Downtown Hong Kong Ramblings

Today I went back downtown to the Shek Tong Tsui and Sai Ying Pun areas of Hong Kong. At least that's what the map says. I walked around and took pictures and ate food.

I stopped in a little restaurant where there were no english menus or pictures. That should be the best kind. I asked for barbeque pork and got a nice big plate of rice and pork. As it was so good (and cheap - $3 with a coke) I asked for more pork. The place was pretty full so a lady who came in for lunch sat down across the table from me. I used one of my two Cantonese phrases and said hello (at least Moo tell's me that's what it meant) and she said hi back. She was nice and gave me a napkin from her purse, as I was apparently getting BBQ juice everywhere.

I walked by a lot of medicine stores that were selling different fungi, squid, bark, birds nests, shark fins (not a fan of that) and spices. The smells were strong and pretty neat. Some of them smelled like the concoction of herbs and roots I drank when I was sick a few years ago. I could see how endangered animals like snakes and other creatures could get wiped out over here. There were tons of shark fins, snakes and horns of various animals. A bit strange. I took the tram back to Central and went by the travel office where I got my Chinese Visa and bought a ticket to Beijing. My dad said I should take the train back from Guanxio (or something like that), so I'm flying into there from Beijing. I'll have 5 full days in Beijing, which should be enough to visit the Summer Palace, Forbidden City, do some shopping and see the wall.

After a traditional nap, I met up with Gerry to get my new tuxedo in Kowloon. The rentals here are pretty expensive for a tux, and it's only $50 more to get a custom made tuxedo - so I'm getting myself a tux. And I'm getting new shoes made for only $40. Hopefully other people will be getting married, or else I'll have to come up with another excuse to wear a tux.

After the tux fitting, we met up with Moo and Moo's dad for dinner at a swank restaurant. It's one of those places where they put your napkin on your lap. Which is a little strange. But the food was awesome, I had a crab that was scooped out and mixed with breading and spices and put back into the crab and baked with a crust. Pretty damn good. Moo got a dessert that had dry ice under the bowl, it looked cool. After a few beers, we said goodbye to Moo's dad and hopped on the train to Hong Kong island. Then in the cab ride home I lost Moo's cell phone that I had been using and just put $40 on. So we're on to his last backup phone. Which I promised not to lose. It was my pants fault.