[blowsnow]

Hi,

Me and my girl are about to make the move from this unforgiving city to the lush greenery and isolation of the lovely Hong Kong countryside. We've been going thru gohome.com.hk and checking out village houses (3 bdrm plus rooftop) out in Tai Po (the villages by the side of the road on your way thru Tai Mei Tuk) and also Lam Tsuen, and found some newish good looking flats for $6-8K.

I've read a number of related posts from folks on this forum and looks like a number of you are living in village houses as well. My questions are:

- How safe is it to be out there? This one place I looked at was backed up against the foot of a hill, where its nothing but tall grass and trees. Maybe I'm watching too much "Lost" lately, but I'm thinking theres nothing keeping animals or uninvited strangers from coming down the mountain and into my backyard.....

- How safe are the trails at night? If you dont have a car and you live at some of these places, you need to walk a good 5-10 mins from the nearest bus/van stop to home. I've got a motorcycle but my girl may need to come home by herself late sometimes...

- Besides the dog barking problem, anythign else I should be worried about? How are the mosquitoes and bugs and stuff?

- Anyone live out there in Lam Tsuen or Tai Mei Duk? Whats it like?

Thanks,
- SB

[geo-seb]

I used to live in Kam Shek New Village in Tai Po and never had any problems there. I also looked at village houses in Lam Tsuen and Tai Mei Duk, but decided against it due to inconvenience. My advise is to go there in person and have a look by yourself. Apart from the house itself, you should walk around a little bit and see how the people there react to you. The people in some villages are don't welcome outsiders (outsider = anyone who was not born in the village). But Lam Tsuen and Tai Mei Duk should be no problem, since I saw several expats living there.

[trondmv]

Funny you should mention animals and uninvited strangers - my fiancee was born in Lam Tsuen and back when she lived there some 20 years ago they quite often had monkeys and mainland Chinese coming down from the mountains and into peoples' gardens/kitchens/chicken coops etc...

I should think the situation has improved slightly since then though

Was there in 2004 and noticed a few distinctive gwailo houses - you could tell because they were fenced in and were the only ones with grass lawns...!

[WhenPigFlys]

We just moved in to a village around Clear Water Bay Road, and there are many expats live around there. We do get around a lot due to all the kids go to the same school. Village people are very nice, we always say good morning when we see each other. The chief of the village living next door, and we feel safe around there. We heard there is only one break in two years ago, and that's all. And the police caught the guys the next day, some people from mainland.... Anyway, we love our new life there. The only thing we worry about perhaps is the mosquitoes. The season is coming.

[jimbo]

Mosquitoes and a lot of stray dogs are the only main issues with village life.

But hey rent is dirt cheap though! $3500 for a 700 sq foot apartment in a village house in the N.T, thats for the villages in tai po on the way to tai mei tuk.

[blowsnow]

Thanks everybody for the responses. We've wandered around a lot in the past few weeks in the area we want to move to, and its been totally cool. And yeah I see a lot of expat houses -- the mini-lawns, the ornate wrought-iron fencing, wood deck furniture -- and was comforted to see expat families with kids living in purchased houses.

Someone mentioned to me that you gotta be careful of flooding and landslides. We found this house that is sort of on the incline of a hill, and has good drainage work done around the building, so I guess I'm not too worried about that.

We're gonna install sliding bug screens on our windows and sliding doors, hope that will help the bug problem. That and some extra tubes of Mopiko!

[cerberus]

will be interested in places myself maybe soon...can someone also recommend specific locations and other tools for looking them up?

much obliged.