Last Day in HK

Our final day in HK was spent buying foodstuff and doing some last minute shopping.

We checked out at 11am and then it was off to the famous Yung Kee Restarant at Wellington Street for lunch and to buy some century eggs home. The first time I tried something from here was back home actually, when Birdkeeper brought over some century eggs his sister had brought back. I normally don't eat the yolk of these eggs, plus I eat the whites (or blacks?) with lots of ginger. But the ones from Yung Kee, I eat everything. That's how good the century eggs are. So, anyway, Shades of Pink had the Roasted Goose Meat with rice while I had good old Char Siew Rice. We also ordered Braised Beancurd with Lingzhi Mushroom and Sauteed Diced Scallops with Egg White. The goose was ok. In fact, I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from duck, really. My favourite must be the Sauteed Diced Scallops with Egg White. Generally, the food and service are not too bad.




The only question I have is, "How come they charge for condiments?" We had to pay for a saucer of chilli padi (it wasn't chilli padi anyway) I ordered to go with the beancurd dish. Then I had to ask for vinegar and pepper to go with the scallop dish.

Waiter: Hong chu hai shi hei chu? (red or black vinegar?)

Huh? Got difference meh? Not knowing which I normally take with this dish, I asked for the red, only to realise, when it came, that I should have asked for the black one. Tsk. This is supposed to be one of the more popular dishes at Yung Kee, but they looked gross, so we passed. Goose Web.

After lunch, we headed to Hai Phong Road (along Nathan Rd) to pack home some of the roadside stick food. Then we went to Mongkok to get the famous lau bo bing (wife cake) from Hang Heung (G/F 605A Nathan Rd, Mongkok, Kowloon).

Finally, it was back to Yau Ma Tei to da bao the wanton mee we had on the first night. Once we had gotten all the stuff we needed, we headed back to the hotel. Since we had no transfer from the hotel to the airport, we now had to lug our loot from the hotel to catch the MTR and then switch over to the Airport Train. Managed the arduous journey to Central station and checked in there. Whoever it was that came up with this town check-in is just brilliant. It left us with free hands to shop at IFC!!! And guess where we bought more stuff?? MNG!!!!!

Ok, let me just list down some of our adventures which started the minute we stepped out of the hotel, just in case I forget to arrange airport transfers on my next trip.

Lesson #1: When the bell boy offers help with the luggage, do not decline, even if it is just out of the hotel door.

When I was offered, I ya-ya-ly replied, "It's ok, I'm gonna head to the MTR station." Besides, it was kinda dumb to accept help with the luggage just to the hotel entrance. So I happily rolled my luggage with one hand, and carried the foodstuff (eggs and lau bo bing) in the other, and walked out of the hotel. The next thing I knew, I had, in the process of pulling my luggage, pulled half of the hotel entrance carpet along with me!!! I turned around to see Shades of Pink laughing (what else??) and the bell boy trying to stifle his laughter while at the same time trying to roll back the carpet. Totally embarrassing la. The bell boy quite cute some more you know!

Lesson #2: Decide if your luggage size fits thru all gantries you need to pass.

At the MTR station, the only type of gantry there was the turnstile kind. The handle of mine got stuck on one of the spokes of the turnstile long after I had gotten thru, and I had to slowly "pry" it out of the spoke.

Shades of Pink saw what had happened to me and decided to roll her really fast TOGEHTER with her thru the turnstile. Didn't quite work. The luggage and her did not fit into one"compartment" of the turnstile and was left behind. Our dear friend had to squat over and slowly roll the luggage thru.

Lesson #3: Don't get lost in chatter and laughter and forget the time. Especially when you have a flight to catch.

Lost ourselves in chatter and laughter over the luggage-carpet and turnstile incidents was just what we did. And when we finally decided to head onto the flight, we realised the queue at immigration was so gonna make us late! When we finally got onto the plane, it was 10 minutes before the take-off time! And we were the last 2 passengers. But only because the 3 after us were offloaded!!! But still....imagine if the "Final call for passengers Shades of Pink and Purples on flight CX715. Please proceed to Gate 2 immediately" announcement was made. We would have died of embarrassment if we got boo-ed at the minute we got onto the plane. Hmmmm, maybe that's why the last 3 didn't come on board.

After all I the rush and embarrassing moments we had today, I was just happy to get on the plane and spend the next couple of hours with Takeshi Kaneishiro. They were screening "Confessions of Pain" on board. So cute, you know.

And before Kayestercan can ask me, "Cute can eat ah?", I'll tell you. "Can!".

I never had a better meal on-flight. :)))