Hong Kong: April 2026: Day 4: Hong Kong and return

Hong Kong

April 2026: Day 4: UA 820/UA 153

Hindu non-veg pre-arrival meal.

A lot of carb.

N15969 as UA 820, 15hr 9min actual flight time, 7,291 miles (IFE), 7,724 miles (Flightaware), 7,260 miles (great circle).

The famous mid-level escalators in Hong Kong's Central neighborhood.

Lin Heung Lau's original location.

Closing soon-- moving to new location. Inside.

Inside.

Spread was smaller than expected.

Gow chow gow, lo mai gai, lop cheng bun.

Har gow were just right.

Pai gut was excellent.

Random fixed up Toyota Alphard.

One Dim Sum next.

Much more trendy place.

Paper plates?

Har chueng fun was fail, but ngau paak yip was good (shrimp rice noodle roll and beef tripe).

Shu mai and har gow not pretty, but shu mai at least huge.

Cafe Aobi.

Bagels are the rage now? I don't get it.

Random stores, closed so early in the day.

Tai Cheong Bakery.

Mmmmm dan tat, coconut tart, and milk-only dan tat.

Puff pastry and traditional dan tat.

Tai Cheong Bakery.

One Dim Sum.

Vetea sadly did not open til 11am, could not wait around.

A last photo of Central.

Sunday is day off for the maids, so they set up in the pedestrian bridges to chill with their friends.

Taking my dan tat back on the HK Airport Express.

Close-up.

A Moment to Purr at HKG.

No upgrade this flight.

100 years of United amenity kit in Premium Plus.

100 years of United earbuds in economy.

You know the crew likes you when you get a real water bottle and not a dinky one.

Beef sirloin strips in xo sauce were decent.

Close-up.

Flights have been completely full lately.

That is a lot of food.

Ryleigh is always smiling.

Hard work to get the pre-arrival meal going.

Went for the eggs, chicken sausage, and hash browns.

N23983 as UA 153, 12hr 30min actual flight time, 7,257 miles (IFE), 7,561 miles (Flightaware), 7,260 miles (great circle).

Hong Kong double turn done, 29,040 lifetime miles earned.

Obligatory group photo with the best crew of the trip.

N23983, arrived at LAX.

Construction of the new roads into LAX.

The longest layover of this Hong Kong double turn is the last one; United flight 820 (as of this writing) gets into Hong Kong at 5:40am, and United flight 153 (as of this writing) takes off for Los Angeles at 12:40pm. That leaves plenty of time to take the Hong Kong Airport Express into Hong Kong proper, walk and wander and grab a bite, then head back to the airport.

This meant not one but two dim sum stops at decidedly old people time. Lin Heung Lau is still in their original location (albeit not for much longer), and while they don't have carts, they have a suitably old school vibe. Har gow were superb, pai gut was very good, the spread itself was a bit more limited than I expected, with a strong focus on steamed items during my short visit. Did not see any shu mai or ngau paak yip (steamed ginger beef tripe), and with limited stomach space I instead did the short walk to the nearby One Dim Sum.

Was a bit early for One Dim Sum, but that let me explore the area. Cafe Aobi is a friendly, chill little place to hang out with racks of fresh dan tat, bagels (!), and some other items, but I stuck to a milk tea while I waited. Wifi was supposedly available but didn't work for me, although for the short wait, not a big deal. Walking back to the now-open One Dim Sum, they had all the basics, but a slightly odd modern fast food vibe, serving you on paper plates (!), with a har cheung fun that was a decided fail (skins way too thick). Har gow were also not great, shu mai were huge and fat and loaded with shrimp, lo bac guo (pan fried turnip cake) was thick and a little plain. They at least had ngau paak yip, and that to their credit was very good-- in fact, for the money, One Dim Sum was quite decent.

Central is packed with restaurants, and it turns out both VETEA and Tai Cheong Bakery were barely a minute's walk away. Sadly the former was not open til 11am, but Tai Cheong Bakery opened at 9:30am. Waited for them to open, found a small line in the front, but when they opened they were extremely efficient, and they handled the whole line within a few minutes. Unfortunately Tai Cheong not opening til 9:30am meant a bit of a rush to get back to the airport (as well as a now badly-needed shower), but was all good, as getting out for good food definitely beat sitting in the airport.

The final flight of this Hong Kong double turn was maybe the best one-- because it's always good to fly with friends! Almost ten years after flying with Ryleigh on United's Los Angeles to Singapore inaugural, finally got to fly with her again. Turns out she had a great crew working with her, and getting out of my actual paid seat (no upgrade this time) was a good excuse to hang out with her and the rest of the crew throughout the flight.

The beef sirloin strips in XO sauce in Premium Plus (premium economy) were pretty good, the flight was mostly smooth, and I think I even got a good workout in pushing bins, not to mention a detailed look at all the food options on board. Ended up being a very fun flight, even if I should have been the most tired at this point. Wrapping up just over 29,000 miles flown in 71 hours is not quite Carl-level crazy, but it's definitely up there, and glad I got to share the experience.