Trouble in Hong Kong

From Chuckster (Chester & Puckster) in Hong Kong, posted by Hannelore Arbyn on 4/27/2011 (27 items)

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So yes, it’s been really long since the last post, the last written one at least. You can blame it on the holiday season, laziness or having too many things to do and not enough time to write about them. Or all of the above.
In a nutshell, the past 2 months we’ve :
- settled into our apartment in Sheung Wan.
- been to Ikea about a 53 times (you can now buy packs of frozen swedish meatballs with accompanying sauce for home consumption so I foresee regular trips back to Ikea in the future).
- been to the Hong Kong Belgian Beer Festival where we were treated to a performance of belgian folk dancing, fries, a waffle and lots of beer.
- traveled back to Belgium for the yearly holiday celebrations (this is the last time we’re going back in the winter, that’s for sure) and a few days back in the Belgium office.
- traveled back home to Hong Kong (yes, it does feel like home now).
- bought an electrical heater because it can get bloody freezing in these unheated buildings.
- hosted our first dinner party at our place, with homemade lasagna and chocolate mousse, resulting in the challenge to a mousse-off by our friend Stef, but we’re confident a real belgian chocolate mousse can’t be beaten. We’ll keep you posted on the outcome.
- did some more exploring of the amazing place that is Hong Kong. A 30 minute ferry trip takes you to Peng Chau, an island (one of the 200+ islands of HK) where the only transportation is a bicycle or your feet and where you feel like you’re on holiday somewhere far away from the 24 hour madness that is Hong Kong Island. We’ve done 2 islands so far (Lantau and Peng Chau), only 198+ to go.

Now that everyone is all caught up on the past month, let’s talk about the coming weeks. Next week is Chinese New Year. I’ve been hearing about it so much for the past years at work, I’m curious to see how it really is here. We’ll be viewing the fireworks from a boat in Victoria Harbour with some of the other belgian expats here.
One of the curious and complicated things about CNY is the tradition of Lai See, or little red packets. These are little red envelopes containing money which are handed out for CNY. There’s a whole etiquette surrounding this practice. Superiors at work give them to their subordinates, elders to the younger members of the family, married couples to singles. Plus you’re expected to hand them out to all the people who perform services for you, like the doormen in the building, the cleaning lady, etc.
The amount to put in the envelope varies depending on who you give it to, but it has to be 1 new and crisp note, no coins, no multiple notes. And giving 40 dollars is a definite no-no as “4″ sounds like “death” in cantonese. Our next few days will be spent harvesting all the new 20 and 50 dollar bills we can find and figuring out how much we should give to who.
After CNY we’ll be flying off to Cambodia for a late honeymoon, we can’t wait. Photos and report will undoubtedly follow.
Until then, we wish you KUNG HEI FAT CHOI!

“We spent a lovely sunny afternoon on Peng Chau Island, a welcome break from the usual Hong Kong madness “

From Peng Chau, posted by Hannelore Arbyn on 1/23/2011 (52 items)

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