stuck in the airport....

After an eventful 2 days of shopping (Friday was Mong Kok- I don't think A's ever seen that many people out at night), we are now stuck in the HK airport... oh 9 hour delay that was not on the internet... however, we've managed to make a friend via "oh are you waiting to?" which is always fun... in any case, it saves our 'monday where everything is closed in Delhi' as we'll be sleeping upon arrival...

In any case, a recap of the shopping fun

Friday night was fun in Mong Kok, which is on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong... Now, I'll have to post the photos (whenever I actually get somewhere that allows me to do so) in order for you to get an idea of how many people there are. Just think, housing is tiny here, so EVERYONE goes out at night. Especially on a Friday night.. Mong Kok is a huge shopping district, you can find literally everything here... So, while all of the HK under 20 crowd roamed the streets, we hung out with Cousin Andrew.. first we went out for Japanese--where we had some shabu shabu, sashimi, and some other interesting hot plate, cook your own meat sort of thing.. SO TASTY!!

Next, we went on a tour of every single electronics shop in the area in search of the best possible deal for the Canon Sd870 (which we found), and for a cheap international cell phone, and of course, one of the nicest malls in the world. This mall at these incredibly LONG escalators.. essentially, the escalator would skip 3 whole floors at a time. Tons of light, lots of space. If there's anything to be said, HKers love their malls.

The highlight of the night (of course) was the dessert. We went to this dessert house that specializes in only Mango. That's right, Mango pudding with mango ice cream, sprinkled with some coconut; mango slices with tapioca, mango slushie, mango and red bean... Obviously, it was super popular, because in the span of walking around, what was probably a 6 block radius--we passed by 4 of these shops.

Saturday was spent shopping for me... Hitting up the cashmere outlet (as instructed by my 5th auntie), and then walking around Wanchai for the deals, I found some nice stuff... that sadly, will have to stay in the suitcase at poh poh's until I come back from India and Thailand.

Today, unbeknownst to us, and for whatever reason, our 'plane is not in hong kong' so we, along with everyone else on Air India was stuck in the airport... since they never notified us.. I have to say though, of all airports to be stuck in, it's not so bad. Lots of shops to explore (MNG, Bossino, Giordano, Calvin Klein, luggage stores, etc etc). There's also free wi-fi here, which would only be helpful if I'd actually brought my laptop....

Which A and I keep kicking ourselves about. We're both super tempted to find a cheap laptop and just buy it, but sadly, it's not particularily economical... le sigh. Although, macs retail for the same as the US (but only in white, if they had the black macbook, I would seriously consider it).

This past week was insightful... the more I think about it, the more I think I could live in HK and have a blast (and not shop all the time). Overall, its an incredibly convenient city. Much more so than NYC. For all the love I have of NYC, HK beats it for convenience. In every apartment complex, there's at least 1 park n shop, drycleaners, playground, nursery, hair salon, etc, thereby ensuring that one never has to leave the complex... and the metro system.. it runs every 3 minutes during non-peak hours! and the octopus card.. Seriously, someone needs to bring that to the US... the octopus card is this refillable card that you use to pay for your metro (tap on entry and exit), you can purchased things at 7/11, Circle K, drugstores, buses, trolleys, everything. Almost all commonly used 'things' can be paid for with the octopus card. It completely negates the need to carry cash. It's quite nice.

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Coffee: So, there is no dearth of starbucks in Hong Kong.. and they even have special flavors like black tea latte, rooibos tea latte, lots of green tea lattes etc etc.. but for whatever reason, when I order a latte here, there is no caffeine. I know I have caffeine tolerance (a la peet's) but seriously? I get sleepier after I drink it!! The same goes for the coffee at pacific coffee too... I suppose it's a good thing, since I need to bring the post-grad school tolerance down to normal....

Krispy Kreme Donuts have miraculously made their way to HK.. as well as Familigia's pizza.. which I find digusting.. but I digress... at Krispy Kreme, they have the most interesting flavors! They call it the "Kreme Hei Fat Choi" (Happy New Year)... There's apple, mandarin orange, black tea twist, green tea twist donuts... I didn't have the muster to try them, but they looked pretty.. and more interesting, the donuts are smaller!!!

Well, all the portion sizes are smaller here.. which might (partially) explain the lack of fat people here. Now, if only the rest of the world (ahem super size america) would consider making all the portion sizes smaller....