The Southside of the Island

Thursday morning we moved from the Metropolis Plaza Harbour Hotel to the guest lodge (UniLodge) of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HUST), our home for the next three days.  HUST is in east Kowloon on the water and much further out than City University.  But, unlike City University it has a large and green campus with spectacular views.  It is a newer university of about 10,000 students.  Our taxi got us to the Unilodge where we checked in easily.  Our UniLodge (the north one) consisted of about 12 rooms on the ground floor,  a small lounge and a kitchen area.  There is another Unilodge (the south one) which is larger and has the eating area (for breakfast and other meals and a bar area).  After the hotel room our twin bedded UniLodge room seemed so spacious.  It had no sea view but there was killer WIFI and the beds were comfortable, the AC worked well and the shower was great.  

The air was so humid the camera fogged - me and host Fugee Tsung in front of the main entrance to the academic building at HUST

Us from the other direction with the modern sculpture at the campus entrance

Our comfy home for three nights

The UniLodge is on the ground floor of a set of highrise faculty apartments

Our twin beds were sleep inducing and we had room to store the luggage and walk around

The bathroom had a large and well functioning shower with an on demand, eco-friendly hot water heater

I went to meet some of the faculty and give a seminar to a few faculty and graduate students while Randy walked around the academic building.  Yes, there is just one academic building but it is extremely large and spans multiple wings and many floors.  We met up for lunch in the ground floor restaurant with some of the faculty.  This was unexpectedly delicious.  The food was great and consisted of their version of Peking duck, dumplings, fish, among other dishes.  We ate a lot and enjoyed it.  After lunch I sat in my shared office area and met with a series of graduates – all from mainland China except for two visiting European students, one from Denmark and one from Italy.  It was an interesting afternoon.  Randy did much need washing (free at the UniLodge including soap) and relaxed.  I had to walk to the UniLodge in the rain as a shower developed when I left around 5 PM.  Our main host at HUST, Dr. Fugee Tsung, picked us up and took us to dinner at a nearby mall.  It was raining a lot by then – the effects of Typhoon Rammasun which was to hit the very south China coast shortly.  The restaurant was full on this evening and we met Dr. C-Y Lee and his wife Jean at the restaurant.  There, we had a banquet of Cantonese foods which was tasty (though not as good as lunch).  We were happy to return to the UniLodge for a good night of sleep.

The audience at my seminar at HUST

The very delicious soup at the lunch on campus

Some of the dumplings that were all delicious too

The server slices the duck - note the head still intact on right

The lunch was a symphony of Hong Kong delights and we ate way more than we should have

C-Y Lee points out the campus buildings while showing the view from the 7th floor

One view from the 7th floor of the academic building - below are student dorms and faculty apartments

A panorama of the view from the 7th floor - it would be nice to live at HUST for a while

The pretty fish from dinner that night

On Friday, we had a free day and decided to take the metro to the city and see what developed.  When we got off at North Point station we found a bus headed for Aberdeen.  This is an area on the south shore and home to the famous restaurant Jumbo.  I had made reservations for Jumbo on Saturday night but it made more sense to eat there for Friday lunch.  We took the short, free ferry from the dock area to the floating restaurant.  There are two restaurants and we choose the more formal one and did not regret it.  It was quiet and elegant.  We had a dim sum sampler and shared a plate of noodles with crab in abalone sauce.  It was all very good if expensive.

Randy on top of the double decker bus on the way to Aberdeen

The famous Jumbo floating restaurant

The entry was garish

I had wanted to eat at Jumbo and got my wish

Randy liked this medallion.  We both had umbrellas from the UniLodge because of the rain from Typhoon Rammusun

At the dining room

Our very cute dim sum baskets with dipping sauces

The noodles with crab

Thus fortified we walked to find transport somewhere else.  We were taken to a different location from the restaurant ferry and did not see a bus stop.  We wandered into another Caucasian lady who turned out to be from Bermuda and was moving her family (husband and two teenage sons) to New Zealand.  They were taking a trip to China and Hong Kong as an in-between vacation.  She was also looking for transport.  As we were both interested in going to Stanley next, also on the south side but further away, we decided to split a cab.  Stanley is known for its market of tourist items.  This was a little seedy but we did buy some stuff and there was a good assortment.  We also walked along the shore and viewed the very old Tin Hau Temple which has a tattered tiger skin inside, the last tiger found on Hong Kong island which was sadly killed in 1942 or thereabouts.  There were a lot of tourists around Stanley and it is obviously set up to cater to them.

A historic building in Stanley dates from the mid 1800's

The Tin Hau temple dates from the 1700's.  Unfortunately now basically sits in a small mall's parking lot.

Inside are the offerings

The unusual tiger skin to guard the temple

One of the entry doors

A smaller temple is very close and is a tiny room just large enough for an altar

The waves break on the Stanley shore

The market was far from deluxe but we dutifully bought souvenirs and haggled (but not enough)

We caught a bus to Central.  It was raining on and off all day so the weather was not so good.  Even so, it seemed that we should go to the Peak so Randy could see it.  We could not locate a bus but eventually found a taxi to take us.  Randy admired the view, we purchased two more of the yummy egg tarts from the famous Tai Cheong Bakery and took the Peak Tram down.  We got on board right away but all seats were taken so we had to stand.  This was not too bad because it was a short ride.  It was OK but frankly the taxi ride is prettier and more comfortable.  At least we can say we experienced it.  We did pay too much as we had some issues with our Octopus cards.

Headed back to Central on the top of a double decker bus in the rain

Randy on the Peak - even in the bad weather the view was worthwhile

Together on the Peak

We bought more egg tarts for the next day's breakfast from this Hong Kong institution at the mall on the Peak

On the Peak Tramway headed down

We got a taxi at the base of the tramway and went to Central station where we took the subway to the House of Canton restaurant at the Festival Mall to meet the group from City University for dinner.  This included Kwok and his wife Belinda and Russell and his wife Robin.  We had a festive evening with good red wine from Australia (Australian wine is popular in Hong Kong) and then took the metro home to HUST.  The metro from HUST is Hung Hom which is about 10 minutes away by mini bus.  The mini bus runs very frequently so it is really convenient transportation.

The group at House of Canton enjoyed friendship, great food and nice wine and I got to wear my new top bought at Stanley market

We enjoyed seeing more of Hong Kong island and found the transport pretty easy to negotiate.  Signs are in Chinese and English and there are maps and directions pretty much everywhere.  If I did it again I would look up which bus numbers went where as it was very hard to tell where the many buses went without a more detailed understanding of the island and its streets.