Hong Kong: Mar 13: Chinese Banquets and Wan Chai

I took pictures this day. They cover the day in more depth than this blog post does.

Di Yin also took pictures. The latter link goes to the first picture from this day (picture #11) in her album from this trip. When you see a picture of Di Yin, her parents, and me in a tram at night (picture #71), you're done with her pictures for the day.

In the morning, Di Yin and I took a short walk around Kowloon hunting for breakfast, mostly stopping by sites I'd already visited (and so won't discuss again), then returned to hang out with one of Di Yin's dad's cousins.

He brought us to lunch, first by subway across the harbor to Hong Kong island, then a taxi the rest of the way. The taxi took us by a large cemetery, my first glimpse of one in Hong Kong. (It's actually the "Hong Kong Cemetery" but was formerly known, due to its location, rather inappropriately as the "Hong Kong Happy Valley Cemetery.")

We ate lunch along with one of the cousin's kids and family at the Happy Valley Jockey Club's restaurant. It was an excellent meal. Most items were one of the best renditions of their respective dishes that I've seen. I wasn't surprised: when I asked around the previous month, two unconnected people (one was B) told me the best place to eat in Hong Kong was the Happy Valley Jockey Club, but it's members only so it'd be hard for me to eat there. By great luck, I happened to get a meal there without even trying! (Di Yin's dad's cousin is a member.)

After lunch, Di Yin and I took the bus down to the neighborhood of Wan Chai, her for shopping and me for general exploration. Because I had only 1.5 hours to explore, I got to see only part of Wan Chai. Here's my walking route for this part.

This part of Wan Chai has many street markets... I just kept stumbling across them. I also found Queen's Road East, which seems to be devoted to home furnishings. The most stimulating part of the district, however, was on Lockhart Road. Formerly a red light district, it's now an edgy nightlife spot. I wrote down some of the names of bars on two blocks: Devils Advocate, Crazy Horse, Heat, Dog House, Club Venus, Amazonia. (There were more but I got bored of writing down provocative names.) Farther on, I found a block that remains a red light district, filled with girlie bars. Oddly, the next block quickly transitioned to kitchen and bathroom equipment (faucets, piping, tiles, etc.)--no more nightlife at all.

Incidentally, one walking map I had of this area included an interesting map showing where the district's coastline was during various years. (See page two.) The coastline has moved a lot.

Di Yin and I met up again and took a tram that wiggled across the island to the Western District, where we re-joined Di Yin's parents and some other family friends for dinner. Dinner was at Star Seafood Restaurant (Ming2 Xing1 Seafood Restaurant) and was also quite good (but not amazing, like lunch). We then returned, via tram and subway, to our hotel.