Final Day in Hong Kong (sort of, but more on that later...)

We woke up on our final day in Hong Kong, packed up our stuff, checked our bags and headed out to explore a few new areas. Our flight wasn't till 8:00pm so we basically had a whole day in HK. Fortunately, we were up to the task.

Our plan was to hit up Western Market on HK island for some Dim Sun . We successfully negotiated the MTR and Tram system to the Western Market stop (we are SOOOOO blending in at this point, except for the part about being white and Eric towering over everyone and us not speaking a word of Chinese). Western Market is an old building for merchants, similar to the building at Eastern Market (DC reference, with apologies to those outside our regular viewing area).

We arrived to find that the Dim Sun place wasn't yet open. We reasoned that this just gave us more time to explore (and Eric reasoned that this gave him more time to find local eats). We meandered along the area adjacent, filled with tons of little shops selling local dried fish and fruits. At least we are pretty sure that is what they were selling; no signs were in English.

This was clearly a market for the locals. We also happened upon a street festival promoting fighting crime (that sign was in English). There were HK Boy Scouts (the equivalent anyway; remember HK, like the US, was a colony of the Brits), bad boy-band wannabe singers on stage and old people enjoying a day out...and a street cart selling something that looked yummy. We didn't know what it was, but it appeared to have sugar and sesame seeds, so we jumped right in.

Peanutty, sesame goodness

The appetizer had made us remember how hungry we were so we headed back to Western Market for brunch.

The dim sun restaurant is the entire space on the top floor of Western Market. It is a massive space filled with identical tables and chairs and coverings; it looks like a wedding is about to break out at all times (in fact, they have prominently placed wedding brochures right at the entrance and pictures of attractive brides and grooms along the walls).

Ordering is done with a pencil on a preprinted card with hundreds of choices. The problem is that the form gets taken away when you order, and then you have no idea what you ordered. Besides being at a loss to explain to you all what you are about to see, it also meant that we were pretty sure we didn't get some of the items we ordered (which was OK since we ordered too much and they didn't charge us) and some of the items were not exactly what we ordered (e.g. shrimp instead of pork). At any rate, and with apologies for the inexactitude, here's lunch:

Shrimp dumping with quail egg

Pan fried cuttlefish

Seafood dumpling in special soup

Crispy green onion pancake

Shrimp wonton

Here's what it looks like on the table. We were SOOOO defeated by the amount of food

Having completely overeaten, we headed back out on a walk towards Victoria Harbour and a view of Kowloon and the HK waterfront. Because we were now locals, we knew that we needed to find an above ground walkway to get where we needed to go...and we were successful! This is impressive because HK has built massive roadways (think West Side Highway in NYC but on steroids along the water, so if you want to get to the water you need to get over them). We ended up near the ferry terminals to Macao. Macao is HK's answer to Vegas, at least that is what we were told. Helen lived for years in the States and advised that it was a casino, so unless we really enjoyed Vegas, we would skip it. Helen is our travel goddess, so we heeded her advice. If you are a high roller in HK and the high speed ferry (seriously, the things use jet engines that make as much noise as a jet) is not fast enough, you can cut the trip in a quarter and take the chopper.

View of ferry terminal and Kowloon across the river

Karen at the waterfront

Chopper to Macau

From there we walked up to a section of town called SoHo (for South of Hollywood Road). As you walk up towards SoHo you end up in the Mid Levels. "Mid" is a reference to the fact that the elevation change is like Lombard Street in San Francisco. The people of HK, however, have a solution for that. They have built a series of moving sidewalks and escalators to assist with travel.

Going up!

We stopped at a little tea place along the way and tasted some yummy teas. The place felt like our favorite tea store in San Francisco (Red Blossom), which made sense, since it is run by two 30-somethings from HK. Oh, and the tea in HK is a fraction of the cost!

We explored SoHo, which is clearly where the westerners come to play as it was filled with expats with kids and dogs, and restaurants and bas serving Western food and showing football matches.  We visited a clothing store called Fang Fong Projects. It had original designs by Fang Fong as well as consignment items. Karen was drawn to enter by the window display of beautiful wrap belts, like an obi that ties a kimono.  Once inside, the belt was proudly described by the shopkeeper as "real silk and PVC". Eric asked if she was sure the PVC was real; she laughed. Karen tried on some dresses and Eric, encouraged by the shopkeeper's laughter and a bit bored, started to "shop". And when we say say shop, we mean play with the items. He fixated on a red furry scarf-like thing. "Real fox", the shopkeeper explained. Eric modeled it all different ways. Karen tried on more dresses. Eric took one of the silk and PVC belts and made it into a sash on the mannequin. Then he modeled the sash and red fox thing on the mannequin and solicited opinions from other shoppers, who were kind of scared. Karen found a dress she really liked, but felt it was a little short. The shopkeeper whipped out her tape measure and showed her how she could lengthen it, then suggested rebuilding part of the top. We explained we were about to fly out in a matter of hours. The shopkeeper was undeterred. We left having purchased the item, with plans to return in 9 days during our 10 hour layover on the way back home from Hanoi to the US.Additional cost to have the garment rebuilt: $0 (USD and HKD). Eric was on board because it meant an excuse to come back to HK to eat some more. At that point the day was getting late. We stopped in a bar for a quick drink and then headed back through the labyrinth of escalators and stairs to the MTR on our way to the W pick up our bags and head to the airport.

One of the cool things in HK is that the Airport Express train station has airline check-in counters in the terminal. That means you can check-in for your flight and unload your bags before you have to get on the train  or schlep through the airport. We checked our bags, hopped the train and arrived at the airport ready to move on to Singapore, knowing we would return for a brief dress fitting and eating in a week and a half.

Express baby; 3 stops to the terminal - 14 minutes all in - traveling across three different islands 

Free WiFi on the Express, and no bags to weigh you down

Coming soon, the St. Regis embraces us with the love of a Bentley and a butler, Karen and Eric continue to eat their way through south Asia, and a night tour through the Singapore Zoo...