Aberdeen, Hong Kong

This morning I went in to meet Katy and the rest of the family for church in Kowloon Tong.  After eating we ended up going to the Festival Walk mall and having our usual lunch, I had a delicious chicken cheese burger.  After eating lunch Katy and I went to try to catch a movie, but Sherlock Holmes was full except for the very first row, so that option was out.  We went back to Central to see if there were any movies playing there, but they were all full too. 

Defeated I bought a latte at McDonald's and we went to reconnoiter at the "sitting out" area on top of the mall over looking the harbor.  We decided to go to Aberdeen, which was on my list of "things to do" in Hong Kong.  Aberdeen has a really interesting history in Hong Kong if you read the Wikipedia entry or my previous post.

We got off the #70 bus from Exchange Square in Central and walked along the waterfront for a little while.  We came upon a placegiving Sampan rides so we decided to take an hour long tour of the harbor and the floating villages and everything else between Aberdeen and the Ap Lei Chau island.

It was a really nice ride and we had the boat pretty much all to ourselves which was awesome.

After we got back from our hour long ride we went to a 7-11 and I bought a Coca-Cola and a grape fruit juice, then we actually came across a Salvation Army, so we browsed that for a little bit before wandering a little and then returning back to Central and I caught the 5:40 ferry home and Katy took off for Ma On Shan.

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Aberdeen, Hong Kong - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Starting during the Ming Dynasty, “Hong Kong” became the original name for the presently-named Aberdeen village.^[1] In the early 19th century, foreigners who landed near Aberdeen Village mistook the name of the village “Hong Kong” for the whole island. When the foreigners eventually realized their mistake, the name “Hong Kong" was already commonly used to refer to the entire island.^[1] Thus in 1845, Aberdeen was named after the British Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen. It is famous to tourists for its floating village and the floating seafood restaurants such as the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. The Tanka people are generally associated with the fishing industry, and there are also several dozen expatriates living on boats in the harbour.

Aberdeen is known indigenously as Heung Kong Tsai or Hong Kong Tsai (香港仔), which means Hong Kong Minor. It is believed that Aberdeen is where the name of Hong Kong (more accurate transcription, Heung Kong) originates. Heung Kong Tsuen (香港村, Hong Kong village) on Ap Lei Chau was mentioned in Ming maps. Another walled-village Heung Kong Wai in Wong Chuk Hang was also founded during Qianlong era of Qing. Heung Kong means 'fragrant harbour' and it was Aberdeen where incense trees (Aquilaria sinensis) from the New Territories used to be transferred for export to other cities in China. One alternative Chinese name was "Shek Pai Wan"^[2] (石排灣).

via en.wikipedia.org

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Ma On Shan Peak, Hong Kong

Ma On Shan Peak, Hong Kong

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New years eve eve in Hong Kong

Katy and I decided to go out for new years the night before actual new years eve since New Years is insane everywhere here.

So we got all dressed up and went to mui wo for pizza and rissatto. Then we caught the 8:30 ferry into central.











Once we arrived in Victoria Harbor we caught a taxi to Causeway Bay and The Excelsior hotel and Tott's....(gimme some of your tots!...)


This was a really nice place we were able to get a table overlooking the yaut club















After Tott's we grabbed a cross-harbor taxi to "The Penninsula Hotel"






And the bar Felix on top, where a large band was playing disco hits, the iPhone doesn't take the greatest low light photos so here's a blurry one....




The coolest thing about Felix is the men's bathroom, well not really but it almost is...they have the 3 marble recepticles in front of a huge window overlooking the city


Sorry the iphone camera really is like the olde tyme cameras where you couldn't move until 15 minutes have passed so it wouldn't be blurry.

The bathroom for kings also has a huge block of marble for a sink and a full time hand washer guy that hands you real cloth towels to dry your hands.

Then we went to Aqua and miraculously got a really awesome window seat.



We stayed until closing then went back across the harbor to wan chai and had a very late night getting back to Lantau.