Hong Kong: The Dark Side, Part 4-1
DAY 3: KOWLOON (Part 4-1)
Last Wednesday, I made an impulse trip to Hong Kong for the first time. What started out as my soul’s plea for new landscapes became a whirlwind adventure that opened my eyes, challenged old perspectives, and shifted personal paradigms. This is the fourth part of a series of stories about my four days in the most densely populated city in the world.
Dubbed as “The Dark Side” by some expats, Kowloon looks nothing like Hong Kong Island. I was given the impression that it is really rough, ethnic, seedy and scary but I don’t think I saw enough of Kowloon to make a fair judgment. That said I did get “perved” at in Tsim Sha Tsui twice in four hours.
On Friday morning, Rachel and I headed to Kowloon via the Star Ferry. I was really excited to go because I wanted check out the bird market in Mongkok.
When we got to Kowloon, I got a peek of the venerable Peninsula Hotel, checked out the flagship Shanghai Tang store, and also walked around the newly refurbished Heritage 1881 building. It is to Hong Kong what Raffles Hotel is to Singapore.
We proceeded to walk toward Nathan Road, and on the way we got sucked in by the amazing deals at Giordano. You know how they get you in Hong Kong? Get a pair of jeans for $120 but have two for $180. By the time we decided to stop, we were $12 short of getting a free bag but nothing in the store costs that little. Needless to say we went downstairs in search of an item we don’t need to make up for the lack. It just never ends and we’re such suckers for bargains!
Lan Lan Noodles
After getting suckered in broad daylight, we went to have lunch at this place called Lan Lan Noodles. They were featured on the food guide booklet that Rachel had and I thought it would be fun if we went to eat some local Kowloon food. We followed a map on foot and it seemed like forever before we finally got to the eatery.
When we finally got there, Rachel said “Look Jackie!” It was a really small Dai Pai Dong style operation in a shop lot, which wasn’t what we expected but as we’ve walked a half hour to get there we went in anyway. We tried asking the waitress for recommendations. Since our Cantonese are poorly, it was challenging trying to tell her that we wanted their signature noodle bowl, the one that was photographed in the booklet. The chef stuck his head out of the kitchen, we pointed at the book pic and he nodded and shouted the order to his assistants loudly. After putting our orders in, I went to the front of the shop to get some Yong Tau Foo-like stuff.
The Yong Tau Foo stuff was delicious! However, the noodle soup that we got served isn’t what was photographed in the booklet! We got two huge bowls of offal noodle soup which consisted of intestines, tripe, and spongy brown chunks that was probably pancreas or spleen. I wonder how what we wanted (strips of chicken meat) got lost in translation, but we didn’t want to be rude and ate it anyway.
Do locals even eat that stuff?
I look to my left and the local person next to us was having chicken noodle soup, I look to my back and also saw a glorious bowl of something normal. What business were two foreigners doing eating big bowls of offal meats like Mongolian soldiers about to go to war for Genghis Khan?
Nevertheless, though it was torturous the taste of tripe and intestines weren’t as gross as it sounds, but the spongy brown stuff was just NASTY. I guess in a sick way we enjoyed not enjoying swallowing those rubbery chunks down our throats.
Anyhow, though I felt really sick after the gross lunch I managed to smile for a photo op.
It was already 3:30pm and a little too late for Mongkok. We arrived at this overhead bridge with a dude sitting directly below a paper-printed map of the area. We were discussing which way to go and both agreed to walk onward, when the dude said, “I believe Salisbury Road is over there” and pointed behind us…
Euh, okay… Hahahah. We’re definitely not contenders for Amazing Race Asia!
After Sogo, we headed toward the ferry station via Avenue of Stars and stopped to absorb the picturesque view of Hong Kong Island.
It was hazy but so beautiful. It felt a little bit like looking at Manhattan from New Jersey or Queens, Asian-style. I wish I had time to check out the Symphony of Lights that comes on at 8:00pm every night. Unfortunately I had already made plans to meet people that evening, so we headed back to the city.
Here are two more pictures I took while on the star ferry ride back to Wan Chai. This concludes my trip to the “dark side” which really was just Tsim Sha Tsui (not very dark at all hahaha). I’ll be sure to go to Mongkok on my next trip but for now, let’s meet some people!
Part 4-2 of 6 will be published tonight.
