EVIDENCE that I took a trip!

clouds, and the peeking sun

first sights, first meal, first mtr trip...

the grand hyatt affair

Since the night was still young, we took the ferry from central to tsim sha tsui, and I had no regrets doing so! It was awesome, seeing all the colourful lights of the buildings lighting up the water as we slowly chugged along. In fact, I thought even the seats were cool, since the backs could be adjusted so that the passenger gets to face the direction of his/her choice. I was all for the idea of going to the temple street night market to check it out. Once again, the thought of being out past my 10.30pm curfew made me extremely happy! For the few days, I would have no curfew, and I could do as I pleased! That alone made me want to do a little happy jig to celebrate my great fortune. I liked browsing through the stalls, which reminded me of singapore's pasar malam. Then to wenhui's and charlene's room to play cards, and down four bottles of beer. It was great fun laughing at those who drew the cards that stood for finishing the rest of the glass, especially when the glass was full. I still think that all beer taste the same. And I was so bloated with gas when we dragged ourselves back to our own hotel at nearly 2am. Oh, and cexiang showed us a preview of the 'adult entertainment' that was available on the hotel tv. I probably wasn't supposed to look, but I took a quick peek, and saw a lady giving the man what I think was a blow job. It was quite disgusting, and I don't understand how people get a kick looking at such things.

first night in hong kong - the view and the market

Day 2

This was the day we put aside for sight-seeing! First stop was ocean park, which I was quite excited about. Apparently I wasn't the only one raring to go there, because the queue for tickets was extremely long! Yet in a way we were lucky since the tickets were going cheap. But I disliked the chaos that was the interchange. The heat, the people, the shoving... What a mess! It reminded me of the chinese family behind us at the hong kong airport - they kept stepping on my feet, or poking me with their maps, or pushing me... I was so annoyed. Anyhow, the entrance tickets for ocean park were very cute. I immediately knew I was going to bring them home as souvenirs! The weather was fantastic, being sunny and balmy, so no pushing crowd was going to get me down! Our strategy was to head straight for the amusement park rides, and to give the animal shows and what not a miss unless we had the time. It was a good strategy, because the place was absolutely packed. As we'd heard, it was the holiday period for hong kong and thailand. When I think of ocean park, I remember what I was feeling - hot and tired. The place was so huge, and we wanted to beat the crowd to the queues, so we were running from place to place, a la amazing race! Perhaps the most memorable was the ferris wheel and the cable car ride. The former provided a bird's eye view of the high land (where the amusement park was) and overlooked the water, while the latter provided a good view of the island. And I remember poh laughing at me when I clung to the pole for dear life when he suddenly came to my side of the ferris wheel, because I was terrified that the car would overbalance or be lop-sided and I'd fall out. Yes, yes, I'm afraid of heights, what's so funny about that? The cable car ride was a nice end to our trip. It made me feel that it was very much worth the $40 admission price! And we were so lucky that we could just walk right up to the front and step into an empty car, rather than queueing for more than an hour or something like that.

fun at ocean park!

Thinking that we had time, we went to the esprit outlet at tsim sha tsui, and ended up hightailing it back to our hotel to make it back in time for our 5.30pm appointment. I thought it was rather amazing that the both of us managed to shower with soap and change and make it back down to the lobby in fifteen minutes. Dinner was delicious, especially the roast goose, fish and sweet and sour pork. I was probably the only female who had a second serving of rice, but who cares? I was hungry, and enjoying the food!

Next stop: victoria peak. The trip there was very entertaining because the guide told us little snippets about hong kong that were rather funny, and I think in general he's quite a chatty and jovial fellow. Thank goodness we had a good guide, and not someone who tried too hard to be funny and ended up being irritating instead. Unfortunately it was very foggy up at victoria peak, and the view halfway up the mountain was probably much better.

I didn't even know that there was a Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in hong kong, so it was quite a bonus that we got to go there too. There were many more wax figures than I'd imagined, and they were all so life-like! I remember thinking that jay chou looked rather short lounging against the piano, and that yao ming was so freaking tall we didn't even come up to his armpits.

I was rather bored when it came to visiting avenue of stars. I had absolutely no interest in looking at famous people's handprints on the sidewalk, and looking at the number of people swarming the area, I simply couldn't understand how it was said to be the second most romantic place in hong kong (victoria peak takes top spot). What's so romantic about squeezing with the crowd, or sharing private moments with hundreds of people? That's hardly private.

The open-top bus ride reminded me of singapore's hippo tours! But the sights are vastly different. The typical hong kong street in the tsim sha tsui or mongkok area is brightly lit with neon lights, and everywhere you look, there are advertisements/billboards... Basically colourful bright lights. It was nice to be a little removed from the scene, ie not squeezing with the crowd below, and still be able to appreciate the night scene in bustling hong kong.

Ladies market was so much bigger and more interesting than temple street. In fact, it's so much more entertaining than singapore's pasar malams, although the similarity is that in both places, you'll see repetitive items among many stalls. While some people enjoy bargaining because of the sense of satisfaction or whatever, I always feel guilty doing so. It just doesn't sit well with me to haggle over prices, although I'd love to pay less, so I let poh do the job. I had an aim: to accumulate around twelve bags of shopping (I'd heard that yue sern and yufang had about twelve bags between them, but I wanted twelve bags to myself!). I'd have been rather disappointed if I'd found nothing to buy in ladies market. So it was good that I returned to the hotel a happy lady.

the peak, and madame tussaud's

Day 3

And this is shopping day. Finally we have one whole day devoted to increasing our coffers (in terms of goods, although in terms of money we're decreasing our coffers). We went back to the esprit outlet store and let loose the shopping demons, each coming away with a bagful of clothes. Everytime I bought something in hong kong, I'd think of how it is cheaper than in singapore, and I'd feel rather happy. Squeezing with the foreign and local crowd in ladies market saw me emerging victorious too, clutching numerous bags of clothes/shoes. One thing I've realised from venturing out shopping - I have a shitty sense of direction. Places we've gone before didn't look very familiar to me, and more often than not, I had no clue as to whether we should turn right or left, or whether we'd walked by there. Visiting numerous places made them all blend into one another such that I couldn't distinguish between them. It didn't help that around every bend, there's a Sasa, or a hotel. So much for landmarks! Sports shoe street was amazing. There was shop after shop selling shoes, and other sports apparel. Some of the models I'd never before seen in singapore were sold there, and there were so many cool looking shoes! The prices stated on the tags probably didn't differ much from prices found in singapore, but at least they could be bargained. It got boring stepping into shop after shop and not finding the shoe I wanted, and according to poh, it was rather demoralising. We needed to buy something!

Meeting jen and her boyfriend was fun! She introduced food places to us, and so we had a wonderful meal. It really takes a local to suss out the good places to eat, although I suppose if we had enough chances to wander around the country we would find out about them too, eventually. A long time later. So she recommended dim sum, dairy farm milk, egg tarts, pineapple bun, you tiao... I've to say that her boyfriend reminds me of oliver and wu zun so much! Maybe it's the big eyes, or the small mouth. It was a little bit weird sitting opposite him and having him chat openly with and smile frequently at us. I guess oliver and I haven't been able to be so candid together, and it was plain weird being with someone who looked like him! In any case, it seems that restaurants in hong kong tend to look very posh/classy. Apparently it's in the trend to use lots of reflective material, and bright lights etc, so that the place looks expensive, when the food prices are surprisingly reasonable. What a good deal! It reminds me that what I love about hong kong is that we're able to enjoy good service and good food at low costs, thanks to not having to pay taxes!

Walking around shopping and eating is tiring and distracting business, so I've no photos. :) At least I gleaned new knowledge from jen - it is better to speak mandarin in ladies market, and not recommended to speak english, because the vendors are mainly from china. Apparently they despise english (or I suppose caucasians), and they would charge higher prices and allow less room for bargaining if you speak english, whereas they are more partial to speakers of mandarin. Interesting huh! But it seems rather confusing to have to remember to speak different languages in different places. After all, in other places the people will be impressed if you speak english. Hrmm.

Day 4

Having dim sum in hong kong is a must, so we visited the place jen recommended. Another pretty and cosy place with affordable rates and delicious food. My favourite was the little porcupines! I thought the chinese name was very cute - 小箭猪。I loved the custard stuffing inside that spilled out when I bit into it! I almost felt like I had to say sorry to the cute little creature before I started munching and spoiling its look. Then we went to 糖朝 for dessert again. Did I mention how much I love the play of sound? Normally it would refer to the Tang dynasty, but with a change of characters, it means the sweet dynasty, a very apt name for a place famed for its desserts!

Returned to mongkok to do the last of our shopping (and spent the last of my money, more or less). We had a little more time after ladies market, but I was rather reluctant to walk around more when I had no money to spend. In the end we opted to go to goldfish market since I wanted to check it out, not that I have any interest in fishes. I just thought that it's something different and worth a look. And it's like another sports shoe street - the street was lined with numerous aquariums! Hong kong has quite a number of these specialty streets, selling ladies items, shoes, goldfishes, birds, jade... I suppose it makes shopping much easier. It's interesting that a certain area can be so compartmentalised.

squeezing in last experiences in hong kong

Then it was time to go home. As most people feel on the last day of their holiday, it felt as though time flew by. Four days probably isn't that long a time. I'd planned to buy 老婆饼 home, and perhaps some krispy kreme doughnuts. As it turned out, I went so crazy shopping, I didn't leave enough money! I was rather dismayed when I opened my wallet and saw only a HK$20 note within, together with some coins. I had to borrow money from poh to buy one measly box of wife biscuits, and I could forget about doughnuts. In fact, both of us had to scrimp together enough money to buy those food home, and we had absolutely no money for dinner! We probably got swept away in the shopping fever and forgot to figure enough money for food. Can you imagine how hungry we were at 6pm, when we finished our meal at 1230pm, and had no opportunity to eat until we touched down in singapore? So we headed to 7-11, counted all our leftover coins, and managed to buy one packet of chips. I thought our broke-ness was laughable. I'd never been so broke before, having no hong kong dollars, or even sing dollars to convert. If I were in singapore I could easily use my atm card, but that is ineffective in hong kong, so I was really stranded. Thank goodness it was the last day.

And like in changi airport, I had to take a lot of photos in hong kong airport before I left. The last flurry of photo taking, because I wouldn't have a chance to snap photos there for god knows how long. I wasn't exactly reluctant to go home, not because I was broke, but because I felt we had done enough in hong kong to satisfy me, and I was ready to go back to see my family and friends.

the last photo frenzy

On the plane, there was another thrill on hearing the roaring of the engin, and the thundering of the plane down the runway. But as the plane's nose pointed up, and we slowly moved away from hong kong, I had a sudden momentary urge to cry. It's not that I left anything behind, but I suppose there's a certain sense of sadness when leaving the place where I'd formed new happy memories. And it was hell smelling the food passengers bought on board the plane. The laksa was the killer. I had to force myself to sleep and not think of food. Raar. It was also annoying to hear screaming/bawling kids. We were unfortunately surrounded by kids! I was wondering why the hell parents would want to bring their young charges overseas, when they're hardly likely to remember such ventures, and it is such a hassle taking care of them, and they disturb other passengers so. Or maybe I was just grumpy because I was tired and hungry and couldn't afford any food.

Speaking of food, here's a look at the food pictures I took. I was rather proud that I tried 臭豆腐 after reading and hearing about it from donkey years ago. I didn't think it was particularly smelly, neither did it taste particularly nasty, so what's the big deal about it? Its appearance was rather cute though. Having expected it to be soft and mushy, it was quite a surprise that I could poke two satay sticks into it and pick it up like a lollipop. The desserts were really yummy too, and I absolutely adore the squid we have in ocean park! It was way better than the cold one we had on the streets, which was so disgusting it made me feel that I was eating raw, wriggly squid, and I had to force myself to bite it because I didn't want to waste money. The 鸡蛋仔 was delectable, because the outside was crispy, while the inside was a little chewy like a marshmallow. Does anyone want to pay for my second trip to hong kong so I can enjoy the food again? I'd love to have more time to try the street snacks, and it's one of my regrets that we didn't have enough time or chances or stomach space to try more of those.

So now I'm back in singapore, surrounded by my buys. Here's a look at my new additions:

As you can tell, I kind of went crazy in the shoe department, snagging myself 1 pair of sandals, 1 pair of wedges, 1 pair of covered shoes, and 2 pairs of Adidas sneakers (the other's not featured because it's been worn and too dirty to put on my room floor). The Adidas sneakers were a steal, costing a combined total of S$110! And I've a watch, belt, bag, bracelet, rings, tube top, sweater and tshirts. I love shopping in hong kong, because I got most of the stuff below S$20! It's also a good feeling to spend my own money (don't say that my money is my parents' money! No! I spent the money I earned during my part-time stint at ncc!), and be able to buy some souvenirs for my family and friends.

I feel all grown up now. :)

Labels: holiday, pics, yay