last day in hongkong

packing up and final tours of kowloon area - the fact that today is the last day of our stay in hongkong finally kicked in this morning as baby and i packed our stuff back into our luggage. the trip has been enjoyable so far and we weren't prepared to go back singapore so early. damn... we should have extended 2 more days when we booked our tickets. we took a farewell shot with the landlady and left the luggage at the storeroom for collection later in the afternoon, and set foot for our final tours around kowloon. anna and yingchao gave us a pair of tickets for the hongkong science museum 'mission earthlings' exhibition before we left hongkong, so we decided to go for it since its already the last day.
plan was to go hongkong science museum in the morning, then noon shopping at mongkok, then buy the famous 恒香biscuits at the mongkok outlet before heading back to the hostel for luggage collection and then to the airport for night flight back to singapore. however, when we reached the science museum, we were dismayed to find that it'll only be open from 1 pm in the afternoon, affecting our plan. determined not to miss the exhibit, slight adjustments were made to the schedule, and we proceeded with the shopping @ mongkok.
however, when we reached mongkok argyle centre, we were given another jolt again... none of the shops were opened at the late morning hours of 11 am... we realised later that most of the shops operated late from afternoon onwards... so we went to the biscuit shop to get the biscuits for our relatives, before returning to the shopping centre for baby's final hongkong shopping in this trip, and then on to hongkong science museum.
















bye bye hongkong - after the science museum trip, we had a sushi tea-break at a sushimasa outlet. another i-don't-know-what-u-r-saying episode ensued before we managed to order our selection of sushi using the finger-pointing-at-the-menu technique. baby was pissed that a japanese sushi outlet in hongkong had only english names for its dishes and no japanese names at all. apparently, the chawanmushi over here is known only as egg custard or something like that, and the waiters here have no idea what a chawanmushi is. after our tea-break, we went back to collect our luggage. the landlady advised us a cheaper route back to the airport instead of taking the A21 airport bus, or the more expensive airport express -- take mtr to 东涌, then take the s1 bus, and we can still shop at the tung chung plaza before leaving hongkong.

4th day in hongkong

up to 天坛大佛 @ 昂坪 Ngong Ping - our 2nd last day in hongkong, and up we went to Ngong Ping, one of the highest point on Lantau Island. We had our breakfast first at meixian, before taking the mtr to the tung chung 东涌 station. From there, we took the package tour available at the cable car station ticket counter for the tour around Ngong Ping 360, a resort-style village for tourists, which also include return cable car tickets. The journey on the cable car lasted a mind-numbing 25 minutes for me as i were quite afraid of heights. Upon reaching Ngong Ping, we proceeded to the 天坛大佛 and the 宝莲寺 opposite the buddha. by the time we left ngong ping, it was already nearing 3 pm in the afternoon.




cable car first part


cable car 2nd part


disneyland hongkong edition - from 东涌 mtr station, we took a ride down to the sunny bay mtr 欣澳 for the transfer to the disneyland line. disneyland was heaven for baby, as she run from one shop to another, gushing at the array of disneyland products. if not for the lack of finances, baby would have bought everything on the shelves of all the stores. As we went to disneyland late, we had limited time for all all the attractions within disneyland, but we strive to cover as much of disneyland as possible. at 7, the lights of disneyland were dimmed for the finale fireworks. with the cold winds blowing, we left disneyland around 8 plus. baby was feeling abit sad as we did not cover some of the attractions or rides, but i promised her that i will bring her to the ones in the US or japan to compensate... haha...




jungle boat ride


disney fireworks - pls rotate ur screen 90 degrees to watch it, thanks.


discovery @ discovery bay - having no idea what discovery bay was or what it contained except the knowledge that it is situated on lantau and that there might be ferry services back to central, i decided to venture on this route back to central instead of taking the trusted mtr services. after some hard-thought conversation with the mtr station control operator, we found out the bus service that ply sunny bay and discovery bay and confirmed that there indeed was ferry services back to central.
upon reaching, i realised discovery bay was actually a residential area for the expats working in hongkong, with a shopping square and an atrium. there was also a 24-hour fast ferry service back to central.
tired from the day's travel, baby and i then retired early for the night.

3rd day in hongkong

kowloon city park - only a 5 mins walk from our hostel building, we decided to visit the kowloon city park the night before. once home to the famed kowloon walled city, it is now a park with a public swimming pool, an aviary and many ponds. a drizzle started as soon as we started walking in the park, so we had to make use of our jackets and double it as a raincoat.




video showing our hostel room


将军澳 - we agreed to meet ching man at her hongkong's residence the day before for breakfast. she stayed at her uncle's place at 将军澳 Tseung Kwan O. This area looked like a singapore hdb town with many tall blocks of flats with a shopping centre in the middle of all the buildings. it was nearing lunch time, so we had a brunch of wanton noodles, another famed hongkong dish.



















ice-skating @ 太古 - after brunch was a short discussion about where to go next. although we had planned to go 炮台山 the day before, the 2 gals decided it was too late and there was nothing interesting (yeah.. to them) there except cannons and that i will be disappointed even if i really went there. being the lone guy, i was naturally the minority and can only "painfully" agree to not go 炮台山. instead, the gals especially baby was so excited about going 太古 for ice-skating... haiz... gals...



















stanley market and jumbo restaurant - we made our way to stanley market via bus from central after a tiring session of ice-skating. at least now i know how to balance on ice-skates and inch forward... haha. stanley market is actually somewhat like our holland village, except it is situated near the sea. there is the hongkong maritime museum near the market area. when we went there, it was too late and the museum has closed for the day, nonetheless we took pictures of exhibits that are available outside the museum. after a short stroll around the area, we head for Aberdeen, whereupon we were taken to a beautiful floating restaurant (Jumbo) via a motor boat (those kind that u see along singapore river).







lam kwai fong - similar to the mohammed sultan or clarke quay of singapore, lam kwai fong is a street with many pubs and bars of many different themes. ching man's sister was already waiting at the central mtr for the 3 of us while we rushed down after a lovely dinner at the Jumbo. we settled down at the dish cafe bar finally after scouring almost all the pubs to find one with the appropriate atmosphere. i ordered 'orgasm', a drink with a mix of vodka and baileys and dunno what else. the night ended there, and ching man also ended her role of a tour guide to us... foodcheese is by themselves again for the remaining 2 days...

2nd day in hongkong

dimsum breakfast - excited by the prospect of touring the streets of hongkong, we woke up at 7 am and left the hostel by 7.30 am, and we witness the morning office crowd emerging from the mtr station to the streets. we were supposed to meet ching man today, and she'll be our tour guide for the next 2 days, however ching man was still in her bed, and so we decided to meet her at tsim sha tsui mtr station at 10.15 am. in the mean time, baby and i proceeded to find our breakfast. baby wanted something representative of hongkong, so we went to a local restaurant recommended by the landlady...

















meeting ching man and taking the peak tram - after breakfast, we met ching man at the tsim sha tsui terminal. ching man permed her hair and for a moment, we couldnt confirm if it was her that we saw... haha... so now we have our "tour guide" for the next 2 days, yeah!! no more unintelligible communication with the locals for the moment. as the girls chatted like they haven seen each other in many years i took pictures from behind them... hehe...
soon enough, we reached the peak tram station at the bottom of the mountain. the progress up the mountain was steep enough and literally so...

















at madame tussauds - madame tussauds is situated at the top of the victoria peak. shots from the wax museum.... some funny shots included.

















playing free EA games - there's also a station at the peak that allows u to play free EA games in whatever consoles all day long...

















up at the top of the peak - chilly winds, but nice view...

















from wanchai to causeway bay - it was nearing lunch time as we took a bus down from the peak. we stopped at one of the stops around wanchai because i wanted to take a look at the golden bauhinia structure... after that, the famished trio proceeded to 东海酒家 to have a lunch. the items on the menu were expensive and we ordered only 3 dishes. however, i will like to say that the quality of the food was the best among all the food i ate over the 5 days in hongkong. its really 一分钱，一分货. after lunch, we walked our way to causeway bay, stopped by a few 小吃店 and eventually reached times square, where we tasted the delicious durian and mango pancake, one of the nices desserts i tasted in hongkong...
















shopping at mongkok - we took the mtr to mongkok to visit the famed 3 streets of hongkong, of which the main one is the ladies street 女人街. baby had a fabulous time there, while i had a contrastingly boring time there... haha... baby also manage to scout a lot of stuff at the Argyle Centre, which she returned on our final day in hongkong to buy them. after dinner at the cafe d'coral, we walked around the area till late, before proceeding to 许留山to have more desserts. as the night wore on, ching man's sister came to accompany her home, but not before chatting for a moment. as the quartet dispersed, i and baby walked all the way from mongkok back to tsim sha tsui down Nathan Road...

1st day in hongkong

departure and arrival - we left for changi airport terminal 1 in the wee hours of 1st jan 2007. arrived there at 4.30 am to board for our 6.15 am flight to hongkong. finally reached there at 10.30 am. some snapshots we took along the way...
















checking into cosmic guest house - it was the first time i ever booked a hostel for stay overseas and i was afraid that something wrong might go wrong with our booking, and baby and i will end up sleeping on the streets, hahaha... but my fears were unfounded as we found our way to the hostel and settled our luggage there before heading out to the streets to start our tour of hongkong...
















lunch... and on to ocean park aka 海洋公园 - baby was already growling with hunger so we went around looking for something to eat. we heard from the landlady that in hongkong u will not stress over finding food to eat, cos every alternate stall will be one eatery. true enough, we did not stress over finding food to eat, however we did stress over how to order our food cos apparently the level of spoken english of the hongkongers are not as good as mentioned by the tourist guides and brochures. after some effort at broken cantonese with a mixture of mandarin, we finally managed to order something, duck noodle for me and roasted goose for baby. oh by the way, do remember that in hongkong, there is no roasted chicken, we realise that after the waiter did not understand when we said wanted roasted chicken...
after lunch, we went to ocean park by alighting at the 金钟admiralty mtr station, and then taking the bus no.629 to the entrance of ocean park...
















night tour around tsim sha tsui - due to some techincal errors, videos and photos of the cable car ride from the highlands to the lowlands within ocean park itself was lost... sadz... we also took the symbolic star ferry back from central to tsim sha tsui, however, the photos for the ferry ride was also lost except one that i took of the ferry after we alighted from it. since it was our first night, and being lone strangers in this wonderful and incommunicable land (both of us are not proficient in cantonese) we decided to walk around the place nearer to our hostel in case we get lost. we manage to find our way to the avenue of stars 星光大道, and also the lighthouse of tsim sha tsui. as baby and i sat on one of the benches along the avenue of stars looking at the lights on the buildings across the straits at central, with the cool night winds blowing, we couldnt help but think it was one of the loveliest nights we ever saw in our lives... it was a sight not to be missed...
as the night progresses, our legs decided to complain and we went back to our hostel, situated on the 12th floor of maridor mansion.