House Hunting in Hong Kong

After leaving Bangkok, I flew back to Hong Kong to tag along on a shoot for the house hunting TV show I was working back in New York before I left on my trip.  I had actually originally cast the couple who are moving from Queens to Hong Kong for the husband's job.  It was fun to get to work on an episode that I had actually been a part of even if I didn't actually schedule the shoot.  After two months of extended vacation, it was also nice to be actually "working" and productive again, even if I wasn't being paid.

Since Hong Kong is so expensive I had tried to arrange to couch surf so I wouldn't have to pay for my accommodations for the three-day shoot on top of my flight.  I hadn't been able to get anything confirmed before I left Bangkok, though, so I booked a hostel at the last minute so I would have a place to go when I landed.  Once I got to the hostel, they had no record of my reservation and were all booked up.  Luckily I had proof of my booking on my phone so they found me a room in a different building also on Hong Kong Island.  It was a single room so I had it to myself, but it was tiny.  It reminded me of those stories you see occasionally about the "smallest studio in NYC."  It consisted of a lofted bed with a desk underneath and the tiniest bathroom ever.  I barely had room for my backpack, but at least it served its purpose in giving me a place to sleep.

The next morning I had to bring all of my stuff back to the original hostel where I had arranged to spend that night before meeting the crew at the first location closer to Central Hong Kong.  On the first two days of the shoot, we filmed the tours of the apartments we were showing to the American house hunters, Kelly and Guo, along with a meet and greet scene with their real estate agent.  The final day was devoted to filming scenes around Hong Kong of Kelly and Guo exploring the new city they're moving to.  In one scene, they were shopping at local gourmet food shops checking out all the crazy stuff you can buy like dried lizards.  In another one, they went to have afternoon tea at The Peninsula.  Since the PR team brought out a full tea service, there was food left over after we were done filming.  I got a second chance to have a scone and some of the other traditional cakes.  I felt incredibly guilty after taking one of two servings of pannacotta, completely forgetting that the director was gluten free and couldn't eat any of the sandwiches or scones.  Oops!  We were supposed to also film on Victoria Peak, but it was raining all afternoon so that scene was canceled.

My final two nights in Hong Kong I managed to couch surf with two different ex-pats in their apartments.  The first was a young British guy living in a studio who had just moved to Hong Kong to work in publishing.  The second was a Canadian law student who is sharing a three bedroom apartment in a high rise.  In that case, I got my own room, which was totally sweet!  Both guys were really nice and I enjoyed going out to dinner with them and meeting some of their friends.  All in all, they were good first couch surfing experiences.  The only slight annoyance was having to change locations each night.

On the last day of the shoot, Guo had to leave early to go out of town so I hung out with Kelly for a bit after we had wrapped shooting.  She brought me out to dinner at a typical Cantonese "diner" and helped me to meet up with the second couch surfer once he had gotten out of class.  Since Kelly is also a New Yorker we had a lot in common and it was really nice to talk to her about home and the plans for my trip.

Since my flight to Phuket wasn't scheduled until late on the following night I had a whole day free to spend in Hong Kong.  I thought about going to the Stanley Market, but as it was raining for the second day in a row, I instead spend the day at the Hong Kong Museum of Art.  The museum normally isn't that expensive, but I lucked out because on Wednesdays it's actually free.  Many of the exhibits were similar to those at the Shanghai Art Museum featuring traditional calligraphy, painting and calligraphy.  There was, however, an interesting exhibition about the importance and symbolism of animals in Chinese art.  I also really enjoyed another exhibition that compared Chinese export paintings to the Western versions from which the artists got their inspiration.

After two days in the rain, it was then back to Thailand and the sun.  It was finally time to relax!