My first week and a half in Hong Kong was definitely an eventful one. I arrived at Changi airport with more than enough time, which is such a rarity. Usually I am yelling at the taxi driver to hurry and rushing through security to get to my gate. It was actually quite nice to be able to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee and a pastry before having to board.
With my tummy full, I made my way to the gate excited to sleep on the plane. I had been up late the night before and had barely gotten any sleep, so my plan was to catch up on some much needed zzzs in flight. As I was waiting in the boarding area a very loud and annoying family made their way towards me and plopped down taking over the empty seats next to me and a little bit of mine as well. Clearly there was no regard for personal space or social etiquette. The mother was a true Singaporean (speaking only Singlish) and was dishing out commands to her sheepish husband and two sons. I immediately picked up my handbag and moved to the other side of the boarding area. "Get me away as quickly as possible" was all I could think. As the boarding process started, I was one of the first to board and quickly made my way to my seat and settled. iPod on, ear buds in,and I was ready to snooze for the rest of the flight. My relaxing slumber was very short lived. I was jolted awake by the sound of two whining boys and a mother shouting at them in Singlish. It was them! My hopes were that they were going to pass by my row, but of course they stopped right next to me. One of the boys shoved his way past his mother and claimed his seat and his brother soon did the same. This cannot be happening, it just simply can't. I waited for them to get settled and seriously contemplated asking the stewardess if I could move seats. I was so exhausted that I opted instead to take a Nyquil and turned my iPod on the highest volume setting. One of the perks of having long hair is that you can cover the cord to the earbuds for take off and landing which is exactly what I did. That was until one of the unsufferable boys said in a loud voice, "That lady still has her music on. Mom, why can't I have my music on tooooooooo?" Dear Lord, this was going to be a long flight.
As soon as we touched down I couldn't get off that plane any faster. I made it though immigration with out any questions and collected my bag. I hopped in a taxi after deciphering what the different colors meant, and told my taxi driver where I was going. No surprise, he had no idea what I was saying. I showed him the address to my apartment in English and Cantonese and he still had no clue where it was. I sat in the back seat as he drove towards the city and phone what appeared to be four different people to find out where he was going.
Eventually, he got me to the cross street of my apartment. The reception knew where I was being dropped off and met me to show me the rest of the way. My apartment building was in the center of Soho, a neighborhood in Central Hong Kong. It reminded me a lot of San Fran the way all the streets are built on hills. I dropped my stuff off and headed straight to the office to find my way around and see what the rest of the work week looked like. It's only about a 10 minute walk from the apartment to the office and along the way I noticed a wine bar called Tastings that I wanted to check out. On my walk back home I stopped for a glass of wine a cheese plate.
The rest of the week was pretty intense with work and I was working long hours as was expected. My friend Regina was invited by a friend of her's to a private kitchen called Magnolia and asked if I wanted to join. I, without even thinking about it, said yes. At this point I had worked 11 days in a row and need to stop for something social for my own sanity. I had never been to a private kitchen before but found that they are quite popular in Hong Kong. The deal is they don't have a full blown license to serve food like a restaurant does and most of them cannot serve alcohol. They don't advertise, most of it is by word of mouth. We were allowed to bring any of our own alcohol and they would serve it for us which was nice. Regina and I were running late for dinner as we had a lot to finish up at the office before leaving, so we popped in to a restaurant and bought two bottles of wine to go. When we arrived, we weren't sure that we had the right address. The building looked deserted from the outside and there wasn't a sign on the door. Regina peeked in and said it looked like the right place so we entered. A woman greeted us and led us through two rooms, the kitchen where the food was being prepared, and up a flight of stairs to a private entrance. The door swung open and there were about 14 people already seated at a long table. We went through introductions and began the first of five courses. The food was all New Orleans Cajun and was amazing!
At the end of dinner we realized that we still had about 10 bottles of wine that were unopened. Solution? Everyone at the table will just have to have a new glass poured.
After dinner we made our way to a bar on Wyndham Street called Tazmania. Regina's friends had tables reserved and we wasted no time ordering drinks, chatting and meeting new people.
One of Regina's friends said he was going to go to another bar called Play to meet some friends and asked if we wanted to stay or go with him. We decided that a change of scene would be good and opted to leave. As we arrived at Play, the line outside was massively long and people were pushing to get to the front. I spotted a bouncer that looked somewhat friendly and pushed my way to the front. I said I was with two people and asked if we could skip the line. Shockingly he said yes, waived us through and made some motion to the stamp girl to stamp our wrists. As crowded as it was outside, it was more crowded inside. Regina pushed her way to the back of the bar where the tables were and found some friends. I met a bunch of people who's names I either do not remember or couldn't hear because it was so loud.
Around 3am I decided that I was super tired and wanted to call it a night. Regina said she wanted to leave as well and we made our way out of the club and on to the main street below. I looked up and realized that we were right in front of our office building. I asked why there were so many people lined up outside the front doors and learned that there is a club called Magnum on the third floor of our building. A little strange but, hey, I guess it works.
The next day I had made plans to have brunch with Regina, Travis, and Travis's wife Sarah at noon. We went to a place in Wan Chai called The Pawn and I would definitely recommend it to others. The food was great and the atmosphere was really cool.
After brunch we all decided that we wanted to spend the rest of the day at a beach. We stopped by the nearest 7 Eleven to pick up water and drinks and hopped in a taxi to South Bay Beach. The day was turning out to be beautiful and sunny and we wasted no time setting out blankets and laying out.
The time was passing quickly and amidst all of out talking and recounting the events from the night before we heard a loud horn sound and a woman's voice speaking in Cantonese over the loud speaker. We looked around to see what was happening and then the English translation came. "May I have your attention please. Suspected shark sightings have been reported. Please do not go in the water." No one in the water could hear the announcement and continued to swim around. Soon, the lifegaurd raised a flag that had a fin on it to continue to warn people to get out of the water.
When that failed to get everyone's attenttion, they paddled out on a raft to collect them and rowed back to shore. We knew we shouldn't go in the ocean to cool off and once it got too hot we opted to leave for dinner. Being in the sun all day none of us felt like anything heavy so went for sushi.
