Hong Kong

We spent 4 days in Hong Kong, mainly for shopping as we've all been there a few times previously either with full tour itinerary or free&easy tours which also do some sightseeing. So all we did this time was, wake up-eat-shop-eat-shop-eat-shop-eat-sleep :D. A total turnaround from the trips I've done in a long long time. The last time I've done this was way back in 2004!

Red taxis!

We made reservations at Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok which itself was a pretty decent hotel but I have to say that MRT station isn't all that close at all. The actual 'station' that is located under the hotel was actually a train station instead.

Hotel lobby

Our rooom

The mall is located next to the hotel, which is connected to the lobby. Really convenient. There is also a Pacific Coffee branch in the mall on the 2nd floor which provides free internet access for it's customers :D. *No need for hotel broadband access - the charges are ridiculous for this age and time! HKD 120/day or HKD 40/hour for access in your rooms*

We were starving when we got there and quickly headed out for a late lunch at Tsim Sha Tsui. We stumbled across a quaint little shop in a smaller alley, which caters a lot for the locals. It just had that charm - though there was several times I felt a little intimidated by the staffs there :( . But the food wasn't too bad for a random shop that we just selected :D.

Doesn't it just reminds you of the shops in HK dramas??

Lunch/Tea

It started raining pretty heavily after that, and we had to walk in and out of buildings to minimize being drenched by rain. It wasn't all that fun, to be honest but we finally got ourselves umbrellas after an hour or so, AND IT STOPPED RAINING after that. *sigh*

Came across a cute Mr Softie Ice-cream car :D

We spent a fair bit of time window shopping along Nathan Road and Canton Road in TST. Wanted to try the porridge and wan tan noodles on Canton Road initially, but we were still too full from our late lunch to do so.

After spending a fair bit of time (and $$) at one of the shops in TST, we headed back to Mongkok for supper before returning to the hotel as we were already pretty tired by then. But not before some curry fishballs!! And 'kai tan chai'!! :D

We had supper at a char chan teng opposite the stall above, but the food wasn't great so on our way back to the hotel, we got more of these :

A : You've made a new addition to my favourite foods!! :D

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The next day started with an A++ breakfast! :D I absolutely love char chan tengs. I don't know why, but somehow they have this appeal *to me anyway* Hehehe..

My breakky - Nissin + Egg + Ham :)

There was a crepe shop just beneath our hotel, in the mall, which apparently sold pretty decent crepes. I didn't have any, but they did look pretty yummy. Good enough for a second buy the next day... Hehehe

Isn't the display pretty? :)

While going through tripadvisor a few days before we left, I came across a thread that recommended Space, which was a prada outlet in Aberdeen. Not exactly a factory outlet, but they do sell goods at a lower price, though they may be either last season's, or in funky colours. Getting there was a little adventure itself. We took the double decker public bus :).

We didn't know where exactly the shop was and which bus stop to stop at, so we kept a lookout for it. Luckily, we saw it and got off right in front of Marina Square, with apartments and the sea nearby.

View in front of Marina Square

I love tall buildings :)

Dark, angry clouds on the horizon

There wasn't much to get at Space, so we left after a few pictures and headed back to Central for some shopping :). On our way there, we saw a group of protestors. What they were protesting about, we had no idea. Or rather, I had no idea..

It was a long long line of protestors - but calmly done though

Anyway, made our way to IFC Mall which didn't have all that much to offer after where we've been, but a view of the harbour it certainly had.

Outside IFC

IFC

We decided to give our poor feets a rest and decided to head to the top floor of the mall, where there was an outdoor dining area and enjoyed the view. Sigh, I bet the view's much much better without the cloudy skies :(.

We initially wanted to wait till dark so that we could take the Star Ferry back to Kowloon, but it was only 4:30 p.m at that time, and that means waiting for 3 hours with nothing to do!! Gave up on that idea and headed back to Kowloon for Temple Street.

Look at the crowd!

Temple Street

We decided to have dinner at the other end of Temple Street as we were too lazy to retrace our steps back to the earlier dinner crowd. That turned out to be a bad decision. Dinner was probably one of the least okay meals we've had in HK. The only thing that turned out okay was the braised goose.

Braised goose

It was time for dessert after that - Hui Lau Shan!! Where else!?! *grin* I remember the last time I went with a friend many many years ago. We practically lived on the mango desserts. It was for brunch, tea and dinner/supper. At least 2 meals a day!

Bird nest boiled in coconut milk

Mango + Jelly + Mango Ice-cream

Mango + Sago

Look at the amounts of mangos that they put in the bowls! Plentiful! Hehehe...

After that, we decided to walk on Nathan Street to Prince Edward Street from Mongkok MRT instead of the pedestrian bridge so that we could see a little more before going back to the hotel. See a little more we certainly did. They bought 3 pairs of shoes!! :D

Nathan Rd @ Mongkok