~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tuesday, 4th Dec 07
Today we slept until late morning... too tired to wake up early after days of non- stop walking. We planned to have a relaxing day anyway so didn't matter to spend a bit more time in bed.
We had our breakfast at this local cafe named 'Happy Garden Noodles and Congee Kitchen', at the Canton Road.
So we decided to have congee for breakfast
My century egg and pork meat congee
Frankie's fish congee
... and eating with Frankie it won't be that plain, so he insisted another side dishes
very fatty 'siew yuk' (roated pork belly)
Our main place to visit for the day would be the Tian Tan Buddha & Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island 大嶼山. It was quite a long journey from Kowloon. Tung Chung station is the nearest stop.
When we reached the Tung Chung station after more than 1 hour journey, we were disappointed to learn that the cable cars had shut down due to recent accidents. The only option was to take the bus service, which of course made the overall journey even longer!
The sky wasn't clear so we could hardly see the giant bronze Buddha statue from bottom of the hill. Before climbing up the 268 steps to reach the top platform, we were asked whether we would like to buy entrance tickets for the exhibition located on the platform which also included a vegetarian meal, at a price of HK$60 per person. We decided to go for it afterall we had already spent so much time coming all the way from Kowloon.
hey... you suppose to show your palm not your V sign!
A much clearer photo of the Buddha.
Other statues around the Buddha.
I was not allowed to take any photo inside the exhibition. This exihibition is actually a small area displaying mainly the Chinese calligraphy and paintings. So we didn't spend too much time there.
A view from the top
and we had to go over to the other side, where the yellow roof building to have our vegetarian meal.
The entrance gate to Po Lin Monastery
Ok, time to have lunch now. Without actually expecting much from our vegetarian meal, we were delighted to find out that it wasn't that bad afterall. Each of us got a plate of fried vermicelli, a bowl of 'tau fu far' and a further two pieces of dessert from a varity selection. And I had to say both the fried vermicelli and tau fu far were good. I even overheard someone mentioning that the tau fu far here was quite famous!
After the meal we decided to leave, so back to the bus stop again. The next destination got to be the shopping centre at Tung Chung station.
It was our first proper shopping trip actually since in Hong Kong, if the one at Harbour City didn't count! I was soon found out that the Espirit outlet was closed due to their Christmas do on that day! aiks... how unlucky I was.
The Christmas decoration outside the shopping centre.
After tucked in our KFC dinner we took the MTR back but we stopped at Mong Kok station because the night was still young! So we continued our shopping spree walking back all the way to the Tsim Sha Tsui area.
Check out the shops along Nathan road.
get your sunglasses out now...
and look what I found!!
Without a doubt we went in and started looking around, I got to buy something here. It wasn't that big actually but I managed to find a purse which I like... with the striking red colour! And I have been told this is a Japanese brand!
Everywhere was decorated with christmas displays, of course it was Christmas season at that time...
Wasn't this cute?!
More colourful lights
Soon we discovered the G2000 shops which I wanted to go. Jenny kindly gave me the discount code from her Hong Kong friends which entitled me to enjoy a 30% discount, on everything including the new arrival! Wasn't this a good news... so I got to do some serious shopping here....
Ok... after spending more than HK$2K here and almost their last few customers left before their closing time, we were finally happy to leave and back to hotel.
But it won't be perfect without popping into the Hui Lau San's to have some supper...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wednesday, 5th Dec 07
Had a lazy morning again today. (Isn't this what you need when going on holiday... relaxing and enjoying)
As usual, time for breakfast so without any hesitation we went down the Canton Road again to find something to eat. After much surveying and noticed the way Frankie starred at the roasted duck at the window display at the same cafe we went previously, I knew where we would have our breakfast then.
Anyway we didn't order the roasted duck but go for more traditional breakfast - fish congee, 'yaw char kueh' (they were huge!) and the fish cheong fan.
Still remember the HK$200 vouchers we had from China Airlines? All we wanted was to find where the Park and Shop supermarket. Since it was the last full day we in Hong Kong, so the mission today was to find the shop no matter how.
We did ask where we could find this shop from the staff while shopping at G2000 the night before and was told the nearest branch would be somewhere near East Tsim Sha Tsui.
Photos taken on the way to East Tsim Sha Tsui.....
Surprisingly on the day we saw two pairs of newly weds at the Culture Centre. I guessed there must be a marriage registery office at this building.
One of the brides...
Next to the Culture Centre is this Space Museum with a dinasour head.
By this time we had almost spent 30 to 45 minutes searching for the Park and Shop supermarket but still couldn't find it. The further we went the less confidence we had. So we made the decision to turn back to Canton Road to go to our next destination. On the way again we asked a few people whether they knew the location of supermarket. No body seemed to know it but one guy pointed us to back of Harbour City Shopping Centre, and we believed him! But of course we still couldn't find it.
At this point both of us already showed a bit of frustration. Frankie suddenly came to the idea of searching online at the hotel's internet cafe, so we walked back to the hotel quickly. Within seconds Frankie was so much ahead of me that I couldn't keep up with him.
See how far ahead Frankie was (in white shirt)!
Unfortunately we then decided not to use the internet facilities as the hotel charged a bomb! We felt that it wasn't worth going for it for the reasons a) we might not even find anything since this supermarket wasn't that 'popular', otherwise people would have known it; b) we had to spend money to use the vouchers! quite ridiculous and something didn't add up right I thought; and c) we had already wasted almost 2 hours looking for the shop.... It would be better off to leave it to faith, if we could find it then it would be a bonus otherwise we might have to forgo the vouchers.
Time was precious on the last day in Hong Kong, so we made our way to the History Musuem and Science Museum.
I bet you had the same experience like we had, when you have already given up searching for something, it would always appear in front of you. This was exactly what happened to us..... We spotted the supermarket, finally!!
So quickly we went in to do some shopping.
First of all, the snack aisle...
"Emm... so many varieties which I haven't tried before, which one should I go for then?"
" I can't choose so I will have both!"
We could have spent as much time as possible here unfortunately we were short of time really. After paying for the goods, which slightly exceeded our voucher values, we decided to walk back to hotel and put away the things instead of carrying them all round.
"I am a happy bunny now!"
By this time lunch hour had passed and we were hungry already. Instead of going back to the Museums we walked to the Star Ferry Pier.
and boarded this ship.....
No! I am just kidding here. Instead we boarded this ferry bringing us across to the Hong Kong Island.
The ferry stopped at the Central Pier.
We headed to Lan Kwai Fong and came to Yung Kee Restaurant for our late lunch.
The menu
The food we ordered included:
Chicken and fish maw soup
Seafood fried rice
Roasted goose
Crispy roasted pigeon
Stir fried aubergine with mince and fish
After eating at this restaurant we realised how unworthy the Jumbo Kingdom was. The food and services here were much much better and we really had a wonderful meal.
After the meal we continued our journey to the Museum of History.
The very famous lion statue
because it appears on the bank notes!
The Science Museum is literally opposite the History Museum. By this time it was getting darker so we didn't spend much time here.
Are you an average male?
or an average female?
"I can tell you I am!"
The world population chart
and exactly 44 seconds later...
The world population has since increased by 98 people. That was almost 2 births per second!
"OK... time to go now..."
Some of the night scene photos taken.
The famous Pennisula Hotel at night
compared to the day look, nothing really exciting about it
The clock tower
The Avenue of Stars (behind the New World Centre)
Aaron Kwok's hands print
The markets' streets
This is goldfish market
You can also find different types of pets here, mainly puppy and kittens
The Ladies' market
Temple Street night market
These are the fortune tellers stalls
Walking to these markets' streets were quite exhausting, as we did lose our way. Before heading back to the hotel, as usual we would have some supper and this time we chose to have it here.
On the way back to the hotel we saw these crabs advert and I couldn't help but took a photo.
and the next day while waiting for the shuttle bus to the airport... I found one very interesting advertisement... it was the crab again! and this time on top of a taxi!
No comments:
Post a Comment