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.