Exploring

Breakfast at Metropark Mongkok is a bad way to start for the day. For 50HKD, you get cold pancakes (than never got refilled when the tray was empty), mushy scrambled eggs, pastries that ranged from 'I can finish this if I just force myself to' to 'my &*@^#knife can't penetrate it'!

I hate to say this but: The hotel is OK but the food is really horrible. AVOID.

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As planned, a bus trip (buses are crowded on weekends here) on a Kowloon Motor Buses-run Volvo B9TL ALX500 (those brand spanking new wheelchair accessible buses, similar ones found in Singapore).



Star Ferries. At HKD$2.20 you get to ride in the air-conditioned deck from Tsim Sha Tsui Terminal to Central Terminal, which is really a steal that pwns any mode of transport in terms of price or scenery. I'd wager that it's one of those historical modes of transports that the Hong Kong government pours money into to sustain, same for the tram system.

Surprisingly fast and smooth. Though the view got a little boring after staring at so often already.

If you come to Hong Kong, take the ferry at least once though! That's what all the guidebooks say!



Spartan but comfy.

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On Sundays, Central area is teeming with Filipino domestic workers, as it's their designated off-day of the week. Every shopping mall, every corridor and every nook becomes their picnic spot. They even gotta cordon off a couple of roads for them.


Mom suggested taking a look at the world's longest escalator, which links to the Midlands, somewhere near the foot of Victoria Peak.



Went off track to explore the REAL Hong Kong. Its markets, its alleys. This is the real Hong Kong we'd been missing the past 3 days!




Vegetables here are particularly fresh cause they come right of Mainland China or the New Territories.


Roadside stalls.


Traditional stepped slopes. But oh wait, where's my sesame paste dessert! I just can't seem to find it! It's a classic must-try in Hong Kong, but it's nowhere to be seen.

Went back on the Midlands Escalators and passed by SOHO, short for South of Hollywood Road, where the British expatriates love to stay. It's pubs and bars galore, not to mention next to Asia's clubbing capital Lan Kwai Fong. Naturally, property prices are sky high.

And oops, the crowds started to thin while we proceeded on the escalators. And we found ourselves off the town, and in some upper-middle class residential area.

And no buses. No MTR. KC to the rescue! Bright KC decided to hail a cab all the way west to Sheung Wan, then tram all the way west, making mental notes of where to go to along the way. Then alighting at Causeway Bay and walking east again!

Taxi ride was harrowing. It descended the distance we took an hour to ascend in minutes. Ears popping. Scary. The cool thing about Hong Kong taxis is that the front seats are bench seats, so instead of the driver's gearbox you get an extra seat, allowing for 5 passengers.

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Tram ride, at a miserly HKD2 flat fare. It's probably running at a loss too, but with the government pumping in money to preserve it. Popular with the Filipinos and the Happy Valley horse-racing gamblers.

It's really slow though, so if you're neither into sightseeing or dirt-cheap transport, avoid it. Even the oldest Leyland buses overtake you at the snap of a finger.

After you get your bones jolted enough once you'd never want to ride on a tram anymore, unless you find yourself a miser in Hong Kong.

But, hey, you just gotta try it once, no? It's like Hawaii without the beaches or France without the Eiffel.

With butts still ringing from the vibrations, we got off at Causeway Bay area.





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Hong Kong fast food! The biggest chain's Da Jia Le, and it has a really wide menu though with a couple of hits and misses. The (unnamed) tomato-seasoned-chicken-leg-over-rice tastes great, though the fish is strictly in the 'bleagh' category.

But as always, the desserts are the clincher, and they have this really tasty red bean ice cream drink with the red beans just done right so that they're still chewy rather than soggy and mushy.





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'Beating little men'. The customer asks the medium to curse a person by whacking a paper effigy with a wooden clog.



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After some walking in circles (the maps we had aren't exactly accurate) we found Times Square, which is, like, THE shopping mall of Hong Kong Island.

PageOne (moved to 9th floor rather recently) there is good for getting postcards, but books aren't cheap. There's a G2000 at the basement where I bought formal shirts. There's a huge departmental store, and lots of upmarket restaurants.

And yay, CD Warehouse had my L'arc En Ciel CD at a reasonable price! Mom got a Phantom of the Opera DVD.

Quirk is, the whole building's 12 floors of shopping, and some areas aren't quite connected, so it's quite a mess.

Hong Kong's adopting Singapore's foodcourt culture, instead of small eateries in shopping malls. You can sometimes find Singaporean favourites like roti prata and char kway teow in these!

And finally! Sesame paste at the void-deck food court!



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Went back to Kowloon by crowded MTR, to get some trinkets from the night market Temple Street (affectionately termed Men's Street in contrast to nearby Lady's Street. Actually they sell similar stuff.)

Got a bunch of fridge magnets at a good price. Yay for mom's bargaining skills!

And on the way back, I led my family to the wrong direction of the main road, which was a really good thing because...


We found yet another Hong Kong classic! Steamed egg pudding! We got the traditional egg custard one and the milk + egg white one, and though my parents preferred the original, I found the overcooked-egg-yolk taste too overpowering and polished off the egg white + milk one instead.

Yay! Another to-do off the list!

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Had a quibble with dad. so I should not correct him when he's obviously in the wrong? Bah.

It sucks when parents are getting old and senile and start acting like little kids again.

Took a REALLY crowded bus back to the hotel, which was a bad decision because we couldn't see where we were going, until we heard 'Sham Shui Po' on the PA (they have an electronic system that reads out and displays the stop name) which means that we had overshot the hotel by 1 MTR station.

A long walk.

3 cranky people.

Argh.

And I've got this chunk of plastic broken off my spanking new camera and I don't know how.

I felt sad.

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The pirate booty.

Felt jittery and couldn't sleep, so popped a couple of those lorazepams.