It felt so good to sleep for 8 full hours. It's even better to have my new blackberry delivered this morning. The current one I am using is pretty worn out, it could be the constant blogging and messaging people. I was thoroughly excited to receive the dhl package this morning. What was also nice this morning was a haircut!
We all, including alan, made an appointment to get our hair cut. Our hair was getting shagged from all the sunlight, harsh water, and swimming. I was a bit nervous when I sat down on the chair, but felt more at ease seeing steph's cut was nice. Our stylist, jason, was very friendly and chatted with us. We talked about all sorts of things including bars, our travels, witches and spells in thailand, and america. What seemed to have been missing was concentration on my haircut. He seemed to have favored cutting my left side over my right, and later I noticed (no one else would probably notice) that my right side of my hair was longer than my left. Oh wells, what can you expect from a $20 cut. All-in-all it did the trick - got rid of my split ends and gave me a trim....a little too much maybe. But I take comfort that my hair grows fast. Alan's hair was pretty stylish too. I'm glad he is taking my advice to keep it long, maybe he would have better luck with the ladies tonight.
After our fabulous cuts, we went back to the sushi place I went the first night with ben for lunch. It was a bit of a challenge to find it, but after several inquiries we got there. It was once again yummy in my tummy. I heart the scallops sushi. Buttery and slightly sweet...all natural.
It's not a complete day in hong kong without our daily routine of shopping. Steph got a vip card from purchasing stuff at a cheap store called maple the day before. She was kind enough to bring me there to check out the deals. For less than $20 I got a cute dress and an identical bag (different color) as steph.
I decided to spare alan the misery of more shopping with us, so I suggested we depart from steph and head over to stanley park. We took a mini bus there. It's pretty nice there with a small beach and the stanley street market. We browsed through the stores, but didn't buy anything. They sold a lot of traditional chinese dresses there, so I thought it would be cute if steph and I each wore one for the Melbourne cup. Steph didn't think that was a great idea because it would be such a cliche. So, I switched my suggestion to a cool thai dress....hahaha!
A trip will never be complete for alan without stopping for a beer, so we went to a pub by the waterfront. We relaxed a bit - alan sipping his kronenberg and me my sparkling water. We decided that stanley was not all that impressive, which may be because we've been really spoiled with cool sights everyday that it's taking more and more to wow us. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable.
We hopped back on the bus to go back to our respective stays before dinner with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Instead of waiting for the same mini-bus, Alan suggested for us to take another one because it said "north point" on it, which leads him to his hotel. To our shock, or alan's shock, I had to switch bus at some random place and Alan could take it all the way to his hotel. It took me an extra 30mins to get back to Ben's place in addition to the 25mins ride originally. Alan and his scary directions.
Oh I forgot to mention yesterday that Alan took revenge on the jellyfish at dragon-i. He ate the jellies. We have proof!
Back to the day. I had 10mins to get ready to go and meet my cousins, aunt, and uncles from my mother side for dinner. Since I had so little time to get ready, I was 5-10 mins late. Somehow Alan was too when he had an extra 30mins to get ready. Girl :-)
I was a bit excited to see my family, since it's been 9 years since I saw them last. But it seemed like it's been years since the family itself got together. Some cousins haven't seen each other in over six years, so it was nice they all came out to have dinner with me. Even my uncle that lives by shenzen in mainland china came out to see me. I felt really special. I even wanted to treat them dinner but my uncle didn't let me.
It was easy to recognize all my uncles and aunts, but the younger cousins were more difficult. They were still young children when I saw them last. There were 17 people dining and the only two non-mak's (mak is my mother's maiden name) was alan and I. I found it amazing how the two boys resemble my brother Alex so much. I guess that's the way it should be since we are family.
We ate lots of food family style and had lots to chat about. It was truly fun to experience the feeling of a big family, since back in new york there is really only the four of us. Our dinner lasted from 8-11pm. Every moment of it was cherishable.
When it was time to leave, everyone was excited to take photos with me. The two girl cousins around my age decided to come out with me. It was indeed a difficult task for them because they lived in the new territories, which was 1.5hrs away from where we would be.
We met up with steph and friends at the Rack on wellington street in central. It was a pretty hoppin place for expats and fabulous people. We also had a good crowd - the asian UN. The countries represented were vietnamese, Filipino. Korean, chinese, american, and an adopted scottish. It was very interesting to share our perspectives of hong kong and china.
After some time, we decided it was time to move on. The seven of us got in two cabs. My cab was steph, alan, and I. My cousins have started their long journey back home by then. Steph had the address, so she spoke to the driver directly in mandarin. The driver did not respond, so I proceeded to ask him in cantonese if he understood her. No response. Steph then asked in mandarin if he heard her. No response. I started yelling at him if he heard us and knew where he was going. Finally, that got a response - yes, I heard you. By this point I was royally pissed, so I screamed back - why are you pretending not to hear us? I am speaking cantonese, you should understand. Very frustrating. I was also convinced he took the long route, so when steph's friend call we compared prices and realized our meter was more expensive. Of course I yelled and said - dude are you taking us the long route? Then he pulled over and said, we are here. Steph and I was pretty steaming. On top of all this, we had to walk a few blocks to our destination (as we drove passed it) and I desperately needed to pee.
We realized our new destination was closing in an hour so we had to quickly ordered and finished our beers. The night was completed when we went to mc donalds to over indulge ourselves. Alan and I shared a taxi back to north point.
Oh, but the night didn't end that quickly at 3am. Ben was still up when I got back to his place. He wanted to chat with me right when I got in, as it's the polite thing to do, but I once again needed to run to the bathroom to pee first.
Ben and I stayed up an extra 2hrs to chat and switch my blackberry. By the way, I am so happy with my new one! At 5am, it was time to say good night.
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