Jukebox and the kids stopover in Hong Kong

[jukebox333]

A few keen followers asked if I'd so a quick report on our Hong Kong stay, that marked the end of the Jukebox Clan Does Japan saga. I wasn't keen initially, but there were enough happy moments and interactions that I'm going to make a little time to check off some of the things we've done in HKG.

I'm finally back home now, so all this will be extemporaneous, rather than live - but I'll do my best.

Accomodation in HKG was the Ibis Central. In the past I've used the Newton in Fortress Hill, but that has been levelled since my last stay, as had my backup, the City Garden, around the corner.



I've mixed feelings about this place. It's old, and feels very tired inside - especially the corriders, and the bathrooms. But I had All Accor points, so was abkle to use them up and get a reduced rate. Would I stay here again? No. It's midway between two MTR stops, and although the tram stop is very close, the mode-changing eats up time. The weather in Hong Kong was High 28/29, low 27/28 and 75-85% Humidity for the whole week we were there - it was borderline unpleasant unless there was a breeze, but thankfully, it stayed overcast 90% of the time, which was a blessing in disguise, as it made the photos we took rather drab.

We landed from Osaka mid afternoon, and I'd arranged a private van transfer through Klook - when there's five of you travelling, a car/van from Chek Lap Kok is a pretty good deal as it gets you door to door quickly - the Airport Express train's terminus is not always convenient.

Before dinner Levon went out and arrnaged to update our 14 year old Octopus (stored value) cards, and I went in search of a tourist SIM. The other job Levon had was to take a swag of HKG coins we'd brought home and exchange them at the Money Van. 7-11 don't do the "we'll take your small change" thing in HKG, but the govt has two vans that act as mobile conversion centres, that circulate around the territories. As luck would have it, the van was going it's last day in Central the day we landed, just around the corrner from the hotel - so Levon sought it out and freed us of a load of copper shrapnel.




Also around the corner from the Ibis was the Queen Street cooked food market. The are HKG's version of hawker markets, and you're pretty certain of getting a good feed at reasonable prices at one of these cooked food markets (they'd dotted across the city). We went Indian. Very nice, but Goan Spices 29 in Woy Woy has better butter chicken!



Next day was an excursion to Stanley Markets.

We started the day heading for The Chook Markets. This was the unofficial name my father-in-law gave to the breezeway under the HSBC headquarters building, where every Sunday, Hong Kong's Fillipino maid population would gather on thier day off to share food and gossip, picnic style on taps and blankets. If you walked through, and closed your eyes, the sound reverberating off the walls sounded exactly like a battery full of chickens - hence the nickname.

Sadly, it seems the authorities have cracked down on the practice, as there were signs warning not to assemble "for illegal activites" and the area was bare. I was quite sad about this, as I'd talked it up to the kids, and it felt like a really unique HKG experience. The price of progress...



Anyway, on to Stanley. Make sure you take a #6 Bus, and get on at the Bus Station in Central - wait for the next bus if you have to, to get one of the 4 seats at the front on the top deck. The views on the ride up the hill to Wong Nai Chung Gap, then down into Stanley are amazing.






We arrived at Stanely in the midst of a religious festival - lots of drumming and dragon dancing along the main tourist strip



We stopped at a British themed pub, run by Thai ladies on the beach at Stanley - there were not a lot of crowds around, but the sun certainly had bite.





A bus back to Central - the 6X this time, going past Repulse Bay beach, which looked very inviting;



We rested up for a few hours, then regrouped and headed to Temple Street markets, and the famous Hing Kee Claypot rice. I'd seen this on one of Anthony Bordain's travelogues, as well as a number of other foodie/tourist YouTubes.

Gotta say, it didn't live up to the hype for me. The oyster pancakes were delicious, if a little oily, but the claypot rice we had was not even close to crispy like it should have been. I suspect they were turning these dishes over too quickly to cater for demand, and the rice wasn't getting enough time to crisp. It was fine as a dinner, but we'd expected so much more...

 

[markis10]

I love the Ibis at Northpoint, harbour views if you get a high enough room, food market with hawker floor across the road and train station 5 mins, while the AirPort Express bus terminates across the road (A10). Rates next week are $85. It’s been my Hong Kong goto since I left a job that used the JW Marriott as its HKG hotel.

I got the feeling todays HKG lacks the soul of its past, and has lost a lot of its glitz, still a reasonable destination but not the standout it was in the past.

 

[jukebox333]

The next day was Easter Monday. Fearing a lot of places would be closed, I'd tabled a trip to Macau in for today.

Red ferry across, the plan was to do the northern historic part first, then be down at Taipa and the casions/light shows for diunner, and blue ferry back.

We disembarked to Heat! Sun! Insane crowds!







Hong Kong was cloudy - Macau was sunny. Stinging, bright, burning sun.

We ticked the boxes for the landmark sights, and walked some quiter backstreets...



This McDonalds was the only retail in an almost all residential area. Strange...




Views of the Grand Lisboa casino between narrow lanes is a go-to photograph. It is a stunning look.



At this point it was only 2pm. Consensus was we were not going to be able to entertain ourselves looking at casinos for six hours, and would rather be back in Hong Kong, so we decided to hop a shuttle to get to Taipa Port. That meant us changing buses at the Lisboa Macau.

We had to walk the width of the casino, and chose to circumnavigate, rather than cross the gaming floor - that needed a metal detector for entry.

The check in queue looked horrific, like a theme park ride:



No Crown Towers, that's for sure.

The mosaics leading up to the toilets...



It felt like what I imagine Mar-a-lago is like inside - a cliche of wealth. Not my scene.

The windows on the Blue Cat back were covered in mist, but that resulted in some very arty looking photos of the HKG skyline! Like a painting...


So back to the hotel, sunburnt, and tired. Macau? Tick! No need to go back. YMMV, of course.

Levon and I ventured out later, to a hole-in-the-wall in Sheung Wan on the corner of Posession Street and Queens Road, serving up cooked meats, like hundreds do around the city:



For HKD $48 you get a bowl of ham and corn soup, and a generous serve of pork belly on rice with some Chinese greens



Simple, but a really nice book-end to a long day.

 

[jukebox333]

The plan for the next day was the Peak tram, then cross the harbour on a Star Ferry, watch the Light show from Kowloon, then search out dinner at a Dai Pai Dong.

I woke up around 3am - I'm "of an age", you know! - and I noticed a lone apartment light on, opposite my 21st floor room. It felt very artistic, but Levon says I'm a pervert.



He woke up before the others a few hours later, so we went and explored Wanchai's markets

The walk/ride there





And then the markets themselves - right opposite the MTR exit



They are only small, but full of vendors selling fresh pork, fruit & veg, and seafood - so much atmosphere - the Hong Kong I fell in love with



Then it was time to do Victoria Peak



Generic tourist stuff, but even on a cloudy day, worth it for the view of the City and Kowloon. And to feed Lily's addiction to toffee coated strawberries...



Home for a siesta, then off to Kowloon by Star Ferry. I was only using my point and shoot camera this trip - Oliver brought his DSLR. He's developed quite the eye for composition. This is one of his:



Next up was the nightly 'A Symphony of Lights' show, best seen looking back at Central from Kowloon:



YMMV, but for us, this was a nothingburger. It just didn't have the punch or impact I thought it would. I've had pedestrian viewing spots for NYE in Sydney, and that blows this away. Having said that, I think a fireworks show from here would be next level.

Off to Sham Shui Po, to find a Dai Pai Dong - an old school traditional food stall working out of a small area, serving food to temporary tables set up on the street. Again, as seen in Bordain's No Reservations visit to HKG. You can find them by putting "Sham Shui Po Dai Pai Dong" into Google maps, it's that simple!

We went to Keung Kee Dai Pai Dong, a short walk from the station - it was quite late when we got there, and a very brisk mama-san ushered us to a table...



So things started rather interestingly. Mama was passive-aggressive slaming down the chopsticks and napkin holder on the table - if you had thin skin, it'd have been quite intimidating... but we ploughed on, sorted out what we wanted, and ordered food and beer.



Mama convinced us to order "mouth watering chicken", and when we agreed, her mood changed. Or was it when we asked for a second round of beers? Either way, by the end of the meal, we were best friends! Lily still wasn't quite sure about the vibe....



It was a great feed, and a great experience - well worth the trek to try a slice of HKG history.

We gave the cook a big thumbs up as we left - he was happy, too!



By now, the market stalls around the area were all closed up. Even Maccas was dark - that carnival-is-over vibe that I love was back:

 

[jukebox333]

Somewhere in there we did the mid levels escalator.

This is an escalator from down at Central up the mountainside. Wiki says the system covers over 800 m (2,600 ft) in distance and traverses an elevation of over 135 m (443 ft) from bottom to top. It's one escalator, so is tidal - down in the morning, to take people from the apartments around it to work, up after 11am to get them home.

Near the start is an outlet for Japanese discount store, Don Quijote - Don Don Kee. Popular in Japan, I was suprised to see one in HKG. The even had an adults only corner:



With that silliness out of our system, we headed to the start of the escalator:



The attraction of the escalator is that it is 18? small escalators, and you can get off and walk down to ground level between each. The streets below are lined with resturarants and shops, so if you see something interesting, you can pause and go look.

Along the way, there was also some curious signage...



Which reminds me; there was also another pretty random sign near the Peak Tram terminus:



The catch is, the escalator doesn't take you to any tourist attraction. If you know that, it's fine - but the big signs warning that it does NOT take you to The Peak, suggest more than a few vistors make the mistake of expecting a pay off at the end. The other catch is, the buses you can catch up top don't come so regularly, nor do they necessarily go anywhere helpful. Which is why caught an uber back to the hotel.

The driver was an Initial-D fan, which was on point for Oliver:

 

[jukebox333]

Next day's destination is something of a Jukebox clan tradition: Lunch on Cheung Chau island. My fatehr in law worked in Hong Kong in the late 1990's and discovered a restaurnt out on Cheung Chau, The New Baccarat, that we have visited every time we have stopped in Hong Kong. So we were rather excited to go back for the first time in about 14 years

It's a 60 min slow ferry ride from Jetty #5 at Central.

Turn left as you walk onto the promenade, then walk all the way to the last restaurant on the block...



Salt and pepper squid, garlic scallops with brocolli, kway tau noodles... hell yes.



It does seem to have new owners very visit, but the food has never been anything but delicious. The boat ride out is great, too.

We just missed the bun tower climbing festival by a few days - luckily, as the crowds would have been crazy.

Cheung Chau Bun Festival - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

These "hats" form part of the topping out of the bun towers, I think



The island also has a pretty nice beach to enjoy

 

[jukebox333]

There's been another tradition for the Jukebox Clan on Cheung Chau - a visit to a humble little toy store. Every time, especially when the boys were young, we'd stop in there and let the boys choose a small toy.

I wasn't even sure if, after 14 years, the shop would still exist.

So we started searching, up and down the laneways. No sign of it. I began to think it must have closed after Covid.

Oliver pulled up an old photo we had, of the kids coming out the store, all those years ago:



That brick wall was pretty distinctive, so I started looking for it down the laneways. Soon enough I could see a red brick wall in the distance, and as we got closer... a toy store!

There was only one thing to do: Re-creation time!



Geez, I'm a lot grayer, and about 20kg lighter now!

I couldn't not show the owner. So I brought up the old photo on my phone and went inside. I called him over and showed him the photo - you could see he didn't understand at first, and then I pointed to the two boys, and the penny dropped. He broke into a huge smile, and asked how long ago it was. I explained it was 14 years, and that for 20 years we had been stopping into his store.

It was one of those magical travel moments I live for. You could see he was so proud, and so happy, and understood. It absolutely made his, and my, day.

It will be my favourite re-creation of all of them, beacuse of that human connection.

 

[jukebox333]

That night, the kids took me out to dinner at Sichuan House in Tsim Sha Sui. Levon had a touch of the sun from the walking around the island, so sadly wasn't up to joining us.

The opposite of a Dai Pai Dong, it was "fancy", and you needed an appetite - and a thirst...



You needed to like chilli...

There's chicken under there somewhere:



These are lamb chops



This is pork belly



and some asparagus, for sanity:



Desserts were extreme:



Everything was spicy - well not dessert - and beautifully cooked. We had a great view of the harbour, too.

After dinner, I wanted Lily to see Hong Kong island from the top deck of a tram, so we took the MTR out to Quarry Bay, and grabbed a tram back to the hotel











A tram ride across the island later at night, for HKD $3 is one of the best bargains in travel - it's slow, and noisy, but you see the city like a local, and at a pace you take it all in. If you haven't done it before, make sure you do the next time you visit HKG.

 

[jukebox333]

Last full day in Hong Kong. Lily has been brilliant as a first time international traveller, and has embraced the immersion we have encouraged like a trooper. But Hong Kong is very intense, and at times she felt a bit overwhelmed by it. Oliver's a great partner to her, and knew she needed a bit of de-stress, so he decided to take her out to Ocean Park amusement park near Aberdeen. They had a fun dat out there, going on the rides, looking at the panda exhibit, and seeing the aquarium. It was a good tonic.

Levon and I started the day with dim sum at Sun Hing Restaurant, a place out in Kennedy Town. Kennedy Town is at the end of the tram line on Hong Kong Island, and is predominantly hosuing for locals - there's no toursit attractions out this way, and mainly locals frequenting local businesses.



I think I found Sun King when searching Google Maps - it looked brilliant, and had plenty of good reviews, so we were keen to try it.

Walking through the door, a smiling but loud mama asked how many people, and when I gestured two, she motioned us to a table. The scene was chaos, but brilliant:



Loud, action packed, complete with matrons bring carts of steamers around - and a tally paper on the table tracking whether you ordered small, medium or large dishes (HKD $24-$30 ea). It was classic Hong Kong!




We did the favourites - steamed Malay ginger cake, steamed pork buns, salted egg yolk buns, prawn dumplings...

The trolley ladies were obviously having fun with us; They'd bring some more hard-core dishes ~ think intestines, or other less-palatable-to-Western-taste treats ~ then crack up laughing when we declined them, and start yelling across the restaurant to one another. I'm sure it was at our expense!

It got to the point where I had to do the belly rub motion to tell them I was too full to take another dish - they loved that, too.

I took the tab to the cashier, and we got a very happy send off from the staff. Good times!

 

[jukebox333]

We pottered around for the rest of the morning, before lining up our next destination - Lam Tei, in the New Territories.

Turned out, Google maps told us there was an express bus that would take us most of the way that left from almost out front of the hotel. Even so, we still needed a train and a light rail leg to get there. The heavy rail stations out there were amazing - huge, clean, modern, future-proofed barns of buildings, that were capable of handling tens of thousands of passengers. One day.





After about a 90 min commute, it was a short walk to our destination: Red Seasons restaurant, Hong Kong's last firewood pig-roasting factory.



It was around 2pm by now - plenty of tables available, and we were ushered inside



There was a full menu, but we came for the pig, so two serves of pig it would be. The dish arrived, and I said to Levon, we might need to order a second serve...



Except a moment later, a second plate was put down - for that, HKD $68 was more than fair.

The waiter had asked what we wanted to drink - then very firmly "suggested" CHINESE BEER? I guess I wasn't getting a Blue Girl here...

The pork was delicious - crispy, tasty, salty, hammy. Was it outstanding? Honestly, not really. The hole-in-the-wall near the hotel was, on the night, just as nice. But you could put that down to circumstance. Was I glad I came out to try it? For sure.

We caught the light rail back to the transfer station:



Then on to the express bus back to Hong Kong.

In the distance, we could see Shenzhen, and mainland China:



You only go 20km or so away from Kowloon, and you could forget you are in such an urban centre



The bays around the bridge to Lantau are packed with apartments



We were back in time for a short siesta, before one last night out...

 

[jukebox333]

We met at the elevators, and headed down to ground level - sharing the lift with a young Chinese couple and their small toddler in a pram. I could see him staring at my face with big eyes - they grey goatee must have been something new. In his hand his parents had given him a Mastercard to play with. I couldn't resist; I reached into my wallet and pulled out my own, nad held it out, to show the little fella we were in the same club. His eyes bulged, and he held his card out to me, too. I cracked up laughing, as did his parents. Not a word spoken, but a wonderful moment of communication.

Down on the ground floor, we had all agreed we needed some last minute cheap souveniers, so the destination tonight was Temple Street markets.

Oliver had been telling Lily about my haggling skills - ones I was unaware I had; I'm sure it was his mother who was the hard-ar$e - but as it turned out, she did get to see me in action. I spotted some little porcelain happy cats, HKD $50 each. It felt waaaay too expensive, so I held up three, and asked the stall holder "best price?" she came back with $100. Me: "Too expensive! $80" No. $90 - best price. By this time she was working another customer. Okay. I put them down, and walked away.

I got 5 paces. "Okay! $80!" she yelled at me. The kids just about wet their pants with laughter. It had gone down exactly as Oliver had described to Lily. I had to pay with a $100 note, so of course the lady tried to sell me something else to make up $100 - but I held firm. I thanked her, and told her she was a good bargainer. If I was good, I should have got them for $70.

I reminded the kids after that it had been all of AUD $2 at stake, and not to get too excited. But it was fun. And better than paying $50 ea.

By now, we were all hungry, so we wandered off down the side streets from Temple Street, past the working girls discretely standing on the footpaths near doorways, to an adjacent fruit market on Reclamation Street. We were almost at the end of the street, and spotted a small place to eat named 文記燒臘飯店 ( Man Kee Barbecue Restaurant, apparently). I walked over, and a young girl beckoned us in - but it was full... in Cantonese, (I assumed) she asked how many, so I held up 4 fingers - and got a big wave to come inside. She then asked a man alreay eating to move to the next table to fit us in.

No English menus here, and just locals tucking in to local food. Google translate sorted us out, along with gestures and smiles. Before long, there was food and beer in front of us, and everyone was happy:



Lashings of food for ~HKD $88/plate.



One of the other young fellas working there came and asked where we were from, answering himself by correctly guessing Australia. Not quite sure how he knew, or if that was a good thing!

I can't repeat myself enough, but if you go to Hong Kong - be brave! Walk into places like this. Yes, they appear flithy on the surface, Yes, they are noisy. Yes, the menu will be hard work. But this is the real Hong Kong. Cramped, loud, and hard working.

I complimented the young girl on her English as we left. She asked how many days we were in Hong Kong, and then if it was our first visit. I loved the curiosity, the random way peoples lives cross paths for just a moment. It felt good putting tourist dollars into a local family restaurant, rather than playing it safe at McDonalds, or even a place on the well beaten tourist track just two streets away.

Back on the MTR and hoem to the hotel. As we rode though the Western Markets, it started ot rain, and by the time we reached our stop, we were in the middle of our first Hong Kong downpour. The asphalt turned into a mirror, setting up one last classic photo

 

[jukebox333]

The next morning, Oliver and Lily headed off at 8:30 for their flight. The same driver would return for Levon and I at 11am.

The religious icons on her dash were something of an omen:



She drove fast, but we did get there safely.

After a very smooth check in, and customs and immigration clearance, we headed to the Cathay First Class lounge, The Pier. Levon had drawn the very lucky straw, as this was supposed to be a nice little last luxury for Wendy and I to share - with my status about to expire next month, a luxury probably never to be repeated.

I'd never been in there before, and this was amazing.



A la carte food and beverage, spacious, quiet.

The lad was impressed:



We had three hours till departure, so did a savoury session in the restuarant, decamped to the lounge bar, then came back a little while later for dessert.



Yes, he was still impressed.

After a couple of glasses of Tattinger, so was I:



Boarding started at 2:20pm for a 3pm push back. We left at 2:20pm, only to find out we'd need to walk/travellate all the way from Gate 63 where the lounge was, around to Gate 4. It was not insubstantial, and by the time we got to gate at 2:40pm, it was empty, and we were amongst the final few stragglers to board. Most out of character for me.

Pushback was 45 mins late, and it was, to be honest, the most miserable Cathay flight I've ever taken. Poor catering - only enough bottled water for one per pax for the whole flight - toilets that were awash with urine after 2 hrs, and not enough Australian Disembarkation arival cards for every passenger on the flight. The 11pm landing saw me walking through the door and back to Wendy just before 1am. It was so good to see her again.

The good news for me was Hong Kong hasn't changed much since Covid and the democracy crackdowns. @markis10 is right, it has lost a little of its edge, but I think it is still fundamentally the same. The humour and warmth of the people towards tourists is still there. There are still places to explore, and familar places to revisit. It's not for everyone - Lily was not sold after a week, but I get that. Oliver and Levon, like me, had their faith reassured that it was an incredible city, and you could explore and be as adventurous or as safe as you want to be.

It remains for me my favourite city in the world to visit, and I'd go back there again in a flash.