H and I trekked Wan Chai and managed to reach the Soho district after walking all the way to the huge Chinese Crafts building in search of a Mahjong set. We turned around and walked away from the first one because they did not have the size and make that I wanted and besides, they were charging an arm and a leg for it. So off we went to Soho, a shopping district near Times Square, where everyone said there is a small shop "under the stairs" of some building whose name no one can recall. We must have asked at least three people and they all pointed us out to this shop so we were sure we would find it without much hassle.
And true enough, there it was. A cab ride to Soho took less than ten minutes and all we needed to do was ask a local for any mahjong shop and...you guessed it! We were told to keep on walking until we find..yep: the quaint little shop underneath the stairs of some building whose name no one can remember.
Grunting, H continued to walked with me. Now if you know H, shopping is his least favorite thing to do. He insists he prefers to get a root canal than to shop and has proven it in many occasions. But the man loves me and he and I know that we will miss each other soon (he will fly to another continent for a business trip and I shall return to our home country) so he dragged his feet and continued to walk just to make me happy.
Not long after, there it was...the quaint shop that everyone talked about, just the way everyone described it: a tiny little shop underneath the stairs, filled with a variety of mahjong- in every size, color and make imaginable. I drooled, feeling like a child in a candy store.
They had exactly what I wanted: plain ivory-colored plastic tiles but they were in Chinese characters and I did not know enough about the game to be able to tell one tile from another. Not to worry, the man said. If we give him time, he will engrave and paint the numbers by hand for us for just an additional HK$ 50!H signaled that it's okay, so we agreed *Glee*
So H and I said we will be back few hours later. With H dragging his feet and mine floating in air, we passed the time window shopping at some stores and hauling in some other. I am sure you know how time passes by slowly when you are eager for it to pass quickly, so merely two hours after- an hour before the agreed time, we returned to the mahjong store that everyone knows about and true enough, my tiles are done- freshly engraved and handpainted specially for me. *Glee*
We returned to the hotel feeling very proud of ourselves. We found what we were looking for and we purchased something special- something made specially for us; painstakingly carved and painted by hand to suit our distinctive taste.
We felt good about our purchase, our soon-to-be heirloom, the one that will give us hours of fun for the years to come...
Until we visited the night market in Kowloon the following night...
MrsA
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