A visit to old Hong Kong

After last night's feast I'm not sure where I'm going to find an appetite for breakfast this morning.  Thankfully by the time I've made my way to Sham Shui Po I'm starting to feel a bit hungry.  I wait in the MTR station and before long my friend, Sam emerges from the crowd.  It has been another long span of time since we last met!  This time it's 12 years.

Sam has chosen Sham Shui Po because it still feels like old Hong Kong.  Small independent shops and tea houses abound rather than the ubiquitous chains and luxury brands that have swamped retail strips everywhere else.  

Sham Shui Po

We make our way to the Kung Fu Tea House, a small unremarkable hole in the wall which is packed even though it's only 10am.  We fight our way inside but still have to share a table.  It's the type of place where you try not to think too hard about the state of the kitchen, especially when they give you a bowl in which to rinse your own utensils using hot tea!  It's certainly a traditional dim sum breakfast and it doesn't even cost HK$100 for the two of us! 

My good friend Sam

Best of all I get to catch up on the years with my friend.  Not before there is a major disturbance in the restaurant however.  It is perhaps a bit toooo 'authentic' Hong Kong and more than Sam bargained for!  An old lady in a wheelchair is pushed into the teahouse by her foreign maid whom the waitress loudly accuses of being incompetent for pushing her mistress into a sharp table corner.  So begins a very heated exchange in Cantonese.  Everyone turns around to gawp just in case it should degenerate into meat cleavers at three paces.  Fortunately it doesn't.  The maid leaves angry and the waitress forbids her from coming into the restaurant ever again.

Before Sam and I say our farewells, he leaves me with a very interesting souvenir - it is for my protection since the news is rife with the season's first case of avian flu.

A rather strange souvenir

I have a few hours to myself so I return to Tseung Kwan O and take some time to explore the curiously named Popcorn Mall close to the hotel.  I manage to do a bit of shopping and can only stare in wonderment at the pace of development that is happening outside. Tseung Kwan O is taking off, I don't think I have ever seen so many cranes on the horizon.  There are massive residential complexes being constructed with even more behind, and behind those, whole hillsides have been sliced away to make way for more new builds.  

The pace of development in Tseung Kwan O is simply awesome

I have the luxury of resting in the hotel for a few hours before joining everyone else for dinner in Hennessy Road.  

The comforts of home away from home

The surprisingly spacious room at the Crowne Plaza

Some of our dearest friends who have become like family to us since we connected in Perth many years ago have recently started Zahrabel, a Lebanese Private Dining Club.  It has only been open for a few weeks and following the reception dinner last night, they insist that we go for a meal there.  We are absolutely spoilt.  We are treated to an amazing feast of traditional Mediterranean dishes, each made with secret ingredients and a whole lot of love.  It is a superb evening.