Hong Kong - Part III

TUESDAY (11/11) (cont'd)

We arrived back in Hong Kong around 6:30 PM from Macau. We had enough time to check back into Langham Place Hotel before heading back out to dinner. This time, we took the Tsuen Wan line from Mongkok across the harbor to the Admiralty station, where we transferred to the Island line to Causeway Bay. We were meeting up with some family on my Dad's side again for dinner. I had forgotten my camera on this evening, so I didn't get a chance to snap any pics of this dinner, but I will hopefully get some pics from my folks and upload in the future.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some much-needed zzz's (vacations are exhausting!!!).

WEDNESDAY (11/12)

On Wednesday morning, Will and I did some major catch-up in the hotel gym before we joined my parents, Uncle Peter and Aunt Joanne for a trip to the Sha Tin district of Hong Kong. We walked from the Langham Place Hotel to the Mongkok East MTR station (around 10 min walk from the hotel, a station that is on a different MTR line than the Mongkok station we had been using the most). The Mongkok East station is directly on the East Rail Line, and as we did not have luggage this time, it would save time to just walk the humid and busy streets of Mongkok to the other station.

We were heading to Sha Tin primarily to visit the grave of my grandfather, my mother's father, who was buried in a small cemetary high above Po Fook Hill and the 10000 Buddhas Monastery.



We got a little treat and saw some wild native monkeys wandering the hillside:

We had a quick lunch at a noodle house in Sha Tin, and then took the MTR back to Mongkok.

We had a couple hours of chill-out, before heading out with my parents to check out the district of Tsuen Wan in the New Territories, where both my parents grew up. We took the Tsuen Wan MTR line all the way to Tsuen Wan, where Mom and Dad took us on a walking tour of their old haunts, specifically to the high school that they both attended, and the church my Dad went to (see below).


My Mom used to live in a house on Wo Tik Street, but those buildings are long gone, making way for, shockingly, a mall:
From Tsuen Wan, we took the Tsuen Wan MTR Line to Lai King, and then transferred to the Tung Chung line to Olympic, where we were going for dinner back at the Star of Canton Restaurant in Olympian City with a couple of my parent's good friends. Dinner was as delicious as before, and after dinner, we all did the 15 min trek back to Langham Place hotel in Mongkok instead of taking the subway. It was a great way to help digest all the yummy food.

My parents were heading back to Canada the next day, so we bid adieu to my folks who were our constant travel partners and co-hosts. Thanks for everything Mom & Dad!

THURSDAY (11/13)

Will and I were finally on our own for the day to figure out an itinerary during the day. So, we took it pretty easy. We spent some quality time in the hotel gym, trying our best to counter-act all the great food we had been ingesting on this trip, while enjoying the stellar views of the city in the gym. We also spent some good chill time in the hotel, prior to heading out on the Tsuen Wan MTR line to the Tsim Sha Tsui station. We walked from the station to the Star Ferry buliding, where we took the ferry across the harbor from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. It was great to take the ferry ride during the day, seeing the great views of all the buildings on both the Kowloon side to the Hong Kong Island side in the sun.




From the ferry building, we walked over to the famous IFC (International Finance Center) buildings, designed by famous architect, Cesar Pelli. IFC2 is currently the highest building in Hong Kong, standing 88 floors tall. Of course, the first few floors of both buildings are interconnected and are a shopping mall and stand over the Hong Kong MTR station. We enjoyed a coffee on one of the public terraces overlooking the harbor toward the Kowloon side.

From the IFC buildings, Will and I walked over to the SoHo district, short for "South of Hollywood Road", and located in the "Mid-Levels" (halfway up to Victoria Peak and above Central). The SoHo district is known for its bars, night clubs and restaurants, much like the famous Lan Kwai Fong district nearby. Supposedly, lots of ex-pats in Hong Kong hang out in SoHo due to the variety in styles of food (everything from italian to mexican to sushi). We were primarily in SoHo to check out the Central-to-Mid-Levels Escalators, also known as the "Travelator" (my favorite name). These escalators were built in 1993, and the entire system is 800 meters long with a vertical climb of 135 meters, and is composed of twenty escalators and three moving sidewalks, totaling approximately 20 min travel time. As noted in the Guiness Book of World records, these escalators together form the longest outdoor covered escalator system. The escalator daily runs downhill from 6:00am to 10:00am and uphill from 10:30am to midnight.

As we arrived in the late afternoon, we rode uphill all the way and then took the stairs back down:







After the fun on the escalators, we headed to the Central MTR station and took the Tsuen Wan line back to Mongkok.

For dinner, we met up with my Uncle Peter and Aunt Joanne on their last night in Hong Kong. They took us to dinner in Tsim Sha Tsui (via MTR) to Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao Restaurant in Harbor City Mall. As the name implies, this restaurant is known for its Shanghai dumplings (Xiao Long Bao), and there's a really good reason for that. We became big fans of Crystal Jade, not only was the food delicious, it was very reasonably-priced (which probably explains the gaggle of people in line for a table...).

At the end of the night, we bid adieu to Uncle Peter and Aunt Joanne, who were heading back stateside the next morning. Thanks for traveling with us!

FRIDAY (11/14)

On Friday, we were due to meet up with Uncle Cherk, Aunt Wai-Ling, and our family friend, Uncle Danny. My Aunt Wai-Ling had arranged for Uncle Danny to take us touring on the southern side of Hong Kong Island, where there are some great things to see and do, but it's more difficult because public transport is only via bus routes that can be cumbersome.

So Will and I took the MTR in the morning (Tsuen Wan Line to Admiralty Station) and met up with the rest for our day of touring. Uncle Danny took us up the Peak on the way over the hill to the south side, with a stop at Stubbs Vista Point to check out the amazing views of the harbor and Hong Kong:




From there, we headed over the big hills to Repulse Bay, which features a fantastic public beach.







On the eastern end of the beach at Repulse Bay, there is a large Buddhist shrine, called Kwun Yam Shrine, which features statues of Tin Hau (goddess of mercy that protects fishermen) and Kwun Yam (male form of Tin Hau). In front of the shrine on the eastern side is the Longevity Bridge, where crossing the bridge is believed to add three years to your life.



From Repulse Bay, Uncle Danny drove us eastward to Stanley, a town that is on a peninsula on southeaster Hong Kong Island. The big tourist attraction in Stanley is Stanley Market, a large open-air market where lots of store vendors hawk their merchandise and are willing to bargain (getting much cheaper prices than elsewhere).


We did some shopping in Stanley Market, where I got some great things (both for me and family back home). After shopping, we walked down Stanley Main Street towards the Murray House. Murray House was originally a government building in the Central district of Hong Kong, but was dismantled in 1982 to make way for the new Bank of China building in Central, and eventually resurrected in Stanley in 1998. The main floor of the Murray House is now the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, and the upper floors house different restaurants featuring cuisine around the world.

For lunch, we stopped in the German beerhouse restaurant on the top floor of the Murray House, called King Ludwig Beerhall. It was a little weird eating German food in Hong Kong, but it was very good.


From Stanley, Uncle Danny drove us back westward to the southwestern side of Hong Kong Island and to the island of Ap Lei Chau (or Aberdeen Island). Ap Lei Chau is famous for its location and the fact that it makes a fantastic typhoon shelter.

We took a ferry from Ap Lei Chau across Aberdeen Harbor to Aberdeen:




Uncle Danny wanted to take us to Aberdeen so he could take us to a little-known bakery that makes the "best" Hong Kong-style tea (very strong black tea served with evaporated milk) and egg-custard tarts (dan-tat).


We took the ferry back to Ap Lei Chau, and then Uncle Danny took us to a seafood market, so my Aunt could get a bowl of one of her favorite dishes, fish-ball noodle soup.



After the day of touring, Uncle Danny dropped Will and I off in Causeway Bay at Times Square, which is yet another major shopping center and office complex, where we then took the MTR back to Mongkok (Island line from Causeway Bay to Admiralty, transfer to Tsuen Wan line to Mongkok).

We bid adieu to my Uncle Cherk, Aunt Wai-Ling, and Uncle Danny, as we were on our own for the next day or so before we left Hong Kong on the 16th. Thanks to all three of them for a fantastic time throughout our trip, we are grateful for their touring and hosting!

SATURDAY (11/15)

On Saturday morning, Will and I hit the gym again and then chilled out at the hotel. For lunch, we headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui (via Tseun Wan MTR line) and had lunch back at our new favorite restaurant, Crystal Jade, in Harbour City mall. Seriously, the best Shanghai dumplings!

Later in the afternoon after wandering around the mall, we met up with my cousin Raymond's family for high-tea buffet at Cafe Marco in the Marco Polo Hotel. This was our last chance to visit with any family before we took off, and it was a nice and easy afternoon with Raymond, Shirley, Anne and Karen.


After saying goodbye to Raymond's family, Will and I strolled along the harbour and took in the sunset one last time before we left Hong Kong.

That evening, we took it very easy at the hotel and tackled the packing, trying to fit all our new purchases into our luggage (no easy feat!).

The next morning, we woke up and got on a shuttle to the airport. Farewell Hong Kong, a beautiful city with so much to offer. Thanks to everyone (family, friends, extended family and friiends) who took care of us, planned fun things for us to do, and really taught us a lot about this part of the world. I look forward to the next time we can come back to visit, it has been a fantastic trip, a trip of a lifetime!