Food

We started the day by dropping off our laundry at Sun Wah Kiu drycleaners (Shop 8, 49 Hankow Rd) - just 5 mins from our hotel. 3.5kgs of laundry for $28HKD/$4AUD. We then headed next door to a pastry shop and bought a selection including BBQ pork buns, coconut and Mexican buns.

My favourite was the hot BBQ pork buns.

It was raining so we tried to stay undercover, and made our way to a fancy department store. It was so fancy that we had a shadow, complete with an ear piece and microphone. When we moved from section to section we would lose one shadow and gain a new one. After cooling down in the aircon and doing a lap of the store we headed out, hoping the rain had eased.

We made our way over to JJ Jewelry to see Peter Kwok.

http://www.jjjewelryltd.com.hk/

It was fairly easy to find. Go inside the arcade at 5-6 Middle Road (Far East Mansion) and up the stairs to the first floor and look for shop #116. Unfortunately it was closed.

We then had a but of a walk around Nathan Rd before heading to Central to meet up with a friend of mine who lives in Hong Kong. Steph very kindly offered to take us to a dim sum place for lunch, and after meeting her we went inside a building and up to the 12th floor to Dragon King Restaurant. This place had tables sectioned off by thin transparent material and looked fancy.

After chatting with Steph we had decided on our choices - all you had to do was put a line in the boxes and there was even English on the menu, so it would be doable without someone who spoke the language.

Then the food arrived. We tried some new items (coriander and beef balls, pineapple bun, red date cake) and some old favourites (siu mai, xiao long bao).

The xiao long baos were tasty but huuuuge compared to what we are used to.

At one point Ben saw someone walking through the restaurant with an iron - random.

We had a nice chat and a delicious lunch and then Steph took us for a walk around to Times Square and a huge shopping mall. At the bottom of the mall everyone was taking photos so I got in on the action.

We had a great time catching up and wandering around - thanks Steph!

We headed back to the hotel to pick up our laundry, and then Ben stayed in the room to watch an AFL game, and I headed off to Peter Kwoks.

Background : Mum and Nanna and my aunts used to frequent HK every few years in the 80's and 90's and would always go see Peter Kwok from JJ Jewelery. In 1999 I went on one of these shopping trips and visited "the family jeweller". They would usually visit him at the start of the trip to see what he had and choose some items, then come back at the end to pick up their items and perhaps buy a few more. He would also take all the ladies out to dinner and was very hospitable.

Nanna used to love going here and picked up a few rings and brooches over the years, so I wanted to pop on and say hi.

After buzzing me in we had a long chat and his sister brought out the old photo books and we chatted about old times.

We chatted for a while about how Mum and Nanna and my aunts were doing and I showed him a few photos of them on my phone.

Whenever they visited Peter Kwok he would take a photo of them and keep them for his records. He showed me some old photos of the "girls", and also the trip that I went on with my cousin and all the aunts.

Peter was lovely and friendly and offered to take us out to dinner or lunch during our time in Hong Kong and while I appreciated the offer I also knew that I wasn't going to be a big spender so I thanked him but declined. I ended up buying a lovely pair of simple gold studs, and he was kind enough to show me some of his other items, even though he knew I would not be buying anything. I am very glad I made a visit as he is such a friendly gentleman and I can understand why he was "the family jeweller" and why he has a lot of repeat business.

I went back to the hotel and we just chilled for a few hours before heading out for dinner. Thanks to the phone the hotel provides we could use googlemaps and OpenRice and we headed to Hungry Korean a few blocks away.

I had a Bi Bim Bap and Ben had Kimchi Jeon (a pancake type dish) and we shared some dumplings and both had a cool drink.

By this time it was almost midnight so we headed back to the hotel, but not before icecream at Lab Made.