Causeway Bay

On Thursday October the 6^th, I went back to Hong Kong since I still had off for National Week and I went back because I wanted to go to the other racecourse in HK called Happy Valley. Happy Valley usually runs their races at night so I left in the morning and would spend the day in and around the Causeway Bay area for two reasons. First, it’s close to the hotel I was staying at and second, it’s also close to the racecourse. I will discuss the racecourse in the next post.

I got to Causeway Bay around noon. Causeway Bay is a built-up area. It’s busy with tons of shopping, restaurants, & nightlife. It’s a pretty cool place. A lot going on. There’s also trolleys here which is cool.

I wanted to have an Indian buffet for lunch and I was kind of walking around sightseeing and then I found one. It was called Rang Mahal and it was located upstairs in what appeared to be a dumpy building but I walked in and walked up the very dingy stairs and peeped in the doorway. I think this restaurant was a converted apartment or something. A lady worker saw me. There were maybe ten tables to sit and maybe two of them had patrons. I thought that’s a good sign, people eating here. I asked do you have a buffet? They did. I looked over the items and told her I would eat here. I think the buffet was like $78 HKD (~ $10 USD) which included your drink. Not bad considering it’s HK. There was the usual vegetarian fare that I know. She brought out nan. It was good. Not great but probably better than average. I would go back again if I was in the area. A new couple came in while I was eating and then a few Indians came in afterwards for the buffet. So I thought it cannot be that bad if people are coming into this joint. One of the pics below is an outside shot of the restaurant. The restaurant is on the second floor with the yellow signs on the windows.

 

After lunch I strolled around a little more, and then I headed to my hotel to check-in before heading back out for a night at the races. Hotel check-in I think was around 2 and I got to the hotel around 3:30p. The hotel was just 1 subway stop from where I was. The hotel is called L Hotel Causeway Bay Harbour V, I know long name. I tried to check-in but was informed the room was still not ready and that I needed to wait like a half-hour. A little disappointing I thought but then he said I could use the internet for free while I wait. No problem I told him. Surfing never does me any harm. He apologized a lot. A half-hour later he came back, very apologetic and very friendly as usual – that’s how Hong Kong workers roll I feel – and he told me I was getting upgraded to a suite at no additional cost. Sweet, I thought! I’ll wait a half-hour every time for an upgrade. With anticipation, I went up the elevator to view this room. It was very, very nice as the pics show. Two TVs, two bathrooms, tub, robe, living room, separate bedroom, nice views, etc. The hotel was very nice and right across from the subway. Has a bar, restaurant, roof pool, etc.

I left the hotel around 5 to go to Happy Valley. But before I got there, I stopped at this little street stall/vendor called Ying Heong Yuen to get a light snack and I ordered a vegetarian sweet & sour skewer. It was probably the only vegetarian option they had. Don’t ask me what it was. If I had to guess, I would say it was made from wheat gluten but don’t hold me to that. It was a little too chewy but it was good. It was very cheap and I would probably get one again.

I then walked about 15 minutes to the track…