HK Trip May 07 - Day 5

Day 5! We kick-started the day with cold noodles again. Here's the auntie mixing the noodles for us. It's a bit hard to eat with two satay sticks as chopsticks, but nevertheless, nice!

In Argyle Centre

This is the pedestrian crossing we use every day when we walk to the main shopping area. Our hotel is opposite the YWCA. I like it quite a lot, will stay there if I go HK again.

We took the hotel shuttle bus to TST to take A21 back to the airport. Here's the view of the bridge from the bus. I seriously like this bridge very much as you can see!

Another bridge linking New Territories with Kowloon.

Our luggage! Came with two and left with 4!

Home sweet home!

HK Trip May 07 - Day 4

Day 4! Here's a view of the butcher near our hotel.



We decided to go for dim sum for breakfast. We asked around and the Maxim's bakery assistant recommended us the Maxim's Restaurant at the Grand Place Shopping Centre (at Mongkok), Level 8.



This looked expensive but the prices are actually quite alright. We spent about SGD 17 per person. I think each 'long' is about SGD 3. You can go between 2-5pm though, I heard from others that the dim sum are half-price during that time of the day, but you should check out first. Here's what we ate:

Shrimp Dumplings



Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf





Siew Mai



Porridge!





Salad Prawns





Carrot Cake



Chicken Feet anyone?



Mango Pudding!



Later, we took the hotel shuttle bus to TST, looked around the museums and this is Peninsula Hotel. I think they like to use this as a backdrop in HK mafia boss kind of movies? Look familiar?



At the Avenue of Stars



Does this look like from the transformers?



Clock Tower



View across the Harbour of Hongkong Island.



We decided to take the Star Ferry across to Central (Zhong Huan) on Hongkong Island from TST. It only costed us HKD 2.20! Cheaper than the MTR?


On board the Star Ferry



View from the Star Ferry



The Star Ferry





We got lost for a while when we reached central, ended up in the upmarket IFC mall for a while.

After much sign language with half-baked cantonese and chinese, we finally were on the correct direction to the Mid-Levels Escalators. Here's a pic of the electric tram I was talking about.



On the Mid-Levels escalators, which are a series of escalators to transport people from the ground level to their homes higher up in the Mid Levels. Quite amazing.



It's quite long



and it's also quite steep on Hongkong Island.



A Market Place



We explored a little around Hollywood Road, there are some antique shops there. And Yupin found this further down, a eatery with about 60 years of history and foodie reviews by Bryan Wong!



Yupin's lunch: Pork Chop Rice!



A hungry cat beneath our table



Mine: Tomato Soup Macaroni with Pork Chop



In the evening, we went back to the Avenue of Stars. There's the Symphony of Lights show at 8pm every night. Here's the Clock Tower in the evening.



View of the harbour as the sky gradually darkened.





This is part of the Symphony of Lights show, which has music and laser lights shining from the buildings. There's also some introduction about the buildings that you see. Quite interesting! This i feel is quite successful and it made me feel that Singapore has a lot to catch up with.







Back to Mongkok, for more shopping! And here's the cold noodles yiting told me about. YOu can order a mixture of packets of ingredients, each HKD $2.50, with a minimum order of HKD$10. Very nice, but very salty. You can find this at the shopping building adjoining Argyle Centre.



And Hui Lau Shan to end the day! I think we drank this almost every night on our way back to the hotel. On the left, mango, coconut juice with herbal jelly and on the right, mango, coconut juice with aloe vera jelly. One drink cost about HKD 15, but two drinks cost about HKD$20. So..buy together and save money!

HK Trip May 07 - Day 3

Day 3! Here's our breakfast at another cha chan teng, the bill and egg tarts (not fantastic though).





After breakfast, we went shopping at Mongkok. Didn't take much pictures because we were all too busy shopping. You can start with Fa Yuen St Market, lots of SASAs and Bonjours here if you want to buy fragrances and cosmetics. There are nice bags here too. Later, you can proceed to Argyle Centre, which is something like Bugis Village, but with air-conditioning and very happening. I like the clothes and shoes here. But not much things to buy for the guys though..

here's a view of one the back alleys..


We shopped till around 7 plus, went back to the hotel to deposit our shopping and went to the Peak.

The night view from the viewing gallery and the Peak Building.


To get to the Peak, you can take the MTR to Admiralty (Jing Chong) then follow the signboards to the Peak Tram up Garden Road. I think you need to cross a pedestration crossing, there's electric trams here too, so can look out for them. Then you need to walk about 15 minutes upslope and watch out for a green signboard that says Peak Tram.

Here's the Peak Tram. This is quite awesome to take as it brings you from the ground level all the way to the peak in just under 15 mins. The tram can have very steep inclines along the way, sometimes as steep at 45 degrees (haha quoting the brochure). Reminded me of Harry Potter too. There's a Madam Tussaud's wax museum up there too but you need to buy tickets to go in.







Didn't have time to cover Lan Kwai Fong as planned. Mostly pubs and clubs there. Maybe we can pop in the next time we go HK?