Spoiled by Filipinos in Hong Kong

Yesterday was the Chin Ming festival in China, which means many natives take a day off to look after the grave sites of their deceased relatives. it means most people are off, and that includes the folks who work in peoples houses, like Raki, my new Filipino friend, and other friends.

Raki, invited me to Mui Wo, on Lantau Island for a picnic, as a friend of hers is living there. So I met Raki and her friends at the ferry to the island about 10:30 am, and we took the ferry over. After the 45 minute ride, we reached the island, with a lot of shops at the harbor (I actually visited the island a few days prior). I helped Raki carry over the supplies that had, which included food and bbq grill. We waited to meet their friend, and I bought some coffee for everyone from MCD's.

After about 1/2 an hour-we met her friend, who told us it was about a 10 minute walk to the apartment she was staying in there (she was watching her bosses 2 dogs-who we're cute but not real friendly, and staying at the apartment owned by her boss)-it took more like 20 minutes-20 half an hour-up dirt roads, up a trail, and finally we reached the apartment, which was the smallest one bedroom apartment I have ever seen. it had a tiny kitchen with a mini-refrigerator, and the "living room" had a place for a futon, and that was about it. We sat at a table outside-Raki's friend had a good boss, who let us visit and use the apartment)

Anyway, Raki and her friends prepared the food they had brought. They prepared salads, oranges, mangos, fish, chicken, noodle salad, and all sorts of foods. Plates and plates of food. They ladies we're cooking all day. They mixed the foods inside the kitchen and cooked the fish and chicken on the bbq outside. I asked if I could help out. They stubbornly told me to sit and relax. Then we all ate. The food kept coming all day. So did the beer and wine. i felt bad-the only chipping in I did was for the 5 coffees from MCD's by the pier that morning.

We left at 7:30 that evening, after I was full of enough food for a week and plenty of beer and wine. We stumbled to the pier, and missed the 8:40 ferry simply because we we're outside and not paying attention. (we thought we could see it from the side of the terminal we we're sitting on-but it left from the other side). We caught the later ferry at 9:20.

Unfortunately for me-I still had to leave my current hostel and move to another one (my third in Hong Kong). In all of my worries about the Chinese Visa-I forgot to extend my stay at the hostel-and by the time I checked into it the day before (two days ago), it was sold out (there is a giant rugby tournament in Hong Kong this weekend)-so i had to move-so this entailed:

After saying goodbye to Raki at the Central ferry terminal, I took another ferry to the other side of the river, found my way through the streets to the old hostel, grabbed my suitcase, went downstairs to the metro, and took the train to the other side of the river, where I got a taxi to the new hostel. I didn't feel like any of that-but I did it. The new hostel, the only place I could find at a reasonable rate-isn't along the metro line-but is sleek, airy and modern-which is different from the other two.