What I Did Last Summer Yeah, so here goes: * I am a bee. Hong Kong is such an amazing place to explore! Wall-to-wall shops and people. Excellent roving weather, at least circa late March. Fab transport system I cant rave too much about -makes rushhour traffic quite bearable. Super choices for gluttonous vegetarians like moi. Arts, sleaze, glitz, poverty... you name it, HKs got it pour vous. * I am a horse. At least, when it comes to marathon walking. Worked out my dogs to death these past five days. By Thursday, I could hear them yelping, Tama naaah! But who listens to whining appendages when you have so MUCH to discover? Memorable death marches: getting on board the wrong airport shuttle (A21 instead of A12) and the subsequent wandering around witless in Tsim Sha Tui; the trek to/from Tsuen Wan to pick-up my Agricola goodies (which I bought online the week previous) and the oh, so excruciating parade to the Mei Foo exchange!; the nighttime ramble along Kowloon Bay, after being sweetly ejected by Roger from some exclusive Sino-French dinner at Peninsula; the hunt for the relocated Loving Hut resto -a Mecca for all bona fide vegetarians; the last afternoons Nathan Road to Harbour City crawl, at the height of rushhour; just to name a few. (Must have burnt thousands of calories. Which is fine, considering the way I was chomping down veggie food in those excellent holesinthewalls.) * I am a pig. See above. Here are this trips meals to remember: Loving Huts 3 viands plus unli red rice promo at HK$48 only. For HK$5 more, you get soy milk. THEN its Nirvana!; the all all-Chinese, Buddhist resto at the corners of Cheung Sha Wan and Boundary streets. Thanks to my super sign language powers, I got the best zero-meat hors doeuvres in Existenz; super-crowded, politically correct Happy Veggies with their all-special crew -over unabashed chisms on Thai cinema with fellow API rogue, Anchalee; the busy point/eat walk-in at the corners of Dundas and Portland; etc * I am relentless. Despite the ubiquitous posters featuring noted HK personages enjoining folks to do the right thing (e.g. I wont buy what I dont really need.), this covetous Pjnoy went for the jugular. Shopping-wise. No clothes, no tech stuff. This suave connoisseur focused on his latest obsession, board games. And since Im OC, the hunt started the beginning of March. Salamat mucho, Google Search, YouTube, BoardgameGeek, et al. The moment I hit the former Brit colony, I had my list. And maps. My HK dollars, plus a filled up Octopus. And thanks to my Pinoy genetic structure, I managed to cram my acquisitions -8 board games in various shapes/sizes, plus 7 packs of Euro card sleeves- into Ate Cakes svelte luggage. * I am Popeye, in relation to above. Survived lugging around the burstin bags to the airport. Public buses, at that! (No Airport Express. Told ya I was economical.) * I deserve an Academy Award for Acting. Tried this AirBnB thing finally -heard about this gem from Law years ago. Its like hostel-, or booking but totally dressed down. Naw, you aint parking your royal ass in some rat-infested, kidney-stealing dorm. Instead, its in some bloke/dames rat-infested, kidney-stealing sala/boudoir. Yes, its purty chancey. But you aint traipsing around the planet for comfort/safetys sake. Right, luv? And its CHEAP. Only set the wallet back P4,800 for four nachts -compare this to my former booking in a Causeway Bay hostel for thrice the price. My host, wholl remain nameless, is a thirty-something, French national engaged in some God-knows-what biz in HK. Hes pretty taciturn and mostly not at home. Which was initially discombobulating for this Hi, my names Edward. And Im from the Philippines!, former hospitality boylet. But it eventually panned out fine. I had the unit to myself (he slept on a foldable in the wee sala) after 8AM. Naw, didnt thrash the joint. In fact, since it wasnt the most antiseptic of places, I found myself cleaning the kitchen/toilet on my second to the last morning. Now I can proclaim, Pinay domestic helpers of zee Welt, UNITE! My only pet peeve: he distinctly told me NOT to do my labada there, insisting theres a laundry close by. Hated that. But the warning didnt stop this pasaway, ex-Cinemalaya festival programmer (wink2). Washed my undies plus two white tees, hung em up a bit to dry outside the 9th floor window, and THEN moved em in, droplets et al, into my bedroom closet -just before heading for HK Film Market 2014. Nasty, but, hey... Im a serial labada kid, right? Oh well, and now Im back home. Back to a sweltering Manila. Back to Reality. Back to my fekkin diet. Back to the final kalbaryo week of my DLSU/CSB penitensiya (of choice, mind you). (A beat) NOW, lets get our grubby hands on all em board games! And into some intensive card sleeving... Happy summer, yall! :)
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 03:17:19 +0000
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