A Very Merry Ferry Ride at Night with Lights

When people go on a holiday, they really go for a break - sun, sea, sidewalk cafes, strolls, R&R, spas, golf, or just lazing around.

Malaysians do it differently. We're always trying to squeeze out as much as possible out of the time that we have. It's a matter of how many places you can conquer, & how many things you an eat in a single day. You pay the money, you go get the honey!

That's what our Hong Kong trip was like. You'd think that after our dinner & our little stroll down to Lan Kwai Fong, we'd be calling it a nite & head back to our beds. But we are no uncle & auntie. We are The Amazing Race!

Our little stroll slowly turned into a long-distance marathon.



It wasn't so bad cos we got to see more of Hong Kong at night.


I'm just thinking that people living/working inside this squarish-angular-rectangular building are just trying balance the feng shui up with circular windows.


We made a few overhead bridge passes. This one looks like something out of Star Trek.

Beam me up Scotty!

Oh, I forgot to mention. We were actually on our way to take the ferry to Kowloon which is mainland Hong Kong on the other side. We have been on the island all this while.

Ferry Pier incoming. We're taking the one from Central Ferry point to Tsim Sha Tsui

As I've mentioned it before, land is scarce in Hong Kong.

If you run out of it, you just build more.

The ferry ride was fantastic. It was romantic, something we could use on Sarawak River on Valentine's Nite.

The ride was super cheap (only about HKD2.20) & super fast (10-15 mins).

We got there in no time.

CNY Day 2: Our Open-ded House

Chinese New Year visiting can be a very exhausting experience when you rush from one house to the next, eating non-stop & killing yourself slowly with sugar & soda gases. By the end of the day, you'd have done 10 houses & would have eaten enough to last you for a week. You'd understand how a camel felt.

On the flipside, waiting for visitors to come randomly at any time of the day or evening can also be a stretch. And to reduce this stress every year, we invited our family & friends over to our place on the 2nd day of CNY within a window of allocated time, usually starting at 11 am & closing shop at 5 pm.

Starting late in the morning allows Nee time to cut and arrange all the cakes, and do all the necessary ding dongs that we did not manage to do on the eve due to Nee's heavy baking which usually lasts till then.

I think doing all this is Nee's way of reaching back to her childhood days of playing bo-bok.

Traffic control is important when dealing with hungry crowds of people. We'd usually let them sit on the sofa area & feed them with Nee's lapis, crackers and cookies and other tidbits. That distraction usually works & it keeps them busy for a while.

Then when the table is ready, we'd herd the cows there for the real deal. There's also desserts including jellos, cheesecakes & chocolate cakes with tea.

Let the games begin. The main dishes:

Serving every year is Nee's home cooked traditional mee sua (mien xien). No home is a Foochow home without this.

Nee's melt-in-your-mouth baked potatoes. Window of opportunity only lasts 11am-1pm-ish. After that, you can eat your own self.

Nee's lamb stew is like wine. It gets better every year.
You don't need teeth to eat this. It just melts in your mouth.

Red Hot Curry with plain rice.
NEE: Should have done coconut rice or pandan rice.
But was a little knocked out by the first day due to flu.

Mum-in-law's super Lo Duck with super recipe - not available anywhere. Got money also cannot buy. This came to the rescue when the baked potatos disappeared.

The guests left raving about this duck. All in all, it was a good feeling to be able to feed a few starving people of Kuching. But seriously, it's always a joy for us to be able to share food with friends who enjoy them!

The Posh Lan Kwai Fong

This was our real first nite out in Hong Kong! We were ready to go out to liu the town & party!!!

Actually, never take what I say too seriously lah. You have to know that we are 3 thirty-somethings after a heavy meal. A far as partying goes, we are considered uncle & auntie already.

We were just 3 overfed tourists who needed a walk to digest very badly.

In Malaysia, the poshest place around for teek to kias has got to be at Bangsar. In Hong Kong, it's at a place called Lan Kwai Fong.

The place is located on a few hilly streets with branded shops, cool pubs, bars, clubs & restaurants. In fact, this place is so cool that it even has it's own website.

Lan Kwai Fong street is basically L-shaped, but the pubs, shop & restaurants have expanded out to D'Aguilar, Wyndham & Wellington Streets, Wo On & Wing Wah Lanes.

This place used to be called Mui Yan Hong (Matchmaker Lane). No, I'm not talking about the matchstick kind. It's the other kind of matchmaker, and they all lived here.

If you were still young & single back then, you'd make a trip here & maybe go home with a wife.

Then in the 80s, a Canadian German guy called Allan Zeman (The Father of Lan Kwai Fong - WAISAY!) came along & bought up some buildings & turned them into restaurants. And that's how it all started.

And like Bangsar, the place turned into an angmo hangout.


I read that there's a gay club called Disco Disco somewhere along D'Aguilar. We're just thankful that we didn't bump into it.

But instead, we bumped into this.

Yes, the place has its own beer! Launched in 2005 by the father himself, Allan Zeman.

And more bumps further down the road - Every woman's deepest desire.

Every man's nightmare.