You will hear no doubt how Asian culture and in our case, Hong Kong, is very family and kids friendly that they defer to families and kids. No doubt so far, as we walk about the city, our kids are a instant ice breaker. People coming up to us and asking "how old are they?" which leads to "where are you from?" Well here is 1 vignette have helped me understand how true this is.
Rainy Dim Sum
Yesterday was the first real rainy a for us. Stuck inside we decided to head out to dinner to our favorite dim sum restaurant Ding Tai Fung. We decided to be adventurous and take a bus route to get us there. (Mistake #1.) Then I decided not to bring our large umbrella (Mistake #2). Katy and I worked out that if we walk down to the main street, Queens Road, we could take the Number 5 or 10 bus to the restaurant.
So we all pack up and head out. No rain. Great. We walk down the hill to the street and wait at the bus stop. It's about 5:45pm. Then 6pm, Then 6:15pm. Maggie and Nicholas are hungry. They are of course also tired because they did not nap. The Number 5 bus comes and it is crowded. Because we seem to have forgotten that it is rush hour and in a big city like Hong Kong, Saturday is a work day for a lot of people. And did I mention the humidity has kicked in. So we are hungry, tired, wet and hot. Katy takes a look no #5 down the street. a lot of # 109 buses, 4 actually come by as we wait. Unfortunately we have no idea where they go.
We decided to head over to the subway.
It starts to rain. We took only one small umbrella. The rain stops a little.
We make it to the subway and it is jammed with people. Possibly worse than the buses. Well we make it to the stop but can't figure out, since it's a big stop, which exit is the closest to the restaurant. We take a shot and exit at F. Well we should have exited at E. Not sure exactly where F is. Katy pulls out her iphone and finds us on a map. We are 4 blocks out of our way.
It starts to rain again. We walk as fast as we can toward the direction of the restaurant.
Nicholas starts to hit my head. (I am carrying him.) Katy gets upset at him, but later I figured it kinda felt like a "hey what is the matter with you 2? Fail parenting school? Maggie and I are both hungry and tired and you 2 are dragging us all over Hong Kong." Every couple of minutes he looks at me and hits my head with his free hand..for 2 blocks in the drizzle.
Well we make it to the restaurant. It is now close to 7pm. The dinner rush is on. Usually if you can make it to a restaurant by 6pm there is a small line. The hostess tells Katy "1 hour wait." Now Maggie and Katy are exhausted, I am carrying Nicholas and we both are hungry and hot. Katy heads to me when the hostess sees all 4 of us, rushes over and says "just a moment, she is able to seat us." Literally she takes us to a 4 top table, and we sit down and eat.
We are convinced that they saw our family and gave us preference. It really does take the edge off, and so did the glass of wine we had at dinner.
