Things to do in HK: Top 6

I want to give a list of top 5, but end up with one of top 6.

So here’s my take of the top 6 things to do for a visitor to Hong Kong:

 1.Take Star Ferry between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui to see Victoria Harbour.

I love this ferry ride. It is part of my and many Hong Kong people’s memory about Hong Kong. The current Star Ferry pier in Central is not original, though. When the original was demolished to make way for reclamation, there was a spate of protests and people flocked to the pier on the last day it was in use.

2. Go hiking.
Dragon Back on Hong Kong Island is famous, but Sai Kung has probably the territory’s most beautiful natural scenery. You will never disappoint if you hike any route in Sai Kung.

3. Visit Hong Kong Museum of Art or Hong Kong Museum of History.
I think both museums are good, especially for those wanting to inject some culture and history into their visit. This post of mine has comment on Hong Kong Museum of Art.

4. Yum Cha.
Hong Kong probably has the world’s best dim sum restaurants. Don’t miss it. The Maxim’s Palace in City Hall (2/F, Low Block), Central is a good place for dim sum. How about this route? Have dim sum in City Hall, head to the Star Ferry in Central, take the ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui, and then visit Hong Kong Arts Musuem.

5. Visit one of the outlying islands – Chueng Chau, Lama Island, Mui Wo, Ping Chau, etc.
Try to go on weekdays to avoid the crowd – the locals like going to the islands during the weekend. The fares are lower too.

6. Take the tram.
The tram on Hong Kong Island is over 100-year old, the most historic and also the cheapest transportation in HK. For HK$2.3 (less than US$0.5), you can ride across the island, from east to west, or vice versa, having a glimpse of the life and landscape of the city. You can try going east, starting from Kenney Town, which is an old district, and ride through districts like Sheung Wan (where the dry seafood street is), Central, the business district, and Causeway Bay, the shopping district.

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What's for Fall

With the weather turning colder, it's time to throw the sweaters and jackets out from the closet. Putting them on for the sake of keeping myself warm, instead of for the purpose of just being yeng (translate: cool).

Since I can't raid my bro's closet from here in Hong Kong, I got my own plaid shirt in the beginning of the year. Boyfriend shirts always come in handy whenever I want to pull off a lazy look.

Shirt: Topshop

Sweater: Uniqlo

Jeans: Bandung

Flats: Steve Madden

Watch: Casio

Bag: Pull & Bear

Just ignore my slightly awkward pose. So for fall, to jazz up a boyfriend shirt, I chose to add on a sweater. That pretty much explains the increasing number of sweaters in my closet.

3 ways of playing around with the sweater. As for the third one, let me just illustrate it to you guys in a funny way.

I WONDER IF MY PARENTS EVER LOOK AT ME AND THINK, “OH MY GOD, MY CHILD IS RETARDED" - Tumblr

Judging from this picture, sometimes I do question myself too. TEEHEE.

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Sun makes me happy

Woke up at 7am this morning, feeling so pumped despite not having my 8-hour sleep. I am feeling so excited and happy and so I decided to spread the love.

Good morning everyone! Have a great weekend ahead. I'll be going for more food hunting in a while and a proper food post will be up today. *fingers crossed*

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Broken (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

Don't bother to look for cracks in -- or broken bits from -- the statues and figurines in the above photos taken at Kamakura's Hasedera Temple (the top most one) and Kawagoe's Kitain Temple (the bottom two). Even if you do find them though, they're not the point of this Photo Hunt entry. Rather, it's the broken hearts and dreams that are behind each and every one of the smaller figurines in the
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Orchard Garden Cafe & Restaurant and Ocio Waffle

I think it's a semester thing for me to spend some time alone in Mongkok. This post was from last semester, exploring places for food on my own. Yesterday, I almost decided to go ahead with Pepper Lunch, to save the trouble of finding new places to explore. Then, it hit me, since I'm actually spending time to go out, why not go for a new place! Staying in on campus too much has killed my enthusiasm to try out new things.

So as usual, did it the Hong Kong way. I searched Open Rice and right way knew that I had to go to this restaurant, Orchard Garden.

The interior of the restaurant was different from the rest, the concept was clear white and neat. Similar to the Gardens and Full House back home, that's why I had to go there.

Orchard Garden is situated right outside Mongkok MTR Station's D3 exit, easily spotted, not much hunting skills required.

 I went there for an early dinner, around 5 something. The Tea Set Menu was still available, to save some moolah and picked a main course from it. I vaguely remember someone telling me that, one way to save money around Hong Kong is to eat early, settle with the restaurant's tea set menu.

A main course or a dessert plus drinks for only $58, excluding a 10% service charge.

Linguine Napolitana with Smocked Duck Breast

A place worth trying, food was great. I ended up ordering a dessert since I really enjoyed chilling at the restaurant. The crowd wasn't too noisy at that time and also the waiters weren't that free to drop you the hint for you to leave.

They had a variety of parfait, crepes and waffles. I opted for the Baked Crepe with Banana and Mango, wasn't that satisfied with it. So I guess next time I'll just stick to trying their main course.

The dessert at Orchard Garden wasn't plan since I already had my heart set for waffles. Ocio Waffle was the pick of the night, just nearby Tim Ho Wan.

It can be really different experience walking past the same streets in the morning and at night. All these time, I've been walking along Dundas Street in the morning only for Tim Ho Wan. This time at night, there were crowds and more food stalls opened along it and I actually had to take some time to convince myself that I am walking towards the right direction.

Original Waffle at $18. You can either opt to take away or stand there eating. To make it more convenient, the waffle is already cut into squares for you. The crispy part of the waffle is just nice as it does not hurt the top part of our mouth, the palate. I bet that is one of the #firstworldproblems that everyone hates.

Totally going back there some time to try out their own Ocio Waffle, made from Belgium chocolate with oreo. *mmhm* Oh, and while I was standing and eating I read through some of the articles posted outside as well. Apparently, they don't use butter as one of the ingredients for their waffle batter, so that people won't get too sick of it if they happen to have too much.


Ocio Waffle
Shop D, G/F, Yan On Building, 
1 Kwong Wa Street, Mong Kok.

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c.1890 View of Naval Yard, harbour & TST from Scandal Point

Where: As the title notes, we're up on Scandal Point, roughly where the Queensway Government Offices are today.

Here's a map from 1880 that shows the area, with Scandal Point at the centre of the map:

The two buildings in the photo's foreground are on the site of the Canton Bazaar. As its name suggests, the Canton Bazaar was initially a site for commercial use. But in this photo we see what look like two new buildings, stillwith construction material around them. I believe that between 1880, and the time this photo was taken, the site was re-developed for military use.

Just behind those two buildings is Queen's Road (today's Queensway), then the buildings north of that are the Naval Yard.

Who: Not many people to be seen, but some signs of life on the two large buildings with the verandahs. The left building has a few people going about their chores, and though we can't see anyone on the right building, but there must have been a keen gardener around based on the number of potted plants:

What: A beach! It shows just how shallow the water was along this part of the coast:

Out in the harbour are several ships flying the Royal Navy's White Ensign:

This is one of their obsolete ships, no longer fit for fighting, but recycled for other use.

The area in the main photo between Queen's Road and the shore was the full extent of the Naval Yard at the time. As their facilities on land were limited, they'd anchor old ships like this one in the harbour, convert them into 'hulks', and use them for accomodation, hospital space, administration offices, etc.

When: After 1884, as over in TST we can see the Marine Police Headquarters building :

We can also see several of the godowns along the wharf, including the one with the distinctive big arch. Does anyone have a date for when that was finished?

Then above the godowns we can see a building in the Whitfield barracks area, though most of the accomodation for troops is still tents.

I'll guess c.1890 as the date, but any better suggestions welcome.

Regards, David

Date picture taken (to nearest decade for older photos): 

1890

Places shown in this photo: 

Former Marine Police HQ

Naval Yard (1st site)

Reference: 

A076

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Butao Ramen, Central

As I've blogged about here, yesterday was such a beautiful day and I am glad that I've actually had solid plans for it, instead of just laying on the bed.

Butao was the highlight of the day. An authentic ramen shop manned by a Japanese, right in the heart of Central.

This was only one side of the queue, there was also another line from the place that I was standing. We went 10 minutes after 11am and had to wait for an hour or so for the legendary ramen.

There are 4 different flavours to choose from, Butao King, Black King, Red King and the Green King. Don't ask me why they didn't name Butao King as the Yellow King. All 6 of us went with the Black King, after listening to Xiang Hui's recommendation.

Our order sheet. As you can see, you can basically customize your own bowl of ramen. What's missing on the picture is the extra ingredients that you want to add. I had seaweed added for my ramen.

All the extra ingredients come in a separate bowl or plate. Clayton's tree mushroom and my huge sheet of seaweed.

Complementary small side dishes available. You can dig in as much as you want!

A bowl full of happiness! All I can say that the waiting time is totally justified for this bowl of ramen. Since everyone went with the same flavour, I will have to come back again to try out the others.


Butao
11-12 Wo On Lane, Central.
Mon-Sat 11am-3pm & 6pm-9pm.

Directions: Take the MTR to Central station and exit at Exit D1. When you see Coach, walk straight up the road. At the third junction on your right hand side, you'll see the sign, Wo On Lane.

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Double Au + a lot of puking on the trail

It was our last official team training before Trailwalker 2011. And it involved 53km of trail running (stages 3 to 8 of the Mac trail) – The Double Au(ch). We got off the bus at Pak Tam Au. The civilized ones (Steven and Jinhwa) decided to go to the proper toilet at the start of [...]
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Yim Tin Tsai: an island village

Yim Tin Tsai pier

Yim Tin Tsai in Sai Kung is a village on a small island. It is about 15 minute boat ride from the pier of Sai Kung.

The village was originally built by a family surnamed Chen from Guangdong province who moved to the island in the 1740s. Its descendents made a living by operating a salt farm and sold salt to Sai Kung and neighboring areas. As mainland China and Vietnam exported cheaper salt to Hong Kong in the early 20th century, Hong Kong’s salt industry went into decline. So was the salt farm in Yim Tin Tsai, which was converted into land for agriculture in the 1930s and then into fishing ponds in the 1960s.

Due to limited farming land to sustain the village community and better work opportunity outside, villagers started to leave the island with some settling down overseas, particularly in  the UK. By 1990s, the village was no more inhabited. Today, the abandoned fishing ponds where the salt farm once stood remain.

The island is very tranquil, reflecting a sense of being deserted. Maybe it is feeling better that way? But the descendants of the villagers are determined not to let it be. They are trying to revive the island as a hiking and eco-tourism destination. Nowadays, there is regular boat service between Sai Kung pier and Yim Tin Tsai on weekends and public holidays to bring in visitors.

There is a leisure kiosk which was the village community centre near the pier. The kiosk sells Hakka sweet, a local delicacy, which comes in four different flavors, including pumpkin and almond. Don’t miss them.

It takes less than one hour to tour around the whole island. Somewhere along the route stands a pavilion from which you can have a bird’s view of the island and its surroundings.One of the main sightseeing points is St Jospeh’s Chapel. The missionaries came to the island in the late 19th century and since then the whole village was converted into a Christian village. The chapel built in 1890, after renovation, still stands today.

The boat ferrying between Sai Kung pier and Yim Tin Tsai pier:Here’s the boat service schedule:Here’s the island sightseeing map:

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Tsim Sha Tsui tonight

Tsim Sha Tsui tonight was in full action. A procession of 100 people was marching along Tsim Sha Tsui’s Canton Road, which is lined with luxury shops, towards the Star Ferry pier. They had marched from Mongkok, in protest against the corporate greed of the local property developers and against the government for collusion with them. From the Star Ferry pier, they would take ferry to Central to support the “Occupy Central” campaign stationed at the ground floor of HSBC headquarters.

As tomorrow is Halloween day, some protesters wore mockery masks and costumes, and others carried caricatures.

Not far from the pier, two stages were set up for outdoor concerts organized by the cultural arm of Taiwan Government’s Office in Hong Kong. One stage was set against the Victoria Harbour, beautiful.

concert outside the Cultural Centre

Hong Kong rarely has free outdoor concerts. When there is one, it is funded by Taiwanese government. Isn’t it a mockery of Hong Kong Government?

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iReport: Dramatic photos of Hong Kong

We asked for your best images of Hong Kong and you came through in flying colors

CNNGo

iReporter Melvin Francisquini reckons that taking good photos requires a lot of patience. He shares these tips on taking great snapshots of Hong Kong:

"My tip is to not be quick with the click," says Francisquini who is an American currently living in Japan. "Enjoy the city and wait for the 'Aha!' moment you have inside your stomach."

Francisquini likes images of imposing icons, like a grand old junk or the IFC building, and advises avoiding crowds, "because they are inevitably going to ruin your shot." He also stays away from town on busy weekends.

Also on CNNGo: How to take an iconic Hong Kong photo

read more

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