Hong Kong: Starbucks

I was fortunate that I had the opportunity to travel to Macau and Hong Kong recently, all thanks to my sister's kindness and fortitude. So blessed to be travelling together with my mom and sister for 4 days 3 nights to such beautiful, colourful and retro islands where I've grew up watching on TV. Such a lovely trip, meeting so many beautiful souls and yet encountered some nasty ones... as such, I've decided to kick start my blog post with a bad encounter at Starbucks, Hong Kong.

If you are wondering why I'm starting with a bad encounter first, well, I just want to get it over with and then move on to all the happy memorable moments which are aplenty! I do have lots of wonderful photos which I have yet to select and filter so it will take a very long time for me to post it LOL!

It was the second night of our travel, the first night in Hong Kong to be exact. We just had our dinner with my sister's colleague and decided to explore Ladies Market. While passing through the congested aisles, we came across a Starbucks shop and promptly headed for it was it was my intention to buy a tumbler for my collection. After selecting a suitable tumbler, I went to the cashier and asked in Cantonese if I could purchase the card too. To my utmost horror, the cashier ignored me and proceeded to pack my tumbler instead. After which, he asked for HKD170 which I've then ignored and asked the same question again. However, it seemed that he has trouble understanding me and proceeded to ask me in English instead. Here's how the conversation went:

Cashier: Why do you need the card for?
Me (so stumped with such a question!): I am collecting it
Cashier (proceeded to show me the cards and flicked in a rude manner the current snowman he has and replied): These are about 2 years back, we don't have any new ones
Me (damn angry with the rude behaviour, reigning in my temper and asked): No new ones? That's all?
Cashier with a smug face replied: Yeah
Me - promptly paid the amount and turned to leave after collecting my change and receipt when the cashier realised he forgot to give me a free drink voucher for purchasing a tumbler... looking sheepish for this blunder while explaining the usage.

I just don't get it. It was just a simple transaction of registering the new card, adding credit into it and then use it to pay my tumbler. Why did he has to behave in such a rude manner? Just because I'm a tourist? I have no such issue getting the card in Bali, in fact, the staffs went the extra mile explaining and helping us get the best of both card and tumbler! Way to go Starbucks Bali!

Anyway, after I've shook that rude incident off, we continued to explore Ladies Market and stumbled on another Starbucks outlet. As we were dead tired, sis suggested that I redeemed the free drink there and so another odd encounter happened. This time around, the cashier was friendly. We saw a poster with some new iced drinks and ordered one of that. The cashier was kind to inform me that I could redeemed this drink with my voucher and I was a happy camper! Until when I collected it.......... my heart dropped when it turned out to be a hot drink instead! I did a double take at the poster and my cup.

Poster = iced drinks
Reality = hot drink

I rest my case. Starbucks Hong Kong, I'm speechless!!!

The rude one

The voucher

The friendly but blur one

All the heartache and hassle for this beauty!

Definitely had me in negative vibes, giving me bad impressions, of Starbucks and Hong Kong. Well with the bad encounter out of the bag and out of the way, I will try to sort out the photos I've taken of both Macau and Hong Kong as soon as I could.

The next blog post would be of the colourful and vibrant Macau.