Sunday: pre-volcano (video!)

Like I’ve said before, we take reader requests seriously at ohiasia. So when one of you suggested:

…we got right on it! Chip informed me she lives near Tai Mo Shan, and graciously agreed to accompany me next time the weather wasn’t horrible. Sunday was the day!

I spent about 45 minutes on the MTR, going from “Sheung Wan” (left-most point on the lower blue) to “Tseun Wan” (left-most point on the red.)

At one of the stops, I saw this ad which is exactly the type of ads we do at work: nonsense phrase attached to an unrelated photo and no idea what they’re advertising. You may be thinking, “but that probably means something in Chinese!” It doesn’t. In Chinese, it says, “caring for life’s journeys” and makes just as little sense. Chip confirmed. You’re also encouraged to poll your local Chinese speaker. (I don’t differentiate between dialects because they’re all written the same way.)

I had to wait for her a bit at Tseun Wan (something about a delay leaving her house; I think she fell back asleep even though it was after noon…) so I put my camera between my feet and shot this video. If you can tell a lot about a person from their shoes, then this video should just about say it all about Hong Kongers (or “Hong Kongese” as Ian says.) My slightly-musically-inclined friend, Dan, came to town just in time to pick the music. Duke Ellington’s “Hot Feet” would not have occurred to me (that it even existed.)

When slow-poke finally showed up, I said, “Let’s get a snack; something easy to eat”. She took me to this counter where they combine pre-measured pouches of whatever you tell them, with cold spinach noodles. (Click on the pic and you can barely read the menu.) I picked cucumber, corn, sprouts and… the meat-ish choices were all strange, so I asked Chip what she’d pick. “I like chicken feet, but I doubt you will like that.”

So I got chicken feet. (Hey, no worse than “chicken kidney”, “pig feet” or “shark fin” right?) I was actually alright for a few bites, but the thought (and soft-crunchy texture) grossed me out too much to finish. Plus, it was too messy to finish! The chopsticks were too short to get to the bottom of the bag without getting my fingers saucy. (And I wasn’t going to tilt the bag to my mouth like the last few Lays in a bag.) Easy-to-eat, my tail!