Friday, October 19, 2012

Letter from Hong Kong - #12

Next I would like to take you on a trip to the other side of Hong Kong Island to Aberdeen, a village on the south side of Hong Kong Island. Early 18th century when the first Gweilos (foreigners) arrived in Aberdeen they were told the name  of the village was Hong Kong. The visitors thought the locals were referring to the Island, so supposedly this is how the Island got its name. Later the "village of Hong Kong" was renamed to Aberdeen because it reminded the visitors of Aberdeen, Scotland (in Cantonese Aberdeen is Heung Gong Tsai- little Hong Kong).

 Picture of Aberdeen taken from Ap Lei Chau, an island just off Aberdeen. Aberdeen has always been a fishing village with many family living on their boats. It recent years that has changed and you find few boat people in an around Aberdeen.
Above picture shows a local lady buying her dinner from the fisherman and his wife. Talk about fresh! The man hoists the fish up in his net, the lady put the money in the net and the transaction is completed.

This is the taxi we rode to get from Aberdeen to Ap Lei Chau. There is a bridge connecting the two but the locals use boats to go back and forth.
We stopped in a couple of temples so Jenny could pray.

Of course the primary motivation for going to Aberdeen was to eat! To get to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant you have to take a ferry. Many years ago to get to the floating restaurants, there are two in this area, you took a junk which was more fun and authentic. When I was living in Hong Kong, we took our visitors, read bosses from the States, to the floating restaurant. It was considered at that time a tourist trap. Our daughter was here in Hong Kong several months back and attended a wedding reception at Jumbo's Top Deck. The Top Deck is run by Cafe Deco of Hong Kong who also has a restaurant at The Peak. Anyway the short of it is,  the Top Deck of the Jumbo is a great place to eat.
Here is our waiter taking our order from Jenny. We were the only ones in the main dinning room, although there were three other groups on the deck.
If you go down to the lower deck you find the "tourist". Chinese food is served here, which might explain why most tourist go there while on Top Deck European Cuisine is served.
This picture was taken on the Top Deck of the Jumbo; thirty years ago you would have seen mostly junks where the boat people resided.
I love this shot, also taken from the Top Deck: a sampan in front of these very expensive yachts.



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