Heading to Hong Kong this time, once again we took the red eye, leaving the island on a Cathay Pacific flight out from Changi Airport's Terminal 4 at 0140.
It is always a surreal feeling being at the terminal this hour.
Perhaps it is the quieter crowd.
Perhaps it is also the fact that I am actually here, against many odds, flying out again.
Sometimes I'm not sure why I do it.
Sometimes I'm sure.
This trip was one of them.
We got to the Gate smoothly, and the flight left on time.
One thing that surprised me about this flight were the absence of in-flight meals.
It might have been an assumption of mine that flying by CX meant it was a full service flight (when it wasnt) but I had actually spent a good amount of flying time waiting in anticipation for a tray to arrive.
Frankly it confused me a little.
Because there had been a snack and a meal the last time we flew by the same airline at the same time.
Maybe the deal was different, I don't know.
Nonetheless one does not bug oneself for things like these and so I slept most of the way out for three whole hours.
We reached Hong Kong International Airport HKIA at 530am.
But because I was not sitting near the window this time, plus I was kind of dazed, there are no pictures of planes parked on the runway.
There are, however, pictures of our breakfast at Delifrance where my friend ordered a big plate of hash browns, hot dog, croissant, a little bowl of corn, a bit of toast, green salad, tomato and egg, whilst I decided on a scrambled topped with tomato and corn, plus a croissant.
Along with the plates came a bowl of canned mushroom soup.
A bit surprising to have soup this early in the morning, but that's all-day breakfast for you.
From HKIA we took a cab to our hotel on 19 Wing Hing Road, and can I say that it was one of the most stressful car journeys I'd ever taken?
Not because the driver wasn't good or that he swerved, but because I had forgotten to go to the toilet before boarding the cab and so every jolt and bump made me feel like I was going to lose control.
What made it worse was that the route from Lantau Island to Causeway Bay was one of highway-highway-bridge-highway-tunnel all the way with no rest stop, and in any case, I didn't dare to ask.
Let's just say, thankfully, there were no biological leaks, and I managed to avoid a very, very embarrassing scenario.
Just when I thought I was going to have to try an alternative method, the cab stopped at the curb right outside out hotel, and guess what, on the street level of the Wing Hing Refuse Collection Center- next to our hotel- was a public toilet.
And it was open.
So, yes, this very desperate tourist dashed right in.
No words can describe the immense sense of relief at having had this square shaped, fluorescent-lit, tiled floor of a wheelchair-friendly public toilet come to the rescue.
Having finished, we went up to the lobby of Hotel Purple Hong Kong, and checked in. We left our bags there, my colleague waited a bit, and I went out to do a phone errand.
First time being this side of town, I had no idea where I ought to go, so out I headed to the quietest street corner I could find.
What I didn't realize, unfortunately, was that in Hong Kong, it isn't common for individuals to be standing streetside with earphones plugged into their ears.
And there it was on that very street corner- in the middle of the Skype call- that I came upon three policemen doing their patrols.
I don't know what they thought of me, but they approached, and asked me to show ID.
Fortunately I had my passport and immigration slip with me, plus I had an idea of where my hotel was (even if I were still a bit unsure of the name), so I showed it to them, told them where I was staying, and said I was in the middle of a family call so could I finish it and talk to them later.
PTL, they verified my passport and face and immigration slip everything and left me alone after that.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrown off balance, even if a little afraid.
I mean, being questioned by police on the street whilst you're waiting to get the keys to your hotel room is not a nice experience at all.
For a while afterward I wondered just why it was I had been stopped.
And then I realized that maybe, just maybe, all that hype about traveling outfits really do have a meaning to them after all.
It isn't that I don't know style.
It would have been fine had I been wearing just my super-oversized Platinum Mall graphic T-shirt and bright pink Shein track pants, with a nicer, neater, less manly backpack.
But I had thrown over me the addition of big H&M hoodie and right away, somehow, goodness knows how, instead of the tourist who had just flown in that morning on Cathay Pacific, I had become a homeless hobo.
Experience aside (phew!) I got back to Hotel Purple, we got our room, and went in to settle down.
The room we got was one of those I call functional rooms.
Not that there're aren't aesthetics- there are- but they tend to be on the practical side and it is up to you to switch around as you want to.
One thing about this room that charmed me was the view.
It wasnt' as tight, nor as cramped as I had thought it might possibly be.
No doubt, we didn't get a view overlooking the Wing Hing Road rooftops, or a view of the waters or the mountains or the hills of Hong Kong Island, but there was a charm looking at the glass windows of the hotel directly opposite, there was a charm seeing the compact little windows of residential blocks both left and right, and better yet, a glimpse of Siu Ma Shan behind.
We unpacked, and afterwards headed out for lunch.
Which, what with us being in this 'hood for the first time, didn't have an inkling where we should go.
But there is Google Maps, and we found a Cha Chaan Teng on Electric Road called Fairwood where, after studying the menu, decided to share a meal of buttered thick toast, and a duck (or is it turkey) leg.
Duck or goose or turkey, I can't remember now, but this leg was big.
Huge.
Larger than anything I'd seen in a long, long while.
And it was lovely, really, combining the well-roasted, slightly sweet piece of white meat with hot, crunchy toast that had a thick slab of butter tucked firmly between.
We finished our meal, then off it was to the nearest MTR station Fortress Hill where we took the train down to Central.
Here, following the map once again, we made our way to the STAR Ferry Terminal using a route that brought us right through Worldwide Plaza that was, as I would soon discover, the shopping and hangout place for Filipinos working and living in Hong Kong.
To hear of the Filipinos hanging out by the waterfront on their off days, chilling with their friends, is one thing.
To see them happily cloistered around the shops in Worldwide Plaza as they buy their favorite snacks and noodles and biscuits shipped in from home is another.
Didn't unnerve us (hello Lucky Plaza) one bit at all so into the crowd we plunged, carrying on the narrow corridor until we got the glass door taking us to the bridge that would lead us to the AIA Carnival right by the harbor.
At the carnival here, we hung out here a little bit, taking in the sights, the Big Top, then afterwards decided that since we were here by the water, might as well take the STAR Ferry across to Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner.
It has been a long, long time since I last took the ferry.
Maybe more than twenty years ago.
Tickets weren't expensive, like a dollar or so, but there wasn't any counter to get them from. Instead there was a self-service machine where you could chose your destination, pay using your card, and off to the correct pier you would go.
One thing about the Ferry Terminal that interested me was just how they kept everything like how it had always been, yet functional for today's visitors, and today's crowds at the same time.
The gates leading to the pier remained closed as everyone gathered behind, waiting for them to be open. Once they did, everyone headed down the slope and to the small little gangway where you could get on and into the ferry itself.
We managed to get ourselves two seats side by side, and there we sat until the ferry pushed off.
It was lovely, nostalgic even, to be there amidst passengers both locals and tourists alike.
You could tell who the tourists were.
They were the ones busy taking pictures.
Some of them took pictures of the ferry.
Some of them pictures of themselves on the ferry.
Others decided the cityscape of Hong Kong might make a better picture.
Me, I moved to the side of the ferry where I could look over the water (and the currents) and got myself a picture there.
On the Tsim Sha Tsui side we disembarked, made our way out of the terminal towards the Harbour City side, then went down the road towards Kimberly Road to Yung Kee Roast Goose Restaurant where this evening we wanted a meal of roast goose.
It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the roasted meats of Hong Kong when there's mention of roast goose.
This dish of a roasted bird is one of the signature dishes in the territory and unless you're vegetarian or vegan or just not a fan of roast meats, one cannot come to Hong Kong and not have a go at it.
So there we were, on a lovely chilly evening, standing in line to enter the restaurant, which, by the way, does not take reservations, and it don't matter how much you're going to order, you queue.
This evening we had a plate of roast goose, a plate of tofu cubes and a separate dish of roast pork.
The goose, when it came, surprised me with its size.
What with not having had it in recent days, I had completely forgotten just how large of a bird this goose could be.
But large or no large, the bird was perfectly roasted with a nice layer of crisp yet crunchy skin that made you want to bite into it right away.
Yung Kee's had a slightly peppery taste (I think) that made me wonder if they'd placed some sort of herbs whilst roasting the bird.
Beneath the skin and between the meat, there was a layer of fat so evenly distributed that every bite brought you a taste of marinated meat, fragrant roasted fat and crisp brown skin all at the same time.
A part of me wondered if I could simply eat up all the skin and take the meat to go.
But I didn't know how to ask, and from the looks of the restaurant's crowd, it didn't seem like the wait staff would have any patience for my stumbling Cantonese either.
Plus there were two more dishes which were, shall I say, just so good.
One might think that a renowned restaurant like this is only good with the roasted meats- like the deliciously satisfying roast pork which also had a very crisp skin and a ratio of meat to fat at 1:1- but their tofu wasn't to be disdained either.
It is a simple dish, yes, simple and clean, but it does take some sort of a skill to make the skin outside crisp and light with the tofu inside still soft and smooth.
Then there were all these crunchy bits over and around the dish, all lightly salted, so moreish that you easily reached for more.
I liked the sweet sauce that came with the roast pork.
A sort of plum sauce that wasn't very sweet, it went well with the meat, blending the taste of sweet and savory together with the meat.
There was just one thing though.
I might have enjoyed all of the dishes better had I not been starting to feel full by that time, but the goose, the pork and the tofu all were of standards too good to leave on the plate and ignore, so we finished them all.
Dinner over we headed to the Ling Fung Mall (that we somehow managed to find after a bit of aimless wandering) where my friend bought two tubes of skincare serums that we call 4-in-1.
There was a phone errand I had to do after that, so off it was to the lobby of the Kimberly Hotel close by, then we took a Grab back to Hotel Purple.
