Since Tung Chung was so far from the central areas of Hong Kong and because we were staying in a flat that, as much as we enjoyed it, I'd describe as utiliarian, we decided to build a staycation within our trip to Hong Kong. If I had travelled by myself to Hong Kong, I probably would've skipped it but since MrsCrumbs was with me, a night in a nice hotel sounded good.

To start the day off, I went for my usual early morning breakfast by myself. I chose a nearby restaurant that was only fifteen minutes away, 十足風味. While Google Maps claims that this restaurant has an English name of Authentic Roaster Restaurant, nothing I can find elsewhere can confirm this.


Instant noodles with char siu and beef along with a side of ham omelette and white bread. My usual cup of hot yuenyeung, too.


Plaza between Tung Chung Station and Citygate Outlets shopping centre.

We were staying in Causeway Bay but since we couldn't check in until the afternoon and had an errand to run, we headed to Mong Kok near Prince Edward station. After our errand was complete, we had our first dim sum of the trip. We went with a nearby spot, Hot Point. One of the interesting things about Hot Point is that it was possible to order some of their more popular items, such as siu mai and har gow in a half order. That allowed us to have a larger variety of items.


Half order of har gow (蝦餃)


Shrimp cheung fun (蝦腸粉), fried taro dumplings (芋角) and siu mai (燒賣). The siu mai was a half order.

After a nice and affordable lunch, we kept our transport preferences of the bus over the MTR and hopped on the 102 to Causeway Bay via the Cross Harbour Tunnel.


Short wait for the bus as the 102 is a popular way to cross the harbour and is one of the original three cross harbour routes that coincided with the opening of the Cross Harbour Tunnel.

We alighted from the bus at the western entrance of Victoria Park and had a short walk over to our hotel, Lanson Place Causeway Bay. It took a few minutes to go through some check in procedures in their beautiful lobby.


Lobby, Lanson Place Causeway Bay


Welcome beverage of tea

Lanson Place Causeway Bay is part of the Hilton Honors Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) partnership and as the name implies, these tend to be smaller and more boutique properties. I looked at a lot of properties while planning the staycation and my number one focus was location. I almost booked us into the Little Tai Hang Hotel but I wanted somewhere a little more bustling than Tai Hang since we were already spending the vast majority of our trip in Tung Chung. Having said that, MrsCrumbs and I are no longer party people (but Christ, how we partied back in the day!) so being in Central near Lan Kwai Fong and Soho didn't hold much appeal to us. I find Tsim Sha Tsui to be too touristy, so we settled on Causeway Bay.

Since Lanson Place Causeway Bay was part of the SLH programme and I could earn Hilton Honors points, my Gold status got us a room upgrade, which was much appreciated. We ended up staying in their Prestige Suite, which was a really lovely room. I wish we had more than just the one night here.


Prestige Suite Living Room


Prestige Suite Bedroom


View of the southern half of Victoria Park, along with Causeway Road. The window faced east.


That's that me espresso

I hadn't been over to Causeway Bay in ages and it was MrsCrumbs' first time, so we set out to explore for a bit.


First stop was afternoon tea at Ki's Roasted Goose. I had the roast goose lai fun (and a yeunyeung, of course) while MrsCrumbs had her roast goose on rice. This was good in the sense that I can't find roast goose in Portland but in comparison to other places, it wasn't the best.


View from the Hysan Place shopping centre.

We then headed to North Point for a bit of culture in the form of Oi! art space.


View from the upper deck of the tram


Upper deck of the tram


Oi! Warehouse, the former clubhouse of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club


Oi! Glassie exhibition space, where we visited the exhibit, The Charm of Colour


"Ten Thousand Skinny Dudes" by Caroline Cheng


Kid playing in the stone garden


Vegetable canopy

We were within walking distance of the harbour and while it took us a couple of attempts to find the entrance to the snappily named East Coast Park Precinct, it was worth it to catch the beautiful sunset.


Looking west


Beautiful colours, looking west over all the way down to Central

We then walked along the harbour, through Victoria Park and ended back up in Causeway Bay. MrsCrumbs did some shopping while I watched some street karaoke. All the songs performed were inexplicably from twenty to thirty years ago.


Street karaoke before the crowds thinned out on this chilly night


Time for a pre-dinner snack of pig's blood and radish cart noodles from 燕記車仔麵, a hole in the wall restaurant across the street from the hotel. My view while eating was of the front doors of Lanson Place.

We then went back to the hotel to get a bit dressed up and had a nice and expensive meal over at Hee Kee, which is known locally for their fried crab, also sometimes known as typhoon shelter fried crab. We dined at a bit of a late hour, which meant that the restaurant was pretty much deserted, which didn't help the atmosphere. The food was good and oddly enough for Hong Kong, the staff were friendly.


Clams with black bean sauce


The star of the show, fried crab with chilli (避風塘炒辣蟹). Whisper it like your name is Nick Daicos, but I preferred this over the Singapore chilli crab.

While I wanted to get some Chinese style dessert in the guise of dessert soup but sadly, all the nearby places were already closed. Therefore, we got our dessert from good ole 7-Eleven and ate our ice cream in front of the hotel's television. It was a nice day.