Hong Kong
This was my 4th visit to HK,
Baby D’s 1st and he was super-excited. He felt like he already knew it well and
he recognised a few streets because he’s been there via the Playstation
apparently.
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| Central |
We stayed in ‘Central’
on Hong Kong Island, fairly close to SoHo
and the famous party area of
Lan Kwai Fong. We were actually about a half hour walk from the nearest MTR
(underground) and it was downhill, so it was a bit of a pain trying to get back
to the hotel – uphill – especially in the HK heat. Luckily the hotel had a free
shuttle bus to the MTR every hour. We were also fairly close to the mid-level
escalators which forms a path of escalators and moving walkways that cross
vertically through this area for around 800 metres, making it easier to travel
up this steep part of HK.
On our first day, we had some time to go to HK’s History
Museum where we learned about its geography, culture and development. Hong
Kong is a series of islands, 261 in fact, outside of the Kowloon peninsula, and
hundreds of millions of years’ ago, the land sat on an active volcanic range.
The volcanoes erupted continuously until one day they stopped and the larva
cooled to form the HK hills and valleys. After the ice-age, when the water
levels rose, HK became an archipelago as it is today.
As well as the topography of HK, we learned about the opium
wars when Britain had nothing much to export to China, apart from opium,
and the chain of events that led to the military action once this stopped. We
learned about HK culture and the formal songs, dances and theatre there.
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| Chicken Feet Dim Sum |
The next day we were met by a friend through work who took us
for dim
sum. Even though I had been to HK before, I had never had dim sum there so
this was a treat. Turned out that good dim sum is quite hard to find nowadays,
as so many people that make traditional dim sum have emigrated to the UK, US
and elsewhere. We were taken to a beautiful restaurant which specialised in
catering for wedding parties. We ate chicken feet, shrimp wrapped in sweet
coconut pastry, carrot and taro in deep-fried rice noodles, abalone, jelly with
red flower petals, pork and shrimp dumplings – a feast!
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| Cheung Chau |
The weather in HK was hot and muggy, and it was forecast to
rain for the whole time we were there. Our friends wanted us to see Cheung
Chau, an outlying island about 45 minutes from the city and we decided to
chance it in spite of the weather forecast. There are no vehicles on this
island, aside from boats and bicycles, and even the fire brigade uses bikes.
The first thing we saw when we arrived was a lovely square, with several cafes,
B&Bs, and local stalls.
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| Cheung Chau market |
Further along we found the beach and after stopping for a
beer and some calamari we took a junk
boat over to the north of the island where our friends had told us was a cave
(Cheung Po Tsai) used by pirates in years’ gone by to stash their treasure
which was still accessible if we wanted to crawl through it, which of course we
did. It was quite a challenge because it was pitch black, the tunnel was very
narrow, and you could hear the waves crashing on the rocks outside.
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| Cheung Chau beach |
When we left the cave, we scrambled over some rocks and
walked round the island back to near the ferry port where our friends bought
half the contents of the ocean for dinner. On the way we spied a huge snake
which looked a couple of metres long, a short way in front of us which
slithered off into the bushes. We were taken to a local restaurant where we met
an old schoolfriend of our friend. ‘Brother 5’ was one of our friends’ best
mates from school and he had lived on the island all his life. He was called
Brother 5 because he was the 5th brother in his family. The owners
of the restaurant were happy to cook us our seafood and we had the restaurant
to ourselves. We had garoupa, abalone, elephant clams, crab, and shrimp, and it
was delicious.
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| Seafood feast |
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| Dragon Boat racing |
On the way up the mid-level
escalator one afternoon, I noticed an advert for the Dragon
boat carnival, which was down at the harbour, near Central ferry piers. We
found out a bit more about this from the hotel, and were given a wedge of
vouchers for free beer. The Dragon boat races are an ancient Chinese tradition
and every year competitors come to HK to take part in the racing. We strolled
down to the harbour to watch some of them, while having some food and free beer
and watching the live music. We also headed across the water on the ferry to Tsim
Sha Tsui, the best place to watch HK’s light show which is on every
evening. We missed the English version and the one we saw was dubbed in Mandarin,
but it didn’t make much difference. The lights on the huge skyscrapers flash on
and off to music, almost as if they are dancing and the show lasted about 15
minutes.
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| Dragon Boat Carnival |
We wanted to head up to the Peak,
which is the highest point in HK and has a tram going up there. I have been
before but Baby D really wanted to do it and I told him not to wait for me if
the weather was good and I was at work, and to just go. So off he went one day
but was soon back at the hotel to rethink his plans because the tram was closed
for maintenance until the day after we left HK! We had also thought about going
over to Lantau
Island on the cable car to see the big Buddha, but guess what? The cable
car was closed for refurbishment too!
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| HK from the boat |
On Sunday we found a decent looking place for bottomless
brunch with an buffet of salads, prawns, oysters and cheese. The choice was a
bit limited though in comparison to other brunches we’d been to, but this was
just the starter – we had a main and dessert to come too. The drinks took a
while to come out and when you have the table for a set amount of time you want
to make the most of it. Great cocktails though. We should have booked a brunch
in advance, it seemed that the best ones book up pretty quickly, and we wished
we’d gone to Watermark in Central which overlooked the harbour and had some
good reviews.
That evening we went across the water to Sham
Shui Po to look round the market and the shops. This area isn’t really touristy,
it is more known by the locals as the place to get cheap electronic goods and I
bought a watch for about 30% less than I would have got it for in the UK.
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| HK by night |
Work all day for me the next day, so Baby D amused himself
and went out exploring. In the evening we were invited to join our HK friends
for tea in their apartment before meeting some other friends and colleagues for
dinner. It was lovely to see a real HK home and we met our friend at Olympic
MTR near his home, which is really central location. In fact you don’t need to
exit the MTR to get to his apartment, we just had to go through some adjoining
walkways and in a couple of lifts and we were there. They had prepared some
traditional Chinese tea and a snack of ‘drunken
chicken’, chicken wings marinated in wine. It was a lovely experience and
after chatting for a couple of hours we headed to the restaurant where we
feasted on an abundance of dishes from Beijing including smoked duck, more
drunken chicken, fish, lamb in pockets of flakey bread and red bean paste
souffle.
The next afternoon we were off to Borneo, so we had a few
hours to kill. Baby D took a bus up to the Peak while I went to the shops to
replace some of my smelly traveller clothes.
#hk #hongkong #central #cheungchau #dimsum #dragonboatcarnival #shamshuipo #cheungpotsai #tsimshatsui #hklightshow
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