Travelling Around Britain and the World

Monday, 28 November 2016

To Sai Kung and Deeper into the New Territories: Hong Kong and Macau Part 6

The New Territories - A Coastal Town and the Village of Pak Sha O

Kowloon: A Difficult Place to Live?

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of our favourite cities - this was our fourth visit and I would be disappointed if it was our last. We have always stayed in Kowloon, an exciting, vibrant place whose 2.1 million residents pack themselves into under 50km²*. It is the crowds that give Hong Kong its vitality, and they are also the reason I doubt that I could live there. I am used to having space; the hordes and their energy are a wonderful novelty, but eventually I fear they would grind me down.

Our friends Brian and Hilary lived in Kowloon for 20 years before moving to Stafford. Like me Brian appreciates the countryside, open fields, trees and unconfined fresh air, simple restoratives that Kowloon conspicuously fails to offer. How then did they cope?

A slice of Kowloon
In 2005 we stayed in a hotel called the 'Seaview' and this was the sea view, only available from the 14th floor breakfast room

Hong Kong island was ceded to the British in the Treaty of Nanking in 1843. The Kowloon peninsula, as far north as Boundary Road was added in 1860. Both are densely populated in the extreme.

Boundary Road Kowloon, everything to the right of the road is in the New Territories

The New Territories

In 1898 the British acquired the New Territories from the Qing emperor on a 99-year lease. The New Territories comprise a large block of land north of old Kowloon, and also the 'Outer Islands', Lantau, twice as big as Hong Kong island, Lama which we visited on Thursday, Chung Chau which we visited in 2005 and 2010, and many others. The territories make up almost 90% of Hong Kong's land, but house only half its population. There are some densely populated areas, urban Kowloon has expanded north from Boundary Road to the Kowloon ranges, and there are many other settlements of towering residential blocks, but there is also a green rural hinterland.

Map (borrowed from Wikipedia) showing the New territories in green, Hong Kong Island and 'old' Kowloon in grey

In their later years in Hong Kong, Brian and Hilary rented a weekend cottage in a quiet village that was everything Kowloon is not. Perhaps it was a survival strategy. We have often admired their painting of the cottage with its backdrop of fields and hills, and today we were going to see the real thing.

By MTR and Bus to Sai Kung

We took the MTR north and east to Diamond Hill, well beyond Boundary Road, so legally in the New Territories, but being on the northern edge of the urban sprawl it is administered as part of Kowloon. This was an area of squatter camps until the 1960s, but times have changed

.
Diamond Hill and the Kowloon Ranges, photo taken from the Chi Lin Nunnery in 2010

No diamonds were ever found here, the name is derived from a misunderstanding of a Cantonese word for ‘quarry’, but if gemstones are required they can be found in the Plaza Hollywood shopping mall which glitters inanely above the MTR station. In its basement, providing a welcome touch of gritty realism, is the bus station. We met Brian and Hilary there and boarded a 92 bus for Sai Kung, running (no, not really, I exaggerate) upstairs and bagging the front seats like a gang of kids.

Kowloon is mostly further south and east of where the name appears on this map.
Diamond Hill is north east of Kowloon City, Sai Kung is on the coast even further north east

The thirty-minute journey was largely through the urban margin, a land of bus stops and fly-overs, there were rural sections too and the odd moment when urban and rural clashed dramatically.

Clash of rural and urban on the way to Sai Kung

Briefly in Sai Kung then off to Pak Sha O

We found Sai Kung lounging in gentle sunshine beside a harbour of pleasure boats and fishing craft. It felt very much a separate town, its style different from the urban sprawl which is not so very far away.

Sai Kung from the top of a bus

Alighting at the bus station we headed towards the Public Light Buses (minibuses) for the next stage of our journey.

These Minibuses are integrated into the transport system and use the same octopus card readers. As the authorities kindly allow older visitors to obtain senior octopus cards (at no charge) each section of the journey cost the princely sum of HK$2 (20p). We have used Hong Kong buses before, but not the minibuses and if Brian and Hilary had not been with us we would not have been able to; they have numbered routes like regular buses but no fixed stops, you stand by the road and wave when you want to get on and give the driver a shout when you want to get off. [Brian informs me they have deicated stops on urban routes....but this was not an urban route}

We took the No 7 minibus north and a little east from Sai Kung into the large irregular-shaped peninsula which makes up most of Sai Kung Country Park. This was a genuinely rural area, nothing but vegetation beside the well-made two-lane road, precipitous green clad hills in the middle distance and blue sky above. Hong Kong was showing off its best November weather, warm and clear with fresh air from the South China Sea rather than smog drifting down from Shenzhen.

After some 15km Hilary said, 'We're here,' and the bus came to a halt in a place which seemed, to my inexpert eye, to have no distinguishing features at all.

'This way,' she said. The minibus disappeared into the distance as we set off down a narrow concrete path like the motorcycle tracks that criss-cross rural Vietnam.

Pak Sha O

Down the concrete path to Pak Sha O

The path winds through the jungle to the village of Pak Sha O, just a few hundred metres from the road. A traditional Hakka village, it has been largely (some sources claim ‘completely’) deserted by indigenous people and revived by ex-pats. The paddy fields were unused for years but are now operating as a market garden. The company that owns it is not local and the men toiling in the fields are ‘guest workers’ from the ‘mainland’ (i.e. the People’s Republic of China, not Hong Kong).

Market gardening at Pak Sha O

When Brian and Hilary had their cottage, Pak Sha O still had indigenous residents and before reaching the village we went to pay our respect to Mrs Yeung, their former neighbour. There was nobody at the Ancestor’s Memorial Hall and very little to commemorate any of the former villagers. It felt a sad and neglected place, but people move on and eventually they no longer remember the hall of memories.

Memorial Hall, Pak Sha O

In the village, Brian and Hilary's house had new tenants, though they were not there on a Monday.

Brian and Hilary's house is on the left of this group, Pak Sha O

The Yeung’s house was derelict, their family moved away long ago and no longer need it.

The Yeung's house, on the right of the group is derelict, Pak Sha O

The village felt like a forgotten backwater, the buzzing of insects and fluttering of butterflies, the only activity. All was peaceful, seemingly a thousand miles from the bustle of Kowloon, though in reality that is only a short distance away.

Pak Sha O and its peaceful surroundings

Our protracted wander evoked happy memories for Brian and Hilary, among them Mrs Yeung pottering out with her night soil bucket and tipping the contents onto her vegetable patch. We were just amazed that such tranquillity is possible in Hong Kong. [update: All was not as it seemed. Planning permission has been given to build 30 houses in Pak Sha O, despite it being in a country park and there being no access road. Read the full story in the Sai Kung Buzz]

We made our way back up the concrete path. One memoryHilary shared was of her daughter Lauren encountering a king cobra near here. Unless your unlucky enough to step on one in the undergrowth, any snake should slither away from you as fast as you run from it. That is the theory and it worked for Lauren, much to Hilary’s relief. I hope never to have to put it to the test.

Lynne and Hilary walk back up the path from Pak Sha O

Back on the road we waited for the minibus. Brian and I walked down to the corner to make it come quicker. (What do you mean ‘silly’, it worked).

Making the bus come quicker

Sai Kung

A Seafood Lunch

Back in Sai Kung we strolled along the harbour looking at the fishing boats and pleasure craft.

Sai Kung Harbour

....and then the sea food restaurants lining the harbour. The spectacular shellfish included several species I had never seen before.

Shellfish collection, Sai Kung

I think we were looking for a recommendation Hilary had been given, but we sat down at the last restaurant in the line so I don't think we found it. I doubt there was really much to choose between any of them in menu, quality or price.

Faced with such a huge variety of sea food it was easiest to choose the set menu: fried squid, aubergine and mince, clams in black bean sauce, mushrooms and vegetables, and fried rice. It was very good, but if I had the fortune to be a regular visitor I would be more adventurous and explore the menu in depth, like the young Chinese couple at the next table who worked diligently at dismantling a couple of crabs, a messy but obviously pleasurable business.

Lunch at Sai Kung

The Tin Hau Temple

Well-fed, we strolled round the town.

Lynne and Hilary explore Sai Kung

There is not a lot to see in Sai Kung, but we dropped into the Tin Hau temple,….

Tin Hau temple, Sai Kung

… - always worth a look.

Inside the Tin Hau Temple, Sai Kung

Leaving the New Territories

And then it was time to leave the New Territories. When the 99-year lease ran out in 1997 the New Territories had to be returned to China. Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon peninsula had been ceded to Britain in perpetuity so they could legally have been retained. Hong Kong without the New Territories would have no airport and an international border bisecting urban Kowloon. Worse, if a modest portion of the New Territory’s 3 million residents attempt to migrate south, already densely populated areas would become unsustainable. Better, then, to negotiate a settlement with the Chinese for the whole territory which recognised Hong Kong’s unique position. The resulting ‘one country, two systems’ has generally worked well for almost twenty years. How long it will continue is anybody’s guess [That was how it looked in 2016 - in 2021 it looks like time is up. Another reason why 2021 is a deeply depressing year].

That evening, unlike the previous one, I agreed with Lynne that lunch had been both excellent and filling and we did not want to go out to eat again. Not for the first time on this trip we dined on cocktails and peanuts.

*Kowloon has 43,000 residents per km², by comparison Manhattan, by far New York’s most densely populated borough, has a sparse 28,000.

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Sunday, 27 November 2016

Hong Kong History Museum, Dim Sum and Mongkok: Hong Kong and Macau Part 5

History, Food and the Specialist Markets of Mongkok

Nanking Street in 2004 and 2016

Hong Kong

We last visited the Hong Kong History Museum over a decade ago. Nothing in this city stands still, so a second visit seemed overdue.

With the weather showing a welcome improvement we set off on the short walk, down Nathan road and past the end of Nanking Street. On our first visit in 2004 we had stayed in Nanking Street so we detoured to see how it looked now.

This area has seen no major changes, but alterations have been incremental and continuous, so my 2016 photograph….

Nanking Street, Kowloon, Nov 2016

…shows a tidier and rather different scene from the 2004 version. Not having the earlier photo with me I inadvertently stood 50m further back, but this really is the same street.

Nanking Street, Kowloon, July 2001

Hong Kong History Museum

Walking down Nathan Road and turning left into Austin Road, we found the museum easily enough though the entrance eluded us for a while.

Hong Kong History Museum

The museum was certainly larger and more comprehensive than I remembered. Beautifully laid out with clear explanations in English and Chinese, it started with the geology and prehistory of the area and then traced the territories development from the first human arrivals to the present day.

Stone tools found at Sai Kung (our destination tomorrow) and elsewhere suggest the first inhabitants arrived some 30,000 years ago in the early stone age.

Hong Kong became absorbed into the Chinese empire during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) but the grave goods on show were rather more modest than the Qin Emperor’s Terracotta Army.

Grave goods, Hong Kong History Museum

In the 13th century the Mongol Invasion gradually eroded the Song Dynasty’s grip on northern China until, in 1271, Kublai Khan proclaimed himself first emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. The Southern Song survived until 1279 and for a time their capital was on Lantau Island, now part of Hong Kong.

The capital of the Southern Song was briefly on Lantau Island

We looked at some early ceramics…

Early pottery, Hong Kong History Museum

…and the folk culture of the Hakka ( we met them in Fujian where some still live in their traditional Tulous) Hokkien, Punti and Tanka, all regarded as indigenous peoples, though the Hakka and Hokkien mainly arrived in the 17th century, the forerunners of a tsunami of migrants driven first by the Taiping Rebellion. 1850-64, (see the Nanjing (2) post) then a series of famines, outbreaks of unrest and finally the Cultural Revolution.

We took a coffee break as we reached the Opium Wars which resulted in Hong Kong becoming British in 1841, though they were far from the British Empire’s finest hours.

Refreshed, we took a walk through the birth and growth of the modern city, the Japanese occupation of 1941-5 and the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. ‘One country, two systems’ has worked reasonably well since, though not as seamlessly as the Museum would like you to believe and with Xi Jinping now effectively Chinese President for life and flirting with the idea of a personality cult, the future looks troubled.[update: and it looks even more troubled in 2021]

The museum covered politics, but also looked at the lives of ordinary people with reconstructions of a port scene and a bank, tailor’s, grocer’s and herbal medicine shops, a tea shop and a pawn shop among others.

Hong Kong History Museum

We had not expected to be spend three hours there, but there was much to see and it is a model of what such a museum should be.

Dim Sum on Nathan Road

We left in warm sunshine with the intention of having a dim sum lunch and allowed ourselves to be captured by a tout on Nathan Road. Our idea was not particularly novel for a Sunday lunchtime, but there was one table available. The more people you have the more variety you can order and the better dim sum becomes, but there were only two of us so we did our best ordering steamed pork dumplings, prawn spring rolls, fried beef, cakes and custard buns. I thought it was a lovely light lunch, though Lynne would later take issue with my concept of ‘light’.

Dim Sum lunch, Nathan Road, Hong Kong

Up Nathan Road to Mongkok

In the afternoon we walked north along Nathan Road….

Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong

…to Mongkok, a densely populated rectangle of land that was once the most northerly point of urban Kowloon.

130,000 Filipinos live and work in Hong Kong - the territory’s largest ethnic minority - and many, perhaps most, are women working as domestic helps. All spare cash goes to their families back home so on their day off they need a cheap way to socialise. Many congregate around the outer islands ferry terminal, spread blankets on the pavement, have a picnic, chat and play cards. Not wishing to risk our lives crossing Mongkok Road we used one of the footbridges and found another place where they gather, a large, friendly, unthreatening crowd. carefully leaving space for those using the bridges for their intended purpose.

Mongkok

Goldfish Market

A little further north we left Nathan Road to walk through the Goldfish Market. Aquariums are popular in Hong Kong and this is where their denizens – and not just goldfish - are bought and sold. We walked down the street looking at the fish in the shop window tanks…

Fish tank in a shop window, Goldfish Market, Monkgok

…and at other tanks which seemed inappropriate for their non-fishy residents.

Terrapins, Goldfish Market, Mongkok

Many fish are sold in plastic bags hung on boards outside the shops, like the fairground prizes of my youth, though a far greater variety of species are subjected to this unnecessary indignity.

Aquarium fish sold in plastic bags, Goldfish Market, Mongkok

Mongkok Flower Market

The Flower Market is a few streets further north and here, at least, there are no problems with the welfare of the merchandise. Twisted bamboo…

Twisted bamboo, Flower Market, Mongkok

… pitcher plants, and more regular flowers and shrubs were available in abundance.

Pitcher plants. Flower Market, Mongkok

Boundary Road

I am not sure why we walked round Mongkok Stadium, a 7,000-seat stadium shared by two of Hong Kong’s Premier League football clubs, to Boundary Road. Until the New Territories were leased from China in 1898 this was where Hong Kong stopped. Much of Kowloon’s extended urban area is technically in the New Territories, but further north there are large rural areas.

Boundary Road, Mongkok, once the end of the world

Mongkok Bird Market

Beyond the stadium we turned back south into the bird market. Cage birds have always been popular throughout China and on those increasingly rare occasions you find yourself among traditional-style housing, every front door will have a cage with songbird hung over it, and elderly men will take their birds for an evening stroll in the park.

Mongkok bird market

Neither of us liked the overcrowded cages…

Overcrowded cages, Mongkok bird market

…or, indeed any birds in cage, even the traditional style Chinese cages. So why had we come here?

Traditional Chinese birdcage, Mongkok bird market

After a long day and a lot of walking we took the MTR back to our hotel.

Lynne was reluctant to go out to eat in the evening after our big lunch – which was not quite how I saw it. We compromised by sharing a single dish, though once we had picked a restaurant and settled down she insisted on sweet and sour pork – pretty much like we get at home. Grumpiness was displayed.

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Saturday, 26 November 2016

Macau (2), Mainly Taipa and Coloane: Hong Kong and Macau Part 4

The Cotai Strip, Lord Stow and Fernando's

Macau

This is the second of two Macau posts describing a longer visit than our 2010 day trip (click here for that post) and covering different ground.

We stayed overnight at the comfortable Mong-Ha Pousada, a training hotel for the hospitality industry, in the north of the Macau Peninsula. The breakfast choice was extensive, if entirely western - though the only teas available were Earl Grey and green.

Kun Iam Temple, Macau

Hilary and Brian, our friends and, in Macau, guides, had suggested we visit Taipa and Coloane, but as our bus stop was outside the Kun Iam Temple, we dropped in there first, and not just to shelter from the drizzle.

Kun Iam temple, Macau

Kun Iam, known as Guanying on the mainland or Kwun Yam in Hong Kong, is the Chinese representation of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Mercy, so this is a Buddhist temple (it is not always obvious!). It was founded in the 13th century, but the current buildings date from 1627.

With three main pavilions, courtyards and gardens, it is a large complex and we wandered round looking at the statues…

Kun Iam Temple, Macau

…the shrines where people come to pray…

Shrine, Kun Iam Temple, Macau

…the artwork…

Kun Iam Temple, Macau

…and the gardens.

Kun Iam Temple, Macau

In one garden an oriental magpie robin posed on the head of a lion. The twelve species of magpie robins are neither magpies nor robins but flycatchers. The oriental magpie robin, the national bird of Bangladesh, is common across the Indian subcontinent and south east Asia.

Male oriental magpie robin (the female has a greyer head and breast), Kun Iam Temple, Macau

Taipa Village

Catching the bus outside the temple we set off for Taipa. The Portuguese colony of Macau originally consisted of the Macau peninsula and two islands to the south, Taipa and Coloane. In 2005 Taipa and Coloane were joined by filling in the narrows, forming 5km² of new land known as Cotai. Four new land reclamation sites are being built north of Taipa and there is a larger fifth area east of the peninsula.

Macau, a peninsula and two once separate islands now joined by (the unmarked) Cotai

Crossing one of the two bridges connecting Macau and Taipa we arrived in Taipa Village. After the bustle of the densely populated peninsula, the village had a relaxed, deceptively rural feel, though it, too, has its high-rise apartment blocks. We alighted beside a pastelaria which looked in every way Portuguese except for the name over the door.

Pastelaria, Taipa Village

Nearby was a Nativity Scene. Christmas is celebrated all over the world, even by non-Christians (we all like a festival), but this was a more meaningful tableau than Santa in a Yangon shop window (photo at end of that post) or singing about ‘dashing through the snow’ in the 30 degree heat of Bangkok so maybe its is the work of Macau’s Christian population (5% of the total). The nativity has a two-humped Bactrian camel, common throughout much of China, instead of the single-humped dromedary of the middle east, but we saw a worse error in Myanmar: a nativity scene with pigs – unlikely occupants of a Jewish stable.

Nativity scene, Taipa

Colonial Houses Museum, Taipa

In this well-wooded and well-maintained district we climbed a set of steps to the Colonial Houses Museum, a row of five houses built for well-off Portuguese families in 1921.

One of the houses in the Colonial Houses Museum, Taipa

A couple of the houses were open,…

Inside a Colonial Museum House, Taipa

…furnished to show the comfortable lifestyle…

Inside a Colonial Museum House, Taipa

… of the Portuguese in Macau in the first half of last century, while another contained a historical exhibition.

Inside a Colonial Museum House, Taipa

The houses were originally on Taipa’s south coast, but now overlook a lake beyond which is Cotai, with the Venetian hotel and its campanile clearly visible.

Looking over the lake from the Colonial Houses Museum, Taipa

The Cotai Strip

Catching another bus to Coloane took us through Cotai.

A closer look at the Venetian Hotel, with the Rialto Bridge as well as the campanile

Central Macau has some serious casinos, but the Cotai Strip (built and named by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation) has a line of fantasy casino/hotels with many of the same names (including the previously glimpsed Venetian Hotel) - and all the same good taste - as Las Vegas.

Fake Eiffel Tower outside the Parisian Hotel, Cotai Strip

Lynne and I drove through Las Vegas once (in 1983), we thought it a shocking waste of good desert and found no reason to get out of the car. I am not sure the Cotai Strip can be called a waste of good sea, but I rather preferred it when fish lived there, but then I am not a gambler, and don't see why anybody else should be either - not that it is up to me how other people spend their money and leisure time.

The architectural nightmare that is Studio City (and the inside of a bus window), Cotai Strip

Lord Stow's Garden Café, Coloane

Once across the strip we were on Coloane and Lord Stow’s Garden Café is on islands south west corner.

Lord Stow's Garden Café, Coloane

Andrew Stow started his working life as a pharmacist in Nottingham and became a baker in Macau, not the most obvious career progression. He opened Lord Stow's bakery in Coloane in 1989 and it quickly became an institution. The bakery’s success led to more cafés and then a franchising exercise so Lord Stow's Bakeries now occupy several upmarket locations in various East Asian countries, but the original was, and is, this relatively humble looking bakery in Coloane. Sadly, Andrew Stow died of an asthma attack in 2006 aged 51 and the company is now run by his daughter and sister. Several stories are told to explain why he was known as ‘Lord’ Stow, none of them involve him actually being an aristocrat.

Before he opened his bakery, Andrew Stow visited Portugal where he discovered the delights of pastéis de nata (literally ‘cream pastries’ but really a type of egg tart). Back in Macau he attempted to reproduce these, but without the aid of a recipe. Lord Stow’s Egg Tarts were an instant hit with both locals and expatriates (Brian and Hilary had been charged with obtaining a supply for their Hong Kong resident son and daughter). I have been a devotee of pastéis de nata for more years than I care to remember; a perfect day in Portugal can take many forms, but must include a café con leite and a pastel (singular of pastéis) de nata at 11 o'clock. I have extolled their virtues in this blog previously.

Pastéis de Nata, the Portuguese original

We had to wait for a table, but in due course we placed our order and soon a plate of Lord Stow’s Egg Tarts arrived. Compared to the Portuguese originals they are plumper and a brighter, even lurid yellow…

Lord Stow's egg tarts, Coloane

Lord Stow wins on looks, but the proof of the pudding – or in this case tart - is in the eating. Lord Stow's mille-feuille pastry is exemplary, as good as any artisan baker in Portugal, and way ahead of supermarket tarts, but the contents are disappointing. Whether he could not replicate the Portuguese original or decided to go for an English-style egg tart because he preferred it, or believed it would sell better in Macau, I do not know, but it is slightly softer and much, much sweeter - indeed sweet is all it tastes of. In the Portuguese version vanilla is the dominant flavour and the filling is more subtle and complex and, for me, it is by far the better product. I am sorry, Lord Stow, but seekers of perfection in cakes and pastries should always look to Portugal before England. This is, of course, just my humble infallible opinion.

I might add that I have previously enjoyed Hilary’s excellent homemade pastéis de nata, proving that delight comes from the application of skill to the right recipe.

Old Style Housing and The Church of St Francis Xavier

Coloane mostly looks smart and modern, but near Lord Stow’s café there are outbreaks of old style local housing.

Old style local housing, Coloane

A five-minute walk took us to the little yellow chapel of St Francis Xavier in a square of typically Portuguese cobbles. The chapel, built in 1928, is behind an earlier (1910) monument commemorating the defeat of pirates.

Chapel of St Francis Xavier and monument to the defeat of pirates, Coloane

Hilary and Brian thought we might be interested in the relics – an arm bone of St Francis Xavier and the remains of 26 foreign and Japanese Catholic priests who were crucified in Nagasaki in 1597 - but the chapel was closed, which saved us the disappointment of discovering the relics had been moved to more central museums.

Fernando's, Coloane

We took a bus across Coloane to Hac Sa beach on the east coast, a fine strand but hardly inviting on this cool, drizzly November day.

Hac Sa Beach, Coloane

By the beach is Fernando’s Restaurant, another Coloane institution of the same vintage as Lord Stow’s Bakery. 'An expatriate favourite... its casual cheerful atmosphere is probably the closest you will get to a Mediterranean bistro without boarding a plane.’ (Rough Guide 2003 edition). We were, I note, much closer to the Mediterranean before we boarded a plane to start this journey.

Fernando's, Coloane

Fernando is famous for his extrovert behaviour (some say eccentricity) and his restaurant is renowned for its good food, red check table cloths and reluctance to take bookings. We arrived well after two, but it was still crowded – well, it was a Saturday lunchtime. Fernando instantly recognised Hilary from previous visits (well he said he did though Hilary was sceptical to say the least), and we found a suitable table.

After perusing the menu over a beer, I chose suckling pig and Lynne cuttlefish, two very Portuguese dishes while Brian and Hilary went for the more locally influenced prawns in clam sauce with fava beans. There was no wine list, just a walk-in cupboard full of bottles which Brian and I duly walked into. Comfortably surrounded by quality Portuguese wines, Brian selected a red for himself and Hilary, and I found an appropriate white.

Fernando's, Coloane

I was not over-impressed by last night’s Macanese dining experience, but Fernando’s happily lived up to its reputation. Lynne was delighted with her cuttlefish, my suckling pig was as succulent, porky and garlicky as any in Portugal and Brian and Hilary were well satisfied. Fernando’s I would happily visit again.

Back to Hong Kong

Lunch over, it was time to head for the ferry port. With no convenient bus route, we stood by the beach and waited for a taxi to drive by, which took a while – it really wasn’t a beach day.

Our taxi was driven by a man upset to have missed the Macau Grand Prix and determined to make up for it. We survived the white-knuckle ride, negotiated the formalities and boarded our jetfoil.

If the weather in Macau had been poor, in the Pearl River Delta it was dire. The seats were comfortable, the cabin warm and I had just had a large lunch and couple of glasses of wine so, inevitably, I started to drift off, the last thing my sleepy mind heard was people clearing their throats, at least that is what I thought.

When I awoke we were waiting to dock in Hong Kong and many throats were still being cleared. I was glad to have missed it. We thanked Brian and Hilary, arranged to meet on Monday for a trip into the New Territories and headed back to Kowloon.

Waiting to dock in Hong Kong

Dinner that evening consisted of cocktails and a few peanuts on the hotel’s (covered and heated) rooftop terrace.

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