Had another decent night's sleep. The room and bed here are quite comfortable.
The Pisces sails through Victoria Harbour
Today we minimised our breakfast somewhat, reasons for which will become apparent later.
Another late start - it was nearly 11am by the time we left the hotel.
We trained it over to Admiralty since we thought it would be fun to take a tram out to Causeway Bay and Victoria Park. Well the jostling of people on the tram cured us of that idea. It was a bit too crowded to be all that enjoyable.
Hong Kong trams are so skinny they look like you've stretched the photos of them
And they are super packed on the inside
At Victoria Park we had a bit of a wander through the park. Stu found some old men who were playing Chinese chess and stopped to watch them. I watched a guy zooming his boat around the model boat pool. After a bit more of a wander we headed back to the station, because Stu wasn't feeling up to braving the trams again.
Model boat zipping around the pond in Victoria Park
Two old Chinese guys playing Chinese Chess
Stray cat
Sculptures in Victoria Park
Laughing Corner
Canons in Victoria Park
Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter
Pebble Walking Trail. Here you can take your shoes off and walk in pebbles
I was going to find the Mid Levels escalator but we were running out of time. And Stu was fading. So we found him a Starbucks to recharge his batteries.
Then we headed up to the L Place for our Hong Kong Foodie Tour! This is something Stu had found on Trip Advisor, and we booked the other night. It's a walking/tasting tour of some local eateries around Central and Sheung Wan.
On the tour were us, a couple from Brisbane, sisters from Melbourne, a couple from Edinburgh, a couple from San Francisco, and a dude from Baltimore.
The first stop was Tsim Chai Kee Noodle where we had some nice prawn wonton noodles. Stu really liked these. I'm indifferent to boiled stuff so they weren't a standout for me.
The sweetie and me in Tsim Chai Kee Noodle shop, Queen's Road Central
Wontons in Tsim Chai Kee Noodle shop
A model of the original Tsim Chai Kee Noodle stall
The second stop was Lung Kee Restaurant which is a roast meat specialty store where they have big ovens that roast their own meats (and sell it to nearby restaurants). We had some very nice barbeque pork with rice. Lovely and succulent, better than bbq pork I've had in Australia.
Pig!
BBQ Pork and Rice in Lung Kee Restaurant, Gage Street Central. This was delicious.
Suckling Pig in Lung Kee Restaurant
Chopping up meat in Lung Kee Restaurant
Ducks and chickens in Lung Kee Restaurant
Fresh seafood in markets on Gage Street
Fresh vegetables in markets on Peel Street
Shark fin and other dried seafood in a store on Peel Street
Birds nests in the same store
The third stop was at Kung Lee Sugar Cane Juice which is a place which presses sugar cane in store to get a very sweet, very refreshing juice. It tastes a lot like the "raw" sugar we get in Australia. Liked this a lot. But if you weren't a sweet tooth you'd probably think it was too sweet.
Fresh sugar cane juice in Kung Lee Sugar Cane Juice store, Hollywood Road, Central
Sugar cane goes in ..
Sugar cane comes out ..
The fourth stop was at Tea Studio. This was run by a guy who'd actually studied tea formally for four years! We had some green tea to start with. I actually found it quite bitter, but other people said it was pretty good. But I'm not a tea drinker, so I don't know much really. We got to smell seven kinds of tea leaves - green tea, white tea, yellow tea, oolong tea, "red" tea (our black tea), black tea, and jasmine tea. Then we had a go at pouring our own red tea using Chinese tea pots. It was all a bit of fun, and I liked this red tea better than the green tea.
Temple on Po Yan Street, next to the Tea Studio
Tea in the Tea Studio
Stu pouring out tea
The tea we poured
The fifth stop was Dim Sum Square. We got to try four dim sum dishes here. There were some shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, some very nice spring rolls and the show stopper - crispy bbq pork buns. I love steamed pork buns but this took them to a whole new level. Light, sugary, and oh so tasty. I managed to get a second one, and would have ordered another plate of them if I could have. I want to go back tomorrow just to get some more!! Apparently they've been made famous by a dude in Mong Kok who has a dim sum restaurant that'd been awarded a Michelin star, and so now is super popular. I tried to find places in Australia that have them, but no luck from Mr Google. We're hoping to go back to this area tomorrow and I want to get more..... MOAR!!!!
I think these were the pork dumplings
And these the shrimp dumplings
Spring rolls
Crispy BBQ pork buns
The last stop was Hei Lee Cake Shop which a bakery that bakes their own pastries, so everything there is fresh. We had an egg tart which was still warm and very nice.
Super fresh egg tarts
So all in all a wonderful afternoon of sampling the local food. It rained for quite a bit of the afternoon, but to be honest it was kind of nice because it cooled everything down somewhat after the oppressive heat and humidity we've suffered since we've been here. And it was never very heavy rain anyway. Actually we've been kind of lucky with the weather. Sort of. We had a couple of fabulous days at the start, but then days they said it would rain it was just a bit overcast. This is the first day it's really rained. Although at this time of year rain is pretty rare so maybe we've been unlucky* ..? *shrug*
The tour was also good because it gave little snippets of information about the local area and history and culture - the sorts of things you don't really pay attention to as just a tourist walking around. So that was really good too.
After the tour finished we headed back to the station. It was peak hour by now, and at the entrances to the trains at the bottom of the escalators they had MTR staff there with STOP signs telling people not to get on the trains when they were ready to leave - otherwise they'd *never* be able to close the doors due to the constant stream of people. It was all a bit challenging, especially for the sweetie, but we survived and made it back to the hotel to collapse.
Symphony of lights from our hotel window
Chilled out in our room (aka froze from the air conditioning) and watched the Symphony of Lights again.
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