How to bring colour to your cheeks: a Hong Kong drama

For our first morning in Hong Kong's Sheung Wan district, we tried to wake up as early as possible in order to take the MTR to Sunny Bay station on Lantau Island. Sunny Bay station is where you alight if you want to catch the connecting train ride to Disneyland Hong Kong. (Yes, our destination today!)

Not knowing where to find breakfast, we wandered around Sheung Wan until we came across this eatery, Cafe de Coral, somewhere near the Western Market.

There seemed to be lots of patrons going in to search for a quick breakfast and so, we decided to join the crowd. We found out later that this eatery was never meant to be anything more than a place of convenience for fast food, Hong Kong-style. Their presence seemed to be everywhere. However, nothing was particularly good tasting.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed their glutinous rice steam-wrapped in a large lotus leaf, but our other fare was only quite average, in my opinion. Congee? Well, I can take it or leave it. So I left it. Anyway, we only wanted to fill our stomachs as quickly as possible.

We found our way to the Sheung Wan MTR station again and took a quick ride to the Central station. Unfortunately, I found that we still had to walk a fair bit to the Hong Kong station. We should have taken the free Airport Express shuttle bus but it was too late for that.

And so, we decided to walk through the business district area towards the Hong Kong MTR station. Pretty soon, we arrived at a small clearing where I saw some interesting sculptures. I drew near to admire them.

All of a sudden, I heard a commotion behind me. A young couple was arguing very loudly in public. In their early twenties, I would believe. Facing one another and arguing, oblivious to their surroundings and people like us. Unfortunately, all were shouted in Cantonese and the reason for their altercation was lost on me.

Suddenly, all hell seemed to break loose. The young lady, possibly fed up to her false eyelashes, gave her boyfriend two to three tight slaps on the cheek. He stopped in astonishment and then continued yelling at her. One or two more slaps followed. I was wondering what would happen next, but without any more words, he turned and stormed away. The lady followed behind but at a much slower pace.

Surprisingly for a place like Hong Kong at a Friday morning around nine o'clock, this open walkway between the tall commercial buildings was rather deserted. I'm sure that nobody else seemed to have noticed this brief exchange of emotion. I looked at my wife, she looked back at me. Now, what was that all about???