Po Tat

I haven't done too much in the past week...quite honestly the weather's been a bit sketchy, and with the exception of a few things I want to see in the western side of Hong Kong, I've pretty much done everything. Although, that doesn't mean I don't have stories to tell.

Wednesday was spent wandering about looking for places that don't exist. It's really hard trying to find one particular store in a concrete jungle and as good as Google Map is, it's only so accurate to a point. Thursday I didn't really do too much, I watched some hockey and helped out with the housework. V took me out to dinner, sort of a date night. We went to this Thai place in Kowloon City. Except for a few dishes, it wasn't discernibly Thai...but that doesn't mean the food wasn't good. With the possible exception of the pho that we ordered. V ordered the pho to show me why when Hongkongers come back to Vancouver, they crave Vietnamese food. Quite simply put, it's terrible here, especially if you bear in mind that the bowl we had at the Thai place was probably one of the best V has had here in HK...that's just sad. There's no real explanation for bad Vietnamese food here either. They're proximity to Vietnam would suggest that they would have some of the best Vietnamese food outside of Vietnam. But, this is simply not the case. So be proud of your culinary diversity and authenticity Vancouver, we are truly lucky.

There was a couple sitting beside us in the restaurant, they were there when we got there. They were eating the restaurant specialty, which is a prawn ball with a soupy pork centre. It's really quite good (one of the things that was discernibly Thai :P). We ordered the same along with a few more dishes. Part way through our meal, V commented to me that the other couple had made said something to the effect that we had ordered a lot of food. In all honesty, we ordered the prawn ball thing, a veggie dish, a seafood veggie dish (which was primarily veggies), the terrible pho and a small plate of charred pork neck (it might sound unpleasant, but it is super good). She was telling me this, as the other couples order of curry crab arrived. It was two whole crabs smothered in curry sauce. It looked super good mind you, but that by itself is probably like more than half of our meal. Then they proceeded to order more food. I said to V that was kind of rude and that while they could continue to order more food, there was one thing they didn't need to order, cause as we all know, punches are free. But cooler heads prevailed, and in the end they ended up eating way more than us. WTH!?

Oh yeah, on Thursday afternoon I received a frantic phone call from V. Turns out there was some kind of school competition thing happening on Saturday and she needed costume pieces for the kids. That's where I came in. She told me that she needed me to go to Toys R Us (TRU) and find 'Harry Potter' like glasses for a owl costume and wings for a bug costume and that that's what I would be doing on Friday. Then she stopped and asked me "What are you doing right now?" to which I replied, "I was planning what I was going to do on Friday, but it seems as though it's already been planned for me."

So I woke up on Friday morning and headed out to TRU to find some costumes. My adventure took me to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) and Harbour City where the closest TRU is. Let me first tell you that I had actually been to this TRU on Wednesday whilst looking for the places that didn't exist. The TRU is housed in at the cruise ship terminal at the edge of TST and mostly frequented by mainlanders and other vacation goers. At the front of the store is a greeter. The greeter was a gangly sort of fellow with big thick-ish glasses. As I look Chinese, he greeted me in Mandarin. As I didn't notice him right away, his loud greeting in Mandarin freaked the crap out of me. So, this time when I went to the TRU prepared to combat my gangly nemesis equipped with headphones and mp3. But, he used a tactic that I was not prepared for...this time shouting at me in Mandarin, drowning out the music and once again scaring the crap out of me. You win this round gangly TRU Mandarin yelling guy.

(Oh, I did finally find one of the places that didn't exist. Turns out it does exist. That being said, it was kinda disappointing when I did find it.)

Once inside the TRU, I was able to find a pair of bug wings. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a pair of 'Harry Potter' style glasses. So trying not to look super gay, I paid for my butterfly wings and left. In the TRU I had a lengthy discussion with V about the bug wings and where I should go to look for a pair of glasses. She suggested the Tung Choi Street Market, more commonly referred to as the Ladies' market. So I embarked on my journey from the TST waterfront to the Ladies' Market in Mong Kok. Now for those of you who don't know HK, Mong Kok is a bargain hunters paradise. Everything from shoes and electronics to clothing and beauty products can be found in all of the street markets and tiny shops riddled along the bustling streets. It's sort of a sketchy area, but I've never had a problem there. Just part of the area's charm I think.

Anyways, Mong Kok isn't exactly close to TST, but since I had the whole day in front of me, I decided to walk there. The nice thing about malls in Hong Kong is that they are sprawling and air conditioned so the first part of my trip was spent weaving my way through the Harbour City mall almost 1/3 of my way there. Upon exiting the mall back outside into the slightly humid afternoon daylight, I wandered down and made my way down towards Jordan. There I found the Kowloon Central Post Office and bought a couple of stamps from the vending machine outside and mailed off my postcards. I continued to walk through Jordan down Nathan Road, past shops and restaurants winding my way through people in the crowded streets.

Now more than 1/2 way there, I had reached Yau Ma Tei (like Jordan or Mong Kok, it's a region of the city). After about an hour or so of walking I made it to the MTR station in Mong Kok. Unfortunately, all of the streets start to look the same and I couldn't remember where the market was. So, after trying to get help from V and her coworkers as to it's location, I ducked into the station to find a map and get my bearings. Now topside, I walked a few blocks and found the market with ease. And so began my hunt to find some 'Harry Potter' style glasses. The Ladies' Market is a treasure trove of toys, clothing, handbags, watches, sunglasses, electronics accessories, and Chinese cultural knick knacks. They have everything there...except the one thing I was actually looking for. After wandering through the market for about an hour, I was about to give up and head back to Jordan and the Temple Street Market to see if I could find something there, when all of a sudden I found a costume shop on the edge of the Ladies' Market. Huzzah! 'Harry Potter' style glasses! Mission accomplished.

After finishing the costume search for V, I started wandering around Mong Kok. It's where I first stayed in HK the very first time I came to HK. So, feeling nostalgic, I went on a trek to find my old hotel and my old stomping ground. Not too long after I started out, I found my old hotel and the area where I had first stayed. It was nice to see where all of my HK adventures began. So, in that spirit, I began another adventure and began to wander around unfamiliar places. As it would happen, I got sorta lost. I tend to wander around now without the use of my guidebook/map. I have a pretty good sense of direction I think and if worse came to worse I could just call V and try to figure out where I was and how to get un-lost. It was neat to wander through the streets and see where the real Hongkongers are and how they go about their daily lives. Fortunately, I didn't stay lost too long and I found my way back to more familiar territory in Mong Kok.

I was getting a bit tired and the afternoon day sun was beginning to take it's toll, so I sought refuge at Langham Place, a large mall in Mong Kok. It was a nice place to get out of the sun and cool off for a bit. Plus, there's a nice bathroom there in the lobby of the attached hotel. V and I joke that if I were to ever right a book on travel to Hong Kong, I could tell people where all of the nice washrooms are throughout TST and parts of Kowloon. Anyways, I did some window shopping at Langham and cooled off, while waiting for V to finish work. I was running out of things to do and getting a little bored. Turns out she wouldn't be done work for quite some time. After briefly considering heading home, I instead headed back to TST and a little bakery I had seen. After getting my snack and a tasty beverage, I retreated into Harbour City once again, making sure to steer clear of the TRU.

V was finally off work and making her way towards me. We were suppose to head to Jordan to pick up some stuff at her Aunt's house and then head out for dinner. Or so I thought. So, I headed out to meet V at the corner of Austin and Nathan Road and then head out to her Aunt's house. Unfortunately, V was caught in traffic. She called a head and told me that I could go to her Aunt's house and she would meet up with me there. I felt a bit awkward about that and instead decided to do some more window shopping. While I was waiting for her this Australian woman came up to me, she looked rather lost and somewhat frazzled. She asked me if I knew where the Kowloon Cricket Club was. Interestingly enough, I did. I pointed her towards the KCC and continued on my way.

Anyways, I eventually caught up with V and we headed to her Aunt's place. I thought we were just there to pick up stuff, turns out we were there for dinner...would have been nice to know that before I was standing outside her Aunt's house. It's not that I didn't want to have dinner there, it was more that I had been out all day and that I was dressed kinda shabbily and kinda grungy from my walkabout. Not exactly the best impression I wanted to leave with her family. Thankfully no one cared and I got a super sweet home cooked Chinese dinner. Stewed ox tongue and root veggies is ridiculously good. I almost ate the whole bowl of it myself...but I thought that would be kinda rude. After dinner we hung out for a bit before heading back home to watch Canada and Belarus. Woot 6-1 Canada!

Saturday was a bit of a lazy day for me. With V at work and me pretty tired from all of my trekking from Friday, I just took it easy and hung around at home for the day. Dinner on Saturday was out at Tai Koo with some of her aunts, uncle and cousins. Tai Koo is on the north eastern side of Hong Kong Island. A bit of a rainy night, we ended up at a nice Thai restaurant. The area where we had dinner was pretty cool. It reminded me a lot of Kits. Dinner was like usual, really good. The dinner was suppose to be a farewell dinner for me cause they all thought I was leaving that weekend. Surprise! I'm here till next Saturday. :) Oh yeah, on the way to the restaurant, when her Uncle found out I was here in HK till the 2nd of May, he invited me to a party on May 1st, which was super funny cause V didn't know about it and hadn't been invited yet. So, I invited her to go with me. :P We did some shopping after dinner at the !Cityplaza before heading home. I'm not sure how the '!' works there in the name.

Sunday was a bit of a late start after sleeping in late and watching some hockey, we headed out to do a bit of shopping. I'm looking to maybe buy one of those induction cooktops. Anyways, we headed out into the rain and down to TST for a look around. Nothing on the induction cooktop front, but we did manage to buy a bunch of shoes. After a nice cup of tea and a sandwich (V had some soup), we headed back home to meet up with the same family we had dinner with the night before for some hotpot.

While we were waiting for the bus there was a chubby middle aged woman standing there with her children. Now, I'm of the mind that if you're standing under a bus shelter, you probably don't need an umbrella to keep you dry. Unfortunately, she did not share my view and in the course of waiting for the bus, she smacked her umbrella into me a few time and had the nerve to glare at me like it was my fault. You know what, if you're having a bad day or you don't like that it's raining or you're ashamed of your retarded children or something, that's no reason to be a douche and take it out on me with your umbrella. Anyways, the woman's bus eventually showed up and she took her umbrella with her. I voiced my opinion about the lady to V at this point and as she doesn't appreciate me swearing, I called the woman a 'Po Tat' which was the name of the destination on the bus. For some reason it sounded like a swear in head and I just substituted it in. Since then I've adopted it into my repertoire as an all purpose noun/verb. So, feel free to use it if you like.

Anyways, hotpot. After stuffing our faces for about an hour and a half, V and I headed out to catch a late movie. If you haven't seen Monsters vs Aliens yet, you should, it's pretty funny. The movie theatre we saw it at had it in 3D. Considerably entertained, we headed back home, but not before I freaked out some guy in the elevator as the doors were opening, when I made a sound from the movie. It was priceless.