Day 3 (Max)

So we started off Day 3 with return trip to Toast Box for breakfast (you order bread as the main meal and eggs as a complimentary side dish - my favorite is a thick white bread with peanut butter, fried eggs and coffee that can only be ordered with too much sugar) and a trip into Aberdeen via the Star Ferry at Tsim Sha Tsui (Random note: the "Ts" sound in Tsim Sha Tsui is damn near impossible to pronounce with an English tongue at first shot. Sam tells me the English speakers just call the area "TST"). The Star Ferry is a boat that takes a person from my area of Kowloon into the main Hong Kong island. Incredible photos of the Hong Kong island are possible on this trip, demonstrating Hong Kong's city-in-a-mountain theme.

After the Star Ferry and a bus or two, Sam and I arrived in Aberdeen. Aberdeen is a fishing village in Hong Kong. We took a trip on a small boat (after some rather direct and persistent endorsements from an old lady with an umbrella) to explore the nearby harbor in more detail. We saw what Sam described as the largest floating restaurant in the world, whose bottom floor is devoted entirely to a popular dumpling-like dish known as Dim Sum. Although Sam and I deliberated about whether or not we should go on the restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner, our tour guide interrupted us by explaining that Dim Sum is primarily a lunch-time food and that the restaurant would not serve us our meal of choice so late in the day (think 3:30PM-ish).

From there, Sam and I boarded a bus for Stanley. Stanley is a popular beach in Hong Kong - lots of hustle and bustle with the Hong Kong modernization touch but also the occasional local area with porcelain hole-in-the-ground public restroom. Not for those of us with weak quads or stomachs! Young, mediocre street performers peppered the landscape as well.

Sam and I got back on a bus all the way back to Jordan and eventually arrived at a local noodle shop. The noodle dishes are a spicy soup with noodles, vegetables, meats and whatever else you can specify for about $4 US. The food was good but unfortunately flavor was soon replaced by a general burning sensation as the combination of near boiling broth and preponderance of cayenne peppers overwhelmed my senses and general well-being.

Surviving (or attempting to survive) dinner, Sam and I left for a local University to watch his girlfriend's play. The show was called No means Yes and involves a young 20-something who bets his father that he can avoid saying yes while receiving $100HK for every No mentioned. Hilarity ensues. Following the show, a ritual where one performance groups transitions to another took as long as the play itself, as thank-you's and references to destiny became the order of the night. Curiously, the strangeness of the night derived more from normal theater group idiosyncrasies than my lack of familiarity with the Hong Kong culture. It appears that, once you get through the more pronounced cultural differences, we share the same basic needs/wants/beliefs.

The night quickly came to a close as Sam and his roommates needed to sleep early for work the next day. Tomorrow, I will explore some local museums by myself and try not to get lost in Asia!

Cheers!
Max