After spending two final nights relaxing in Saigon, we left Vietnam for Hong Kong, and stayed for a 3 day layover. Hong Kong is a territory of China, but was only returned to Chinese rule in the late 90’s after being a colony of Britain for over 100 years. The result in a very interesting city, that is heavily influenced by both British and Chinese culture and lives up to the common “East-meets-West” description.
Hong Kong is home to around 8 million people, making it one of the most densely populated regions in the world, however, the city planning and optimization leads to a very orderly and manageable experience. To put it into perspective, Hong Kong has more skyscrapers than anywhere else in the world, a public transit system that has the highest daily use relative to cars in the world, and is home to the longest bridge in the world, connecting Hong Kong to Macau, and measuring in at a staggering 55 km. This infrastructure was an extremely high contrast to that of Vietnam – Saigon, for example, is a city with the same population, but with no subway.
We stayed in a district called Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, which is in Northern Hong Kong, on the mainland. This district is home to shopping, markets, nightlife, and old-school streets filled with the iconic and beautiful neon signs that Hong Kong is known for.
We spent the first day walking around Kowloon, exploring various markets, from a flower market to a clothing and accessories market. Some of the clothing was made with more attention to detail than others, made evident by things like the Calin Kelun boxers pictured below.
Of course, it didn’t take us long to find some food markets, including a multi-level indoor market selling prepared food and raw ingredients. We also went to a few outdoor street markets which seemed to be everywhere, with standard vendors set up selling souvenirs and clothing, as well as a bunch of food vendors selling small bites to peckish tourists and locals alike.
We promptly searched online for a top-rated dim sum place, and ended up going to Tim Ho Wan, which is famously known as one of the cheapest Michelin starred restaurants in the world. It was a frenetic experience lasting about 15 minutes, and when all was said and done, was about $10 CAD. The dumplings were good, and the pork buns amazing, but overall, the food was on-par with the dim sum we have in Chinatown in Toronto.
We spent a lot of time in the Central District, on the north side of Hong Kong Island. This area is filled with interesting stores, cool bars and restaurants, and lots of character-filled streets with a European flair.
We wanted to treat ourselves to one high-end Cantonese meal (after eating $2 noodle bowls at plastic tables for the first 2.5 weeks of the trip!). We went to Lung King Heen, which is in the Four Seasons Hotel.
Lung King Heen was the first Chinese restaurant to be awarded 3 Michelin stars, and did not disappoint, we had traditional dishes like Congee, and shrimp dumplings, but our favourite bites were the suckling pig and roast goose that they are known for.
One of the most popular things for visitors to do in Central is to go to the top of Victoria Peak for an awesome view of the city skyline and Victoria Harbor. We opted to take a bus up, as opposed to hiking or taking the famous (but touristy!) tram. We realized very quickly that it was foggier than we realized, and within a few minutes of going up the hill, we could only see a few feet in front of us. We hoped the fog would break by the time we got to the top, but unfortunately it didn’t – you can see our view from the top below…
Not the best use of time, but the bus ride was pretty neat and it was a pretty hilarious tourist fail!
We had some amazing casual and street-food style food, including roast goose from Yat Lok, an institution, and another restaurant that Anthony Bourdain tried out on his many trips to Asia. It was certainly a no-frills experience, and the pork was just OK, but the goose was extremely decadent and impossibly crispy and moist at the same time. One of Matt’s favourite bites the entire trip.
Another casual spot we stopped at serves up hot bowls of tomato broth with noodles, and various meat options. The most popular was pork sausage (which turned out to be a hotdog), and spicy pork. Simple, a bit strange, but delicious, and the perfect snack on a cool day.
On our last night, we went to a bar called The Old Man which we (finally!) found down a dark, unassuming alley. The Old Man is on the world’s 50 best bars list, but we were pleasantly surprised to see that the prices were about the same as in Toronto. They had an amazing attention to detail – from the bar design, with a cooled strip of metal down the center of the bar to keep your drink cold, to the cocktails themselves.
One of the best cocktails we had was inspired by a Canadian classic, the Caesar. To take it to the next level, they separate the colour and flavour of tomato juice using a centrifuge, and serve the resulting colourless but extremely flavourful liquid with clam broth, and a few other interesting ingredients (pictured below). This was certainly one of the most delicious and mind bending cocktails we have had to date!
We really enjoyed exploring and eating our way through Hong Kong as a final leg of our trip. The people were very friendly, the food, delicious, and the modern and forward thinking details and luxuries, very easy to get used to!
M&A
