Hong Kong revisited: Day 3

The day began with dimsum with the whole company in TST. It wasn't very nice anyway, typical of 'tour' food. The group was supposed to go the Big Buddha in Lantau island, followed by Disneyland. But some of us decided to give it a miss, and went to Tung Chung in Lantau Island for shopping instead. It was FACTORY OUTLET haven. Adidas. Nike. Timberland. Esprit. You name it. Spent more money than I intended here, but the bargains were too good to ignore.

After walking ourselves silly, we took the train back to Central, back to Gage St for some wantan noodles, followed by more egg tarts! Yummm! And then it was back to Miramar where I bought my Adidas Flavours of the World Tomatina. How cute is this... a shoe that's food related! I couldn't resist, after thinking about it for all of 24 hours.


Then it was back to the hotel for some rest, before the plan for the night - a 10min KCR train right from Mongkok station (right next to our hotel) to Shatin for their famous roast pigeon!

I read online that the best pigeon is to be found at Lung Wah Hotel, and you could only get there by foot. It's very near the KCR station, about 10 minutes walk along the railway track. Take the pedestrian walk way on your left from the station exit. Keep right to stay close to the tracks, walk past the houses in the little urban village to the hotel (it's been around since the 1950s!).

We felt weird walking in a quiet dark neighbourhood next to the train tracks and wondered if we were going the right way. But we found the place. Who could miss it? A small dodgy entrance with red lanterns leading the way to the restaurant. Not to mention the neon lights. But boy, were the pigeons worth it. Can't say much about the food we had, but the birds were good. Plump, juicy, slightly gamey... and after years of watching people on HK TVB serial dramas eat Shatin roast pigeons and rave about them, I finally can say I've had one myself. Ahh... happiness.

We went back to the mall next to our hotel to buy beer and ice cream and junk food and gathered the gang in my room to eat and chit-chat. It was our last night after all. We left the following day, so nothing exciting to share about Day 4.

But I managed to meet up with CC and his wife for a quick brunch at a little seaside village in Shek-O. So good to see them again almost a year after their wedding. Before I went back to the hotel, I bought the famous roast goose from Yung Kee on Wellington St in Central. At HKD360 a pop, it was REALLY expensive. So it's the roast goose favoured by the rich and famous, big deal lah.

By the time I tried it when I got home, it was nice, but just, alright. Give me the fresh roast duck from Sunrise in Paramount PJ any day. There's apparently another very famous roast goose from another village not far from the airport. But I guess I'll have to go back and try that one another time.

Good thing we managed to buy more kick ass egg tarts from a Tai Cheong branch at the mall next to the hotel before we left. That alone was worth going to Hong Kong for. Good thing YL's dad read the article about it in the papers and gave us the heads up.

I *heart* Hong Kong...
I think apart from Bangkok, this is one other place I could visit again and again.

<< Hong Kong revisited: Day 2

Hong Kong revisited: Day 2

It was pretty much a free and easy day so YL and I ventured out for an early dimsum at the dimsum place I ate in last year. Tau Heung, at 3F Silvercord Mall, corner of Haiphong and Canton Road. Cheap, delicious, and because we had to share a table with two other families, we got to mingle with the locals. Not being able to read Chinese was quite a drag when it came to the menu, but there was a HKD$1 bowl of dumpling in chili oil on promotion that morning. And it was good. Only thing missing were the pushcarts. Did some research online about this place and the dimsum here's apparently made to order, and it's also cheaper compared to other places like Maxim's, the popular dimsum place at City Hall.


HKD$1 dumplings on the left and some other stuff we had...

Then it was off to Central on the Star Ferry.
From there we took a tram to Sheung Wan, walked around the old rustic part of the city, past the dried seafood, sharks fins and birds nests (even dried star fish), up to Possession Point and down Hollywood Road which led us to Gage St, one of my favourite streets in Hong Kong (I also like Peel St among others). It's like a long wet market, but we weren't hungry yet, so we looked for Tai Cheung Bakery at Lyndhurst Terrace, the place for famous egg tarts.


We shared one, and it's the best egg tart I've ever tasted. It's the best... Flaky melt-in-the-mouth pastry, wobbly egg custard, all straight out of the oven. It's the beesssstttt.... We later found out they had a branch in the food court at the shopping mall connecting to our hotel.

We then explored the escalators abit and then back to Gage St where we had tea and coffee at Lan Fong Yuen, a very popular place for char chan teng stuff. It certainly was an authentic place, though the char chan teng style of coffee and tea was too sweet and cloying for me. Opposite is the a roast meat shop which Anthony Bourdain himself had been to. Now this place was a disappointment. Not only was the siew yoke (roast pork) expensive, it wasn't very good. The roast pork I had last year at another eatery in Hankow Rd at TST was better by leaps and bounds. Stuffed, we hopped over to TST by MTR to check out Muji, Uniqlo and a few other shops at a shopping mall. There were some pretty good bargains. As well as some very nice shoes. Our feet were already killing us by then, so we decided to head back to the hotel to rest.

I couldn't sleep, and decided to go back to Hui Lau Shan and had a whole mango pudding all to myself. Aaahhhh.... bliss. Totally content, I took a walk, exploring the Flower Market and Bird Market (right behind the hotel), ho hum ho hum, nothing much there, though the flowers were pretty. Sigh, what I would do for that mango pudding right now. Smooth mangoey pudding in thick mango juice, topped with juicy mango pieces and a scoop of mango sorbet. Slurp...

Later that evening, it was the company dinner at Lai Yue Mun. It was a bumpy ride by ferry to the fishing village, with booze a plenty along the way. Knocked down a couple of beers and I was all happy by the time we reached the restaurant. Of course I wasn't as looked as I drunk, despite my red bonkey mackside face and bloodshot eyes. The food was decent. And there was even a baked lobster in cheese. Wahhh... No pictures cos my batteries decided to go a little wonky on me then. After dinner was a ride up some lookout point, and we went back to our hotel. KO-ed in no time. Heh.

<< Hong Kong revisited: Day 1

Hong Kong revisited: Day 3 >>

Hong Kong revisited: Day 1

I *heart* Hong Kong.
I really, really do.

This time round, it was a company trip over four days (more like 3 days actually... got there Thursday, back on Sunday). It was pretty free and easy, despite the compulsory meal at Jumbo Kingdom (which offered pretty bleh food meant for less discerning tourists), followed by a long bus ride to Repulse Bay (pictured below) where the ridiculously rich live, overlooking the South China Sea (rental for one of the nicer apartments here = HK$125,000 per month). The beach was abit too 'manicured' for my taste and apparently they're building a little mall in front of it right too. Geez.

Next was a visit to the jewellery 'factory' where they tried to hawk us some gems. Because Hong Kong's a tax-free port, jewellery's supposedly cheaper here. They even offered an additional 40% off our purchases. One quick look at the prices in the showroom of bling told me they marked up the prices. Even with 40% off, it's really no big deal. Not that I'm a jewellery kinda girl, but I do like looking at pretty pieces in window displays, and it was more than obvious that we were brought into a tourist trap.

We finally checked into Royal Plaza in Mongkok. YL and I got a really huge room to ourselves. Really spacious, and probably meant for the physically disabled. We dumped our bags, rested awhile and started our walk down from Mongkok to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) with TL and DK. It was a fun 4-hour walk cos we stopped alot along the way to nibble and scout for bargains at Fa Yuen St (Shoe Street), Tung Choi St (Ladies St), Goldfish and Pets St, Temple St Market in Yau Ma Tei, walked through Jordan, and Nathan Rd before finally reaching the beef noodle place at Haiphong Rd in TST. And we had a lot to 'nibble' on.


From porridge and char leung at Bute St...


...to a mango platter at Hui Lau Shan nearby. I love the mango pudding here (one evening I went there alone while the others were resting before dinner and ate one whole mango pudding by myself )


...to cow offal and bacon by the roadside.


To the infamous chow dao fu or stinky beancurd. It was foul, but curiousity got the better of me (and that's DK recoiling in disgust at the smell).


...to creamy Steamed Milk with Double Skin (can you see the skin?) and steamed egg custard at Yee Shun Milk Company (which got DK giggling with happiness).


After the beef noodles at Gold Lake (a hole in the wall) in Haiphong Rd, we hopped over to the Starbucks behind The Peninsula so DK could eat a vegetarian quiche. Yes, she's a vegetarian. By choice too!

We then found a cool jazz bar called Ned Kelly's Last Stand on Ashley Rd, apparently the oldest jazz bar in Asia. There was a house band led by Colin Aitchison, a trombonist. In the band there's a trumpeteer who doubled as a crooner, a saxophonist, a keyboardist cum banjo player, a bassist and a drummer.


The music's old school big band style, and it would've been been more enjoyable if not for the bunch of drunk Irish guys making a total nuisance of themselves. Anyhow, we caught one set and finished a huge pitcher of Strongbow cider before we went back to the hotel by MTR. What a night!

Hong Kong revisited: Day 2 >>

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!

<< Day 4-TST, Yau Ma Tei & Mongkok

HONG KONG Day 4: TST, Yau Ma Tei, Mongkok & The Wedding

After 3 absolutely hectic days of seeing the sights and stuffing our faces, we decided to slow down a little today and stay on this side of the harbour.

We didn't rush to wake up (thanks to our already aching feet and bodies). But when we did, we went back to the same dimsum place at the corner of Haiphong and Canton Road. I shall not post up more pictures of what we ate, after some angry and hungry comments on my earlier posts. Hee hee.

So, we made the rounds, visiting shops we didn't really go into earlier in our trip. And like I mentioned previously, we stopped by Staccato again. I wanted to buy the peep toes, but they looked horrid on me. They looked nice on ST though. So she bought it. *sulk*

After some shopping and sighing over many things we decided not to buy, we walked up Nathan Road. And that's when I discovered this little 'milk shop'. It had a cute little cow logo and served all things milk. Steamed milk hot and cold, flavoured milks and so on. They had a double skin steamed milk served hot, which was their signature dish, but I opted for a cold steamed milk with ginger juice. More refreshing la.

It was smooth and creamy. Just like taufu fa (soy bean curd) minus the estrogen-producing enzymes. I also ordered a steamed egg custard (I always hear about it on those TVB Chinese soaps, I just HAD to try it), but I could only finish half. It was quite filling, and well, eggy. There were chocolate flavours and some pretty 'interesting stuff'. But not being a cow with four stomachs, I couldn't possibly try EVERYTHING. Did ST have any? No. Cos she was still too stuffed after dimsum. Sigh.

Soon we were back at the hotel. But not before we bought some breads and local goodies. The breads were from a funky bakery with lots of pretty looking buns and pastries. They didn't taste as good as they looked. The poot chai gou (red beans in rice flour pudding) and soong gou (caramel steamed cake) were nice, but way too much for me to take all at once. I only took a small nibble of everything to have a taste. Wasteful. Shame on me.

We rested awhile, then changed to go out again. It felt mighty strange to be all dressed up for a wedding and taking the MTR to Wan Chai. And then walking the distance (which looked hell alot shorter on the freaking map!) to the dinner venue at Dynasty Club next to The Hyatt.

It was a small, poshy venue. A members-only place, they were thrilled to get the venue thanks to a friend of the bride. The dining hall overlooked the harbour. And the food was more than fantastic. Sharks fin like they came from real sharks (as opposed to the melt-in-your-spoon-not-in-your-mouth gelatin variety). Personally I wouldn't order sharks fin at MY wedding (if and when that happens). But since the shark's already dead, it'd be a shame to let it die in vain. Er... right?

There were ELEVEN courses (not inclusive of Chinese tea), not EIGHT courses WITH tea like in KL. And all good quality stuff with wine flowing all night. Dinner started after the cake cutting ceremony and toast. Which was rather odd, but that's how they do it Hong Kong apparently.

CC and his bride, TL looked happy. It was my first time meeting her and I could see why CC's in love with her. Tall and elegant (she's 5' 10" at least), confident, gracious and she had no airs about her. Best of all, she actually succeeded in bringing him to church. It was strange to witness an ex-boyfriend's wedding to say the least, but it was a good feeling. We've been friends for so long, it's so nice to see that he has found love and happiness.

The thought did fleet in my mind very briefly. If we didn't break up before he went to UK to complete his studies, we would've been together for ten years (we were together for three). We probably would've killed each other at some point though, haha. Like a good friend of mine, CC was the typical Scorpio. Not that I believed in horror-scopes, but there were some uncanny similiarities. He was the best kind of friend and the worst kind of enemy. However, I noticed he changed a fair bit. The right woman does that to you, I guess *wink*

ST sent me an SOS SMS from IFC (an upmarket shopping centre like KLCC in KL) to tell me she was starting to spend too much money again. After dinner and the endless rounds of picture taking with his sisters and some friends, I was ready to leave. That's when my heels broke. Ooooh, good excuse to buy a new pair of heels AAARRGGHHH!!!

Luckily, CC's mom had a spare pair she could lend me. It was a size too small, but I managed to hobble into a cab to meet ST. With me struggling to walk and with her struggling to keep her purse in her handbag, we went back to the hotel. It was quite a sad ride on the MTR cos we suddenly realised our holiday was soon coming to an end.

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>> NEXT: Central @ Little Manila, SOHO & Last Night in HK.

HONG KONG Day 3: HK Island - Sheung Wan, Causeway Bay, Stanley & Lamma Island

We started off the morning with some char leung and the most delicious congee - century egg and pork, my favourite. It was at a non-descript coffeeshop on Soy St, near our hotel. It's quite easy to miss. But look out for the owner - a burly man with sideburns ala Elvis. He asked if we were Singaporean. Sure, we don't speak like they do. But Singaporean? Ahem.

Anyway, this place didn't have a Romanised Chinese name, so I can't give you the name of the shop. But it had a big stainless steel display case of big yau char koays. The kitchen's up front. So patrons could watch the cook prepare the char leungs - yau char koays wrapped in cheung fun or flat rice noodles. These came in a lovely dark sauce. Tasty on its own or dipped in the porridge.

After breakfast, we took the MTR to Central, walked around the Landmark shopping centre (super swanky - with HUGE boutiques like Dior, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and so on), window gazing at things I knew I would never buy even if I could afford it. Nuts.

Next, it was a tram ride to Sheung Wan. It's the dried seafood and birds nest capital of Hong Kong, if not the world. Every other shop had these exotic stuff displayed proudly. The whole area had the dusty smell of Chinese herbs. The charm of this place was the fact that everything here was so authentically Chinese.

We walked along this area back towards Central and along the way, discovered Peel St and Gage St. Peel St was up a steep incline. Quite a trudge up I must say. There were stalls selling knick knacks, but what attracted me was this shop selling freshly made noodles or dried noodles. It's not a place you could eat in, but you could buy the noodles to take home. There were a variety of noodles. And the owner was really friendly.

When we got to Gage St, it had a marketplace atmosphere. Fresh greens (oooh, HK Kai Lan), butchers, seafood and then we saw a row of restaurants. There was a roast meat and noodle shop Anthony Bourdain ate in when he visited Hong Kong (oh, big deal :P). Opposite that shop was where I had the best wantan noodles I'd ever eaten.

The wantans were the size of pingpong balls. At HKD22 a bowl, it was worth every dollar. Six huge wantans on a heap of bouncy noodles! I had the dry version while ST had the soupy 'sui gow' (dumplings in soup). Nyummm... After that we hopped next door to a place that served typical 'char chan teng' fare like french toast HK style and silky milk tea. We had the toast, I ordered the silky tea, ST ordered the ginger lemon drink, and I tried an interesting salty lemon and sprite concoction as well.

Next stop. Causeway Bay. It's a nice little area which reminded me of St Kilda in Melbourne. We didn't go to all the shopping malls because we were kinda suffering from shopping fatigue by then. However, we did make a stop at Esprit, and I bought a pair of jeans at a pretty good price.

From Causeway Bay, we took a cab to Stanley, a coastal area at the most southern tip of Hong Kong. Along the way we went by Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay. All those waterfront aparments and villas... whoa... they looked pretty during the day and even better at night. It felt like I was in another country. So quiet. So "the-filthy-rich-are-different".

Anyway, it was 6pm when we got to Stanley Market. But they were starting to close at 6.30pm. I did manage to buy a nice embroidered satin jacket for my mom. Everything else looked too expensive or ordinary. If only the place wasn't half closed when we arrived or there could've been more interesting stuff. They seemed to have nicer things compared to the markets on Temple Street or Ladies Market.

It was getting dark and the cool sea breeze was refreshing. So we enjoyed the breeze with a cup of coffee while waiting for a double decker bus to Central (Bus 6 or 603). The ride gave me motion sickness. Ugh.

When we got back to the city, we took a short walk to Queen's Pier. This was where many scenes from TVB Hong Kong Chinese soap series were filmed. We waited for a ferry which would take us to Lamma Island for seafood.

The ferry ride (free if you're eating at Rainbow Restaurant) was quite nice, albeit bumpy, taking us to the northwest side of HK island, then down to Lamma Island where we docked at Sok Kwu Wan. We went to the restaurant and tanks of swmming sea creatures of all shapes, sizes and colours greeted us. Fish. Prawns. Mantis prawns. Lobsters. Abalone. Sea snails. Clams. Scallops. Bamboo clams.

Our humble wallets decided to pick the following menu:
Spotted Garoupa steamed to perfection with just enough soy sauce to complement it.


Salt and pepper squid. So crispy and juicy.


Steamed mantis prawn. Huge, sweet and delicate tasting.


And just moments before, that creature was here, swimming without a care in the world:


The HK Kai Lan was a disappointment though. Old, fibrous and not quite palatable.

When the bill came, we were kinda shocked. It was quite astronomical (HKD576) considering we had so little. Maybe the fish and mantis prawn were expensive (charged by weight). The fact that they didn't give us an itemised bill made it rather fishy (no pun intended). But we were in a hurry to take the last ferry back or we'd be stranded, so we couldn't contest the bill. My advice is, don't go for dinner here too late. That way you don't have to rush like we did.

We rushed for the ferry at the same jetty we arrived on. But there was only a yacht in its place. Did we miss it? Crap!

Then a white guy getting on the yacht asked if we'd like to hop onboard. Perhaps he did so in jest. In panic and confusion, we almost did, until we realised our ferry was at another jetty. WHAT WERE WE THINKING? A YACHT! 3 days in Hong Kong and we're already dreaming of the high life? Wake up wake up wake up. Haha!

The ferry finally took us back to TST where we hopped on to a train and went back to our hotel. DEAD tired. Gosh, we trudged across the whole HK island today. From west to east. Then south. And then to an outlying island. Wah, like Amazing Race.

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>> NEXT: TST, Yau Ma Tei, Mongkok & The Wedding.

HONG KONG Day 2: HK Island - Central, Escalator & The Peak

We woke up early, hopped onto our hotel's shuttle bus and got ourselves to TST. The plan for the day was to have dimsum, then to take the Star Ferry over to Central and explore the city. Then we were to take Escalators up to see the Midlevels (it's a super long escalator going uphill crossing several streets). Then walk through the Botanical Gardens to the Lower Peak Tram Staion.

Things were going as planned for the first half of the day. We had a sumptious brunch at Tao Heong 88, at the corner of Haiphong and Canton Road. The prices were good (averaging HKD78 for both of us) and the dimsum was delicious.

The fluffiest char siew bao (BBQ Pork Buns).


Big har gows (prawn dumplings) and fun kors (vege dumplings).


Juicy siew mais (pork and prawn dumplings).


Crispy bean curd rolls and yummy cheong fun with prawns (flat rice rolls).


Fragrant Fried Radish Cake.


If we could stomach more we would've. We shared a table with some chatty old ladies, so we got to experience what a true HK yumcha session is like.

We needed our daily dose of caffeine, so we made out way to the nearest Starbucks at the corner of Hankow Road. But before we could get there, we saw it. And Esprit Outlet. It was right next to Starbucks. Thinking we should have a quick look before we got our coffee, we went in. Our motto was, "not really looking for mass produced clothes, but lets check it out anyway."

We got out about 2 hours later. With 2 big bags.
This Esprit Outlet is a must go. Lots of stuff from Esprit's previous seasons and collections. All at a third or half their original prices. I bought 2 polo Ts, a shirt, 2 tops and some Red Earth make up (see, I trying to be more girly). ST bought alot more.

When we got out, we really needed the coffee to ponder over our shopping. And surprise, surprise. Blueberry cheesecakes in Starbucks were made with real fruit. Fresh blueberries sitting prettily on sour cream icing. I couldn't have it though (not after all that dimsum).

After we caffeinated ourselves, we realised we could have lunch after all. And found this roast meat shop on Ashley Road (parallel to Hankow) that was absolutely amazing. It served the best siew yoke (roast pork) I've ever had. And a mean roast goose.


The pork was juicy, tender, and crispy at the same time.


The goose was delicious.


Hmm. Maybe we were hungry after all.

After lunch, we went to the Star Ferry Pier. And onto the wrong ferry. For some weird reason I kept thinking we were supposed to go to Wan Chai. But no matter, we got into a red cab (yay, a HK cab ride) to Central, and found our way to the Escalator.

We went up and up and up. Through and over 5 streets. We got to see the Mid Levels of Hong Kong. Lots of shops and restaurants on boths side of the Escalator. Then it was towering apartments. When we finally reached the top, it was suddenly a quiet suburban area.

We then made our way to the Lower Peak Tram via the Botanical Gardens. People were walking their dogs and jogging. It was really a nice area to be in, away from the hustle and bustle. We soon found the tram station and stood in line to get on it. A couple behind us tried to push, elbow and shove their way through us when the doors opened. But I stubbornly stood my ground and not let them through. Even when in the tram, they pushed us aside to get the seats that they wanted. Such uncivilised behaviour. Wide-eyed, they looked like they were just released from some remote hole in the ground. They had a brood of teenage children with them. I hope they're learning their manners from someone else.

The Peak was a lovely place. By the time we got up, it was about 7pm. There was a nice breeze blowing. And we took a steep hike up for a closer look at the luxury homes up the hill. Then back to the Peak Tower for the light and sound show from this vantage point. We obviously couldn't hear anything from up there. But the lights were pretty. And we got to see more of the harbour too. It started to get cold, so I sipped my coffee gratefully. We hung out there to chit-chat and enjoyed the cool night air for awhile before we made our way down again.

Once out of the tram station, we walked towards the direction of Lan Kwai Fong. Past the snooty FCC club (members only) and The Fringe Club. Alot of shops were closed in the area, so there wasn't much to look at. Just lots of pubs and restaurants. We didn't go in for a drink because a) we looked a mess - wind-swept hair and fatigued after a very long day and b)with all the bags we're carrying and the moolah we spent, we decided to save our drinks for our last night in Hong Kong.

We didn't feel like a heavy dinner, so we found simple chiu-chow style porridge place opposite the famous Yung Kee restaurant for a humble meal. I had oyster porridge (lots of juicy oysters in a watery rice soup) and ST had minced pork one. And we washed it down with some beer (HKD20 for a bowl of porridge, and another HKD20 a big bottle of Carlsberg. Not bad at all!).

After dinner we walked to the Central Station nearby and got out at the station near our hotel. We walked back, all shopped and pooped out. Only to begin all over again the next day.

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