Noisy People

It’s the best Chinese restaurant in the city

I had to alight at Mong Kok to patronize it

Every Sunday morning

There’ll be 800 people having breakfasts

all at the same time

This restaurant doesn’t accept credit card

There was no notice saying so

When you have finished eating the meal

suddenly you have no money to pay

They said: OK, you pay the service charge of $60

in addition to the food you had consumed

Some foreigners also were presented with

dishes they never ordered

Please don’t laugh

they charge these to the bill!

You may reject these

if you have not yet eaten them

or you are sure your first date

won’t misunderstand your rejection

What ever you reject

they bring them back to the kitchen

The next guy will be given the same disk

after they have been warmed

I was unlucky to sit next table to this strange guy

he put a folded copy of the morning post

on the chair before he sat down

The last guy left this chair less than ten seconds ago

This strange creature believes

whatever diseases the last guy has

will be transmitted to him

if he sits on the chair when it’s still warm

He also took another chair

for his right foot

After the meal he opened

his big mouth to remove the food

sticking between his poorly aligned teeth

Mind you, he could prise out the food particle

with a bamboo toothpick and let the food

shoot four to five feet

in front of him

I quickly covered my Chinese tea with my

cotton handkerchief

Should I tell this guy that he shouldn’t step on two boats?

that he must put his two hands over his mouth

when he wants to cough?

I ignored him

because in this city

fists fighting is still very common

Why waste time with this sort of people

when many of the degree holders in my country

are just the same?

This place was also extremely noisy

which is very common

when Japanese, Chinese or Indians are there

Is it our culture to talk so loud

that all the 800 people in the hall must know

we are there?

END

Copyright © 2004 by Poh Tiong Ho