What mosquito bites look like in HK

Another week gone by

Another week has gone by. As usual, this involved copius amounts of food and drink. Most notably sushi 2 nights in row! We were invited for drinks one night by a collegue of Morné, Josephine. She invited her brother, Aaron and his girlfriend, Angel along. He also plays guitar and she thought that he would get along with Morné. The night initially started out as a nachos and marguarita evening. Until Josephine mentioned the half-price-after-10 sushi place in Causeway Bay. We arrived by taxi at about 22h30 and were greeted by a massive queue! Ack! So we waited. We were finally let in after 11 and our companions wasted no time in ordering. We had so much sushi! By the time we left there, it was past 12h30 and had to get a taxi home. Morne was still full the next day.

In other news I FINALLY got a job. I now work for a maternity and baby specialist company as an administrator. Nothing exciting but it’s money in the bank. Plus it’s on the island.
Also managed to get an apartment. It’s in Sheung Wan which is on the western side of the island. The apartment is in a beautiful new building overlooking the harbour. All of the rooms have a sea view which is very sought after. We were very lucky. The place is newly done, open plan kitchen and the building has a clubhouse with gym and pool table. We’ll be moving in 3 weeks time. We can’t wait! We were really worried about finding a suitable place.

Today we are on Lantau. We heard of the only South African restaurant in HK and decided to visit. It’s on a seperate islan which you can reach by ferry or train. Then a bus or taxi. The restaurant is called The Stoep ( the porch) and is literally on the beach. They have a great veranda. Morné had the biggest meal on the menu- the full braai/ BBQ. This included a sheep chop, steak, chicken and boerewors ( sausage). I had the BBQ chicken. Both came with lovely potatoes and a green salad. We also had some freshly baked farmhouse bread ( still warm) and a bottle of Springfield Estate white. We’re sitting here watching the locals swim. Oh and just 5 minutes ago two massive oxen just walked across the beach!! Very random. I’ll post so some pics later when we are home. I think we will definitely be back! Morné also stood on a cute little crab. I told him to stop chasing it because it was very small and exactly the same colour as the sand. He wouldn’t listen. And now the little crab is dead. Men!! We’re on our way home now through jungle hills on a very full and slow bus.
Ps. Did I say it’s 34 degrees and VERY high humidity.
Pss. When you see photos, you’ll notice the humidity in the air. It looks foggy and cold. It’s not cold at all. It’s steaming hot. At least we didn’t get a sunburn today.

Engrish

This is so funny. Sometimes I need to look at chinese websites. Now, obviously its all in chinese characters. So I use a website called Babelfish. You type in the website address and Babelfish translates the whole website. Thing is, you get the MOST horrible translations! I now understand why we see so many examples of bad english in Hong Kong.

For example, I was looking at a Japanese website – of course a knitting website. I punched it into Babelfish and this is what came out:

From midst of the one which you apply, in first-come 500 name the special present!

Crochet needle [a] seeing

The work making everyone and others, learns the crochet needle [a] straw raincoat basis pleasantly, it is lecture for the beginner. The wind atelier, the Kawai true bow, the work 20 point due to Sachiyo*Fukao and 3 popularity writers (the muffler and the blanket, you have explained in detail), with text and DVD animated picture such as hat, bag, sweater and tunic.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!  The muffler and the blanket you have explained in detail??? No wonder I see T shirts saying Love my balls?!?! Or a shop called Fanny Florist!!!

The chinese

I thought I’d give my observations of Chinese people in general.
They are very well connected. If you need anything, they will always know someone who is a banker/ printer/ tailor. And they are very happy to share their connections with you.
They place great value on business cards. If you don’t have one, you can’t be very important.
Chinese men have very little hair. Their arms are smoother than mine! Virtually no chest hair anywhere. Except for Morné of course.
They love seafood in any form. Fish, cuttlefish, shellfish. In soups, sliced, fried. As fresh as possible. Many restaurants have fishtanks in them and you get to pick the fish that you want to eat! Yikes. Literally staring dinner in the face.
They work hard. They are very few people doing nothing. You see old people in every street collecting cardboard. If they return it to the refuse department, they are paid per kilogram collected. Some of these people must be at least 70-75 years old but still pushing heavy trolleys full of paper up steep hills. Very strong people. I wonder if it’s the diet. I even saw an old man who takes the broken umbrellas out of bins and fixes them.
I never see anyone eating chocolate. They have natural sweets like red bean cakes or mango pudding. So much more healthier than chocolate. I haven’t had a chocolate in ages! They also prefer cold drinks like bubble tea than coffee.
The babies are cute! Kids are very well behaved and quiet.
To be continued…

Shopping

Last weekend I had another first. Bubble tea. At first I wasn’t. So sure but since it was bought for me, I had no choice. Josephine, a very nice local girl, took me out shopping for the day. We had a good long day out in Mongkok looking at hidden shopping malls full of little Chinese teenagers milling about. Of course I love Hello Kitty and so does Josephine so she knew all the good places to go for that! We even saw Hello Kitty pots and pans which got me very excited! BUT I don’t think Morné would appreciate me coming home with cats on our pots and pans! Haha! For a break, Josephine suggested a local tea house. This is where she told me about bubble tea and bought me some. Basically it’s a cold milky tea, flavoured, in a tall milkshake glass. And the ‘bubble’ bit is in the form of huge balls of black sago in the bottom of the glass. You get a really thick straw and suck up these marbles of sago. They are very chewy and don’t really taste of anything. In the beginning I wasn’t so sure about the bubble tea but after a while you get the hang of the sucking technique( no jokes people) and actually like it! Jo also ordered some thick toast. These are 2 thick slices of bread, stacked on top of each other and has a topping on top, not inside. We had a green tea topping. Again, I thought that this was just wrong! Who puts toppings onthr outside of 2 pieces of toast?! But once you take a bite, it’s actually quite nice. I was the only gweilo( Westerner) in the place and did get a few stares. But who cares huh? I had a great day!

What a typhoon looks like

Stanley

Last Sunday we decided to go Stanley. Stanley is on the other side of Hong Kong island. It’s a seaside town with a market and promenade. We took a bus from TST which took about 1 hour. Though there is probably a quicker way to get there. The bus ride basically followed the coastline anti-clockwise. We drove through Pok Fu Lam and Repulse bay. The latter is a very popular local beach. It reminds me of Campsbay a bit. Wide stretch of beach with fire pits for BBq’s. There were tons of people at Repulse Bay. Anyway, our bus trundled along the hillside past pink mansions and Spanish copy houses, all hidden by trees. What surprised us the most was how green it is there. Lots of trees. Or really feels like a tropical island. With Campsbay you have a bare rocky mountain in the background. In Hong Kong you have a hillside covered in trees- almost jungle-like.
So we arrived in Stanley. As usually, you reach the beach by having to walk through a whole shopping centre first. This is quite common in HK. And then you emerge onto the promenade. The first thing you see is the sea.

Stanley

Then the massive structure of Murray House.

Murray House

Murray House was origionally located at the other side of the island in Central. The HK government have a terrible track record for preserving old buildings and if the money is right, any old historical building will be knocked down to make way for a glittering skyscraper. Luckily for Murray House, someone had a conscience. But the land had been sold and Murray House had to go. So the only alternative was to number every single brick of the building, take it apart and place it in storage until it can be reassembled again at some stage.

Look for the numbers in white

Unfortunately, the numbered the blocks on the outside on the plastic and with the humid conditions in storage, the numbers rubbed off! Disaster! It was then decided to move Murray House to Stanley and the painstaking task began of putting the building back together the way it was. In the end, they managed quite well except for 6 massive pillars. They couldn’t figure out where they were meant to go. And so just plonked them in front of the building. Haha!

6 Pillars

We were so hot and decided to go for proper fish and chips at a restaurant under the umbrellas and finished that off with some Pimms. Mmmm….. We also explored the market which is a maze of little stalls selling everything.

Lanterns

Big Banyan tree

I even got a nice top for a few dollars. We ended the day with a nice stroll along the seafront.

Statues

Beach

Lunch with the locals.

Lunch with the locals.

We were invited for lunch today by Morné’s work collegue, Josephine. She wanted to take us for a dim sum lunch. We were taken into a building with no indication that there was a restaurent anywhere. We emerged from the lift into a very noisy lobby. The place is massive! Huge round tables everywhere with turn tables and the noise!! So loud! This place is so local that Josephine had to order for us. There is no English menu. With dim sum you order lots of little plates or bamboo baskets of food morsels which is placed on the turntable. You then spin it around to get the food you want. Jo ordered the following:
-steamed bbq pork buns
-steamed egg yolk buns. These are called moving sand buns in Chinese. It has a grainy texture on the inside.
-pork dim sum
-prawn dim sum
-rice pasta prawn dim sum
-whole chopped up chicken
I can’t remember the rest. It was devine. And of course all the Chinese tea you can drink. Because we were gwailo( westerners), the waiters kept trying to get Jo to order the most expensive dishes but she’s local and cleverer than that! In all, it only cost HK$200 for 5 people ( R200 or £18).

Videos from Beer Fest

Week ending 10 July Part 3

All I will say is…..

Lan Kwai Fong Beer Festival

Morne was looking forward to this all week!! Its a 2 day event held in Lan Kwai Fong. There are loads of stalls with beer and food. The first thing you see when you get there is this….

A yard of beer

Morne throroughly enjoyed them!!

Every beerstall had chinese promo girls with tiny little dresses and inflatable sticks. They were really cute and had to pose for many, MANY photos.

Promo girls

You could also get some burgers in various sizes.

Burgers

But of course, Morne swears by Atomic Patty-the best burgers in LKF.

Atomic Patty Burgers! Yum!

Oh and did I say that the yard of beer came with a strap that you could hang around your neck. So you don’t have to carry your beer. It hangs around your neck. Brilliant!!

I’m sure we’ll go again next year!!