The next day, on Sunday, October 2nd, before I would head back to China that evening, I spent my time in the Lan Kwai Fong and Soho neighborhoods of downtown Hong Kong. I took the subway to Central station. It took approximately 40 minutes from my hotel to get to downtown.
I was here the prior night but I wanted to spend more time here and see the place during the day. It was drizzling & raining off and on so that put a little damper on the day. Lan Kwai Fong is one of the premier restaurant and entertainment districts of HK. It’s a popular area for expats with many drinking, clubbing, and eating options. There were indeed many expats. For the first time since my arrival in China, I could go through a full day outside in public without the constant stares.
I was hungry for lunch and was trying to find an Indian buffet but had no such luck finding any (I have since). So I found this small little Chinese restaurant. The restaurant had a menu in English on the inside glass. By peering at it from outside, I noticed there were some vegetarian options so I decided to eat there. I had a cold appetizer of spiced tofu. Since it was raining a little, I thought I would order a hot dish of vegetarian dumplings with noodles. And boy was it hot; you can see the steam in the picture. Both were good & fairly cheap.
After lunch, I went to the Hong Kong Brew House nearby and had an expensive beer (they're all expensive) and watched rugby (that’s all they were showing).
After the beer, I continued walking around while darting in and out of little alley ways. There were all sorts of little stalls/carts of people selling all type of stuff. You can find a lot of neat items in these types of shady places. As you can see from the one pic below, I found this little vendor selling different types of tofu all over her tables (even had some hanging). I wanted to buy some so bad but there was no way I was going to carry that back home and go through immigration.
I continued exploring and headed to the nearby district of Soho. Soho is cool too and is also an entertainment area. There are restaurants, bars, nightclubs, art galleries, and antique stores. Soho, as well as Lan Kwai Fong, is hilly. What are unique about Soho are its mid-level escalators that go up the hills right through town. Instead of walking up the streets that are hills (which you can), you just jump on the escalators like you’re in a mall but they’re just outside instead of inside. It’s free too. Pretty cool. There are all sorts of restaurants, cafes, and bars surrounding the escalators. I stopped at a couple bars in this area too before leaving to go back home. Some of the pics below were taken from inside a bar. As you can see from the one pic, they use bamboo for their scaffolding.
The last pics are of a cool little Mao store. The guy was selling the same little red Mao books of which I had bought one while in Beijing. I think this guy wanted like $60 HKD for one. I probably paid like $10/$15 while in Beijing. They try to rip people off everywhere. As I mentioned earlier, Hong Kong is very expensive but very cool. I love HK.
loved all the signs. #13 pic with all the international food. the maple leaf canad.flag. you could get a slurpee at 7-11...wellington st for the duke of wellington.habibi cafe for mid east food...black grouse restaurant sounds like eng. food and great sign. the eng. do the best rest/pu/tavern signs in the world. cuban food at havana exp...indian food at taste better curry! Mao's store looks cool. the big sq chinese coin with the sq cut out. why is it so big? The bamboo is so cool. The alley ways are really narrow and congested and the rain put a damper on things. I think HK does get a lot of rain.The vendor selling all the tofu and stuff =too bad your apt is so far away and all the border stuff. If you had a little cooler with you can you bring fresh food from HK back into the mainland>? i know you cannot send any food out of the country as an individual.It is as shoppers paradise China. Looking through all the little curios and odds and ends. I would go to the thrift stores and look for older type antiquiy things. BIG sign on 41 in Sarasota...they are DESPARATE for Chinese antiques!!!Again, kinda of cluttery but love all the colorful chinese banners. Colors have to be important to them.Feng shui most likely.Good blog. Dumplings looked good and hot. Love love my food hot................
ReplyDeleteThis is Duke. Greg, do you know if Soho stands for something? As an example in NYC, Soho stands for South of Houston St.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's short for South of Hollywood Rd.
ReplyDeleteAll SO interesting Greg!! Thank you! Noticed a Ben & Jerry's there. Incredible looking down on the city as you make your way up the hillside.
ReplyDeleteYou write quite a blog!! And love the way you throw in your sense of humor.....that adds so much, it is never boring!! You must have named the kids Ellen and Jack~they are cute. Look mischievous like US kids~
Drinking in LKF is always fun but it is also fairly expensive. lan kwai fong bars
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