Wednesday, June 9

Buhbye Hong Kong.

Just back from a 5 day break from work...HK was DA BOMB. The city is bustling with excitment. On a weekday night at 11pm, the streets were still crowded with people and vehicles, as if the night had just begun. Truly a city that never sleeps. All of a sudden, Singapore seems so subdued. Even the "crowds" you find in Orchard on a busy weekend seem pretty tame compared to the chaos and vibrant buzz I witnessed in Tsim Sha Tsui.

As soon as I figure out how to put photos on the blog, you guys can see em' (Alright, alright...I'm just lazy to do anything to the format right now.)

Most of the 5 days was spent on shopping, eating, travelling on the MTR (the local subway), and...more EATING. Every meal was heaven! We went to Foong Seng, a famous local restaurant and had herbal chicken soup with shark's fin and Lettuce wrapped with pigeon meat. Magnifico! Contrary to popular belief, pigeon doesn't taste like chicken. It's actually a red meat, as Dan my bro pointed out. You gotta try it for yourself. It was so good, we went back twice! More on our culinary adventures, we went to the oldest teahouse in HK for Dim Sum. It was newly renovated, so throw out those images of a run down shophouse...Nice Chinese furnishings with antique fans hanging overhead, which were a bit redundant since there was air-conditioning. The fillings in the dim sum were given in such generous portions. Thick, succulent juicy prawns and bamboo shoots encapsulated in fine, translucent flour skins. The dumplings glistened in the dim lights as the oil droplets trickled down their shiny flour skins. MAMA MIA. Good s*** I tell you.

Well, a lot more I gotta say about the food. We'll save that for another time. We went to Macau on Day 3. Just a short 45 min ferry ride from Tsuen Wan. Visited the newly opened Macau Sands and Casino Lisboa. Macau's economy would probably be dead if not for the casinos! It was scary to see huge crowds just throwing their money away at the slots and tables. The grandeur of the Sands really contrasted sharply with the dilapidated buildings in the city. At the older, and more sleazy Lisboa, we saw hookers doing their rounds at the shopping arcade portion of the casino. They were really skimpily dressed, and you could tell they were Mainlanders. The sad thing is that most of them were really young (or at least seemed to be) and pretty. It seems like such a waste that they had to resort to this line of work. How'd you know if they were hookers? Besides their dress sense, they would maintain eye contact with the guys they would come in contact with, and throw a smile or two. Ladies, if you're going to casinos in Macau, spag tops and tubes are out, unless you want dirty old men asking you "How much?" every 20 metres you walk.

Back to reality, and back to work. Keep you posted later. Ciao.

posted by gabriel @ 1:10:00 PM