I know. I haven't been blogging for the longest time. Been really busy running around, busy with stuff, research... and I'm super lazyyyyy. Argh!
But decided to snap out of that lazy mode and finally do a write up on my (not so) recent Hong Kong trip (like finally, huh). I also wanna thank D for winning the pair of SQ tickets and choosing me as her travel partner so that we could both fly there for free :) Well, hope ya enjoy my write up! Prepare youself, this is gonna be long post...
My Hong Kong Trip Day 1
You know, when I was in Hong Kong, I was complaining to D, my friend, about crowded Hong Kong everytime we took the MTR or while trying to cross the road. I just could not understand (while I'm there) how could this be a holiday when it's really like going to town on weekends, or travelling to the most crowded place in Singapore. Everywhere it's just full of PEOPLE and it doesn't freakin' feel like a freakin' vacation to me. Vacations were supposed to be relaxing. Empty beaches, cheap eats, places with beer cheaper than water, great shopping sales... and seriously I didn't think Hong Kong had any of that. It really felt I was taking a vacation in Singapore.
But now that I'm back home, I feel like going back there again for the shopping and eating. And for Macau as well, I actually liked Macau better (less crowded). So I'm gonna contradict myself above and say that I actually don't mind going back to HK again ;p
Okay, I talk too much. Pictures!
We came across this Butterfly Sanctuary at T3 and despite me having a phobia with any kind of flying insect, butterflies included, I decided to go in to take a look. Although I'd admit I did freaked out a few times while in there when some butterflies blindly flew at me. Stupid butterflies. I think I was really brave when I took this picture. Normally I dislike flying insects.
The flight from Singapore to Hong Kong took 3hrs and 40mins, and we finally arrived at Hong Kong International Airport. One thing good about Hong Kong, ya don't have to worry about touts or cabbies that rip ya off at the airport like in some other countries. They have this MTR system which is really like Singapore's MRT. Ya can simply hop on the Airport Express to the MTR then walk, cab or take a bus to your hotel. It's really convenient :)
Before hopping on the Airport Express, we bought this pass:
For HKD300 (approx SGD$58), this pass consists of 2 single journeys on the Airport Express, and 3 days of unlimited travel on the MTR, which I think it's really great. During our trip there, we walked and took MTR most of the time. Moreover, you can get back HKD50 when ya return the pass on your last day. Quite a good deal, I think.
This MTR pass can be "topped up" as well, like our EZ Link Card. After adding value to the card, you can continue using the card after the 3 days unlimited rides. While in Hong Kong, I realised the locals did not only "tap" with their Octopus card (something like our EZ Link Card). They were tapping with their watches and soft toy key chains / bag charms as well! Which is really kind of cool for the latter, that nice bling key chain hanging from your bag actually doubles up as your MTR pass.
One more thing I realised about their MTR card... they use it for everything! School campus as your school pass, buying of food, shopping at the supermarkets, JUSCO, Bossini, cake shops, clubhouses, even hospitals. So if ya lose one card, ya lose out alot. That's my point of view, of course. Haha. Like I mentioned before, I don't really like a cashless system. Well, enough of MTR cards...
For accommodation, my friend and I wanted to stay in 2 different areas during our 6 days in Hong Kong. Due to budget constraints and that Hong Kong's hotels are really expensive, we decided to choose a hostel to stay in during our first 2 nights in Causeway Bay.
Thus, we chose HK Studio @ Causeway Bay for its really good location, cheap rates, and relatively OK nice website picture (trust me, hotel and hostel website room pictures should never be trusted).
I wasn't really shocked when we reached our room.
Thank goodness our hostel was relatively clean. And although I have to admit while the decor and bedsheets were horrible, the room was quite spacious. I swear. Compared to my hotel I stayed in Kowloon, this hostel looked like a freakin' 3 room flat. Lol. Another plus point was that the hostel wasn't that hard to find. I've heard alot about hostels in Hong Kong being located on the 12th floor of some run down building with hidden entrances and located on a road with no building numbers. And I gotta say, this hostel was really easy to find, and with it's great central shopping location and near to the MTR, I really don't mind staying there again. Plus they have free internet too :)
After checking in, we met up with D's Hong Kong friend, V, and she brought us to... eat!
Sorry I can't remember the road name to this place. Bah!
After that, dessert :)
I personally think that Lucky Dessert is nicer than that famous Xu Liu Shan place. I tried both dessert stalls, and I felt this was better. It was also less crowded. Didn't have to squeeze and shove for seats and share a table with strangers. The Mango Pomelo dessert thing was heavenly. Yummmmm. That blackish looking dessert is some black sesame paste dessert. If ya like sesame, do remember to try it :)
Okay. Now for day 2.
Hong Kong Trip Day 2
We had a full day ahead of us and the first thing we planned to do was to go Lian Xiang Lou located at Wellington Street for authentic yum cha. While looking for the place, we walked past Peddler Street:
I really like the way they tiled the road. Took alot of photos here.
Walking along Wellington Street, we past by this famous eatery that was mentioned in quite a few blogs and forums:
Too bad we didn't have enough time to come back for this... This place serves Mediterranean food. Really great place for all Muslim friends to eat if ya in Hong Kong :)
Finally, we reached Lian Xiang Lou!
I have read about this place many times in Cozycot forums, and I told D that I wanted to try this place out, soak in the atmosphere and stuff like that. The last time I ate Dim Sum in a restaurant was more than 10 years back with my parents.
This was the scene that greeted me when I reached there.
Noisy, crowded with elderly, some chatting loudly in Cantonese, some reading newspapers. Basically you are supposed to find a seat and squeeze into a round table with strangers. Most of the time, 2 elderly men sitting next to each other in a table are strangers. We bravely tried to order when both of us couldn't speak a single sentence of Cantonese. Too bad the only Cantonese words I know are expletives. Lol.
I'm so glad my friend knew what tea to order. I was hopeless. I don't even know the name of the tea that Chinese restaurants during Chinese weddings serve. I was a mountain tortoise over there. I was really impressed when D started washing the utensils in tea. Yes, in the same Chinese wedding tea they served us (forgot the chinese name for that). Apparently the people there wash every single piece of cutlery there with the tea they ordered. Haha.
And no, of course we didn't drink the tea that we washed our cups in.
Now, for food. Initially we didn't know how it all works but in the end we managed to figure out. Different aunties will push their carts around with different kinds of food, so when they pass by your table, ya supposed to grab a din or ask from auntie, and the auntie will then stamp your order chit.
Most of the time, asking auntie what's in those dins in Mandarin would get ya something muttered in Cantonese in return (which we completely did not understand), so in the end we just opened up the din covers and see what's being served haha. The aunties didn't mind.
We ate so full we almost burst.
This dim sum was nothing like the dim sum I ate at a resturant in Singapore more than 10 years ago :) This is authentic stuff ;p Remember to go early! We reached there around 9plus in the morning and it was already full house.
The dim sum feast costs D and I HKD65 each. Not bad for a really heavy breakfast. Heh.
Due to the good weather, we decided to visit Lamma Island.
Nice picture huh. If you like nature, Lamma Island's something like our Pulau Ubin, but with much more scenery and much, much more steeper hills to climb.
To get there, we took a ferry from Pier 4 at Central Pier.
The ferry took us to Yung Shue Wan, the more populated part of the island. From there, we planned to take a 45 minute hike to the other part of the island, Sok Kwu Wan, where most of the seafood stalls are located.
We happily started walking, and we spotted this:
So we sat down and had a bowl each. The beancurd here had a unique taste, unlike Singapore's version. I was trying to place what it was when I realised it was the taste of ginger. Lol. It was alright, I don't really like ginger but the taste of it was quite mild. It was slightly too sweet for me though.
After trying the beancurd, we walked on, arriving at the first beach.
Walk down a little further and there's actually a beach filled with rocks.
My friend and I went ballistics here and took like 36827 pictures of rocks. Crazy!
After spending what felt like an hour there, we arrived at the second beach... and took another 364729 pictures of large waves.
And guess what? We probably spent like an hour or more on the island so far, and all along I thought the trek towards Sok Kwu Wan has started. I have read online forums saying that the trek takes about 45 minutes to complete, so I thought we were like halfway through or something. As we continued down the coast line, we saw this....
We definitely took more than 45 minutes to finish our trek 'cause every 20 steps or so one of us will stop and take 835273 shots of various plants, rocks, hills, sea or ourselves.
I had the impression the trek will be an easy one to finish... well only 45 minutes right? I even wore slippers, 'cause I thought it would rain and I hated having the thought of walking in wet shoes. I started walking with much enthusiasm.
So I walked....
and walked...
If you scroll up to the picture of the 1st beach, ya can see that the factories were right by the beach. Now they looked miles away. Yes, we've trekked that far, and we're not even halfway.
At this point I started to regret not wearing shoes. Stupid incline!
Notice that I indicated a red arrow at the first hill picture pointing at some tiny rocks on top of a hill? Well, guess they aren't so tiny anymore. I have trekked that far.
Guess for the view, it was really pretty worth it :)
Vultures waiting to devour a very tired me. Lol kidding. Eagles cirling the peak of the hill... At least I hoped they were eagles.
I was estatic when I saw the caves. It meant that we were nearing Sok Kwu Wan, which meant we could have our seafood meal and get a ferry back to Hong Kong Island :D
Our trek took 3 hours I think, due to all the stopping for phototaking. Ya won't believe how many shots of hills and rocks and coasts I took with my camera.
We took a ferry back to Hong Kong Island and sticky tired us instead of calling it a day, we went shopping at.....
We're crazy.
Don't worry... smelly us didn't try on any clothes. I only bought bangles and a cap for myself there. Couldn't see anything I fancy, or prolly 'cause I was too tired to try on anything.
We spent the rest of the evening eating at Mak's Noodles.
We wanted to try out the eatery just because Travel Channel's Anthony Bourdain in No Reservations tried the place out and thus we thought it was good too. Heh.
My friend D tried the Wanton noodles...
and I tried the Beef noodles...
And we both think they're overrated. Except for the fact that Anthony Bourdain ate there in No Reservations, there was nothing special about the noodles. Bah! No wonder ya couldn't find any Asians in there (except for the workers). The small little shop was brim full with expats.
After our dinner, we proceeded to eat at the highly raved Xu Liu Shan:
I think the Mango Pomelo dessert was still nicer when I ate it at Lucky Desserts. Sigh blogging about it now is making me really hungry :(
Well, finally got this off my chest! Been procrastinating blogging about my Hong Kong trip for so long, hopefully I won't be so lazy to blog about the rest of the trip, haha. Hope ya enjoyed my little write up, and hopefully picked up a few tips reading along the way for your virgin trip to Hong Kong :)
2 comments:
you should have asked me where else is fun.. http://hongkong-love-you.blogspot.com/
hi there hk g,
no offence, but how to ask ya what else's fun if i haven't read your blog before? ;p
nice site ya have there anyways :)
ying
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