We recently did a recce in anticipation of a relatively major event for us, which would take us all the way to Shatin, New Territories, from Cyberport. Because we had to be up relatively early (NOT easy for Rockstar), I thought to time a dry run of the navigation of several train lines – my first time – one afternoon, upon completion of which we would turn back and head for Chinese tuition with lotsa time to spare. When we reached the suggested train station however, something made me decide to try and take what was supposed to be a very short cab ride the rest of the way.
Charting a different train route after the first one turns up – in Rockstar’s words – “ppffff”
Imagine our surprise when cab after cab had no idea what we were talking about. English was a factor – in HK around where we are, I could mostly still show a cabbie an English address even if they didn’t understand my pronunciation of it. When we exited Diamond Hill however, cabbies didn’t want to deal with the language. It took 40 mins, maybe more, before one kind elderly cabbie glanced at Rockstar and agreed to try and look for the place – which required another toll and tunnel navigation.
I insisted on taking pictures of his screen etc (yes he’s an elderly cabbie somewhere out near Shatin or Kowloon Tong or something, with two smartphones and good navigational apps – welcome to Hong Kong :D)
We eventually found the place, and worked backwards to navigate a train route. (As in, what else ya gonna do, already out so far…)
Doing the Heely-Moonwalk, rolling down this slope in Hung Hom
“Very Cute Cats” according to Miss, in City One
This is when I texted one of his team mates’ mums to tell her our route to upcoming competition and we realised both our kids’ mouth guards made them look like hamsters
(Yes, it actually got dark while we were trying to do this – total navigation time >3 hours and a Chinese tuition reschedule)
Herein, little-known-to-suaku-us-fact: you need to exit the station and go back in when changing at TST.
Yes, he acquired a pandan cake along the way.
Things that make ya go “Hmmm.”
So the panda cake made it home. Where were we recce-ing? Stay tuned. That happened today.
*Hint*
ps: I was really nervous, which was why I said little before; but not for the reasons you’d normally imagine…
Hi Aileen —
Out of curiosity: do you generally not use the MTR or just the lines outside of Hong Kong Island? Also, bus number 170 goes between Wah Fu and Sha Tin. Wonder whether that’d be convenient for you (should you ever go up to Sha Tin again…)?
For my part, I hardly ever take taxis — not least because I often encounter taxi drivers who aren’t familiar with the English names of places (as in don’t know where Times Square is!). And as I’ve told people several times, I refuse to live anywhere in Hong Kong that’s not within walking distance of an MTR station… ;b
Just those lines… And we stay in a place not near an mtr 🙁 but chose it for the dog park for JD when kids were born.. We cab to and from train stations..
Knowing this, I say Rockstar is one COOL boy. If I had to go to a tournament by public transport which took a long time, I would be a nervous wreck when I get there but Rockstar was as cool as a cucumber when you said both of you reached there when he was supposed to be on.
He was mildly bothered by the crowds in some of the trains, but thankfully these would come and go quite quickly as people got on and off at their stops..