Reuniting with Eriko + Adventures in Cheung Chau (Day 4 Recap — Hong Kong March 2016)
Day 4 of my Hong Kong trip was symbolic as it REUNITED Vickie with her childhood friend Eriko! The two grew up together in Hong Kong’s New Territory suburbs, and have stayed so close over the years that Eriko even flew cross-country to attend our wedding last year! As such, Vickie and her sisters we’re very excited to have a chance to meet up with their lifelong friend. Eriko’s sister, Sandra, also came along for the fun, and it was a pleasure having a chance to meet her as well!
Eriko planned a wonderful full-day adventure for us to the neighboring island of Cheung Chau. Cheung Chau is about an hour away via the Hong Kong Central Ferry Terminal, and she was so nice to be our full-on tour guide! As we learned throughout the day, Cheung Chau is very famous amongst locals as a quick weekend getaway for eating some of the best street food and also embracing the nostalgia of preserved Hong Kong architecture, as the buildings lining the streets of Cheung Chau have remained relatively unchanged over the years.
Journey to Cheung Chau
Street Food Heaven
As noted in the caption above, Cheung Chau is extremely famous for its diverse selection of street food. Whether it’d be Fish Balls (pictured above); bakery goods (such as egg tarts); or desserts (such as the famous Mango Mochi), you’ll see many Hong Kong locals make the trip out to Cheung Chau just to spend a full day eating. And I must say, after making my first trip out there, I can’t blame them because it’s definitely a smart weekend getaway!
Love Lock Wall
One of the coolest things I stumbled across during my time in Cheung Chau was the Love Lock wall mural. This mural had thousands of hearts symbolizing various relationships of former visitors, and it was truly a beautiful sight to behold! Some had dates, some had words, some had merely pictures… All in all, each and every individual heart was beautiful in its own unique way, and they collectively blended harmoniously together.
Return to HK Island + Dinner at Kikusan
Following our long morning/afternoon spent in Cheung Chau, we all finally embarked back on the First Ferry and made our way back to Hong Kong Island. Upon arrival, we immediately walked to The Landmark hotel/shopping building in Central. Walking through this building was quite amazing as there was a section where the entire throng of shops were all Armani!! Certainly, I’ve previously came across the common clothes-oriented stores like Armani Jeans or Emporio Armani. However, I’ve never ever came across Armani Fiori (for flowers) or Armani Dolci (for chocolate). This blew me away and certainly woke me up after a long day haha
After walking past all the Armani shops (I think there were close to 10! LOL), we finally came to our restaurant for the evening, Kikusan. Boy oh boy was this place the SPOT! This Japanese fusion restaurant was amazingly priced considering the quality (on average, each dish ranged from about $10 — $15 USD), and every single item we ordered was absolutely fantastic! I’ll let the pictures below do the talking! haha
Following dinner, we all finally had to go off our separate ways. Though we were rushing to catch trains in the MTR station, we managed to find enough time to take this vintage photo using Debbie’s cool Fujifilm insta-camera.
While catching the last train, I also happened to run into an old classmate from UC Irvine who shouted “Alex”, which caused me to turn my head and react in the following manner:
More Late Nite Shenanigans => Fu Lu Shou!
After getting back to our pad, me and the rest of the crew decided that we still had enough energy to hit the town for some more late nite shenanigans. This time around though, a night after partying hard in Lan Kwai Fung, we decided to take it a bit more chill by heading to SoHo and going to the hidden Fu Lu Shou rooftop speakeasy bar.
This bar is famous for looking like a locked apartment on Hollywood Road, and you actually need to call the owner in the morning to obtain the door access code in order to find the elevator that will take you to the rooftop in the evening. I had called earlier in the day and so we were well prepared for getting in!
The location was so hidden that I actually originally passed it when using Apple Maps walking directions LOL, but we eventually found it and this place was an absolute hidden treasure! The walls had a cool graffiti mural showcasing its name, Fu Lu Shou, and the drinks we’re absolutely fantastic! In fact, the drinks were even named in Cantonese (i.e., I ordered the “Joh Sun Hong Kong”, which means “Good Morning Hong Kong”). What could be cooler than that?!
