Recollections of the Floating Restaurants of Hong Kong by
Jake Jaccard, YN3, and Shipmates Bob McKay, AQB1 and Wayne Durfey, MM2

(The Floating Restaurants of Hong Kong - Epicurean Memories)

Ticket there courtesy of the U.S.S. HANCOCK (CVA-19)

If you don't see the Index to the Left, click here

By Jake Jaccard, YN3, Bob McKay, AQBAA and Wayne Durfey, MM2

Bob Mc Kay, AQB1 overlooking Repulse Bay, Hong Kong, 1967 with inset of him today (2008) - See below for Bob's story

Bob McKay (VAH-4 - VAH-123 - CAG-21- 1962-'67 - A3D - "The Whales") came aboard the HANCOCK Memorial December 3, 2004. He and I have become great friends since, and has offered me so many great stories of his own Navy life, along with many other helping suggestions on other pressing issues in my life, and as time goes on, my life has been greatly blessed by all the friends I have made thanks to this Website.

When Bob saw that I had sent out photos of how Hong Kong had changed over the years since 1962, he sent me this one particular photo of the Tia Pia. It brought back great memories, so I am happy to continue this thread on the Floating Restaurants of Hong Kong from that early era, which I know everyone who has sailed into Hong Kong's mystical world, will recall with mixed emotions, their visits there.

Bob McKay states:

Hi Jake,
Here is a shot from the railing of Tia Pia the Floating Restaurant on the back side of Hong Kong....you may have eaten there...the food was great. The view is looking back toward the floating village."

Jake: Bob, I never did eat at the Tia Pia, but I did experience a one-time visit to the Tai Pak floating Restaurant, which I might add, was one of the most interesting and exciting Epicurean Experiences of my young life up to that time. Frankly after 45 years, it still remains that to me!

Wayne Durfey Introduced himself when he came aboard this Website for the first time back in January of 2006 and wrote me then...

"Browsed your entries looking for old shipmates. Jake, I gotta tell you this is a great website for the Hancock! You have my sincere "WELL DONE" and I intend to make my rounds through it in the future searching for the old gang. I did my time on the old girl between 1971 and 1974. Two cruises I'll never forget and they left me with a feeling that we accomplished something. I never once felt that we wouldn't come back from where ever she took us. I miss those days and I don't think I've ever felt as alive as I did then."

You can read Wayne's Muster Entry here

Wayne wrote the above when he first visited the HANCOCK MEMORIAL, and I have received so many great comments about my work here. It has definitely become a Labor of Love, and has made my latter years worth it. When you can look back at just a small slot of time in your life, like my two years on the Hancock was, and realize how important those years were to my overall growth and then you realize that those years definitely were your Coming of Age.

I had to include my own experience with the Floating Restaurants of Hong Kong - this one in particular was TAI PAK. I will never forget this experience.

Wayne wrote me again in July of 2008 after I had sent out an Email (above) about Hong Kong's floating Restaurants, which our Shipmate, Bob McKay send around the HANCOCK Circuit, and the following is the exchange between Wayne Durfey and myself:

Hey, Jake!
This picture of the Tai Pak floating restaurant REALLY brings back memories for me! Six of us visited that restaurant in 1972 and had quite a time. We weren't sure how to order food in Hong Kong and since we all liked chicken and cashews, that's what we ordered. We figured that we would all get an individual meal and were totally shocked when they brought six huge bowls of chicken and cashews to our table (which, by the way, was right under a picture of John Wayne!). We had chicken and cashews coming out of our ears! We decided to fill our pockets with as many cashews as we could carry since we didn't want to waste them. We had no idea that you were supposed to each order something different and pass the various selections around for everyone to sample the different entries. I think the waiters were laughing at us through out the whole debacle. It ended up being a memorable outing. We also ate at the "Jumbo" floating restaurant, which was next to the Tai Pak.(this time with more success.)

Wayne

I wrote back:

Wayne, that story is worthy of the Oral History. Who the heck knew how to eat in that place? It was totally on the other side of our world. We never learned much about the way other peoples live in this big world of ours. We were just boot sailors out on a Walk-About as they call it down under. I really learned a great deal of life on those two years with the fleet. I was just a 19 year old kid who never went further from my home than maybe 50 miles back then. I lived for 20 years in Southern California and never was to San Francisco until I was 16 and then what happened when my grandmother took me there? I got my very first traffic ticket, right there in the middle of the city in an intersection of Market Street and some terrible hilly street. I was as green as the grass in springtime. So Uncle Sam's free ride to the Orient was like dying and going to Oz. I was totally amazed, happy, and also sad for the suffering and poverty that I experienced over there, but forever changed.

I will keep those memories with me the rest of my days. - Jake

As you can see, the "wonders" of Hong Kong and especially the different kinds of food we experienced on liberties, such as Monkey Meat on a Stick, British fine cuisine and Chinese Food on the Floating Restaurants of Hong Kong will forever be burned in our memories.

An Invitation:

If you have your own story about eating out in Hong Kong or any other Foreign Port of Call, send it to Jake and he'll place it here - thanks to all of your Shipmates, the Memories are alive and well, and keep coming in...

Jake

See Bob McKay's own Navy Memories Gallery here and here.

Jake Remembers Hong Kong - the saga continues

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Submitted 7/6/2008
To write Jake or any of these Shipmates, or to suggest your own experiences in Hong Kong, send your message to Jake the Yeoman in Admin and ask to have your Message forwarded.

00119 Visitors since July 7, 2008

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Bob first came aboard the Cyber-Hannah and left his tracks in our Crew's Muster..

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Wayne Durfey came aboard the Cyber-Hannah on 1 January 2006 and left his tracks in our Crew's Muster..

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