Cheung Chau Bun Festival 長洲搶包山

Yesterday, I went to the Bun Festival which began as a tradition where people pray for safety from pirates. It apparently is also Buddha's birthday so people give and pray at temples.

I once again thought, why not! What was I going to do? So I took the Ferry with Tim, Kienman, and Dennis to see what's up! There's the regular ferry and the faster ferry. The faster Ferry is like twice the price so instead of a 50 mins ride it's maybe a 40 mins ride instead. I took the slower ferry to the island and the faster ferry back. Honestly, I could care less about the extra 10mins! I'd pay $18HKD for the slower Ferry!

The place was packed with plenty of street foods, souvenir shops, and loud loud majong noises. It was an interesting scene but I'm not sure I'd go again as there wasn't much you could do there. It's not like a carnival or a festival with activities. People parade the streets, look at the bun mountain, and 睇大戲. Place was PACKED!

Maybe not during a special event, it might be nice to come to Cheung Chau and eat Dai Pai Dong 大排當 style. Seafood by the beach baby!

Had no idea what they were singing

Don't need to tell me...I know I gained some weight. I plan on detox-ing this week. Going to go to the gym and eat healthy! Healthy foods are surprisingly hard to come around in Hong Kong.

Giants incense sticks or according to my friend Kienman, they are joss sticks. 香棒

From afar, what looks like a lighthouse is the bun mountain made out of fake buns. At midnight, contestants race up the mountain to put as many buns in their collection bags as possible. I was not present at the event but there were 5 guys and 3 girls in the race to the top.

 

 

Some more mini bun mountains here are actually made out of real buns but since it rained last night, some of the buns fell apart while others already have flies swarming around them.

 

 

 

Australia Dairy Company 澳洲牛奶公司

This place was so highly rated on www.openrice.com I thought I should give it a try. Why the hesitation? It's because they are famous for their 常餐, which includes macaroni with ham, eggs, toast, and a drink (通粉、蛋、多士、加飲品 for $30 HKD) particularly their scramble eggs. I mean how good can scramble eggs be?! Well! Two weeks ago, I decided to walk to the Jordan 佐敦 station as a pre-breakfast exercise and saw this line! Apparently they are also known for their Egg White Steamed Milk 蛋白燉奶 which is actually that of a pudding texture. I was too full to try and too hungry to take pictures so I will have to go back again before I can tell you whether this place is worth it or not! :-) For now, the eggs were nothing special!

Harbour City 海港城

I actually have been to Harbour City several times already. A great place is a place with a view of the waters. Second is that of the skyline. This one is right by the Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui 尖沙咀 where there an outdoor patio. The ferry here takes you from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central for about $3. It's about twice the cost of getting to Central through the MTR system but you do get a much better view!

I also did some more touristy stuff last weekend. Walking through the HK version of Avenue of the Stars, seeing a Statue of Bruce Lee as well as seeing the Clock Tower which is considered a monument of Hong Kong. The Clock Tower  was a part of the demolished Kowloon-Canton railway terminus and it's been there since 1921.

 Here is a view of Hong Kong from Kowloon side at sea-level. The dome shape structure always reminds me of Sydney (not there I've ever been...but one day...) and it is the Hong Kong Convention Center 香港會議展覽中心

New Toy...

I got this new Chinese writing toy..so hope I can write better Chinese by the time I get back to the states!!1

大家好！

I've been really behind with the blog primarily due to laziness!!! Today..I plan to catch up and there's plenty of stuff to come!

Please don't touch my pants!

OMG! I don't mind that the cleaning lady cleans my dishes, makes my bed every morning. and line up my shoes but PLEASE don't touch my clothes! She folded my clothes! AHHHHHHHH!!!!

Getting bored..

Sigh...now I understand why traveling for work is not that fun. I peaked! After a long day of work, I just want to go back to my apartment and it's no different that going back home except I'm in a different country. HK morning people do a lot of talking, 吹水, (courtesy of Google Translate) because HK always starts the day. By afternoon time, people from UK start signing on and meetings start piling up from 4pm on. Boo!!! I don't get out of work till 730-8pm now! Grrr...because of that I haven't been doing much exploring myself. I'm quite disappointed in myself.

So! A couple people have told me about a festival this weekend at 長洲. I'm determined to go there if I can for the 搶包山 event and have some buns! We'll see, my friend Chi is coming into town Saturday. She's only here for like 2.5 days and the actual 搶包山 event happens midnight, the same day she gets in from the airport. I hope she doesn't mind me going...ahh I dunno.

Food can add up!

I met up with a couple people from back in college this past weekend and have had several conversations about work-life balance as well as quality of living in Asia. There are times when I do spend $29 HKD for dinner while other times $280 HKD for just lunch. How you choose to spend really depends on what you eat and where you eat. It can be dirt cheap to what I consider NYC like prices. A couple days ago, I was paying $30 HKD for an Asahi. Friday night, $175 HKD for a rum-n-coke and a gin-n-tonic on a rooftop bar. That's like NYC Prices!!!!

Now hear this! Minimum wage in HK is $3.6 USD. I was told median income in HK is $12,000/month. I'm not sure what to think of that but I do know that there's a huge income gap between the rich and the poor. I have had mixed reviews, some are happy to be back working in HK and rave about the 15% flat rate income tax. No sales tax and no capital gain tax. While others are struggling to gain a work-life balance. Typically, people start the day at 9-10am and they leave work at like 7-9pm. Those in investment banking work till 11pm and sometimes, they even pull all-niters. There are pros and cons..cheap food and more income to keep but owning a property is nearly impossible as they are extremely high-valued. 2% mortgage rate but NYC like property values. Qualification? entirely based on your salary!

Really interesting...I'm going through a bit of a culture shock. Majority of Hong Kong people don't save money...low income..but everyone has a maid. and it's like $5000HKD for maid that will cook and clean and babysit!

Falling behind...

Ok, I'm falling behind on my blog posts. OOPs!!!! Work is actually picking up so I've been sneaking out early. People are starting to think that I'm another HK employee who works super late. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For lunch...this was my $35 HKD meal. Fish Noodle soup near work

漁民樂 Happyfisherman Restaurant

Today I had Peking style hot pot. It's got a giant metal tube with coals inside to heat the pot.

I promise my blog won't all be about food next time :-) I hope you lamb lovers are proud of me. I had lamb dumplings AND lamb meat!

Bobo, the Shih Tzu!

I chilled most of the weekend, staying around to run errands, submit expenses, fix my watches, wander around the hundreds of malls and shopping centers that are everywhere in Hong Kong. 

Because it is the weekend, many people are out shopping and what I have noticed is that men carry the lady's purse on their shoulders like you and I would carry our purses.Thought that was odd. Harbor City in particular is exceptionally large but, for some reason, I wasn't too crazy about the shopping. This place is probably 6 times the size of King of Prussia, has a view of the Seaport. Maybe because the clothes are so expensive compared to the U.S. There are many high-end stores and it gets pretty crazy. So crazy that many "country" people won't even bother dropping off their bags and they run around the mall with their luggage like maniacs. In any event, I'd go there just for the view or as a stopover if I needed a cool down from the warm humid temperature. :-)

On the opposite side of my building, there's another shopping center. My co-workers and I went to the top for drinks Friday night @ Wooloomooloo Steakhouse Prime. I could do better with the picture if I had a good camera...will have to go up again. This is the skyline from Kowloon side. Next time, I'll have to check out the skyline from Hong Kong side.

For this entry, I leave with you my new best friend, Bobo. She is Auntie Sophia's Mom's 12-year old Shih Tzu. That tongue of her's is always out! LOL!

Another Food Galore!

Wednesday Night Dinner
(I have to keep track of time because the Blog uses PST)

I met up with Auntie Sophia and her son Jeffrey for Dinner at a restaurant named DotCod in Central. It is now one of my favorite restaurants in Hong Kong. Jeffrey's wife Mapkey could not join us because of work, (HK people work crazy late hours, very little work life balance) but that didn't stop me from inhaling 2 dozen raw oysters with the party. No idea what part of the oyster it was or where it's from. The waitress didn't really know except for the fact that they come from the U.S. but which ever part it was, it was plenty delicious!

Oh, hold on, I forgot to tell you. Oysters are half-priced and wines are buy one get one free on Wednesdays! To prepare our stomachs for the wine, we got a proscuitto pizza and some fries to line our stomachs for the alcohol before the Oysters. Umm...we continued to eat more and ordered the Lobster & Prawn Ravioli with Fava Beans and Truffle Oil as well as the Seared Diver Sea Scallops with Foie Gras to share. The foie gras was good quality stuff!

YUM!

On another note, you know how we have Yelp in the U.S.? In Hong Kong, they have OpenRice. WAHAHAHAH!!! I always forget to take pictures when I'm with Auntie Sophia. I'm always too quick to eat.

First Day of Work

I took the MTR to get to work from Tsim Sha Tsui to Olympic. I swear, the subway is soooooo! made for Asians. In NYC, if I had to stand and hold on to the top rail, my shoulder would fatigue from having to tiptoe and reach for a firm grip on the hold rail. In HK, I feel so normal as I can comfortably hold on to the hold rails and handles.

I really like how CLEAN every mall, building, office is in HK. The moment you get indoors anywhere, floors are shiny, designs are contemporary, and rooms are well lit.


For my trip home, I actually took the mini-bus home as recommended by my co-workers. Actually, one of them took the bus with me to make sure I got home ok. How awesome is that! His only piece of advice is to not tell the driver my destination in English because he won't understand. Hah! The advantage I have is I can speak Cantonese so it opens up more options for me. :-)

In celebration of my efforts in powering through my jet-lag at work today, I treated myself to some Japanese food. I went to Genki Sushi.

My two favorite dishes were Sea Urchin and Fried Oyster Sushi!!!

Finally straightened hair!

Turns out there is a hair salon on 3rd floor of the building I live in AND I also get a discount for being a resident. So glad there is this. Everywhere else around me is so touristy and nice that haircuts were all like $420-$480 HKD. Straightening was $2000 HKD!!! I think I'm happy with my $1260 HKD Japanese Ion Straightening + haircut! Saying bye bye to frizzy and poofy hair :-)

No more flip flops...

I have done my fair share of walking around the city yesterday (Sunday) and did some shopping at the supermarket down the street to pick up essentials for the apartment. By essentials, I mean snack! lol!!!

 On my way to the supermarket and while wandering around the city, I realized that HK-ers don't wear flip flops! You don't see people wearing flip flops on the street! If you do, it's obvious that those people are tourists. Interesting eh?

I spent the rest of the day with Auntie Sophia and her family having Dim Sum and playing Majong. My favorite meal of the day was dinner with boiled shrimp and an oyster casserole. I ate and brought back a bunch of foods Auntie Sophia gave me. The peanuts are garlic flavored! ridiculously good!

My Apartment...

This is what my 500 sq ft apartment in TST looks like!

Definition of city living, cram everything into a teeny apartment. That table is my coffee table AND desk!

Decently-sized restroom for Hong Kong.

My complimentary pack include Nissin Ramen noddles. How awesome is that!

No Chinese Drama just yet!

Flight to Hong Kong

I finally made it here after 16 hours on the plane! I definitely understand the hype about flying business class now. It was nice to be able to stretch out my legs and sprawl out in my own little space. I had an aisle seat so I was in my own space with no one on either side of me which was super nice. I flew Cathay Pacific so the food was more than what I expected but am very disappointed with the movie/tv selection though. It's sad because even the Chinese movies were not interesting at all :-(


I also got to use the Business Lounge for British Airways at JFK. I guess I can understand why it would be nice if one travels a lot in the year. For me, it's nice, but not quite a must.

Anyhoo! Lets talk about food! The menu was pretty amazing and so is the service. Ha! Best part is the flight attendants put up with my half-broken Cantonese because I would start a sentence and then not know how to end it, having to go back to English. :-p

FIRST MEAL

I started with marinated prawns with grilled asparagus and artichoke mousse, caesar salad, and garlic bread.

Main course I really wanted the Sea Bass, but they ran out so I chose the gnocci with mushroom sauce, king mushroom, and grilled zucchini.
For dessert, I had fruits, cheese, and a nice cup of Hong Kong style milk tea! I skipped a chocolate truffle cake.

SNACK - I got greedy and had a duck noodle soup. YUM! There was ice cream as well but since I was trying to have self-control, I did not order any. Are you all proud of me?
DINNER

I had a fruit plate for appetizer again. For entree, it was a rosemary chicken au jus with polenta. As you can see, I, umm..., forgot to take a picture before eating. Dessert was a raspberry yogurt cake which was absolutely amazing and light! With a nice cup of hot coffee, this sums up my amazing flight experience!

The New Beginning...

Those that know me, know that I love to talk. I'm very vocal and open about myself. For every conversation I start, I walk away learning about someone or something. Maybe this all comes from my roots in engineering, always wanting to know how things are made and the cause-and-effect with how things happen. Perhaps it is simply the good feeling of being enlightened which in turn, exponentially enriches my life experiences.

My almost 3-month trip to HK will be the longest I have ever been away from home. I'm determined to explore as many places as possible. Kowloon, Hong Kong, Macau..In May, Jeff and I will spend two weeks visiting parts of southeast Asia. We have not finalized our itinerary but we have narrowed our choices down to Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Any suggestions?

(I have always wanted to start a web page but have been lazy. So glad I finally got around to starting a blog.)

I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and feel free to share with me on here as well!

It's time for me to get ready to board. I will reconnect with every in hong kong!!!