Hong Kong Travelogue // Day 2

On our second day in Hong Kong, the first thing we did was to travel out to have dimsum at the famous Tim Ho Wan. I've had Tim Ho Wan once in Singapore and I wasn't too impressed with the food there because I felt that the selection was really limited (I went there for supper so that may be one of the reasons why) and for the price, the food just wasn't any special at all. I actually think that the dimsum at Swee Choon is a lot better than Tim Ho Wan's and that's really saying a lot because we all know that Swee Choon doesn't serve the best dimsum at all.

Since everyone said the Tim Ho Wan in Hong Kong serves dimsum that is a whole lot better than the ones in Singapore, I was pretty excited to try. I will not lie but a part of me was also dreading the trip because I know that most of the good dimsum contains seafood and I don't eat seafood.

Congee with pork and preserved egg (HK $16)

Baked bun with BBQ pork (HK $18)

Glutinous rice dumpling (HK $25)

Pan-fried turnip cake (HK $14)

Steamed beef ball with beancurd skin (HK $16)

Steamed pork dumplings with shrimp (HK $25)

The food was pretty decent but once again, I felt that yet another famous "must-go" eatery in Hong Kong is overhyped. The dimsum was good but isn't to-die-for and with all the hype that's going around about how good the dimsum at Tim Ho Wan is, I was expecting a lot more. 

I really like the baked bun with BBQ pork and the porridge, the other items were good as well but just not amazingly good y'know? But it's Tim Ho Wan and I feel that this is probably one of the places you've got to go to at least once.

It was noteworthy also that there were a lot more locals in Tim Ho Wan than foreigners and since Hong Kong is famous for their dimsum, I would assume that the locals know what's good and what isn't.

Tim Ho Wan

Address:

| 9-11 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po |

After that, we were off to our first hike of the trip. We were headed to Sai Wan and to get there, we first took the MTR over to Choi Hung Station and took exit C2. Outside the station there's a bus stop and we took the green mini bus A1 to Sai Kung. Bus A1 takes about 25 minutes to reach Sai Kung and the frequency of the bus is approximately every 5 minutes. Alternatively, you can take bus 92 as well but bus 92 takes longer to reach Sai Kung.

From Sai Kung, you can either grab a cab (it's easier to call and book a cab than to actually flag one down) or you can take bus 29R from in front of the McDonald's. Bear in mind though, bus 29R doesn't come very frequently and you will have to take note of the timings of the the bus especially on the return trip if you don't want to be stuck in the mountains and having to walk all the way back down.

A thing to note is that it was really cold in Sai Kung and it was very windy. Please don't make the same mistake we did which was to wear as little clothing as possible to go on a hike. I regretted not dressing warmly because we were shivering like crazy while waiting for a cab to pick us up. It is better to wear more layers and peel them off later during the hike than to wear as little as possible and then end up regretting it.

After walking around trying in vain to find the bus 29R (there isn't an actual bus stop as you can see from the picture above, and it isn't from the bus terminal unlike what was mentioned online), we realised we missed the bus and decided then to just cab over and it costed us a pretty penny to take a cab over so we were determined to take the bus back instead of cabbing back to Sai Kung after we were done with the hike.

The starting of the hike was pretty easy going with gentle slopes upwards and downwards so it wasn't anything too challenging. However, after about 15 minutes into the hike, there was this really steep downwards slope which led to an upward slope then downwards again. Going downwards actually hurt my knee and that was how steep it was. Once you pass that part though, it was back to gentle slopes again.

The whole hike was pretty serene and the views along the way were breath-taking. Although we saw groups of people along the way, we were pretty much alone during the hike. We only saw more people when we went down to the beach so you can be sure to enjoy this with your family or friends without a lot of other people chattering away around you.

After hiking for about 45 mins to an hour, we reached Sai Wan Village which is where the beach is located. There isn't much in the village, a coffeehouse, a small provision shop and a bunch of cows which I couldn't stop squealing at. I have this inexplicable love for cows even though I'm pretty terrified of them. I love spotting them when I go on road trips and I love taking photos of them. They aren't my favourite animal by far but I do get really excited when I see one. I'm always on the search for the elusive black and white spotted cow which we always see in cartoons but never in real life.

 

If you follow the path through the village, you will finally reach the Sai Wan beach. The views were definitely worth the hike there (and back) despite the fact that I have to say, the views were not the most amazing ones I've seen before. Despite the fact that the weather was really cold then, there were people surfing and I managed to catch one of them riding the wave (it's in my vlog linked down below). I've never actually seen people surf in real life before so I thought that was pretty cool to watch.

Since we were already at the beach, we thought we would hike a little further to see a the Sheung Luk Streams which apparently is famous in the summer for people who like doing cliff-jumping. None of us were interested in cliff-jumping obviously but we thought why not see something else since we still had some time before we had to head back to take the bus. 

There wasn't any clear cut route to take to the stream but basically after reaching the beach from the village, if you're facing the beach, turn left and you can either choose to walk along the beach or on the path that's further inland and you will eventually see the bridge (see photo below). Continue following the path and do not cross the bridge until you see a farm. Walk around the farm and you will see a whole lot of rocks. That's when you know you're on the right track. You have to literally climb over the rocks to get to the streams and there isn't a clear path to take over the rocks so you'll just have to wing it. Be really careful though!

Although it took us approximately 1-1.5h to reach the beach, it took us much faster to go back to Sai Wan Ting where the bus would pick us up from. We probably took only 30 minutes or so on our way back because we already took pictures of everything and we were better prepared for the hike back since we already did it once before.

It is better to reach back to Sai Wan Ting earlier than the timing the bus departs for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, the bus does not allow for standing passengers so once the bus is full, you need to wait for the next one. One bus only allows for a maximum of 30 passengers (I could be wrong but they don't take a lot of passengers because it's the mini bus). 

Secondly, not a lot of cabs drive up to Sai Wan Ting because it is up in the mountains so you either have to call a cab and convince the driver to make the trip all the way up there to pick you up, or to

When we reached Sai Kung we were pretty much famished because all we had was dimsum for brunch so we went in search of food. We spotted this bakery selling bo luo bao and egg tarts so we thought we would join the queue and buy one for ourselves. We ordered one bo luo bao for each of us and shared one egg tart and the bo luo bao tasted soooo good. It was really light and fluffy on the inside and sweet and slightly crispy on the outside. It was a perfect way to end off our hike.

After satisfying our hunger pangs a little bit with the bao and egg tart, we joined the queue for the bus back to Hong Kong Island and took another bus over to Wan Chai which was where we would be having our dinner at. 

Capital Cafe is well-known for their scrambled eggs with black truffle and Cheryl really wanted to try it so that was where we went to.

Macaroni with luncheon meat (HK $30)

Toast with scrambled eggs and black truffle (HK $42)

Special pork cutlet bao (HK $20)

I don't know if I was really hungry or not but I felt that the macaroni soup here tasted better than Australia Dairy Company. Or maybe it was just because I really like luncheon meat and luncheon meat makes everything else taste a whole lot better. Cheryl mentioned that the scrambled eggs didn't really have a truffle taste except for the part where the black truffle was sprinkled on top. The pork bao was pretty good though! 

Capital Cafe

Address: 

| Shop 1F, GF No. 149 Wan Chai Road, Wan Chai |

After that, we went to Oddies which was really near to Capital Cafe for their famous eggettes. We got the Night Wolf (HK $52) and it tasted pretty good. Italian low-fat twist soft gelato, served with butter crumbs, caramelised banana ice cream, passionfruit panna cotta, brownie and chocolate chip eggettes, and sprinkled with crunchy flakes.

Funnily enough, I didn't like the eggettes which was what made this dessert supposedly famous. I thought the eggettes tasted like mini waffles and was actually plain-tasting (they definitely weren't brownie and chocolate chip flavoured) but the ice cream was really good. I liked the passionfruit panna cotta because it gave a sour-sweet twist to the whole dessert. It was good though, I would actually recommend this to other people to try. 

After that, we went around to buy some snacks back for the people at home then went back to our apartment to rest up because we were all pretty tired from the long hike. It was a good day all in all and I think that the hike made this day a lot more special. I never knew that Hong Kong had another side to it besides the metropolitan side and it was really good to embark on a hike instead of spending all our time eating and shopping.

If you're interested to view the vlog of my second day in Hong Kong, I'm linking the video below.