yep, we are way out in the country park. driving, it takes about 15-20 minutes to sai kung town, like i said. i would NOT recommend living out here without a car. possible, but NOT fun. it takes hubby about 1.5 hours to get to central via public transport (he doesn't drive).
but like i said, it works for some but not for others. we MUCH prefer having the space, garden, quiet that living out here allows us. i can drive to central in 45 minutes, but i don't do it everyday. i work elsewhere that also takes me 45 minutes. there are days, i wish the commute wasn't so long, but as soon as i get home, i kind of forget that and enjoy our house. there's no way we could afford living closer to town as it would at the very minimum double our rental costs.
When we lived in the UK, I travelled about 45 minutes by car to work and my husband took 2 hours - he was not the longest commute in his office and mine was pretty standard. I think it's quite funny how expats so quickly forget these realities of "home" when they move here and think a 30 min commute (my current one from Gold Coast) is "wow, so far!". I'd go for space, green and quiet every time .... so good luck with your house hunting.
i've spent pretty much my entire working life in hk, so i don't really have much to compare it to. even when back home, i lived in a small city and nowhere was more than a 15 minute drive, even in rush minute(doesn't really count as a rush hour as instead of 10 cars at an intersection, there were 15....)
Thanks very much everyone.
I'm coming over end feb for a management meeting, will take a day or two to look round clearwater bay and sai kung, then moving out to start work march 16th, but will take two weeks to find somewhere to live and perhaps try and sort a car etc.... not sure how realistic this is?
does anyone know what kind of usual lead time is between finding vacant rental property and being able to move in?
Thanks again, really looking forward to a change!
Cheers,
Jim