Richmond and Aberdeen

We have a slow leisurely start to the morning with breakfast on the gorgeous rooftop terrace before driving to HK across the bridges that join Lantau to HK. The drive takes us over the mountains of Lantau through the cloud and down the other side towards the airport. We meet a wild water buffalo on the way ambling its way up the road, they along with some cattle have been released in the National Park and are free to roam where they like. The drive across the bridges is amazing, past the huge container port with vast cranes and 1000’s of containers waiting to be moved. On past the high rise buildings of HK and looking out over the sea to Kowloon and on to the road to Richmond. We get a fleeting glimpse of Happy Valley where the horse racing happens – this is a national sport and there’s meetings every week. The road continues to climb past Ocean World where the rides are set high on the mountain cliff edge for maximum scream value and the sweeping down towards Richmond. We pass tall skyscraper blocks with huge empty spaces in the middle, for the dragon to fly down the mountain to the sea in the morning and back up to the mountain at night.

At Richmond Steph and Gary guide us through the shopping mall and down to the promenade by the sea, it’s a place for posing in cars and walking your dog, the Porsche and Morgan cars passing us reinforce this impression. The Pickled Pelican is the place for lunch and upstairs by the windows offers great views of the bay and surrounding mountains. Of course it has to be fish for lunch, fish and chips and a salmon salad. Afterwards the exploration continues to a small market area which opens out onto the area’s one remaining beach. It’s really quite small backed by beautiful old beach houses and with an Indian almond tree overhanging the beach framing the view of silver sand, sea and islands, only one word for this gorgeous.

Our day trip is only halfway through, we continue on to Aberdeen, an old harbour area that’s great to explore by boat. The sampan is expertly steered by the lady owner, weaving us in and out of the moored and moving boats. There’s houseboats laden with people’s lives, small fishing boats, large fishing boats for deeper sea fishing, new expensive gin palaces, traditional boat building on the banks, the problem is not what to see but where to look next. The tour ends all too soon, but there’s more to discover as we land at Jumbo’s Floating Restaurant in the middle of the harbour. It’s hard to put its impression into words, huge, colourful, ornate all apply but none are adequate, there’s 2 huge golden dragons at the main entrance chasing the golden pearl of wisdom the endlessly rotates in a stream of water just out of their reach, there’s the phoenix on either side of them and ornate carvings painted in every colour covering every spare inch of space. The boys go off to explore the Tai Pak restaurant that’s closed for renovations, though it looks like nothing will be happening too soon, while us girls investigate the live fish tanks and pictures of the rich and famous visiting the restaurant in the past.

The inside of Jumbo is just as opulent and impressive, the double sweeping staircase paved in marble, the ornate lighting and huge colourful Chinese wall friezes are amazing. And then when we reach the 3^rd floor the huge dining room opens out before us and once more luck is with us we have the last table by the window and settle down to enjoy a Cantonese banquet. It’s arranged differently to banquets Dave and I have had in the past, the most prestigious food being served first – crispy suckling pig, crispy duck skin and pancakes, followed by steamed prawns, prawn, celery and cashew nut followed at the very end by special fried rice to fill us up – as if we have any room left! It’s a meal to linger over and savour before taking the ferry back to Aberdeen central.

The drive back to Lantau is almost in silence, saying goodbye to so many places and sights we’ve seen, a little sad but I’m sure we’ll be back after all Gary and Steph have come up with so many more great ideas for days out and places to visit a further 2 weeks might not be enough! We really can’t thank our excellent hosts enough for their warm welcome, time and enthusiasm to help us discover the real Hong Kong, where East meets West and the rich and poor rub along together on different paths. Meeting and reconnecting with old friends is great, discovering new deeper friendships is equally great, thanks Gary, Steph and of course Wilson.