Travel, Culture, and Tipping

I've only been in Hong Kong one time, and it's not somewhere I could live. I couldn't live there. It's too crazy. It's too loud and too wild. But man, it was a cool place to visit. Like, we'll get to the markets and some of the restaurants there, some of the best food I've ever had, probably some of the best Asian food I've ever had. I went to this, I think it was a three Michelin star place. So what happened was I did a, I did a foundation seminar there and Zoe decided in the middle of us traveling, I miss the dogs. I'm going home. So she changed her ticket and went home. So I was by myself for about a week in Hong Kong and I was like, all right, cool. So I just went to like, like Michelin star restaurants and did all this cool shit. So I was like, all right, that's all right. but uh man i like hong kong um i went to what's the uh what's the electronics place you can get all the really it's like a it's like four or five level place you can go buy like camera shit and electronics real cheap i i don't know the name of it but there's loads of places around causeway bay um yeah yeah because i wanted like i wanted to get a dslr to start doing like photography and they were like you got to go to this place and i went in it's like you get shit so cheap I'm like who'd you rob for that I don't care I don't know I'm here here's 200 bucks give me a fucking can of D80 or whatever it's a mad contrast here as well like I always when I look to I always judge a place certainly in Europe by the price of beer whatever a point is tends to show the tax and shows what it is whereas here the tax is low but it's the rent's so astronomically high that if a place is there it's a restaurant you'll probably get a beer for like three quid if you go to somewhere that serves primarily alcohol it'd be like £10-11 because they've got to make their rent for this sort of stuff you mentioned food it's really interesting, food here it's the most varied you can ever get you'll get swanky Michelin star restaurants you'll get canteens that are Michelin star that just do good steamed pork buns and I'll never forget because I don't think Mr Jordan Shallow will potentially agree with you on that food statement because he came to Hong Kong and he did his um, pre-suit level one with us. And one of, one of, one of my mates loved this tiny little Thai restaurant, little Thai hut. And like, it's probably about the size of my kitchen, which is like, it's like one person width. Right. And he's a, he's a big dude. So the first, the first problem was trying to get this dude into the door, which was a challenge in itself. And they were like, we're going to have a two, two eggs, which the pack repel, like minced beef, a couple of eggs, bit of chili, load of rice. Awesome. But no, he wanted two portions of the um the chicken with uh chicken with rice um he had a glass of water and he still he couldn't he was head you know his mind was blown that the the water was warm and the chicken was cold welcome to hong kong you know like yeah i don't know man i mean i had all the meals out there were great like i here's the thing i love going when i go to a new country I like going to McDonald's because there's always a different menu in every country. And Hong Kong has got some wild ass shit. They got like black buns with crazy shit on their menu. So I had Mickey D's. I think I love pizza express. I fucking British special love pizza express I got one in Hong Kong I ate that place like twice The only thing I don like about Hong Kong is Chinese people are judgy as fuck So I sit there I go to Pizza Express and the lady come out and ask me what I want And I'd order a pizza or some breadsticks or some wine. I'm eating, eating, eating. I get done. She comes back, gives me my bill. I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not done yet. I get another one of those pizzas, more breadsticks, some more wine. And she's like, oh, so much food. are you sure i'm like yeah she's like oh that's lots of calories i'm like yeah i'm a big motherfucker i'm like godzilla bring my fucking bring my goddamn pizza man just maybe but that's the only thing i found like that they don't understand how much like a big white dude can eat yeah um they um i never thought i'd miss british customer service i didn't think that something i'd ever miss but like we it was here we think you people don't look at you the change is throwing you you give them a note they just throw money back at your face you know yeah do you find that in hong kong you find that's the case yeah they're just okay i think it's efficiency i don't think they're trying to be rude they're just trying to serve as many customers as humanly possible so they're just throwing something back go move but i want to where where do you miss uh service from where have you lived that you missed sales i mean well i i tell you what i think i think i think the it's i i don't don't don't say the uk don't say the uk no service there i think i think the uk is a perfect balance between if hong kong's miserable and just trying to get you out the door american people are just like it's seven o'clock in the morning please don't try and make me have the nicest day in the world like this is this wonderful balance of i'm a bit miserable but i'll be polite about it that's that's where my okay but okay all right we got to dissect this okay all right because i'm a world traveler and i know i know these i tell you what because america tipping culture great service most of the time not always most of the time because their paychecks are dependent on it. Fuck in the UK service. What the fuck is that? Australia is even worse. Like you go to Australia, you go to Australia, you walk in, you go to the bar, order your food, you sit down, the server brings your food and that's all they do. Like they don't do anything. They don't refill your fucking cuffs. They don't ask you how your food is like none of that shit. like zoe when we first started dating she didn't understand the whole tipping thing until she came to america and she was like god damn like you finish you finish a diet coke and a server comes up and refills it for free no questions asked you that yeah they put the food down the server comes out and goes how was your meal you're like you know that was fantastic thank you you go you know it wasn't that that great and they're like okay i'll talk to my manager i can give you a free dessert the service that you get in america is so much different because of the tipping uh because the people want you to be happy man you go overseas they don't give a because they're getting minimum wage 25 bucks an hour they don't give a if you like your meal or not oh it drives me crazy i think dubai dubai is is the i read very recently the interesting one was like they're almost halfway to america in that sense that they're trying to but it's all about trip advisor like you go to a restaurant and they're literally full figure writer of you and they're looking over you going make sure you put my name you know i was like whoa okay that that was weird but yeah the service is great you know what i don't think i don't think i've ever had bad service in the middle east and i think it's a cultural thing i think there's a pride in taking care of the people and that type of thing uh and i've heard the same thing about japan like people go to japan they're like man they're a crazy nice here like almost the point risk over the top but i find that though i find the same in the middle east whenever i go to dubai or kuwait um man the service there is ridiculous it's like they just and you're not paying them extra it's not like you're tipping them they just take they just there's just an actual pride in my job like i'm a server i'll be the best motherfucking server in the whole wide world and i'm your server today and i'm like i appreciate that yeah yeah how did you find the uh the taxi drivers here in Hong Kong? I don't think I ever took a taxi. God, I mean, if you're an adrenaline junkie, you know, to tell you what, you're holding on for dear life. The suspension isn't much there, and they're just, they just put their foot down. And half the time, they have no idea where they're going. Okay, so my experience with that is New York. You go to New York, it's the same thing, but they know exactly where they're going. But you're like, holy shit but i like that because i like roller coasters and i like dangerous adrenaline stuff so when i go to new York I almost want to put my hands out the car like a roller coaster I like yeah It's amazing how like, you know, I wonder how some of these people became special and talk about people, people being slightly rude. I do think that taxi drivers will deliberately be a bit ignorant, pretend they don't know where they're going. If you don't speak Cantonese sometimes. Yeah. I was in a, I came out of a bar once and I was like, where I'm meeting Ellie's family at the Peak Lookout restaurant. It's like on the peak, like the biggest tourist attraction really in Hong Kong other than the harbour, right? And so I got in, I was like, can I go to the Peak Lookout restaurant? Huh? Peak Lookout restaurant. Shook his head. I went, Peak Road. Where? On the peak. It's like, you couldn't have a more like a descriptive where to go. And then I started driving off. He hands me a phone with someone who speaks badly better english going driver doesn't understand i went through this whole rigmarole with her he still dropped me a mile down the road and it was just i just think it was just like apparently there's english ways to say the roads there's cantonese way to say the roads and there's like english versions of the cantonese way to say the road all right well again i'm gonna play i'll play devil's advocate