So long Hong Kong...

I have been very shoddy in keeping this blog updated I know, mental last 4 weeks in Hong Kong with work, fab time in Beijing battling with bad flu and an annoying chesty cough then getting stranded in Tenerife for an extra 6 days without my laptop because of the volcanic ash cloud! So, this will be a slightly jumbo edition to get me up-to-date in the UK.

Divine Dim Sum and general touristyness in Hong Kong. 

Day 29: As many people have noticed I am a big fan of food and markets. I'd read about a one Michelin star restaurant in Mong Kok (supposedly one of the cheapest Michelin starred restaurants in the world), and also delicious. The restaurant was Tim Ho Wan, there was a 2 hour+ wait mainly because of the hordes of people waiting and the fact that it only seated 22 people.

Its in the weirdest spot (its the one with the green sign) between two scooter shops and opposite all these gun shops. The one below is one of my favourite shop names!

OK, so there's a 2 hour wait, my book Tai Pan only got me so far, so I spent most of my wait wandering around the markets in Mong Kok trying out my lush new digital SLR camera

Note the four BBQ'd pigs on the right hand side.

Back to Tim Ho Wan...

The steamy kitchens where all the magic happens.

Inside its not like the Tardis, it looks this small from the outside too. But it was well worth the wait the food was dee-lish.

House speciality of baked pork buns, with a thick, crunchy, sugary crust on the top - you ordered them and waited 25 mins for them to bake them fresh. At least 10 people ordered extras of these as take out because they were sooooo yummy. (I did too and took them to my very grateful work mates).

Day 33: From one Dim Sum (or Yum Cha as we call it in Oz) experience to another. Next stop Lin Heung - if you want an authentic HK Dim Sum experience this is the place to go, a cross between the authentic/traditional recipes and a free -for-all rugby scrum! Leigh, a friend of my sister Fran was transiting through HK so this was her first ever experience of Dim Sum!

These were traditional, very light steamed cakes with sweet red bean paste inside. No one spoke English so it was a case of picking something that you thought looked OK and finding out if it was sweet or savoury once you started eating. (I thought these were pork buns of some description when I picked them). Oddly enough we ended up sharing a table with a Chinese man who used to live in Sydney!

Day 40: Rainy day in Macau with Kingsley - its a 30 minute ferry journey to Macau, and you'll need your passport (this is the 3rd time I've tried to get there over several visits to Hong Kong, I forgot my passport the first time). Macau has a Canto-Portugese feel as a former Portuguese enclave. I loved the architecture, some of it was very colourful and very European. The two specialities seemed to be large sheets of jerky and pretty much anything on a stick - steamboat style.

Lovely church we popped into...

Old lady on the steps outside.

Cooking up some jerky...

Something on a stick.

Kingsley.

Macau is famous for its casino's and we had to visit one, I nearly lost my pants there. I won big and lost big too!

Day 59: Brown Sauce night on the town in Lang Kwai Fong to celebrate finishing our contract. These pics need now words! So long Honkers, hello (nee how) Beijing!

Next: The lovely Miss J and the delights of Beijing!

Lamma ramma ding dong

Day 26: Wanted to do something today that was a new HK experience for me so decided to get the ferry to Lamma Island and eat me some seafood, I went with Andy my boss. Its a 30 minute ferry ride and the weather was a balmy 18 degrees and smoggy as usual, very much like getting the ferry over to Manly!

Apparently Lamma is the place to be for all seafood lovers who come to Honkers, we went to Sok Kwu Wan and ate at the Rainbow Seafood Restaurant. I had prawns in a butter sauce (pictured below at the back of the pic) and salt and pepper squilla (at the front), it tastes like a mix of lobster and prawn, so yummy. The first time I have ordered a dish that has come with a pair of scissors!

Andy ordered the pretty spectacular looking sweet and sour fish (below) and salt and pepper squid.

Sok Kwu Wan itself is a cross between a shanty town and Lanzarote, all in a Hong Kong style - bamboo and plastic sheeting holding it all together.

This a collection of floating pontoons that make up a fishing village.

Once you walk out of the restaurant area its quite pretty and basic and has the ubiquitous temple and rather surprisingly a pond full of (stacked!) terrapins just hanging out, its not very densely populated area, so I refreshing change from HK Island. Most of it has a shabby, rundown HK charm to it. Andy said it reminded him a lot of Vietnam.

Sleepy old lady (not dead, I promise) who lives next door to the temple.

This house was built in 1956.

Little shrine between to restaurants.

Day 25: I rode to Chai Wan, the end of the tram line on Hong Kong Island, and then spent the afternoon wandering around Hollywood Road and the nearby markets with my new digital SLR camera stalking the streets for interesting people pics, sights, sounds and smells. If you ever visit HK, a ride on the tram should be on your list, its HK$2 and you get a different perspective being that high up above the gazillion pedestrians and the traffic.

Chai Wan, not a lot there... so I got off this tram and straight onto another one heading back towards Central.

Tiny, tightly packed lighting shop on Wellington Street.

Jane and Chinese New Year: The lovely Jane Menon arrived for her first ever visit to HK from Beijing (eventually, as she actually went to the Harbour Plaza first and knocked on room 2623's door and there was no answer... I'm actually staying at the Harbour Grand, so a different hotel!)  on February 10th for 6 days of CNY, shopping, eating, drinking and touristing! Oh what fun we had! 

Here is a synopsis of what we did:

• Visited the Peak on only the second clear/sunny day in weeks

 

• Had a champagne harbour cruise on a junk around Victoria Harbour

 

• Rode the cable cars from Ngong Ping up to see the Big Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island. It was 5/6 degrees brass monkey's cold! I had to buy a t-shirt at the gift shop and Jane bought a second scarf....

 

• Had a wander around the visual feast that is Hollywood Road antique and Curios shops

• Stanley Market - where Jane rivals only my father in her brutal bargain tactics! She was on fire!

• Goldfish markets in Mong Kok

• Saw the amazing Chinese New Year fireworks from the prime spot of my hotel room, conveniently placed on the 26th floor and facing the harbour

• Cocktails

• Ate lots

• More cocktails

Next: Went to see an Australian trained Hong Kong Chinese Naturopath yesterday... And I'm going to have Dim Sum at the cheapest one starred Michelin Restaurant Tim Ho Wan, pics to follow...