海味的味道 － 香港岛 Jun 2015

Ibis Hotel - Harbour View

It was the second time that we decided to stay at the opposite side of Kowloon i.e. Hong Kong Island. This time, we stayed at the Island throughout as my wife mentioned that our trip was all focused on the island itself. Good plan, really. Quite excited too as it was our second trip to eat and see what we didn't manage to squeeze in our last trip. 

We stayed at Ibis Hotel. Got a harbour view room and read that we need to make sure the windows were not tinted. Got a short story about the room - first room was too hot with the aircon full blast, and decided to change room. Fortunately, we did and the second room was really cool with air con. Not a good service from Ibis initially though the room was clean and overall ok. 

Our hotel location was right next to "dried seafood street". We didn't realise it was next to our favourite dried seafood shop. So near and yet so far the last round trying to find the shop.  The view was good but we felt that we loved the YMCA view better. Not sure why. The YMCA view has lots of fond memories. Also could see the lights at 8pm I guess. 

We woke up earlier one day to explore the streets. My wife liked the smell of the dried seafood. Once we smelled the smell, we knew we were near the hotel haha - this was how we recognise our hotel when we "tram" back. Like a snoopy? Haha. The early morning saw shopkeepers preparing the seafood. Workers shifting baskets of stuff in and out. Policemen patrolling the street just like typical TVB shows. 

I read that some shops had purposely put their seafood out on the roads to dry and this affected the traffic flow. Interesting habit but would it affect the seafood that we were buying? 

We really saw some seafoods out in the streets doing suntan. Caught one such photo of a group of abalone. Wonder how it taste like when dried. My wife likes this photo as it is a pattern of abalone. Hmm, I used to play with patterns in my photo taking. But I didn't practise much nowadays. For me, I treasure the experiences in touring, and it doesn't matter if I didn't manage to capture it on my EOS 7D.

As it was Summer Days, it was really hot walking out the street. Couldn't bear the heat and have to go back bathe after a short walk. It was really hotter than Singapore. My wife didn't like to travel during summers, but I usually "forced" her to do so. This time, I lost my brown itinerary book - the Muji Book - and I was still trying to find it even till now. Glimpse of hope or it has been recycled?

Night Harbour View, IBIS Hotel

One night, I happened to be more energetic. While my wife was reading and surfing, I decided to play with my camera and night view. It has been a long time since I did so. Trying to trace the track of ships - some from cheung chau, some from macau - oh, forgot to mention Ibis is near to the HK-Macau Ferry terminal. A tram bus stop away only and it is a plus point for Ibis. 

I probably stayed at the windows trying to capture the view for about an hour? Playing with 7D and remembering the basics. It has been a long time. My passion for photography has not been as strong as before. It was however an enjoyable night photography in a way, hiding in the harbour view room with air con. Streets were quiet but there were still cars moving. Hong Kong Island was relatively quiet at night as compared to Kowloon. 

Quiet Hong Kong Island. Good night, Island. Good night, Ibis. 

影帝的故乡 － 南丫岛 Apr 2015

南丫岛 

Lamma Island - it has been one of my to-do lists in Hong Kong for a while. However, we ended up going to Chang Cheau Island usually. This time, we were in a way "forced" to go Lamma Island as there were long long queues going to Chang Cheau Island due to the super super LWE in Hong Kong. 

Read from Internet that it was the hometown of 发哥. Interestingly, there are boats going to two different points of the island.  People usually travel from Ying Shue Wan to Sok Kwu Wan.  According to guidebook, there is a very famous seafood restaurant known as Rainbow Restaurant at Sok Kwu Wan. Due to ferry schedule and super long queue for Ying Shue Wan, we did the other way - Going to Sok Kwu Wan first. 

Rainbow Restaurant

Similar to TVB, we saw water tanks here and there at the rows of seafood restaurants. Rainbow was there too but it was still early and hence we decided not to feast first. It was a mistake - a costly one for us when we decided to eat at another restaurant at Ying Shue Wan. 

碗仔糕

We got some instant noodles and chicken wings at 茶餐厅, and also tried the granny's 碗仔糕。We like to eat such HK's version of chee kueh - though it is sweet. Our first try was at Chang Cheau Island, and this kueh is usually made of red beans - sweet taste. Very traditional way of enjoying HK's sweet goodies.  

Open-Air Seating 

It was quite a hot day and we wondered if we were going to trek. It supposed to be an hour trek up and down.  Thinking that since we were here already, we did our trek anyway. 

The trek started along the street with many vendors sending local goodies and souvenirs.  A stall selling sauce caught my dear's attention - we bought one bottle and not sure when we would be using it. I rem we got one dry fish sauce in Venice, and we didn't use it. I actually thought the sauce quite strange-looking but we bought it as my dear seemed to like it.  This time, the sauce dun have "dried fish" in it - more presentable and not sure if we are going to use it. First souvenir at Lamma Island. 

Walking straight past the stall landed us around a parade square facing a temple. Many island visitors make it their second stop, I supposed. It seems to be very historical building and not forgetting it was "Tomb Sweep" festival, many would go temple I suppose.  People living on island like Chang Cheau Island and even Macau have these temples for sea-faring villagers. 

Chinese Temple 

We took some photos at the parade square as it has a good background view of the sea and mountains. The temperature seemed to be rising as it was around late morning and noon. As not well prepared, we still have a bottle of water for the trek.  We wondered why no boats from one point to the other point? 

There were some houses along the trek up - looked like typical old houses but still clean.  We chanced upon a tree known to be the perfect habitat for silkworm. Initially, we didn't know and we heard from visitors that the leaves were 桑叶 . What interests us were the "blue-berry" looking fruits - purple coloured ones and my dear wanted to put one into her mouth. Did a quick check and realised they were 桑果 and the english name is "mulberry". My dear said it is good to have me around so that I can stop her from trying "risky" stuff - we weren't sure if the fruit was edible. Not one visitors put them into their mouths - so better to play safe.  Didn't know the fruit is known as mulberry! Did we chance upon them in Germany Berlin too?

农妇

Moving further up - we passed by a cave and a small beach. The cave should have bats so we didn't venture in. Some foreigners were swimming and playing at the small beach and here was where my dear was "splashed" with water by a wet doggy.  My dear said the owner still joked that she was afraid of doggy.  

A elderly farmer was doing some serious farming. There was a series of colourful eggs tied to a rope - some visitors assumed that they were easter eggs (It was Easter LWE as well). I thought the eggs were "scarecrows" effect instead? It is quite refreshing to eat the crops that you grow. Really organic like what my dear say. We were already quite overjoyed when we ate our homegrown limes. Haha. We thought the auntie would say something to us as we stood there observing her for a while - we would be friendly and more sociable when we were overseas. Or at least for me as I am usually quite quiet.

My dear told me that there would be a very famous bead curd stall operating along the trail. Definitely must try try then - so whenever we spotted some stalls - we would double check if it was the stall. However, they were either selling drinks or pineapples (cold one which they put in freezer). Still no sign of the bead curd when we reached somewhere like a resting point - a pavilion. From the pavilion, you could also see three tall chimneys which some trekkers said "三柱香”。 The path from the pavilion was easier and downslope.  It took about another 30 mins and we finally reached ground "floor" and a very very busy beach.  

We were greeted by a bean curd stall and we tried the hot bean curd though we were sweating and hot. The seller said his bean curd 不冷不热。 Nothing special. After the short rest, we slowly strolled out to the pier and OOPS! A queue for "Ah Por" 豆腐花！ The queue was besides a drain and okay, got to try. Besides the smell, there were big mozzies and my only miserable insect repellent patch seemed to be ineffective. My dear however was waiting for me at another corner seat and I was worried if she was "attacked" by the commando mozzies or not. Bought two bowls after about 20mins queue - already gotten more than two big bites. It was nice and the taste was difficult to describe. Grumpy me due to the bites, I didn't take pics of the bean curd. 

On the way to the pier to find makan, my dear was very lovely and bought some "special oil" from a street vendor for me to apply. Sensing my impatience, she quickly ran over to me and apply the oil on the big bites.   Soothing on the skin, warming in the heart.  

Special Entry by Dear: We didn't do enough research and we went to a seafood restaurant which supposed to be very famous at Ying Shue Wan. We had sought to know something was not quite right when they refused to show us the menu and instead, forced us to pick the live seafood. They also separated us (wife to sit at table and husband to pick the live seafood). Turned out the husband didn't get to pick the live seafood at all. They merely asked him to pick the type of seafood and asked him to go back to sit. Thereafter they asked us to confirm if we were okay with the prices. We "picked" urine prawns and they chose 2 sets of pairs of the urine prawns for me. One pair was the jumbo size and the other pair was the "normal" size. Again, they only allowed one (the wife) of us to go and see what they chose for us. Shocked at the exorbitant prices, we settled on the "normal" size. This pair of urine prawns, one small bunch of bamboo clams and one plate of normal stir-fry vegetables cost us around SGD$170! Luckily we didn't order "big fish big meat". Else goodness know how much. Subsequently we read some reviews and realised this place had v bad reviews, even among locals. 

Guess my wife and I still prefer small and cozy version of seafood. Simple and easy to order menu. Not sure if we would go back Lamma to try other stalls. But this experience taught us not to order by "fish tank" and by "weight". 

山泉水和西洋菜的童话 － 荃湾川龙村 Apr 2015

Dragon Stream Village - according to our magazine guidebook - it is one of the oldest village in Hong Kong. (Yup, such thing interests us). With a very tight schedule, we decided to visit it as one of our new experiences in HK - sacrificing known places that we intended to visit.  It was not a long way to reach the village (about 20 mins from TST to 荃湾, then 小巴 to village).

川龙村

We got a bit confused trying to find the bus stop and bus, and walked to a wet market area asking around. One auntie told us the "locations" of taking the small bus and gosh, it was long long queue with police maintaining lane discipline. We were looking for bus 80 and it was luckily not so long queue - apparently, it was tomb sweeping holidays and many of these buses go to "mountains" - 行山。Surprisingly, the street to take the bus was called 川龙 street. Looked like the 元朗。The journey up was okay, and we sat right in front behind the driver - he was playing some Canto Oldies - dunno if my dear was listening though.  About another 20 mins ride, we reached at 川龙村。 

饮茶

彩龙茶楼

The first thing that we saw was this teahouse 彩龙茶楼 - it supposes to be very good and famous. Really look like those TVB shows? We went to explore how to order our tea and food - my dear dear was the advanced party and she went looking around.  We managed to find a round table - and I waited for a while for her to come back with "report". She told me tea has to DIY - hmm - I would go try as I dun wan to sit there waiting for my dear to serve me - not my style.  She brought back some glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves and dim sum.  Okay, my turn.  Acting like a local. 

The kitchen and ordering area was at basement. It was really very noisy and buzz with people - I "monkey see monkey do" - went to wash the teapot with steaming water. - I washed a few round to kill germs. There were a row of tea leaves. And I use the scoop to put some tea leaves in (I think I choose 普洱) and pour in the hot steaming water. I then poured out the first pour and then fill the pot with hot water and proceeding up to level 1 where we were seated. I then made a few trips to get chopsticks, cups and dim sum - thinking what to take at times. Quite nice. Quite an experience - a Hong Kong local experience.  One family (the mama, daughter and likely future son-in-law) sat with us 搭台。 My dear said the mama asked how come we knew the place. I guessed we were likely the only tourists there that day. Hee Hee. While we were about 75% full, my dear gave me the "go ahead" to go get some dim sum I liked - okay, I went to choose char skew bun and chee cheong fun (kosong one) with peanut and sweet sauce.  My dear dear gave big rolling eyes and yes, we could not finish. Too full with all the "white stuff" of the same types - she said - should mix with variety - may be all were of flour? We didn't try the 豆腐花 － it seemed to be very famous too cos of the clear mountain spring water. Gotta try next round. 

我们的点心茶水 － Round 1

After the breakfast Dim Sum, we went around taking photos of the teahouse and people in action. As we were already in the village, I got a feeling that we would be doing some walkabout. My dear dear told me the vegetables that were placed on the plates were 西洋菜 － hmm, another famous thing of this village. Should have tried it too though I dun like the vegetable.  

Walking Osaka History - May14

Osaka Castle

We have seen some posters about Osaka Castle in Osaka and just like Castles in Europe, I usually tried to visit one if I knew there was one in the city we travelled.  The Fukuoka Castle was rather small and under restoration, and we went to Osaka Castle with "slight" reluctance.  The ride to the Castle was smooth, passing by an suburban train station with "daiso"equivalent and the favourable Jap Cake and Sweet shop we liked at Vivo. We saw a couple carrying a huge luggage. They have difficulty depositing it in lockers at the station and they went to the station master for assistance. Not sure if they could leave it there or not. 

The walk to Osaka Castle was serene. We passed by a park and decided to munch our cheese cake. Well, this fabio brand cheese cake appeared to be very famous and  I queued blindly to buy. My dear said the cake was as big as her face and we finished it before going to the Castle. 

It was an interesting castle. It talked about a great conqueror in Osaka. A sad thing was the empire didn't survive after his death and there were warlords attacking his descendants and subjects all over. A painting illustrated the different points of attack and it was there that I spent more time understanding the history. My dear said it was the first time that I spent more time than her in a castle. 

http://www.osakacastle.net/english/history/index.html

We stayed quite near Shinsaibashi - a very long stretch of shopping streets. There was a Daimaru which attracted my dear flocking there. When she spent her time in Daimaru, I would walk around the streets. I saw one Sushi shop - a quite traditional looking one - and wanted to try. First day, we were too late as it closed. On the second day, we purposely visited it and tried. 

本福寿司 

Wow, the feel of Tokyo Sushi Market and the Hokkaido Sushi Market came back. It was juicy again. One thing very different was the "cake-like" sushis. I found it very innovative and nice. We were served by two taiwanese students and they were pursuing studies in Osaka. If I rem correctly, one of them wanted to open bakery once graduated. This cute little sushi shop is very easy to spot and quite near Daimairu.  

http://w3.shinsaibashi.or.jp/tenpodb/profile_e.php?tenpono=48

有点感动。

Coming to Osaka means to see the big "Glico" guy. I have seen it many times on lonely planet and posters. Gotta find it. 

Initially, we walked by the river side trying to trace the road to Dotonbori. There were crossings here and there with long stretches of shopping streets. Very colourful and noisy. We were distracted by the octopus balls - many of them and decided to join one queue to try. "So So" only. Becos of the queue, we have unintentionally detoured and ended up back to the other end of our Shinsaibashi shopping street. Well, my wife went back to Daimaru. For me, I went to find a camera shop to complete a mission. Then, I decided to try my luck to go find the "Glico" guy. It was actually a short 10 minutes walk from Daimaru and I knew I have reached when  I caught a glimpse of the "loud" and "large" lights.  As I wanted to share the surprise moment with my wife, I decided to bring her and watched the "Glico" guy with her. Wanted to surprise her so she just followed blur blur with me.

At last, the "Glico" guy. In a way, it ended our trip in Osaka - like a finishing line and we have just reached the line - this leg of journey. We decided not to rush for early flight tomorrow so we checked out to Airport Hotel to rest. It was a smart move and it was our first tactical move. 

Walking Osaka History - May 14

Okonomiyaki

Osaka - To me, it seems to be another modern city like Tokyo. Tall buildings, busy and crowded trains. Noisy too. Besides the Octopus balls, my dear introduced to me another Osaka delicacy - a pancake called "Okonomiyaki".  Just read that "okonomi" means "to one's liking", and there are two types of Okonomiyaki - Kansai (Osaka) one and Hiroshima one. Hmm, wonder what's the difference. The chef will cook in front of you and you will carry on to slice the pancake for sharing. Quite nice and yummy. Sticky, heaty pancakes. I wonder how did my wife know about this? She seemed to be "well-prepared" for Osaka.

Where did we get to eat this Okonomiyaki?  On an underground food alley.  We actually chanced upon an underground "gem" - it was a food alley. Not too crowded but it was frequented by locals. My wife likes to "mingle" in local stalls. This way, it felt that we could taste the real daily lives of local Osaka people. We met an old man - a soldier we thought - who kept talking to my wife. His English was limited. He called our country in old Japanese term which we weren't quite pleased. He was also travelling and asked us where we were heading and putting up. Well, it was a standing restaurant and quite difficult not to talk to the ones besides you especially if there were the friendly type.

A small episode that we have with this food alley. We passed by this food alley on our night outing to see the "flyer". It was 9 plus and the shops were closed so we wanted to try our luck to locate it again. Well, we lost our way. A bit of pinpointing fault too, haha. Well well, lucky we still found it and thanks to my wife. I have to admit it that she was good in remembering the location though I claimed that both of us were "right" about the way to this food alley. Come to think about it, she remembers places that she wants to visit well.  Other places, she count on her "GPS" who gets lost at times. 

Walking Nozaki History - May 14

Our visit to Japan coincided with the Golden Week. We were a bit cautious and wondered if we would be trapped in crowd or couldn't find tickets on trains or accommodation. Truly, the accommodation was a challenge in city area i.e. Osaka as many people flock to Osaka too. Not sure about the rest. However, being in the Golden Week also allowed us to participate in local festivals - one of which was the Nozaki festival.

We read about the festival especially on the "300" stalls along the stretch leading to the famous temple Jigenji Temple in Nozaki. What amuses us was really the stalls - however, we were worried if the tourist's pamphlets were just "advertisements". There was a blog by a European couple saying that they could only find a couple of stalls when they visited the place during Christmas. Seasonal?

When we took the local train to Nozaki, my wife said there seemed to be many people heading towards the same direction. Well, one of the stops was a University and so the train was pretty crowded Xp. The moment we stepped on Nozaki station, we knew it that it would be "exciting". Families all walking towards the exit. 

Gosh, we were early and the pathway was crowded already. Many colourful stalls lined up all the way uphill to the temple. Japanese traditional music in the air, coupled with laughters of children and shoutings by some stall owners. We appeared to be the only foreigners. Hee.

Some stalls were really colourful. Things they sold were also quite traditional and hardly seen at cities' shopping centres. A variety of stalls and some games for children. It seemed that the stall owners were doing charity work too as they encouraged children to play games to win "fish", and even "chicks".

We saw a young boy who was very gd in catching the goldfish. Using a paper net, he skilfully caught and threw the fish in the bowl. 

 

My favourite stall was the chick stall. I loved to keep chicks at home. I find them very adorable and I rem it was 50cents per chick during my childhood days. My mum, however, disallowed as she asked who would be taking care of the roosters or hens when they grew up. So, we didn't keep any - except once when we were doing school project and each pupil took turn to keep the chicks we bought together using class fund. My eyes beamed for a while watching the kids catching or hooking the chick up, and we stayed there a while.

My wife, however was more interested in another stall - the "surprise" gift bag shop. Red-coloured bags for the girls and blue ones for the boys. Kids would choose the bag by paying a token of money. My wife was standing there with her sweet corn observing how a group of girls choosing and opening their bags. Some were excited and some were not. Haha. The person manning the stall was a young chap. Maybe that also explained why only girls flocked to the stall, haha. 

We "meandered" our way up to the temple, passing by some makan stalls. Steep stairs ahead and up we climbed. The temple was also crowded. 

Besides the temple, there were a singing performance and we were absorbed in the nice song and music, totally "feel" the atmosphere of the festival. I guessed my wife was touched by the strong atmosphere. 感动！ 

Up at the temple, there was also a magic performance but the magicians' music box appeared to be having some technical glitches. So, no performance yet. I was afraid to be arrowed to help so asked my wife to see the stalls nearby. That's when we saw spider and the macaron coin purse. Too bad we didn't take a picture of the purse (my wife lost it in SGP).  The stall was manned by a group of old japanese aunties who could manage to speak a bit of English. They were surprised that we were foreigners - guessed they didn't expect to see foreigners coming to squeeze in this festival? We bought a macaron from them and my wife loved it. 

We saw two uncles sitting up a slope enjoying forest side chat. Japanese were well known for long lives, and they must have gone through tough war times and lots of experiences to share. Getting away from the crowd and climbing up the slope to see the wide angle view of the city of Nozaki. What a way to relax for the folks of Nozaki.

So fun to catch the festival with my wife. It's an unforgettable experience. Truly Japanese style on 3 May 14. My wife even carried her "Made In Japan" Hello Kitty bag when she went to this festival. With her long dress, and my "Japanese" look, no wonder we could blend in nicely without people thinking that we weren't locals. 

Walking Kyoto History - May 14

Kinkaku

Kyoto - To me, it used to mean a lot of UNESCO temples and sites. I have tried to use the tourist map to catch as many temples as I could during my last solo trip to Kyoto. I ended up visiting some key ones - just like trying to see all the exhibits in European museums. This time, we decided to see a few UNESCO temples and try our luck to meet any Geisha. 

The first temple was the "Golden" Kinkaku. During my last trip, it was under restoration. I told my dear this was one of the temples I liked. The reflection and the surrounding. Of cos, as we were in the start of the Golden Week, we didn't have lots of space. Bumped into a Russian couple and a Russian guide who helped take a few of our photos with the Kinkaku in the background. One of the photos became our iMAC wallpaper.

With the Kinkaku, we moved off to the silver Ginkaku. 

Ginkaku

This Ginkaku, a bit "moody" as compared to Kinkaku. It still worths a visit. We climbed up the slope to get a panoramic view of the temple in the forest. Wondering how it will look like in the flowering season - Autumn. Wow.

It was drizzling the day and we managed to cover the outdoor sites before heading down to the Old Streets. It should be interesting like the old streets in old japanese shows/movies with Samurais walking around and Geishas moving quickly for appointments.  

We saw quite a few ladies in kimono but they were not Geishas of cos. Walking through the old streets, we chanced upon a theatre where we could pay to see a performance by a real Geisha! Without much hesitation, we queued and used up our fund (No visas/masters allowed for payment). Gosh, lucky we were not very hungry then. The queue was relatively long with a lot of tourists from tour group. I can't rem the amount per person but the theatre looked like the one in Hanoi showing water puppets. Free seating and we took the second row.  Dunno why I just dun like to be in the first row, be in exam or performance. 

There were a series of shows including "imperial" dance, performance by a young geisha. Initially, we thought the focus was on the geisha's performance. However, the last show involved a very skilful puppet master who played his puppets skilfully. This one really attracted my dear who had put 100% attention. 

I didn't realise she was enjoying the "art" so much. For me, my attention span was dropping as hunger was kicking in slowly. When she told me it was superb, I decided to do some imitation of the moves to entertain her - obviously she wasn't impressed. 

Though some "arts" may have lost their attractiveness, we understand that the Geisha's lifestyle is still being pursued. They are a mysterious group who would only show up by appointments and it isn't easy to secure an appointment unless you have some acquaintances. Hmm. This makes them mysterious. The Geishas' training is not easy too as shown in the documentary in the queuing area. Tough work. I told myself maybe next Kyoto trip, we can try to see if we could have an appointment to understand more about the Geisha's life. 

We wanted to dine along the river with the backdrop of old japanese streets.  However, many of the "shops" were in Japanese and seem to be fully "booked". We ended up eating grilled food in a small restaurant before catching our bus and train back to Osaka. 

Beppu has onsen, Kyoto has geishas and temples. Maybe that's why we like to travel to Japan with its richness and uniqueness.