I do apologize for being slack with the photo taking. I'm in the process of learning how to get to and from some of the more important places that play a part in my daily life (the laundry, the coffee shop, the MTR station among others.) And lets talk about laundry for a moment, shall we? For $30 HKD ($3.80 USD) I can drop my laundry off in the morning and pick it up, hassle free, at the end of the day; freshly laundered, dried and folded. Considering that it cost $2.50 USD back home just to do the laundry and more than $1.30 worth of my time and effort, I feel like its a pretty sweet deal. Moving on...
I wanted to just say a bit about the awesome phenomenon known as the Set-Lunch. Here in Hong Kong, every restaurant (as they're practically forced to comply due to the competition) take part in the Set - Lunch. What is it? It is an option (or options) on the menu that offers a combo meal of sorts for a waaaaay discounted price. The other day, Nicholas and I went to a French styled spot in the mall food court and had the set lunch; he had the egg salad wrap with mushroom soup and an iced lemon tea and I had the same with the exception of a ham and mozzarella panini and the total cost was $76 HKD ($9 USD) for the entire meal (which was filling and yummy.) If you do the set lunch at a local cantina the prices are usually less and you get more food. Sometimes a dessert is even included (which makes my sweet tooth happy!)
Yesterday I located the post office and sent off postcards to my sister, nieces, mother and only Asian friend from home, June. So, if you'd like to be on the mailing list (an international stamp for a post card costs about $0.23 USD!) I also found a public pool thats right next to the post office and just about a 2 minute walk from my building. They open at 6 am and close at 10:30 pm and close twice a day for pool cleaning (the Asian OCD is an uber win here.) Oh! Did I mention that daily admittance is only $5 HKD ($.40 USD!!!!!!!)? Unfortunately, they're closing on the first of May for 2 months for renovations. Good to know for July though, because its going to be hot and humid and I'm going to want close hydro refreshment.
Speaking of Hydro-Refreshment... I know I haven't mentioned the Open Container Laws here in the great HK. There are none. We can stop by the closest 7-Eleven, grab a beer (or cheap bottle of champaign) and crack it open in the street to quench our unbearable thirst in the street. This is a win.
Tonight we visited a Sichuan restaurant. Let me start by saying that I was completely open to the prospect of ridiculously hot food and the atmosphere of the place was pretty nice and clean and inviting. We ordered, by means of pointing at pictures (you generally know the food is good and the prices fair if your server doesn't know English and the menus are predominantly in Chinese,) half of a chicken in Sichuan spices, the chilled pork belly with cucumber and chili paste and the beef noodle dish. As good as the food looked on first inspection, Nicholas and I were somewhat disappointed. The issue was more with the chicken (it came out chilled and that wasn't specified on the menu) than with anything else. The beef noodles had a great texture and delicious lip-numbing spiciness, the pork belly was awesome and refreshing chilled with the cucumber (not a combination of which I would have thought) and the hot Chinese tea that was served with the meal, instead of water, was perfectly soothing. The chicken however; awful. Think of boiled chicken, all with fatty cold skin still attached, smothered in spicy oil. Yuck. Dinner was followed by a walk around town and a glass of wine at the QueenVig
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