Last weekend, Gavin and I went to Hong Kong for a 4-day trip! This was my first trip back there since... 1987-ish. My memories from back then are pretty fuzzy, so I was looking forward to this new opportunity to re-experience Hong Kong. The weather was in the 80s Fahrenheit and a little bit humid with a few sprinkles here and there. But it was a welcome change from Seoul, which was getting a little bit nippy last week (and is now freezing!).
I took a ton of pictures. Click here to take a look.
On our first day in Hong Kong, we took a short train ride into the New Territories (the northernmost part of Hong Kong). It's a large area with quite a bit of countryside yet, but there are forests of huge apartment blocks cropping up. Our destination in the New Territories was a heritage trail that I had found a map of online. Along the trail were several ancient (16th-18th century) walled villages and a few temples. They're old, but still bustling with activity and sitting side by side with brand new apartment buildings. In the evening, we met my Aunt Winnie, who we hadn't seen for 4 years, and my cousin Bernie, who now has an adorable 4 year old girl and brand new 5-month old baby! We had dinner at Yugamama in Causeway Bay. The crispy suckling pig was really really excellent...
On Sunday, we had breakfast with Aunt Winnie and her friend Helen before heading to Hong Kong Island for the obligatory trip to Victoria Peak. Of course, since we are in Hong Kong, there is a shopping mall at the top of the Peak. I have distinct memories of walking all the way up with my dad, brother and sister, when I was 13, in the midst of sweltering summer heat. So this time we took the tram. At the top, we had some Thai-influenced dim sum in a new (nominally) Thai restaurant called L16. The day was spent wandering around various neighborhoods on Hong Kong Island and wearing our legs out going up and down those endless stairs.... In the evening, we met Aunt Winnie and Aunt Helen again, for seafood in Aberdeen Harbour. Jumbo Floating Restaurant is indeed jumbo, but whether it's floating is doubtful. I think it's built on a poured concrete foundation. Anyway, you have to take a little ferry boat to get to it, and it is quite a spectacle with all the lights lit up in the evening. The seafood was very good, and Gavin and I even had our first taste of snake soup. I hear that Cantonese are among the very few that venture to include snake in their cuisine.
Monday, we went to Macau (澳門). Aunt Helen was nice enough to arrange the ferry tickets for us (thanks, Helen 姨姨 !) and we sat in "Super Class," meaning we got to board and disembark first, AND we got cushy seats. Once in Macau, we took a cab past the clattering construction of new Las Vegas-style casinos, to the old part of town. Macau was Portugal's trading outpost in the East from the 1500s until the 1800s, and a Portuguese colony from 1887 until 1999, when it was returned to China. Although I don't think there are many Portuguese left in these parts, Portuguese is still an official language (along with Chinese). The architecture ranges from colonial (Portuguese government buildings, 16th-century churches) to dated (narrow falling-down tenement houses built in the 1950s), and the overall mood (at least away from the casinos) is much calmer than bustling Hong Kong. We had a very nice time here.
Tuesday was our last day in Hong Kong (our flight back to Korea was scheduled to take off at 12:30am Wednesday), so we did a little shopping in Kowloon. Among our stops: a brief visit to my uncle's antique watch shop (Golden Time Antique Watches) in Mongkok (my uncle wasn't there, but my cousin Paul's wife May greeted us), a look at the corner of Shanghai Street and Austin Road where my mom used to live, a walk through Kowloon Park, countless shopping plazas, and lots of drinking coffee while resting our weary feet. As the sun set, we took a ferry to Cheung Chau for dinner and had great seafood while sitting outdoors with a light breeze wafting off the water. The evening air on the island had a calm, relaxed feel, punctuated with the laughter of little kids on bikes, pedaling pell-mell homeward for dinner. We were sorry to leave so soon.
