Scribbles

Hong Kong way exceeded my expectations.  The bustling city was full of energy, people, food, shopping, and things to do.  And it was much less polluted than I expected.  We got to do touristy stuff during the day, and even fit in some shopping too: I picked up a nifty new phone at bargain price.  And not only did we gorge ourselves stupid on some of the best culinary treats ever, we even had a chance to catch the excellent Filipino cover band at Insomnia.

So what’s with the title of this post?  Well, it comes from this Russell Peters clip, where RP does a spot-on Cantonese accent.  The night before, we chanced upon this friendly little bar named “JC @ 65″ near Lan Kwai Fong.  The bartender/owner Ken turns out to be this gregarious guy who grew up in Hawaii/California and loves to fix up cars, just the kind of friend our little group can easily relate to.  The last thing I remember was drinking with him, his wonderful stuff, the lovely patrons, and finishing a sequence of shots called 3 dead men: Cognac XO, Jack Daniels, and what Ken lovingly called “just rum”, which was actually 151.  Good night, farewell, lights out.

Fast forward to the next day morning.  We somehow managed to get up to have a traditional dim sum brunch, as we had previously planned.  While we were waiting to be seated at City Hall’s Maxim Palace, the hostess was calling the numbers for people queuing on a microphone.  She would read them off in Cantonese and then in English.  All of a sudden, Dave gets the idea that I should ask her to announce “thirty four fifty” to the crowd.  Hmm… in our hung-over, sleep deprived, bored-with-nothing-to-do state, I accepted.  I approached and soon realized that neither her English or Mandarin was up to par to understand what I was asking for.  Soon her colleague comes by and it becomes a 3-way negotiation with translations.  Well, I’m not taking negotiation analysis at school now for nothing, so I launch right into a spiel about how my friend doesn’t think I can pull off this seemingly bizarre request, and what a happy customer I’d be if she would perform this tiny favor.  After some back and forth, I scribble down the number “34.5″ on a piece of paper and read it to her in English.  She stared at me skeptically, realized the benefits of getting this crazy person off her back, and picked up the mic and announced it.  Mission accomplished.  Oh, and the dim sum was superb too.

Great times in HK and in Singapore the past week.  I have a feeling I will be visiting again soon.  A big thanks to my friends who shared with me my first adventure to this wonderful city!