Advertisement
Published: November 27th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Club de Recreio
An old painting in the Cards Room Well we're not off to see the wizard, but we are off to India tomorrow! This is going to be an altogether more painful flight than the one from Japan to HK so we're both mentally bracing ourselves a little. That said, its still not going to be as long as our flight from Australia to Japan, so there's something to be said for getting the worst out of the way first...
Today was our return trip to the Club De Recreio and we managed to meet up with the friendly young woman called Virginia who, as promised, took us in to the Cards Room where all of the old photographs are displayed. So we spent some time looking at the photos and quite quickly found one of the 1953-54 2nd Division Men's Hockey Team, who were in fact champions that year. And guess who led them to victory? Middle: P. A. Yvanovich (capt.). Tess was very proud! We found Papa in another photo too; and Tess thinks there are a few other recognisables too, so we will be consulting with Nan and Bruno on our return. It's nice to think that after all these years and all that the
1953-54 Champions!
Papa is on the end of the middle row. Family might be able to confirm - is that Uncle Frankie on the other end of the row? Club de Recreio meant to him, Papa is still up there on the walls, still a part of the Club. We took photos of the photos, of the Cards Room and with Virginia (who ran to get her iPhone so she could get a photo with Tess too!). She was so sweet and we really appreciated the time and effort she gave to do something that meant a lot to us, Tess in particular. From the Club, we headed to Kowloon Tong to try and visit the last Yvanovich residence prior to emigration, on Kent Road. After a map misread and false start inthe wrong direction, we found it and also found that it has now become the quote unquote 'Romantic Hotel', which looks decidedly unromantic. It did spark our first and only journey on the MTR, which is efficient, but not a patch on the Japanese rail system (and a bit cheaper). One plus on the MTR over trains/subways in Japan is that when the train is moving, there is lots of natural airflow! With Tess' unnatural ability to feel hot in about 10 degrees C, natural airflow is a WIN.
After that we meandered back to the
Apartment living, Hong Kong style
The grime of the city is always there hotel in a roundabout enough way that we managed to stop by a sneaker shop and get another couple of pairs of awesome sneakers for Tess, at an insanely cheap price!!! (Jealous much, says Aisha of the giant feet). After spitting the biscuit with the collapsible daypacks that we'd been using (Tess already having abandoned using hers in favour of a handbag bought in Japan) Aisha went looking for a shoulderbag to use, and discovered that Crumpler sell their stuff INSANELY cheap here in HK. So at about half the price of its Australian value, a bag was bought...
Dinner was another case of sneaking down the road the 20 metres to Hing Fat on Ashley Road yet again. We'd feel more boring about going there three times but the food is absolutely amazing (yes we may have ordered the Salt and Pepper squid and Szechuan prawns
again) and cheap as hell. Plus they are allergy safe for Tess so there's another significant thumbs up in our book! We would recommend them in a heartbeat to anyone visiting HK.
After dinner we wandered back up Nathan Road towards the Temple Street Night Markets, which are supposed to be unmissable. Given this was our last full day, it was go or miss them! So we went. They're a wide-ranging affair selling everything from cheap jade jewelery, knockoff everything, to clothing, electronics and sex toys (on reflection one thing this trip has taught us is that apparently everywhere we go sells sex toys in odd places) (TWSS). Before long we were weighed down with many purchases, although got a bit of haggling practice in in preparation for India. Tess also had her fortune told by a Mr Nelson Au Yeung (7pm-1am, X Street near the Carpark, his business card reads). The good news is, 30 onwards is going to be even better than her first thirty years; and her forehead means she is smart. Two lines on her face means she is a good manager, although the caveat is she must manage people stupider than her! The bad
news is her element is gold (colours: Gold, Silver, White) and bad luck colours are Fire element colours, which include PINK and PURPLE. Her favourites. Uh-oh.
We headed back towards the hotel via a juice bar where we got what may be the tastiest combo we've had yet, Pineapple and Mango - when both of the ingredients are stupidly ripe this is so tasty its hard to believe. Aisha also managed to get another fix of his beloved coconut milk and sago drink, which he's upped to something around a two a day habit. Who knows how he'll cope with separation from this in India...
So now we're going to crash out becuase tomorrow is our last morning in Hong Kong, and we're off on a very long and slightly roundabout flight to Trivandrum via Delhi and Mumbai. Oh well. At least we're seeing the Airports Of The World, right?
Love to all you.
Tess & Aisha
Advertisement
Tot: 0.119s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0862s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb