Never fail to calm me down..
Happiness is hung all over the premises as local passer bys await boarding.
Perhaps it is the beginning of a brand new trip..
Perhaps it is the tantalizing promise of new experiences
Or perhaps we see light hearted faces all around..
The air smells right..
The air sounds right..
The air feels right..
We are elated ourselves..
Their evident glee was infectious.
I could not stop laughing with them.
It is actually quite difficult to settle for anything lesser once you embarked on the comfy SQ.
Every other airline pales in comparison, really.
We’re spoilt, damn spoilt.
*****
Hailed a cab from the HK International Airport
As the cab driver could not understand City View Hotel, I began to converse in Cantonese.
They were quite amazed that the cab driver could understand me.
And daddy was mortified that the cab fare was HKD 350 (SGD 60+) for a distance of around 40km..
LOL
Dumped our luggage and began the itinerary.
Walked along Nathan Road to the direction of Mong Kok Station.
The backbone of Hong Kong Kowloon lies on Nathan Road.
The first challenge during planning:
Find vegetarian restaurants in Hong Kong.
Had to make sure mommy felt at ease and at the same time cater to daddy and Ming’s wants.
The problem with One Grand Tower in Mong Kok (and most major buildings in HK) is that the name was no where to be found..
“One Grand Tower” is not indicated clearly at the front of the building, but inside the building which is out of view from pass bys.
The escalator that ended at the second storey led us to the wrong lift.
M Garden Vegetarian is located at the 6F.
We had to queue to get into another lift, to which that lift ended at 5F.
And then only reachable by the escalator adjoining 5F and 6F.
In short,
6F can only be reached by the escalator at 5F.
What a maze!
There is absolutely no exits to run for lives in case of emergency.
The building does not have the luxury of space at all.
The dining crowd was quite a mayhem..
We queued for almost an hour.
But the food was not bad.
M Garden has loads of variety, not all fried stuff =)
They even had this slightly salted peanut sauce for the cuttlefish.
Interesting mixture of tastes.
Bad attitude encounter one:
There were two service staff attending to us.
One took our orders, the other served.
The one who took our orders was very friendly, patiently explaining to us what they had for their set for 4 pax.
The one who served was the difficult one.
Not knowing that Hong Kongers do not take green chillies,
We asked for green chillies.
She replied with a frown (Cantonese),
“What green chilies I don’t know la, there is chilly on your table lor..”
We gave up on green chilies but did ask for another small plate of the same chilly.
“You also haven’t finished the chilly, finish that first ma..havent finished wanna take more”
"... ..."
Everything was conversed in a “Ngam cham” manner.
Sigh, they did not know that Singaporeans are capable of eating hell lot of chillies.
Eventually we managed to take another two plates of chilly from the friendly service staff.
*****
We walked around Mong Kok, popped into Sasa to buy Don’s black bean hair wax.
The place was small, and we kept getting pushed and bumped against in the shop.
Bad attitude encounter two:
The wax that Don wanted came in two types.
We were asking the service staff what the difference was.
Halfway through speaking to us, she suddenly lost her balance and jerked forward towards us.
The patron who knocked against her simply walked away without any conscience.
We walked to the closing Ladies Market and then Argyle Street.
Ming was trying to find cheap Polaroid camera for his friend.
But all of us ended up at H&M..
Plus a cup filled with a horrendous amount of pearl..
As well as daddy's first attempt at smelly bean curd..
*****
