with bags to get the ferry. The night before (Saturday) we met one of my brothers colleagues (Lucy) who works for his bank and ate at a Nepalese restaurant. She works with senior managers in a motivational role and I was interested in Coaching so we agreed to meet the next day.
I only had an hour in DB before catching the ferry back over to HK island. Icalled Lucy to see where we could meet. She was in the middle of nowhere so it took me 25 minutes to get to her. We met at the Man Mo Temple. She had already been in so we headed off to get a drink and chat about my interest in coaching.
We agreed to meet later to catch the star ferry to Kowloon to see the HK skyline at night from across the harbor. It was very cold but worth the trip as the skyline at night is amazing! The QE II was also docked here, the first time I have seen that ship up close. It used to be the best cruise ship on the water, a very long time ago.
Lucy mentioned that there was a night market around somewhere so we leapt into a taxi and 10 minutes later we were striding down a very narrow walkway in the midst of a throng of others and hundreds of market stalls all colorfully decorated with various trinkets and cheap imitations of designer brands. We were both only interested in the cheap DVD’s and found a place where other Brits were haggling like mad. We ended up getting 6 DVD’s for HK$150. That’s about US$18!
We ended up walking around the area for a while but realized we had no idea where we were so got back in a cab and took the ferry back to the island. As it was getting late we ate at her hotel, the Mandarin Oriental. Some reviving wine and a super meal later and I was walking back to catch the midnight ferry to DB.
An assortment of characters were on this ferry. It was not the last one however, the ferries run all night long!! Fantastic. No worries about missing your last ferry home. One lady had a unique sleeping position across 3 seats which she must have perfected over time as it looked awkward to me. Still, she seemed passed out by the time we were docking at the DB ferry terminal.
The stroll along the beach path home was quiet. I looked out over the water across to the distant buildings which will soon become Disney Land. It will be interesting to see how this place will cope with seeing fireworks every night once that gets up and running. They will only be 20 minutes from the magic kingdom!! Wonderful :0).
So it seems like paradise and sure enough it will be for the DB kids when they have Mickey Mouse and Snow White on their doorstep. This is an incredibly diverse city in terms of the people and the areas around Hong Kong. Here in DB it is a quiet haven with a slower pace to life, an extreme contrast to Hong Kong island and the mainland. Here on Lantau island we take things nice and easy :0)…
Tags: Hong Kong
