what a wonderful world: HongKong 2010 Day 1

I'm so excited as I am typing away! Can't wait to share on my 5D4N trip to Hong Kong!

It was my first free n easy trip where I planned everything from flight schedule, accommodation and itinerary!

I'm proud to say that the trip was definitely better than I have expected and I get to see a different and unique side of Hong Kong :).

And so here we go...

I woke up early at 5.30am that morning morning and did some last minute packing before heading to the airport.

purposely brought a huge luggage as I know I will come back with it being fully packed hehe

of cos Penpen joined me for the trip!

see my watery eyes! I was so tired as I did not sleep well the night before!

showered, made-up and all ready to go!

Super long queue... everyone was pissed!

Jetstar has a lousy system! We went early to check in (6.45am as my flight was at 9am) but found no counter serving our flight even though the time for checking in was up. Then people started queuing in front of an empty counter. After the staff had cleared the previous flights, one of them went to a new counter and started serving those people who came late! Stupid right? It was pretty obvious a queue has been formed. We ended up having to move over to that counter and were left with very little time for breakfast :(

saw a Xmas tree!

If you know me well, you will know that Changi airport has got to be my favourite place as I frequented the place when I was young. It never fails to thrill me each time I stepped into the transit area as I know that this time round, it wasn't just a visit but a trip to travel abroad.

Brought my lucky bear charm along! He was a bit of a SUAGU! lol

Wow, vast empty land, must take pictures!

It must be Pulau Tekong because of the rows of living quarters!

Tried to distract myself from the cramped space by snapping pictures of the sky...

Reaching soon...

Landed and welcome to HKIA!

Once we cleared immigration, we went to get the airport express tickets from the counter.

Instead of the usual HK$90 per ticket price, we can get the tickets at HK$140 if we buy a pair. So we saved HK$40 (almost S$8)! Plus, the airport express is really fast and convenient for us travelers to get to town from the airport.

Before we took the train, we had some quite bites, Burger King!

Found a spot and sat down to eat...

The airport express is linked to HKIA Terminal 1, just like how our MRT is linked to all our terminals.

Happy happy! The start to our fun-filled week!

We were going to alight at Kowloon station which was pretty near our hotel, The Cityview. If your stay is at Hong Kong island, then you have to take to Hong Kong station. Tsing Yi station is for people whose hotel is located at Lantau Island. It only takes 34 min max to reach Hong Kong station from the airport! Quite fast right?

Lucky that the weather was sunny and not as cold as I expected!

So when we reached Kowloon station, we looked out for a sign that reads "Airport Express Shuttle Bus" which will take us to our hotel.

There it was, Shuttle Bus K5! It was good to do some research before the trip. I researched on my hotel and found out that as long as you take airport express, there will be a shuttle bus that takes me to the doorstep of my hotel! Cool isn't it?! This service is also provided to some other more well-known hotels as well.

There we reached The Cityview which is located at Yau Ma Tei, pretty near to Yau Ma Tei station and a few streets away from MongKok.

View from our room... I watched from some travel documentary that HongKong acomodation is usually very small! Well, I did get a chance to experience that as we gotten a deluxe room but it was so small! I can barely walked in the bathroom without knocking onto something!

Just when we reached our hotel, Beth came knocking at our door! She was my tourguide for two days and I have to thank her for showing me a different way of sightseeing!

Left the hotel for some shopping! Was in search of boots as I was afraid that the weather will be so cold that my feet couldn't take it! Turned out that the weather forecast was too exaggerating and whatever cold temperature reported in the news was just a hoax! LOL

There's a school right opposite my hotel!

Must take picture with the parking meter machine! So interesting!

Walking along the street of Yau Ma Tei to MongKok!
There's so much to see!

Well, needless to say, I understand why Mongkok is so crowded! There are so many activities, shopping to do down there! It's just like the street of Orchard. You see lots of road shows for telecommunication companies...

Sasa can be seen everywhere and the staff can be quite stuck-up!

Erm, I really wore too much clothing because Mum kept reminding to keep myself warm!
It wasn't that cold seriously! Maybe like an air-conditioned room!

Packed with people!
Lots of police officers on patrol! Maybe it's the holiday season...

This is like Sasa where you can find many cheap toiletries or cosmetic productst. Like I say, you can find Bonjour and Sasa all around Hongkong!

Oh, I found a shopping centre called Argyle Centre that is kind of like Far East Plaza where you can get lots of cheap clothings, shoes and accessories! When I say cheap, I mean it! They are definitely cheaper than those sold in Singapore. For example, I bought a cardigan that cost less than S$10! A dress and a tshirt for S$20?! Crazy right! But the only problem is they were all long sleeved so I could not buy more!

See, I managed to snap some pictures while I was happily shopping!

Some people say that you wouldn't call yourself in HK if you have not tried Hui Lau Shan's desserts (famous for their mango desserts). So, we paid a visit there for a shopping break. Well the joke here is that I'm the only one shopping! Beth and Desmond were just tagging along! hahahaha

I don't really like mango desserts as well so I wasn't amazed by the wide variety. Instead, I was more interested in the next picture!

Tadah!

Beth highly reccommended this curry with assorted ingredients! There's raddish, cuttlefish, fishballs and beef brisket! OMG!!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS DISH!!!!!! Initially, I was quite put off by the beef brisket which I have never tried and don't dare to but after trying a small piece with the curry, it's too good to resist! Did I mention too that all radish I ate in HK was FANTABULOUS?????

More about that later...

Des ordered some red bean with coconut milk dessert which was quite bland.

Can tell it's not very nice LOL

My mango dessert with mango ice cream, mango chunks and pomelo! Wah, mango overdose lor!

So after the desserts, we were pretty full! Instead of scouting for an ideal dinner place, I asked Beth to bring us to Ladies Street or 女人街 which is also located in Mongkok. Well, I wanted to see if there was any souvenirs that I can get for my family and Beth kept warning me before we reached.

Beth: Eh, I tell you hor, the shopkeeper can be very fierce ah. They can scold you one if you don't buy. So if you want buy something, must be decisive.

So we went ahead and boy were we lucky to experience a "live action"! LOL

The first shopkeeper who was a woman was scolding two Malay ladies (wearing tudungs) when they were walking away from her stall.

Shopkeeper: I don't like you! I fucking you!

Well, the two ladies just smiled and walked away. I was kind of shocked by what I heard and saw as the shopkeeper was saying all that in a smilingly manner. How crude can they be!

But my first reaction to Desmond was: Subject Verb Disagreement! LOL I fucking you!

We ended up not buying anything but snapping some pics of us standing at Ladies Street to prove that we were there. Anyway, there wasn't much to buy as they were all counterfeit goods and not as cheap as we thought.

We moved on to Sneaker Street or Fa Yuen Street 花园街. As you can see from the name of the street, this place is famous for the wide variety of sports shoes from major brands like Adidas, Nike, Puma and Converse. Honestly, it really pays to do research beforehand as there were so many shops for us to explore and I included that in my itinerary because most of the shopping we were doing for the subsequent days were for me and I wanted Des to see if he can get something from that street.

On the way, Beth spotted something.

Yes, a mobile softee van! So old schooled right!
The softee costs HK$6 per cone which is around S$1 plus. Didn't get to try as we were busy shopping!

See those shops? Almost all shops were selling the same shoes. Well, the shoes were not any cheaper than in Singapore but the shops definitely have more variety like new arrivals and limited editions.

One thing I notice during the trip, almost 6 out of 10 'Hongkies' wear Converse sneakers! Yeah, they love their Converse and so you can find pretty cheap Converse sneakers there and they were all so unique! Like suede one, sequined one, graffiti one...

Mongkok Computer Centre, must take pic! hehe

This 花园餐厅 is quite common as well. I think I saw one in Causeway Bay and one in Tsim Sha Tsui. It looks like Jack's Place, famous for their steaks!
Didn't get to try cos I dunno how to eat steaks!

We supposed to look for a place to have dinner but were attracted by a certain "aroma"! Some roadside stall was selling smelly tofu! Wah, it smelled like sewage man! So we went forward to take a look and found that the stall sold many more food like the ones below...

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!

This one is not scary! haha It's some egg pastries called 鸡蛋仔. A bit bland.

This is not a meat ball or wad! It's pig large intestines! Oh mine, they were very tasty when deep fried and Beth and I finished them! Ok, I know you are disgusted! LOL

and this is small intestines or 脆肠. They can get so chewy that Beth and I bit for 10 min and they were still in our mouth! Totally regretted buying it and we threw it away as we did not want indigestion!

Spotted Langham Place Shopping Centre in the background!

The Xmas decoration theme is Hello Kitty!

It is a new shopping centre and mainly selling high-end brands so we ended up just window shopping and taking pictures of the decorations.

The hotel is linked to the highest floor of the shopping mall.
How convenient!

Des trying to imitate the status in the previous pic...

Playing with the spot light and acting crazy LOL

Encouraging parents to save their children's cord blood and milk teeth for emergency... My command of Mandarin has been greatly put to good use in this trip! Although some signs and instructions were written or read in English too, Canto and Mandarin were given higher emphasis.

We ran out of places to go in Mongkok and Beth suggested that we just roamed about like what she always did during her trip in HK so we walked and came to here...

Very artistic hor!
I like how HK is never stingy with their neon lights. These lights really brighten up the supposedly dull city.

Huge bridge

As Des and I were both very tired from waking up early, we decided to call it a day. So we headed back to our hotel and we saw a night market. Yes, a night market selling groceries!

Fruit stall

Saw this restaurant selling roast duck and all so I asked Beth if she wanted dinner. But we were all bloated from the snacks earlier on.

I must admit HK is very accessible! You can practically travel around HK by MTR! You will read more about that as I blogged and realise that I relied alot on MTR during my trip.

Although our hotel was just streets away from Mongkok, we were too tired to squeeze through the crowd and took MTR instead.

Saw a Madam at work. They are very poor thing! Tourists like to treat them as street directory! LOL

Bought Octopus Card! It's like our EZ Link card and is widely used for transportation and even shopping!
I think it costs HK$150 with HK$100 value?

So we reached our hotel and I reminded them that I read from openrice.com (a food directory) that showed a congee and noodles shop right opposite our hotel. It also received alot of good reviews. We went there for our late dinner.
It was definitely a good choice!

Beth ordered noodles with beef balls.

Des's noodles with beef balls and radish! OMG! The soup is soooooooo rich in flavour ok! It's like the broth is cooked with radish and beef bones for many hours!

I tried their congee instead and I was amazed at how generous the portion was. I couldn't finish! I ordered congee with pig liver and some handmade fish balls and the liver were so tender! Didn't really like the fish balls cos there was too much corn starch I think. But the congee itself is a piece of hard work! I can taste the rich flavour of the broth cooked with rice to make the congee and it's definitely a good choice to eat on a cold night!

The Hongkies girls have huge appetite lei! They can finish one bowl like this and mind you, it's a soup bowl and the congee is filled to the brim!

He finished all!

Pardon me as I looked very sleepy!

Saw a fire station near my hotel. The Cityview resides at the same building where YMCA used to be. So the neighborhood is safe with many facilities and landmarks like hospitals, schools, fire station, shopping area.
Glad I made the right choice!

Accompany Beth while waiting for her bus!

She had to queue in line next to the no plate. I fully understand why the old people in HK are so strong! Cos they have to climb alot of stairs to get out of the subway, stand and queue for bus!