Editor’s note: This post is in Chinese only.
這幾天返早班，下班後都不太想立即回家，而是想到處逛逛，在咖啡店裏寫Blog、消磨時光。
電車—典型香港街景
電車：放慢下來細味生活
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Tag Archives: History
#DailyFact: I’ve been stranded alone at Sydney Airport at the age of 13
Posted on KnowMoreChris.com, Chris Lam’s Blog.
It’s in year 2000, just couldn’t remember what the exact date is… I was enrolled into my secondary school’s 10 days Australia Exchange program. Just to say it, like, the group was supposed to depart for Australia on Monday, but what was happened to me was that I felt really sick and got fever on that day… While everyone including my parents and the teachers was asking me to cancel the trip, I’ve made a really challenging decision: Let everyone go first and I’ll fly to Australia on my own to catch them up.
My parents argued a lot about this but eventually just let me go. My fever went down the another day and so I enroute on the way to Brisbane, Australia- but not directly, I had to transit in Sydney.
Thanks for the fact that I’m still young enough for the airline (Qantas) to take special care on me, I had to follow their crew all the time and things worked well during my flight from HK to Sydney. The flight was boring though: you know at that time iPod was not really that a common gadget and only old-school stuffs was with me: like a discman… I was watching the ever replaying inflight movies, listen CDs but really did a few chat with my neighbours – wondered by I’m flying alone.
After 10 hours of flight I was at Sydney- where a little nightmare happened. As I had to transit to another flight to Brisbane- in a rather large Sydney International airport, I had to grab my baggage along with me, took transit bus to another side of the airport, and report to the ground crew – all on my own, the service was not really good over in Aussie. Then I was instructed to wait for the next flight at a small room, filled with toys and two kids as I can remember, within the staff area. Obviously the room is for either lost childrens or other childs who fly alone, too. I was sitting aside at a corner seat and then it’s waiting and waiting… Like for about 5 or 6 hours, no drinks, no food… The feeling was like the crew was forgotten about me and I’m gonna be there forever. Things was stirred when my parents finally able to had contact with me… I told them my situation and they then had called the airline to complain… They’re finally able to have someone to come to me and buy me a meal to eat and my flight to Brisbane was finally there for me.
Can’t imagine what would happen if my parents couldn’t call me… Maybe I’d be lost in Australia and live in Sydney airport for long.
Finally got on to the flight for Brisbane, the was a tiny plane and I sat with an Aussie couple. Again they’re wondered that I’m flying alone and I’ve told them everything had happened to me. It was really awful as they could feel.
After the awful long route, I could finally reunion with the rest of the group of students… I was treated like a special one and had them asked what happened to me.
I then enjoyed the rest of the Australia trip, “planted” my roots for my future return to Australia and back to Hong Kong after 10 days. When I could finally see my parents again, the feeling was really like, umm, kinda like I’ve been cast away for a lengthy time, and everyone cried (except me!)
Lung Mun Restaurant – The Last Original Yum Cha Experience
Hong Kong has been best known for it’s east-meets-west culture. In terms of dining, you can find the latest dining cuisines while there’s also options for the most traditional ones like the oldie Yum-Cha. Yum-Cha is properly the most popular kind of cuisine the locals like me preferred, it’s not just simply dim-sums but also represents a lot of Hong Kong cultures, people goes to Yum-Cha will enjoy the time altogether, chattering, and just let the world goes round while enjoying the tea. However this traditional Yum-Cha culture is fading fast in Hong Kong, as Hong Kong people’s lifestyle changes and the emerging Gen-Ys, new modern Chinese restaurants and fast-foods open to adopt the new trend. It’s less and less people nowadays would like to just sit down and spend a few hours for just that a few Dim-Sums.
The iconic Lung Mun's red building and neon sign, with another Hong Kong icon - trams.
Checkout my gallery of Lung Mun Restaurant.
Earlier on this week, I have got the news of Lung Mun Restaurant (龍門大酒樓) (Location), one of the last few old-style traditional Yum-Cha restaurant, will be fall on the history river on Nov 30 2009. So I’ve paid a special visit to it to keep it’s last moments. This is one of Hong Kong’s traditional icon first opened its doors on 1949, renowned for its iconic red building, neon lights sign, “Dai-Baos” (Large steamed buns filled with chicken, mushrooms and preserved eggs) and charcoal roasted Cha-Siu.
Dai-Baos - one of the most well-known item of Lung Mun.
Of course for the Gen-Y peoples like me, will never like the dining environment as Lung Mun can offer – fainting, Chinese hanging lamps, heavily worn-off wallpapers and paints, the noisy atmosphere, and mostly the self-service basis Yum-Cha – that is, to get Dim-Sum, you will need to walk out to the “Dim-Sum Corner” or “Dim-Sum Station”, and yell to the staffer for the dish you want, wait him to grab it for you and stamp your “Dim-Sum Record Card”. You’re then need to grab the greasy dish back to your table by yourself. In some cases, if you’re not fast enough, fresh and popular dishes like their signature “Dai-Baos” will always out fast and you’ll need to wait and bet your luck for next round. This is why traditional Yum-Cha is so important to Hong Kong’s culture – modern Chinese restaurants will never offer anything like that – brightly lighted atmospheres, and people will never need to rush for their dishes – to order, just mark the things you liked and hand to the waiter and you can only need to sit-back and relax.
Check below of my video on Lung Mun:
During my short visit, probably due to newspaper’s report on Lung Mun’s closure, there’s people photo-taking around to keep it’s last moments, especially with Lung Mun’s signature items like it’s 1960s first-generation cash register, “Lung Mun” sign written in Seal Script (篆書) and it’s wooden handcrafted wall decorations.
1960s first generation cash register.
"Lung Mun" sign written in Seal Script (篆書).
I mostly likes it’s Siu-Mai and Beef Balls, they’re large and filled. But their Shrimp Dumplings are a bit small for me.
This week there has been news of names of Hong Kong pop culture passing away, like actor Mr. Chan Hung-Lit (陳鴻烈) and voice of RTHK Mr. Chung Wai-Ming (鍾偉明). I am suddenly feeling Hong Kong’s old traditions are wearing off fast. So don’t waste every moment you’ve gone through, it’s always memorable.
Further reading: Read more about Lung Mun Restaurant as CNN Go reports it’s closure.
