Trip to Hong Kong - Part 1

 

Now start with my trip to Hong Kong. It was November 15, 2015 flying with Cathay Pacific, a 13 hour flight.  

 

 

 

We stayed in our auntie's place in Yuen Long, New Territories (元朗). The benefit was to buy the yummiest breakfast at the least cost. Deep fried dough (油條) and sesame rice dough were $7 HKD each (about $1.20 CAD). The brown sugar pudding cake in a little bowl called put chai ko (砵仔糕) was only $3 HKD each($0.55 CAD). The one shown in picture has no red bean, but we often bought the ones with red beans on top for the same price. This particular market made very good 砵仔糕 and often sold out before 10 am! 

One day we tried a different kind of breakfast ... McDonald breakfast!!! Of course we would try something that isn't offered in Canada such as pancakes with Korean pomelo jam and soy milk. Even the service system is different - new service model: 1) ORDER at cashier desk  2) get RECEIPT with an order number  3) check the order number on the screen & COLLECT meal.

 

One interesting fact about Hong Kong McDonald's is it has wedding party packages! The packages include venue decoration, customized games and special gifts for the couple & guests. Now only 5 McDonald's in Hong Kong can host a wedding party J

Mei Ho House 美荷樓 was one of the places I would like to visit in Hong Kong. Finally uncle George (uncle 7) offered to take us there!  After few times travelling to Hong Kong, I feel uncle George can read my mind now on where to visit, where to eat ... hehe.

Mei Ho House has a little museum for the exhibition of early Hong Kong resettlement areas 徙置屋邨. The early Hong Kong resettlement areas which don't exist anymore except the one converted to museum and youth hostel in Mei Ho House were complex of H-shaped architectures for Hong Kong public housing in 1950s to 1980s. It was part of my early childhood memories as my grandparents lived in this kind of building when I was very little. I even wrote about it when I started my blog (http://chan38.blogspot.ca/2009/05/life-in-half-century-ago.html).

Here are the items, pictures or models displayed in Mei Ho House ...

 

Briefly speaking, it was a H-shaped 7 stories building with public bathroom and toilets in the centre (the cross bar of H). Kitchen was often located in front of the unit in the hallway. No elevator, no private bathroom and toilets.

 

 

 

Somehow I had a very deep memory of its old style squat toilet (舊式「一渠通」廁所) but my mom insisted she never took me to the toilet there. Why would I have such an excellent memory of一渠通 toilet??? 2 possiblities:  1) As uncle George said, I passed by the toilet when I walked from my grandparents unit to my grand auntie's unit (they lived on the same floor), 2) I as a very small girl at age 3 or 4 secretly went to the toilet to explore around ... hehe (小學雞靜雞雞去遊覧一渠通廁所?)

Let's look at some interesting displays:

 

Hong Kong old bus tickets which remind me the old bus tickets in Vancouver prior to 2001.

 

 

This display has 2 meanings to me. 1) 的確涼 - I've heard about it but not sure what it is. Now I know it means dacron ... trademark for a polyester fiber, high resistance to stretching, both wet and dry, and good resistance to degradation by chemical bleaches.  2) I recall I used this kind of formatted paper to write composition 作文 in Hong Kong primary school. In grade 4, my composition about mid autumn festival 中秋節 was praised by my Chinese teacher中文老師. The only time my composition was considered one of the best two in the class!

 

 

In the past (half a century ago), some areas such as Mei Ho House in Hong Kong had access to water once every 4 days. Can you imagine? Nowadays we die for 米芝蓮 Michelin star restaurant with long lineup. During those days, our parents died for H2O with long lineup.

 

 

We also had a very enjoyable lunch in Mei Ho House with green veggies, fruit salad, soup and sandwich, noodles and pastas ... 一個很有田園氣息午餐.