HONG KONG Day 3: HK Island - Sheung Wan, Causeway Bay, Stanley & Lamma Island

We started off the morning with some char leung and the most delicious congee - century egg and pork, my favourite. It was at a non-descript coffeeshop on Soy St, near our hotel. It's quite easy to miss. But look out for the owner - a burly man with sideburns ala Elvis. He asked if we were Singaporean. Sure, we don't speak like they do. But Singaporean? Ahem.

Anyway, this place didn't have a Romanised Chinese name, so I can't give you the name of the shop. But it had a big stainless steel display case of big yau char koays. The kitchen's up front. So patrons could watch the cook prepare the char leungs - yau char koays wrapped in cheung fun or flat rice noodles. These came in a lovely dark sauce. Tasty on its own or dipped in the porridge.

After breakfast, we took the MTR to Central, walked around the Landmark shopping centre (super swanky - with HUGE boutiques like Dior, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and so on), window gazing at things I knew I would never buy even if I could afford it. Nuts.

Next, it was a tram ride to Sheung Wan. It's the dried seafood and birds nest capital of Hong Kong, if not the world. Every other shop had these exotic stuff displayed proudly. The whole area had the dusty smell of Chinese herbs. The charm of this place was the fact that everything here was so authentically Chinese.

We walked along this area back towards Central and along the way, discovered Peel St and Gage St. Peel St was up a steep incline. Quite a trudge up I must say. There were stalls selling knick knacks, but what attracted me was this shop selling freshly made noodles or dried noodles. It's not a place you could eat in, but you could buy the noodles to take home. There were a variety of noodles. And the owner was really friendly.

When we got to Gage St, it had a marketplace atmosphere. Fresh greens (oooh, HK Kai Lan), butchers, seafood and then we saw a row of restaurants. There was a roast meat and noodle shop Anthony Bourdain ate in when he visited Hong Kong (oh, big deal :P). Opposite that shop was where I had the best wantan noodles I'd ever eaten.

The wantans were the size of pingpong balls. At HKD22 a bowl, it was worth every dollar. Six huge wantans on a heap of bouncy noodles! I had the dry version while ST had the soupy 'sui gow' (dumplings in soup). Nyummm... After that we hopped next door to a place that served typical 'char chan teng' fare like french toast HK style and silky milk tea. We had the toast, I ordered the silky tea, ST ordered the ginger lemon drink, and I tried an interesting salty lemon and sprite concoction as well.

Next stop. Causeway Bay. It's a nice little area which reminded me of St Kilda in Melbourne. We didn't go to all the shopping malls because we were kinda suffering from shopping fatigue by then. However, we did make a stop at Esprit, and I bought a pair of jeans at a pretty good price.

From Causeway Bay, we took a cab to Stanley, a coastal area at the most southern tip of Hong Kong. Along the way we went by Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay. All those waterfront aparments and villas... whoa... they looked pretty during the day and even better at night. It felt like I was in another country. So quiet. So "the-filthy-rich-are-different".

Anyway, it was 6pm when we got to Stanley Market. But they were starting to close at 6.30pm. I did manage to buy a nice embroidered satin jacket for my mom. Everything else looked too expensive or ordinary. If only the place wasn't half closed when we arrived or there could've been more interesting stuff. They seemed to have nicer things compared to the markets on Temple Street or Ladies Market.

It was getting dark and the cool sea breeze was refreshing. So we enjoyed the breeze with a cup of coffee while waiting for a double decker bus to Central (Bus 6 or 603). The ride gave me motion sickness. Ugh.

When we got back to the city, we took a short walk to Queen's Pier. This was where many scenes from TVB Hong Kong Chinese soap series were filmed. We waited for a ferry which would take us to Lamma Island for seafood.

The ferry ride (free if you're eating at Rainbow Restaurant) was quite nice, albeit bumpy, taking us to the northwest side of HK island, then down to Lamma Island where we docked at Sok Kwu Wan. We went to the restaurant and tanks of swmming sea creatures of all shapes, sizes and colours greeted us. Fish. Prawns. Mantis prawns. Lobsters. Abalone. Sea snails. Clams. Scallops. Bamboo clams.

Our humble wallets decided to pick the following menu:
Spotted Garoupa steamed to perfection with just enough soy sauce to complement it.


Salt and pepper squid. So crispy and juicy.


Steamed mantis prawn. Huge, sweet and delicate tasting.


And just moments before, that creature was here, swimming without a care in the world:


The HK Kai Lan was a disappointment though. Old, fibrous and not quite palatable.

When the bill came, we were kinda shocked. It was quite astronomical (HKD576) considering we had so little. Maybe the fish and mantis prawn were expensive (charged by weight). The fact that they didn't give us an itemised bill made it rather fishy (no pun intended). But we were in a hurry to take the last ferry back or we'd be stranded, so we couldn't contest the bill. My advice is, don't go for dinner here too late. That way you don't have to rush like we did.

We rushed for the ferry at the same jetty we arrived on. But there was only a yacht in its place. Did we miss it? Crap!

Then a white guy getting on the yacht asked if we'd like to hop onboard. Perhaps he did so in jest. In panic and confusion, we almost did, until we realised our ferry was at another jetty. WHAT WERE WE THINKING? A YACHT! 3 days in Hong Kong and we're already dreaming of the high life? Wake up wake up wake up. Haha!

The ferry finally took us back to TST where we hopped on to a train and went back to our hotel. DEAD tired. Gosh, we trudged across the whole HK island today. From west to east. Then south. And then to an outlying island. Wah, like Amazing Race.

<< PREVIOUS
>> NEXT: TST, Yau Ma Tei, Mongkok & The Wedding.