3 June (Mon) Comfort food...

An old-day congee shop at The Central area. Nice! It looked like one of those I saw on screen. The settings, the people, and the food! The shop is also known for its noodles, but having eaten noodles the day before, the highlight today would be the congee... I like the congee with pork kidney and pork stomach 👍. 

No QR code to place order, obviously - but this is what's recorded, including the price - and how the figures were added. The figures were perfectly correct... ok, not marking down its working presentation 😜

The day ended with dinner part (2) - 裕记 another well known & popular old shop that sells roasted goose in 深井, a town where many popular goose shops gathered. Though its location is rather out-of-place, it received many Michelin accolades since 2019... decorating the front of the shops 👍 .

It's also the first time I saw, with my eyes, like what's shown on dramas and movies - the car park area is monopolised by the shop. One has to drive up then hand the keys to the "valet" to park the car.

3 June (Mon) Taking a tram

It's not the first time I took the tram, but got to know more about it this time because, we were lucky in the last trip when it was a day when one could travel free in a tram the last time I took it. 

The double deck tram is one of the unique features in old Hong Kong, and learnt the road in Central is also known as 电车路 because it runs across a long stretch of the road, side-by-side with buses and other road vehicles. 

Sometime different from what was overseas - one has to board from the back. The automatic one-way entry prevented one from exiting from the back. It focuses the passengers to the exit by the front door where the driver is the gatekeeper. 

It's a flat rate, HKD 3 - but accepts payment via Octopus cards or cash only.

The tram could be quite pack at peak hours, which I noticed that one is "allowed" to stand on the upper deck, which is usually not the case for buses. 

3 June (Mon) A disappointment in this trip...

One of the reasons for this trip is to learn and be immersed in the "wuxia" stories... to visit the exhibitions to "re-indulge" in something that I was fond doing in my school days.

Based on what I watched in the HK documentary, I was expecting the more hands-on or interactive  experience in the exhibition at the Edinburgh Place. We had a hard time finding the site. Unknown to me, the info in the official website was not up-to-date, not highlighting that it was closed - only came to know about it when I chanced upon the info in the HK Tourism Board website. In addition, it could have indicated it was right in front of the City Hall. I registered my disappointment with the organiser. 

3 June (Mon) Hong Kong Palace Museum

It's a new museum only opened in the recent years - where the showcase focuses on the exhibits from the Palace Museum in Beijing. 

It’s a museum that’s worth visiting - not because of its collection (in this case), but a great learning journey of China’s history - in particular the last Dynasty (Qing 清). I visited Yuan Ming Yuan 圆明园 onsite twice in my previous trips to Beijing, but none left such a deep impression of what it was, how it looked like and the architecture (certainly since what’s presented was just the ruins). 

The multimedia reconstruction of the summer palace added much meaning and understanding behind the intention of many details to the place. The drawings were very interesting, which I had no impression that I saw something like this onsite. Indeed, one of the floor plans that awed me is this one… never thought that anything that’s ‘behind’ could be presented in this manner: 

Perhaps it’s the layout - find it much easier to appreciate the exhibits in this museum, compared to the actual place. I guess it’s the crowd that makes a difference. Here’s a much quieter environment where one can slowly read and move around. I can’t imagine how it's like if it's located at the actual palace museum in Beijing or onsite. In addition, because of the layout, we can take a much closer look of the items here. All these may sound minor, but makes a huge difference to the visitors’ experience. 

One interesting thing to take away (from another gallery): 

While the paintings were supposed to depict the life of the Qing royal family, a number of them were painted with the characters on Han attire. Similarly, one of the portraits of an emperor was in the Han attire. It demonstrated how the degree of appreciation and admiration of another race or culture, and the respect - not just a commoner, but even from the royals. Obviously! The Manchus were the one who took over the country from the Hans/ Mings! 

One new learning point - even the emperor adopts a very discipline life! It's essential for one who needs to attend to so many things! Time management is critical! Not for the past, not for the royals, but also for us, for today's context.

A dose of the culture through hands-on... like the subtle approach that the museum takes to engage its visitors. See how engaged this lovely couple was...

 

3 June (Mon) Breakfast… nice buns!

Something not to miss in HK - the bolo buns 菠萝包 from Mei Xin… they definitely taste different from what we get back at home. Equivalent price, but more filling, and taste better!

This morning, also had the century egg cake 皮蛋酥 - tried the big one… still, prefer the medium size one that we normally have. 

2 June (Sun) Dinner at 麦奀

Notice that, in HK, the wontons of the wonton noodles are not served on top of the noodles, but put at the bottle of the bowl, topped by the noodles; not served with vegetables, but some spring onions. So, vegetables aren’t part of it, but order as a separate dish. 

It tasted like the one that Tim Ho Wan sells. Some chewy texture. The wonton tasted good! I also learnt the difference between 云吞 wonton and 水饺🥟 dumpling. Look at what’s stuffed inside the dumpling! Not just more prawn & fish paste, but comes with black fungus and mushroom! 

2 June (Sun) Hong Kong Space Museum

By name, I was hoping for something more exciting. Maybe my expectations had levelled up, over the years, after having more exposure to what an exhibition could present. 

The ground floor was primarily talking about the solar system. Not new, isn’t it? But come to think about it, I had forgotten (at that point) that’s the introduction to space, isn’t it? 

Similar to any good museum, experiential learning is an essential component to learning. Quite like the ‘weight’-feel to illustrate gravitational pull from various planets. In addition, the illustrate the proportion of the different gas elements in the atmosphere of each planet, the colour beads is a good illustration to see how prominent or rare each element is. In fact, it generated an idea on an simple assessment question related to ratio and proportion.

2 June (Sun) Hong Kong Cultural Museum

A museum that documented the culture scene in Hong Kong. Not just the main exhibition about martial arts world of Jin Yong, but also dated all the way back to the Chinese Opera and the local contemporary musical scene. 

It is less accessible than I thought it is. Am grateful for my local guides, cousins Annie and Ricky. 

Not just my navigator, I got commentary of a great fan (Ricky) - what’s most memorable is the knowledge and passion through the articulation. 

I confess that I’m not a big fan of Jinyong. Nevertheless, thanks to HK TVB, I “watched” (instead of reading) his novels through the various dramas - which was a definite hit in the 1980s-1990s. There’s when the 5 “tigers” were “born” - playing the various lead roles in his novels. The only novel I read was 射雕英雄传. Nevertheless, many of the characters left lasting memories. That’s the power of the writer.

Got to learn more about Bruce Lee, who’s definitely the pride of the Chinese community, in particular, Hong Kong’s. His faith and the belief, and influence through the cultural scene.

Had the opportunity to see and yes, see it closely, the kind of costumes that artistes like Anita Mui, Roman Lo wore at concerts, too. These costumes looked so unreal - showy… but that’s what marked that era of showmanship. 

Learnt something that’s entirely new - the pre-show presentation that announced the cast before the actual show. Does that apply to those shows outside HK?

2 June (Sun) Lunch @Kah Wah Kitchen, Shatin

It’s a Tsui Wah equivalent - a typical HK cafe serving the locals. Nothing beats eating like the locals :)

It’s a filling lunch… the serving was big - each set was enough to serve 2.

2 June (Sun) Getting Ready

First thing in mind was to prepare transport arrangement - what I meant was MTR. Its network is pretty comprehensive and the map is easy to navigate and plan. I had the “old” Octopus cards but decided not to use them because it required activation (HKD50) before topping it up with whichever amount I plan to use. However, the key is…. The top-up has to be in CASH! Ops… that’s easy to decide - opt for the single day TOURIST card that cost HKD60 each - for unlimited travel.

One advantage of staying near Tung Chung station is, it’s the terminal station - it makes planning quite straightforward, though it took time to travel out to the main islands. It took almost 30 min to travel out from Tung Chung to Lai King, the first station in the Kowloon island. 

Another important thing to do is to re-familiarise myself with the route from the hotel to the MTR station, also what are some shops around.

2 June (Sun) Checking in

The plane landed approximately 10 minutes late. My baggage came late - probably because it followed the first-in-last-out rule. By the time I reached the bus bay where the hotel shuttle was, I missed the last bus. 

Managed to catch a cab (the blue one that runs in Lantau island). It cost me HKD62. Slightly less than SGD 10. Still, cheaper than what I spend between my home and the airport.  

Oh, I was glad that I carried cash - reason being cab only accepts cash. Indeed, I noticed there’s provision for the passenger to pay by credit card, but requires one to activate the app at the point journey starts. I guess cab drivers preferred to collect cash, that’s why the driver did not check whether I want to pay by cash. OK, there’s another assumption, he assumed that I had cash? 

Choose Novotel Citygate, because of its the location and shuttle service. Though a bit far from the City, with the MTR, it’s still considered convenient. Quite like that it’s away from the crowd yet it’s linked to a big shopping mall. 

By the time I checked in, it’s just after 12 midnight. Took a while to unpack my stuff for the next 4 days. 

Good night.

1 June (Sat) Inflight… in the air…

Inflight meal: Seafood meal - nice, comes with ice cream. Something new, a different packaging for the butter and milk. 

Love  the return of the hot towel. Hm… being seated right at the last row, the air stewardess missed me. Have to ask for it. Hm… service fall short of. 

Inflight movie, this time, chose to watch 2 Singapore productions: 

• King of Hawkers
• What the Heist 

Between the two, the “King of Hawkers” has a more interesting storyline, that goes with Singapore’s accolade - having “Hawker Culture” being inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 16 Dec 2020. However, the story resembles some of the HK long ago movies like “God of Food”. 

“What the Heist” follow the no-surprise story ending - all ends well. Again, some elements of the HK movies - some action, but not much.

1 June (Sat) Departing Singapore

I was early… 3 hours or more. 

After checking in the baggage, ventured to the well-known Butterfly Garden at Terminal 3. Not that big actually, I think, though there are 2 levels (entrance at level 1)… pretty crowded as long as the patrons intend to hang around for a while. 

Something interesting, I thought. The garden is filled with fragrance of pineapples! 

Now, I learnt an interesting fact - butterflies are attracted to pineapples! 

The long wait (close to 2 hours) had given me sometime to really sit down to read a book - ok, finished close to ½ the book. What an achievement!