New Territories (新界), Hong Kong // 2015

The only time I hear travelers go to New Territories in Hong Kong is for the famous 'Lou Poh Pen'g' (wife cake) in Yuen Long. I decided to go for something different this trip.

Sai Kung 西貢 / Long Ke Wan 浪茄灣

There is no train to this part of Hong Kong, but there's always bus. We took the red mini bus from outside Kwong Wah Hospital on Dundas Street to Sai Kung main station, which is right next to the Public Pier. 

It was Good Friday, a public holiday in Hong Kong so I guess that's why it was quite a lot of people at the pier. Then, we saw many people looking down at the side of the pier.

Floating market selling fresh seafood! Now, this is where you can buy seafood and claim that it's fresh out of the sea. 

We didn't really spend time at the pier, as our objective was to go to Long Ke Wan from Sai Kung. We went to the taxi stand and found a long line of people queuing for the green taxi! Luckily, there were quite a lot of taxi so we didn't have to wait too long.

After about 30 minutes taxi ride later, we arrived here - Hong Kong Global Geopark of China. The view was breathtaking, even though the weather was quite cloudy that day. I didn't expect to see this kind of view in Hong Kong!

And somehow there were some cows there, and cow dungs here and there (o_O). From here, we continued on the MacLehose Trail for a 30 minutes hike around the hill to get to Long Ke Beach.

After about 15 minutes hike, we finally get a glimpse of where we were heading to. WOW!

The hike was not too bad, there are proper steps. Sometimes there's cow dung on the steps. There's only one part when almost approaching the beach that was quite steep. Going there was ok, but on our way back which is uphill, that was pretty damn tiring. (Disclaimer: I'm totally not into hiking so perhaps some of you might find that it's actually not difficult at all. There were parents with young children who made the hike too. That stretch was about a 10-15 minutes hike. Anyway, if I can make it, you can make it too! This awesome view of the beach is there to motivate you.)

There were already a lot of people camping there when we arrived at the beach as it's a long weekend. Mostly youngsters. This is actually not an official camping ground, there's no facilities at all. So when you need to pee or poop, go natural!

I could sit here all day. I would come camping here every other week if I'm a Hongkie.

The water is clear but doesn't look as blue that day because it was cloudy. Did you know that one of the reason the sea is blue is because it reflects the colour of the sky?

And there were heaps of seaweed! There were also a few guys harvesting oysters near the rocks.  

I wish we could stay longer there but we need to hike back before the sky turns dark for two reasons.

1. The trail will be pitch black as there's no lights or electricity, and we don't have torchlight.
2. Apparently it's quite a challenge to get a taxi to go back to Sai Kung in the evening.

True enough, when we finally get to where we came from, there was already a big bunch of people fighting for taxi. And for whatever reason, they don't queue in a proper line. Everyone just gone in madness and try to fight for a taxi. Thinking it's gonna be hell fighting for taxi with these people, we decided to walk further down to try our luck. 

We got lucky indeed! One taxi guy was driving in but stopped to tell us it's quite impossible for us to flag down a taxi. No one comes to this place at this hour, so taxis won't drive up without passenger. All the taxis that comes up at that time are pre-booked. Perhaps we look helpless and sad enough that he said he could ask his friend to help drive us to Pak Tam Chung (which is about half way to the pier) if we were willing to pay additional HKD50 on top of metre fare. They cannot drive us all the way to Sai Kung pier because they need to come back in time to pick up their passengers who have pre-booked them. That sounds like a good deal considering the current situation, so we agreed to it and he radio call his friend who appeared like 2 seconds later - *POOF!* like magic. When we got to Pak Tam Chung, there was already a taxi waiting for passenger so we got on and get to the pier. 

Monkey Tips: If you have a phone, take down the taxi number and call for pick up when you wanna return. We didn't get a local sim card so we just try our luck. Of course, if we get into a desperate situation, we can always use our Malaysian phone number and make that super expensive roaming call, but we got lucky so that was not necessary.

We actually got back to Sai Kung Public Pier before sky dark. How lucky. 

An old man selling dried seafood produce at the pier.

We took the mini bus back to Causeway Bay. We went over to Hong Kong Island because we wanted to go back for more claypot chicken rice goodness. The bus has a digital metre that show passengers that the bus is not going faster than the permitted speed limit. 

Yuen Long 元朗 / Sha Tin 沙田

WJ got very sick on our last day there. Food poisoning, probably from the milk or the chicken sandwich she bought from 7-11 because that was the only thing me and H didn't eat. So we took her to the doctor, and she rested in the apartment for the rest of the day. Doctor say she should avoid seafood and spicy food. Eat 'humble food'. So, H and I went out to look for 'humble food' to buy back for WJ. 

It was about an hour train ride to Yuen Long. Then, took us some time to find the restaurant, but the it was totally worth the journey.

They opened at 4pm, we got there at about 4.30pm. Meal being prepared for the restaurant staff before busy dinner time.

Now, this is how all chicken congee in the world should be done. It was so good. Congee so smooth and flavourful, chicken was tasty and tender. So best!

We didn't explore Yuen Long, but I would go to Yuen Long again the next time I go to Hong Kong.  Even if there's nothing to see, there's always chicken congee to make me happy.

Sun Kee Claypot Chicken Congee 新記煲仔雞粥
No.42 Yau San Street, Yuen Long, New Territories. Open daily 4pm - 3am.

Later that night, H and I head to Sha Tin for pigeons at this hotel - Lung Wah hotel. This place is so hidden but the moment you get there, the hotel restaurant is full of people! We ordered roasted pigeons and cooked and soy.

I was told to take a taxi there from the MTR station, but when we try to take taxi from Grand Central Plaza, the taxi driver say we should just walk because it's not far, and if he were to drive us, he'll have to make a big round and can only drop us off at opposite road. So we walked through a small and dark lane. As you can see from the picture, there's houses on one side and on the other side is the railway. This lane is so small there's no car, but it doesn't feel unsafe because there are other people walking to, back to their homes i suppose.

A beautiful traditional house near the Sha Tin MTR station.

So yeah, it's less than 1km walk to Lung Wah Hotel from MTR station, so walking there is fine.

And that's it. Our last night in Hong Kong this trip. After dinner, H and I went for a quick shopping at Temple Street.

The next morning, we went for breakfast at Yee Shun Milk Company, then took the bus to the airport. All in all, it was another good trip with awesome food!

Outlying Islands (離島), Hong Kong // 2015

There are a group of island surrounding Hong Kong Island as well as the mainland, they call it Outlying Islands. These islands are easily accesible via ferry from the Central Ferry Piers, and trips are very frequent. This trip, we went to Lamma Island and Lantau Island.

Lamma Island 南丫島

No llamas here. 

Lamma Island was initially not in my plan. But CS's colleague say we should go there for seafood.

We took the ordinary ferry from Central Pier 4 and arrived at Yung Shue Wan. You can park anything you want at the pier, don't worry... it's free parking!

Colour coordination - WJ's pants and shoes, the dog with it's collar and my shoes~

We didn't really know what to expect here. But when we arrived, there was an a map of the island and it says there's a family trail that will take you to the seafood restaurants, with about 1.5 hours walk. After a short walk, we arrived at Hung Shing Yeh Beach.

Hung Shing Yeh Beach is quite a small stretch, but is a proper swimming beach, with a proper lifeguard tower, shower & changing rooms, and a BBQ area on the cliff at the end of the stretch. Water was cool and clear.

Anyway.... after the beach, the family trail was not what I expected. It was a hilly trail, basically we had to trek from one side of the island to the other side. Thankfully the they did up the track nicely but some parts can be tiring going up the hill. And when you reach higher ground, it can be very windy. Along the way, there are lookout points, cemetery, route to windmill and a village houses.

Hong Kong is known for its density with very limited land, but here in Lamma Island, villages have enough land to live on a landed house and work their farm. And this is a very old lady, still working her farm.

A pretty sight at almost towards the end of the walking trail. 

It was already late evening when we finally arrived at the seafood restaurant. We took a few breaks throughout the walk to simply enjoy the wind and view. Food was pretty good and the restaurant provides free ride back to either Central or Tsim Sha Tsui (so that tells you it's not cheap eating there :P). 

Monkey Tips: At Central Ferry Pier 4, there are 2 types of ferry to Lamma Island - the ordinary ferry that stops at Yung Shue Wan and the fast ferry (which is also more expensive) that stops at Sok Kwu Wan. If you want to see more of Lamma Island like walking through the streets with shops and houses, to the beach and to the windmill, you should take the ordinary ferry to Yung Shue Wan. From here, you can choose whether you wanna eat at seafood restaurants. If yes, then you'll have to do the 1.5 hours trail to Sok Kwu Wan. 

If you take the fast ferry to Sok Kwu Wan, you will see a row of seafood restaurants the moment you arrive. After that, there's a temple...and then it's 1.5 hours to the more happening side of the island. Do check the ferry schedule - the ordinary ferry has more frequent trips.

Tai O, Lantau Island  大澳, 大嶼山

Lantau Island is the biggest island in Hong Kong, and you don't necessarily have to take a ferry to get here. There's MTR that goes to Tung Chung, and from there you can take buses to different parts of Lantau Island.

We went to only one little fishing town in Lantau Island - Tai O.

Fish cakes - original and squid ink flavour. 

An old house sandwiched in between two taller and newer buildings. I don't mind living in a house like this.

Stilt houses is what Tai O is famous for. 

Traditional wood-fire stove. 

Grilled shrimp roe. So yummy but WJ and H doesn't know how to appreciate fishy stuff, they didn't like it.

Favourite pastime for Hongkies - Mahjong!

I like Tai O a lot. I suppose this place have good fengshui too as its landscapes includes hills and water.We walked till the end of the street and at the hills at the back, there's a cemetery. It's like the perfect location to rest the ancestors. I'm sure the ancestors will look after the next generation very well.

This 山水豆腐花 (mountain water tau foo fah) is so very the good! I believe this is the smoothest tau foo fah I've ever had in my life so far. Perhaps they do actually use actual water from the mountain, I actually believe so. (I don't even know if it's the mountain water that makes it so silky smooth or they're just very skillful at making tau foo fah. Haha!)

The other things that was very good is this cheese grilled oyster. There's bacon in it. Anything bacon has already earned the 50% approval from me even before I taste it. But really, this was done so well.... the bacon, onion, cheese....just go so well together.

Monkey Tips: The easiest way to get to Tai O is simply take the MTR Tung Chung Line to Tung Chung. From there, take bus No.11 to Tai O. It's a windy road and the bus driver drives pretty damn fast for that kinda route, but I don't feel unsafe. The journey is about 1 hour or slightly more.

Hong Kong Island (香港島), Hong Kong // 2015

Hong Kong was a country on it's own until year 1997. Now, Hong Kong is a part of China, but still runs on it's own government, currency and everything else. They compete as it's own country in the Olympic Games. Then, when you get to Hong Kong, there's Hong Kong Island and Hong Kong Mainland. The locals refer to that island part of Hong Kong as 'Hiong Kong' which is literally 'Hong Kong' in Cantonese, without mentioning the 'Island'. The whole country including the mainland and island, is also 'Hiong Kong'. 

Confuse enough? Haha.

Anyway, this is where Hong Kong CBD is located. All the popular buildings they always feature in TVB or any Hong Kong movies are located here. For example, the Bank of China Building, and the Convention Centre.

Causeway Bay 銅鑼灣

Dim sum is a Cantonese thing and so you gotta eat it when you go Hong Kong. We went to Star of Canton. It looks like a rather upscale place so I was a bit worried about burning a big hole in my pocket, look at the tea cup and saucer....so pretty! But the price turns out to be pretty reasonable. The non pastry items were pretty good, but I think what we have in Malaysia can be as good, except that they have some items that we don't get it here. We also ordered a goose feet noodle, that was very bland. However, one thing for sure...Hongkies really really know how to get their pastries right. That one, we no fight lah. 

Star of Canton 利寶閣
21/F, Lee Theatre Plaza, 99 Percival Street, Causeway Bay. Open 11am - 4pm, 6pm - 11pm 
By MTR, take the Island Line to Causeway Bay Station, Exit A. Cross the road to Lee Theatre Plaza building right opposite.

Coincidentally there were some family day event going on at Victoria Park. It was really nice to see a park full of parents and children spending the day having fun in various activities that doesn't involve any electronic devices. 

Western District 西環

The only two places that we went back to eat for the second time were Mak's Noodle, and this - claypot chicken rice. They serve hotpots and rice with dishes too, but we didn't bother to try, because all we wanted was the claypot chicken rice. 

They have lots of varieties of claypot rice, but the chicken is soooooo good. They serve you the rice, with chicken (or whatever you chose) and vegetables in the claypot, and then they'll bring you a bowl of soy sauce. Not plain soy sauce of course, but a bowl of goodness. When you put in the soy sauce, you can hear sizzles...  and that marks the start of an awesome meal.

Monkey Tips: They have many variety of claypot rice, but you must try the 'smooth chicken' version. The chicken itself is very tasty and tender. Eventhough the shop opens till late, the claypot rice is only available untill about 9-ish. So, get there early.

Kwun Kee Claypot Rice 坤記煲仔小菜 
Shop 1, Wo Yick Mansion, 263 Queen’s Road West, Western District. Open 11am - 12.30am Mon - Sat, 6pm - 12.30am Sun.
By MTR, take the Island Line to Sai Ying Pun Station. At Exit A, turn right and walk straight till you see McDonalds on your right which is a corner lot. The shop is in the lane between Wo Yick Mansion and McDonalds. (Kwai Heung Street)

Along the way in between the MTR Station and Kwun Kee Claypot Rice shop, there's this wall...and this cat. 

Sheung Wan 上環 

H got a lil' sick after a very cold night the day we went to Lamma Island, and Avenue of Stars at night (but it's totally his own fault because he refuse to bring even a thin jacket, and that night turns out to be very windy and cold). But here, at Sing Heung Yuen, you gotta order this drink called 'Ham Leng Chaat' which directly translates to 'salty lemon 7 Up'. But......yah, they use Sprite instead of 7 Up here. Mebbe it sounds weird to call it 'Ham Leng Sprite' that's why they just maintain with 'Ham Leng Chaat' despite using Sprite. Anyway, whether it's Sprite or 7 Up, it's lemon flavour variety, not the regular Sprite or 7 Up. The lemons are preserved lemon. (When we were at Kam Wah Cafe in Mong Kok, CS ordered this drink but it was with preserved lime served with 7 Up).
Back to H, so at first he felt regret for ordering a cold drink while being sick. But this drink, got him from being regret, to regret no more.....to I want more!
The other signature dishes here are the Tomato Beef Noodle and Crispy Bun. I love the Crispy Bun!

Sing Heung Yuen 勝香園
2 Mei Lun Street, Central. Open 8am - 530pm Mon - Sat, Sun closed.

Monkey Tips: This place is very popular among locals as well as tourists. If possible, avoid going there during lunch time as queue can be very long. We got there around 3.30pm, no queue at all! (but a big group came after us, and started forming a short queue again :P)

As we walked leisurely around Sheung Wan, we came across this group of elderly men spending the afternoon hanging out with friends, playing ......ermm....actually we didn't walk near enough to see exactly what they were playing. It could be chess, cards, mahjong...I don't know. :P 

Happy Valley 快活谷

The most happening place we've been to throughout this trip gotta be this - the Happy Valley Racecourse on Wednesday night raceday!

It's like a carnival in there, so many people!

WJ and I checking out the horses, before the race starts.

And then I went on to place my bet on horse #10 - Lyric Ace. 

So I placed a HKD10 bet. Race begins. Gallop...gallop...gallop.... Lyric Ace won! Wheeeeeee!!!!
Went to the counter to claim my prize. Payout HKD15.50. What!!?? That means my nett profit was HKD5.50, not even enough for me to buy a stick of curry fish balls (-___-").

Don't gamble your life away yo!

Monkey Tips: Races usually happens on Wednesday nights, but sometimes on weekends too. It's best to check the race schedule on their website before planning your trip there. 

Happy Valley Racecourse 跑馬地馬場
2 Sports Road, Happy Valley, Hong Kong Island
Get on the Happy Valley Tram and alight at the end of the line, and walk across to go towards the main entrance. 

Later that night, I ate curry fish balls anyway....and siew mai...and octopus....

Kowloon (九龍), Hong Kong // 2015

We rented an apartment in Jordan, a very very strategic location I'd say. There are many good food just a street or two away. 

Jordan 佐敦
Our first night's dinner was at Prosperous Restaurant street stall, or the locals call it 'dai pai dong'.

Somewhere in the back lane, there's this place where we saw a lot of locals eating. Immediately I knew this is where we were going to have dinner that night.

'Sifu' cooking it out in the kitchen. Not very big but a very busy kitchen. 

This was our first meal in Hong Kong, and it was a good start. Everything was yummy. There's 'wok hei' in the noodles. We saw a lot of people drinking Blue Girl beer, so we ordered too. It was good, smooth and easy to drink. It's called 'Lam Mui'  which is a direct translation of 'Blue Girl' in Cantonese. And price for the meal was reasonable. 

One night, WJ, H and myself were just exploring the area and we came across this street with lots of booths by the roadside, only at night.

A street full of fortune telling booths! But it was pretty empty, only a couple of booths with customer.

Then, there were booths with people singing. These booths were far more happening. It's like open mic on the street for the senior citizen! They take turns to sing while the rest sat around and enjoy some tea and peanuts.

If you go to Hong Kong, you'll definitely have to eat their noodles. And we did. In fact, we had many types of noodles, cooked in different ways. But, there was one... the very best among all. 

This one.

Mak's Noodle. It may look plain, like nothing much... but it was so freaking good it took me to heaven straight away. The noodles were springy and crunchy. The soup so flavourful. The shrimps in the wantons were big, fresh and springy. This is the BEST shrimp wanton soup noodles anyone can ask for. I crave for it until today, about 2 weeks since we came back from Hong Kong. 

Mak's Noodle 麥奀雲吞麵世家
Ground Floor, 55 Parkes Street, Jordan. Open daily.

Mong Kok 旺角
The most famous thing to eat in Mong Kok must be the 'bo lo bao' (pineapple bun) at Kam Wah Cafe . Funnily, the ingredient to make the bun does not consist any pineapple. It's name as such because of the surface of the bun that supposedly looks like pineapple skin. 

Personally, I wasn't very impressed with the bun but I wanted to highlight something else here. 

At first, we ordered 5 butter pineapple bun for the 5 of us, plus 2 egg tarts to share. But the man keep pestering us to order the pineapple bun with chicken, so we did. It was...ok. Just ok for me. Not great. 

Having already ordered 3 butter pineapple buns, 2 chicken pineapple buns, 2 egg tarts, we decided to only order 3 drinks to share. But it was not good enough apparently. There is a rule for minimum 1 drink order per person for dining in! Me not happy, not happy at all.
And this is the day WJ and I decided to be adventurous and ordered the lemon coffee drink. Bad, bad decision. It tasted bad, like I cannot brain why would they even have this on the menu??
So yeah, I will not dine here again. Takeaway the pineapple bun, maybe.

Tsim Sha Tsui 尖沙咀

Collecting garbage can be cool too especially when it's drizzling, just dress up like this lady. 

We find these fake elevated garden patches pretty cool. 

It's nice to just chill on the fake patch and gaze at the sky.

Next up, Hong Kong Island.