US Consulate: Hong Kong

I woke up late today because I was really exhausted after yesterday's Hong Kong "Concentrated Tour + Visa Application".

But I am really glad that just now, "out-of-my-expectedly fast", someone from the post office has already sent me back the passport from the US consulate. According to what they say, the passport should be expected to arrive at my home by next Monday. But I just got it today! (ha) The visa is gonna last for five years, luckily. So far, everything is just great, going according to schedule. Here is my visa, haha!



Yesterday I woke up at 5:45, took a shower and brought along all the documents ready the previous night, and headed toward the pier. Ernest and I took the 7:00 jetfoil, took a taxi and arrived in the US Consulate exactly 8:30, its opening hour. There were more people than my expecation, already around 60 odd when I was there, and people actually kept on reaching the embassy. Another thing that was out of my anticipation was that almost all of the people who were applying for the visa were not allowed to enter the inside of embassy, but instead finishing all the procedure on the outside. (with roof, of course) It was just like depositing money in a bank, where forms are submitted through a window. And even meeting the counsel was the same - through a window. Everyone was standing, no seats. That was kinda fun. The counsel just asked me three simple questions and then I was told to go to the next window and paid the fee. That was it, and by the time we were done, it was just 9:10, far earlier that we had expected.

Since we knew that during that time, most of the shop were sill closed, we decided to go to Starbuck to grap a cup of coffee (I had a large chocolate mocha, to be exact). The coffee shop was inside one of the commercial building, and I could see many "black-suited" people just came and bought a cup of drink continuously. I wondered how much could Starbucks earned every hour. Ernest and I chatted for an hour or so, and then we took the MTR from Central to Causeway Bay. The first thing we did was visiting PageOne, the bookshop and spent a couple of hours there. I swore that I was not buying any books anymore because there are still a lota books unread at home, and I kept my promise. At 13.00, Jacky, who went to HK on the same day to get his flute fixed, along with Louis, came to join us after finishing business in Tsuen Wan.

We looked around a bit and had lunch, and continued walking+shopping/window-shopping (me). I particularly like CitySuper selling all kinds of accessories/little gadgets and Designer Group selling all sorts of Apple/Macintosh products. SOGO was our next destination, where the flutist bought Dior Addict for his little Yakult. ($300/25 ml) We enjoyed an icecream puff and we went to the nearby HMV. It was OK big and I kinda enjoyed there. Louis and I had the same feeling that even it had been quite a long time since we visited a CD shop, lot of pop music on sale was not strange to both of us. (^^) Jacky spent another $1200 something on classical again, as if he has to do some shopping spree everytime he visits a music store.

After that, we entered the maze of IKEA and enjoyed ourselves - by sitting - after walking for quite a long time. Just by looking around for funny things and gadgets could we already spend another hour...