Lessons learned

1) The property market is crazy insane in HK right now. Worse since I have been here, and it makes me wonder if I'll stay in my place in Kennedy Town when the lease comes up for renewal next February. As one coworker said, high rents are starting to become a huge probably for everyone because no one's salaries are keeping up with the rent increases. For those unfamiliar with HK, there are no rent controls, so if your landlord thinks they can get 30 percent more for an apartment, they try to jack it up; nothing prevents them.

Which means that for most people, big apartments are a dream. On Friday, a friend hosted our poker group at his new apartment in Pok Fu Lam, an area south of where I live, over the hill. He and his wife left the Mid-Levels because their apartment was sold for about $4.5 million - U.S. And this was for a two-floor apartment, each floor about 750 square feet, with his own rooftop deck. By moving a little further away, he was able to get a 2,000 or so square foot apartment for about $6,500-$7,000 US a month. And this is a nice district, but not in the middle of everything, mind you. And it's an apartment owned by the government, which meant he had to refurbish the apartment himself and provide the appliances.

This is probably the only place on earth where you pay $7,000 US for an apartment and have to provide your own refrigerator.

2) While talking to someone who owns a restaurant, he mentioned that if I wanted a 1,000-square foot place at ground level in Sheung Wan or Sai Ying Pun, it now costs about $7,000-$8,000 US per month. And while these are up and coming neighborhoods, this is not the the best part of the city either. This could dent my dreams of opening a bar.

3) One member of my poker group has worked in banks his whole career. He also refuses to set up his personal account for Internet banking. What does that tell you?

4) In Chicago, art was for the masses. Lots of buildings had it in their lobbies (a municipal statute said that if you did, you essentially got some tax breaks, to make a long story short), and you could accumulate a great collection yourself for not a ton of money.

Here in HK, art is something that rich people buy as an investment. I was reminded this again this weekend at an art fair here where the main entrances were reserved for the "Deutsche Bank VIP entrance." Oh, and regular admission was $250 HK, about 30 US.

5) When I arrived late to a concert last Thursday at a convention center in Kowloon, I asked if they had beers inside. "Nope," the guy selling tickets said, "But you can buy it at the 7-11 there." So I wanted 10 meters across the lobby to the 7-11, grabbed a few cans of Guinness and walked into the show. Sometimes this city surprises you in a good way.

6) I now have developed the ability to subtly discern where durians are located on a bus. (Durians are a tropical fruit that looks like a spiky rugby ball and smells like a mix of rotting meat and blue cheese.) That means I also have the ability to figure where I can relocate to to avoid that smell. You pick up a few things after a few years here.