July 27, 2018

ISBNPA Conference | Hong Kong

Summary: I travelled to Hong Kong to attend the ISBNPA conference which was held at the Grand Hyatt and Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel.

Duration: 7 days

Where we stayed:

  • Glenealy (booked through TripAdvisor for 5 nights)
  • Hotel Icon (1 night)

Travel essentials

Places visited:

Where we ate:

Day 1

I travelled with Qantas and caught a morning flight from Sydney. I could feel the humidity as soon as I stepped out of the airport. I met up with a friend and we caught an urban taxi to our apartment. We had booked our apartment in Glenealy through TripAdvisor. This was our first time booking trying TripAdvisor as I have always gone with Airbnb in the past.

It took quite a bit of effort to find our apartment (without Wi-Fi) and get our luggage up through the different style of lifts (lifts are much smaller and have an extra gate). It was 8pm by the time we arrived at our apartment, so we headed straight for dinner. It was really nice to go out but I also found it challenging to walk on the streets as it was very busy (it was a Friday night). We wandered around for some time and came across a nice Thai place.  I found the weather to be very humid so opted for a cool salad. It was refreshing to have a coconut drink which kind of reminded me of Fiji. We went for a walk after dinner to get groceries. We bought a few things for breakfast from M&S and came home. It was finally time to take a much needed shower and sleep!

Opting for a salad cause I’m forever craving vegetables when I’m travelling!

Made it just before sunset and caught a glimpse of the mountains

Home for the next week

Day 2
We started off our day at Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens which was closest to us. Here, we got the chance to see Bornean Orang-utans, Buff-cheeked Gibbons, Emperor Tamarins, Golden-headed Lion Tamarin, De Brazzia’s Monkey, Red-Crowned Crane and common squirrel monkey. I still remember how sad the Orang-utan looked. While it was nice to see some of these exotic species, it sometimes makes me sad when I think about the captive state they are in. We were sweating by the end of our walk and needed to go find some shops to cool down. We spent some time in Marks and Spencer and wanted to get a drink from a café. Eventually, we came across a nice hipster café and cooled down with a vegetable juice. After this, we spontaneously visited Jamia Mosque, Man Mo Temple and local markets. We were struggling with the humidity and needed to take another break.

Brekkie in our apartment

First day exploring

Getting used to having so many tall buildings..

First stop: Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological Gardens

I’ll never forget how sad he looked :(

Red Flamingos

So nice to see some green in the middle of the city!

These look so interesting!

Cooling down with a carrot, apple and ginger juice

Jamia Mosque

Man Mo Temple

Local markets have never looked this exciting..

Came home with a bunch of lychees (possibly overpriced)

We headed back to our apartment with some fresh lychees from the local markets. We had plans to have lunch at Tim Ho Wan; the closest one to us was located in IFC Mall. We made multiple attempts to find the restaurant and decided to give up after a while. We were starving by then so we just settled for Pret a Manager. The rooftop garden view here was pretty amazing and made up for the time we lost looking for Tim Ho Wan. We then went on the star Ferry to the other side of the island. We explored shops, Kowloon Park and watched the sunset from Kowloon Bay. We headed back to HK Central for dinner but found it really difficult to settle down for a restaurant. We ended up going to Big Sur which to our surprise, turned out lovely. We grabbed some food from Marks and Spencer and headed home.

Pretty amazed at the way the buildings are connected which kind of helps people stay off the road

IFC Mall – view from the Apple store

The architecture of this building is pretty amazing..

View from IFC Rooftop

First touristy shot in HK

First lunch in HK

This is def one of my favs from this trip

Catching a ferry to the other side

Made it to the other side!

1881 Heritage Hong Kong

Kowloon Bay

A sunset to remember

Warm salad with grilled squid, potato, broccoli and anchovies

It was a very eventful day!

Day 3
We left home around 9:30am but I had to come back because I was feeling lightheaded. At first, I thought it would go away once I walked outside in the fresh air. But I soon started having really awful cramps and felt like I was close to passing out. Thankfully, one of my friends came to the rescue with some electrolytes. Initially I wasn’t sure why I got sick but then it all made sense once I factored in the dehydration from yesterday.  We had walked way more than usual and I didn’t hydrate myself enough at night after I returned home. The symptoms were confusing at first, the cramps hung around all day. I assumed it was food poisoning because we had eaten at a small market place yesterday (in Kowloon). However, I later realised that it was due to heat exhaustion. I spent all day in bed and tried to nap with the belief that sleeping it off will make it better. I was so cooped up in my room and didn’t even step out to eat because of the nausea. Eventually, I felt well enough to be up and managed to go out for dinner. We went to Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Soup as it was recommended to us by our host. I decided congee here for the first time and loved it (was basically like a savoury porridge). We walked around the roof top garden at IFC afterwards and watched a mini lightshow at 9pm. The view from here was just as amazing at night.

Congee with fried scallops

Back at the Rooftop Garden at IFC

When you haven’t eaten all day- dessert is a must!

Bought myself some supper and brekkie for the next day

Day 4

Today was the first day of the conference. The ISBNPA conference was held in Wan Chai which was a 25 minute walk from our apartment. I presented my PhD research which was really exciting because the audience was larger than usual presentation. My favourite session from today was on reshaping food systems for health. It presented some major challenges that our food systems are currently facing (overweight/ obesity, diabetes, food insecurity, micronutrient deficiency) and made me realise the power of food because of the economic opportunities it provides while nurturing communities. It also got me thinking about how food can be leveraged for health. In the evening, I went on an antique tram tour for a conference networking session. The tram itself lasted around two hours but we also needed to catch a shuttle bus to and from the tram shed. It was really nice to network with fellow researchers and see the different parts of the city at night. I caught a taxi back and made it home just before 10pm.

How cute are these pomegranate tarts?

Loading up on colours

Afternoon teas have never looked this bright! #everythinginmoderation

Conference networking + antique tram ride

View from the tram

Day 5

We woke up super early because we wanted to go up to see The Peak before the conference started. We realised that early morning was our best shot because we heard about how busy the lines can be during the day. The view at The Peak was absolutely breathtaking; it was definitely one of my favourites. I would have loved to hike it up here if I had more time (only takes around 45 mins). It was another great day at the conference; I presented another poster and attended some great sessions. After the conference, we went to Hong Kong Park on our way back. It was nice to take a detour and enjoy the afternoon walk. When we returned to our apartment, we learnt about the level one warning for typhoon and felt puzzled because we weren’t sure what it meant. For dinner, I met up with my old mates who now live in Hong Kong. They took me a very hipster café. It was nice to catch up and hear about how the dietetic profession is different on this side of the world. Before heading home, I had a go at one of the traditional HK desserts which was pretty interesting.

Waking up early has its perks- we had the whole carriage to ourselves!

We are going up!

Waking up early for this was so worth it!

Such a pretty concrete jungle

Brekkie with a view

Managed to get a shot before it started raining!

A very interesting smoothie made with tofu, pistachio and maple

Conference food at its best!

These carrots were the best!

Hong Kong Park- taking a detour

Came home and learnt about the typhoon

Catching up with old friends

Habitu salad with cabbage, pomegranate, snow pea, pine nuts, cheese, pumpkin and avocado- was a pretty interesting combo

Sugar coated glutinous balls in a broth

Day 6

We started off our morning at Grassroots Pantry for breakfast. I fell in love with this plant-based café the first time I saw it, and the food did not disappoint either. Unfortunately, the rain had started by then so we found it really difficult to find a taxi after we checked out of our apartment. We made it to the conference by morning tea. After the conference, we went to Goods of Desire for shopping and finally got ourselves an egg tart from Paper Stone Bakery. We caught the ferry to TST despite the bad weather and checked into Hotel Icon. Our room had a harbour view, it wasn’t the best view but still so much nicer than our apartment. It was so nice to be able to relax, so glad we decided to splurge after reading Heidi’s blog. As we were exploring the rooftop pool, we also visited the hotel restaurant on our way. To our surprise, they were able to book us in for a window table. It was fancy to be dining with a view, for change. We ordered two dishes that were of canton origin (was our most expensive dinner in HK). We were very tired by the time we returned to our room and fell asleep soon after.

Grassroots Pantry

Sautéed mushrooms and spinach, zucchini carrot slaw, pickled kohlrabi, cilantro, cashew browned butter (vegan)

This charcoal bread was an interesting one…

And that’s a wrap for 2018! Time to recycle these..

Post-conference exploring

Fell in love with these without even eating them!

Catching a ferry to our hotel

We made it!

Now it’s time to wind down and enjoy my first egg tart!

Too good to be true?

That view though

Dinner with a view

Hot and sour soup + vermicelli with mushrooms + stir-fried fresh yams, lily bulbs, lotus roots and celeries + braised eggplants and bean curd in chilli sauce

Last night in HK

Day 7
Today was our last day in Hong Kong. I woke up feeling confused because the time showed to be 9am. We had been waking up early every single day so this was very late. I honestly couldn’t believe that we slept so much but obviously, our bodies needed the sleep. I woke up feeling very refreshed. We took our time getting ready while sipping coffee and munching on M&Ms from our mini bar. We then stored our bags and checked out of our hotel. We still had some exploring to do on this side of the island! We went to a tiny hipster café called N1 and worked out a plan for the day as we did not have much time left. We wanted to as much sightseeing as possible, as well as try some local foods and I also needed to purchase some souvenirs. We stopped at a few bakeries where I purchased some souvenirs and tried local items (pineapple cake from Hang Heung bakery; red tea walnut bread from A1 bakery). We had also looked up a place (Hoover Cake shop) that’s supposed to have the best egg tart in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, it took us a while to find it because we could not read the shop name and kept going past it. I tried a pineapple and peanut bun and the famous egg tart here. We found it difficult to communicate here because no one spoke English at this bakery. We walked through Flower city market which was a wonderful experience. We went to Kowloon City Walled Park after this. This park was like no other, it was so tranquil. We sat down and enjoyed our baked goods we had bought. We realised we had walked way too far from our hotel and decided to catch a cab back to our hotel. From there, it was another taxi ride to the airport. I ate my last egg tart and picked up some souvenirs in attempt to bring a piece of Hong Kong back with me.

Time to say goodbye!

You will be missed HK!

 

Tsim Sha Tsui

Egg and mushrooms on toast

Kowloon Walled City Park

Fav park in HK

Red tea and walnut bread

You will be missed!

Home bound

Advice for future travellers

  1. Be wary of hill and uneven surfaces – flat shoes are a must! I didn’t realise this until I landed but luckily the shoes I had packed were super comfortable. I would definitely recommend hiking- the mountain views are pretty amazing (The Peak was my fav).
  2. Carry cash when possible. Hong Kong was just as expensive as Sydney (if not more). Most places will accept card but some of the smaller/ local shops may not, so best to carry cash.
  3. Be wary if you are buying things at local markets. The prices can vary a lot depending on where you go. It is possible to bargain at some places but I didn’t even try because I am so bad at haggling!
  4. We chose to walk to most places (when possible) but the transport here was pretty convenient. Taxi is another great option and worked out to be much cheaper than Sydney.
  5. Make sure to visit the local bakeries, literally every single bakery is amazing! I would’ve loved to have tried out more foods, egg tarts were my favourite.

From Hong Kong, with love