3-in-1 Day

We are in the southern part of country for a few days, which is our layover before returning back home. It is surprising, refreshing, and confusing to be hearing so much Cantonese around me. Different workers (hotel clerks, restaurant workers, taxi drivers) sometimes speak English, sometimes Cantonese, and sometimes Mandarin. Even I switch around once in awhile, realizing that my comfort language depends on the context.

Sunday was many things... Chinese New Year, Valentine's, and my birthday. It... was... wonderful. Being our first full day here, we decided to venture out in the late morning in hopes to find some dim sum. We found an excellent dim sum restaurant that just happened to be connected to our hotel. The best Taro Dumpling (wu gok or yu jiao) I have ever had, and that is my favorite of the dim sum specialties. It's been about 9 months since we last had dim sum. So... first task on our to-do list... check.

Next... we walked down the street and found... a Starbucks. Since it was my bday, Bethany said we could spend hours there as a treat for me. So, we did. This was my 5th time in a Starbucks in 9 months. Can you believe that, a year ago, I could possibly Starbucks 5 times in... 3 days? Second task on our to-do- list... check.

Then, we had to find a place for dinner. On Chinese New Year. Near the river, where tons of people were lined up waiting for the fireworks. We went to a few restaurants, where they were all booked. Then we went to 2 other restaurants in a nice hotel... one restaurant said that they had a minimum charge of 460 ¥ per person, since it was a river view restaurant where you could watch the fireworks. That would be... nearly 1000 ¥ for dinner for the two of us. Umm, no thank you.

So we walked farther down the street, through a crowded seafood market. Seriously... fish, shrimp, and geoduck clams all over the place. We found a decent looking restaurant and went in. When we were ordering, we saw crab on the menu and asked how they prepared it. The waitress looked at us, and then looked at our feet and around our chairs. Then she said, "Umm, where's your crab?" Oh, wow... you mean, we have to bring the crab here from the seafood market, and you cook it? I guess that's how some of these restaurants do it. So, no crab. Oh well. At least we had gon caau ngau ho (gan chao niu he).

When we got back to our hotel room, we looked out the window and realized we had a perfect view of the fireworks show that had just started. I'm sure glad that we didn't have to stand out in the cold to watch the fireworks. That certainly worked out well.



And then, to top it all off, we got a phone call from the front desk. I guess, from seeing my passport, they saw that it was my birthday... and then sent up a birthday cake. Quite impressive.



So that was Sunday.

I will let Bethany blog about how we spend our Monday here... McDonald's, Ikea (the final item on our to-do list... check), and Pizza Hut. On Tuesday... back home we go...