DEC 17, 14 .. CITY LOFT SERVICED STUDIO .. HONG KONG ..

OH MY .. OH MY .. OH MY !

SPEECHLESS IN HONG KONG ..

SLEEPLESS IN HONG KONG .. FROM THE HOURS SPENT POSTING POSTS ..

WIRED UP IN HONG KONG .. MY BODY IS AMPED UP ..

WATCH WHAT YOU PRAY FOR .. IN HONG KONG .. YOU MAY VERY WELL GET IT !

And what on earth are the MUNDANE photographs below CAPTAIN?

Below is a photograph of the Hillier Street street sign here in the SHEUNG WAN DISTRICT of Hong Kong ..

Sheung Wan is pronounced as ONE word .. SHEN WAN ..

Below is a photo taken from Hillier Street of the front of the entrance to building Number 13-15 Hillier Street .. Sheung Wan .. Hong Kong .. THE home of CITY LOFT SERVICED STUDIO (A property management and apartment rental firm).

The below photograph is a close-up photo of the street number of the above building ..

Below we look up the street towards the above building from perhaps 100-feet up Hillier Street. Notice the left-most lady-in-black. She is in front of the above building. Notice also the high-rise building up the street. The second photo following this photo will show you this building from several blocks behind us in the above photo. You can’t miss the RED CIRCLE – K sign on the upper left below. This RED CIRCLE – K sign has become one of my landmarks for locating myself here in Sheung Wan.

Now you get a good overview of Hillier Street. Do you see our RED CIRCLE – K sign in the lower left center below?

To lure-you-all-in I have teased you with the above photographs. NOW for some DREADED TEXT WRITING.

Photographs Captain .. we all WANT PHOTOGRAPHS Captain. I know! But here comes some text.

I first visited the Hong Kong Metro Area on October the 25th 1990. Beginning with that first-ever-visit to Hong Kong and INCLUDING THIS VISIT .. I would conservatively estimate that probably 85% of all of my time spent here in the Hong Kong Metro Area over the past 24-years has been spent NOT in the city of Hong Kong but in the city of KOWLOON.

Over the past 24-years I have really gotten-to-know KOWLOON. I have spent one night and one night only in a hotel room in Hong Kong. Repeat .. during the past 24-years I have spent a total of ONE NIGHT ..sleeping in Hong Kong. That one night being the night I spent with Patti in the Hong Kong YMCA in April of 1996.

SPORTS FANS THAT is about to change .. and I mean to CHANGE RADICALLY!

In the building located at 13-15 Hillier Street in the Sheung Wan District of Hong Kong are the offices of City Loft Studios & Flats.

You walk up a floor to get to the elevator.

On the 4th Floor in Suite 4/f of 13-15 Hillier Street are the offices of City Loft Serviced Studio. I go a bit nutso over the chinese characters. “We have noticed that you do Captain!”

City Loft is a specialized firm engaged in providing SERVICED APARTMENT RENTALS of apartments and flats in Hong Kong. A serviced apartment rental is a short term rental (one week to one month or more depending upon the terms of the agreement) with no lease or long term commitment. You pay 100% of the money-due up-front and you move into a furnished apartment or even a multi-room flat.

We have arrived at the offices of City Loft.

At best the name is a bit unusual isn’t it? I want an ending like Company or Management or Brokerage ..

The office is a very PLEASANT space.

AND? ..

IT IS A DONE-DEAL!

I will be moving into my very own studio apartment at 23 Mercer Street in the Sheung Wan District of Hong Kong on December the 29th of this year 2014!

I plan to stay in my studio apartment at least for two full months until the end of February 2015 and POSSIBLY stay longer depending upon how everything works out during my first two months on Mercer Street.

I am going to actually be LIVING IN the city proper of HONG KONG! on HONG KONG ISLAND .. (PINCH ME I MUST BE DREAMING ALL OF THIS!)

I now have a HONG KONG telephone number and a HONG KONG street address on Mercer Street. Am I living large here or am I LIVING LARGE!

In the below map do you all see the vertical scale on the upper left edge of the map directly below the small figure? Notice the + and the – signs.  IF you click onto them you can ZOOM IN OR ZOOM OUT .. Try it .. Oh Go On .. Try it!

Tomorrow I will sign-my-name on the dotted-line and finalize the agreement. My move-in cost is 12,000 HKD ($1,558.44 US Dollars) and my monthly rental is 10,000 HKD ($1,298.70 US Dollars). To put these monthly rental costs into perspective I have been paying from 330 HKD ($42.85 US Dollars) up to 650 HKD ($84.42 US Dollars) each NIGHT.

A rough estimate of my average nightly cost in the backpacker hostels would be 475 HKD ($61.69 US Dollars).

Pause and consider what you get in a motel in the U.S. for $61 Dollars a night and contemplate the below room.

So here is what the math looks like:

For my studio apartment I will be paying 10,000 HKD ($1,298.70 US Dollars) per 30-day MONTH or 333.33 HKD ($43.29 US Dollars) per DAY.

For my backpacker hostels I have been paying 14,250 HKD ($1,850.65 US Dollars) per 30-day MONTH or 475 HKD ($61.69 US Dollars) per DAY.

My BOTTOM LINE is that I will be SAVING approximately $18.40 US Dollars per day or $552 US Dollars per month.

AND ? ..

I will be getting about two to three times the SPACE ..

AND ? ..

I will NOT BE MOVING from room to room and from building to building every two to three days!

AND ? ..

I will be .. for a month or two (Who is taking-bets I may stay longer?) a real honest-to-goodness Hong Kong RESIDENT!

Patti and I are not ruling out the possibility of Patti coming back to Hong Kong to live here with me for awhile.

CAPTAIN! .. We want photos! .. We want photos! .. We want photos! ..

I just happened to snap a photo or two of ..

THE SHEUNG WAN DISTRICT OF HONG KONG!

MY ABOUT-TO-BE NEW DIGS!

DISCLAIMER WARNING! .. Some of you may want to have a ‘hankie’ handy for the next few sentimental photos!

CHRISTMAS IS ALIVE AND DOING WELL IN HONG KONG!

CAN YOU ALL IMAGINE .. HK TRADITIONAL COMFORT FOOD! ABOVE OR BELOW?

HONG KONG ‘REEKS-OF-SERIOUS-MONEY’ !

AND ‘REEKS-OF-CHINESE CHARACTERS’ ..

Below is a photo of one of the MTR Exits for getting to Hillier Street ..

THIS ONE’s FOR YOU ‘ROCKIN’ ROBB !

WELL ?

WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK?

SMILES ! .. Cap .. 

• ← DEC 15, 14 .. TODAY’S RHETORICAL QUESTION ..
• DEC 19, 14 .. 23 MERCER STREET .. SHEUNG WAN .. HONG KONG .. PART I .. →