SAR, China - Hong Kong – 4 Days 3 Nights (Part 2 - To do/see,to eat）Day 2

To do:
Ngong Ping Cable Car, Lantau Island and Tai-O

11 Tat Tung Road

I almost always go Lantau island except for the first visit in hong kong. A slight difference this time is a side visit to Tai-O. To compact all the places together does seem to be a bit of a rush on hindsight. Also, we left our hotel rather late and arrive at Tung Chung Station slightly before 12 pm. There is already a queue formed at the cable car station but not so scary that its huge damper to my plans.

We are advised to hop on the bus to Tai-O immediately upon arrival at Ngong Ping village and do our sightseeing of Tai-O before taking the last bus at 5. 30 pm. Last cable car to depart Ngong Ping village is 6.30 pm.

The ride to Tai-O on bus 21 is comfortable. We reached the place at 1.30 pm and proceed to look for our boat ride that was pre-booked. The signages wasn’t very clear and we are doubting if we can locate the place to board the boat. Fortunately, the street vendors are helpful and direct us accordingly.

I was hoping to see the Chinese white dolphins (the dolphins are actually pink in colour) but today’s not our day. The boat trip is not unlike the boat trip in Vietnam Mekong Delta and its something you can choose not to do on this trip. Upon alighting, we walked around Tai-O and sampling the food along the streets and at Tai-O Heritage hotel. 

The place is very laid back and relaxed. We can see many people going about their daily activities and preparing the local dried seafood and the salted egg yolks.
 

We tried to catch the bus at 4 pm so that we have more time at Ngong Ping village. Even though the bus is in the bay, we still had to wait in the hot sun (there is no shelter for bus 21) till the bus supposed leaves at 4.xx? No fixed time indicated so we waited for about 20 minutes before heading back.

The first thing I did when reached is to climb the Tian Tan Buddha and walk around at the top. Everything else seems quite the same. Nothing much has changed since the last visit.

By the time we head down to Po Lin Monastery, the Tian Tan gates are pulling close and Po Lin Monastery look quite empty as well. We took a quick prayer and left.

On this trip there is noticeable a lot more cows (lantau bovines they are called) at the square. They are quite docile and will ignore you when you pat or take pictures with them. But I’m still apprehensive. 

 On the trip back we are accidentally rewarded with the beautiful sunset. What a great way to end the day.

Hong Kong Pulse 3D lightshow @ Hong Kong Cultural Centre
10 Salisbury Rd, Hong Kong

There is the PULSE light show for the month of August, curious i went to take a look. Its a quite a dissappointment. The only plus point is the night view across the river from kowloon.

To Eat:

Yee Shun Milk Company港澳義順牛奶公司 – 3.2 stars, budget
63 Pilkem Street, Jordan, Hong Kong

Our first stop is at Australia Dairy Company. There is a queue formed at the main door when we reached. Hubs didn’t want to stand and wait in the hot sun so we decide to go somewhere else. On the next block we spied and saw this place since its similar to Australia Dairy Company and we have never tried this before we decided to give it a go.

We took a set meal (comes with macaroni, butter with bread, eggs and coffee)  and also added a bottle of milk and a bowl of steamed milk egg (cold). I overheard the other table ordering the Pork bun and was also keen to try but was also sadly dissappointed. The best pork bun is still from Macau.

To me the steamed milk egg is a little disappointment though its soft like tofu, it’s a little bland.

The macaroni is over cooked, soggy and tasteless. Though the 2 fried eggs are superb and fresh. So is the hotdog, it saltier than usual but still considered very nice. This started my love relationship with eggs in HK. I ate eggs everyday thereafter.

Tai-O Lookout – 3.7 stars, mid-range
Shek Tsai Po Street, Tai O, Lantau Island, Hong Kong

We had quite a long day and have been walking along the streets for roughly an hour. Our destination is Tai-O heritage hotel. We had a quick tea break there.

Service is great, we requested for window seats and they invited us over as soon as other guests vacate the seats.

We ordered a Crispy bun with Tai-O shrimp paste marinated pork chop and for drinks is the lookout classic mangrove special. Classic mangrove special is made of mountain begonia juice, apple juice and lemon juice. Begonia fimbristipula 紫背天葵 is a miraculous tea tree leaf from Phoenix Mountain of Lantau. This item is listed as phoenix tea and one of the must try items from Lantau.

While the marinated pork chop is decent, the signature mangrove juice is not that impressive. Pretty colours but taste a little odd.  But along of streets bottles of this tea is sold, pick the one that is red. Its taste really well more sourish and hence refreshing.

Street food in Tai-O – budget

Along the way back to the bus stop, I stopped to buy the shrimp paste.

Bought some moji like gueh (豆沙糯米滋 red bean moji，花生甜茶果 peanut gueh) and regretted that I didn’t get more! The豆沙糯米滋 red bean moji is very well made. The flour is soft and tender. Should have bought more.

The one I queued the longest is charcoal baked eggette. It is crisp and yummy only while hot.

We also bought 2 very large squid balls. Its fist sized and yummy.

As it has been such a long day and we are dehydrated we also bought the begonia water in RED.

Mak Noodle 麥奀雲吞麵世家– 3.5 stars, budget
51 Parkes Street, Jordan, Hong Kong

There is an outlet at Mak noodle in Jordan which we spotted in the morning. I wanted to find out if the noodles in HK taste any different from the outlet in SG. I ordered their signature shrimp wanton noodle while hubs ordered the pork trotters (nan ru zhu shou) noodle.

The bowl where the noodle is serve is still very small just less soupy and more noodles. 

Taste wise the noodles didn’t taste any different from the SG version. My friends insisted that the noodles taste better in HK because it made from duck eggs (not available in SG) and has higher alkalinity. I really really can’t tell the difference.

The pork trotters that Hubs ordered taste great and it’s a good alternative.

Australia Diary Company澳洲牛奶公司熱燉奶 – 4 stars, budget
47 Parkes Street, Jordan, Hong Kong

Super horrendous long queue at 10 am on Sunday morning!

I was elated when I saw no queue at night and I finally can get to eat my hot steamed milk pudding! The steamed milk pudding is as good as I remembered. 

Unfortunately, the service standards are also as bad as before. The waiters are impatient and rude. Sigh, some things just never change.

Hubs ordered milk and more eggs with bread. His verdict the milk is better here.