Moving to Mongkok

Daniel is heading to China with his family on Wednesday for two nights, and I was not comfortable staying at his father's place by myself during that time. It's not that I felt unsafe, I just thought it was a bit remote and not easily accessible for someone who does not read or speak Chinese.

Daniel's aunt helped us find a reasonably-priced inn that was convenient to the subway and was right in the middle of the shopping district. After a quick breakfast of congee, we packed up some things and headed to Mongkok to check in. The woman at the front desk is very nice but speaks no English. If we need to communicate, she will need to call the owner's daughter. To reduce the need for conversation, Daniel prepaid for 4 nights. The room is very simple - two beds, a bathroom, a couple of stools and a small table. Oh, and it has two TVs.

After checking in, we grabbed a quick lunch and then hit the markets to do some serious shopping. The market streets are crowded and pickpocketing is always a concern, but you can get some great deals. We found a stall that sold pillow covers, and knowing that we'd need couch pillows for the new place, decided to pick up a couple. That quickly turned in 10, and the total cost was about $15. We came across other trinkets as well, and soon we had a sack full of things we really didn't need.

Thankfully, it was time for dinner. We met Daniel's friend Marie at a Japanese buffet in Causeway Bay. We timed dinner rather badly; we had to take the subway during rush hour. I've never seen it so crowded, there were lines to get into the tightly-packed cars. I was so happy when we reached our destination!

The food, though, was wonderful, and did mention it was a buffet? We ate and talked for 3 1/2 hours. We were stuffed to the gills when they kicked us out at 10pm. We did some more browsing in the area stores - the shopping areas stay open very late here - before saying goodbye to Marie and heading back to our room.