Sunday, April 26, 2009

Hong Kong Trip

It's been a long time since my last holiday. However i manage to get myself into a vacation with KP last month :-) We flew to Hong Kong last month on the 2nd. It was spring at that time so it was kinda cool and it's kinda ideal weather to move around in.

We manage to get cheap flight tickets from AirAsia for just RM450+ (return ticket) and on the first day, we reach there at night. Not so good. What to do, cheap ticket ma. So first thing that happen when we reach HK is to pay HKD300+ for the taxi ride from airport to Shatin. Damn it's expensive. Besides that, other stuffs was okay. The airport direction is straightforward, easy to get a taxi, no traffic jam, got a free room upgrade by the hotel (Royal Park Hotel).





Got our names ;-)

Reaching the hotel at around 10pm, we don't have much choice for our dinner. So we asked around for any hawker food nearby and we found one just below a residential flat with the help of taxi and some walk. Luckily the food was quite nice. At least didn't make us regret for the trouble looking for it.

Okay.... lets go to the POI (place of interest) section, shall we?

basically, i'll go through the places that's worth going.

The Peak + Madame Tussauds.
This is a good place to visit to take some pictures and you can experience the "Peak Tram" ride. The price for wax house and tram ticket is around HKD300 (can't remember the exact amount). There's a shopping complex up there if you want to shop, but that's not the main idea of going up there. You can find more shopping at the island. It's around 20 degree average during my visit and it's cooler at the peak. So it's a bit of challenge taking a stroll outside snapping some of the nice picture of HK night view. Sadly it was hazy that night and we're not able to capture a clear one. What a waste.

At the ticket counter.

Queuing up for the tram.

Some views along the way up.

Damn, she's taller than me >.<

Got a chance to take picture with Ayumi, though it's not really looked alike

Besides able to take pictures with people that you might not possible with, you can even strangle them =D

What so handsome bout this fella? gosh... all the girls.

Funny one.

The Beetles!

Disappointed shot. Hazy and can't get a good location to put the camera (too much people walking around, this is a once in a million chance!).

Outside of the Peak building. Strong wind and cold.

This is where you'll be dropped off if you took taxi up.

Another place was Ocean Park. It was okay there, but nothing to shout about. Just another theme park with some nice view of the sea. However, i wanted to share this XD

We got a ride on this.

KP was so confident this is just a peanut at the beginning.

This was her during the ride. Ha ha ha... (fyi, we sat at 2nd last row)

Steamboat @ Mongkok
This place was recommended by the taxi driver. Indeed, it's nice. The place was rundown, filthy, and the patrons there looked like those gangsters in HK movie. But the food was good.

I can't read chinese, if you wanna go please remember the shop name.
Clear and satay soup base.
HK is famous for its animal intestines.

Secretly snap the patrons behind me. This is how the shop look like. Something you can get in Pudu.

The street at Nathan Road.

EU (Emergency Unit).

Another notable thing in HK is their building is damn tall and packed.

Lantau Island (Ngong Ping 360)
This is another nice place to visit. You can have a great view over Lantau Island and the HK International Airport.

Queuing up for the cable car.

Just took off from the platform.

Relaxing view.

Coincidentally there's a forest fire near by the cable car path and we saw a helicopter is trying to put it off.

Optionally you can walk rather than taking the cable car (crazy).

Reaching the destination. Great view too.

Finally we're there.

This is how the man made village looked like.

Some desert that we tried over there. Tofufa with red beans.

Inside the desert shop.

Another great thing visiting here is you can be a 1 minutes king and queen :-)


Most of people here are tourists.

Some cute stuff i notice along the way.

At the bottom of the buddha hill.


Easy job getting up there.

Yo!

There's shops in the section below the statue. Basically you can shop anywhere in HK. What the hell....

On the way back. Kinda exhausted with all the walking.

Tsim Tsa Tsui Bay
Great view here too. It's a must to take a stroll here. Spectacular night view, plus you can enjoy the (FREE) light show here every day at 8pm.

Apparently there's a live performance During weekends. Lucky us.

Looking at HK island.

Us @ the bay.

Hong Kong Convention Center.

Macau
We decided to have a visit to Macau. Took the First Ferry from Tsim Tsa Tsui.

Taking off.

Food counter in the ferry.

Leaving HK. Geez... can't imagine they're staying in such a high density place. Poor them (I still think KL have a better living environment).

One of the standard (must have) picture in Macau.

The street just below the Ruins (forgot the name la..)

Getting some fish ball. They have curry, tom yam and Malaysia laksa!

Casino at the backdrop.

Macau loves dog.


We had our shark fin soup here. HKD50+

Notice the round thing in the middle? I'm no shark fin expert, but if should be good since the fin still intact rather than what we get in normal restaurant.

Cute billboard.




Nice back alley.


This is what you eat here when you're hungry.

Leaving Macau at 9pm. This is how the bay it looks like at night.

Dim Sum
Food is the main attraction in HK. Basically they have lots of variety and taste good. One of the food that one must try while visiting HK is their Dim Sum. We waited for roughly 15-20 minutes for out seat at the dim sum restaurant, Shatin Shopping Mall.


In the restaurant. Basically you'll be miserable if you can't read chinese character. 80% of the restaurant in HK had their menu in chinese only.

Fish something.


Pork rib.

Chee Cheong Fun

One of the nicest "Har Gau" (Prawn dumpling) i had tried.

Some pork stuff sandwich with oily rich and baked in some leave. Ha ha.

Coffee Shop (Char Chan Teng)
Apparently Hongkies are kinda fond of satay flavour. They have some numbers of food with that flavour.

Mutton Satay noodle + ham/egg = breakfast set for HKD20+

Egg Tart
Another one of the must try.

Located at Wan Chai. The tart just sold out. We need to wait for 5 minutes for a freshly baked one =)

What you can ask more with a freshly baked HK egg tart in your hand.

Thin and soft skin, rich egg flavour with the right amount of sweetness.

Wan Chai Street


Transportation
They have a very good public transport in HK. Using a same payment card (octopus) for all. Purchase the card for HKD150 (deposit 50, value 100). The Bus and MTR frequency is quite high.

The bus condition is better than what they have in Singapore.

MTR (HK) frequency is higher than MRT (SG). But MRT (SG) exit and terminal change direction is better.

Didn't have the chance to hopped on a city tram.

The people and city.
Indeed HK is a mature and interesting city. Though they're quite arrogance and rude. Still we encounter some nice people that offer direction guide to us. Not all eggs are rotten in the basket. Although they're rude, the customer service provided by the sales people in shopping complex is outstanding. Never once i been offer to seat while waiting (standing beside her) for KP to test/buy some products in KL. But in HK, without fail i would be ask to seat while waiting for KP (in every single shop that we visited). If you're in their shop and browsing their stuffs, they'll just inform you if there's any discount and call for them if you inquiry or wanna try it on. That's all, no standing behind you and keep pushing you to buy or try it on. That's neat.

Something to get used to. They're chinese in all type of jobs. Including garbage lady.

The City



That's it.