HONG KONG Day 5: Central @ Little Manila, SOHO & Last Night in HK

The plan for our last full day was 'free and easy'.

I initially penned down a day trip to Cheung Chau island. But we were starting to feel quite tired and didn't want to outdo ourselves. So we went over to HK Island to check out the shops we didn't get to visit earlier on.

It started to drizzle and then rain when we arrived. So we ran to the nearest Starbucks for breakfast and shelter. Remember I mentioned they had blueberry cheesecake with REAL berries?

It was really good. And so was the bruschetta ST had. With bits of apricot, grilled peppers and cheese on crusty multigrain bread. Mmmmmmmm.

The rain didn't look like it would let up, so we walked down to the nearby Pedders building. This, according to a guidebook, was where you could find "branded clothes at sharp mark downs".

Now, Pedders building is quite an old building. It's where Shanghai Tang is (very nice and expensive) but the "boutiques" are all to be found upstairs. We didn't go to every floor, but most of the items were so-so and still exorbitantly priced. Apparently, the boutique owners price the items quite randomly after importing the pieces from Japan, US or Europe. I saw a branded, rather ordinary sweater from the US, priced at HKD599 (around RM300). BUT, I spied a price tag on it. It was priced at USD56 in the US, which meant its actual price was around RM200! I told the lady that it didn't make sense for me to buy a sweater at HKD599 when the value for it was at RM200. She immediately said "Okay, I sell to you for HKD399 (around RM200). I wasn't impressed of course. It sure didn't look like it was worth that much money.

Then we found another shop on another floor. It had a lot more variety of tops, pants, skirts and dresses with their labels snipped off. AH. So this was the real deal. Both ST and I fell in love with some dresses they had. The one I really liked and kept going back to was a tube dress with an A line skirt. White underneath with black lace on top. It was really nice, and priced around RM280 or so. At size 14, it was quite a few sizes too big for me (I wear size 8). I tried it on anyway, and it was too loose. But I loved it too much to let it go. And decided to buy it and bring it home for alteration. Hee hee.

After signing that amount away, we decided to leave the building. Enough damage for the day. The rain stopped so we wandered around a little bit. It was then we realised we were surrounded by Filipinas everywhere we went. They spoke in a flurry of Tagalog. There were mats or bedsheets stuck on any available surface on the ground for them to sit on. They were on the streets. In the parks. In front of all the shopping malls. There were touts selling cheap call cards. Money wiring services were packed full. It was a Sunday. Their only day off.

Then a very interesting sight moved me. A group of Filipinas were singing, right in the middle of a street that was closed to traffic. They stood in a circle, their bags in the middle, and they were singing praise and worship songs. Some of them were praying in deep reverence.

Wow. I suppose this reminded me that God is indeed everywhere. When two or three are gathered in His name, that in itself is a church. I felt humbled. And nope, I didn't go to church that Sunday *sigh*.

We decided to have lunch at Soho, in one of the watering holes we saw near the Escalator on our second day. Many of them were closed, and the Peak Cafe looked like it was the only one open with the best view of people going up and down the Escalator. We were abit too early for happy hour, but managed to use our feminine charm to wrangle happy hour prices out of the bartender. Heh. Not really. We just looked really disappointed when told we were 20mins too early. He took pity on us. The poor, broke, tourists. BWAHAHAHAHAHA.

I had a yummy Raspberry Mojito. And they used FRESH raspberries for it. What's with me and fresh berries? Hey, when you come from a country where fresh berries cost an arm and a leg, and the canned stuff or flavoured syrups are just not quite the same, fresh berries are GREAT STUFF.

We also ordered a lovely artichoke, mushroom and mozzarella pizza. Oh, so good. Especially when I was starting to get rather 'happy' from the alcohol. ST had a classic Carlsberg. Some light booze on a lazy Sunday lunch. Pure bliss, I tell ya.

After lunch, we walked around a little bit more, and discovered that there was just a little bit more to Lan Kwai Fong than what we saw a few nights ago. At the top of D'Aguilar Street, there was a road that led to another side of Lan Kwai Fong. Right. But I suppose we didn't miss much. More pubs. More restaurants. Not quite the type of places we'd want to eat in anyway.

We went back to our hotel to get ready for our last night in Hong Kong. The plan, a drink (we could probably afford only ONE drink) at the Felix, in the Peninsula Hotel (28th Floor, and apparently overlooking the harbour).

They LIED.
Who on earth would put BLINDS on the windows overlooking the harbour on the 28th floor? GAWD! The drinks were astronomical. HKD90 for a simple cocktail. HKD70 for a small bottle of Heineken. AND there wasn't even enough room up there to sit down. The people were pretentious and not all that vavavoom to look at. Hmmm. Over-rated I tell you. Over-rated. But guys, if you ever go there, the male toilet is apparently really cool. When you take a leak, it's like you're peeing all over Hong Kong. For a very brief moment that night, I wished I had a penis.

Anyway, we left The Peninsula. And hopped over to the Sky Lounge (18th Floor) at the Sheraton next door. Now THAT's what I call a decent view. We shared a bottle of wine and stayed out quite late, enjoying the lights as Hong Kong slowly went to sleep (Yes, it did! Lights from some of the buildings on HK island actually went off). So we sipped our wine, reviewed the past few days and moaned about the lack of luggage space.

Oh, how could I forget.
What did we have for dinner?
A platter of roast meats at the restaurant next to our hotel, before we went out. The siew yoke (roast pork) and char siew (BBQ Pork) weren't as spectacular as the meat we had on Ashley Road. But this platter had roast suckling pig and steamed chicken on it - 4 different types for HKD100. Pretty good deal. Our last meal in Hong Kong. We HAD to make it good.



That's it about Hong Kong.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened on Day 6 cos we checked out in the morning and flew off in the afternoon. I went mad at the airport buying mooncakes and biscuits from Maxims. I ended up carrying as many bags as ST. Only difference was, mine were filled with food. Hers, with shoes. I think she's the smarter one.

It was a great trip. Thanks, ST, for going with me.
Aarrrgghhh. I love those peep toes!

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