NeoPatrick in Asia -- a report as it happens (sort of)
Aug 27th, 2010 | 07:45 PM
#61
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 774
Likes: 0
What a wonderful report! Thank you, NeoPatrick. You've made Chongqing come alive for us. We were in Beijing at the beginning of July, and Shanghai at the end, so have especially enjoyed your reports from there too. My DH also has white hair, and was always being approached especially by young teenagers (with their parents) to talk to and have photos taken with. He loved it!
We successfully used the Metro in Beijing, including to and from the airport (The Novotel is right at Chongwenmen Station) and were amazed at how efficient they are. One even had laser advertisements somehow flashing along the tunnel walls as we sped along, so that they could easily be read despite the speed - if one could speak Mandarin, that is!
Keep safe, and having fun!
>
We successfully used the Metro in Beijing, including to and from the airport (The Novotel is right at Chongwenmen Station) and were amazed at how efficient they are. One even had laser advertisements somehow flashing along the tunnel walls as we sped along, so that they could easily be read despite the speed - if one could speak Mandarin, that is!
Keep safe, and having fun!
>
Aug 28th, 2010 | 05:19 AM
#62
Original Poster
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 36,842
Likes: 0
PART VI: Yangshuo
I headed on my flight from Xi’an to Guilin, expecting the worst. Warnings about what a total tourist rip-off Guilin and Yangshuo had me a little concerned. And when my Chinese friend had called my hotel in Yangshuo (The Regency Holiday) to ask about transportation to the hotel from Guilin airport or the cost of taxi, they couldn’t answer a single question. They gave him another number to call, but we didn’t. Someone else told him that a taxi from Guilin Airport to my hotel would probably be about 400 on the meter but I should negotiate a 250 or so price. So he armed me with a couple of papers with “how much to take me to ___Hotel?” in Chinese. Someone else (a guide I had talked with on the internet but decided I didn’t really care for) had told me not to take a taxi but to take the airport bus to Guilin City, then a taxi from the shuttle station to the regular bus station, then another bus to Yangshuo, then a taxi to my hotel. This sounded far too complex and a couple of posts here about “nightmarish” experiences of travel in the area, convinced me to do the taxi. So the taxi line has one man who does the negotiating, and all drivers go along with him – you can’t really negotiate with the drivers themselves. I tried the slip of paper I got and they were saying 350, then I got it down to 300. When I said 250, he told me that if it was below 300 then I’d have to pay the highway toll – twice as they would have to return. Figuring most highway tolls I had seen were 10 yuan, I somehow ended up with a 280 price agreed on, and off I went with a quite young taxi driver. I was shocked when he started speaking some English to me – not very good, but he knew enough words that we almost had a conversation on the way – about an hour and a quarter drive mostly on a huge and empty brand new expressway. However, the toll was 30 – so I had to pay him 60 – or 340 total for the trip. I did see the meter pass 425 before we even got to Yanghuo, so I guess that was still OK.
The hotel was nothing special, kind of tired looking rooms and a walk in shower that overflowed the little lip every time I took a shower – but drained out through the second drain in the bathroom floor. But it had a huge balcony with table and four chairs (just what I needed, lol) and a nice view over the street to the mountains. And it sits right at the head of West Street, the main “action” street of the town. I was almost disappointed that I wasn’t accosted by more hawkers than I had been in Beijing or Shanghai. And while West street was indeed the ultimate touristy street with hundreds of restaurants and little shops and souvenir stands, it seemed no different than such streets anywhere, think Canal Street, New Orleans or Duval Street, Key West.
I walked one end to the other and also some of the regular “business” area of the city. I ended up Buffalo Bar where I had my first real “drink” since Shanghai – a Jameson’s neat at this little Aussie bar. But it was surprisingly empty. I randomly selected one of the many restaurants and ate a dinner of beer fish – the big local specialty – mine was catfish, cut in big hunks (yes including the head) and cooked in beer with big chunks of tomatoes, green and red peppers, and star anise among other spices. Also had a bowl of chilled Kelp (like noodles), and a huge beer (most beers seem only to come in 750 ml bottles). Total was 98 and it was really very good. Had a refreshing frozen fruit bar on my way back to the hotel. I actually kind of liked the noisy and crowded buzz of the town – call me crazy.
The next morning, I rented a mountain bike for 20 yuan (less than $3) for the day – a regular bike was half that. Armed with a little map I rode through town and out to a spot called Yami (?) where I was met by a man on a motorbike who had me follow him down a muddy path and road to the Yulong River where I had prepaid and arranged a bamboo raft (150) – yes, I know you can negotiate lower, but his was a longer ride than most and I liked the idea of NOT having to argue with the drivers who spoke no English., especially if they wanted more to take the bicycle too. The ride was about an hour and a half – and was on a small bamboo raft with two seats and an umbrella – being poled by a driver down the river and over a few concrete “embankments” where you had to lift your feet to avoid getting wet. Lots of bigger rafts were set up in the river selling beer, and my mantra became “no beer” at every one – heck it was 10 in the morning! I got the idea that then I was “supposed” to buy the driver a beer, but I didn’t go for that. It was a great trip through beautiful scenery. My bicycle was strapped to the raft and at the end I hopped on and rode back into town – a couple of kilometers. Along the trip I was constantly having my picture taken. The vast majority of the tourists in this area are Chinese – and my white hair and sunglasses seemed to convince them I was some famous American movie start. Sometimes we had to pull our raft up to one next to us so a driver could take pictures of me and the others together.
Back in town I found a lunch spot – Kiki’s Paradise and had some great chicken with Yangshuo noodles, peppers, and lots of bamboo shoots, and a huge pot of really good iced tea. This was one town where iced tea was easy to get – I never saw any ice, but the pot of tea was delightfully chilled.
After lunch I went to Silver Cave. I had opted through the hotel to take a bus there which was 90 yuan including admission. Surprisingly there was no shopping stop! And the Chinese/Canadian family I talked with on the bus told me the admission alone was normally 75. No other way to get there and back for 15 yuan! The family was great, and the wife and her teenaged son mostly translated for me (I was the only non Chinese speaking person on the trip.) I love caverns and these were spectacular – very large with some of the most amazing and gigantic formations I’ve ever seen. They were lit with colored lights – a big “no-no” today as it is too artificial, but for the life of me since caverns only exist in total darkness I don’t know who decided white light is good but blue or green lights are bad. Anyway, it was a nice trip – about an hour walk through them.
Today I had some laundry done – I had seen a couple of little “Speed Queen” laundries in town – brand new machines and prices by the kilo. So I took nearly three kilos in the morning when they opened at 8:30 and picked it up after my return in the late afternoon – total cost was 35 yuan and it was washed, dryed, and neatly folded. This was a great deal!
For dinner tonight I went to a place that I later learned was called Casablanca. I sat outside and ordered a half duck and because I wanted something else to go with it, I ordered soup with mixed mushrooms and a beer. The soup came and it was a gigantic bowl – like for 12 people. It was wonderful and had tons of about 5 or 6 kinds of mushrooms and lots of thin noodles, flavored only with a little garlic and some sliced ginger. I kept thinking I shouldn’t have ordered the duck as this should be my entire meal. Well the duck didn’t come and didn’t come and finally I asked. The girl was so upset she thought when I said I wanted “something else” and added the soup that I meant I wanted “something else instead” of the duck. Guess her English was better than mine! So no duck and I was thrilled and left full and happy – a $5 dinner including the big beer!
I had no plans for the next day. I had originally wanted to do the Longhi (sp?) rice field,s but I just couldn’t thing about doing 7 hours on a bus (or car) round trip, and I was told it was not the time of year to go, so I didn’t. I wandered down by the Li River in town and was taking some pictures and a well dressed older lady came up and told me she had a boat and would take me to Fuli – downstream on the River. First I said no, and then she showed me she was licensed and showed me pictures of the boat – a bigger raft – made out of PVC to look like bamboo and it held about 6 or 8 people and had a canopy over it. After some negotiations we settled on 90 yuan for the round trip, and she led me off through backstreets of town to the harbor, where it was her son who was the driver, and she took the little two year old girl from him smiling and saying “granddaughter” and off the guy and I went. The Li really isn’t that scenic that direction from town, but we passed the huge outdoor stage and that made me want to go see the light show. And when we reached “Fuli” I discovered, we weren’t really stopping there as it isn’t right on the river anyway. So we turned around and headed back – about a two hour ride in all.
Had some Kung Pao chicken at a spot in town for lunch, and was surprised that it wasn’t at all hot. I asked the girl, and she apologized saying she though I was American, so she took it back and returned with it properly filled with hot peppers. Much better. I asked her about tickets to “Impression Liu Sanjie” –the big show and she disappeared and then returned with someone who offered me a 268 ticket for 150 which would include the mini bus there and back. So I took it.
The show is spectacular – designed by Zhang Yimao, the guy who did the Olympics opening ceremonies. Our seats were in the middle, and were great. The mountains are lit up as background up to a couple kilometers away, and there is a cast of 500. Who cares about the story – it was all about the spectacle, including huge scenes with red fabric like waves and the entire cast at the end in lighted costumes. The show was on water with some movable stages/runways. I loved this. Back in town, I went to restaurant that sort of sits above busy West Street called Le Votre, and ordered Beer Duck and a big pot of iced tea. It was delicious – 63 yuan.
I had arranged a shuttle bus to the airport, so the next morning after buffet breakfast was picked up at the hotel and taken there – for a cost of 80. Now I found out that I could have arranged to be brought that way too, although timing could be a problem – for the same price. That was the number the girl tried to give my Chinese friend to call.
My stay in Yangshuo – great fun. Sure it’s touristy, but the area is amazingly beautiful. And I didn’t find any more attempted “rip-offs” or hawking than anywhere else (although the guy sitting outside my hotel on his motorbike every night couldn’t figure out why I didn’t want him to get me a beautiful girl at a good price.) I left him clueless.
I headed on my flight from Xi’an to Guilin, expecting the worst. Warnings about what a total tourist rip-off Guilin and Yangshuo had me a little concerned. And when my Chinese friend had called my hotel in Yangshuo (The Regency Holiday) to ask about transportation to the hotel from Guilin airport or the cost of taxi, they couldn’t answer a single question. They gave him another number to call, but we didn’t. Someone else told him that a taxi from Guilin Airport to my hotel would probably be about 400 on the meter but I should negotiate a 250 or so price. So he armed me with a couple of papers with “how much to take me to ___Hotel?” in Chinese. Someone else (a guide I had talked with on the internet but decided I didn’t really care for) had told me not to take a taxi but to take the airport bus to Guilin City, then a taxi from the shuttle station to the regular bus station, then another bus to Yangshuo, then a taxi to my hotel. This sounded far too complex and a couple of posts here about “nightmarish” experiences of travel in the area, convinced me to do the taxi. So the taxi line has one man who does the negotiating, and all drivers go along with him – you can’t really negotiate with the drivers themselves. I tried the slip of paper I got and they were saying 350, then I got it down to 300. When I said 250, he told me that if it was below 300 then I’d have to pay the highway toll – twice as they would have to return. Figuring most highway tolls I had seen were 10 yuan, I somehow ended up with a 280 price agreed on, and off I went with a quite young taxi driver. I was shocked when he started speaking some English to me – not very good, but he knew enough words that we almost had a conversation on the way – about an hour and a quarter drive mostly on a huge and empty brand new expressway. However, the toll was 30 – so I had to pay him 60 – or 340 total for the trip. I did see the meter pass 425 before we even got to Yanghuo, so I guess that was still OK.
The hotel was nothing special, kind of tired looking rooms and a walk in shower that overflowed the little lip every time I took a shower – but drained out through the second drain in the bathroom floor. But it had a huge balcony with table and four chairs (just what I needed, lol) and a nice view over the street to the mountains. And it sits right at the head of West Street, the main “action” street of the town. I was almost disappointed that I wasn’t accosted by more hawkers than I had been in Beijing or Shanghai. And while West street was indeed the ultimate touristy street with hundreds of restaurants and little shops and souvenir stands, it seemed no different than such streets anywhere, think Canal Street, New Orleans or Duval Street, Key West.
I walked one end to the other and also some of the regular “business” area of the city. I ended up Buffalo Bar where I had my first real “drink” since Shanghai – a Jameson’s neat at this little Aussie bar. But it was surprisingly empty. I randomly selected one of the many restaurants and ate a dinner of beer fish – the big local specialty – mine was catfish, cut in big hunks (yes including the head) and cooked in beer with big chunks of tomatoes, green and red peppers, and star anise among other spices. Also had a bowl of chilled Kelp (like noodles), and a huge beer (most beers seem only to come in 750 ml bottles). Total was 98 and it was really very good. Had a refreshing frozen fruit bar on my way back to the hotel. I actually kind of liked the noisy and crowded buzz of the town – call me crazy.
The next morning, I rented a mountain bike for 20 yuan (less than $3) for the day – a regular bike was half that. Armed with a little map I rode through town and out to a spot called Yami (?) where I was met by a man on a motorbike who had me follow him down a muddy path and road to the Yulong River where I had prepaid and arranged a bamboo raft (150) – yes, I know you can negotiate lower, but his was a longer ride than most and I liked the idea of NOT having to argue with the drivers who spoke no English., especially if they wanted more to take the bicycle too. The ride was about an hour and a half – and was on a small bamboo raft with two seats and an umbrella – being poled by a driver down the river and over a few concrete “embankments” where you had to lift your feet to avoid getting wet. Lots of bigger rafts were set up in the river selling beer, and my mantra became “no beer” at every one – heck it was 10 in the morning! I got the idea that then I was “supposed” to buy the driver a beer, but I didn’t go for that. It was a great trip through beautiful scenery. My bicycle was strapped to the raft and at the end I hopped on and rode back into town – a couple of kilometers. Along the trip I was constantly having my picture taken. The vast majority of the tourists in this area are Chinese – and my white hair and sunglasses seemed to convince them I was some famous American movie start. Sometimes we had to pull our raft up to one next to us so a driver could take pictures of me and the others together.
Back in town I found a lunch spot – Kiki’s Paradise and had some great chicken with Yangshuo noodles, peppers, and lots of bamboo shoots, and a huge pot of really good iced tea. This was one town where iced tea was easy to get – I never saw any ice, but the pot of tea was delightfully chilled.
After lunch I went to Silver Cave. I had opted through the hotel to take a bus there which was 90 yuan including admission. Surprisingly there was no shopping stop! And the Chinese/Canadian family I talked with on the bus told me the admission alone was normally 75. No other way to get there and back for 15 yuan! The family was great, and the wife and her teenaged son mostly translated for me (I was the only non Chinese speaking person on the trip.) I love caverns and these were spectacular – very large with some of the most amazing and gigantic formations I’ve ever seen. They were lit with colored lights – a big “no-no” today as it is too artificial, but for the life of me since caverns only exist in total darkness I don’t know who decided white light is good but blue or green lights are bad. Anyway, it was a nice trip – about an hour walk through them.
Today I had some laundry done – I had seen a couple of little “Speed Queen” laundries in town – brand new machines and prices by the kilo. So I took nearly three kilos in the morning when they opened at 8:30 and picked it up after my return in the late afternoon – total cost was 35 yuan and it was washed, dryed, and neatly folded. This was a great deal!
For dinner tonight I went to a place that I later learned was called Casablanca. I sat outside and ordered a half duck and because I wanted something else to go with it, I ordered soup with mixed mushrooms and a beer. The soup came and it was a gigantic bowl – like for 12 people. It was wonderful and had tons of about 5 or 6 kinds of mushrooms and lots of thin noodles, flavored only with a little garlic and some sliced ginger. I kept thinking I shouldn’t have ordered the duck as this should be my entire meal. Well the duck didn’t come and didn’t come and finally I asked. The girl was so upset she thought when I said I wanted “something else” and added the soup that I meant I wanted “something else instead” of the duck. Guess her English was better than mine! So no duck and I was thrilled and left full and happy – a $5 dinner including the big beer!
I had no plans for the next day. I had originally wanted to do the Longhi (sp?) rice field,s but I just couldn’t thing about doing 7 hours on a bus (or car) round trip, and I was told it was not the time of year to go, so I didn’t. I wandered down by the Li River in town and was taking some pictures and a well dressed older lady came up and told me she had a boat and would take me to Fuli – downstream on the River. First I said no, and then she showed me she was licensed and showed me pictures of the boat – a bigger raft – made out of PVC to look like bamboo and it held about 6 or 8 people and had a canopy over it. After some negotiations we settled on 90 yuan for the round trip, and she led me off through backstreets of town to the harbor, where it was her son who was the driver, and she took the little two year old girl from him smiling and saying “granddaughter” and off the guy and I went. The Li really isn’t that scenic that direction from town, but we passed the huge outdoor stage and that made me want to go see the light show. And when we reached “Fuli” I discovered, we weren’t really stopping there as it isn’t right on the river anyway. So we turned around and headed back – about a two hour ride in all.
Had some Kung Pao chicken at a spot in town for lunch, and was surprised that it wasn’t at all hot. I asked the girl, and she apologized saying she though I was American, so she took it back and returned with it properly filled with hot peppers. Much better. I asked her about tickets to “Impression Liu Sanjie” –the big show and she disappeared and then returned with someone who offered me a 268 ticket for 150 which would include the mini bus there and back. So I took it.
The show is spectacular – designed by Zhang Yimao, the guy who did the Olympics opening ceremonies. Our seats were in the middle, and were great. The mountains are lit up as background up to a couple kilometers away, and there is a cast of 500. Who cares about the story – it was all about the spectacle, including huge scenes with red fabric like waves and the entire cast at the end in lighted costumes. The show was on water with some movable stages/runways. I loved this. Back in town, I went to restaurant that sort of sits above busy West Street called Le Votre, and ordered Beer Duck and a big pot of iced tea. It was delicious – 63 yuan.
I had arranged a shuttle bus to the airport, so the next morning after buffet breakfast was picked up at the hotel and taken there – for a cost of 80. Now I found out that I could have arranged to be brought that way too, although timing could be a problem – for the same price. That was the number the girl tried to give my Chinese friend to call.
My stay in Yangshuo – great fun. Sure it’s touristy, but the area is amazingly beautiful. And I didn’t find any more attempted “rip-offs” or hawking than anywhere else (although the guy sitting outside my hotel on his motorbike every night couldn’t figure out why I didn’t want him to get me a beautiful girl at a good price.) I left him clueless.
Aug 28th, 2010 | 07:10 AM
#64
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 33,288
Likes: 0
Patrick, I'm really enjoying your report. I love your attitude. You are able to bargain reasonably, but you don't feel ripped off if you don't get the absolute lowest price possible. You've been able to take the good info from Peter without taking on the attitude.
Aug 28th, 2010 | 07:57 AM
#65
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 6,412
Likes: 0
<i>I left him clueless</i> Love it!
Yes, a stellar report Patrick! Full of so much useful information. Thank you for doing this. Reading this is making me want to go back to China again sometime soon.
This is what is needed on this site, real firsthand information about China without the......well, what Kathie said
Aloha!
Yes, a stellar report Patrick! Full of so much useful information. Thank you for doing this. Reading this is making me want to go back to China again sometime soon.
This is what is needed on this site, real firsthand information about China without the......well, what Kathie said
Aloha!
Aug 28th, 2010 | 09:03 AM
#66
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 5,741
Likes: 0
Patrick, I am so enjoying your report!
I think it is kind of serendipity that you keep finding yourself in the restaurants you were looking for, but couldn't find. Hahaha.
The show you saw sounds wonderful! I loved the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Love color and geometry! Sounds like you had a great time.
I love that you are showing fellow Fodorites that solo travel can be just as much fun, and sometimes more so, as traveling with others. I am getting ready for my first solo overseas adventure, and you give me courage!
(I have done many stateside solo adventures and love doing what I want to do and when. I think it will be no different overseas.)
Stay safe and I'm looking forward to the rest of your adventure!
Paula
I think it is kind of serendipity that you keep finding yourself in the restaurants you were looking for, but couldn't find. Hahaha.
The show you saw sounds wonderful! I loved the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Love color and geometry! Sounds like you had a great time.
I love that you are showing fellow Fodorites that solo travel can be just as much fun, and sometimes more so, as traveling with others. I am getting ready for my first solo overseas adventure, and you give me courage!
(I have done many stateside solo adventures and love doing what I want to do and when. I think it will be no different overseas.)Stay safe and I'm looking forward to the rest of your adventure!
Paula
Aug 28th, 2010 | 04:38 PM
#67
Original Poster
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 36,842
Likes: 0
PART VII: Changsha
Mine may be the first report here ever on Changsha. Whenever I gave my itinerary, people would say "why are you going there? Do you have a personal interest in Chairman Mao" as being his home seems to be its main claim to fame. The fact is that it was mainly just a place to fly to Hong Kong from on my One World Pass without returning to Beijing or Shanghai, and I thought, "why not go somewhere no one else goes?" So I did.
Changsha is a "small city in China" -- only 6 million people. It's on the Xiang River, a very wide tributary of the Yangtze. In my reading I found that probably the most interesting things to do there would be to take a cable car up the local mountain on the other side of the river for great views of the city and the countryside in the other direction and then to walk down past some old temples, and to explore Orange Island, a long sandbar/island in the middle of the river which is now a park and recreation area. And Changsha is the capital of the Hunan Province -- well, I do know Hunan is one of my favorite Chinese food types -- albeit spicy beyond belief in many cases.
I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel right at the intersection of the main broad street that heads across the main bridge, and the busy pedestrian shopping street. It was a lovely hotel with a spectacularly large and luxurious room. What I didn't allow for was that Changsha (like half the cities in China) is in the midst of building a vast public transporatation system, and here it is mostly subway, meaning the intersection itself is completely blocked off as they build one of the largest underground stations, and many of the other streets were blocked off as well.
From my room I could see the river a few blocks away and I had arrived at nearly 5 PM (my flight from Guilin to Guangzhuo was on time, but the flight from Guangzhuo to Changsha was delayed about an hour as we watched lightning and thunder all around us on the plane on the tarmac. It looked like a lot of lights along the river so I assumed it must be a great place to find restaurants. There was a bit of rain off and on, so armed with my umbrella off I went. When I got to the river, I found that there were no restaurants at all, but a long promenade dotted with various pavillions (mostly outlined with lights on their Chinese designed rooflines. Along this promenade were lots of people strolling, playing various games, playing musical instruments, dancing -- it was a real local playground. I walked quite a length and realized that unlike people playing instruments in other cities, none here had a hat or a box in front of them to collect money. These were just people playing for their own and their friends' enjoyment. I got LOTS of stares as I walked. I do everywhere in China, partly do to my white hair, I suppose, but here even more so. I suppose Changsha gets a few Caucasian businessmen, but how many of those walk through the social activities along the river.
I worked my way back toward the downtown area. There are hundreds of tiny "restaurants" -- literally nothing more that a small garage door that opens up to reveal three or four old wood or formica tables and a burner there they cook things. I saw them cleaning dishes at one place and restacking them. The used dishes got dipped in a big bucket of "gray water" and then restacked. I passed on the idea of eating in one of these places. They actually seemed more like places were a few neighbors gathered to eat than actual restaurants, though most had signs.
I reached a narrow street that was blocked for cars and could see it was all bright neon lights as far as I could see. This ended up being the "night club" street. It was about 8 by now and it was deserted, but these thousands of small nightclubs were getting ready for business. I read later than the "scene" doesn't get going until about 2 in the morning. But there were no real restaurants -- just bars and nightclubs. Eventually (after walking a number of blocks along this street which I read is nearly 3 kilometers long) I headed over to the big shopping and pedestrian street. I was getting hungry and for the first time in China I was finding it hard to find a place to eat. There were KFC, MacDonalds, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, and Dairy Queens on nearly every block, but I just wanted a regular Chinese-walk-in-and-sit-down-and-order place. There were also hundreds of food stands along the way, mostly tucked off in little alleys off the main thoroughfare -- skewers of various things ( split and spread apart bull frogs are a really popular item). I could see restaurants above many stores -- on the second floor -- and I kept climbing stairs to check them out. But without exception, if they weren't a Papa John's or something, then they were a busy hot-pot place, where everyone was in groups around a boiling pot cooking lots of things at their tables. Well, being a single diner this was NOT what I wanted to do tonight. So I walked and walked and walked. I entered two restaurants and sat down, but what they brought me wasn't even a picture menu, but just a big sheet with Chinese characters on it. I tried to speak even a few words of English to the waitress but she didn't even seem to understand the word "English?" so I ended up leaving both of these places. Eventually at nearly 10 PM, I found a little place that seemed sort of like a Chinese fast food place, but at least it had pictures and you ordered at a counter at front and they brought it to your table. The girl spoke a little English. I'd point at a picture and she's say "fish" or "chicken" so I ordered what looked like a dish of shreds of chicken and some vegetables. I also ordered a large beer. The dish was very tasty, but the shreds of chicken were really tough. And the whole dish was incredibly hot -- with me picking out the dried red peppers (as most Chinese do, they are only in there for the flavoring). The next day at my hotel I looked at a menu and realized the dish I had was actually chicken gristle -- hmmmm -- no wonder it was so tough. But it was really delicious even if my mouth was on fire. The whole place was run and inhabited by what seemed like a bunch of 16 year olds and they kept staring and smiling at me. They couldn't have been nicer, and a couple of other diners turned to me smiled and said "hello". They were truly amused to see me there.
So heading back to my hotel I suddenly realized what was really strange about this place. I had been walking nearly 4 hours plus had dinner and I had not seen a single flash go off, nor in fact had I seen a single camera. Wow. And this was China? I was truly in a place that had nothing to do with tourism. And that was exciting. Some may seek out the untouristy remote country places, but I found exciting to be wandering in a real city surrounded by REAL Chinese the way they actually DO live today. The most amazing part of all, was that nearly EVERYONE seemed to be under 30 if even that old (but admittedly those Chinese do tend to look younger than they are). I think the cites are just filled with these young Chinese people and I wonder how many of the have left the countryside to be in the city.
I slept like a baby, but when I got up in the morning I could hardly stand. That ankle of mine which often gets tired with a lot of walking hadn't bothered me at all last night, but caught up with me this morning. And I looked out the window to see it POURING rain. I limped to breakfast, quite a spectacular spread of a buffet. Then I limped back to my room and proceeded to do nothing for the entire day. Well, I did have a foot massage which was wonderful and I thought it might help my ankle. My feet felt great, but no benefit to the ankle. And the rain didn't stop at all all day long. I caught up on emails. I took a nap. I just plain vegetated in my room and it was wonderful. I certainly wasn't going through with my outdoor plans today and the Chairman Mao museums didn't really appeal to me. I had a nice lunch at the hotel -- a plate of strips of Tenderloin of beef, asparagus, green onions, and ginger with the usual hot red peppers. It was delicious. But I asked for hot tea and got a glass of hot water instead.
I asked the assistant manager in the lobby about restaurant and told him my experience the night before. He couldn't understand why I'd need to go out when they have three "great" restaurants right in the hotel. But he also couldn't understand what I was seeking if it wasn't pizza or hot pot. Nevertheless, I went off again in search. I was walking better and glad I gave my ankle a rest for the day. It was still raining, but only slightly. I found another street of restaurants -- many were those little garage like places I had seen the night before, but several were larger and actually somewhat inviting if not atmospheric. There is no pretense here about decor in a restaurant. It's a place to eat, why would they "dress it up"? One place had pictures with English written names of all the dishes posted outside. A girl came outside and spoke to me with broken English and she could tell me what was in some of the dishes, so in I went, where they cleared a table for me. This was a big and busy and noisy place -- maybe 35 or 40 tables, all full, mostly with 6 to 12 at each table. Again, all eyes were on me as I entered. I ordered a dish which she said was beef and "not too hot". When I said that was all (getting used to the size of the dishes here) she said, "not enough -- very small" and talked me into ordering another dish "pig" and I realized she meant pork. It looked like lots of vegetables with slices of pig (or pork) so I ordered that too, and a pot of hot tea. Out came the first dish (it was priced at 9 yuan, just over a dollar, so I had believed it would be small -- wrong. Well it wasn't as big as the huge pots and platters coming out for other people. I realized that the beef must be more gristle or cartilage -- but again it was incredibly flavorful. I had read that day that eating gristle or cartilage supposedly strengthens the bones and promotes youth and avoids wrinkles -- so eat away -- I did. The green in the dish seemed to be lots of scallions, both the white and the full green parts. And it was only mildly spicy. The pork dish then came which was much bigger. The slices of pork were mostly fat and had been fried -- delicious, but how much pork fat can anyone eat? -- and the greens were nearly all green peppers -- really not that hot, except that they were accompanied by many dried red peppers as well that didn't show up in the picture! Anyway, I ate nearly half of both dishes and I was stuffed. I paid my bill -- about $5 total and was on my way. Everybody thanked me on my way out. This was fun and just the sort of place I had been looking for. Back to the hotel and went into a coma for the night.
I had taken a taxi to the hotel from the airport on arrival, but I saw a sign about an airport shuttle, inquired with the assistant manager and he gave me a ticket for the shuttle on Saturday morning -- I thought there would be fee, but no, it was free. It ended up I was the only one in the little hotel van going to the airport -- I thought a well dressed business guy in the front seat was also a "customer" until we got to the airport and I realized he had a Crowne Plaza tag on and was just along to help me out with my suitcase apparently. But the schedule of the van left me over two hours at the airport -- waiting in the tiny brand new international terminal (there is a huge new terminal being built next to it) for the only international flight of the day -- to Hong Kong on DragonAir/Cathay Pacific -- my flight, which was booked in first class on my One World Pass, so I was given a ticket to the funny little first class lounge to wait -- where the only coffee was little packages of Nescafe instant which all already had sugar and creamer in them. Nasty stuff!
And so I was off to Hong Kong -- which is where I am now. I'm actually getting up to the "as it happens" part of my title.
Mine may be the first report here ever on Changsha. Whenever I gave my itinerary, people would say "why are you going there? Do you have a personal interest in Chairman Mao" as being his home seems to be its main claim to fame. The fact is that it was mainly just a place to fly to Hong Kong from on my One World Pass without returning to Beijing or Shanghai, and I thought, "why not go somewhere no one else goes?" So I did.
Changsha is a "small city in China" -- only 6 million people. It's on the Xiang River, a very wide tributary of the Yangtze. In my reading I found that probably the most interesting things to do there would be to take a cable car up the local mountain on the other side of the river for great views of the city and the countryside in the other direction and then to walk down past some old temples, and to explore Orange Island, a long sandbar/island in the middle of the river which is now a park and recreation area. And Changsha is the capital of the Hunan Province -- well, I do know Hunan is one of my favorite Chinese food types -- albeit spicy beyond belief in many cases.
I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel right at the intersection of the main broad street that heads across the main bridge, and the busy pedestrian shopping street. It was a lovely hotel with a spectacularly large and luxurious room. What I didn't allow for was that Changsha (like half the cities in China) is in the midst of building a vast public transporatation system, and here it is mostly subway, meaning the intersection itself is completely blocked off as they build one of the largest underground stations, and many of the other streets were blocked off as well.
From my room I could see the river a few blocks away and I had arrived at nearly 5 PM (my flight from Guilin to Guangzhuo was on time, but the flight from Guangzhuo to Changsha was delayed about an hour as we watched lightning and thunder all around us on the plane on the tarmac. It looked like a lot of lights along the river so I assumed it must be a great place to find restaurants. There was a bit of rain off and on, so armed with my umbrella off I went. When I got to the river, I found that there were no restaurants at all, but a long promenade dotted with various pavillions (mostly outlined with lights on their Chinese designed rooflines. Along this promenade were lots of people strolling, playing various games, playing musical instruments, dancing -- it was a real local playground. I walked quite a length and realized that unlike people playing instruments in other cities, none here had a hat or a box in front of them to collect money. These were just people playing for their own and their friends' enjoyment. I got LOTS of stares as I walked. I do everywhere in China, partly do to my white hair, I suppose, but here even more so. I suppose Changsha gets a few Caucasian businessmen, but how many of those walk through the social activities along the river.
I worked my way back toward the downtown area. There are hundreds of tiny "restaurants" -- literally nothing more that a small garage door that opens up to reveal three or four old wood or formica tables and a burner there they cook things. I saw them cleaning dishes at one place and restacking them. The used dishes got dipped in a big bucket of "gray water" and then restacked. I passed on the idea of eating in one of these places. They actually seemed more like places were a few neighbors gathered to eat than actual restaurants, though most had signs.
I reached a narrow street that was blocked for cars and could see it was all bright neon lights as far as I could see. This ended up being the "night club" street. It was about 8 by now and it was deserted, but these thousands of small nightclubs were getting ready for business. I read later than the "scene" doesn't get going until about 2 in the morning. But there were no real restaurants -- just bars and nightclubs. Eventually (after walking a number of blocks along this street which I read is nearly 3 kilometers long) I headed over to the big shopping and pedestrian street. I was getting hungry and for the first time in China I was finding it hard to find a place to eat. There were KFC, MacDonalds, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, and Dairy Queens on nearly every block, but I just wanted a regular Chinese-walk-in-and-sit-down-and-order place. There were also hundreds of food stands along the way, mostly tucked off in little alleys off the main thoroughfare -- skewers of various things ( split and spread apart bull frogs are a really popular item). I could see restaurants above many stores -- on the second floor -- and I kept climbing stairs to check them out. But without exception, if they weren't a Papa John's or something, then they were a busy hot-pot place, where everyone was in groups around a boiling pot cooking lots of things at their tables. Well, being a single diner this was NOT what I wanted to do tonight. So I walked and walked and walked. I entered two restaurants and sat down, but what they brought me wasn't even a picture menu, but just a big sheet with Chinese characters on it. I tried to speak even a few words of English to the waitress but she didn't even seem to understand the word "English?" so I ended up leaving both of these places. Eventually at nearly 10 PM, I found a little place that seemed sort of like a Chinese fast food place, but at least it had pictures and you ordered at a counter at front and they brought it to your table. The girl spoke a little English. I'd point at a picture and she's say "fish" or "chicken" so I ordered what looked like a dish of shreds of chicken and some vegetables. I also ordered a large beer. The dish was very tasty, but the shreds of chicken were really tough. And the whole dish was incredibly hot -- with me picking out the dried red peppers (as most Chinese do, they are only in there for the flavoring). The next day at my hotel I looked at a menu and realized the dish I had was actually chicken gristle -- hmmmm -- no wonder it was so tough. But it was really delicious even if my mouth was on fire. The whole place was run and inhabited by what seemed like a bunch of 16 year olds and they kept staring and smiling at me. They couldn't have been nicer, and a couple of other diners turned to me smiled and said "hello". They were truly amused to see me there.
So heading back to my hotel I suddenly realized what was really strange about this place. I had been walking nearly 4 hours plus had dinner and I had not seen a single flash go off, nor in fact had I seen a single camera. Wow. And this was China? I was truly in a place that had nothing to do with tourism. And that was exciting. Some may seek out the untouristy remote country places, but I found exciting to be wandering in a real city surrounded by REAL Chinese the way they actually DO live today. The most amazing part of all, was that nearly EVERYONE seemed to be under 30 if even that old (but admittedly those Chinese do tend to look younger than they are). I think the cites are just filled with these young Chinese people and I wonder how many of the have left the countryside to be in the city.
I slept like a baby, but when I got up in the morning I could hardly stand. That ankle of mine which often gets tired with a lot of walking hadn't bothered me at all last night, but caught up with me this morning. And I looked out the window to see it POURING rain. I limped to breakfast, quite a spectacular spread of a buffet. Then I limped back to my room and proceeded to do nothing for the entire day. Well, I did have a foot massage which was wonderful and I thought it might help my ankle. My feet felt great, but no benefit to the ankle. And the rain didn't stop at all all day long. I caught up on emails. I took a nap. I just plain vegetated in my room and it was wonderful. I certainly wasn't going through with my outdoor plans today and the Chairman Mao museums didn't really appeal to me. I had a nice lunch at the hotel -- a plate of strips of Tenderloin of beef, asparagus, green onions, and ginger with the usual hot red peppers. It was delicious. But I asked for hot tea and got a glass of hot water instead.
I asked the assistant manager in the lobby about restaurant and told him my experience the night before. He couldn't understand why I'd need to go out when they have three "great" restaurants right in the hotel. But he also couldn't understand what I was seeking if it wasn't pizza or hot pot. Nevertheless, I went off again in search. I was walking better and glad I gave my ankle a rest for the day. It was still raining, but only slightly. I found another street of restaurants -- many were those little garage like places I had seen the night before, but several were larger and actually somewhat inviting if not atmospheric. There is no pretense here about decor in a restaurant. It's a place to eat, why would they "dress it up"? One place had pictures with English written names of all the dishes posted outside. A girl came outside and spoke to me with broken English and she could tell me what was in some of the dishes, so in I went, where they cleared a table for me. This was a big and busy and noisy place -- maybe 35 or 40 tables, all full, mostly with 6 to 12 at each table. Again, all eyes were on me as I entered. I ordered a dish which she said was beef and "not too hot". When I said that was all (getting used to the size of the dishes here) she said, "not enough -- very small" and talked me into ordering another dish "pig" and I realized she meant pork. It looked like lots of vegetables with slices of pig (or pork) so I ordered that too, and a pot of hot tea. Out came the first dish (it was priced at 9 yuan, just over a dollar, so I had believed it would be small -- wrong. Well it wasn't as big as the huge pots and platters coming out for other people. I realized that the beef must be more gristle or cartilage -- but again it was incredibly flavorful. I had read that day that eating gristle or cartilage supposedly strengthens the bones and promotes youth and avoids wrinkles -- so eat away -- I did. The green in the dish seemed to be lots of scallions, both the white and the full green parts. And it was only mildly spicy. The pork dish then came which was much bigger. The slices of pork were mostly fat and had been fried -- delicious, but how much pork fat can anyone eat? -- and the greens were nearly all green peppers -- really not that hot, except that they were accompanied by many dried red peppers as well that didn't show up in the picture! Anyway, I ate nearly half of both dishes and I was stuffed. I paid my bill -- about $5 total and was on my way. Everybody thanked me on my way out. This was fun and just the sort of place I had been looking for. Back to the hotel and went into a coma for the night.
I had taken a taxi to the hotel from the airport on arrival, but I saw a sign about an airport shuttle, inquired with the assistant manager and he gave me a ticket for the shuttle on Saturday morning -- I thought there would be fee, but no, it was free. It ended up I was the only one in the little hotel van going to the airport -- I thought a well dressed business guy in the front seat was also a "customer" until we got to the airport and I realized he had a Crowne Plaza tag on and was just along to help me out with my suitcase apparently. But the schedule of the van left me over two hours at the airport -- waiting in the tiny brand new international terminal (there is a huge new terminal being built next to it) for the only international flight of the day -- to Hong Kong on DragonAir/Cathay Pacific -- my flight, which was booked in first class on my One World Pass, so I was given a ticket to the funny little first class lounge to wait -- where the only coffee was little packages of Nescafe instant which all already had sugar and creamer in them. Nasty stuff!
And so I was off to Hong Kong -- which is where I am now. I'm actually getting up to the "as it happens" part of my title.
Aug 29th, 2010 | 05:09 PM
#75
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 11,334
Likes: 0
Hello Patrick,
Enjoying your report, just as everyone else is! Great detail.
If I remember your schedule correctly, you'll be heading off to Bangkok today (Monday in HK)... as DS Brad is now on his way home, and he LEFT BKK on Monday morning. Wish the two of you could have seen some of the sights together... oh well. Do stop in and see Maeng!
Enjoy HK. It's a gorgeous city! Can't wait to read your report... especially the food.
Carol
Enjoying your report, just as everyone else is! Great detail.
If I remember your schedule correctly, you'll be heading off to Bangkok today (Monday in HK)... as DS Brad is now on his way home, and he LEFT BKK on Monday morning. Wish the two of you could have seen some of the sights together... oh well. Do stop in and see Maeng!
Enjoy HK. It's a gorgeous city! Can't wait to read your report... especially the food.
Carol
Aug 29th, 2010 | 05:44 PM
#76
Original Poster
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 36,842
Likes: 0
Thanks Carol, I don't arrive from Hong Kong to BKK today until 5:30 PM, but after checking in, I'll be armed with the "directions for dummies" you provided and if all goes well will find my way to Maeng's (PL). I do have a Swiss friend living and working in Bangkok (who is at Expo right now, but due back tomorrow I think) who has volunteered to show me the sights. And I have several other people to contact as well. It's amazing when I start to travel how many of my friends pop up with "oh you must meet my friend__________ there". But these have turned out to be great contacts so far.
Aug 29th, 2010 | 11:23 PM
#77
Original Poster
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 36,842
Likes: 0
PART VIII: Hong Kong
The flight from Changsha to Hong Kong on Dragonair First Class (Cathay Pacific) was delightful. The arrival in Hong Kong, despite quite a wait clearing immigration was fine, and I was on the Airport Express in no time. But I must say the claims of how quick it is to get to your hotel that way, failed when I waited in line at the Central terminal for a solid 45 minutes for a taxi. When I got to the four taxi lines, it was clear that there were a lot of people and not a taxi in sight. A sign said, "the shortage of taxis is due to the adverse weather" (yes it was pouring rain) and the sign suggesting using the free shuttle to avoid delays. So I went to the shuttle desk only to be told that no they don't service the Grand Hyatt. Didn't someone here tell me that? So back into the line to wait. The Grand Hyatt was booked free for my two nights thanks to a special Hyatt ran in the early summer (get one free night at any Hyatt with any two stays at any Hyatt) -- so with Hong Kong in mind, I made four individual one night cheap stays while traveling in Hyatt Place Hotels to get my two free nights at Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. A very good deal. And since I'm platinum I was upgraded to a 27th floor Harborfront front. Spectacular. My first impression was "wow, did the harbour shrink? It's been something like 17 years since I've been to Hong Kong and then stayed at the Regent -- now the Intercontinental -- in Kowloon. And my memory made the distance between the two sides much greater than it actually is.
I checked in and went for a walk and also bought an Octopus Card ($50 deposit) plus put the minimum $100 on it. I took the subway from Wan Chai to Central and worked my way to the escalators. I ended up much later in Soho and had my first real cocktail in weeks -- a dry robroy at Stauntons, where the bartender shirts say "voted Hong Kong's best spot for people watching" -- perhaps. I had to explain to the two bartenders that what I wanted was just like a dry martini but made with Scotch (Johnnie Walker Black was about the only option here). So a martini glass was filled with ice and vermouth to chill, while the scotch was shaken with more ice, then the glass was emptied out and the chilled scotch poured in. Great. They cut me a lemon twist as requested and it was one of the best dry robroys ever (not to mention one of the biggest) and cost $78 (or $10 US). Hooray.
After a lot of walking and working my way back down, I found I didn't really want to eat at any of those great looking places in Soho, because I really wanted to stick with Chinese, and I ended up at Tsui Wah (sp?) a two level diner like place that's supposed to be quite well done,and was certainly very popular. It was dirt cheap and my grilled boneless half chicken with three huge grilled scallops, noodles with mushrooms, and corn and mushroom soup was delicious.
Subway back to hotel, where I watched the harbour traffic for a while and went to bed.
I loved that as a Platinum member I could put a card on my door at night and they'd deliver coffee service at whatever time I specified in the morning for free. I put service for 2, and got a huge pot of really good coffee. The second day I was surprised when it didn't come at the right time,and 15 minutes later still wasn't there, then I noticed the tag still on my desk. Duh, it doesn't work if you don't put the sign out!
I walked the short distance to the Star Ferry and rode to Kowloon. Lee's favorite thing in Hong Kong was riding the Star Ferry -- it was the only way he'd travel back and forth -- so it seemed fitting I should scatter some of his ashes from the back of the ferry in the harbor. I did -- and didn't get caught doing it!
On Kowloon, I had breakfast at a Coral Cafe, not a bad little fast food place -- bowl of noodles with a minute steak and fried egg in it. I went to the goldfish market, the floral market and the Bird Garden. Then headed back to HK Island and headed back up towards Soho, seeking out Mak's Noodle Shop for lunch -- very good beef brisket on noodles, but I honestly wasn't very hungry.
I spend much of the day just exploring, particularly along the galleries and antique stores of Hollywood Road. At one point I looked down a side street (Peel) and saw a sign Chez Patrick. I suddenly remembered reading about this place, well certainly the name stuck, in some recent magazine with raves for it's French food. I walked down and was looking at the weekly menu -- three courses for $499 or four courses for $599 with three choices in each category. All sounded wonderful. As I was looking, a guy popped out the door and gave me a card. So later that day, back at the hotel I started thinking "Hong Kong is costing me nothing -- it's time for a splurge meal" so I called and reserved and went. I also took a taxi thinking it might be nice to arrive not sweaty -- it was pretty hot and humid out. And how much of splurge is it to take a taxi that costs less than $4 US?
The meal was extraordinary. Patrick is from Lyon, France. The dining room is elegant and only has 7 tables. There's a small separate room with a bar. After a delightful amuse bouche of some sort of seafood terrine, I started with Trio of Fois Gras. It arrived with a wonderful block of great Fois Gras with a slice of toasted crumbly bread (corn meal, I wondered?) and what looked like two profiteroles drizzled with chocolate sauce. How clever, I thought, to use something like a balsamic reduction to look like chocolate. One was actually big hunk of warm and creamy foie gras between two "biscuits" and the other was -- are you ready?-- foie gras ice cream between two biscuits. And the sauce? It was indeed bittersweet chocolate which as wonderful with the fois gras. This was an amazing starter! Then came a sorbet of pear and white chocolate, not sweet, but delightfully refreshing. And then I had tenderloin of beef with a whole potato hollowed out and filled with mushroom duxelles and topped with a whole shitake cap, and a warm corn timbale that was wrapped with paper thin slices of beet. Wonderful. I went with just three courses -- choosing cheese rather than dessert. Hmmm. Suddenly I realize what I had missed in China -- cheese -- do they ever eat it? It was a wonderful plate of 7 cheeses with apple and pear slices, walnuts, and white grapes. He suggested I start at the top and go clockwise ending in the middle and he was right. Each cheese became more and more flavorful.
I had only one glass of wine with dinner -- a really wonderful Chateauneuf du Pape.
The entire bill was $758 (amost exactly $100 US) and perhaps one of the finest French meals I've ever had. This place is fantastic! Afterwards I walked over to Staunton's and was greeted by the two bartenders like an old friend, and one immediately asked if I wanted the same drink and made it without a blink. Great.
I walked back down the hill and took the subway back to Wan Chai and back to the hotel.
This morning (Monday) I awoke to the disappointment of no coffee (as described above), so walked over a couple blocks and had a breakfast at a Delifrance, then got a big Americano at Pacific Coffee and headed back to the hotel. I had thought of going up to Victoria Peak, but it was REALLY hazy, so that seemed pointless, and I couldn't get ambitious enough to do anything but sit and watch the harbor.
At noon I checked out and took a taxi to the Airport Express and checked in with Cathay Pacific (I love that feature and being able to get rid of your luggage). Then I went up to the third floor (?) of IFC Tower 2 to Cuisine, Cuisine. The girl at the Hyatt and tried to reserve a table for me there for dims sum (named one of the 5 best in Hong Kong) but there were no table available until 2 PM -- too late for me, but she said I might try to go by and just see if I could get in. The girl there looked at me with my hopeful eyes and looked at her list and said OK, and ushered me to a table. The room is lovely and has huge windows to the harbour -- but the view is really all cranes and construction site!
Then I had four of the most incredible dim sum dishes ever:
Abalone and chicken filet steamed in turnip slices
Crispy fried shrimp and vegetable dumplings with golden dipping soup
Steamed pork, string bean, and preserved olive dumplings
and Minced beef balls with steamed aged tangerine peel.
Remarkable stuff. With tea and impeccable but formal service, the bill was $210, less that $30 US. It was a lot of food for one person.
Then the Airport Express to the airport and here I sit at the Cathay Pacific lounge awaiting my flight to Bangkok.
All I can say is, why did I only stay two nights in Hong Kong again? I sure love this city. And I can't think of a better place to have "splurged" and lived in style, even if the hotel was free. Oh by the way, I paid my entire hotel bill in cash -- $21 HK or less than $3 US -- I made three local phone calls. That was the only charge.
The flight from Changsha to Hong Kong on Dragonair First Class (Cathay Pacific) was delightful. The arrival in Hong Kong, despite quite a wait clearing immigration was fine, and I was on the Airport Express in no time. But I must say the claims of how quick it is to get to your hotel that way, failed when I waited in line at the Central terminal for a solid 45 minutes for a taxi. When I got to the four taxi lines, it was clear that there were a lot of people and not a taxi in sight. A sign said, "the shortage of taxis is due to the adverse weather" (yes it was pouring rain) and the sign suggesting using the free shuttle to avoid delays. So I went to the shuttle desk only to be told that no they don't service the Grand Hyatt. Didn't someone here tell me that? So back into the line to wait. The Grand Hyatt was booked free for my two nights thanks to a special Hyatt ran in the early summer (get one free night at any Hyatt with any two stays at any Hyatt) -- so with Hong Kong in mind, I made four individual one night cheap stays while traveling in Hyatt Place Hotels to get my two free nights at Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. A very good deal. And since I'm platinum I was upgraded to a 27th floor Harborfront front. Spectacular. My first impression was "wow, did the harbour shrink? It's been something like 17 years since I've been to Hong Kong and then stayed at the Regent -- now the Intercontinental -- in Kowloon. And my memory made the distance between the two sides much greater than it actually is.
I checked in and went for a walk and also bought an Octopus Card ($50 deposit) plus put the minimum $100 on it. I took the subway from Wan Chai to Central and worked my way to the escalators. I ended up much later in Soho and had my first real cocktail in weeks -- a dry robroy at Stauntons, where the bartender shirts say "voted Hong Kong's best spot for people watching" -- perhaps. I had to explain to the two bartenders that what I wanted was just like a dry martini but made with Scotch (Johnnie Walker Black was about the only option here). So a martini glass was filled with ice and vermouth to chill, while the scotch was shaken with more ice, then the glass was emptied out and the chilled scotch poured in. Great. They cut me a lemon twist as requested and it was one of the best dry robroys ever (not to mention one of the biggest) and cost $78 (or $10 US). Hooray.
After a lot of walking and working my way back down, I found I didn't really want to eat at any of those great looking places in Soho, because I really wanted to stick with Chinese, and I ended up at Tsui Wah (sp?) a two level diner like place that's supposed to be quite well done,and was certainly very popular. It was dirt cheap and my grilled boneless half chicken with three huge grilled scallops, noodles with mushrooms, and corn and mushroom soup was delicious.
Subway back to hotel, where I watched the harbour traffic for a while and went to bed.
I loved that as a Platinum member I could put a card on my door at night and they'd deliver coffee service at whatever time I specified in the morning for free. I put service for 2, and got a huge pot of really good coffee. The second day I was surprised when it didn't come at the right time,and 15 minutes later still wasn't there, then I noticed the tag still on my desk. Duh, it doesn't work if you don't put the sign out!
I walked the short distance to the Star Ferry and rode to Kowloon. Lee's favorite thing in Hong Kong was riding the Star Ferry -- it was the only way he'd travel back and forth -- so it seemed fitting I should scatter some of his ashes from the back of the ferry in the harbor. I did -- and didn't get caught doing it!
On Kowloon, I had breakfast at a Coral Cafe, not a bad little fast food place -- bowl of noodles with a minute steak and fried egg in it. I went to the goldfish market, the floral market and the Bird Garden. Then headed back to HK Island and headed back up towards Soho, seeking out Mak's Noodle Shop for lunch -- very good beef brisket on noodles, but I honestly wasn't very hungry.
I spend much of the day just exploring, particularly along the galleries and antique stores of Hollywood Road. At one point I looked down a side street (Peel) and saw a sign Chez Patrick. I suddenly remembered reading about this place, well certainly the name stuck, in some recent magazine with raves for it's French food. I walked down and was looking at the weekly menu -- three courses for $499 or four courses for $599 with three choices in each category. All sounded wonderful. As I was looking, a guy popped out the door and gave me a card. So later that day, back at the hotel I started thinking "Hong Kong is costing me nothing -- it's time for a splurge meal" so I called and reserved and went. I also took a taxi thinking it might be nice to arrive not sweaty -- it was pretty hot and humid out. And how much of splurge is it to take a taxi that costs less than $4 US?
The meal was extraordinary. Patrick is from Lyon, France. The dining room is elegant and only has 7 tables. There's a small separate room with a bar. After a delightful amuse bouche of some sort of seafood terrine, I started with Trio of Fois Gras. It arrived with a wonderful block of great Fois Gras with a slice of toasted crumbly bread (corn meal, I wondered?) and what looked like two profiteroles drizzled with chocolate sauce. How clever, I thought, to use something like a balsamic reduction to look like chocolate. One was actually big hunk of warm and creamy foie gras between two "biscuits" and the other was -- are you ready?-- foie gras ice cream between two biscuits. And the sauce? It was indeed bittersweet chocolate which as wonderful with the fois gras. This was an amazing starter! Then came a sorbet of pear and white chocolate, not sweet, but delightfully refreshing. And then I had tenderloin of beef with a whole potato hollowed out and filled with mushroom duxelles and topped with a whole shitake cap, and a warm corn timbale that was wrapped with paper thin slices of beet. Wonderful. I went with just three courses -- choosing cheese rather than dessert. Hmmm. Suddenly I realize what I had missed in China -- cheese -- do they ever eat it? It was a wonderful plate of 7 cheeses with apple and pear slices, walnuts, and white grapes. He suggested I start at the top and go clockwise ending in the middle and he was right. Each cheese became more and more flavorful.
I had only one glass of wine with dinner -- a really wonderful Chateauneuf du Pape.
The entire bill was $758 (amost exactly $100 US) and perhaps one of the finest French meals I've ever had. This place is fantastic! Afterwards I walked over to Staunton's and was greeted by the two bartenders like an old friend, and one immediately asked if I wanted the same drink and made it without a blink. Great.
I walked back down the hill and took the subway back to Wan Chai and back to the hotel.
This morning (Monday) I awoke to the disappointment of no coffee (as described above), so walked over a couple blocks and had a breakfast at a Delifrance, then got a big Americano at Pacific Coffee and headed back to the hotel. I had thought of going up to Victoria Peak, but it was REALLY hazy, so that seemed pointless, and I couldn't get ambitious enough to do anything but sit and watch the harbor.
At noon I checked out and took a taxi to the Airport Express and checked in with Cathay Pacific (I love that feature and being able to get rid of your luggage). Then I went up to the third floor (?) of IFC Tower 2 to Cuisine, Cuisine. The girl at the Hyatt and tried to reserve a table for me there for dims sum (named one of the 5 best in Hong Kong) but there were no table available until 2 PM -- too late for me, but she said I might try to go by and just see if I could get in. The girl there looked at me with my hopeful eyes and looked at her list and said OK, and ushered me to a table. The room is lovely and has huge windows to the harbour -- but the view is really all cranes and construction site!
Then I had four of the most incredible dim sum dishes ever:
Abalone and chicken filet steamed in turnip slices
Crispy fried shrimp and vegetable dumplings with golden dipping soup
Steamed pork, string bean, and preserved olive dumplings
and Minced beef balls with steamed aged tangerine peel.
Remarkable stuff. With tea and impeccable but formal service, the bill was $210, less that $30 US. It was a lot of food for one person.
Then the Airport Express to the airport and here I sit at the Cathay Pacific lounge awaiting my flight to Bangkok.
All I can say is, why did I only stay two nights in Hong Kong again? I sure love this city. And I can't think of a better place to have "splurged" and lived in style, even if the hotel was free. Oh by the way, I paid my entire hotel bill in cash -- $21 HK or less than $3 US -- I made three local phone calls. That was the only charge.
Aug 30th, 2010 | 03:32 AM
#79
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 5,309
Likes: 0
I am really impressed with the logistics of your trip and how you managed to "work" the various offers to such great advantage! Maybe you should go into the trip planning biz!
I have been craving Chinese food for the last couple of days and I only now realized why.
I have been craving Chinese food for the last couple of days and I only now realized why.
Aug 30th, 2010 | 04:53 AM
#80
Original Poster
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 36,842
Likes: 0
OK, arrived in Bangkok. That was some hour and 45 minute taxi ride!
I'm thinking because these posts are getting so long, would it make more sense to end this one with just China, Kyoto, and Hong Kong, and start a new thread for Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos?
I'm thinking because these posts are getting so long, would it make more sense to end this one with just China, Kyoto, and Hong Kong, and start a new thread for Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos?
