BBQ in Sha Tin

Kim, the Korean exchange student living on my floor, invited me to join him, Ben, and some local students to have BBQ in Sha Tin in the New Territories on Saturday. I hate a date to watch Hannibal Rising with Memsahib at 1950, but I figured I could leave the BBQ early if needed to make it to the movie on time. After waiting with Kim and Ben at the library for about 30 minutes, we finally met the local students/ our guides. Awkwardly, we made our way as a group to the KCR station. It was awkward because all of the local students were girls, and with the exception of Michelle (Kim's friend) they were all very standoffish. Michelle said they were trying to wait for their boyfriends, or something like that. Anyways, they remained a considerable distance behind us while walking and made the walk to the KCR station much longer than usual.

When we finally reached the KCR station, we stood outside for about twenty minutes while the girls talked amongst themselves, I talked with Ben, and Kim was already inside the station wondering what was taking us so long. Finally they decided to get on the train, and we headed to Sha Tin. Upon exiting the KCR at Sha Tin, you are immediately inside of a nice sized shopping mall. I was unable to explore much, but it seems to have a nice assortment of shops and restaurants. Perhaps I will explore more and invite Memsahib to dinner there some time.

After walking for a time inside the mall, we stopped and the girls were talking amongst themselves once again. Michelle said that maybe the BBQ would be closed and the girls just wanted to have lunch at the mall. Ben, and to a lesser extent Kim and myself, were unwilling to accept this so easily. We insisted that we at least find out if the BBQ place was open. Kim and I had been looking forward to the BBQ, and Ben was really excited about the day and had brought a bottle of Korean wine to have with the meal. Thus, we wanted to make every effort to have the BBQ since we had already come so far. Finally, Michelle called the BBQ place and found out they were indeed open. Some of the girls decided to stay behind and eat at the mall, and the rest of us headed out for BBQ. We took a fifteen minute ride in a free minibus to reach the site. The place is like a country club of sorts, with a golf range and BBQ sites, all in a beautiful location adjacent to what seemed the local students called a lake.

The BBQ operation was quite efficient. You are assigned a pit and given a menu to tick whatever foods you would like. The menu is 100% Chinese, so I'm not sure of all the options, but we had: a variety of balls, franks, sausages, pork, garlic chicken, some sort of small fish, salmon steaks, chicken wings, clams, and marshmallows. For drinks they have a selection of beer, teas, and soda. The price wasn't bad; we paid $100 per person for a bountiful amount of food. Because we spent over $500, a woman built our fire and lit it for us. The fire was made of charcoal logs, and started by a propane tank with burner attached.

The food was nice, but we were all starving after waiting so long to get there and therefore quite impatient with the cooking at first. After having a few pieces of meat, we were all in a better mood. After a Heineken and some of Ben's wine, I was feeling quite jovial indeed. For about thirty minutes, the three of us were having a very good time. Unfortunately, the one bottle of wine went quickly and the time was approaching six o'clock.

I had planned to leave by five, so I was worried about being late for the movie. I sent Memsahib a text message to eat dinner without me, and then told everyone that I would need to leave soon. As with everything, this took time also. Michelle got a copy of the free bus schedule and when she returned I was informed I had just missed the six o'clock bus and would have to wait about thirty minutes for the six-thirty. Realizing I would never make it on time, I decided to take a taxi back to the KCR station. Fortunately, Kim and Ben saw this as a good chance for them to leave as well and shared the ride with me. We made it back to campus just in time, thanks to some fast walking.

Overall, it was a great day. Not only did I have a new experience with some nice people, but the food was good and I had the opportunity to take a few nice photos as well. Moreover, we were only eight minutes late to the movie and it wasn't all my fault as Memsahib had to call her parents on the way there and was therefore walking pretty slowly. We had a great night of movies and talking in the park during the early morning hours. The weather was a bit chilly and windy in the park, due to its elevated location, but I enjoyed the cold and it gave us more reason to embrace. It was a wonderful ending to another great Saturday.