Noticing Things

Just a few notes about Hong Kong, CUHK and Morningside in general

• MTR motto: Be aggressive. When the train arrives you're supposed to stand to the left or right to let passengers off first, but this never happens. If you have a seat, don't offer it to anyone. That's just weird.
• Buttons in elevators, hand rails on escalators, and even some vending machines have little laminated signs stating how many times per day the surface is disinfected. (Residual cautionary measures from the SARS outbreak).
• People cough and sneeze without covering their mouth. (SARS? Meh)
• Announcements (general): 
• 'The train for .... is arriving. Please let passengers exit first' (MTR platforms)
• 'Please hold the handrail' (MTR stations everywhere)
• 'Mind the doors, please' (Pentecostal elevator)
• 'Please mind the gap' (MTR)
• 'Next station: University. ... and be aware of the difference in levels between the platform and the train' (Specifically for University Station)
• 'Toast' in Cantonese is 'doh-see'. This is useful for ordering $7 toast from Morningside Canteen at 8:30am when none of the English-speaking staff are at work yet. 'Jam' is 'jim'.
• Try Almond Milk Tea. Just try it.
• Sheung Wan is a beautiful neighborhood with lots of galleries and design shops and people walking their dogs on warm April evenings. It also has lots of stairs. 
• Elsa, the lady who runs Cafe Liscio (Tower Block, Morningside College) is a dear - she will make you vegetarian croissants or ciabatta rolls, and if you order something that doesn't quite fit the lunch specials, she will give you a discount anyway.
• Local students will steal your food from the fridge.
• International students will steal your food from the fridge. It sucks, but it happens.
• Lan Kwai Fong on a Saturday night is a must, but be prepared to come back smelling like smoke and alcohol, even if you don't drink or smoke.
• Eating hotpot is a must, but be prepared to come back smelling like hotpot.
• Catch a minibus. Don't worry about where it goes, it's the ride that counts! (Trust me)
• Catch a double-decker bus and sit up the front. (There are several buses that run from Shatin to the Airport, which is probably where you will best experience it). It feels like you are in the front seat of a rollercoaster.
• Don't tip. Don't even think about leaving change. At almost all restaurants you are charged a 10% service fee, so if you leave money, it's just weird.
• If you are at Morningside, during communal dinner, just once sit with the Master. He gets really lonely at his table sometimes. Plus, if you sit with him you get wine with your meal!
• Get annoyed at the Chung Chi College student who loudly practice tug-of-war until 1am on week nights.
• The local students are absolutely lovely, but expect them to always be talking about how much they want to sleep, and how much they hate studying.
• The Park-n-Shop sells Devondale milk, Flora spread, and Cadbury chocolate. Enough said.
• The Hong Kong Central Library in Wan Chai is beautiful.
• From CUHK, it is quicker to get to China than it is to get to Central. Take advantage of this. I should probably write a post about that... Anyway, Shenzhen has some excellent 24 hour spas (kind of like Korean jimjilbang) - the best being Water Cube and Queen Spa. (I went to both. Both had free all-you-can-eat fruit, soft drink and icecream!)
• Buy a jacket or jumper of your college. Morningside's is purple and says 'Once a Morningsider, Always a Morningsider'.
• The University Health Clinic is not just for students. It opens only on week days from 8:45am. If you arrive at 9, the wait time is already half an hour. BUT prescriptions are free!

Veggie Dinners - Bangkok Thai Restaurant

We haven't had an official Veggie Dinner for a few weeks due to most of us being away for the two Fridays either end of Lunar New Year, and then several people were away in Taiwan last week for the Lantern Festival. I am yet to make it to Taiwan, but flights are cheap and frequent, and it takes only about 1.5 hours to get there.

On Friday we had planned to go to Shanghai Vegetarian in Sha Tin because their food is excellent - noodles,  stews, and the best assortment of vegetarian dumplings and dim sum I have found so far in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, there were eight of us for dinner that night and we hadn't made a reservation, so we had to wait. The host recommended (in Cantonese, Victoria translated for us) that we split into two tables of four, then the wait would be shorter. Note that the wait for restaurants, especially in places like Sha Tin's New Town Plaza, can be anywhere between 5 minutes and an hour. However, I am yet to have a disappointing meal (except for when I ordered a margherita pizza from Shakey's Pizza - thin dry crust, tasteless cheese, just THREE cherry tomatoes that had been halved and randomly scattered, and a sprinking of chopped dried basil that looked like it came straight out of a Masterfoods shaker). I hate cooking, there are very few vegetarian options available for dinner on campus (outside the meal plans for places like Morningside College and S.H. Ho College) so eating at restaurants is my best bet for a stress-free meal.

So in the end, we made the executive decision not to be split up, so we investigated a few other places (the 7th floor of New Town Plaza is ALL restaurants) and ended up at Bangkok Thai Restaurant at a huge table with a lazy susan. We had lovely Victoria (from Georgetown University I think....) order for us because the menu doesn't necessarily tell you if the meal or the stock is beef or fish based - bad for the vegetarians and bad for Vero, who is highly allergic to seafood and dairy. 

I will say this: It is not difficult being vegetarian, vegan, or having special dietary requirements in Hong Kong, its just that when you go to restaurants, you ABSOLUTELY MUST have someone who speaks Cantonese to be able to talk with the waiters about what is in the meals.

Basically, the food was excellent. We had two kinds of curries, a vegetable stew, a papaya salad, vegetarian pad thai, and each of us had a bowl of rice - six dishes was just perfect to fill the bellies of 8 hungry girls.

Most of us also had drinks. In the picture I had the Iced Coconut Juice, and Vero had the (very gingery) Lemongrass Ginger Tea. Splitting the bill meant that we each paid $112 - definitely worth it for the delicious dinner we had!