Sharing my trip

So I've decided the best way to share my trip to Hong Kong with all my family and friends back home is to post it to this blog. Hope you all enjoy!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Hong Kong 2012, Part 4: Bet You've Never Had a Bathroom Affect You Like This.

Here's the link to Part 3...



So the following day, we actually had an agenda.  One thing that I had expressed interest in (hat-tip to my friend Rob for the suggestion) was to get a custom-tailored suit in Hong Kong.  My parents were at first very apprehensive about buying me a suit ("When are you ever going to wear it?") but then they came to their senses, realizing that it's not about when you're going to wear a kickass suit, but instead it's about having a kickass suit.  We laughed heartily at this apprehension later, but that's another story for another time.


Of course, we needed food first, so my Auntie Myna decided to take us to City Hall.  Uhhh, yeah, it made no sense to me either.  However, you won't guess what was inside City Hall...

Yeap, that says Maxim's Cafe
... but another restaurant owned by our family!  This one happened to be a Western-style restaurant, so we ordered things like pan-seared fish and baked chicken with soup and bread.  

Now I must lament that I do not actually have a picture of my kickass suit.  I do however, have a picture of the street outside of the tailor, so there's that...

In case you didn't believe I was in Hong Kong...
The tailor was an old man who thoroughly enjoyed laughing at my non-Cantonese-speaking-ness, so at least he had a great time taking my measurements while I stood there awkwardly attempting to laugh at his jokes (I'm hoping they were jokes).  After he had his fun, he told us to come back for re-fitting in a couple of days, after which he would fully prepare the suit and have it prepared a couple weeks after.

At the time, I was with my dad and my Uncle Ken (Auntie Annie's husband, for those who want some sort of connective family tree representation), and we had to kill some time waiting for my Auntie's Myna and Annie and my mom.  Thus, we decided to go sit down at a local eatery and get some coffee. 

One must steathily take creeper photos, lest one be discovered
I don't particularly care for coffee, so I was expecting another long session of sitting and awkwardly listening to Cantonese conversation.  My eyes lit up with joy, however, when my father suggested I order this...

That first bite was like a bomb of deliciousness went off in my mouth, killing everyone.

... a curry beef bun!!!!

I love curry beef buns.  Even when I'm Stateside in a Chinatown in any city anywhere, I look for curry beef buns as my snack of choice.  This curry beef bun, however, was sooooooo much better than all the ones I've ever had in the US.  I don't know what it was, but it was just 100x spicier and 100x tastier than the bland ones we usually get.  I swear I ate the whole thing in less than 4 bites, and I probably could've done it in 3.

As you can see in the picture above, the place we were in was quite packed, with many tables housing multiple parties.  This is pretty commonplace in Hong Kong, where you'll go eat in a little place like this and have a stranger join you at your table, simply because there is no other space.  However, it gives you an idea as to the size of the place, and thus slightly informs the state of condition of the rest of the establishment, particularly the bathroom.

Now a lot of the bathrooms in Hong Kong are dirty.  They almost always smell, and the level of cleanliness would almost be considered "unacceptable" by US standards.  It's just something you learn to deal with when you're traveling, and I've been abroad often enough that I can handle some pretty filthy conditions.  This level of dirt in this bathroom, however, can only be described by one word that I have never used to describe a bathroom before:

Petrifying

The bathroom was petrifyingly dirty.  Now, you're probably wondering, "Well that's an interesting word, I wonder why he chose petrifying?"  Let me inform you.  

When I opened the door to the bathroom and stepped in, I stopped.  It's not like I just hesitated from the level of filth, I actually stopped.  I wasn't even thinking about just not using the bathroom, walking out, pretending like it never happened, and praying to Jesus that I could hold for the next hour or so.  I actually just couldn't move.  The choice of peeing and not peeing left my mind, and my options became stand in this spot forever or call for help.  And I was super tempted to call for help.

After being fully overwhelmed, I decided to put a positive spin on it, thinking "Hey, at least I don't have to take a dump, that would be a day-ruiner right there."  Thinking of it that way, things really didn't seem so bad, and that change in attitude went a long way to me getting over the level of dirtiness.

And with that, I think I'll end this part.  Much as I'd like to continue, the next part involves visiting my grandfather's grave, and it doesn't really feel right writing about that with three paragraphs about the filthiest bathroom of all-time preceding it.

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