This year, we had the same March break as our friends Patrick and Cassie, so we decided to meet up in Hong Kong for a week. It’s a city we’d been interested in for a while, and is an easy direct flight from Jakarta, so it seemed perfect. For our first day there we started off exploring the city and trying out the famous pineapple buns and milk tea at a cha chaan teng, an old fashioned diner. The cha chaan teng right down the street from where we were staying turned into a daily ritual for us. In addition, across the street from the diner was a Michelin star-rated pan-fried bun place! We didn’t get those every day, but did stop by a couple of times to sample their deliciousness. There is so much good food in HK!
Also that day Patrick wanted to visit the oldest woman still hand carving mahjong tiles. She runs her tiny shop a short metro ride away from our AirBnB in Tsim Sha Tsui. It was so cool to see the hand-run drill she uses to cut the tiles.
Our time in Hong Kong predominately featured good food. Also on this first day we sampled tofu pudding at the Kung Wo Beancurd Factory, a family-run business that makes delicious fresh tofu. I loved the pudding and also had a yummy soy milk.
In the afternoon, we decided to head across the harbor to Hong Kong Island. The views from the ferry were beautiful! When we got across, we wandered around and ended up on the Ding Ding, a narrow double-decker tram that has been rattling along Hong Kong Island since 1904. The Ding Ding was a fun way to see some of the city. It’s amazingly tall and thin!
Like many cities, Hong Kong has a thriving street art scene. We loved seeing all the art, both large and small, while we wandered.
We were delighted when we spied these little figures hanging out on Hong Kong Island.
In addition to sampling street food, we also decided to splurge on a fancy dinner at Spring Moon, the dim sum restaurant in the Peninsula hotel. We had an amazing dinner with top notch service. I don’t know when I’ve been in a place with such helpful servers. We were wowed by the meal!
Our second morning we wanted to explore a different part of the city, so we headed out on the MTR to Sha Tin. A short walk from the station is the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery. The wooded path up to the monastery is lined with buddha statues. Each one is unique! It was a gaudy and fun uphill on the quiet hillside.
One of Hong Kong’s famous attractions is the nightly light show. It’s easy to buy tickets to get on a boat for the evening where you can enjoy it from the water. Our Star Ferry boat had a great view of all the lights on both sides of the harbor!
With a full week to explore, we got to check out some of the less-traveled parts of the city. One of us noticed the Kowloon Walled City Park on the map, so we decided to go check it out. It turned out to be a really cool stop. Up until the 1990s, the Kowloon Walled City was an incredibly densly-populated section of high rises. They were not built up to code, and were kind of leaning on each other, and didn’t have sufficient sanitation and water, but were home to thousands of residents. Inside the city there were small factories for things like fish balls (for a time most of the fish balls in Hong Kong were supplied from factories there) among the smaller businesses and people’s homes. For decades administrators tried to have it torn down and the residents relocated, but conflict between the British and Chinese governments meant that it didn’t come down until 1993. After demolishing it, the city built a peaceful park in its place. The park is lovely, and the information about Kowloon Walled City that remains there was fascinating.
Our friends have become avid birders, so we spent part of the time at the park enjoying the bird life. We identified a few, including the cute red-whiskered bulbul.
After enjoying the park in the morning, we headed back to Hong Kong island in the afternoon for a Hong Kong Foodie tour of the Central district and Sheung Wan. The tour was a fun way to get to know that part of the city a bit better, and we sampled some traditional Cantonese fare like wonton noodles, roast meat, sugar cane juice, and preserved fruits.
After the food tour we wandered around the neighborhood a bit more and came upon the Tai Kwun Prison Yard. This former prison has been turned into an arts center with bars and restaurants. It was a fun place to explore and enjoy a drink at the speakeasy.
Another of the great things about Hong Kong is the amount of green space, and how easy it is to get away from the city to enjoy nature. One morning we took the ferry over to Lamma Island. We started out with a fish lunch in a village on one side of the island, and then we walked across the island on a paved trail. It’s was a great way to spend the afternoon!
After enjoying a craft beer at the end of the Lamma Island trail, we decided to finish the day with a trip to the races. Every Wednesday, the Happy Valley Racecourse has an evening of horse racing. Patrick loves all things associated with gambling, so the horse races were a perfect fit. And, with the minimum bet at around $2.50, it was a pretty cheap evening’s entertainment. We even won a few! We spent the night right on the edge of the track, soaking up the excitement of the crowd.
For our last day, Adam, Cassie, and I decided to hike the Dragon’s Back trail, one of the most popular walks on Hong Kong Island. We had a lovely day for the walk. It was clear but a bit cloudy, so less hot than it might have been otherwise, but not cool enough to keep us from serious sweating, as you can see in the photos below. The views from the path were stunning though!
