Escaping the West Coast Winter Blues in Sunny Hong Kong

The morning we spent just lazing around, reading some new magazines we had bought and drinking our grande lattes from the Starbucks down the street.

We had lunch at this great place:
The Press Room
108 Hollywood Road / Central
Tel: 2525 3444
I had the club sandwich (with avocado and lobster… great combo!) and my husband had their hamburger which he said was wonderful. With fizzy water the total was around 200 HKD.

Next door is a little deli / sandwich shop called "Classifed" which also looked really nice.

Did some more wandering and ended up near Pacific Place in Admiralty. Then took the metro back to Causeway Bay and to our hotel. But before heading to the hotel, we stopped in Times Square (which became our "mother ship" during this trip) food court for a quick early dinner.

Curry in a Hurry
Times Square basement food court (beside City Super)
We thought it was great. I thought the naam bread was delicious and my chicken curry was good! It was a very filling meal.

Our last day:
Spent our morning packing, repacking and packing again. Did some last minute shopping nearby.

We also had time to see a movie at the ifc cinema. We watched the "Darjeeling Unlimited" (Wes Anderson’s latest work) which had just come out. Fantastic! We loved the cinema in Hong Kong. When you buy your ticket, you get to pick your seats, just like you would when you would go to a concert. The seats are super comfortable and it was a good experience.

We took the Airport Express back. I love how you can check in and get your boarding pass at the train station downtown. Brilliant! Saved us from lining up at the airport for our boarding passes and thus, more time at the duty free shops.

Our flight back was good. We were home on Sunday and back to work on Monday.

Last thoughts:
January in Hong Kong is wonderful. Hong Kong felt extremely safe, even the nights that we were out late. Language was never a problem. We always found people who spoke English in whatever store or restaurant we were in. Menus all had English on them. Transportation is easy… the metro is great. The double decker buses… well, you just have to go on at least one! Stanley is perfect for an easy half day out of the city. We (sort of) regret not being able to go to Macau for the day, but there’s always a next time!

Shopping and eating out was fabulous and we honestly did not have a bad meal anywhere. We ate Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Chinese.

Today we slept in really late probably due to jet lag and being non-stop since the minute we arrived.

Our mission for today is to find some really good dim sum. Someone I work with (she’s from Hong Kong) told me that her favorite place for dim-sum is on the 11th floor of Times Square. We are walking distance from Times Square… perfect! So we are on our way in search for dim sum.

11floor / food forum / times square, causeway bay

Unfortunately she failed to tell me the name of the place and there were TWO dim sum places on the 11th floor. The choice was easy however, as one of them looked like a scene from a 80’s wedding… lots of silk flowers in tacky colors, weird lace and floaty white chiffon everywhere, you get the picture I’m sure. The other place is called "Cheung’s Cuisine" and it looked really cool inside. There was also a HUGE lineup so we figured this must be the place. So we go to the hostess, get a number and wait in line. This is a Wednesday afternoon and this place is packed! "How long is the wait?" I ask, "20 mins". Okay, no problem. 20 mins is nothing. It turned to being closer to 45 minutes. The thing is this, their menu is half price from 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm and they don’t take reservations during this time. We didn’t know this at the time, however. (only when we looked at our bill later did we realize this) So we were waiting, waiting, waiting. Finally, we go in and sit down, pretty much order 2 baskets of everything that we like… shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, BBQ pork buns, sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, an order of green vegetables, egg tarts, mango pudding. We ate, and ate and ate. Everything tasted amazing!

Total bill for everything was about 200 HKD (after the ½ price discount) but we ordered A LOT!!! So we got greedy but we were SO hungry! Dim sum prices were between 20 HKD to 35 HKD per basket. They give you a list of all their dim sum items and you mark off the ones you want and how many. I think we ordered around 10 dishes between the two of us and then tried one of their "deluxe teas". So very good value and of course the bill was half price because we were there after 1:30 pm. Not sure if we would go again during that time, just because we had to wait for so long to get a table. So later when I got home I told the girl at work we tried the restaurant she recommended and it turned out that it was 80’s wedding theme restaurant that she meant. So next time!

So then we decided to catch the subway to Central station and then take the Star Ferry. We cut through the IFC mall and saw restaurant called "Lian". It’s a thai/vietnam/bar/bistro. The menu looked great so we made reservations for 9:30 that night for dinner.
(At home, I usually scorn restaurants in malls or hotels but in Asia some of our best food experiences have been at these places. )

The ride on the Star Ferry was great. Although I guess crossing the harbour from Kowloon to Hong Kong island is more interesting. So we are in Kowloon, now what? I knew that Nathan Road is ultra touristy and can be annoying with the touts but it's all part of the experience and plus for some reason I was obsessed with seeing Chungking Mansion.

We weren’t dressed up so we decided against having tea at the Peninsula or Intercontinental although later we realized we probably wouldn’t have gotten in anyways because most people do reserve. We also stumbled onto a cute little lane called Knutsford Terrace off of Kimberly Road. It’s a nice break from the noise, touts and crowds on Nathan Road.

BB’s Bistro
13 Knutsford Terrace
Sat outside and had a glass of white wine. Total bill was around 150 HKD.

Dinner that night at LIAN
Shop 2004 / podium level 2 / ifc mall / central
Tel: 2521 1117

We ordered deep fried squid (cut into rings similar to calamari), red curry with beef, vegetarian pad thai and stir-fried morning glory. Everything was very well done. The restaurant was packed and we were glad to have made reservations.
Total for dinner was about 400 HKD.

Although it is in a mall, we would highly recommend this place. Although the only complaint we have is that it closes at 11pm which we thought was pretty early considering this is Hong Kong. Since we had reserved for 9:30pm, we thought it would have been nice for them to tell us that they closed at 11pm when we booked.

After dinner we went to:
Red Bar
4 floor / 2 ifc / 8 Finance Street
I just love the deck/terrace with the gorgeous panoramic view of the city. You go and order, grab your drink and find a table. The servers won’t come to you. I had one of the best drinks here. It’s a cosmopolitan but mixed with tequila instead of vodka. Amazing!

As noted earlier, we chose to switch hotels half way through our trip just to experience a new neighborhood and to be close to a park for our morning runs.

Of course the only problem with this brilliant plan is that you do need to pack and unpack everything not just once but twice. But things went really smoothly. When we arrived at The Park Lane, they allowed us to check into our rooms a bit earlier. We were on one of the lower floors (9th) but in exchange they gave us a room facing the park and harbor.

Park Lane Hotel
310 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay

The hotel is getting on in years but I do believe they are slowly renovating all of the rooms. For location it could not be beat. The close proximity to Victoria park, a Starbucks, a grocery store (called "Wellcome" open 24 hours a day), the Causeway Bay subway station and within a 5-10 min walk to Times Square. It was everything we needed to be happy!

So after checking into the Park Lane on Tuesday, I grabbed my Luxe Guide and we did the Queen’s Road Central and Hollywood Road walks. It took us through some interesting streets and neighborhoods I'm not sure we would have found on our own.

Stopped in at Mak’s Noodles at 77 Wellington Street for a late lunch. We each ordered a bowl of wonton soup with noodles as well as an order of steamed green vegetables (gai lan, I believe) with oyster sauce. Total bill for 2 bowls of wonton soup, 2 plates of steamed vegetables and one diet coke was 96 HKD. All the dishes were very good. Wellington Street is full of similar tiny wonton shops, you probably could not go wrong with any of them.

On the way back to the hotel, we grabbed organic lattes and I had a piece of banana bread (my secret obsession) at "Life" on 10 Shelley Street which we could see from the terrace of Scirocco the night we were there. Not sure about the upstairs but this seems more like a "take-out" kind of place. Our lattes were excellent and my banana bread was great. They also had salads, quiches, etc. And a tiny little grocery store with organic rice, herbal teas, granola bars, etc. My kind of place!!!

For dinner we decided to go low-key and somewhere close-by. I found a Vietnamese restaurant in my Timeout Guide that I wanted to check out. It was a quick 5-10 min walk from our hotel. Perfect.

Perfume River, 89 Percival Street
We had beef pho (of course!), fried spring rolls, deboned stuffed chicken wings. All items we ordered were good, we were not disappointed. The service is quite abrupt and they like to turn their tables rather quickly. The décor is non-existent but the dishes were very good. Total bill with 2 diet cokes was about 140 HKD.

A Day at Stanley and cosmopolitans at the Four Seasons
Monday – we went to the Central Exchange to board the #6 bus to Stanley, riding the first row on the top deck. The one hour ride was alternately exhilarating and horrifying. We were not sure where to get off but when everyone on the bus got off, we were quite sure that we had arrived at our destination. I’m so glad we went to Stanley as it gave us an interesting perspective of the island as a whole. Stanley is a cutie! We walked through Stanley market… strolled to the Murray House… wandered over to the Pak Tai temple. We had lunch at the Boathouse @ 86-88 Stanley Main Street. The bucket of assorted seafood was amazing and I would go back to Stanley just for that! We also checked out Stanley Market which seemed like a good place to buy sportswear like bathing suits, souvenirs like silk scarves, and some pearls and jade.

We absolutely loved our day at Stanely and would highly recommend it especially on a sunny day. Take the #6 bus from Central Exchange and do try to get the front seat on the upper deck.

After lunch we took the bus back into Central and went into the ifc Mall for a bit of retail therapy. This mall is kind of sterile but we went to the Blue Bar at the Four Seasons for a late afternoon cosmopolitan which was awesome. We also picked a few item from the snack menu. The mini burgers were awesome and the satays were quite good as well. Total bill: one cosmopolitan, one bloody mary, mini burgers and satays $450 HKD.

This would also be our last night staying at The Fleming as we would be moving to The Park Lane in Causeway Bay beside Victoria Park for the last four nights. Why you may ask? We wanted to stay a few days in a different area. Although we had previously decided that if we absolutely loved The Fleming we would cancel the Park Lane within one day of check in and not have to worry about the cancellation fee. Although we enjoyed our time at The Fleming, by Day 4 we were ready to move on. And since I am a runner, I also wanted to be close to a nice park if possible. The Park Lane appealed for that reason. Victoria Park has a great, albeit small, soft clay running track. The weather was perfect for my morning runs and I loved the whole morning scene at the park with the old people doing tai chi. As for the Park Lane as a hotel I will review that later but we were generally pleased with it because of the great location and our room had a nice view of the park and the harbour.

Sunday turned out to be great weather so in the morning we went to the Peak. Definitely agree that the ride up on the tram was part of the excitement. There is a brand new observation deck and below that, several floors of shops selling kitschy souvenirs and a few restaurants. The view was very nice although it was a bit hazy from a bit of smog.

We did walk up the hill to be on the "actual Peak" and then had lunch at the Peak Lookout (121 Peak Road, 2849-1000). We had a great table outside where we could see the ocean peeking through the forest of trees beside us. Highly recommend sitting on the terrace when having a meal here. The food was quite good. Between the four of us, we ordered a bit of Indian, Thai, Chinese and quite a bit of seafood. It went very well with the bottle of chardonnay we ordered. It was a lovely way to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Total bill came to about 950HKD for four including a bottle of wine we shared.

After taking the tram back down, we walked down to Admiralty subway station (all downhill and easy, cannot say the same for the walk up. It’s really quite steep). We then took the subway to Causeway Bay station. Times Square was absolutely chaotic; it looked like the entire teenage population of Hong Kong had converged onto Russell Street.

Went into Lane Crawford and went through the racks of shoes of sale on the first floor beside the cosmetic counters. After a few hours of fighting the crowds, we were pretty exhausted and had a "D-stress smoothie" at MIX on the 5th floor. (note: MIX also has a couple of computer terminals with free internet, so we took advantage of that by checking our email and the weather forecast for the next couple of days)

I insisted on going to the CitySuper grocery store in the basement level before heading out. Every time we travel, I just adore going into a grocery store and wandering aimlessly through the aisles. There was a huge crowd gathering at the Cold Stone Creamery counter…. looked more like a highly sensationalized Dairy Queen Blizzard to me.

How can you spot a tourist in Hong Kong? We’re the ones not wearing winter coats, gloves, wool hats in January. Honestly all of the local people were bundled up and we tourists were out in our summer clothes. It was very sunny and warm which was such a treat considering we had left rain, snow and sleet on the West Coast.

Took a cab back to The Fleming. (Taxi stand in front of Times Square but there was quite a line; we waited for about 15 minutes).

That night we went to Scirocco (above Staunton’s Wine Bar) on Staunton Street, Soho (10-12 Staunton Street). Initially we wanted to go to Boca’s on Peel Street but they were fully booked for the night. We sat on the terrace which was great for people watching. I had a glass of Pinot Gris and an ahi tuna salad which was just so-so.

Arrival into HK airport. HUGE lines at customs… but I had remembered reading there is a whole other section that is to the right of where the crowds of people are heading. It is just on the other side of the huge columns as you coming from the gates. Keep walking past where everyone is lined up. And guess what? I was right… I’m pretty sure this saved us a fair bit of time, as when we got out, the luggage from our flight was JUST coming onto the carousel and no one from our flight had come out yet. HK airport is extremely well organized, clean and easy to navigate. We bought tickets for a Hotelink bus that would take us directly to our hotel. 140 HK each.

This might be corny but I absolutely LOVED being on a bus coming into Hong Kong. Yes the Airport Express train is a lot faster but you miss the amazing views along the way. It is such an impressive ride from the airport. That bridge is amazing as well.
Check in into The Fleming Hotel (recommended in my Hong Kong Luxe Guide as a good budget choice in the Wan Chai area -- why did we want to stay in the Wan Chai area? I'll get that in a minute) for the first few days as my friends were meeting us there for the weekend. My friends were using Hyatt points to stay at the Grand Hyatt and The Fleming was the nicest budget hotel I could find in Wan Chai. The Fleming is a small boutique hotel but the location is not very nice, as you step outside the doors and you are literally greeted with an onramp to the freeway. We had booked an executive room which came with a small kitchenette and generous square footage. The ladies-only floor is also a nice touch. The room somehow lacked the "homey touches" of a hotel. But then again it’s hard to be fair when we are literally comparing it to the Grand Hyatt.

In terms of staying in Wan Chai, we were charmed. It has an "old Hong Kong" feel to it and there are plenty of great restaurants nearby.

That night, we went to JJ’s in the Grand Hyatt for drinks and a late dinner/snacks. The music was awful and the drinks were a bit of a disappointment. But we were too tired and jet-lagged to really care.

Note on the Grand Hyatt: our friends had a corner pool view room. The rooms were very nice as to be expected at any Hyatt. Because of their diamond status, they were on the Club floor which gave them access to the Club lounge (appetizers, desserts, and an open bar). Our friends could invite us as their guests for about 200 HKD each, but we all agreed that was good value, considering the free flow Moet and a great selection of spirits. The appetizers/desserts provided were probably the best I have seen at any hotel club lounge and every night the selection was different. The Lounge has a beautiful view at night (albeit, the "wrong side of the Harbour"... not as visually stunning as the view from say the Peninsula or the Intercontinental on the Kowloon side) out of their floor to ceiling windows.

Location of the Hyatt is not really great unless you are attending an event at the nearby conference centre. It is a good 10-15 min walk to the Wan Chai subway station and slightly less to the Wan Chai ferry terminal coming from Kowloon. In terms of location, many of the other five star hotels on Hong Kong island side like the Four Seasons or the Mandarin Oriental would be better.