That's it!

3 days in Hong Kong go quickly, but I think we fitted a lot in.

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Night time in Hong Kong

Saturday night found us hitting the shops with the rest of Hong Kong. It was a great atmosphere around Granville Road and I actually found a fantastic 2 layer hiking jacket for under 25 pounds. Like in Singapore, some shops sell sample-sized perfumes and skin products by brands that are normally really expensive such as Lancome, Bulgari and Clarins. We came out with a bag full of goodies from one place. After all that shopping, it was time for some contemporary Chinese cuisine at a trendy place in Knutsford Road. Imagine the décor if you will: polished concrete floors, black walls, candles and silk lanterns. I ordered a champagne cocktail followed by a spicy beef and chicken Szechuan hotpot. I am learning that Chinese food doesn’t have to be bland steamed vegetables mixed with monosodium glutamate.

Po Lin Monastery and Big (Tian Tan) Buddha

We had arranged to meet David Lee at 10am outside Jordan MTR Station. From there we headed out to Lantau Island where we could catch the cable car Po Lin Monastery and the big Tian Tan Buddha. There are lots of big Buddhas in the world and we have actually seen quite a few of them in Bangkok, Sri Lanka, Nara and India, but this one’s claim to fame is that it’s the biggest bronze, seated, outdoor Buddha in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tian_Tan_Buddha). It took quite a while to get out to Lantau Island and on the journey we were keen to find out whether David L. was happier in Hong Kong than he had been in Japan. Happy is a bit of a strong term, but at least Hong Kong suits David better than Nagoya did. He did seem to enjoy reminding us about all the bad things about Japan, but it fell on deaf ears. I think Japan is a great place to live.

We learned that the cable car had been known to stop mid journey, but we didn’t let that put us off. I have never seen such a long stretch of cable – it went off into the mountainous distance. There were different ticket options available including the “Enlightenment Package”. We just got single tickets and planned to get the bus back, unenlightened.

We could see the Buddha from miles away – a hazy grey shape along with some lovely mountains. People below us were hiking to the monastery – perhaps we’ll do that on our next visit. When we got off the cable car 25 minutes later, we saw a teahouse and museum. A trained tea-maker helped us to choose tea and would show us how to make the perfect cup. I know what you are thinking; easy: kettle, big mug, good strong teabag, splash of milk and 2 sugars. Not here! Lots of warming of tiny cups, washing of leaves, draining and making first and second brews. The result was lovely light, smoky flavoured tea. The tea I chose (the boys let me choose) was reputedly the best green tea in China: the Dragon Well (Pre-Ching Ming) We let David M choose the snacks: honeyed cashew nuts. Funny they didn’t have Hobnobs.














Next we climbed the steps up to the Buddha and did a few laps of the big guy while taking in the views. Feeling nice and enlightened (and hungry) we headed down to the monastery to have a vegetarian lunch cooked by the monks – great vats of barley soup and rice, spring rolls, tofu and bok choy. Yum. This was served with yellow tea which has a characteristic metallic taste (unless it was the taste from the bottom of the kettle….).














We got the bus back to Tung Chung and noticed that the mall next to the MTR station was an outlet mall…… just popped in quickly and managed to find a new pair of fab trainers. Result! We went off for afternoon tea at our hotel and David Lee went home to finish planning his courses for next week.

Hong Kong markets

Temple and Jade Markets feature in all the guidebooks and are apparently a fun thing to see at night. We followed directions and found the fringes of it selling mainly sex toys and souvenirs with Chairman Mao on them. Unlikely as it may seem. he has a certain kitsch appeal these days. The main stretch of Temple Street Market features clothes and copy-designer goods. For under ten pounds I could have looked like one of my students in Japan decked out in Burberry and Louis Vuitton. Theirs is the real thing though. God knows where they get the money for it. When I was a student I could barely afford to feed myself.

Dinner was beef fried noodles at a scruffy street café off Temple Street followed by a posh cocktails in the upmarket Knutsford Terrace.

Tea museum and park

The tea ware museum is housed in Flagstaff House, the residence of the former British governor in Hong Kong. This was, of course, on our itinerary and I was interested in learning about how to make a proper cuppa and how this has varied over the years. There is a long tradition of tea drinking in China as ceramics and woodcuts from the 7th century showed.





We wandered around Hong Kong Park for a while enjoying the sunshine. Kids fed the carp and the terrapins. People rested on benches. Businesspeople paced up and down talking into mobile phones. Brides and grooms posed for photographs in front of Flagstaff House and the carp ponds.

Tea

Back down in the city, it was lunchtime and we were growing hungry. We had set our hearts on dim sum and had the name and address of the oldest teahouse in town. Anyone who knows me even slightly will know that tea is a bit of an obsession of mine. In fact, on our travels, I go to great lengths to secure a decent cup of tea. This is very difficult in some places, but in Hong Kong, there are people drinking tea everywhere. Hong Kongers are even more enthusiastic about their tea than The Mynards. Dim sum is usually bits of steamed meat in a case and is not what springs to mind automatically as an accompaniment to tea. I’d go for a biscuit personally, but this is what they do in Hong Kong. Lin Heung tea house is a busy noisy place and we didn’t have a clue of the etiquette. The cashier told us to sit anywhere and we joined a glass table where two women were drinking tea. They smiled and motioned to the waiter to clear the detritus left by the people who had recently vacated the seats – tea slops and bits of bones all over the place. This is normal. There was no menu, but we were brought tea, cups, bowls, chopsticks and a pot of boiling water. What was that for? One of the ladies explained that the pot of water was for washing everything. She got to work washing our tableware. The other lady talked us through the different teas on the table. We had been brought the standard jasmine tea in a teapot. We were starving and wondered how we could get some food. Our faces must have looked both hungry and bewildered so once again, people helped us out. I had been warned that people here were among the rudest on Earth, but in restaurants and teahouses we found nothing but patience and kindness. An old lady pushing a metal trolley full of bamboo baskets bustled past. The ladies at our table talked to her and then sent her away “you won’t like that”. They obviously don’t know David. “What was it?”, “pig stomach”. I probably would have eaten it if I hadn’t known what it was. David actually looked disappointed that we weren’t having them. What else was out there? Another trolley rattled past. More bamboo steamers, this time full of fluffy white buns. We decided that we would get them no matter what was in them: we were starving. “Like Chinese hot dogs” one of the women told us laughing. We have had the buns before in Vietnam and Yokohama, but never with a gristly, spicy sausage inside! The two ladies had finished their lunch so we said goodbye. We were quickly joined by two men – office workers from nearby companies. They helped us to order pork dim sum. I took a bite too late to worry about what to do with the bone and gristle. There were no napkins to discretely put anything into. There is nothing discrete about eating in a Hong Kong teahouse: people just spit their bones onto the table so I joined in. Finally, there were lotus flower buns: these went really well with jasmine tea I thought. One of the guys at the table (Anthony Lam – we have his card) talked us through the bill. Each time we order something, the server stamps our card. At the end we are left with an assortment of numbers in different columns so that our bill can be calculated. The cashiers know a number 4 in column 3, row 8 means that we had a steamer full of pork and bones. The meal came to about a fiver.

Up the Peak

The tram was packed and we had to stand. As we ascended up a near vertical track, this meant that we had to lean against the back wall to avoid falling over. The views were astounding; we could see why Hong Kong has been compared with Rio – both cities are blessed geographically. The haze in Hong Kong meant that we couldn’t see the mountains, but had great views of the city below. On exiting the tram station, people are steered on a path through a very modern shopping and dining complex via a series of escalators until finally arriving outside and being able to just take in the view. Surreal jazz versions of Christmas songs blasted out along the way. I had forgotten it was still Christmas.

Star Ferry, Hong Kong

Today we wanted to go to the edge of Kowloon and look across to Hong Kong island for the classic view you always see on postcards. It didn’t take long to find and then we took the famous Star Ferry over to the other side. There were some bus stops where people were waiting and as it was a reasonably clear day, we thought we’d go up to the Peak to get the panoramic view of the city. There were 2 bus options: the regular bus that took you up to the peak; an open top tourist bus that took you to the tram station and then you took the tram up to the peak. We couldn’t decide which one to do so left it up to fate. We stood between the two bus stops and decided to jump on the first one that came. It was the open top tour bus. I haven’t been on one of those since I was about 8 and did a tour of Cardiff (does that bus still run?). I’d forgotten how much fun they were. We had a good view of the business district of Hong Kong. Most of the other passengers were Japanese and seemed more interested in getting photos of themselves on the bus than looking at the cityscape below. At the tram station, we bought our tickets and joined the queue with all the other tourists in Hong Kong. We called the only we know in Hong Kong (David Lee) and asked him to guess where we were. “Don’t tell me, up the peak” he said. Close: in the queue to go up the peak. We arranged to meet him the following day.

First night in Hong Kong

We set off down the busy Nathan Road. We were offered Rolexes and “capy” (copy? crappy?) bags and watches by shady blokes on street corners, and tailoring services by Indian guys in bad suits. Not much of an advert. We jumped on a subway (MTR) at Jordan and headed for Central where we’d heard there were lots of lively bars and restaurants. We followed our noses and it didn’t take long to find Yeung Kee restaurant. From the display in the open kitchen window downstairs, we guessed (correctly) that the place specialized in roast goose. From the queues of locals waiting for a table, we deducted (also correctly) that the place was good. We only waited for about 15 minutes for our table and as it’s quite an upscale place, we didn’t have to share with anyone. The friendly family on the table next to us helped us to order (funnily enough, there was no chicken chow mein). The menu was in English and Chinese and there were sections for pork, chicken, beef, seafood, bean curd, frog, duck, goose, snake and bird's nest. Basically, in the words of Taggy, “If it moves, the Chinese will eat it”. Just about the only thing with 4 legs that they won’t eat is a table. We were brought our complimentary appetizer. It’s called 1000 year old egg, but our new friends reassured us that it wasn’t really 1000 years old, it just looked that way after being preserved. The waiter recommended that we eat lots of pickled ginger before trying it. This turned out to be good advice as the strong ginger masks the rotten egg flavour. We enjoyed the rest of the meal much more. The goose is roasted and then chopped arbitrarily before being brought to tables on platters. This means that you might luck out and choose a piece with lots of meat and crispy skin. You are equally likely to end up with lumps of fat and bone however. We ordered roast bean curd and bok choy as back up so didn’t go hungry. It was way too much food, and all delicious.















After dinner, we found a cocktail bar in the Lan Kwai Fong area before hitting the hay at around 10pm. Not bad for someone who has just recovered from a cold and traveled 8 time zones.

Hong Kong Phooey

Everywhere has a song. In Morocco it was “Marrakech Express”. In Thailand it was “One night in Bangkok”. In California it was “Do you know the way to San Jose?” and so on. David has this endearing (read: annoying) habit of picking up on one line of a song and singing it over and over for days on end until I want to kill him. In Hong Kong it was “Hong Kong Phooey” cartoon theme tune remember that? Go back to the 70s “Hong Kong Phooey number one super guy/ Hong Kong Phooey quicker than a human eye”.

Arrival in Hong Kong

So here we are at the Eaton Hotel in Kowloon. We had booked a standard room via the Internet, but negotiated an upgrade on arrival at a discounted rate so that we got a better room and use of the business lounge. I’m calling it a belated birthday present to myself. After being sick for 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year, I felt I needed a pampering.

On our first evening, after freshening up, the first thing we did was to take all our guide books down to the business lounge to consult as we drank champagne and helped ourselves to hors d’oeuvre. 2 days really isn’t enough to see Hong Kong, but I made a list of our priorities. Predictably, most of the things on David’s list involved food.