Hong Kong Again!

It's really weird to visit a country twice in the span of 6 months especially when it's not even home! But, as fate has it... I'm back in Hong Kong again, but this time not to meet up with friends, instead to meet up with my family who have decided to visit the country again after 10 years. Yes, we visited Hong Kong in 1997, just before the handover... gosh, that seems ages away... and I was a mere 15-year old back then! Well anyway, I can't really say no to this food and shopping paradise, so happily I agreed to fly over the continent to meet up...

The first thing that I noticed when I stepped out of the plane was the HEAT! Given that summer did not arrive, and will probably never come this year, it was good to embrace the warmth... And it kinda made me miss home (even though I'll probably never walk the streets in during the day and try my very best to stay in air-conditioned places back home!! :P)

Anyway, after randomly walking around the streets near our hotel in Yau Ma Tei, we decided to go for a really good meal. I promised everyone that I'll treat them to a big meal to celebrate my promotion... and my dear elder sister has already done the research to bring us to Lei Yue Muen, the famous fishing village for fresh seafood in Hong Kong.

Here, it is still the practice of most restaurants to let their customers to choose the seafood fresh themselves at the market before bringing them to the restaurant to be cooked. So, here we are... with completely no knowledge of how to choose seafood... poking and having fun picking which poor creatures of the sea that will end up in our stomachs! :P

Fresh crabs, oysters, scallops and prawns, lobsters, clams, fish, shrimps, squids, octopus, etc... You name it, they have it... actually, they even have some that I don't know the names!

Us, trying to choose our dinner at the market ;)

And my sister, with the lobster that she "caught" for our dinner!

After our festive dinner, (it really feels like a some CNY dinner or something because I can't remember when was the last time I really had such a elaborate dinner!) the next morning, we went for dim sum... hahahah... what can I say, you just don't stop eating in Hong Kong...

Happy faces tucking into the delicious dim sum at Tsim Tsa Tsui.

Since my sister's boyfriend have not been to DisneyLand, they trotted off to the new Hong Kong DisneyLand, while the rest of us went for our first leg of our shopping marathon at Tsim Tsa Tsui along ParkLane.

Since we had the whole day, we went for even more shopping at Times Square and the factory outlets at Tung Chung where everything just seems so good and cheap... Retail therapy works anytime for me!

The little kids that never grew up... we didn't go for DisneyLand but they still wanted to take pictures in the train to DisneyLand with dear Mickey!! :P

A random picture of an unidentified market stall. Gosh, I haven't seen a fresh meat market for such a long time! The closest that you get in London is the meat counter at Tesco???? Bleh...

The hustle and bustle of the city even in the wee hours of the night! Mongkok is always full of people eating, shopping, queuing up for movies etc.

According to my sisters, you must have this simply-to-die-for egg tarts in Hong Kong, which obviously I did not have the last time I came to Hong Kong. Despite numerous people (the hotel concierge, our cousins, the random people on the road that they asked for directions...) telling them that all egg tarts in Hong Kong are equally good, they insisted that we should wake up REALLY early to find those elusive egg tarts. Well, these egg tarts would be sold out even before you know it if you don't come early enough!

So, here we are... the next morning waking up at 8am (heck, I don't even wake up that early for work!) to find these egg tarts. I'm glad they find the egg tarts good after all the efforts!

The wonderful egg tarts that even the Governor of Hong Kong recommends! Looks good?

The longest outdoor escalators in the whole of Asia or is it the world?? Can't remember what Clare told me the last time... Anyway, we didn't realise that the escalators were set to go down until 10am before it changes direction to bring people up the "Half-Peak" area... So we were puffing up the stairs wondering why the escalators were so stupid to bring people down but those who wants to go up has to take the stairs until yours truly saw the noticeboard. Sigh, talk about being blur. So, we made a detour to one of the breakfast shops in Soho while we wait for the escalators to change directions...

From the "Half-Peak" area, we headed for the cable cars to bring us up to the Peak. And my goodness, we were there about 10.30 am... and there was already a long queue to go up. Not to mention, we had to queue under the hot sun. At this point, I really regretted about saying I miss the heat. It was HOT and HUMID...

Finally, we made it up to the Peak after the long queue! From the observatory deck, you can see the views of the whole Hong Kong! It was really magnificent and Canary Wharf really paled in comparison to the skyscrapers that they have... And oh, don't ask my what's wrong with my brother's hair... goodness know what kinda of hair style that he's sporting...

The cable car ride down as we made our way down. The heat and sun was really unbearable!

And once again, with the research that my sister has done... or is it one of her friends who told her... or wait, from the blogs that she has read?? I can't remember, but anyway... we went and look for this restaurant called "Yung Kee". From a mere food stall which is famous for its roast goose, it is now a multi award-winning restaurant located at the central of Hong Kong...

Which explains the horrendous long queue that we had to endure to get a table at the restaurant... I think we waited for at least 30 mins for a table... Just look at the amount of people there... I even overheard this woman scolding her son for not waking up earlier to queue for a table! I would admit that the roast goose was good but perhaps not worth the queue or price... And like everyone else in Hong Kong will tell you, there'll be places which sells equally good roast goose but at a fraction of the price and don't make you wait... it was an experience nevertheless... a touristy one especially!

Our next stop was to visit the "海味" aka expensive dried seafood produce streets at Sheung Wan. Streets such as "Wing Lok Street" here are lined with shops selling abalone, dried scallops, ginseng, sharks fin, bird's nest etc.

Wah... look at all the sharks fin on display... I'm sure it costs a bomb...

The abalones that I bought for my dad. Yeah, I know it's not one of those huge ones on display, but it's the thought that counts okay?

As the heat was becoming more unbearable, we headed for air-conditioned shopping centres again... any excuses for shopping! Can't even remember this was the number-what-leg of our shopping marathon... I lost count...

The shopping queen with not one, not two but a dozens of shopping bags! At one point, I really thought that I'll break my bank account for all the shopping!!!

We then travelled over to Wan Chai, where the Golden Bauhinia Square and Hong Kong Exhibition Centre are situated.

This is where the ceremonies for the Hong Kong handover was held in July 1997. So it's their 10-year celebration... has Hong Kong changed much since then? I guess residents will tell you that they are not part of China, but at the same time, you can't help but notice how much China's presence is felt on this small island... You have throngs of visitors from mainland China, and every announcements is followed up with Mandarin... also not to mention, how much China has contributed to the Hong Kong economy... Oh well...

The Hong Kong Exhibition Centre at sunset.

And finally, as night fall, it's no wonder why Hong Kong is called the city of lights... The skyline is really amazing with all the pretty colours and laser lights...

And we were lucky enough to catch the Symphony of Lights, a World Guinness Record for the world's largest permanent orchestrated lights and laser show featuring buildings situated on both sides of the Victoria Harbour. And in conjunction with the 2007 Hong Kong Shopping Festival , there were even fireworks to complete the dazzling spectrums of lights!

After the long day, we met up with our cousins for dinner.

Tired from the shopping marathon and sightseeing the day before (not to mention the early morning trek to find the egg tarts), we slept in late and by the time we got to the Avenue of Stars, it was already mid-day and the sun was shining fiercely down on us...

Ahem, here's comes the crew consisting of the director, the camera woman and the lights woman. Camera, lights... ready? Action!

A scene to remember? :)

We pretty much kept away from the sun after that, strolling leisurely along "女人街"@Ladies Street and in between, having afternoon high-tea at Hong Kong style cafes.

And at night, we met up with our relatives for dinner again. This was one elaborate dinner again with uncles and aunties catching up with each other. Kinda reminds me of the famous Hong Kong TVB series of "A Kindred Spirit"! :P

Hmm.. how come this table are all mostly aunties??? So what is my male cousin doing on this table???

All of us with all our uncles... one look and you can tell that they are brothers, their smiles are exactly the same man!!

And the next day, my family left earlier to catch their flights back to Malaysia... :( I wanna go home as well!!! But, I guess I'll have to wait until next year's Chinese New Year...

Since my flight is just after midnight, I have another day on my own here in Hong Kong. So, I called up the one person I knew in Hong Kong who was bumming around instead of working... Drake Ip... hehehe... He promised me an exciting tour of whatever left that I've not seen in Hong Kong...

So, our first stop was the Wong Tai Sin temple. This is one of the famous temple in Hong Kong whereby, people will come to pray and be granted their requests if they pray hard enough. Also, it is famous for its fortune-telling.

Me holding joss sticks, getting ready to pray and get my wishes granted!

And yes, both of us went for the famous fortune telling. Supposingly, the fortune sticks or lots are really accurate. You have to light worship (joss) sticks, kneel before the main altar, make a wish, and shake a bamboo cylinder containing fortune sticks until one falls out. The stick is then exchanged for a piece of paper bearing the same number, and the soothsayer then interprets the fortune on the paper for you.

So, here is the guy (the soothsayer) who tells me that I'll have "桃花运" (luck in meeting the opposite sex) but this year will not be a good year for me as all of them will only break my heart. And heck, there'll be even a 3rd party involved. And oh yah, he also casually mentioned that I won't be finding my prince charming until I'm 30 at least... Hmmm... we shall see... only time will tell!!!

Me in one of the small buses in Hong Kong. Since I've not been on one... thought I'll give it a try! According to little Drake, the bus drivers are highly dangerous drivers... and supposingly, you can get to anywhere in Hong Kong faster than any other means of transport because they just speed around crazily!! Hmmm... comparable to the Malaysian drivers??

Anyway, the journey was a pleasant one as we even get views of the beach by Repulse Bay and the famous condominum with a big hole in the middle (which I remember from my trip 10 years ago where the tourist guide told us that it was for better feng shui!)

Here we are, at the Stanley market where most tourists will come here hunting for Oriental souvenirs. And I really mean the proper tourists, not tourists like me as I balked at the prices that they sell things at! I guess it's one of those places where you can con Westerners! Hahahah...

And finally, we got back to Central for a drink at the top of the IFC tower to get a feel of what it is like to work as a banker in the heart of the financial district.

A big thank you to Drake for accompanying me the whole day although the not-so-perfect planning meant that I had to practically run to the airport to catch my flight at night! Heheheeh.... thanks anyway, Drake for being a one-day tourist guide.

With that, I bade goodbye to Hong Kong once again and board the plane back to good old London.