Till We Fly Again

I’m a magnet souvenir collector.

Wherever I travel, I will buy one or two local magnets of my destination and then bring them home. Every trip has an end but somehow those souvenirs can make my home feel more like home.

But my world travel paused in 2020. It’s not about cabin fever or get a bottle of champagne at the 35,000 feet high, but suddenly that I feel my world is smaller and don’t have the freedom of move any more. That in fact frustrates me the most.

You know the old Chinese saying? Like the “frog of the well” (井底之蛙), so it won’t get a chance to see the ocean and the real world.

In 2020, we are all like frogs now. Just sad.

A taste of Nepal

This is the first Nepalese restaurant in Hong Kong, established in 1995 when Hong Kong was still British Hong Kong.

The restaurant, owned and run by the Nepalese in Hong Kong, survived the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and then 2003 SARS, 2008 global financial crisis, and now it is trying to survive and revive amid the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s a great example of resilience!

The bite of Hong Kong history

The Peak Lookout is a restaurant located in a heritage house at Victoria Gap, near the summit of Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is housed in a 19th-century Grade II Historic Building. Originally known as the Old Peak Café, the restaurant has an open terrace overlooking Aberdeen, Pok Fu Lam Country Park and the South China Sea.

The Peak Lookout has experienced major transformations in function and renovations since the site was used in 1888 as a rest place and workshop for British engineers that constructed the Peak Tram line.

Sea bass

Inside The Peak Lookout

In 1901, the site was handed over to the British Hong Kong government and built into a chair shelter and rest place for sedan chair carriers for both public and private sedan chairs (similar to taxis and chauffeurs today). During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong (1941–1945), the chair shelter was believed to be used by the Japanese army as a police station.

The catering history began in 1947 when it was suggested that the building should be converted into an open-air café, serving light refreshments. Nowadays the restaurant is particularly well known for its authentic Indian cuisine.

Hong Kong's Star Ferry

香港那麼多交通工具，我還是最鍾意搭天星小輪，維多利亞港灣兩邊來來回回，時而在海面上輕輕搖擺，時而清風徐來，她亦會和她追蹤的夢一齊遊戲人間。時間和空間都只是相對的概念，一世紀，出來混，遲早都要還⋯⋯

我愛妳，香港。

Among all means of transport in Hong Kong, my favourite is still the Star Ferry, sailing across the Victoria Harbour. The little and historic ferry sometimes follows the wind, and sometimes plays with the wave. That’s life, isn’t it? Time and space are all in the theory of relativity. After a century, what remains, and what has been gone?

I love you, Hong Kong.

Are you happy?

42 years and still counting...

“Are you happy?” This local bakery is well known in the Wan Chai neighbourhood for its traditional Hong Kong-style bread and cakes. When asked by the media about the shop name, the boss said he just wanted whoever came to his shop to buy and eat his bread and cakes can feel happier.

Life is both simple and complicated, always pending on your greed and vision.