day 5: back to basics - the authentic HK lifestyle

late start to day 5 (heh, just the way we liked) meeting Tina and Steven for breakfast at a cha chan teng near the hostel. surprisingly learned that their high school was located in the area, hence the restaurant was practically like their canteen. awesomely authentic.

much more relaxed itinerary for the day as we've already covered most of the sights: ngong ping buddha, tai-o fishing village, 大排档 & 糖水!

living it up in hk, part one - taking the tram, aka ding ding, to Central. cheap cheap, only HK$2.30, approx S$0.40?

bright and colourful ding dings..

I can never get used to riding this things. WAAAYY TOO SLOWWWW. e.g. one MTR station, 2 minutes apart = 10 minutes by tram. omggg.

heys, I think I can fit into the fast paced HK life pretty well :)

cable car was down (not my bad luck I swear, it was down for maintenance since May), so we had to take a 30+ min ride up to Ngong Ping village.

mum would be proud of me, I visited the Big Buddha!

the strange thing about climbing is that you're feeling so warm/tired from all those steps, yet the air is so cool up there, yet the sun's beating strongly down your back???

must still give it my famous thumbs up pose. hahaha

moving on to Tai-O village, the Venice of HK! uh, I suppose it's cos the houses are all built on stilts. very kampong feel not expected of HK.

loved munching on the cuttlefish though..

with our lovely hk pals, Steven Tina and Andy

also took a ferry out to spot dolphins.

and failed lah. nothing but still waters.

two bus rides and a train (火车) ride later, we arrived at Shatin 泰源大排档 for dinner.

three hungry girls innocently waiting for our food

WARNING: SEVERE FOOD SPAM COMING UP!!!

i have no idea how these...

evolved to these...

and finally became a full fledged 14 course meal for 8 of us. that's like more than 1.5 dishes per pax.

OHMYGOD REPEAT OF TIM HO WAN over-order disaster!! but still cheapcheap! 14 dishes for about S$15 each. and how many tourists will get to experience this??

there was roast pigeon, clams, chicken bone (?? super weird dish. it's like just eating flour. with bones), goose intestines??, gu lu yok, claypot veggies, broccoli, oyster omelette, some beef thing, some squid thing, some peeing prawn thing, chicken congee, normal chicken, and tofu. gosh, what a mouthful. in the end we ended up playing scissors paper stone to finish up the remaining dishes. talk about having similar cultures yeah.

as if the 14 course dinner wasn't gracious enough of them as hosts, they took us for 糖水!!

五代同糖, another chain of 糖水铺 in hk..

the fantastic egg pudding (taste reminds me a lot of the cream in tampopo's cream puffs), so many people were ordering this to takeaway. highly recommended!

will also recommend their 心太软, aka molten lava choc cake. the hot choc just oozes out!!

concluded the day with a 小巴 ride. if I disliked taking the tram cos of its speed, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the 小巴 because it was SO FAST. it even comes with a speed reader thingy at the top left corner of the bus. (only 80-90km/hr for ours). but so speedy, and it bypasses all the stops where no one gets off, I LIKE.

only stressful part was shouting to the driver to drop us off, lucky for our hk pals. XX有落!!

I love 小巴!

day 4: 50 first dates

revitalized after a day of good food and sufficient sleep, we embarked on day 4 of activities!

voted for wet weather plan as it was still drizzling when we woke up. off to Central in search for my custard bun. ended up at 莲香楼 which reportedly has good dim sum, but NO CUSTARD BUN!!

no other pics as the food was disappointing :( but to it's credit, HK friends said we didn't try their specialities.

then proceeded to the Peak Tram station to get our tickets to the Peak and MADAM TUSSAUDS - highlight of my hk trip!

but as fate would have it, my cursed HK luck had me (ONLY ME) sitting on the wrong side of the tram, completely no sights on the way up. and it started to drizzle again.

took plenty of pics at the Peak but deleted all but two back in SG. hahaha simply too many shots of the same thing.

back to mdm tussauds!!~~

aww 好sweet喔!

not a wax statue, but my johnny, why you so hot?

气质女明星

okay, for the first time, i'm going to 公开 photos of 老公s and me!!

first up, 古惑仔 古天乐!!

teehee.

next, we also have Brad and 城城 郭富城!

sadly no tony leung. guess I'll have to make do with 德华.

now THIS guy, he has GOT to be my favourite among them all. BECKS!!

*swoon~~ this made my entire HK trip worthwhile.

also took a walk around the politicians exhibit:

and paid Obama a visit

poor Kuan Yew was looking lonely so I showed him some love.

then I also said hello to my 哥儿们 -

Einstein, 小龙, Jet and 姚明

and finally rocked it out with the musicians.

departed from tussauds a very contented xm :)

did a little sightseeing along antiques street (Hollywood road) and we left for star ferry to catch the Guinness record holding Symphony of Lights!

thank goodness the skies cleared up for the day.

arrival at the Avenue of Stars. and look, I found 偶像 tony's star!

nice scenery by day, even better by night.

SYMPHONY OF LIGHTS!! mehhh.

all I have to say is this: errr. thanks for the 10 minutes of music!

hk first timers can probably give this place a miss. maybe only worth visiting for phototaking..

on to Australian Dairy Company at Jordan for a late dinner. warning: it is really a very stressful experience. not a place to visit for slow eaters.

case in point: we were shown to a table for 4, where 2 of the seats were still occupied by a couple having their after-meal tea/coffee. I noticed that one of the cups was still about three-quarters full. Then the staff just said ok la, byebye la to the couple and started clearing their cups away. HAHAHA. no choice but to leave! epic experience.

have to admit, their toast and eggs were really good. macaroni a bit salty (again), maybe HK ppl just prefer a saltier diet?

set off for 女人街 where the items were mostly repetitive - card games, iPhone covers, shoes & bags in similar designs. thankfully I survived w/o any verbal abuse from the stallholders (then again, maybe cos I didn't get anything..)

HK continues to surprise me! Longchamp plastic bags for wet umbrellas!