Day/Night 1 @ hong Kong

We arrived probably about 2+pm i think and were expecting a coach pick-up to our hotel since we got a free-n-easy package. It's quite fun to have someone hold up your names on a card. :)

To our surprise, it was not a coach but a snazzy Silver Mercedes Benz - which looked like at least a 320E but i couldn't see the model anywhere. I've never sat in the back of a Merz (cuz i dunno..i was always in the front seat - passenger or driver) so I was so thrilled to see electronic seat controls for the REAR SEATS but i didn't play with it. :))


My first impression of Hong Kong was "why so hazy?!?!"

From the airport on Lantau Island to our hotel in the heart of Kowloon, I couldn't stop looking all around and wonder why the city was perpetually hazy. I asked the tour agency 'rep' who was accompanying us and she couldn't quite understand my lousy Cantonese. The driver finally couldn't take it and took it upon himself to tell us that it was like that all year round and particularly bad now cuz of the winds that bring the polluted industrial air from China. I was like...what the....really....really???


We checked into our currently-being-renovated Park Hotel, which is quite centrally located in Tsim Sha Tsui - something which I now regret cuz I think i would really much prefer to live in Causeway Bay or Central. But that's that. The reno is quite nice so far.


We dumped our bags in the room, freshened up abit and proceeded to go walk around with whatever daylight was left (sun sets about 5-ish/6 but life goes on till the wee hours). Round the corner from our hotel is Granville Road so what better place to start? The first thing/neon sign that catches my sight upon turning into the street...


And well, it was getting dark soon and wanton mee was beckoning. So we turned round one corner and another. Viola, lotsa eateries - that do not look too expensive. So i just picked one and went in to order one bowl (since dan is skeptical about ordering 2 portions when we're not sure of the taste and well, he's not big on soupy noodles).

The wantons were huge! It was nice!


I think after this, we walked up Nathan Road and bought our Octopus cards (like our ezlink). In the process we tried egg tarts (very nice!) and some confectionery items. I think that was like our semi-dinner. We also explore Temple Street and some shops and i bought a lot of 'kitty bags' which were pretty reasonably priced. I think that was one of the few things i bought..other than a few pieces of clothing.

Right after that we rushed to the harbour to catch the light show - we caught this from just outside the InterContinental. It's like a mega light show...coordinated by music by a lot of buildings around the harbour. It's really big and hordes of people go watch it every night. In front of us is the promenade whereby we had to take a 'mandatory' photo - or pay HK$90 for a big picture which they take and print on the spot for you. (mind you, it's HK$90, not HK$10 which they boldly print. HK$10 is for the wallet-sized print. you have to look closely to see the "up" beside the HK$10 amount...and then walk over to another less obvious side to see the prices of all other less minuscule photo size prices. duh.)




I was quite tired from the day and after walking around abit and not being able to decide on what to eat, dan scooted me up to bath while he went to packet something for me. I thought he took quite long - considering how long i bath (not that long lah..) and how fast he normally walks. I thought maybe he just got distracted by the shops (since shops don't close till 11/12 at night there!)

He came back with a packet of char siew fun - which sounded good enough until he exclaimed how it was the most expensive char siew fun he's eaten at HK$69. That's about a whooping S$13+! Even I had never eaten such expensive char siew rice!!! Granted, the fragrance was really 'oooh-la-la!' but still, S$13? He sighed and said 'lucky i bought one pack. we can share since i'm not that hungry'.

So i opened and this is what i saw.


No rice. Just char siew! We had an overdose of protein that night...despite it being really great-tasting...it's still abit too much.

Oh, we also had a really good laugh! :)