bowling « Ex Animo

For my 25th birthday recently (or was it my 21st? my memory is dimming…), my family and I had lunch at my local restaurant of choice, Hawkers. Predictably, I ordered crispy pata, seafood pasta and spicy prawns. I would have gone for karekare, except that I didn’t want bagoong as I turned 18.

Then we were off to the Fragrant Harbour. We stayed at Holiday Inn again and proceeded to revisit familiar haunts nearby. Stocked up at the outlets at Nathan Road, ran through Canton Road, then on to the promenade for coffee in time for the Symphony of Lights.

Since the kids weren’t around this time, my husband and I decided to skip the tourist traps. We ventured outside of the city map and looked up the address of Bowling City via GPRS. The hunt for the newest bowling lanes in Hongkong took us to Kowloon Bay in East Kowloon. A little off the beaten track, but totally worth the trip. Marc loved the flatscreens that instantaneously displayed not only the scoresheet, but even the player’s statistics, such as average ball speeds, percentages of split conversions, etc. Giant murals fronting each of the 48 lanes, colored lanterns and leather seats completed the interior. At HK$42 per game, the diversion was a bit pricey, but the new synthetic lanes allowed for easier strikes. My husband was even thrilled to chance upon the Chinese national bowling team practising at the center lanes.

Ordinarily, I would not have gone to Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong. I’m glad we went there, though, since I found an H&M outlet there that provided me with inexpensive but fashionable finds.

Tired of traipsing around, my husband went back to The Gateway to watch What Happens In Vegas, while I merrily returned to scour my favorite shops in Harbour City.

Tsim Tsa Tsui is as comfortably crowded and oriental as it gets and we opted to have some of our meals at the small diners that abound in the area, especially when we got hungry at 2 a.m.. Some restaurants did not have English menus, so we just pointed to the pictures and crossed our fingers, hoping that the chicken-looking dish was really chicken and not some exotic frog. Luckily, the photos on the menus did not disappoint and we were treated to good Cantonese cooking. Some of the tea served tasted like sewage, though.

Of course, we had gambling in mind when we went to Macau. We made the obligatory pit stops in the ruins of St. Paul’s cathedral and the Senate Square, munching on an egg tart along the way. We found the Grand Lisboa and Casino Lisboa to be somewhat of a letdown, as they were no different from regular casinos.

But the Venetian was simply sensational! Sister to the Sands and located at Taipa Island, the Venetian offers something for every whim and for every price. It is a hotel, shopping destination, giant casino, resort and entertainment venue–all designed to titillate your senses and empty your pockets. The golden-rimmed murals at the lobby was one thing; the blue skies and overcast clouds at the canals fueled one’s imagination. The gondolas and the singing gondola drivers clad in striped shirts and red scarves certainly aimed to conjure up images of Venice with their operatic voices. That is, if you overlook the distinctly Filipino features of the gondola drivers. And the man on the stilts who called me “Madam Kabayan”. And the mime. The singing gondola drivers were so good that they must have been music majors once upon a time. If memory serves me right, when my daughter and I went to HongKong Disneyland two years ago, the singing and dancing Disney characters were also Filipino.