Author: JT

HK: Day 4/Tue Summary

Here is what I managed to do on Tuesday (day 4):

  • Breakfast and blogging (sense a theme here?)
  • Rode the MTR north into the New Territories to see 500 year old Kat Hing Wai walled village (approx 110m squared) + walked around the nearby neighbourhood (inc. a second walled village across the street – in-town rivals?)
  • Enjoyed that tasty walled village lunch (poached fish) near Long Ping
  • Walked around Tai Kiu Market and bought several food items (this one will definitely get its own post soon)
  • Lei Cheung Uk Tomb near Cheung Sha Wan
  • After a little rest (and shower) in my hotel, went to Tsim Sha Stui to meet couchsurfer Tony+friends for a light dinner and interesting conversation
  • As a bonus, watched the Symphony of Lights from the parking garage rooftop of Harbour City Mall where I met Tony
  • Drove a few minutes (yes, got to ride in their car) to Jordan area for a tasty but hot Szechuan dinner (I’ve never seen so many 1cm chunks of chilli peppers in a dish, and apparently that’s half the usual amount!)

I didn’t know you could pay for the parking meter with the Octopus card, which seems counter-intuitive until you realize it’s not a transit pass as much as a stored value card primarily for the transit

Update: surprisingly I didn’t have an upset stomach the next morning from all those chilli peppers.

HK: Day 3/Mon Summary

What I managed to do on Monday (day 3):

  • Breakfast and blogging
  • Noonday Gun (viewed from across the street – too long a walk around the busy street and construction)
  • Walked through Victoria Park – huge with lots of sports fields (inc. 6 concrete soccer pitches)
  • Tin Hau temple (most important one of many, but I found it disappointing visually)
  • Lunch at Delicious Kitchen in Causeway Bay
  • Architecture walk in Admiralty and Central
  • Drank stocking tea (actually yuangyang – mixed with coffee) and French Toast with Kaya in Central
  • Rode up the covered escalators to the Mid-levels (15 minutes one way!) and walked all the way back down.
    The Mid-levels are the residential area partly up The Peak. Saw quite a few expats riding up, going home after work.
    The escalator runs downhill from 6-10, then uphill from 10-24, then closed during the night (there are partially covered stairs/walkways next to it for the opposite direction).
    Picture a long raised walkway snaking its way through the neighbourhood, between buildings and up the hill.
  • Enjoyed a happy hour drink at a bar in Lan Kwai Fong (mainland Chinese tourists took my photo)
  • Temple Street Night Market between Yau Ma Tei and Jordan MTR
  • Dinner in market: deep fried mantis shrimp – messy but good!

 

HK: very tasty walled village lunch in New Territories

This fish (woo tau or gray mullet) was incredibly moist and very tasty. Fried rice was good too. I took some of it back to my hotel in a takeaway box.

This resto (Tai Wing Wah near Long Ping MTR) specializes in walled village food, as well as dim sum. Very large restaurant on 2/F – I shared a 4 person table – and again I was the only Caucasian/foreigner in the room (which I consider a good thing when eating in another country).

Bill came to:
Fish HK$72/US$9
Fried rice HK$37/$5
Tea HK$7/US$1
10% service charge HK$12/US$1.55
Total HK$127/US$16

HK: obligatory money shot

Here are the common HK coins and bills.
Well, the HK$10 coin is old as an equivalent bill has replaced it.
Also, I received an old HK$20 bill, so I made an old vs new comparison too.

Update: there are actually different bank notes and coins issued by 3 banks (like in Scotland). Also, there is a HK$1000 note but I wouldn’t call it common as it didn’t cross my hands.

And yes, the currency is a little too big to fit comfortably in my walled (it’s taller than US/Cdn bills)

Note the newer HK$10 bill is plastic.

HK: will it be sunny today or won’t it?

The weather forecast (online) is still calling for very sunny weather today. I see dark clouds over The Peak.
So which one is it? Maybe it will be sunny later today…

I was going to do some require-good-weather trips today (up The Peak and either a bus ride to Stanley Park on the south side of the island or a trip to Sunset Peak on Lantau Island), but if it doesn’t clear up soon, I’ll have to go with Plan B and see some sights in the New Territories (like a centuries-old walled village) and Kowloon.

Though I was going to save Kowloon for tomorrow when the museums are free (and most of the museums seem to be in Kowloon).

So far the weather has been quite cooperative, in that there have only been a few brief sprinkles (vs the low-chance-of thunderstorms called for)

Update: no it wasn’t sunny. It did sprinkle a little in the late afternoon. Even the MTR entrance showed the rainy forecast and temp on the digital display above the entrance turnstyles.

HK: breakfast (as it happens) and sweet soy sauce?

I try to have meals at different restos each time, so I walked the neighbourhood looking for a breakfast place (that wasn’t noodles with ham). Found a place called MK on the first floor that was very busy with nary a tourist in sight – jackpot!
The menu was actually quite similar to yesterday’s cafe, with a similar setup: look at a menu on the wall with pictures (and English), order and pay up front at the cashier (can use Octopus card, much easier and faster), take paper slip to another line where staff take it and set up your tray with pre-prepared food. Fast and efficient.
HK$22.50/US$3 for a Chinese breakfast set: congee, turnip cake and milk tea (or coffee)
Congee was good, turnip “cake” not my cup o’ tea, so to speak – weird taste, and more like thicker porridge than a cake; for that matter, I should have had coffee instead of the milk tea, but I figured I’d be heading to St@rbucks to do some more blogging.
For that matter, I thought Chinese were lactose intolerant – maybe it’s lactose free milk, or soy milk. I do enjoy hot Chinese tea with meals, but not this milk tea.
It also came with a packet of Sweet Soy Sauce: water, white sugar, salt, soybean, flavour enhancers, wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup, preservative
Not surprisingly, it’s sweet, which is not how I like my soy sauce, which is salty by definition :-)

HK: random tourist moment

So earlier today I was sitting on a bar patio having a happy hour pint (not much of a bargain, HK$40/US$5.15 instead of HK$50/US$6.50; some places have 2-for-1 specials) and free peanuts – I was resting my legs after doing my architecture walk and walking back down from the mid-levels, and it had started to rain slightly…

Anyways, so I’m sitting there minding my own business (with wi-fi on my smart phone to keep me company), when I see two Chinese girls smiling and taking a photo of me, and then one takes a photo of the other standing next to me (on the other side of the rail separating the patio from the road).

I figure they must be mainland Chinese tourists (the fastest growing segment of tourists in HK), especially since i was sitting in a bar in a well known little street of bars called Lan Kwai Fong (in Central). And there were quite a few other Chinese obviously-tourists-what-with-their-cameras-and-posing-under-the-street-name-sign behaviour.

Tables turned? I wonder what they’ll say about me when I they show their pictures when they get back home…

HK: Day 2/Sun summary

Here’s what I managed to do on my second day (a Sunday), with more details and photos to follow in later posts.

  • Did some research and blogging over breakfast and coffee at Cafe de Coral (a chain); the millet porridge was surprisingly tasty but the sandwich and coffee were disappointing (I was expecting a fresh sandwich, but maybe not for HK$20/US$2.60 for the set breakfast)
  • Tried to go to the Peak (as you might imagine, it’s the tallest point on Hong Kong Island, just south of Central), but didn’t want to wait in line an hour for that tram
  • Meandered around Central a little, including Hong Kong Park next to the Peak tram (random: the park also houses the HK Squash Club)
  • Noticed the large number (many hundreds? a thousand?) of F Filipino maids hanging around Central, especially Exchange Square, anywhere they can find shade (this is Sunday, remember, so it’s their day off it seems)
  • Hopped on a ferry to Cheung Chau Island for seafood, a temple (home of the annual bun festival coming up), a beach and a long scenic walk ending with a pirate’s cave and a “resting” (perilously perched) boulder (and a surprising amount of trash, mostly in the form of discarded water bottles);
    it’s also the childhood home to HK’s only Olympic gold medal athlete (windsurfing in ’96 Atlanta games).
    Definitely recommended (thanks Yin)!
  • Saw some of the nightly Festival of Lights, where buildings in Central, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui are lit up in a “moving” light show