Tales of Hong Kong, October 2012

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In order to get into practice for this blog, I am going to write-up some of my time in Hong Kong.





My track record with accommodation in foreign countries is less than cheerful. My first few weeks in Russia were, let's say, 'uncomfortable'; I lived in a two bedroom flat with a single mother, her daughter, her sister, and sometimes a man... who may or may not have been a brother. She would laugh at me if I tried to speak Russian to her, and she spent a lot of time shouting at her toddler. I was relieved to move into the student flats above the classrooms a week later.

I'm still not sure if my first month in Hong Kong was better or worse.

On 3rd October, I wen to view a flat in Kwai Hing, an industrial area just north of Kowloon. I was met at the MTR station by a thirty-something Konger with an Australian accent, who, for the purposes of this blog, I shall name 'Logan'.

Logan was laid back and somewhat charming. He was very easy to talk to. He had a two bedroom flat with a large living room that he was renting out. He told me there were two girls there already (he said they were Russian and British, but they turned out to be Czech and Irish), but he was setting up a screen in the living room that would split the room in half. It was cheap. I met Czech, a student at HK University. The 'room' was very affordable, the people were lovely, and after spending a week in a 24-to-a-room hostel, it seemed like a good idea.

Yeah... again, I'm not too good with accommodation.

It turned out that Logan was also living in the flat, and within a few days he had already split off another part of the living room and found another desperate soul who would sleep on a mattress on the floor, Lydia. A week late, I came home to find him asleep on top of half-built bunkbeds with a girl whose name he couldn't remember. At times there were seven of us living in that flat.

There were some awkward times. An argument between Logan and Lydia in the room colourfully advertised as the 'carpet room' became vicious, with Logan roaring in her face and threatening to kick her out without giving back her deposit, leaving her penniless. Lydia had complained about the amount she was paying (which I feel responsible for, as t was me that let it slip that we were paying the same even though I had actual furniture and she only had a mattress). Czech never came out of her room, but Irish and I were sitting in my bedroom when the argument kicked off. We came out from behind the curtain and tried to calm things down. I tried to stop a hysterical Lydia from crying, and Irish calmed down Logan, who had flipped from surfer dude to psycho in a split second.

Irish and I found a flat on Lamma Island and told Logan we would be moving out at the end of the month.

A few days later, Logan's father turned up after midnight and started a massive row with Logan. He was absolutely livid. It turned out that Logan's flat wasn't Logan's flat was not Logan's flat, it was his fathers, and Logan was not supposed to be renting out any part of it. The dad was demanding that his son should leave. He told us that he would give us our deposits back and we could move out, but his son was a 'bad boy' and would have to leave that night.

Logan managed to convince his father to let him stay. By he end of the week his father reneged on his promise and told us to deal with Logan. We were very fortunate to get our deposits back, I don't like to think how he got the money; he found people to take our rooms, their deposits were given to us and we moved out to Lamma.

That was my first month in Hong Kong.

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