If One Night in Bangkok Makes a Hard Man Humble . . .
What does 24 hours in Hong Kong do to you?
We touched down in Hong Kong exactly 24 hours ago. The first thing we did was check into an over-the-top hipster hotel called "East" that was written up in the New York Times travel section. It's so hip it's located in an unfashionable part of town. Unfortunately, the mood lighting in our room would not turn off. Try as they might various staff members tried to turn off the light with no success. We were too tired to wait for maintenance to do the job so we simply went to sleep with the lights on. It wasn't a big deal as we were destined to awake at 3am local time anyway. I'm not exactly sure what we did to kill time between 3-8:30am, but the time passed quickly as jet-lag plays all sorts of tricks on your internal clock.
At 9am we checked into our flat with our real estate agent at our side and three representative of our apartment complex explaining rules, regulations and amenities. After the handover (which was lower key than THE HANDOVER in 1997), Patty went off to work and I started my work for the day. I walked around the neighborhood and found three ways to get down to the main commercial street in our neighborhood. I scoped out a couple of drug stores, a grocery store and a electronics retailer. I also made note of the nearby HSBC location. In short, I asked myself, "WWSD" (What Would Smiley Do?). And he would have reconnoitered the hell out of the area despite the fact he was jet-lagged and the heat index was about 100 degrees F. Smiley, please get out of my head.
I made my way down to Wan Chai MTR station and to the Wan Chai Computer Center. It's essentially a crowded little mall that only sells computers, computer accessories and software - a geek's paradise. I bought a wireless router for the home and some 220V power cords. I tried to negotiate down the price but since I don't speak Cantonese, I don't ever expect to land the best price. No problem. I got my goods, a small discount and I was on my way.
By this time, it's nearly noon and I'm just starting to get hungry. I eye many food shops and settle on a hole-in-the-wall that has only two written words of English, "No Smoking." I thought this would be an appropriate first meal in Hong Kong. I thought I was "keeping it real." The one staff member who spoke English was pushed forward to wait on me. You'd think she was the test penguin who was nudged into the sea by other penguins eager to find out if seals were on the hunt. She told me the house specialty was chicken rice and I said that's what I'd have. She asked me if I wanted something cold to drink and I insisted on the hot tea everyone else was drinking, after all I am all about keeping it real. Then this 90 lbs waitress crushed my ego with one simple question, "Can you use chopsticks?" . . .
Really?! Is that what I look like? A gwai lo? A gringo? A wai guo ren? All I could do was to stare her down and nod yes.
We touched down in Hong Kong exactly 24 hours ago. The first thing we did was check into an over-the-top hipster hotel called "East" that was written up in the New York Times travel section. It's so hip it's located in an unfashionable part of town. Unfortunately, the mood lighting in our room would not turn off. Try as they might various staff members tried to turn off the light with no success. We were too tired to wait for maintenance to do the job so we simply went to sleep with the lights on. It wasn't a big deal as we were destined to awake at 3am local time anyway. I'm not exactly sure what we did to kill time between 3-8:30am, but the time passed quickly as jet-lag plays all sorts of tricks on your internal clock.
At 9am we checked into our flat with our real estate agent at our side and three representative of our apartment complex explaining rules, regulations and amenities. After the handover (which was lower key than THE HANDOVER in 1997), Patty went off to work and I started my work for the day. I walked around the neighborhood and found three ways to get down to the main commercial street in our neighborhood. I scoped out a couple of drug stores, a grocery store and a electronics retailer. I also made note of the nearby HSBC location. In short, I asked myself, "WWSD" (What Would Smiley Do?). And he would have reconnoitered the hell out of the area despite the fact he was jet-lagged and the heat index was about 100 degrees F. Smiley, please get out of my head.
I made my way down to Wan Chai MTR station and to the Wan Chai Computer Center. It's essentially a crowded little mall that only sells computers, computer accessories and software - a geek's paradise. I bought a wireless router for the home and some 220V power cords. I tried to negotiate down the price but since I don't speak Cantonese, I don't ever expect to land the best price. No problem. I got my goods, a small discount and I was on my way.
By this time, it's nearly noon and I'm just starting to get hungry. I eye many food shops and settle on a hole-in-the-wall that has only two written words of English, "No Smoking." I thought this would be an appropriate first meal in Hong Kong. I thought I was "keeping it real." The one staff member who spoke English was pushed forward to wait on me. You'd think she was the test penguin who was nudged into the sea by other penguins eager to find out if seals were on the hunt. She told me the house specialty was chicken rice and I said that's what I'd have. She asked me if I wanted something cold to drink and I insisted on the hot tea everyone else was drinking, after all I am all about keeping it real. Then this 90 lbs waitress crushed my ego with one simple question, "Can you use chopsticks?" . . .
Really?! Is that what I look like? A gwai lo? A gringo? A wai guo ren? All I could do was to stare her down and nod yes.
posted by huja at 5:28 PM
7 Comments:
Great first day... Patty went to work??!! Brutal. How was the house special?
Chicken rice was a bit salty, but not bad, especially at less than $3 US for a quarter chicken, rice, veggies and tea.
Love the way you drew a parallel between the waitress and penguin :-)
Sorry we missed connections on Saturday, Dong. But I'm sure we'll see you here on the way to Beijing.
Know how to use chop sticks? Dude that's rough. Next thing they'll ask you if you are Canadian just to really insult you.
That's funny!!
Sunny
That's liquid-shoots-out-the-nose hysterical! Even if I'd thought of asking you if you could use chopsticks I don't think I'd have the courage. And you know me, I don't hesitate much when it comes to teasing one of my bros.
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