TRIP TO HONGKONG DAY 4

This was our last day spent in Hong Kong. I have enjoyed myself very much this trip- the places, the food and most important the camaraderie shared with my daughters throughout this trip made it very memorable and happy for me.

We decide to have porridge for our breakfast this morning along Shanghai street.

Bowl of chicken offals proddige with crullers - very tasty and the intestines very crunchy.

Apparently this shop has the newspaper recommendation.

Mountains of chicken intestines, liver etc.
After breakfast, we decided to go to Central.

This is the business hub of HK. We were surprised to see hugh crowd of Filipino maids gathering together along the street.

The street made popular by TVB drama

LAN KWAI FONG. We managed to locate this street. As it was day time, the pubs are closed and can see the graffiti along the street and the guide was right, this is only one short street.

As we were meandering along the side lanes where there are peddlars of clothing, arts and crafts, we came across this quaint cafe.

So we took a break to have their Black and White Coffee. This cup set is not for sale and I noticed that only coffee shops are using them. So is this brand of evaporated milk - it is not found in any of the supermarkets.

French Toast- delicious.

With peanut butter filling- yummy

Bottom of teacup- established since 1980? Read the tea leaves and tell me my fortune.

Pottinger Street - there are a few of these steps/steep street along Central.

This street is one with old stone slabs.

The scene from manyof TV dramas

Counting the steps, Sarah?

We were trying to locate the Man Mo Temple when we came across these trees.

Man Mo Temple - most of the worshippers who came here are young people - for blessing for their studies!

The other temple next to it is for those to pay homage to the "Tai Shui"- see the long queue.

Can you recognise the street behind?

We make our way to the Antique Street.

Along Antique street, this man writing the Chinese couplets.

All those steep street really made us hungry.

We went for our "siew mei" lunch at this Golden China Restaurant.Small shop beautifully decorated with olden chinese deco.

Roasted Duck Rice

Roasted Pork Belly Rice

Big plate of blanched choy sum which we can never get enough !

One of decorations outside the shop's window.

Tsui Wah Restaurant where we got our freshly baked egg tarts

Buttery flaky pastry with soft custard.

This old building stand out among the skyscrapers along Central- Western Market.

Loves the stained glass windows. This is an really "old" building. The concept of retail is the same as our Central Market.

Western Market since 1906.

To rest our tired feet, we took the tram. They have a very efficent system and the bus (ops it should be tram) driver was so helpful.

We just relaxed and took a short ride to the MTR station to Wong Tai Sin Temple.

The dragons at the entrance. Even though the Chinese New Year has passed, there were still a lot of worshippers.

The old and the young

Most of them came here to "kow chim"

Serenity amidst the pressing crowds.
The weather was getting hotter and we went to shop around the plaza next to the temple for a while before taking the MTR back to our hotel.

We went up to the Jade Cafe on the 19th Floor of the hotel for a cuppa of tea. This is the seaview from the cafe.

Soon it was time to depart to the airport. More shopping at the airport- it was huge. We had our dinner before boarding the plane. The flight back was uneventful and we finally reached KL passed midnight.

The flight home was uneventful

TRIP TO HONGKONG DAY 3 PART 2

The tour agent came promptly to pick us for the night tour. Winnie is a cute, cuddly and cheerful lady. Our first stop is to the Avenue of Stars- Tsim Sha Tsui.

The whole stretch of pathway is dedicated to those actors/actresses/singers who had contributed to the HongKong entertainment. Even though it was still early evening there were huge crowds of tourists (mainly from Mainland China), making it impossible to get some good photographs. The sun suddenly came out and hence the sunnies!

So can only take photos of the handprints. Jeremy's favourite singer.

These hand prints are on the ground. Everyone is walking over them and yet you can see the tourists kneeling down and placing their hands on these prints... urgh!

One of our favourite actor. He has been awarded the Best Actor. He is one of the few actors that graduate from the prestigious Hongkong Drama University.


Lights, camera and action.

The iconic Bruce Lee - cannot even get close to get a nice photo.

For those who had passed on, the handprints have been removed.

There is a display of the Symphony of Lights around 8.00 pm every night. However, we were unable to wait as we had to take our dinner and then to go up to theVictoria Peak.

The night tour included a dinner with Roasted Goose - so rave about! We only got half a goose-maybe there are only 7 of us in the group. The meat seems a bit tough but tasty alright.

Shrimps with cucumber. Typical Cantonese style of cooking - simple, "ching" - concentrating on the fresh ingredients.

Cauliflower with strips of pork fillet which is very tender

The only spicy dish- Eggplants - but as most Hongkong people cannot take spicy food, it is not spicy at all to our taste.
There is also Steamed Carp in Ginger sauce - again only half the tail.

After dinner, it is time to go up the Victoria Peak. You could go by way of cable car if you don't mind the long queue so it is much faster to travel up by bus or taxi. Our tour bus took us all the way up. Along the way we were able to see many luxurious mansions. The road up to the peak is therefore very well maintained every year.

At Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

Our own Datuk Michelle Yeoh welcoming us at the entrance.

We were told that it would be very cold up the peak but the night turned out to be clear and the breeze was so refreshing.

Up closed with Jay Chou..my favourite singer.

The most sought after one - he really looked so handsome...hmmm
The wax museum is divided into 3 levels- the bottom level housed most of the popular actors/actresses ie entertainment world (big business in Hongkong).

At the next level you can see all the historical figures/kings and quuens and heads of countries etc.

This is the Madam Tussaud herself.
Here are the information on how they create these figures.

There are also figures from the sports arena- David Beckham, Yao Ming etc.

Definitely needs no introduction here.

Whisper in her ears and she will laugh. haha.
We do missed a few of the wax figures and were told that maybe they have been mis-handled and/or broken by the tourist and therefore sent for repairs.

There is also a horror house which we did not entered as again the long queue.

Just before 8.00pm, we made our way out to the view the Symphony of Lights.

The magical night lights
Ater spending around another 20 minutes out here soaking up the beautiful sights, its time to go back.

As the night was still young, we wanted to go to the popular Lan Kwai Fong. However we were discouraged by the guide. They told us the place is just a stretch of road where all the pubs are located and mostly the patrons were the foreigners. So we decided to give it a miss tonight.

We were dropped off at our hotel and as it was still early, we decided to do shopping for soveniers at the Temple Street.

We has passed by this man selling "cheh chai mee (trolley mee)" the night before. This time we decided to order just a bowl to try.

Our bowl cost HK$26.00 only cheap but there is no squid nor any fishball.
Nothing to shout about- more like beef noodle soup.

Our trip is coming to an end tomorrow, so stay tuned for just one last post.