Hong Kong

Last night, after landing on the China Airlines flight, we went through the customs and straight out for a taxi. The staff was nice, volunteeringly giving directions as we went, and we got into a red cab for travelling in the city area.

The taxis here are bigger, and I soon realised that it didn't come for free.

As we all know, taxis in Singapore start at S$2.40 for the first kilometre and go at ten cents every 200 metres or 30 seconds of waiting time.

Over here, it starts at HK$15 (S$3.20) and increases at HK$1.4o(S$0.30) each jump.

A trip the same distance would cost more than twice the amount Singaporean would get to enjoy in the country. And you thought taxis were expensive.

So when we arrived at my mom's place we got off, and my dad paid the fare. I went to the back to get the luggage out of the boot, and the driver came to help me with the bigger case. And then, in that very moment, I felt lost. It was a very new sensation to me.

I felt foreign. Rude, even. I wanted to thank the guy but I couldn't speak a work of Cantonese. Pathetic, I thought. We came up, unpacked and basically just slept.

I woke up this morning to get a shower, and left for what seems to be the local equilavent of our Victoria Concert Hall to eat the best dim sum here. I'm not sure if it was the best, for it sure was good.

After that we took a boat across the river, and went to what they alled the Women's Street around here. It was a a whole street full of stalls and booths selling stuff from clothes to toys to chess sets to lighters to accessories to posters to G-Strings and other really strange stuff (ask me and I'll tell you in person).

So we bought some stuff, walked around, and rested at this restaurant. After we had a drink we went around in the building the restaurant was in, and then went across the street this shop that sold "cute" stuff. Anyway, here was where I first smelled the famous smelly beancurd. It wasn't that smelly. Maybe it's my higher tolerance.

So after all the shopping we took the MTR to Central, where we met my mum's colleague and her family for dinner at Yong Ji. It was supposedly the place to eat roasted goose, so we went there and were introduced to the colleague, her American husband and her five-year-old son.

My mum and his dad fought over the tab, and the guy finally won by shoving his card into the poor waitress' hand.

So after dinner we went to get some drinks to bring back to the room, and watched TV.

The rest are asleep now and I'm still retyping this entry i lost about ten minutes ago.

Bye!