The vibrant city of Hong Kong

On my way back from US early last month (Feb), I make a stop in Hong Kong for a 3D2N self-tour with my colleague. The flight from San Francisco to Penang via Hong Kong transit required travelers to wait in HK airport for about 7hrs before HK -> Penang plane take flight. I'd rather fork out some extra money for a visit in the bustling city of HK than to sit 7hrs in the airport doing nothing.

I reach HK on an early Saturday morning, it was the weekend before CNY. I have never stepped foot in Hong Kong before and thus feeling excited. I have start to observe the weather and temperature in HK a few days before the trip, unfortunately it had been raining all those while and forecast for the next few days shows that it is going to rain too. I can only hope that the weather forecast is inaccurate.

As soon as we reach HK airport, our plan is to check into the hotel first because we couldn't go anywhere with 2 29" luggage each and a laptop bag on our back. We took a taxi from the airport straight to the hotel. There are many other alternatives to go out from HK Airport to various places, the HK Airport website has all the information you needed including luggage storage, flight info and transport from bus number to taxi color to taxi fare. I find it very very useful for first time visitors.

I stayed in Holiday Inn-Golden Mile in Kowloon, it is a very expensive hotel. Well, all hotels are expensive in HK. A decent hotel in the city cost at least RM600 and above. However, I get to stay free thanks to the Priority Club reward points I collected throughout my stay in US.
(feel free to click on the links provided in this entry, I don't earn money from it, I just provide the link as a way to share travel information with would-be HK visitor, it will be useful for me to look back these info in the future too)

I get a double bed all to myself

The hotel room was only so-so, it did not impress me very much for such an expensive hotel. Although the bed and the comforter was very comfortable to sleep in, the lousy air conditioning system doesn't make me comfortable. I set the temperature to the highest available but seems like the air-cond is from a main system and were not under my control. It was so cold, the outside temp was already unbearably cold and yet when I'm back to the room, I couldn't get any warmer. Beh tahan~!

Looking over to HK Island from Kowloon. Couldn't get much of the sky scrapper view...too foggy

As soon as we put our luggage down, we left for our first destination, The Avenue of Stars. It was actually walking distance from the hotel. It was drizzling at the time, luckily I had my waterproof jacket with me, bought that for skiing while I was in US.

Who's that silly girl standing under the rain taking picture?

The forecast was accurate, it rained almost for the whole day! What a spoiler... :(

After the walking from one end of Avenue of Stars to the other end, we walk to a nearby char chan teng for a late breakfast. My pants were a bit wet because the jacket only cover the top half, so was my shoe.

Polo pau and chee cheong fun in the background

I thought polo means pineapple, so polo pau should mean pineapple bread rite? This polo pau I tried does not taste anything like pineapple, but inside were thick layer of butter...nevertheless it taste very good. Chee cheong fun not very nice, too salty. And I also tried yin yeong (milk tea mix with coffee)...nice~

After the satisfying meal, we walk to the nearest MTR station to take a train to Wong Tai Sin temple. Wong Tai Sin is the famous temple we always heard about in HK drama, whenever there is anything bad happen in the family, the mother will usually go pai pai in Wong Tai Sin.

In front of the temple

It was still drizzling, it was about 12pm that time and the temperature was around 11C. The wet weather did not stop people from going to the temple to pray. There were a lot of people there, praying with the umbrella clip between their neck and shoulder.

Look at all the people there...and the umbrellas

I guess people were not allowed to go into the temple because all these people put the chicken and bbq pork and joss stick on the floor outside the temple.

A way to thank god for his blessing throughout the year before the arrival of another new year

Initially, I imagine the temple to be located in some rural area, with village houses in the surrounding. How wrong can I be? Being a country famous for it's high rise, even the temple is surrounded by tall flats all around it. There is also a shopping complex not far beside the temple called Lung Cheong Mall.

The high rise flat just beside the temple

I only prayed by putting both hands together, did not buy any joss stick to pray. After walking around the temple and satisfied myself with photo snapping, we take the MTR back to Tsim Tsa Tsui station and walk to the Ferry jetty. We're going to take the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island, Wan Chai to be specific.

The clock tower at Star Ferry pier

There's a time table of the Star ferry in their website, basically the ferry departs every 10 to 20 mins and it takes about 8mins to reach the opposite side.

This is the Star ferry...look at the sky, still as cloudy/foggy as ever

We're actually heading to Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai. This is the place where the historical occasion took place, the handover of HK from British to (People's Republic of China) PRC.

At Wan Chai...just less than 1km walking distance from ferry pier to Golden Bauhinia Square

The rain was getting heavier by now. Water starts to seep into my sport shoes. Sigh...what a bad time to travel...

The Golden Bauhinia Square (金紫荊廣場)

Next stop, we're heading to Times Square but before that it's time for 3pm afternoon tea. We're on the lookout of another char chan teng while on the way to Time Square on foot. Found one with air cond and they have teatime set meal.

'Nai char' and 'gong chai meen'

In HK, they have a lot of underground walkway which connects different exit to one MTR station. This means that we get to walk in a dry and warm condition even though the rain is pouring outside.

HK Times Square in Causeway Bay

Nothing too impressive to say about Times Square. I think the Times Square in KL is better, or maybe I have this opinion because it was so pack inside the building that I just do not have mood to walk around it too much. Mind you, the rain is pouring heavily outside at this time and it is the weekend before CNY, means it's indoor time + shopping time. Surely pack lor...

Xu Liu San must have a lot of shops around HK because on my short stay here, I saw 3 of this shop at 3 different location. It is a shop selling mango-made dessert, I get to know this shop from Kenny Sia's blog long time ago. His entry stuck in mind since I read his blog, and as soon as I know I'll be visiting HK, I dig this entry back from his blog to get more information. This branch that I went, the size of the shop is extremely small and it is located just opposite Time Square (opp. the Time Square photo above).

Xu Liu Shan, dessert shop opp. Time Square

Order this set of 3 different types for HK$30

I wouldn't say it's the best dessert I've ever tasted because the mango is a bit sour (I don't like sour food) but yeah, they look so nice and taste OK. I'd give 6.5 marks out of 10. I like their lor pak kou (carrot cake), they added mushroom into the carrot cake making it much more delicious. I pack the carrot cake for supper :)

It was time to leave Causeway Bay back to Tsim Tsa Tsui. This time, we take MTR from the Wan Chai station to Tsim Tsa Tsui station. Next on the itinerary is the laser light show at Avenue of Stars at 8pm, it is called A Symphony of Light show. Laser light is shone from the building on the other side of the bay (The HK Island side) as well as from Kowloon side.

Skyscraper on HK Island side taken from Kowloon

I did not take photos during the show, I only take pictures before and after the laser light show. No more rain at that time.

The laser light last for about 15mins. At 8pm sharp, there was an announcement saying that the show will begin in a short while. There's also music playing in the background. Throughout the show, hrmm...not throughout la...just at the beginning of the show, they will introduce each building on the other side. The recorded voice will say out the building name at the same time, the light on the building will lights up. They present on different languages depending on days, that day during my visit, it was the turn for Mandarin.

The hill behind those buildings is Victoria Peak

Overall, I'm not impress with the show. There is no highlight on a particular building at a time, everything just lights up here and there, everywhere, not systematic. I just didn't know where to look or what to see, it gets boring after awhile even though the show is only 15mins.

After the show, we walk back to our hotel. Had been walking for almost the whole day, everywhere also seems to be in walking distance. So convenient. So, that's the first day of my HK trip. HK seems to be very much like Singapore, with it's systematic integrated MTR, color-coded to serve different area. Don't forget to get yourselves the multipurpose Octopus card, you'll get discounted price using it to pay for public transport. Also similar with Singapore are the high-rise buildings and flats.

There is not much difficulty in planning for a self-tour in HK, all information needed is available online, just need to Google them up. At the airport, plenty of brochures are available for you to choose from.