Went on a 5 days Hong Kong odyssey early this week.....food hunting the principal objective!!!
HONG KONG, the Fragrant Harbour...fragrant??? the guy who gave it the name must have had a major nose problem or he was a Lotus Eater (Alfred Tennyson) or maybe in those days the huge consumption of jasmine tea could be the reason...whatever..it is definitely far, far from fragrant unless when you walk along the esplanade and pass by a "kwai lo" woman...provided she wears perfume......ha! ha!!...otherwise.....
Coming in to land at the international airport gives you some trepidation....looking out of the window (by the way ask for the window seat "A" so you get a good view of Hong Kong and coming back ask for "K" so you can see Disneyland....if you are lucky that is...with the weather...or more so... the "generosity" of the factories on the Chinese southern province..) you see not the sky line of Hong Kong but the grey and intimidating water of the sea and the thick blanket of dark grey haze blanketing the sky...so where is the sky where the sea??...hopefully you have a very competent captain pilotting or the autopilot works...trust SIA!...make you unconsciously cross your fingers!
Travelling to Hong Kong on a group of five is very very economical....food wise and transportation wise...take the taxi from the airport to the hotel in Tsimshatsui, it cost all in about HK$250....the new taxi fare benefits long distance travelling...after HK$84.60 (breakeven) your fare goes cheaper...meter starts at HK$18..(likewise from Tsimshatsui to airport the metered fare was HK$192.60...so much cheaper than taking the airport express or the bus...major hassle if you have luggages. Same goes for travelling in HK especially if you venture to the New Territories for lunch or dinner. Taxis in HK do not have very complicated fare structures or confusing surcharges. It is simple and plain...just pay meter fare! We met a very enterprising...aren't all Hong Kongers???..taxi driver by the name of Daniel Ko who gave us his name card (handphone number: 852 96556069)...for his taxi service...he's a Teochew so "Ka Ki Nang".. but in actual fact he probably is the head of a group of "taxi friends"...we checked out his service and it was excellent...beats our taxi call centres hands down...he has 4 handphones on his taxi's dashboard and answers the calls immediately..hands free of course..we were in Kowloon City..a very Teochew enclave plus lots of Teochew and Thai restaurants (we found Soon Kee Restaurant at 41 Nam Kok Road to be good), Teochew food specialities like preserved olives, little clams, wedding pastries (Wo Kee Loong at 7 Tak Ku Ling Road which is a very old traditional Teochew cake and pastry shop which I have patronised since the 80s) etc...and wanted to go to Sham Tseng...called him...no problem ...5 minutes later and his friend called back to announce his arrival at our pick up point...at Sham Tseng to Mongkok...8 minutes and another of his taxi friend arrived outside the restaurant...all the fares (metered) are about HK$100...so cheap if you are 5!!!...and of course we arranged for Daniel to pick us up for the journey to the airport...including tips it was HK$250...i.e HK$50 per person...cheapo man!!!
Hong Kong transportation is superby efficient needless to say and gives a variety of modes...at different prices and affordability...today the most popular for the locals is the tram...a flat fare of HK$2 per ride...albeit it inches away at 20 kph...and packed like sardines during peak hours...so are the MTR, buses and mini buses (where you are assured of a seat as it has a no standing rule)...except taxis which are waiting in long queues at taxi stands...drivers reading the newspapers waiting for a fare to hop in...too expensive for short journeys. The fun in taking public transport like buses and trams is you get to hear alot of gossips and the locals are very vocal....bluntly LOUD!.. in their conversations....so don't want to listen also have to, no choice (kaypoh mah)...free entertainment and it is better than listening to your iPod...anyway you won't be able to hear your music from the iPod!! You also get to hear a lot of colourful spoken Cantonese (language) in the buses and trams... and in all the local restaurants too...very common and comes out very naturally from the locals is the Cantonese explicit expletive.."throw your mother's smelly shoe"...or starting and ending a sentence with "throw your mother"...Ha! Ha! please translate yourself into Cantonese...sorry if you can't..maybe ask a more imaginative friend...from HK???...good luck and enjoy using it in HK..causes no offends if spoken with your friends..and practice makes perfect!!!...except switch it off when you are back home otherwise your mother or mother-in-law will disown you!!!...mother-in-law ok lah!
Today Hong Kongers are a very friendly lot and helpful too although there are still some black sheeps...why black sheep huh??..must be a racialist guy who came out with this label....like Darkie Toothpaste???...around especially in the service sector (one thing great is that they don't use China Chinese labour!! otherwise you will have to curse and say "throw your mother's smelly shoes")...like we were nearly conned by the hotel male receptionist when we were checking in...he asked if we would like to upgrade our rooms for an additional HK$200 per night plus taxes 10 percent surcharge..to a better room with internet and improved facilities et al...so we agreed but then changed our mind...we don't need room internet access...holiday what..then he quickly offered to only charge one room but auto upgrade the other free....hmmm...should have smelt a rat lah..(no rats found but the room's toilet bowl don't drain off)...and being dumb and jaded after the flight and journey to the hotel we again agreed...until I noticed that he was merely switching the rooms already allocated to me to my friends and vice versa. I questioned him and he said the rooms were preassigned by the computer (isn't that the case for all reservations made prior to arrival...???) and when we check in he has to manually downgrade unless we agree to pay the surcharge...what bullshit...not first time checking into a HK hotel...and so I questioned him on the practice and got agitated with his answers which were rubbish...so wanted to see the duty manager...he immediately changed track and said since he has wasted our time he will leave it as per allocated...bullshitter..otherwise we will be HK$1,760 poorer and foolisher...hey this is at Holiday Inn Golden Mile in Tsimshatsui leh not some shoddy shaddy hotel in Kowloon and the audacity of the guy....I am sure the hotel management must have instructed him to do so...wonder how many guests at that hotel were and will be conned into this unprofessional gimmick...so be careful with such gimmicks/tricks when you check in...I wonder is this a common practice amongst hotels in HK now that time is bad..I hope the HKTA is aware and puts a stop otherwise HK's reputation goes into the gutter.
We also experienced another attempted "cheating" at a local restaurant...the bill amount was too large for the food we consumed...wanton noddles, mixed dumpling soups and milk teas and holicks....came upto HK$245...we asked the lady to itemise and she refused and so we did it ourselves and it came to HK$211....she backed off and said her mind is not a calculator...and another bullshitter..probably they eat too much of beef and beef tendons noddles..hey, we know you know that we are foreigners but don't try to cheat us...like everyone else times are bad and every cents also count...heard this is becoming also a common practice at local restaurants...so don't rush for the bill but check the items and price...if it is lump sum ask for it to be itemised...kena con otherwise...fragrant harbour indeed!!..."throw your mother" lah!!
Hong Kong is acknowledged as a glutton's paradise and if eating is your passion....just the place for you...but do get out of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon...go into the New Territories especially the old villages where unfortunately modernisation had won the day and now new highrise spouts into the sky but old restaurants still exist...like in Sham Tseng where the HK roast goose originated and the original restaurants (Chan Kee now on the main Road and Yung Kee) are still there, patronised largely by locals and prices are much cheaper than that at Central...Sai Kong...seafood...(prefers Cheun Kee Seafood....the inner one along the sea front) prices are cheaper than Lei Yue Mun and Lama Island...however a 5 day trip is definitely not enough for food hunting (we didn't have much time for shopping...but we did go into the wet markets...should not miss making such a trip (do go to the one either in Wanchai, Causewaybay or Kowloon City, which has more Teochew stuffs...very interesting and totally different from ours and also the back lane markets (like pasar malam but during the day) which are all very colourful...as we were hopping from one eatery to another at distances apart) and to satisfy your cravings...and desserts are oh! so heavenly!..the varieties...wow...every dessert also want to try but...wide eyes ,tight stomach as the Cantonese saying...popular outlets are the Huai Lau Shans...for birdnest in young coconuts and bidnest with snow frog's...you know what lah huh don't ask so much...and Honeymoon Dessert....love their chinchow with red beans soup with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and walnut cream soup....etc...hmmmm....luckily all the walking burnt out all the calories...5 meals a day.....arrrh I don't want to go to our hawkers for at least a week!!!.....actually I am already hungry so have to caoi...