Close call

Today was another extremely busy day. My uncle came to pick me up at 9 and took me to another place for dim sum. I find it crazy that there are so many restaurants here and they all have business.
I had a chance to call my favorite uncle on my dad’s side, Uncle Lincoln. He was delighted to hear from me and asked if I wanted to go Ruby Tuesday for lunch tomorrow with my aunt and 2 cousins who I haven’t seen in a really long time. I later told my dad where we’re going and he said that Ruby Tuesday in HK has dim sum. Ok I’m not sure if he’s kidding or not but I’ll believe him for now.

After breakfast we went back to the apartment and I pulled out my camera to check how much battery was left. It didn’t turn on at all. I tried my backup battery and nothing still. I was seriously freaking out because I have such terrible luck with electronics and this is the 2nd day of my 18 day trip and my camera died on me. I recharged the batteries and when I plugged them in, they instantly said they were full so I racked it up to a camera problem. My uncle took me to Sam Shui Po (spelling?) and we walked around for an hour looking for a person that fixes cameras.

We tried one store and they tried 4 different new batteries that were charged, camera didn’t turn on. My heart seriously sunk, although I’ve had my Canon rebel XT for 4 years and I’ve used it a lot, this was terrible timing for it to die. We found a shop that fixes electronics and they said they charge 80 HK as a fee to diagnose, then will charge additional for repairs. We asked how long they would need the camera for, they said a week. Yah, no that obviously didn’t work for my schedule. We found one more camera store and they handed me another new battery and miraculously, this one worked! I was seriously relieved and gladly paid the $15 for it. I then realized that I bought a last minute charger at stupid National Camera and it probably was the reason my batteries weren’t working. I asked them if they had a battery charger as well and they had an official Canon one.
I went back to the apartment and charged my old batteries on the new charger and thank goodness they worked and also that I kept the receipt for the bad charger.

This entire camera ordeal took all of the morning and it was already 12pm. Next, I had to order the tickets again for Bangkok. I honestly couldn’t remember the departure date because I remember aaron said 12/19 but we were leaving Sunday. I kept calling and texting him but no response so I was getting really frustrated because ticket prices were going up by the hour. I finally decided to guess and order for a Monday departure. Later on at like 5pm Aaron said that he had to keep his phone at home and the school turned off the internet to prevent cheating because it’s their final exams day.

My uncle took me to Hong Kong Park. This place was really great. Just the fact that they can prioritize and put a park in the middle of the city is pretty cool to me.



We checked out the botanical garden first, they had separate sections for dry and humid climate plants.





After that we checked out the aviary, a giant domed cage with tons of exotic birds flying around staring at people.



I was a little nervous because they swoop down over you and they could poop on you at any second.

My favorite bird was the white one with the blue face, all of them liked attention and weren’t afraid of people. I was surprised they even had a pelican.



We walked around the park some more and then started wandering the city. I told my uncle that I heard there was an apple store here and it was supposed to be really cool and a popular place to check out. When we got there I was seriously unimpressed. It looked EXACTLY like the stores at home except it was 2 floors and the view was really nice.







I am very disappointed in all the people there because they were nuts about apple. Looking at their prices made me queasy: 16 gb Iphone - $730 and 16 gb Ipad- $550
I don’t remember if I mentioned this but most people I’ve seen with a smart phone here in HK have Iphones…I don’t get it…

We walked around most of the banking district and then took the ferry back to Tsim Sha Tsui.



Got back to the apartment and I started uploading pics while my uncle asked if he could sit down and watch the new for 10 minutes until 6:30. Next thing I know, he’s shaking me awake at 8:45. Turns out we both fell asleep for more than 2 hours lol

I don’t know why but after he woke me up, I seriously felt like crap. He wanted to take me to eat sashimi and I was just following him like a zombie because I couldn’t wake up and I felt dizzy, worse than before I took the nap.

We found a good sushi restaurant and my uncle ordered a 6 course meal. I started chugging green tea to make myself feel better. The tempura made me feel even worse and made me want to puke but I fought through it. At the end of the sushi and stuff, the waiter brings a GIANT plate of sashimi and I’m freaking out inside because I’m feeling bad and yet he’s so hospitable to order this delicious meal for me.



Fried chicken cartilage



Sushi with raw sea urchin and salmon eggs



Tempura soft shell crab


Salmon sushi with mango strips



Grilled salmon head



The sashimi had: arc shell, salmon, maguro, hamachi, surf clam, scallops, sword fish, kampachi, angel prawn, and sweet shrimp.


My all time favorite is salmon. I was a little nervous trying the raw shrimp and scallops. The small red shrimp were good but the larger grey ones were slimy and had a creamy consistency. I consider myself pretty brave when eating food but I don’t think I’d eat raw shrimp again. I’m a big fan of the swordfish but back at home I doubt they’d have good fresh swordfish for this cheap.

After dinner, I was feeling better but I had to stop like 3 times for the bathroom because of all the green tea I drank. Uncle took me to the harbor to check out the view but I totally forgot my tripod so the pictures turned out pretty terrible. I’ll come back here with Aaron to take better ones.



I did take a few nice ones of some nearby buildings though. Check out the flickr for more.

If you ever get a chance, wander the subway tunnels in Tsim Sha Tsui, they're like a freaking maze that never ends.
When I got home I was excited to rush back to starbucks to write this blog post and post the 130 pictures I took today but when I checked my clock, it was already 11:30!

Sorry about the long blog post this time. I think you can see how exhausted I was by the end of the day because of all the places I’ve had to cram into such a short period of time. Tomorrow should be lighter, all I have on the agenda is breakfast with Uncle William, lunch with Uncle Lincoln, and I tried to reserve the rest of the day to myself. I might go to Mon Kok by myself and go shopping…Good night