When i first heard about chungking, i thought it was some kind of a big mansion (i've no idea why Hongkongers love to use the word mansion even if the building that they're calling a mansion is just a small one.) like those mansions that we see in Philippines. But i was wrong.. very,very wrong..
Chungking is conveniently located in the heart of Nathan road in Tsimshatsui or simply TST.. If it's your first time to go there, your head will literally spin. U will be amazed at the diversity of the place. Africans, Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, red,white, yellow, brown race, name it and u can find them there. It's United Nations at its best. Though the place has a not so good reputation, (what do u expect from an old building bustling with people from different continents?), it is undoubtedly the most visited place in Hongkong. I read somewhere that a record setting 120 nationalities have set foot on that mansion and a whooping 10 thousand people go there everyday.
The first time i entered Chungking was in 2003. The first thing i noticed about this place, aside from the people of course are the lifts.. They are too small and it's as if the traffic in Manila had been diverted here. After that year, i never went there again. though i sometimes go at the lobby to buy cards but i didn't use those slowwwww lifts again. Not until May this year when i was asked to write about TST..
Nothing much has changed, except for the huge CCTV that i didn't see on my first visit. You still have to wait for almost an hour (i'm not exaggerating) for your turn.
After spending the whole afternoon walking and observing people, we decided to try the curries that my trusted friends advised me to visit. We landed on a restaurant named wakas mess.. i thought, what a bizarre name, wakas is a tagalog word that means the end. i joked my friend that hopefully,it wouldn't be a messy end for us.
We tried two kinds of chicken curry,(i forgot the names of those dishes and since we were so ignorant, we ended up ordering same kind of meat), but in fairness, the money we paid was worth it..
I promised myself that i'd still return to that place and try the other restaurants and maybe if i'm lucky enough, i might be able to differentiate chicken curry from chicken masala..
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