Hong Kong 2026 - day two - Curry in Hong Kong

I will put more of my Hong Kong posts here when I get the opportunity

So beginning where I left off yesterday, my special culinary treat was (surprise) curry. In the planning for this trip I had discovered the unlikely locus of Indian and Pakistani cuisine in Hong Kong, this being located in the delightfully scruffy Chungking Mansions, an indoor shopping arcade with five tower blocks plonked on top.

While many and varied food offerings could be found by wandering the extensive corridors of the ground floor, I had determined that further options were to be found on the floors above, where restaurants nestled in converted flats among dodgy b&bs and backpacker hostels. And so I found myself in a rattly lift, ascending to the seventh floor of block E. There I found the Khyber Pass Mess Club, with its slightly forbidding door with a warning, “members only”. I entered.

Membership is not actually a requirement to dine, and I was seated in a windowless room with two other punters already in situ. I placed my order of a lamb karahi, tarka dall and a naan bread. “Desi spicy please”, I asked. This was understood. The food, when it arrived, was superb. Tender lamb, on the bone, well seasoned and giving of spice, albeit accompanied by some vegetables that have no place in a karahi; I could easily set these aside. The daal was served with chopped chillies. Yes! The seasoning for both was on point. I hugely enjoyed this, and waddled back to the MTR a happy boy.

This morning I took the 260 bus over to Stanley, on the south of Hong Kong Island. The bus roars through a lengthy tunnel and then threads its way along the mountainous roads through Aberdeen and the wealthy Repulse Bay. I am slightly in awe at the driver’s ease and confidence in throwing the large double decker bus around the tight corners. Bus drivers are known as “bus captains” here, and with good reason.

Stanley is a pretty seaside town, containing a slightly dodgy market and a temple dedicated to the Chinese sea goddess Tin Hau. The temple at Stanley served as a shelter during a particularly vicious Japanese bombing campaign in the Second World War, where it survived two direct hits with neither of the dropped bombs detonating. A heavenly blessing, perhaps?

I also visited the Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum, once again making this something of a former busman’s holiday. This is located next to the HK prison service’s headquarters and just up the road from Stanley nick. All this was inherited from the British and it was nice to see lots of old Her Majesty’s stuff that would not be unfamiliar in the equivalent museum back in the UK (it exists and is in Nottingham).

Lunch was taken back at Stanley market in Si Yik, a particularly rough and ready dai pai dong located round the back of a fruit-and-veg stall, where they served wonton noodle soup that was especially serviceable. Cash only, of course.

I then enjoyed a wander along the little promenade and a Cornetto from a nearby Seven-Eleven. Simple pleasures, folks.

It’s evening beers now in the hilly Mid-Levels, and preparation for more exploring tomorrow. Cheers!