Fred In Hong Kong

Sat 12th May - My Last Day and Flight Home

2007-05-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday is my last day – I leave on the 11.40pm plane so I have a full day to enjoy and savour Hong Kong before I leave. I check in at Kowloon Airport Express in town check in and get away with being 11kg over my baggage limit and exceeding the BA 1 item only of hold luggage rule – I think at 8:30am the check in counter staff just couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of fining me and the ensuing argument.

Kowloon Airport Express Check-In

The quirky Okashi Land stall that is found all over Hong Kong

The building in the centre is the Salisbury where I stayed for most of the week -

I was meeting Philip and his family at their flat in the Belchers at 11:30am so decided to go on a bit of a homemade Star Ferry tour – Tsim Tsa Tui to Wanchai – Wanchai to Hung Hom – Hung Hom to Central - what a great and cheap to see the waterfront views of Hong Kong and Kowloon.

The rest of the day was spent with Philip and family and Shirley joined us for lunch at the infamous Queens Club, where Hong Kong director Wong Ka Wai shot parts of his movie “In the Mood for Love” (one of my all time favourite films).

The signature Baked Pork Chop Rice dish - taste better than it looks

Philip and daughter Cha Cha messing around with his ever present video camera

Shirley and I spent a few hours in the lounge of the Excelsior Hotel 1st floor coffee lounge before bidding our goodbyes. I also had one of their Lord Stow Bakery Macau style Egg Tarts. – so good.

I then went back to Philips flat for the afternoon and spent time there with him and the kids and then we went to the Jockey Club, Club House for our tea. I had two Hong Kong classics – Wonton Noodle Soup and Stewed Beef Brisket and Tendon with Rice – both done to perfection.

Jeremy, Charlotte and Cha Cha waiting to go to the Jockey Club

Wonton Noodle Soup

Stewed Brisket with Tendon

So it is off to the airport and back home – just a few piccies from the journey back including BA’s attempt at a Chinese breakfast in their version of economy class – two sui mai,. One har gow, one piece of char sui cheung fun and a piece of lor bak go. So it all comes to and end as I arrive back where I started – Manchester Airport, Terminal 3.

England's Green and Pleasent Land..............

Friday 11th May - More Jordan Causeway Bay Wanchai and Mori Hachi Yakiniku

2007-05-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well Friday morning dawns and it is penultimate day in Hong Kong. I head for Jordan to do some last minute shopping and to sample some more traditional breakfast food and a Café de Coral fusion breakfast set.

Here is a piccie of a standard MTR scene

First up it was back to my favourite 24/7 Congee shop for a spot of sliced fish juk and one of their freshly cooked doughsticks – sorry but in my eagerness to eat my breakfast I forgot to take any piccies. However, walking up Nathan Rd I had spotted a traditional street food vendor squashed into the tiniest of spaces.

She and her colleague were doing a roaring trade in fried spam and omelette sandwiches, along with the usual selection of fish balls, beef ball and sui mai plus tubs of plain cheung fun – which is what I had – strips of steamed rice roll in a polystyrene tub slathered in soy sauce, sesame sauce, hoi sin sauce and topped with crunchy sesame seeds - at the astonishing price of 40p sterling/HK$6 – this was a breakfast snack fit for a king but affordable by a beggar.

In the interests research I finished this mornings eating with a Café de Coral fusion breakfast. At around HK$20 I got a bowl of vermicelli soup noodles topped with Satay beef, a glass of HK Milk Tea and a plate filled with a fried egg, mixed veg, sausage in sauce, fried luncheon meat slice and a slice of lor bak go (turnip pudding) – truly amazing and amazing value.

Canteen Serving Counter Cafe de Coral style

In between I bought a suitcase at Yue Wah – the China Products stall – I needed it for all the goodies I had bought to take home with me – tins of Yunnan Ham, bags of beef and pork jerky and dried shredded cuttlefish from Aji Ichiban and of course the wonderful Isoyaki Scallops which are so nice but so expensive. I also ended up with a pile of Isoyaki Chicken Wings, Chickens Feet and Duck Kidney’s. The selection of suitcases at Yue Wah was surprisingly good and VFM – not expensive as the Babila chain but comparable in quality. I had thought of getting one from the markets at Mong Kok but when I daw the quality of the ones here and the fact they were cabin luggage compatible I decided to spend a bit more money on something I could use more than once.

The contrast of the buildings in Hong Kong never cease to amaze me - turn in one direction you see this gleaming tower of glass and steel -

turn in another direction and the contrast could not be greater -

Anyway after all that shopping it was back to the hotel for a brief rest before heading out for the rest of the day/night.

Spent most of the afternoon and early part of the evening just mooching around Wanchai and Causeway Bay – areas I had not spent any time during this holiday. Found a great street food stall near to Times Sq. Had some skewers of seafood balls and pigs large intestine. Had a late lunch of Ngau Jap Lo Mein – mixed beef offal on a bed of noodles – stunning. Also in some healthy fresh fruit dessert as well.

A specialist Ngau Jap (beef offal) cafe - great stuff for those with a truely adventurous plate - its all about the textures

Some nice fresh fruit with coconut noodles and mango pudding

I met up with my brother-in-law Anthony’s sister – Sophia, whom I met a couple of months ago in the UK and found out she was a die hard foodie like me. Anyway we went for a good mooch around the street markets and food stalls around the Wanchai locality and we stopped off to sample various bits and pieces before the main meal later in the evening. We had a plate of very authentic Pad Thai in a little café which was just a room at the back of a Thai grocery shop – it didn’t even have a name and some of the staff didn’t speak Cantonese. A real local dive that you couldn’t just chance upon, unless you were very, very lucky and quite observant.

Thai Shop Front

Backroom Cafe

Serving Counter filled with Thai goodies

Menu

Pad Thai

A visit to allegedly one of the best congee shops in HK was next on the agenda and whilst I had wanted to sample the legendary crab congee – it wasn’t available – we ended up sharing a bowl of teng jai juk – little boat congee – which was a good selection of fish and seafood plus some slivers of Cantonese roast duck – all good stuff. A slow walk towards Causeway Bay revealed more scrummy looking street food.

Congee Cafe

Teng Jai Juk

Lo Siu Yue Gup - Marinated Pigeon

A selection of claypots

Wind Dried Meat Stall

Butcher - Wanchai Style

Guess this must belong to some super fit delivery boy!!!!

And so to the main culinary event of the evening – Mori Hachi Yakiniku -

Japanese table top smokeless BBQ restaurant that is currently one of the hippest places to eat in Hong Kong.

It appears the speciality is the beef – specifically Wagyu Beef – the holy grail of all carnivores, along with other lesser mortal beef but still of the highest quality. We had thick cut marbles short rib, thin cut marbled short rib, thin cut ox tongue with finely diced shallots, spicy marinated chunks of pig colon and of course pieces of the legendary Wagyu. And just for good measure we had a bowl of seafood noodle soup which had some really tasty clams in it.

The legendary Wagyu Kobe Beef

Thick Cut Fresh Ox Tongue

Thin Sliced Ox Tongue with Finely Diced Shallots

Spicy Pigs Intestine

The meat is simply cooked over a smokeless grill in the centre of the table and when done to the amount you require, dipped in the provided plate of condiments and eaten. Simply, healthy and delicious – the basic raw ingredients have to be of a very high quality for this this type of cuisine to work. The quality was high an it did work very well. We were joined by Sophia’s boyfriend, her sister Catherine and also my cousin Philip, who turned up towards the later stages of the evening.

Seafood Noodle Soup with Clams

We all went for desert at one of the specialist milk desert places in Causeway Bay, and full though I was I had the double cooked milk pudding plus a spoon full of Sophia’s chilled egg custard pudding. What a day of eating and tomorrow I will have to head for home………

Thurs 10th May - Jordan - Duk Ling - Lei Yue Mun

2007-05-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Feeling a lot better today - back to normal. Walked from TST to Jordan along Nathan Rd. Ended up doing a multi part breakfast followed by a bit of shopping a Yue Wah China Products store. Got some Yunnan Ham and a Lap Aap, plus some beef jerky

Anyway here are some piccies of breakfast (didn't eat the noodles in either case)

Cheun Siu (Beef, Pork and Squid)

which came from eattogether

along with homemade sui gow and udon

You can also ask for an English menu but not all dishes will have been translated so if you want something that you have seen and looks good and you can't find it - just point - I'm sure the staff will soon get the message -

and in the interests of foodie research I had to try the HK$10 Wonton Noodle Soup offer at a near by rival - got to say the wonton were very , very good indeed

The Temple St area is full of street food and has useful visual menu signs around -

Also - there is the ever present cake stall -

I had a trip on the Duk Ling booked for this afternoon at 4pm so before hand I decided to have a wonder around the Ocean Terminus Mall and chanced upon the StoneGrill. Ended up having the 8oz Canadian Short Rib Steak Set Lunch - it was fabulous

That was one nice piece of steak - beautiful marbling to give great flavour and tenderness

Its 4pm and the Duk Ling beckons - a one hour trip in Victoria Harbour and here are some piccies taken form the trip but first an arty image from HK Arts Centre

Taken from Kowloon Public Pier No.2

Duk Ling etc

The trip finished at Central Pier and this was the view from the walkway to Central MTR

After the Duk Ling trip it was straight to Yau Tong to meet Shirley and set off for a seafood dinner at Lei Yue Mun - we had a monster size Hoi Lam Lobster done two ways (sashimi and in Seung Tong), Razor Clams in Garlic, Blackbean and Chilli Sauce, Lai New Ha with Spicy Salt and Pepper and Normal Prawns steamed with garlic - a true feast.

Central MTR Station is vast and you need to negotiate its vastness to get the MTR to Yau Tong

Lei Yue Mun

Shirley at one of the many seafood market stalls

This is the place for a Seafood diet -

A live cuttle fish - ugly bugger ain't it

Our hand picked lobster -

The meal ended with the usual array of fresh fruit - the mango's were so good

The view from our table -

Wed 9th May - Not Well Today

2007-05-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

Must have been something I ate last night or something I ate this morning but I felt really queasy throughout my Land Between Tour - so much so that I stayed on the mini-bus throughout and skipped the paid for lunch and instead opted to come straight back to the hotel. Once in the hotel room I started to vomit but once this was over I felt so much better - drained but so much better. Literally spent the rest of the day and night in bed. So not much of a day then - but am pretty much recovered now - will post some piccies when I do Thursday entry.

Breakfast at Hing Fat - Bak Juk and Dough Stick

Cheung Fun

Anyway here are a few piccies from the Land Between Tour to the New Territories

These are from the Yeun Yeun Institue

Someone wants a big favour or has a big thank you

An armchair grave at Tai Mo Shan

Sam Mun Tsai Fish Farming Zone

Having spent most of the afternoon and evening in bed and feeling much better - I risked a bite to eat in the Salisbury Mall Cafe and had the Roast Pigeon Set - not bad for a fiver -

Tuesday 8th May - Meeting People from the BBC Board

2007-05-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

Not so many piccies today as it was a day of meeting people with the main focus being a sort of Hong Kong BBC (British Born Chinese) Forum dim sum meet. Anyway more of that later.

Decided to try the brekkie buffet at the Salisbury (YMCA Hotel), where I am staying. The main dining room where the breakfast buffet is served has great views across to Hong Kong side but abit spoilt after they built the Hong Kong Arts Centre :-(

Breakfast consisted of..............

I had a walk along the Avenue of Stars on the Kowloon Harbour Front before boarding the Star Ferry again - the view of Hong Kong Island's Central district is magical.

On the way to Maxims Palace at City Hall I saw this rather nice view of the IFC Tower that pretty much dominates all around it by its sheer height as it towers above every other building.

The plan today after a bit of encouragement from MeiMeiLai was to have a sort of mini dim sum meet in Hong Kong. Anyway from a get together of about 4 or 5 of us - it ended up with there ebing 10 of us for dim sum at the famous Maxins Palace restaurant on the second floor of City Hal. Present were a motley bunch which inclulded myself (Po Kwan). Flickserve, WaiSuBo and his brother, Annee and her colleague Jennifer, EnglishManInHongKong, Choisum and my cousin Philip and his wife Polly. Was a really nice meet and with all he chatter and banter I completely forgot to take any piccies of the group or the food, but do have a photo of the rather splendid dining room which as nice views across te Victoria Harbour.

However cousin Philip has come to the rescue with some scans from his ever present video camera - quality is a bit ropey but he has saved the day

The British Born Chinese Forum is truely an online community and part of its power could be seen in the dim sum meet today. Until this lunch time we had only interacted with each other through our online persona's, yet despite being on different continents and different time zones the forum created a bond that can really only be adequately be described as a true sense of community. It really is a great forum that is only as strong as the contribution of its members as a collective whole - so guys and gals of the forum - in the words of a certain Mr G - Keep It Real

Saw this in Causeway Bay after the meet and I have no idea what it is all about but thought it made a nice picture.

This also looked interesting -

Next part of the day was to meet Shirley at Pok Lam - which is the end of the line for the purple MTR line. We had planned to go to Lei Yue Mun this evening for a seafood dinner but an unexpected meeting at Shirley's school meant that plan was scuppered. So instead we met for some dessert and a wonder around the local malls in Pok Lam before she had her meeting started at 7.

A rare site - an alomost deserted MTR station at North Point where I changed for Pok Lam.

Pok Lam

Bicycles are not just for the Dutch........

Pok Lam Mall

Anyway I had a nice and healthy dessert of Mango puree with a selction of fresh fruit that included Mango, Melon, Strawberries and Banana.

Anyway I came back to TST and then went to see the Symphony of Lights laser light show over the Central area from the Avenue of Stars on the Kowloon waterfront - not bad but not quite as spectacular as it is made out to be.

Took this to show that Hong Kong is a land of extremes - this guy wasn't in some quiet corner - he was sleeping on the main concourse of the Star Ferry Terminalon Kowloon.

Fresh flower arrangements on Nathan Road - would they survive in such a bust public place in the UK?

Dinner tonight was at the Hing Fat Restaurant and it was so, so good.

THE Roast Goose!!!!

A Vietnamese Coffee - not sure what was the Vietnamese part - the grated chocolate?

One Plate Rice with Roasted Goose Leg and Poached Chicken Leg and salted duck egg, served with plum sauce and ginger and spring onion oil for the pricely sume of HK$52 - about £3.50 - an absolute bargain

Napkins?

Finally got these Yue Dan from the hot food counter in the Park and Shop on the way back to the Salisbury from the Hing Fat - HK$7 and not very nice at all - they went straight into the bin

Monday 7th May - Cafe De Coral Day - Peak Wong Tai Sin Temple St

2007-05-07T07:20:00.000-07:00

Cafe De Coral - its one of those places that divide opinions - you either love it or hate it. I personally think there is quite a bit of snobbery going on amongst those that don't like Cafe De Coral. The food is freshly cooked, its menu changes throughout the day - the cooked meat counter is very very good and consistent across all branches - can't really fault the Hiannese Chicken Rice Set. Anyway I went to the one by the Star Ferry Pier on Kowloon for my brekkie today -

This is what I had -

At HK$18.50 - about £1.20 sterling - its got to be a bargain and so its not the best quality in the world but the neither is the cost.

So on to the Peak via the Star Ferry, the 15c bus and the Peak Tram. I love the Star Ferry and love the views from the upper deck.

Central Pier

Central Bus Terminus

Roof Top of 15c Bus

View of the Bank of China from the 15c Bus -

The Architecture of Central is often quite stunning:-

The Peak Tram should be known as the Peak Scam - over priced and not very good anymore. Get the No. 15 Bus to the top - sit on the top deck and you will get much better views than from the tram. I was very disappointed with my trip on the tram. But the views from the Peak were pretty good even though it was not quite clear blue skies -

The Peak Complex

And what has to be the best view from any McDonadls in the world -

Next up, I set off for Wong Tai Sin Temple complex -

but first lunch at the Cafe De Coral in the shopping mall next to the temple comlex -

a rather scrummy looking cooked meat counter from which I had the -

Roast Duck and Poached Chicken Rice with Milk Tea not bad for HK$28.50 - less than £2.00

Wong Tai Sin as usual is a visual and sensual treat with the smells and colours of all around you in the Temple and Gardens

Before leaving the Wong Tai Sin area I went to have an explore and snack in the Wong Tai Sin estate mall - chanced upon a Vietnamese place and had a drink of fresh coconut milk and a prawn cake

Anyway after WTS went back to the hotel for a quick shower and rest before meeting my friend Pam. We went for a quick bite to eat and a nice chat in Lan Kwai Fong - no piccies as she wanted to keep it private. I had not seen her in over a year and it was nice to catch up but she had to leave at 8 as she had a long bus journey back to Yuen Long.

Anyway after that I had a quick wonder round Temple St area for a bit of street food - the next picture is not for the squeemish -

a skewer of deep fried slices of pigs colon drizzled with hoi sin sauce, which was followed by a bowl of pigs liver congee with doughstick

The approach to Temple St from Jordan

My favourite Temple St 24hr congee and cheung fun eaterie

Street Food in the Temple St locale...

Crabs

A plate of Prawns for just over £2.50 - amazing

A selection of Seafood on the street

For those who want veg..

Crispy Prawn Wonton

So thats whats a pigs colon looks like cooked and then sliced...

The ubiquitous Yue Dan (fish ball) stall

Skewers of all sorts of exotica -

Walking back from the Temple St Market area I saw this overhead neon sign - only in Hong Kong

Well Monday draws to a close and its now bed time............

Sunday 6th May - A Busy Day - NP360 Skyrail, Tai O & TST

2007-05-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

The thing about any trip to Hong Kong is that it will involve a lot of food - as whatever the Frogs may say about Paris, Hong Kong is probably the foodie capital of the world. So I make no apologies for this blog having its fair share of food related entries.

Anyway Sunday started off with breakfast dim sum at Hei Hei Chinese Kitchen Restuarant at 9am. They start early over here and we were not the first table - dim sum was pretty good with one or two items much better than the UK - notably the Siu Mai and Steamed Custard Buns which has a liquid centre instead of the usual solid centre.

Then after dim sum it was off to church. Shirley's church meets in the local school and in truth is pretty much the same as any evangeical church in the UK. It follows pretty much the same format except everything is conducted in cantonese. Also communioin is a bit different - bread is replaced by broekn bit of crackers - a bit like Matzo and wine is taken by using a teaspoon from a communal bowl. I suppose every church has its distinctive practices

After church we were off to the NP360 attraction and a ride on the Skyrail - we had to queue for over an hour but the views from the cabale car were well worth it.

Look at the queues on the walkway of the bridge - normally Hong Kong people don't do queues!

If you have the energy you can walk up to the Big Bhudda and Po Lin Monestry

That is one Big Bhudda

Ngong Ping Village is a bit of a tourist trap but quite a pleasent one if you are not Chinese

We didn't really hang around the Nong Ping Village but we did go to the older more traditional roadside stalls by the old bus stop area by the Po Lin Temple entrance and had some traditional Tofu Fa dessert with the syrup and yellow sugar.

Next up it was a bus down to Tai O for a wonder round the street that are filled with stalls selling dried seafood, shrimp paste and other weird and wonderful things you can do with seafood - someone once described Tai O as Hong Kong as it once was many years ago but preserved in the present day.

Tai O is famous for its dried seafood and food

Dried Whelks

Smoked Oysters

Dried Prawn Slivers

Dried Ducks Kidney

Fish Drying

Dried Goods Stall

BBQ Squid Pieces

Typical Tai O street scene - look at that dried shark on the left of the photo....

Enterprising way of selling fresh fish - certainly looks the part

Street Food in Tai O

The usual fishball selection etc

Everyone likes there fritters -

Saw this bike and couldn't resist taking a piccie -can't see that seat being very comfortable -

Lunch was at one of the many street side cafes and was tasty and basic - a plate of sate flavoured fishballs, pigs skin and squid tentacles, a plate of chicken wings, sausage and tea eggs and a plate of chueng fun - this was all followed by some rather decent mango pudding with lots of chunks of real mango.

Nice way to dispense your napkins which are really toilet rolls

Anyway the plan was to take a ferry from Tai O to Tuen Mun which would have taken about 20 minutes - but all the ferries were fully booked so two buses and 1.5 hours of power napping later we were back in Tuen Mun and in a taxi with my suitcase heading for TST and the Salisbury.

Saw these apartments on the journey back to the hotel and thought they made an interesting photo

It was quite late by now - about 8pm so after check in we went to look for dinner. Shirley seemmed to know this area quite well and we eneded up at a place called Sushi One - so popular we had to wait 1/2 an hour for two seats at the converyor belt but well worth the wait - so nice and such good value for money.

Sweet Omlette, Crabmeat and Crab Roe Sushi

Grilled baby squid sushi

King Prawn and Mixed Veg Tempura

Sashimi of Salmon, Scallop and Ebi Prawns

Blow torch salmon Sushi

Toro Sushi

Clam Sushi

Seared Scallop Sushi

Teriyaki Eel Sushi

Great sushi. Anyway - met up with my cousin Phillip for a late coffee and the Peninsula but we got thrown out as he was in shorts - anyway we ended up at the Kowloon Hotel in their coffee shop which had live music and was open till 1am so it was another ate night.

The end of another event and food packed day :-) - by the way the cabled internet access in my room at the Salisbury is very fast (for a shared access in a hotel) so I am well pleased

Sat 5th May - My First Day -Tuen Mun the Gold Coast

2007-05-05T08:44:00.000-07:00

Hong Kong was overcast and only about 25c when I arrived at 1.25pm. I was met at the airport by my friend Shirley - which was a novel experience and normally I just arrive and get the airport bus to my hotel. But I am planning to go with Shirley to church tomorrow so I will stay the night in Tuen Mun (where her church is loacted) at the Gold Coast Resort Hotel - which I have to say is rather nice - my room is definitely 5 Star standard, though the wi-fi connection is a bit pants.

Had a brief wonder round Hong Kong airports surprisingly quiet new shopping mall and a quick sit down and drink at the Double Star Cafe before hopping on a bus to Tuen Mun and then a taxi to the Gold Coast Resort Hotel.

Let me say from the very start that Hong Kong is many, many things but for me and many others, one of the greatest things about Hong Kong is its FOOD and this blog will reflect this. I'm not talking about fine dining in expensive restaurants or fancy venues - which Hong Kong has plenty of, but of the the ordinary food of the people - street food, Hong Kong style fast food, the food the avaerage worker eats on a day today basis and also the stuff he/she has when they want to treat themselves. So be prepared for a serious amount of food images in addition to the sights of Hong Kong. Enjoy!

Hong Kong Airport Mall

Shirley and I went for a coffee and a snack before heading for the hotel -

One serious looking Iced Cappuccino from the Double Star Cafe

Shirely had the strawberry waffle with chocolate sauce -

So we arrive at the Gold Coast Hotel , here is the view from my room - its a bit overcast but maybe I'll get a really glorious sunrise tomorrow morning - I didn;t - second photo was taken the next morning and still just as overcast and dull. But then Hong Kong is like this more often than not during this time of year.

The hotel reception was pretty impressive......

The plan after a quick wash and brush up and a little rest was to meet for dinner at the local Chilli and Spice Thai style restaurant just along from the hotel with Shirleys sister Fanny and her husband and niece Katrina.

That' Shirley to my left - Fanny and family live in Tuen Mun

This is where we ate - they had a wonderful display of of seafood which you could choose to be cooked on their charcoal grill - Thai style - we had amongst other things - thai style grilled king prawns, grilled oysters, thai pomelo salad, chicken wings stuffed with sticky rice and hainanese chicken. A very nice proper first meal in Hong Kong.

Look at the size of those prawns!!!!!

Crabs galore

Alaskan King Crab legs

All for the BBQ - Thai Style

Thai Style Chicken Wings Stuffed with Sticky Rice

Thai Pomelo Salad - refreshing and very delicious

Thai style BBQ King Prawns with lots of crispy garlic and chilli

Succulent Hoi Nam Chicken

BBQ Grilled Oysters

Alaskan King Crab Legs with Thai Style Dip

Stire Fried Mixed Veg

We also had Indian Lamb Curry and Roti but I never got any photos of those.

Afterwards Shirley and I took a 14 seater minibus to Yuen Long to have a look at the street food and to try one of the wonderful specialist dessert restaurants-something I had never done before.

Some piccies of street food in Yuen Long

Tea Eggs

The Skewer Stall

This is where we ended up -

We had grass jelly with mixed fruit (mango, dragon fruit, strawberry and melon balls) topped with evaoprated milk - it was so so good.

Tomorrow we are meeting for an early morning dim sum breakfast at Hei Hei Chinese , Kitchen in Tuen Mun- then off to Church - then NP360, Tai O, then out to Kowloon in the evening to check into to the YMCA Hotel, Salisbury Rd for the rest of the week and hopefully will meet up with my cousin Philip later in the evening.

Friday 4th May - Travelling to Hong Kong

2007-05-05T03:43:00.000-07:00

If only we could get from A to B without having to actually do any travelling, well at least getting to Hong Kong is a relatively civilised journey - at least it was travelling with BA from Manchester. No real queues at any point on the journey and all in all a very smooth trip. Video on demand with 70 films old and new to choose from plus classic episodes of series like Fraiser, Friends and 8 Simple Rules made for entertaining viewing if required. I watched Venus, which I missed when it was on the big screen and I think it would have been a much better experience, good though it was, on a big screen. Peter O'Toole was brilliant.

Setting off from Manchester

Highlight had to be the Giraffe Cafe in Heathrow Terminal 1 International departure lounge. Mostly these eateries as expensive, poor VFM and poor actual food. But this place was different. I had a 4hr wait for my connecting flight to HK and a spot of late lunch/early dinner seemed the order of the day. For a start it had a great motto -

and the Moroccan Lamb Burger with roasted red pepper, humus, salad and spicy tomato salsa in a sesame seeded brioche bun was to die for - best burger I have had in ages. Also it came with a great relish tray of proper premium branded sauces and relishes.

If nothing else having an evening/night flight means that you can have a fairly relaxed and uneventful journey. Having eaten my evening meal and watched Venus I was able to settle down to some serious sleeping time and when I woke up I was just and hour or two from arriving in Hong Kong with the prospect of breakfast being served.

Inside the BA 747

Airline food is getting better but still not that good -

BA Award Wining Shepards Pie wasn't bad at all.....

The Full English? Where's the black pudding and baked beans?

You know travelling economy class isn't bad but seeing what Club and First Class is like really is like living in a different world - but at nearly 4x the price for a club class ticket who's going to pay - not poor old me.

Arriving Sat 5 May

2007-05-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

I arrive at about 1:30pm on the Sat - my route is Manchester - Heathrow - Hong Kong - flying with BA.

I will be spending the first weekend in the coastal resort of Tuen Mun staying at the Gold Coast Resort Hotel on the Saturday night. On the Sunday morning I will be going to church with my friend Shirley as the church is in Tuen Mun and she stays there during the weekend with her sister.

After church in the morning, weather permitting - we plan to go on take a ride on the NP360 Skyrail Cable Car on Lantau Island which takes you up from sea level at Tung Chung up to Nong Ping Village and the Big Bhudda

After that we might go on to Tai O - a wonderful fishing village that hasn't changed in years

Afterwards we will head out to Kowloon and my hotel for the rest of the week the YMCA Hotel - Salisbury Road which is located next to the world famous Peninsula Hotel and right infront of the Star Ferry Pier and Avenue of Stars

My plan is to update this blog each evening before I go to bed - so we shall see if the best laid plans of mice and men................