As we set sail to explore the wonders that Hong Kong had to offer, naturally we had to recruit locals to lead the way. Mags, Tony, Ethan, Andy, and I set off to meet up with Andy’s grandparents to eat breakfast at a local Fairwood, where we would later depart to Sai Kung by minibus. Not being able to speak Cantonese was a struggle this day since they didn’t speak very much English, but we made it work with our translator Ethan who persevered as best as he could.
When we arrived in Sai Kung, there was an overpowering smell of seafood. From the abalone to shrimps, they had a large variety of seafood freshly caught that day. After a small tour of the town, we headed to the boat area where Andy’s grandma had made a deal with one of the boat tour guides to take us to and back from one of the nearby islands. We headed to Sharp Island where we hung out and proceeded to have an intense rock throwing competition, where I unfortunately did not win.
After our little island and boat adventure we headed to lunch where Andy’s grandparents carefully picked the dishes we were going to eat. We tried 5 dishes that varied from beef noodles to egg fried rice, in order to see which one we liked better so we could get another one. It had been a while since I have spent time with grandparents, it almost felt like they were our real ones. Andy refers to her grandparents as Gong Gong and Po Po, which translates to grandfather and grandmother in Chinese. By the end of that day, we ended up adopting the idea of calling them Gong Gong and Po Po.
After discussing what we should do after Sai Kung, we landed on the idea to head to their house so we could play mahjong. Around this time everyone had already learned how to play mahjong, but I was the only one that hadn’t picked up the rules. When we arrived back in Diamond Hill, which is the area that our now adopted grandparents live, we headed to get a tea snack at the local bakery. A particularly memorable part of that day was all 6 of us trying to beat Po Po in paying for the egg tarts, since she had already paid for so much. In the end, I won but it was a fierce battle. When we arrived at their house, we readily opened the mahjong table, and the first round was played by Ethan, Tony, Andy, and Mags as I just observed from the sidelines. After asking a thousand questions while they concentrated on playing, I was ready to be subbed in and be coached by Gong Gong himself. Given I had only just learned how to play I didn’t win in the beginning, but just as we were playing our last match before dinner, I won my first game.
We ended the night off eating Pizza Hut with them. Soon after finishing cleaning up, we headed out where we all gave goodbye hugs and Po Po gave us all tissue packets for good luck. As we walked to the train, we reminisced on the day grateful to Andy for having brought us along with her and her family, where some of us may or may not have shed a couple tears having been able to relive what it felt to have grandparents.
