It’s been two years since my law school girl friends and I went to Hong Kong but I have never written about the third and fourth days of that trip. Not for lack of materials, certainly, nor because of poor memory, but because the summer heat sneaked in like a thief in the night just a week or so after I got home. And I lost the energy for storytelling.
But what’s two years? Here I am, reviving a section of my blog that had long been dormant — not just reviving it, in fact, but getting gutsy enough to turn all those travel posts into a stand-alone blog. Before I leave for my next trip (Osaka, Kyoto and Nara), I want to finish the Hong Kong stories.
It’s good that I’ve faithfully kept files of all the photos I have taken. When I browse them, it’s easy to recall what happened when. So, I distinctly remember that after the fireworks at Hong Kong Disneyland, we took the shuttle back to the hotel. We all wanted to shower but we agreed to meet afterwards because there was a lovely bottle of French wine that… well, it’s a nice way to spend our last night in Disneyland.
But it took me longer than I expected to join my friends. It’s the darn hotdog from the cart in Disneyland. I couldn’t digest it and I felt that if I ingested anything without expelling it first, I’d get sick. I spent a long time with my face hovering over the Porcelain Queen. I was dizzy by the time I was done. And although I did have a glass of wine with my friends, I didn’t enjoy it like I normally would.
There’s nothing like a good night’s sleep to cure indigestion though. I woke up feeling refreshed. We were transferring to the Crowne Plaza Hotel before noon. We had breakfast, we packed and took a taxi.
I can only wish that I had taken photos of the Crowne Plaza Hotel room. It was beautiful. Clean lines and no clutter. The glasses, cups and cutlery were hidden away from view in drawers that one wouldn’t think were meant for such things at all.
Perhaps, I didn’t take photos because we were pressed for time. We had hardly set down our bags when we rode the elevator down again. We were going shopping. My friends wanted to go to IKEA but we all had different ideas where IKEA was. Two of my friends were referring to a store farther up north; another friend agreed with me that there was a nearer branch — the one in that huge red shopping mall that wasn’t far from the hotel. MegaBox, the mall’s name was. And that was where we went.
My stomach having settled, I wanted lunch before shopping. As usual, we chose the most decent-looking restaurant with comfortable seats and no noisy crowds. Yes, places like that are pricier. But, darn, I didn’t want another tasteless meal like the one I had to bear at the food court of Citygate Outlets.
Thai Orchids Cafe. The food wasn’t all that pricey but not street-food-cheap either. But neither was the food memorable. The only dish I truly enjoyed was the duck in red curry sauce (above, right).
After lunch, we each went our own way agreeing to meet somewhere at a designated time. Those details, I can no longer recall. What I do know is I went to H&M, bought blouses then did what I do best when away from home — discover where the smoking area was.
It didn’t take long before everybody has had her fill of shopping. We had coffee and started to get ready to go back to Crowne Plaza Hotel.
The next pressing issue was was where we would have dinner. We were already at the hotel — surely, no one intended to go out again? We had noticed a sign by the Lobby Lounge earlier about free flowing wine. While deciding where to have dinner, two of us were hellbent on drinking all the wine that we wanted first.
We sat down and relaxed. We had been on our feet all afternoon and it felt good to just sink into a soft couch with a wine glass in hand. There were bar nuts to go with the wine and we were content. But…
When our two friends joined us, they lost no time perusing the menu. Soon, we had fried spring rolls. Then, we had chicken wings. Fries go well with chicken wings so we had fries too.
The things we talked and laughed about were varied. One topic that got documented (someone sent the conversation to other friends on FB Messenger) was why a middle-aged woman who had never undergone ligation should gain weight at all. It might sound silly but drunken conversations are often silly and hilarious.
We were the first there for happy hour and we were the last to leave. I don’t remember what else we ordered but one thing’s for sure — by the time happy hour at Lobby Lounge was over, we were no longer discussing dinner. We moved to the the bar on the 47th floor and ordered more drinks.
The memory of eating anything else eludes me although it stands to reason that we ordered more food too because we were there until almost midnight. Surely, we felt hungry at some point. But the fact that the only photo I took from the open-air bar was a blurry shot of the buildings in the vicinity means that, at that point, wine had become my best friend for the night and I was willing to neglect photography.
I do recall going to our room only to go back to the bar thinking I had left my phone there. I didn’t. It was my eyeglasses that I left there. But I wouldn’t realize that until the next day.
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