Your Usual Table, Mr. Pappageorgio?

Our flight from Hong Kong to Singapore was on United. From the disinterested flight attendants to the marginal food, it was a little slice of home. 3+ hours after take-off we arrived at Singapore Changi Airport. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at @ midnight, and since neither of us had ever been to Singapore and we knew we'd be tired, we had made arrangements to have the St. Regis Hotel pick us up. But the St. Regis Hotel doesn't do just a pick-up.

We were greeted at the gate by this woman...

Waiting at the gate as we exited the plane

...who guided us to the golf cart nearby and asked for our baggage tickets. She then whisked us through the airport (a longer ride than we'd expected) to a special terminal with its own immigration station.

Whizzing through the Singapore Airport

We cleared the immigration counter (quite literally the only people in the entire place) and were offered a seat in the lounge and our choice if drink; we both opted for water. Before we could open the bottles we were advised that our bags had been claimed and were loaded into the car waiting for us. This took less time than it takes Dulles to get you to the main terminal, not to mention the inordinate wait for Dulles baggage. We were guided to the St. Regis Bentley and started our 15-20 minute drive to the hotel. about 10 minutes in the driver said into a heretofore unseen headset, "5 minutes out". When we pulled up 5 minutes later the bellhops and manager were waiting at the front door. The manager guided us directly to our room, welcomed us to the St. Regis and advised that the butler would be arriving shortly to explain the functions of the hotel. A moment later Kim (male) our butler arrived, gave us a tour of the impressive layout and offered us a welcome tea. Needless to say...

Eric had the white tea, Karen had vanilla bourbon

We headed off to bed, feeling pampered and ready to explore Singapore.

For those who care about such things (Mr. Ballowe, among others), here are some shots of the swanky St. Regis:

Elevator, complete with bench should you be tired

Bedroom and seating

Another seating area; note the floor to ceiling windows across the entire wall 

Walk in closet off the palacial bathroom

Tub (with TV built into wall) and sink and vanity #1...

...sink and vanity #2

Shower; lovely shower with water that comes from everywhere

Separate bathroom

Living room area

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...

Day 4 Hong Kong – Afternoon and the Final Evening

While imagining us riding the MRT from Tung Chung back to Kowloon, it’s probably clear but shall be stated just in case not – it was Karen’s idea to visit the Bird Market and Flower Garden. Eric was responsible for navigating from the Prince Edward MTR station to the Mong Kok Bird Market. He did so very effectively, using his Droid Pro’s satellite mapping function. Eric is not small, particularly so in Hong Kong. This significantly increases his utility in crowded areas. He was quite adept at moving swiftly through the crowded sidewalks of Mong Kok on a busy Saturday afternoon that two tiny (even in comparison to Karen) Cantonese women fell in right behind him, following along for entire blocks the path he was forging. Karen followed behind them, bemused.

Prince Edward MTR Station

Busy streets on Mong Kok

The Mong Kok Bird Garden is billed as where folks (mostly elderly) take their pet song birds for walks to sing and get some air. Eric thought Karen made up this part and insisted on reading the guidebook himself.  Eyewitness Guides says “There’s also a small bird market.” While we didn’t see anyone out for air with their pet parrot, we did see lots and lots of birds both large and small for sale. It was a dazzling display of feathers and tweeting. You could also buy bird food at the market, in the form of bags of live grasshoppers which you then feed to your bird through the bars of its cage using chopsticks. 

The Bird Garden connects to the Flower Market, another hopping spot. It consists of several blocks of storefront flower shops with their gorgeous fragrant wares spilling out onto the surrounding sidewalks and streets. Flowers are very important in the Cantonese and Chinese cultures, and play a big role in the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations. There were signs everywhere urging customers to get their New Year orders in early. 

Masses of people for blocks and blocks; time for a respite

From the Flower Market, we walked down Nathan Road, which we had walked up on our previous visit to Kowloon. The sidewalks were packed with people strolling and shopping, or in queues for the city buses that filled the streets. We decided to duck into one of the Public Square Street Rest Gardens to finish what remained of our picnic and rest our feet. When you have a city of masses of people overflowing at the seams, these types of respite are more meaningful than they would otherwise be. Plus, this time there was no Buddha to make us feel guilty about the meaty goodness of our sandwiches. In the garden, we saw groups of men gathered around watching chess games. 

After our rest, we made a brief tour through the covered Jade Market before jumping in a taxi back to the W. Eric opted for a nap and Karen took off for the roof, where she sat in the spa and read Marie Claire while the sun set over Victoria Harbor. It was glorious. We were fully recharged for what came next – our much anticipated visit to the Temple Street Night Market.

In a place known for its markets, Temple Street is the king of all the Hong Kong markets. The stalls usually open around 4 but things really get going after dark between 7 and 9. It is known for its clothing, shoes, accessories, designer fakes, copy CDs “and a generous helping of junk.” Add to that the fortune tellers and tourists from all over the world, and you have an unforgettable scene. Haggling is encouraged and a critical eye for quality is not.

We started off around 8 with dinner at Temple Street Spicy Crabs, an open-air restaurant taking up four corners of one block of Temple Street. Restaurant has a different meaning in Temple Street. It means plastic tables and chairs set up on the sidewalk and in the street, and storefronts with nothing more than cooking devices turning out huge quantities of food. It is patronized by locals and tourists alike which makes the tourists feel better about themselves. It was crowded and a bit overwhelming. We snagged a table just as another couple was getting up. We perused the menu, and Eric ordered a San Miguel beer from the Hong Kong equivalent of the St. Pauli Girl; seriously, boots and the whole outfit with an Asian flair. A more stout woman took our dinner order; we didn't notice her shoes. We ordered...

Fried spicy pork

Fried string beans with XO sauce and nuts

Curry chicken pot

Pork fried noodles

Full from dinner, we set out to explore the market. We didn’t have anything in particular in mind to shop for, though quickly found the item to have – Chairman Mao watches. Temple Street is oddly known for its Mao memorabilia. Priced at $35 HK each, we bargained the purveyor to $60 HK for two.(We'll save you the trouble, divide that number by 8 to arrive at USD). You’re all going to be very jealous when you see them!

Karen looked for sandals but didn’t find anything she liked, and Eric struck out looking for belts. We called it a night around 10:30 and caught a cab back to the hotel, feeling tired but very pleased with our most awesome watch purchases. We settled in for our last night at the W. We would spend Sunday in Hong Kong and then fly to Singapore in the evening.

Day 4 in Hong Kong, Part 1 - We Meet Big Buddha and His Friendly Monk Caregivers

Being well-rested (see end of prior post), we set out early on Saturday in search of the Big Buddha. We stopped at the Three Sixty market in the Elements Mall to assemble a picnic for our trip – sandwiches (one called a "meat sandwich", the other "turkey and pastrami"), dried banana chips, Fuji apples (imported from the U.S.) and pita chips. We boarded the MTR to Tung Chung, the end of the line. 

The train was full of families and tourists also headed to see the Buddha, or Disneyland Hong Kong, the line for which being one stop before Tung Chung at Sunny Bay. Upon disembarking at Tung Chung, we were surprised to find of all things, a shopping mall. 

We soldiered on in the direction of the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car, to take us over the river and hills to the Big Buddha. We opted for the Crystal Car, with the plexiglass bottom for maximum view. It was amazing to see the water and ground below as we ascended higher and higher. The Ngong Ping ride is 25 minutes and crosses 5.7 km (4 miles) of Lantau Island. 

Glass bottomed car

Looking down through the bottom of the cable car

The cable cars seat 10 and we shared one with a German guy and a family of three from the Phillippines. As we sailed past the Hong Kong airport, the German guy explained that the airport had only been located there in the last ten years. It was previously on a narrow strip in Kowloon. In the interest of prestige, safety and capacity, Hong Kong had undertaken a landfill project to create land for a new airport near Tung Chung. It helped to explain how the perfect location and convenience of the Airport Express train – they had built it that way. 

View of the airport from the cable car. All that land was created where water once stood.

As we descended over the last hill, Big Buddha came into view in the hazy distance. 

We exited the cable car and headed down into the village on the way to Buddha. Along the way, we passed a Starbucks. 7-11and a Subway (and the bread smells exactly the same in HK as it does in the States). 

We also passed a stand selling Korean barbecued dried squid - which Eric just had to have. It was salty and delicious. 

Moon, maybe as part of the Superbowl party?

Finally we reached the base of the Buddha. We posed for pictures and then began the 260 step climb to the plinth on which the Buddha sits. Along the way to the top, we encountered several groups of worshippers pausing on each of the 260 steps to say silent prayers. Which brought us to one of the best overheard lines on  the trip. Said a U.K. tourist to his friend about the Buddists praying on each step, "Who's got the time?"

We explored the base on which the Buddha sits, took lots of photos and enjoyed the view before our growling stomachs got the best of us and we set back down the 260 steps in search of a sunny spot in which to enjoy our picnic. There were signs throughout that made clear that littering and meat were not permitted. Well, we didn't litter and we were super hungry. Plus, it would have been wasteful to toss the meaty sandwiches and we hear Buddha is the forgiving type. (Rationalization now complete.)

After lunch, we wandered among the temples built by the Po Lin monks and gardens filled with burning incense. 

Then we headed back to the cable car to return to Tung Chung. We had a crystal cable car to ourselves and took advantage of the privacy to take turns laying on the floor and taking pictures. 

Looking down through the bottom of the cable car

Look ma, no hands!

It was nearly 2pm as we left Tung Chung station. Once back on the MTR, we studied the Eyewitness Guide to formulate our plan for the rest of the day – the Mong Kok Bird Garden, Flower Market and an evening trip to Temple Street Market for dinner and shopping. Stay tuned for our next post about twee songbirds, gracious orchids and haggling over Chairman Mao.