hk diary three - if the bed fits

i never realized how expensive it was to rent a flat in hong kong and how small the apartments were (and how precious space was, something that we simply neglected at home) until i started looking for one. on my second week, my friend and former office mate (the one who fetched me at the ifc mall when i arrived from manila) reminded me to start looking for a place to live because in two weeks' time, i would have to move out of the apartment building that was provided for me by my company.

he gave me the number of his broker who helped him find a flat when he moved to the former british colony a few years ago. he said the broker was very efficient, could understand and speak english, and did not charge much. so i called her up and she said we could start looking for an apartment on the same day, right after i got off from work.

she was very business like. on the phone, she asked me how much was my budget (i told her six thousand hong kong dollars a month and she told me that was too low. so i said seven thousand, i got an "hmmmmmmmm" reply. eight thousand? i could hear her breathing heavily on the other line. nine thousand? i asked again. she gave me an "ok" reply right away.)

i also told her that i would prefer renting a flat that was near the office, that is, a mere walking distance. she said it would be very expensive, but she would try.

we met at six o'clock at a coffee shop inside landmark. her name was lolit. she had thick, short hair like a boy, wore eyeglasses, carried a small bag that contained, among others, a pen and a list of the flats that we would see that evening. she was lean, athletic, walked briskly and spoke english quite fast that i had to ask her to slowdown every time i could not catch up on what she was saying.

at fifty-five, she was youthful. looked a few years younger. that evening, she was wearing a blue adidas jogging pants, black v-neck sweater and was carrying an umbrella. summer was nearly over and it started raining quite often. especially during the evening. i was in my office uniform -- dark jeans, sneakers, long sleeve shirt and a black coat. no scarf. it was not scarf season yet.

my friend had told her that i was also from the philippines. after shaking my hand, she told me she had been to manila, boracay and cebu several times and she loved it there. she liked the food. quite cheap but very delicious. she said her favourite was the "kansi" soup that she tasted in boracay, as well as the pork adobo and the grilled chicken. i agreed, suddenly craving for filipino food.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

first on the list was an old, five-storey apartment building near a wet market. it had no lift and on the way up, i noticed a lot of trash outside of every door. there were also some rats on the corridor. even before she opened the door to the apartment, i was already ready to leave the place. but i played along. inside, it was a very small, one bedroom flat. it had a very tiny kitchen, an even tinier bathroom that if a gained a few more weight, i won't fit inside it.

how much was it? i asked, just to be polite, even if i had already turned it down in my mind. seven thousand five hundred, she said. quite cheap, she added.

i said no. i don't like it.

she nodded her head, took out the list from her bag and crossed it out.

*****************

the next one was right across the street. it was bigger than the previous one. cleaner too. still, it had no elevator. and the flat was at the sixth floor. the rent was set at eight thousand. i turned it down.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

we viewed three more flats that evening and we finished at around nine, taking a break only to eat dinner at a chinese restaurant. i was so exhausted after that because all we did was walk around the mid-levels' hilly roads and side streets, not using the escalator. too, some buildings did not have a lift (ok elevator. i'll stop being pretentious. haha), so we had to use the stairs.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

after more than a week, i finally found the flat that i liked. it was at the second floor of a twenty-storey old building. a two-bedroom flat that was the size of a studio apartment in manila. the rooms were quite small that a queen-sized bed won't fit. it had a spacious bathroom with a shower and a tub, quite big kitchen with a window that opened up to a courtyard of the next apartment building. it was semi-furnished (air conditioner in every room, ref, sofa that could seat three people, washing machine, dryer, a dining set for four people, and an old teevee. i asked lolit that i didn't need the dining set and the old, bulky teevee since they ate a lot of space. so i asked her to please tell the owner to take them out of the flat. she said yes, it could be done.)

rent was at ten thousand, but i begged her if she could ask the owner to please bring it down to nine thousand because that was all what i could afford. she called the owner on her mobile phone and she spoke to someone in cantonese. all i could understand were the words "filipino", "manila", "reporter". when she hung up, she smiled at me. she said the owner agreed to bring it down to nine thousand, as well as to take away the dining set and the sad looking teevee that already belonged to the museum of antiquity just like my old mobile phone.

my friend, who was with me on the day (it was a saturday, both our day off) that i found the flat, lent me twenty seven thousand that i needed to pay the one-month advance and two-month deposit. i signed the lease agreement right there and then handed her the money.

it became my home for the next four years : the windsor building along castle road at the mid-levels, an area where most expats in hong kong lives. that was why rent was quite expensive.

&&&&&&&&&&&

since the two bedrooms were too small, i decided to use the living room as my bedroom. i also decided to just sleep on the floor and bought a futon at ikea instead of a bed that would, again, occupy a lot of space and would just make me feel claustrophobic. since i was born and raised in the province in a big house with a bigger lot, where there was an ample space to go around, i wasn't used to small, closed spaces.

my employer gave me about eight thousand hong kong dollars that i could use to furnish my flat. again, it was part of the perks. a signing bonus if you will. with that money, i bought a forty-two-inch flat screen teevee and a dvd player. i did not yet buy the other stuff such as pillows, curtains, pillow cases, bed sheets, plates, glasses, towels, a reading lamp, etc, etc.  i waited until i got my first salary.

aside from ikea, i shopped at goods of desire, muji, indigo, frank frank to furnish my new flat.

after a few months, this is how my hong kong flat looked like after i was done "decorating" and furnishing it. the look would change, by the way, depending on my mood. chos!

&&&&&&&&&&

i loved that flat. except for one or two unpleasant incidents, i had a lot of happy memories there. it housed friends and families who were vacationing in the city. it played host to a lot of movie watching, gossiping and drinking sessions among friends. it was a silent witness to my on-and-off relationships with a few men who had the courage to live with the neurotic, obsessive-compulsive me in one roof.

last i heard, the apartment building, along with its neighboring, equally old buildings, was demolished to give way to modern, taller apartment buildings. sad.

(next: the neighborhood)