Ai-yo, ai-yo, it's back to work we go!! (sung dwaft style as in Snow White)
We took Cathay Pacific there and the ride was rather pleasant; the only funny thing that happened was when the steward asked us if we wanted "chicken steak rice or fish & rice" but when we got our meal, we realised that it was lao mai gai!!! haha, he probably meant chicken sticky rice or something. Oh well...
Landed at the airport and had to take a train to the terminal to collect our luggage and meet our guide who was going to take care of our hotel transfer.
When talking to our guide, I realised that not knowing Cantonese was gonna be a problem for us. The ride to our hotel was rather nice and from that journey, you can really tell why HK has the greatest land density in the world - they're surrounded or rather gulfed in high mountains which makes that land uninhabitable. Hence the need for high rise! Check out this high rise building!
An older group of buildings...
Our hotel - Mayfield Garden Hotel - was simple and comfortable enough for our needs.
It was also walking distance to Jordan MTR (we wondered if we copied the HK train syst) which connects to all the other places we wanted to go.
We started off exploring the area around our hotel and as we were hungry, decided to find a place to eat. The streets were swarmed with cars, people as well as colourful billboards/signs which probably gave the streets a vibrant image. As Darryl said, it's one hell of an organised mess.
We chose an eatery which Darryl had been to the previous year and had some dim sum; I also ordered Pork Noodles - check out the pics!
The guy making the dim sum also gamely posed for a picture :)
Afterwhich, we walked around to do more shopping before stopping for a break as Alan was too tired and needed a coffee! We stopped at a 茶餐庭 to have a drink. Our lack of proficiency in Cantonese was apparent in our attempts to clarify what we were ordering but we (finally) managed to order our drinks and some snacks. I had a pork sandwich (yes, pork again!) and a 奶茶 which was so strong we had to put in two packets of sugar!
After this short break, we continued our foray into the street markets. We went to the "Ladies Market" along Tung Choi Street (check out the pic, esp the top right) but I didnt manage to get any souvenirs for friends.
I guess the things were too similar to those that can be found in Chinatown here for me to think it worthwhile to get. heh. Neither did I get anything for myself. I made a mental note to just get some things if I like them, otherwise I might end up with nothing. My nose was also running and I kept drinking fruit juice whenever I had the chance. We took a pit-stop at our hotel before heading out to find dinner/supper.
We stumbled upon a porridge shop and decided to give it a try. I chose the Duck Porridge and had a hot Honey Lemon drink. I found the drink nice and refreshing though a tad bit sweet; the duck porridge however was divine. Compared to the local version in which I find but a few shreds of duck meat, the one I tried had an entire duck drumstick in it! The meat was nice and tender whilst the skin was crisp with a layer of fat on it :) unfortunately, no pics! :(
After dinner, we walked around aimlessly before heading down to the Avenue of Stars at Tsim Sha Tsui promenade. It bore a striking semblance to the Esplanade but this was bigger and had more sights. We had a good time taking pics with Bruce Lee's statue and the hand imprints of stars like Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Jacky Chan, etc!
We also got to see the Clock Tower and the Theatre at the end; the only down-side as we would find out for the other sites we visited, was the foggy weather which made the harbourfront less than spectacular.
Sunday morning started off very early as we wanted to attend Sunday morning mass on Lantau Island. We took the MTR and as we were too late for the 9am mass, we decided to attend the 1030am one at a chapel, so we could have brekkie first. We had brekkie at MacDonalds cos there were only fast food resturants there. I had a Supreme Meal which is basically a Big Breakfast but the bit that I liked was that it came with 奶茶! And I was getting used to the taste so I enjoyed it! Macs is also cheaper than in Spore with a McChicken costing HK$8 only! (less than S$2).
We then took a bus to Trinity Chapel @ Discovery Bay International School to attend the 1030am mass. The chapel was a makeshift part of the school and it was pretty hot there but I thoroughly enjoyed mass.
pic courtesy of MarkG
I think that the choir was good and how they sang some of the hymns was great! Too bad I didn't record some of the hymns. The sermon was also engaging and interesting. What was amazing was, on the bus to the chapel, I noticed this guy sitting in front of Daniel reading something with bible verses on it; I read something about a story of a grandfather but couldn't read everything. Can you imagine my surprise then when the priest began the sermon by telling a story of the grandfather! Daniel turned around and told me - "it's him! we saw him on the bus!" I think this is something that I enjoy and can only be done when your frens are Catholic - attending mass while on holiday! I've attended mass in Bangkok and tried finding a Catholic church in Egypt and now I've attended mass in HK too! :)
After mass, we did something we could only do when it's an all-guy group - play soccer! We watched some locals playing first (including two ladies dressed in the full garb - jerseys, boots and all) then we borrowed a ball and played amongst ourselves, 3 on 3. My team won with each of us scoring a goal; we had great fun! Although we were sweating like mad cows and I at least was super unfit. The lady actually invited us to play with them, but with Zidane in their team and with our fitness lacking, we didn't think it a good idea. So we left with the reputation (if there is one) of Singapore soccer intact.
We then headed back to Tung Chung before transferring to see the Giant Buddha @ Ngong Ping plateau. Our first and only encounter with a rude person in HK was at the terminal and since she was such, we decided to take the public bus there instead. The journey to the Giant Buddha was about 40 minutes and the ride up the mountain was excitingly dangerous as the bus had to travel along a single lane dual-carriageway. In fact, the turns around some corners were so tight that the roads had spaces for buses to stop to give way to other buses. This was worsened by the mist/fog that reduced visibility when we went higher up the mountain. Check out the video for an idea of what the bus ride was like!
At the top, the fog was so thick that we could hardly see anything. The most interesting thing there was the toilet that looked good enough to be an attraction itself.
We had to climb several stairs to get to the Giant Buddha and all that awaited us at the top was a silouette of the majestic bronze Buddha that we were expecting. We waited around awhile but the situation didn't improve much.
Going down the mountain, I managed to squeeze in about 20 mins of nap time despite the perilous ride down. We then had lunch at a Viet restaurant, which was not very satisying as the portion was small and tasteless. In fact, we used the "chilli water" to add flavour though this didn't help much.
Then began the shopping. I guess I bought most of my stuff here, and even then, it included only a Billabong tee (HK$120?) & a Giordano belt (HK$50) & tee (S$70). We took another break, this time with a Smarties McFlurry at Macs. Not bad! We then rushed over to Hong Kong Island to meet Alan's "blind date" - Rose. We had been teasing him about this the whole trip but rest assured (esp Hannah ;) that she's an auntie, so nothing happened. haha. She was very nice though and she bought us 老婆饼 and even told us where to go for good dim sum and shopping!
We then went to Lan Kwai Fong which was supposed to be the place to go to club/pub.
Unfortunately, it wasn't too happening, probably cos it was a Sunday night. Couldn't really find a place to eat so we decided to eat at The Peak. We walked over to the station to take the Peak Tram which ascended up the hill at a 45 degree angle! Thanks to a particular someone, I got conned into believing that there was come a point when the tram was vertical! Idiot! :p We ate at BK (more ex than in S'pore) and I had a Spicy Whopper and I have to say that the fries there are much better! After filling our stomachs, we went up to the viewing gallery only to be disappointed by a thick fog which basically covered any view from the top *Sigh* I would say that this was my greatest disappointment in the trip cos it was nothing like I envisioned and I was looking forward to seeing the view from up there. So we went back down after some gaming at EA sports & a little shopping, but without taking any pics :(
We went back to the hotel to re-group before heading to Temple Street night market, albeit without Alan who was too exhausted to join us. Once again, despite my efforts to buy souvenirs for friends, nothing really caught my eye. Well, nothing that could be given as gifts at least ;) After shopping, we had some dessert - I had some watercress thingy with egg - which was rather ordinary, before heading back to the hotel for some much needed rest.
Monday morning started early again and we had buffet brekkie at the hotel after checking out. I must have stuffed myself with bacon, eggs, sausages, beans & ham cos I wasn't that hungry during lunch later. We then headed down to Causeway Bay; before entering the MTR, we saw two policemen arresting two teens on drug charges cos my friends saw the policemen holding some drugs and the teens looked stoned. Exciting stuff. Too bad we didn't see a chase.
As most of the shops were still closed, we ended up in the arcard to kill time; I enjoyed playing the drum game with Mark and I really like that Jap song!!! How to find it man?!?!
We then headed to Times Square for Dim Sum. The resturant - Chung's Cuisine - looked very posh and we were checking out the prices before we decided to just try it out. To our pleasant surprise, they ushered us into a private room!! I figured that our attire didn't fit into the norm (Dan and I were dressed in berms, Dan also had on a singlet) and since we were the least dressed people in the whole of HK, they decided to "stow us away" in a room. Not that we minded, cos it was way cool to have our own room! Such a thing would never happen in Singapore. We had some great dim sum there and dessert was divine too! The best part is that the total bill came to less than HK$330, which meant that we paid only S$11 each!
After lunch was some last minute shopping where I got a Nike tee (HK$143), an Adidas wristband (HK$35) and the Tuesdays with Morrie DVD (HK$69) from HMV!!! Alan was tired so we headed off to have a drink and sit down. We went to House of Coral which is like a fast food joint that sells HK snacks/food/drinks. I (finally) had my yuen yeung which is a tea-coffee mix, and a(nother) Crispy Pork Bun! My last local meal in HK and I enjoyed it lots. After this was the mad rush back to the hotel as the tour bus was supposed to pick us up at 5; we reached at 510pm but thankfully the bus was still there. I managed to capture this shot from the bus and I like it a lot - Tsing Ma Bridge
We grabbed a Popeye meal in the airport and almost missed the plane - first time we had a Last Call sign and had not boarded the plane, so Alan and myself went ahead to try to stall them if necessary.
The journey back was pleasant on almost all accounts - a beautiful stewardess serving us, a beautiful HK passenger behind Wayne, delicious lamb, potatoes, chicken salad & a hot bun (the best I have ever tasted on a plane) & excellent African white wine - except for the lack of leg-room. I also managed to catch a Chinese gangster movie - Exiled - starring Anthony Wong, Francis Ng, etc. which I thought was excellent cos there was great acting and a good storyline/ plot. A fitting end to my HK trip.
One thing I enjoyed about this trip was that I didn't have to worry about where to go, where I was, read maps, so worry about anything! This was so different from my Perth trip where I was in charge; things would have been very different too if there were girls on this trip :) I guess this is one thing about an all-guy group that I enjoy a lot cos we are kinda mostly on the same wavelength and looking at the same stuff.
Another thing about Hong Kong is its excellent service standards, especially when contrasted to that in Singapore. All my experiences shopping were excellent - when I bought the Nike tee, the cashier helped me get a new piece still wrapped in plastic even though I didn't ask and he would need to get it from the storeroom; the salespeople at Giordano showed us the latest clothes and made suggestions even though we didn't look like we were going to buy anything; another salesgirl modeled two bags for me so I could see how it looked (haha, I admit I enjoyed this) and the sales people greet you when you come in/leave all the time, even when I went into/out of the shop countless times to check on Wayne. No wonder people say our service standards are lacking - it is!
I guess something that I would have to admit is that there are much more pretty girls in Singapore than in HK!!! Many HK has a few pretty/beautiful/gorgeous ones, but the average girl here is much better than the average girls there!!
The food there is different too - they have a lot of pork!! Plus their food is not spicy at all, even when they claim it to be. Although I liked most of the food there, I'll have to agree with Alan who felt that he couldn't eat such food for long. I guess we're so accustomed to the myraid food we have here that any place else would not suffice.
Last but not least, HK is a vibrant city and one that almost never sleeps. Compared to Singapore which claims the same, I think we pale in comparison. Maybe only our ports (air & sea) do not sleep but our city snoozes after 10pm. For the energy, the food, the shopping and the weather, I will definitely go back again.
Now, back to reality.
2 comments:
i dunno how to put pics on my blog that's why! haha. now that you've expose the booboo i've made, i shall do the same for u...nick and wayne had a...in their...!!!
haha nice try :p
oh you can use photobucket! just upload pics there then cut n paste the "tag" into your entry :)
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