Day 35: A very soggy Sunday

There was no respite in the weather today in Hong Kong... the low pressure cell had intensified and it was a tropical rainy day. We took the opportunity for a sleep in and a leisurely breakfast before planning our assault on lunch.

When we travelled to Singapore last year, we stumbled upon a chain of dim sum restaurants called Tim Ho Wan. Very tasty and exotic dim sum and we discovered that the restaurant had a Michelin Star. Wooot Hoot. What we discovered later was that Tim Ho Wan earned his star with very humble beginnings in an area of Kowloon not far from where we were staying. So, what a great opportunity to be able to go to the original Tim Ho Wan and have dim sum.

The number 6 bus went from across Nathan Road.... of course crossing Nathan Road is no mean feat and we did get very wet hiking down to the lights and hiking back. Our little Superdrug umbrellas from York were no match for the teaming rain and wind but at least there was a little shelter at the bus area. Seven stops up Nathan road seemed close, but the stops are quite spread. It gave us a great opportunity to see the chaos and the retail homage that Hong Kong Chinese pay to ‘the label’ as shop after shop after shop extended up the ribbon in a kind of tacky Las Vegas style chic. In 20 minutes we were there and this very unassuming building with the sign out the front was surrounded by queuing Asian people. Good recommendation!

It took about 20 minutes for our table to become available and the inside was a bustling hive of activity, with very close stacked plain tables. There is a limited selection of dim sum, maybe 20 different types and you actually order on a paper which mercifully we were given the English version of! And looking around the restaurant we are thinking that they do not give out many English ones because we were the only non Asian people in the restaurant! Our four delicious sets of dim sum did not take long to arrive at the table. Baked bbq pork buns that were domed with a beautiful crusty outside, pork rice noodle, prawn sui mai and scallop and fungus dumplings. Oh wow. The flavours were amazing. 

We then struggled back to the hotel in the rain and got organised for check out, but on our way we were talking to the girl on the Executive floor counter. She told us that that was indeed the original restaurant and was most impressed at our initiative in catching a bus and finding it ourselves... clearly they don’t get too many travellers like us. 

We were watching the news because we were aware that there were protests again today, notwithstanding the horrendous weather. When we got to the railway, the line that we had to catch from Jordan was being terminated early and trains had also been stopped on a nearby line. We were very fortunate that our change stop was 3 stops before the line terminated so we were able to change easily onto a train to Tung Chung to go back to the Novotel at Tung Chung and check in again. No harm in asking for an upgrade, and while this one actual cost a little bit it provided us with afternoon tea and evening cocktails on the executive floor, buffet breakfast and late check out until 6pm... what a bonus! We availed ourselves of afternoon tea and then went exploring the Citygate Outlets which are adjacent to the hotel. 

Now those of you who know Chris and his predisposition to bored husband seats while shopping might be surprised to know that he was the one who suggested we go and check out the ‘extension’ to the outlets. We had been walking through the old section past all the high end labels in order to get to the train, but what we weren’t prepared for was a 9 storey circular extension with still lots of work to be done, but with more accomodation for the high end brands, so the mind boggles at how many other labels will join the complex. We did look at luggage, deciding after checking the prices that we were better off bringing Chris’ dodgy one home and replacing it at home... he could have bought one of the bags at half price and it still would have been $700 AUD and it weighed a ton! On the way back we grabbed dinner at CItygate at the Pizza Express. While the pizza was ok, the mocktail with Watermelon, Lemongrass, Lime, Lychee and Mint was very very delicious. As the Novotel is right adjacent to Citygate, we went back to the room and then and then popped in to the executive floor for a ‘soda water’ cocktail!