do not worry about what you will eat nor what deodorant you will use in your armpits
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009by the parents
Hong Kong
“Should we pick up some food to take with us for tomorrow?”
Ever since spending the good part of a day looking for food in Kampot, we have usually taken an emergency one meal supply with us when we go somewhere new – not that we have actually needed it. This time we had the just-arrived-with Grandpa pottle of honey, jar of vegemite, bars of chocolate and hunk of Christmas cake (we didn’t get any at the real Christmastime and uber-enjoyed this surprise portion)….this sounded like a good spread to me, but Rob had sensibilities like loaves of bread in mind. Just in case there would be no food, no shops where we were going near the end of the eastern train line.
hahaha
On arrival, trying to escape from the train station, we found ourselves in a shopping centre rivalling any kiwi ones for size……when we managed to extricate ourselves from this, we walked along the road only to discover another multi-storey building devoted entirely to food. This, however, was not the end…..nearby there was a square with food stalls and shops clustered around and furthermore there were streets branching off this to all points of the compass with more….you guessed it….food and shops.
What we haven’t been able to find, though, is baking soda.
In our couchsurfing host’s cupboard is a big box full of it, so we asked him where to buy the stuff…and got drawn in to the conversation about what we use it for, given that we obviously don’t bake whilst on the road. His girlfriend uses it for cleaning and, shock-horror, in her armpits…and so he was not at all surprised at our (Rach’s:-) added Rob) identical and even-more uses.
But then an environmentalist organic-bread-baking vegan (with a pantry full of quinoa and fenugreek) Indian expat professor doing research at the university by day and playing unicycle hockey on Friday nights, who has no qualms about having three generations of family descend on him for three nights, is perhaps not going to be surprised by any of our quirks!
And so, following Mr Couchsurfing Host’s directions, the two older generations went on a BakingSodaFindingMission.
Normally, taking a trip down to the mall just to get a box of baking soda would not rank high in my (Rob’s) priority list, but when you are in strange lands, strange things happen. Again, we are struck by just how big Hong Kong is and how many people there are…. everywhere! Tai Po is humming, and three MTR stops away Sha Tin is also humming. The “mall” is in fact a sprawling mega-centre, eight levels across two large wings – each wing being at least twice as big as your typical kiwi mall. Apparently it covers a full square kilometre. And every shop is full of people, most of them clutching bags of purchases. Didn’t anyone tell these folks there is a global recession starting to bite?
We manage to find the “super”market. Three of them, in fact. But can we find baking soda? Nope, not even with specific instructions as to where we should be able to purchase it. You CAN buy small jars of vegemite for HK $38 (= NZ$9.82) Ouch. Or small jars of macadamia nuts for $95. You gotta be kidding! How about a 200g tub of organic butter for $70? But no baking soda. Oh, not exactly true….we find a small 100g tub for HK$25. I don’t think so! I’ll have to ask our host tonight about Hong Kong salaries! So, to cut a long afternoon story short, we didn’t find baking soda, but we did come away scratching our head at the price of commodities here in Hong Kong. You gotta be one well-heeled puppy to play in this playground. Not the place for penny-pinching backpackers like DaBears.
PS. We didn’t go in, but here is, apparently, the best New Zealand shop. I guess it’s full of things we have never seen in NZ – like the kiwi berries we saw at the market yesterday. Is it just that we shop at a too-small local vege shop and there really are these little fruits for sale in NZ, or are none of you fellow kiwis acquainted with kiwi berries either?
(or security guard, anyway!)
rayres