HONG KONG TRIP DAY 2 PART 2

After the last stop at Aberdeen Fishing village, its time to go for some compulsory shopping as required by the Tourist Board. We were taken to a jewellery shop, TCM shop and dried seafood shop. There were no damages to our pockets at these shops thank God!

Our last lesson on feng shui. This is the AIA Building. Noticed the outer walls- it resemble coffins.

Yes, this building is perched upon the cementery. Nobody wanted this piece of land which was going cheap. The American bought this land. At around time the building was completed, they had to make a very big paid out for the death of Bruce Lee- legendary kungfu actor who had bought his insurance in USA but died in Hongkong.
So to counter all these ill effects, the company was advised to built another outer wall which resemble coffin.

We dropped off at Tsim Sha Tsui- more a corporate and business centre. Can see many OL.

As it was almost lunchtime we decided to make our way around the shopping complexes.
Found a Food Republic Food Court in one of shopping complex.

My lunch- spicy soup with boiled dumplings. It came with a plate of choy sum too. Cost only HK$17.00 cheap and satisfying- especially like the vegetables- its big, crunchy and "sweet".

Esther ordered this Japanese rice of grilled eels with soup and vegetables as well.
Sarah ordered the Braised Chicken in soy sauce-also very tasty. Seems the Chicken Rice here is well known.

After the lunch, walked around and saw this big warehouse florist.


As our night tour has been cancelled for this evening we made a beeline for Ngong Ping 360- Lantau Island immediately.


From Tsui Sha Tsui, we took the MRT to Tung Chung station (almost 1/2 hour as it is the end of the line). From here, you can take the cable car or by bus. We had no choice as the cable car service has been temporarily stopped due to the rain/fog. So we took the bus up- it is cheaper though and the service is very prompt as it leaves every 45 minutes. The trip up is quite winding but its the rain the causes some uneasiness in me. Thank God, we reached safely.

By the time we dropped off at the terminal, it has became so misty/foggy that we can hardly see more than 20 feet in front of us.

These are real peonies - marvellous blooms.

The surroundings has became so surreal as if we had entered into fairyland. What an experience.

We had the place almost to ourselves- cannot see another soul around.

We tried to sit out the rain at the stall selling some hot titbits to warm ourselves before we ascend up to see the Giant Buddha.

Esther and Sarah braved the rain/fog and went all the way up (267 stairs) to see the Giant Buddha while I gave up after the second flight of steps-wet and slippery and steep for me. They told me that they cannot see anything except the shadow of it.

So we have no "yuen fun" (karma?) to see the Giant Buddha. I guess it is not the right time for us yet, we may have all intentions to see but whether we can actually see it is not within our control. The Buddha may have another plan for us- maybe want us to come back another time?

It was certainly a bit of disappointment for us to come this far and yet unable to see it.

Anyway the Po Lin Monastery closes around 5 pm, and we had to get our bus to go back down. The bus ride down was even more frightening and the driver did seem to be speeding.

It is worthwhile to check out the shopping mall CITYGATE OUTLET MALL at the bus terminal. Here you can find all sorts of factory outlets for brands, Coach, CK, Puma, Nike, Body Shop etc. These shops also offered discounts too.

We took the MRT back to Wanchai and had our dinner at this FishBall Soup shop. You can see all these newspaper cutting that it is endorsed by the popular Ah Soo - a culinary programme. Most of the shops here do offer free Chinese tea.

Four Combination - fish ball, pork balls, sotong balls and fish dumplings- very delicious.

Only here in HK, I seem to be eating the offals everywhere. This is Beef Offals Mee. The wanton mee is very good- springy with bite and the soup is nicely perfumed with the spices.

Both Sarah and Esther took the Wanton Mee -again very generous portions of the wantons! Delightful morsels of shrimps in each wanton.
We also ordered a portion of the green vegetables which we liked very much.

The various fish balls on display. We also saw some crispy fried fish skin- what a miss. How come the lady did not recommend this to us !.

Around the corner, we came across this stall selling "put chai goh". This is the brown sugar version with lots of red beans - yummy. Even this stall has some sort of newpaper-cutting publicising their goodies!

After walking around and not buying anything, decided to call it a day and made our back to the hotel to rest our tired feet.