Hong Kong

This was my third trip to Hong Kong. We purposely scheduled plenty of time there and scheduled it as our last stop because there aren’t a lot of touristy things to do and we could take it a slower, more relaxed pace. We were tired by this point in the trip. The city is best compared to New York. It’s a city with a lot of skyscrapers, people, shopping, and congestion.

WIA: The food in Hong Kong is outstanding. It’s kind of like Las Vegas in that they import all different types of foods and restaurants, so you can get the best in everything. We ate lunch at the food court in the mall next to our hotel at a Shanghainese place. It was quick, easy, and pretty good. Dinner was at Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese dumpling institution that has since opened locations in several international cities. There was a long line, but we got in pretty quickly. I’m not sure what all the hype is about, but the dumplings were tasty. I actually really liked my noodle dish in peanut sauce. It tasted like noodles with peanut butter. Lunch on day two was at Classified, a mozzarella bar, next to Stanley Market.  Jenn had a cheese plate and I had a salami and cheese sandwich that wasn’t nearly as good as I hoped it would be. We took the ferry to Macau in the evening. While walking, I had an egg tart, which was delicious. It’s apparently the thing to eat there.  We had a late dinner at Il Teatro, an Italian restaurant, at the Wynn Hotel. Our table was next to the window and overlooked the fountain, so we saw the fountain show about 6 times during dinner. I know it seems silly to travel across the world for fried mozzarella, spaghetti and meatballs, and pizza, but everything we ate was really good. It may not have been worth the premium price we paid for it being at the Wynn, but we knew that going into it. I had two Macau beers. It was light and not too bad.

 

 On our third day, we ate at afternoon tea at The Peninsula. The food wasn’t substantial, but the scones and finger sandwiches filled us up. We had higher expectations of the tea. It’s right in the lobby once you walk in the hotel and there are all levels of dress. I’m not a big tea guy, but I feel like there is something nice about getting dressed up (even though we weren’t) and going to a nice hotel for tea. I can appreciate that. There is something to be said for sticking with nostalgia and keeping things the same if it works the way it is. I’m sure it would be a pain for people to get dressed up to come to tea, but there are so few things left in life that we haven’t marginalized by trying to keep up with the times. It was also all very systematic. The waiters went through the motions and were efficient in getting people in and out so the next group in line could sit down for their tea. We’re glad we went to experience it. 

We ate dinner at Zuma, which is super trendy, and serves up a nice (and very expensive) Japanese menu. I had a couple sushi rolls that were fine, but not nearly worth the price I paid for them. Jenn’s salmon was really good. The people watching was excellent. We finally saw who all the people were who are buying all the clothing in the extremely high end stores that blanket the city. We had a non-traditional dim sum brunch on Saturday at Tim Ho Wan. This is a very small (6 or 7 tables), pretty dumpy looking place that serves up incredibly good dumplings. We were aware they didn’t take reservations, so we arrived at 10am, which was the time they opened. We were given a number and were told to come back in an hour. We did. We were then told to come back in another hour. We did. I get extremely frustrated when things don’t work the way they are supposed to. I had no issues with them giving me a number and telling me to come back in an hour. What I did have a problem with was traveling back across town to make it back at the time they told me and then be told to go away for another hour. I was pissed. Jenn had to talk me down. When we eventually did eat, the food was worth the wait. We had a few different dumplings, but the highlights were the deep fried shrimp and chives dumpling and the baked pork bun. We don’t actively eat pork, but the pork bun is the most famous dumpling, so we had to eat it. The barbecued pork was surrounded by a sweet tasting biscuit that was soft on the inside and flaky on the outside. It was out of this world good.
That evening, we met my cousin Allison and her husband Mario and first had a drink at the ICC, the bar at the top of the Ritz Carlton, which is the tallest building in the world. The drinks were obscenely expensive, but the views were worth it.

For dinner, we ate in the Temple Street Night Market. I don’t even know the name of the place, but it was one of the open air places right off the street. It was far from fancy and pretty far from sanitary, but the food was hot and good and the beer was ice cold. It was a lot of fun catching up with Ali and Mario. They have lived in Hong Kong for a few months. She works at a university and he is starting an art organization. We haven’t seen them in a while, so it was great to talk and get updated on their lives.

WID: We started off at the top of Hong Kong by taking the tram up to Victoria Peak. We went on a walk that got us away from the main commercial area and all the people, so that was nice. The views were incredible.
That night, we walked along Avenue of the Stars and took in the Hong Kong light show. The city is packed with skyscrapers, one after another, and from the Kowloon side, at 8pm every night, one can watch a synchronized laser and light show being projected from many of the buildings on the Hong Kong side. It’s cheesy, but still kind of cool. It’s something to see once. This was my second time to see it.

We took a 30 minute cab ride out to Stanley Market the next morning and realized quickly that it was a waste of our time. We’re not clear why this market is so popular and why any guide book would recommend making the trek out there. The area is nice along the water though and it’s nice to get outside of the city for a little while, but it ate up a whole lot of time. In the early evening, we took the ferry to Macau, the Las Vegas of China. It’s a former Portuguese colony which in the past 6 years has exploded with huge Vegas style casinos. There is an MGM, a Venetian, a Wynn, the Sands, and many others, with many more to come in the future. It’s of course packed with people. There is a lot of shopping and very nice casinos and shopping malls, but besides the gambling, it doesn’t quite pack the debauchery that makes Vegas Sin City. We walked through the Venetian, the extremely impressive Galaxy, the MGM, and ended up at the Wynn for dinner. We gambled a little and contributed to the future development of the city. They play blackjack differently there. The dealer takes one card, then deals out to the table and doesn’t take the second card until everyone at the table has played out their hand. I’m not sure if this changes the odds or the playing strategy, but I just played it the way I know how to play. We started out with a nice little run before losing everything.
On Friday, on the way to The Peninsula for tea, we walked through the Ladies Market (which sold the same crap as every other market) and the Jade Market. We bought (and most likely overpaid) for some “jade” bracelets for Jenn. We shopped at the Shanghai Tang flagship store and did some damage. We liked a lot of stuff we saw, but had to limit ourselves because it’s an expensive store and they don’t negotiate like the other markets in town. We’re trying to do better about buying things when we travel, not to accumulate junk, but to have some mementos from our travels that we can have for the future.

After dinner, we walked through Lan Kwai Fong, the expat bar area, and Soho. We didn’t go in anywhere for a drink, but just took a stroll through the streets to observe. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but it was supremely hot and humid the entire time we were in Hong Kong, so anytime we went anywhere, we would become drenched with sweat quickly and found our faces, hands, and feet to be very swollen. It wasn’t all that comfortable. After a dim sum lunch on our last day, we walked around some of the shopping areas. The shopping in Hong Kong is crazy. There are so many high end stores. It’s hard to comprehend where all the money is coming from, but there is obviously no shortage of it. You can’t walk a mile without passing a Louis Vuitton or Gucci store. It’s pretty incredible. There are stores from everywhere in the world. They have it all. After dinner, we walked through the Temple Street Night Market, which sold more of the same crap we’d seen everywhere else. We weren’t impressed.

WIS: The Langham Place in Mongkok was really great. We were very lucky with the location, next to a big shopping mall and a metro stop, and also walking distance from a lot of restaurants and markets. The room was nice and the staff was extremely helpful in so many different ways. The price wasn’t cheap, but it was less expensive than many other hotels in Hong Kong. I would stay there again and would also definitely recommend it to others. They have a great pool on the roof, which we unfortunately didn’t take advantage of during the trip.

WAM: Every time I go to Hong Kong, I think more and more that it's a place I wouldn't mind living in at some point. There are a lot of people, which would present a problem for me, but I really like it as a city. It has people from everywhere, the food is good, it's easy to get around, and you're in a good location to travel in and around Asia. 

WTF: You can't walk anywhere in Hong Kong without getting dripped on from the balconies above the street. It's impossible to avoid as you walk through the city. It's really disgusting. I don't know what it is and I don't really want to know, but I do know that I do not like it. I may need to start walking around with an umbrella when I visit again.

See more pictures here.