Hong Kong, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur with a 2, 5 and 7 year old?

[tigerlatic]

My husband and I have to decide between these three cities as he's been offered jobs at international schools in all three. Any advice? Where would be best for the kids?

[fatandlonely]

I live in KL
Fairly similar expat experiences. Assuming school places for your DC come with the job, which Is a big issue in HK.

Which Job looks better? If you want to pm with the name of the KL school I can likely give you some inside info (know lots of teachers)

[MasterOfTheYoniverse]

Will the school in hk offer priority places for your children?
If not you might have to home school them until you find a school. Very short supply....

[shinny]

Bangkok and Hong Kong are v polluted. All are fab cities but the pollution is a huge problem.

good luck

[tigerlatic]

yes we've been promised school places for two of our kids.

[MasterOfTheYoniverse]

That very good news then.
You 2 main concerns in HK are now pollution and housing.
Space and location come at a very high premium here but equally if you are open minded about location, you should be able o find something suitable.
There are expat pockets far beyond the usual spots. Commute will be easy to organise if the kids go to your DH's school as you only need to factor in home/work.
It takes a bit of time for our bodies to adapt to HK. Even with strong immunity and no previous asthma, you have to be prepared to host a wide variety of little viruses (mainly common cold and tummy bugs). Nothing scary but there is always something going around….and we learn to manage with time. There are a lot of natural therapists around too if you prefer to take that approach.
I guess my point is make sure you have a good health cover to allow regular trips to your GP.

HK is truly an incredible place to be. The natural site is breathtaking. Most people are often shocked when they realize its not all built up. Most of the territory is made up of country parks, sea, mountain and hiking trails. And its all free! All sorts of activities on sea and land and more enrichment classes you can bear to research for your littlest on

[tigerlatic]

Thank you for all your help and advice. What about healthcare? Our youngest may need speech and language therapy and an audiologist....

[PlainBrownEnvelope]

The therapy will be there- there are a lot of very good HCPs in Hong Kong. The issue will be that you will need to pay for it. The public healthcare system is fine for emergencies and basic primary care, but beyond that, it's quite limited. Most intervention therapies are not provided free and my understanding is that all English language speech therapy is private. That said, HK probably has one of the more far reaching public health services of Asian countries.

The other thing about HK is that it has an increasingly diverse expat population. There are still some people on big packages driving ferraris and with 3 club memberships but there are also a lot more people just here entirely on their own steam, some of whom intend to stay long term, enrol their kids in local schools etc. Good mix of working and stay at home mums. There's a niche for everyone.

[tigerlatic]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. After much discussion and agonising, we're moving to HK! We have school places for our 5 and 7 year old and we're hoping to find accommodation whilst out there. Perhaps Clearwater Bay as it doesn't look too far from the school. We can then find an audiologist, speech therapist etc. when we're there. Thank you again everyone.

[MasterOfTheYoniverse]

Congratulations!
Clearwater bay is a very nice community. Lots if expat compounds, and close to local farms, fantastic beaches around sai kung and just 20mn into hk island!

Look at the following links, great resources.
sassymamma
littlestepsasia
the list

There is also a group on facebook called hong kong moms. The most random queries get very specific answers within minutes!

The group swap-it-hk is also to buy second hand furniture/household white goods when you are here.

A good place to look for properties is squarefoot.com.hk
You can search by budget, area etc....

Good luck with the logistics!

[WytebordMarker]

Glad you chose HK. I would say the private healthcare is very good compared to Bangkok and KL.

Friend's sister was held at gunpoint in KL. Bangkok is not exactly safe for kids to runaround freely.