We have moved. Again. That’s four places in six weeks, and not one day spent, during those six weeks, fully unpacked.

Other than not quite knowing where this or that T-shirt might be, or if I actually remembered to pack blue socks, and the hassle of dragging around some fairly heavy luggage … other than that, it’s actually been extremely edifying, all this moving around.

To recap:

1. One week in the Harbour Plaza hotel. Small room, but the usual hotel amenities, and we got a pretty good feel for the North Point neighborhood, which we liked because it’s close to the office and seemed fairly handy but, in retrospect, is a bit grimy and cheerless.

2. Three weeks in Wan Chai, the working-class, ultra-Chinese heart of the island. It seemed charming, at first, but its over-the-top population density made us a bit claustrophobic, and all those storefront noodle shops didn’t seem so cute, three weeks in.

3. Two weeks in Tin Hau, which we liked quite a bit. It was a one-room place, but the neighborhood was more sedate than Wan Chai and far more interesting than North Point. The apartment also was about 100 yards from Victoria Park, which is a big deal, to me, being that close to the island’s only serious park.

4. Mid-Levels. Where we are now. And this is a whole ‘nother world.

We again have a colleague at the International Herald Tribune to thank for moving into this place. We spent one night in a hotel, between the Tin Hau apartment and this one, as one colleague came back from overseas and took back his Tin Hau digs, and another departed, from his place in Mid-Levels.

I’ve been trying to think of a short-hand way to describe Mid-Levels to someone from the Los Angeles area, and this is the best I can come up with, so far.

Think of it … as Westwood.

It’s not the top of the economic heap (the area up around Victoria Peak would be that, I’d say), and Westwood isn’t either (Palisades and Brentwood spank it) … but it’s an economic jump from Tin Hau, which was in itself a serious move up from Wan Chai.

First, a great apartment. After the previous six weeks in tight to fairly tight quarters, we feel as if we’re in some sprawling place. A nice-size living room that isn’t cluttered, a master bedroom that is a little tight but works fine, a real kitchen (small, of course, but well-equipped), a second bedroom that basically has been turned into a big closet (it could be a small bedroom, were some of the closets removed), a cozy little den with a long couch, a table and a TV, and a strange little ante-room that actually is outdoors but not quite big enough to do much with except hang clothes.

Anyway, it’s perhaps 550 square feet, which is about half our place in Long Beach (and about one-quarter of the house in Highland), but it feels huge.

And it has a wonderful view. A great view. It’s on the 23rd floor, and we have a clear look at the water — and Kowloon, across the strait. We can see the cruise ships sitting in the channel and, at night, all the lights across the way. It’s stunning, really, and we can see it from the big table in the living room, out the window of the little storage room and also from the den.

Also, the building has an exercise room down on the sixth floor, which is really fortunate because there isn’t a park worthy of the name within walking distance. Walking or jogging any distance, while based here, will mean lots of climbing or descending because Mid-Levels (presumably so named because it is maybe 500 feet above the water, but not quite halfway to Victoria Peak) is very hilly. So that works out; a treadmill sted the shady running track at Victoria Park, down by Tin Hau.

Anyway, one problem with Mid-Levals, and this also reminds me of Westwood:

It isn’t practical.

At Tin Hau, at Wan Chai, at North Point, you never were more than 100 yards from all the essentials of ultra-urban living: A batch of economical food options, with cuisine from numerous parts of the world; a cleaners, a grocery store and probably at least one of everything else you would need. A computer store, a book store, a flower shop, a tailor. Most of Hong Kong is like that; whatever you need is probably within a five-minute walk of where you are.

Mid-Levels, however, has fewer businesses — up where people actually live, in shinier towers than on the flat — and fewer useful businesses, by far, than any neighborhood we’ve been in so far. There is a Wellcome market next door to the tower, and a laundry right there, too. But zero restaurants are really close, and don’t look for any of the open-air butchers and hot-pot places and florists you find elsewhere. They are nowhere near. Everything involves a walk, and generally it’s either uphill or downhill fairly significantly.

Another Mid-Levels issue: It’s hard to get to. Being on the side of hills, the roads into it are limited. (Again, like Westwood.) You are funneled into a handful of streets, narrow and winding and steep. And no metro station is handy. You can walk down to Sheung Wan, and take the seven stops to North Point, for work purposes. But the “nearest” station, Central, isn’t really useful because so much climbing/descending is involved.

And getting back to the apartment is a real challenge. Because you are looking at a serious slog uphill, if you use the subway, which deposits you at sea level.

The famous Central/Mid-Levels escalators are available, if you exit at Central. But they are notoriously slow, and take you through the heart of the bar/latte/party district. Sheung Wan might be a shorter hike, but you’ve got zero escalator help. It’s a walk straight uphill, and that isn’t inviting, at 10:30 p.m., at the end of the day. Especially when it may well be hot and muggy, even at 10:30. Plus, if you hung around the office or stopped for a beer, the escalators are no long an option because they turn them off at midnight. (We incorrectly thought they were shut down at 12:45, on Saturdays; we found out otherwise last night, to our regret.)

Sooo … it’s maybe 40 minutes to get back to the apartment, from work. As opposed to 10-15 minutes where I had been living, till now.

One other serious issue with Mid-Levels? The people.

It appears to be the most Euro/Western of all Hong Kong neighborhoods. This is where the expats congregate, and if they’re not in the majority, they’re a significant minority. As opposed to our previous neighborhoods, where Europeans were maybe 1-2 percent of the people in the street.

The thing about the Westerners that actually makes me feel a little out of place (which is counterintuitive, yes) … is that I’m about 20 years too old to be hanging out with this crowd. Maybe 25 years too old.

This appears to be, on the main, a hard-partying, hard-drinking, early-career crowd. Young people on their first jobs. Certainly no more than their second. Some Yanks, but mostly Brits and Aussies, it seems, and a sprinkling of people from just about anywhere. And they stay out late, and make noise and do all those things “kids” have always done. Many of them seem either giddy and drunk (at night) or morose and hung over (in the morning/early afternoon), and their social lives seem to revolve around their next opportunity to imbibe large quantities of mood-altering substances and make fools of themselves in matters of the, uh, heart.

Anyway, I feel as if I’ve just moved into this trendy neighborhood … maybe Greenwich Village, too? … but I’m too old to find amusing what everyone else around me finds amusing.

So, another learning experience. This “not having a place to live” thing actually has turned out to be quite instructive. We have “lived” in four distinct parts of town, already.

Unless I’m wrong about Mid-Levels, and we find that we really did miss trendier and more expensive restaurants that look as if they were picked up in Westwood or Manhattan or even Paris and dropped onto the hills of HK Island … or see the utility in dog-grooming shops and interior decorators businesses … it seems like Mid_levels is a great place to visit but probably not somewhere you would want to live (unless maybe you’re a banker who works down the hill in the Central district). Not when you’re my age, and commuting to work to almost the other end of the inhabited strip of this island.

Even the guy whose place we are in … as great as his place is, and he realizes it’s a great space … said he wouldn’t live there if he were starting over. It’s just a little too hard to get at, when you work in North Point five days a week, and a bit of a stretch to feel at home in, when you’re not all about getting hammered several times a week.

Meantime, we presumably will get to see how the other 5 percent lives … and Leah will spend a lot more time trying to get the around-the-house things taken care of. Because that 15-steps-to-anything convenience of our previous two neighborhoods is not happening here.

Oh, but one other up side: We will be here for a full month, and both of us have unpacked, completely, for the first time since we left California, 40 days/half a year ago. That counts for something. Absolutely. And the “rent” our colleague is charging is negligible (quite), which we very (very) much appreciate.