A recap of Carson's second week in Hong Kong

After the longest hiatus in this blog's short history comes it's longest post! Buckle up! Since there's so much information to share, I'm going to alter the formatting a bit from last week's "recap" post...

-Saturday-

We had a leisurely morning / early afternoon and went out around 3:30pm to the Palace IFC theater in Central...

Here's Carson in the main lobby after seeing a 4:30pm showing of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (which was great!). For dinner, it was off to a nearby Nepalese restaurant in SoHo simply called "Nepal"...

The food can be likened to Indian, but there are some very distinct flavor differences. Undoubtedly delicious, however. The three curries we ordered...

...and the yak(!) cheese we ordered (with some ginger, kiwi, and stawberry)...

After dinner we wandered around SoHo for a little while and then went back home.

-Sunday-

Katherine was scheduled to be interviewed, in English, by a group of five secondary school students from Tuen Mun (for their school newspaper). The students were also interested in talking to Carson and I, so we all went to Katherine's office, spent the whole afternoon together, and had a wonderful time. Afterwards, we spent a few hours grocery shopping in Wellcome (the first time we had really gone grocery shopping since moving to the new apartment - time for a stock up!). Following that, we set off for Kennedy Town to have dinner at a very traditional soup noodle shop.

(I'm afraid I didn't catch any pictures of this day - but I'll make up for it below. :>)

-Monday-

A day spent entirely exploring Stanley...

Stanley beach

Stanley market

Stanley bay (with the famed Murray House)

Paella from our dinner at a wonderful Spanish restaurant (formerly known as "El Cid") in Murray House.

A night shot of Murray House

-Tuesday-

The day started with a trip to a Hong Kong style fast-food restaurant (known as a "Tea Restaurant") to try Hong Kong's version of French toast, which is deep-fried, delicious, and something we shouldn't have very often. ;> Carson also tried his first Hong Kong style milk tea, a critical piece of Hong Kong food culture. We then hopped on a bus to Mong Kok for a very thorough exploration, which didn't include an official lunch, but instead involved a whole lot of snacking (Krispy Kreme, beef balls, squid balls, shrimp balls, pork balls, curry fish balls, custard-filled "roasted cakes", and a Mango herbal dessert shop). We combed Sai Yeung Choi Street, Fa Yuen Street, and Tung Choi Street - well known for it's "Ladies' Market"...

After walking the length of the market, we also explored an outdoor fruit and veggie market and Langham Place before hopping on the MTR to Jordan. In Jordan, we first entered the Yue Hwa department store and slowly worked our way to the top, shopping for gifts. At the very top, we discovered a tea exhibition with many small sellers serving tea samples. To our surprise, it was one of the highlights of the day - we tried lots of wonderful and unusual teas and enjoyed lots of good conversation there. Upon exiting Yue Hwa, we saw that the sun had set, so our next stop was the Night Market on Temple Street for some more gift shopping. After walking the length of it, we went to a nearby Chinese vegetarian restaurant for a buffet dinner.

-Wednesday-

Tuesday was a very long day, so we used Wednesday to catch up on sleep and laundry. I made waffles for brunch and, that evening, we went to Jolly Thinkers (unquestionably Hong Kong's best board game cafe) in Mong Kok for hours of fun with Joyce and Ronald...

-Thursday-

We met Joyce and Jasmine (a new friend who is a faculty member of the University of Hong Kong School of Education) for breakfast at our favorite congee shop on High Street. Afterwards, Carson, Joyce and I met with Ronald for a bit of shopping in Causeway Bay and, once we'd had enough shopping, we took the trolley to Central for...

Snake soup! (Which includes many ingredients, only some of which are snake meat. Chunky!)

Carson preparing for his first bite

Down the hatch!

It was actually quite good...and, because it included so many ingredients, you hardly knew you were eating snake. Perhaps we'll try something more snake-intensive next time.

After snake, we quickly ran two doors down to Hang Fa Lau, a favorite dessert shop to, you know, cleanse the palate a little. ;> We then went for our real dinner, Carson's first hot pot experience!

Here you can see Dr Carson using a syringe full of squid meat (mixed with a bit of flour to hold it together). As the meat falls into the pot, it is instantly cooked, forming squid meat noodles (which are quite delicious). Following dinner, we went down into Shek Tong Tsui and picked up some of the first lychees of the season. Yum!

-Friday-

We spent Friday planning Carson's remaining days in Hong Kong (weighing options, prioritizing, etc) and playing video games. ;> For dinner, we went to the Xinjiang restaurant I've mentioned on the blog before...

-Saturday-

We sprung into action early on Saturday, being picked up by Joyce and her husband Gordon at 9AM for a Hong Kong style fast food breakfast in Mong Kok...

After breakfast, we went back to Jolly Thinkers (which Joyce and Gordon own and operate) to give some primary school students a bit of English practice through board / card gaming...

It was absolutely wonderful and I think the students had just as much fun as Carson and I did. Katherine met up with us after the gaming was over and the three of us went with Joyce to try "small cart noodles" (where you start with a big bowl of soup, choose the type of noodle you want added, and then choose all the ingredients you want on top)...

This was a particularly important experience for Carson to have, since his name can literally translate into Cantonese as "small cart". ;> After lunch, we Gordon and Joyce drove us to "Monkey Mountain" - something that Katherine had been telling Carson and I about for years, but something neither of us had experienced. It did not disappoint - indigenous wild monkeys were everywhere...

This isn't a zoo or natural preserve, it's just a place where a whole lot of monkeys have made their home. Historically, it has been very popular to feed the monkeys, but that is now illegal (feeding has made the monkeys a bit reliant on humans - and also a bit aggressive when they suspect you to have food). Still, that doesn't stop people from continuing to feed them, as you can see in this video...

Hungry, hungry monkeys! Walking with monkeys helped us work up an appetite of our own, so we organized an impromptu dinner with Katherine's parents and Ronald at Yung Kee (a place you've heard about before)...

-Sunday-

Carson and I decided that we wanted to explore an area of Hong Kong that I'd never been to before: Lantau Island. It is, in fact, the largest island in Hong Kong, but it isn't very populated. We grabbed the MTR in Central and rode it all the way out to the Lantau, ending in Tung Chung. From the Tung Chung MTR station, we hopped aboard the Ngong Ping skyrail (what I would call a "tram")...




It was gorgeous ride which gave us a very unique view of the Island, and also the giant Tian Tan Buddha statue...


The eventual destination of the tram is Ngong Ping Village...


...a touristy (but quaint and enjoyable) waypoint on our journey to see the Buddha...

(Even Buddha needs a high-five every now and then.)

Next up, a bus ride down to the stilted fishing village of Tai O...

We had a great time exploring the streets, shopping in the market, talking with the inhabitants, and also pink dolphin spotting on a twenty minute boat tour...

I'm afraid I didn't catch any significant video or pictures of the dolphins, but we definitely saw them and they were amazing. We were left wanting more!

Thus ends our Lantau exploration, but that was far from the end of our day. After returning to Hong Kong Island, we experienced an elegant high tea set at the Mandarin Oriental hotel...

Carson sipping his first-flush Darjeeling tea

Tiny finger sandwiches

Savory pastries

Sweet cakes

Fresh British-style scones

Clotted cream and rose petal jam (!)

Outstanding food and service! Admittedly, though, it was a lot of food and we were quite full - so we needed a few hours of walking around Central and Causeway Bay to even think about having dinner. Eventually we did feel slightly hungry, so went to a favorite Indonesian place...

...and then another trip to one of our favorite dessert shops, Hang Fa Lau, to make sure Carson experienced one more of their specialties. Then, back home for sleep (which has been in short supply recently ;>).

That just about covers the week. If you made it this far, well done!