Eating, Drinking and Waking Up in Falsificaso Vegas (Redundant)

5/27 - 6/1

Yves and I did very, very little this week.  We ate, drank, watched a lot of movies, picked up our visas and slept.  However, we have done a few important things: eating very well and finding great bars.  You may know that I have a particularly amazing skill: finding awesome places to eat and drink.  Yves did his part in finding Fat Angelo's, an Italian restaurant that made their own fresh Italian dressing that was so good that I even liked it, and I hate all salad dressings (except Blue Cheese).  Otherwise, he was very good at following me and indulging my whimsical quests when it seemed like a bar or restaurant didn't exist.  Actually, one thing I especially liked about him in general was that he would indulge my crazy (and sometimes they get really random) whims and follow me anywhere.  It made him very easy to be with.

Anyway, I don't remember exactly how I found the first place, but it was a place that specialized in Peking Duck, called...Peking Restaurant.  He'd never had Peking duck before, which appalled me, and liked it.  We were seated at the table with the other two foreigners (an older British couple) who took this picture for us.  The duck, hoison sauce and pancakes were very good and I showed Yves how you put the sauce on a pancake then add duck, spring onion and cucumber.  It would've been better if the pancakes and duck were hot, but it was still great.

We also went to a place recommended to me by my grandlittle sister, Tiffany, (from my sorority, Delta Delta Delta) whose family is from Hong Kong originally, though she's a native Californian (I know what you're thinking, and no, she couldn't get any more awesome if she tried).  She recommended a dim sum restaurant, Din Tai Fung.  We actually went to a different branch than the one she recommended (since it was three blocks from our place) and it was fabulous.  It also had a plaque outside saying that the N.Y. Times had rated it one of the ten best restaurants in the world.  Admittedly, the bronzed article was from 1993, but I was still excited.  Dim sum is better with more people, but we were still able to try several fantastic plates. 

We started with a plate of steamed spinach and garlic, which was very good (and surprising, since I normally dislike spinach), Spicy Shrimp Wontons (which was recommended by our waitress and was Yves' favorite and one of my favorites) which had an incredibly complex, developed flavor (do you ever wonder if I just make this tuff up by using buzzwords?  Because sometimes I do.) but anyway, was really good and spicy without being grossly hot-spicy.  Our third starting choice was the Steamed Pork Dumplings, their specialty (and my other favorite) which had a complicated method for eating, which always excites me.  You started by picking it up with your chopsticks, then you dipped it in your sauce dish (a combination of fresh ginger threads and as much soy sauce as you wished to add) and then you transferred it to a small bowl where you put it down and poked it, releasing the broth inside which mixed with the sauce.  Finally, you used a spoon to gather the dumpling, sauce and broth in a spoon and eat it.  I think it probably would've been just as good without that process, but it was fun to poke it and sometimes I just like to over-complicate things unnecessarily.

Once we finished those, we ordered Special Sauce Dumplings (made with shrimp and pork) and Shrimp Fried Rice.  Both were very good, but not amazing, as our first picks had been.  For dessert, we decided on taro dumplings, which were just slightly sweet but, as Yves noticed as he finished his third and eyed mine, got better the more you ate.  We each had tea and a Tsingtao beer with our meal and it came out to $359 HKD (about $47) for both of us, which I thought was a great deal.

At another point, we randomly walked into a sushi place and ended up with excellent salmon sashimi, which I mention because it means that we had great: Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Dim Sum and Peking Duck all in Hong Kong.  Of course, we spent a bit more for this than I usually do, and in general the street food was unimpressive, but overall I mean to say that Hong Kong has wonderful food.

But, enough about the food.  I want to tell you about the bars!  I preferred Soho over the LKF or Wan Chi Red Light District (though a clean, fairly nice one) areas and Yves looked in his guidebook, which recommended V13.  He had only to say the words "vodka bar" to describe it and and I was in.  It also was on the edge of Soho, not quite in the middle, so it was a bit better, but when we got there the bartender told us it was no longer a vodka bar.  They used to be, but had changed about six months ago.  We decided to stay there for a drink anyway and I had a vodka-diet, while he opted for a (very good) White Russian).  I had read somewhere that Thursday night was Ladies Night, so my goal for the evening was to get one free drink.  The bartender told me that it was generally Wednesday night that was Ladies Night, but (I believe because he was bored as the bar was empty except for ourselves and one regular) he gave us all free tequila shots so we stayed there for most of the rest of that night and had a great time just talking to the bartender and the regular.  Yves wanted a new lighter, so the bartender showed us the bars collection:

Somehow, that night, I was given a magazine for expats called Brouhaha (with NaNa from Ghana's number written on the back).  I obviously ignored the number but read the magazine the next day and it recommended a secret bar (just the idea of which gets me nearly drunk with excitement) called Sense 99, which we went to that night.  You went to 99 Wellington, which, due to some odd street signs is hard to find, then looked for the little buzzer button which had Sense 99 written next to it.  On our way out, I noticed the unlit sign above, but you'd never know it was there or a bar otherwise.  From outside, you couldn't hear any music or see any lights, but after you were buzzed in (by someone who checked that you knew what you were looking for) and went up a flight of stairs, you walked into a great little bar.  The first floor had a bar which consisted of a cooler full of beers, another cooler of Coke bottles and a few scattered liquor bottles.  The second floor had an outside balcony and a mini stage set up with a piano, bass, drums, guitars, rain stick, bongos, accordian and a few other instruments that were available for anyone to play.  I might have tested my skills as a rock star, but while we were there, someone else was always playing, including an actual band that seemed to just coalesce out of thin air.  The band was especially fun to watch because it was obvious that they were just jamming out and weren't getting paid.  Each one of them just looked like they absolutely loved what they were doing and it's always nice to watch people do what they love, even if it doesn't really mean anything to you.

Yves had really liked his White Russian, so we went back to V13, which had some big party going on with a DJ, though by the time we got there, it was dying down.  We went with a few people to some other club after that and called it a night (though way later).

On Tuesday, June 1st, I went alone to Macau.  The weather sucked and many of the areas I saw were empty and closed.  I was feeling fairly depressed about that and rather unimpressed because so much of the "Portuguese" waterfront area was refurbished, partially by casinos and partially by faux old Portuguese style so it was difficult to tell which parts were authentic and which parts had been built within the past ten years.

Macau itself was strange.  It felt like Vegas in complete decline.  The casinos were beautiful and glitzy but there just weren't enough people there.  I went over to the more historic area: the Monte Fort and the front remains of St. Paul's Cathedral, of which just the facade and base structure was left.  On my way through Senado Square I sat down and was quickly approached by a group of Hong Kong Middle School students.  The group wanted to give me a brief presentation on the history of Macau and practice their English.  Of course, I obliged and they were all very sweet.  At the end, I filled out a survey about how well they'd done and gave them highest marks.  They were so happy and excited and took pictures with me.  I asked them to take a picture and here it is below.  Oddly, this was the least happy they ever looked- at every other second they had these giant smiles filling their faces.  After their presentation, they gave me a present.  I opened it later and it was a bunch of Macau pastries.  I actually didn't like them, but it was very sweet and none of the other white people accosted by the several groups of students got a present- it was just my awesome group.

I went to the cathedral remains and the fort.  It was a weird feeling because it seemed so much like the areas and places in Mexico, the Caribbean and even parts of the U.S.- the forts in Florida and Puerto Rico (can we call that the U.S. yet?) and the feeling, though not the architecture, of so many of the missions in California.  So Macau was very interesting, though felt quite strange.

Spending so much time on the road like this, it sometimes feels like I'm living several lives and the way people move through my life is so much faster that it feels like it just takes the core essence of relationships and misses the rest (good and bad).  So, even though I know this sounds stupid and pretentious, in my opinion of myself, I can become a local in two weeks, or go through an entire relationship in that time period and have it actually matter (from the getting to know each other stage, to "dating," through the arguments, to the repetition, to the realization that you're not right for each other, all the way up to the break-up and leaving peacefully, hoping only good things for the other person and thinking they're alright, just not for you.)

More on Yves:

Yves and I moved into a single room together after two days and it's pretty hard to avoid someone you're sleeping in the same bed with.  He's a good guy, though very...German.  Just in general, he won't compliment me at all, even when I try to prod him by complimenting him.  It took me a few days of feeling slightly ugly to get used to that but then I really realized that was just his issue, not mine and that was just the way he was.  He's fairly smart and pretty funny, mostly interesting.  He's also just easy to be with since this obviously isn't going anywhere and there's no pressure, and he lets me lead him anywhere I feel like (to the History Museum, the Big Buddha, two different restaurants and a bar).

Also, and don't tell anyone I admitted to this, but even though I'm obviously the person in charge when we go out to restaurants or try to figure out where we're going on the MTR (subway), it's nice to feel safe with someone.  Walking with him, I can cross odd alleyways and streets, stay out later or even just leave my purse on the barstool with him when I go to the bathroom.  It's simply comforting and sometimes I feel like I need a bit of stability, moving like I do.

Lastly, he spends more freely than I generally do and being a guy, eats quite a bit more and I've been somewhat imitating his habits.  Terrible for my budget and thighs, but great for my happiness level.

And it sounds weird, but it felt like a real (albeit short and not super-serious) relationship to me.  Neither of us was in love with each other, but enjoyed each others company and parted on great terms, like a textbook end to a relationship and I think that's the aspect I'm stuck on.  Even though technically, we "broke up" (though I think he'd think it strange that I'd call him an ex-boyfriend) because I left the country (again), it was really because we just weren't right for each other, but still saw value in the other person.  It was a very peaceful, mature break-up.  Furthermore, I think I can call it a relationship simply because I say it is, since I'm the one considering it, and I say it is; it is, because of my saying so most of all, see?