The great bed search

Dr. Seuss says it best. “I do not like my little bed. This is not good. This is not right. My feet stick out of bed all night.” And so it has been for us, those of us over 6 feet tall anyway, for the past two months. We came to Hong Kong set to inherit a bed which was an American queen size. We purchased new linens, arrived and found nothing fit. The bed was too small. And so in August, the great bed search began.

It is now the end of October and the search is not yet done but so close to done that I feel emboldened to jot it all down. Hong Kong has IKEA and lured by the sense of Swedish efficiency, we went to find a quick fix to our bed problem. We ordered a bed. We ended up waiting a couple of weekends for our bed to be delivered, meaning we waited at the IKEA appointed time but no delivery. (When Phil complained to colleagues of wasting another weekend waiting for delivery, he got no sympathy. That is what helpers are for he was told.) Finally, the bed arrived and was again too small! This of course was our mistake but I personally blame the metric system.

The IKEA bed was switched into Adam’s room, his bed moved out and the search continued. As a backdrop, all of the furniture (except now the IKEA bed) belongs to the US Consulate and in particular to Phil’s commercial division. The bed we didn’t want, as well as other furniture we didn’t think necessary, had to be taken out and stored in a Consulate warehouse.

Finally, we discovered the Horizon Plaza in Ap Le Chau, a neighborhood on our side of Hong Kong Island. The Horizon Plaza is a large (25 stories) warehouse with mainly furniture dealers but also bookstores, kids’ clothes and an Italian deli. We wandered around trying to get a handle on what was available. Basically, everything is available and it is all beautifully carved wood. It was at Horizon Plaza that we understood the size issue. Essentially, all Hong Kong beds are slightly different in size than American beds but are still listed as queen and king etc. For example, the Hong Kong California king bed is still a couple of inches shorter in height and width than a US queen.

So in the interim we have two single beds (unwanted by another Consulate employee). We have custom-ordered a mattress pad to make them into one bed- to be delivered in 3 weeks- and are hoping to forgo the expenditure of another bed frame. And spend the savings on pillows! A quick survey of pillows at department stores had the going price of about $60 US dollars a piece.

On the plus side, the kids’ rooms turned out perfectly. Adam has plenty of room in his new big bed and the girls love their bunk beds. Now if we can just get people to sleep in those beds!