As you might imagine, walking around in The Philippines and in Hong Kong, where the humidity is at a steady SwimmingPool%, one’s clothes need a good washing before long.

When I had “undergarments” washed at the hotel, it cost slightly more than US$6 per garment. Big tactical mistake. For a few dollars more, I could have invested in the new MeUndies, apparently the new hot thing for what goes on first.

Ok. Lesson learned.

Tonight, Karen and I had what must have amounted to about a thousand dollars worth of hotel washing to do. So I found this Sunshine 24 self-service laundromat that has an open front to Eastern Street here in Sai Ying Pun. It’s super clean and even has a cool feature of having the soap already preloaded in the washer! But it only takes the Octopus card for payment. The Octopus can be purchased at MTR (subway) stations and is used not only for the various modes of transportation, but also for other consumer purchases like food, laundry services, and even coffee at my favorite nearby coffeeshop, which accepts only Octopus or cash. That woman you see at left is just coming back from 7-Eleven, where she had refilled her Octopus card. She had offered to help when I looked disheartened at the instructions, so I paid her HK$60 (a little less than US$8, or the price of one hotel-cleaned undergarment) to use her card to pay for my wash and dry, and she was going to refill it a couple blocks away so she could finish her laundry. She made an extra trip to help me out.

Pretty friendly neighbor, if you ask me.

Now Karen and I can venture off to The Philippines again (tomorrow; first time for her), fresh as a daisy. (Till about 8:30am!)