not sure if overly-packed itinerary or lazy travellers
so i went to hongkong recently for 5 days and as the title implies i was mad exhausted by the end of the trip - still not sure if it's because we did too many things or because we are just too lazy
travel buddy: bff milkloaf
day1: flight + dinner at mongkok
so we took jetstar to hongkong, which i think is okay! pretty short flight so prepare your own book/movie and time passes quite quickly. landed at hkia and everything was quite hassle free cause their airport is one of the best airports in the world. took the airport express (kind of like an extension of their normal mtr line) to change to the city trains and then to mongkok! thank god our hostel was quite near to the mtr so we found the place quite easily :) we stayed at oi suen guest house which is at sincere house, 83 argyle street. location is awesome but the room is tiny! it's not that cheap, about $40+ sgd per night but by hk standards it's pretty decent alr!
there's this awesome curry fishballs stall and stinky tofu store right downstairs our hostel! i recommend the former yumss. we headed down argyle street for dinner at some porridge place. not sure if we were too hungry but it tasted v good :D haha
also when we landed the weather was 9degrees so it was quite chilly :/ it was colder than what we expected haha lucky there was water heater and lucky i borrowed cute socks from karmeemoo
day 2: disneyland + supper w baldwin
so we went to disneyland on tuesday after breakfast at this horrid place with the worst lemon tea ever!!! haha disneyland is mad awesome :) think we were lucky cause the queues were all damn short! like 5 minutes on average. the longest we queued was to take photo with mickey and minnie mouse which was one hour zzzz!! best things in disneyland are 1. space mountain (the indoor rollercoaster ride) - we took this 4 times!! took it enough times to know whr the camera was and for us to smile at the camera :) 2. toy story land !!! (the parachute freefall ride and the andy's toy car viking-like ride) - i have to say i'm rlly impressed by toy story land :) it's very pretty and the rides are pretty good! 3. THE PARADE AND THE FIREWORKS - best thing ever, life feels complete after that :) hard to describe in detail but disneyland makes you feel like a kid, and it's a great feeling i don't think anybody can be sad in disneyland hahaha so my advice is --> hk disneyland may be small but it's worth it if you go at non-peak periods cause you can cover quite a lot of rides and disney is still disney anw :')
so we left ard 8plus and went back to the hostel for a bit and then rested for a while then went to meet baldwin at yaumatei to have claypot rice at somewhr along the temple street night market. claypot rice was okay but it was very good to meet up w a friend i haven't seen for months :) ate dessert at the famous xu liu shan place near mongkok, thanks for the treat bowwin!!
in the bottom right hand corner of the picture above you can also see how tiny our room is hahaha the beds are ok and there is just enough space to open our luggages but the toilet. is. so. small. we. have. to. sit. sideways. on. the. toilet. bowl. 'nuff said. (and also the wifi only worked near the entrance of the room, so it was v unstable! a much stronger signal was for the wifi under this dude wilson fok, wish we could've asked him to lend us his wifi :( )
day 3: tim ho wan + h&m + the peak
so we woke up.......... late cause we didnt set an alarm hahaha and we headed to sham shui po for tim ho wan! we didnt wanna go to the main branch for fear of having to queue so long we'd lose interest and thank god because at this branch we only had t queue for like ten minutes! hongkong eateries are mad packed though, they squeeze many people (strangers) at each table to make sure the queues are minimised which is kind of weird....... within 10cm of us were a table of father and son and we could hear their convos clearly! not that i can understand since my cantonese is like fail to the ends of the world but it just feels a bit uncomfortable hahaha also another point abt moving ard in hk, it's pretty manageable even if you cant speak cantonese cause most of the stuff are in chinese and the people CAN speak chinese although their default language is cantonese but if you give them clueless looks when they ask you stuff in cantonese, they usually get the message and repeat the same thing to you in chinese hahaha :)
so after breakfast we headed to central - which is supposed to be the CBD of HK and walked ard for a bit...... headed to h&m after many wrong turns haha and bought stuff!! many things were on sale there haha so we shopped liberally for quite a while. side point: we later found out that 100m from our place at mongkok was another h&m -.- but i guess the central outlet is the biggest one so it was worth our time lah hahaha
then we took the tram up to the peak..... which is a nightmare zz everyone pushing and shoving to get on and queues that go on forever sigh. and actually when we went up to the peak it was nothing much?? it was just like yeah the view of the CBD which is ok.... except we were a bit too high up so we rlly only saw the top of the buildings hahaha. we managed to sit at the sky terrace until the sun set (as can be seen from the darkening skies in the photo) before we were too cold to take it and we headed to a coffee joint for comforting hot coffee. bumped into nicholas at the peak TRULY A SMALL WORLD !! had t queue for v long to come down again sigh the tram is rlly not worth it?? will take the cab up the next time!
came back and had dinner/supper at one cafe which cnn listed as best bolo bun under the 40 hongkong foods not to miss. this one is at tung choi street which is the same street as our place in mongkok! the bolo bun had a very very crispy top but it wasnt sweet enough imo! also had swiss chicken wings and fishball noodles (see top left hand corner of pic below)
day 4: dialogue in the dark + tsim sha tsui
the next day we woke up early to hav breakfast at another cnn recommended cafe for bolo buns. this one was at bute street also near mongkok. the bolo bun here was much much much better! i liked it more cause the crispy top had a nice sugary sweetness to it, yums!! but crowded cafe and in our tiny round table were 5 ppl superrr awkward sometimes hahaha
then we headed to mei foo mtr and a short walk to the dialogue in the dark exhibition location. dialogue in the dark is this activity where you are brought into a totally dark room and are made to use your other sense to feel the surroundings. it's like stepping into the shoes of a blind person! they have this in sg too (at ngee ann poly) and i highly recommend it. it's much harder than it sounds but it's rlly rlly worth the experience! wanted to have lunch at lin heung tea house (known for its dimsum) but we were too lazy to wait cause it was mad crowded and we ended up eating at a roasted meats place nearby at central.
then we went to buy some wingwah wife cakes and tights at ladies market and because we were too exhausted, we went back for a nap. i know you are thinking WHAT A NAP DURING A HOLIDAY?? YOU CAN DO THAT AT HOME PLS. but rlly we walked abt 3000miles to find the wingwah wife cakes cause we didnt know which shop it was along nathan road (a road which stretches more than 3 mtr stations) and 2 minutes before finding we were ready to give up........ SO WHEN WE FOUND IT WE WERE LIKE OMG WE FOUND IT BETTER BUY MORE. and after buying we came to a consensus that we were too tired to even do anything so we went back for a nap hahahaha
woke upa t around 7.30pm and left for tsim sha tsui to watch the symphony of lights show at the avenue of stars. pretty okay i mean must see but nothing spectacular actually haha but i like the waterfront, the breeze feels v good and is a good place to sit and chill. took a ferry across the harbour to central and went home from there! picked up some buns adn egg tarts for supper and headed home after that hahaha
BY NOW YOU ARE THINKING THIS IS A DAMN LAZY HOLIDAY BUT RLLY !!! I WALKED SO MUCH I DONT EVEN BELIEVE IT
day 5: australian dairy company + ocean park + taicheong egg tarts
so we had breakfast at this palce near jordan mtr, australia dairy company, recommended by cnn for it's scrambled eggs sandwich and yessss it is very very very good! everyone should have the breakfast set there :) then we headed to ocean park!! mtr to admiralty then bus 629 straight to ocean park.
ocean park is......very different from disneyland. for one the rides are MUCH SCARIER! but the view is awesome because it's built on a hill next to the sea (?) so you get spectacular views when you take the cable car there! we took this mega scary rollercoaster, god knows whr we even got the guts to do so hahahaha the lower section of it is the aquarium and the panda exhibit but the top of the mountain (accessible by cable car and train) is for the rides. the park feels a little older but it's still pretty good, some of the rides are tooo scary to even take haha. for me personally disneyland > ocean park! just because disneyland really got the feel hahaha
then we went back and on the way made a huge detour to get these tai cheong egg tarts which you see on the top right. the story is we went to look for it at the tsim sha tsui ferry terminal the previous day but IT WAS CLOSED. also we forgot to go to the central outlet when we were at central and because we heard sooooooo many good things about it we just had to go get it! so we detoured to east mongkok mtr station to get them AND THEY WERE INDEED GOOD. THE SHORTCRUST PASTRY IS PERFECT AND THE EGGYNESS WAS JUST RIGHT. EVERYONE HAS TO EAT THIS IF YOU GO TO HONGKONG!! also picked up some wanton mee (at a mongkok eatery recommended in the lonely planet for hk book) and ate back at the hostel because we were truly too exhausted to dine in and be rushed through our meal at the eateries.
day 6: flight back to sg!
so the last day, we were v poor by now so we decided to have breakfast and lunch together hahah we woke up and took the train to the airport and had lunch there! got pissed at people cutting our queue while checking in (why do disputes also happen to me at checking in?? *note taiwan trip where i had pseudo argument with aunties*) ate porridge and chee cheong fun and had to hurry check in! and then took the plane ride back to sg :)
OVERALL
my impression of hongkong is definitely not as good as taiwan. i mean the food is quite good but it's not cheap at all (Costs about the same or more than sg). other than the food the only other thing i loved about hongkong must have been the cooling weather there. other than that........the people weren't very friendly, everyone operates on a fast forward mode just like in singapore. people push and shove on the streets, people rush into trains before others alight and drivers honk at each other allllll the time it's scary. i would come back again for the food but not for the country itself. makes me wonder if cities (like sg and hk) actually discount this portion just for economic growth and development sigh, guess if i dont like hk there must be some part of sg that i don't like too hahaha
but i'm glad i took this trip, love the bff and love our laziness which manifested throughout our holiday. it was fun, and a good way to start 2012! :)
travel buddy: bff milkloaf
day1: flight + dinner at mongkok
so we took jetstar to hongkong, which i think is okay! pretty short flight so prepare your own book/movie and time passes quite quickly. landed at hkia and everything was quite hassle free cause their airport is one of the best airports in the world. took the airport express (kind of like an extension of their normal mtr line) to change to the city trains and then to mongkok! thank god our hostel was quite near to the mtr so we found the place quite easily :) we stayed at oi suen guest house which is at sincere house, 83 argyle street. location is awesome but the room is tiny! it's not that cheap, about $40+ sgd per night but by hk standards it's pretty decent alr!
there's this awesome curry fishballs stall and stinky tofu store right downstairs our hostel! i recommend the former yumss. we headed down argyle street for dinner at some porridge place. not sure if we were too hungry but it tasted v good :D haha
also when we landed the weather was 9degrees so it was quite chilly :/ it was colder than what we expected haha lucky there was water heater and lucky i borrowed cute socks from karmeemoo
day 2: disneyland + supper w baldwin
so we went to disneyland on tuesday after breakfast at this horrid place with the worst lemon tea ever!!! haha disneyland is mad awesome :) think we were lucky cause the queues were all damn short! like 5 minutes on average. the longest we queued was to take photo with mickey and minnie mouse which was one hour zzzz!! best things in disneyland are 1. space mountain (the indoor rollercoaster ride) - we took this 4 times!! took it enough times to know whr the camera was and for us to smile at the camera :) 2. toy story land !!! (the parachute freefall ride and the andy's toy car viking-like ride) - i have to say i'm rlly impressed by toy story land :) it's very pretty and the rides are pretty good! 3. THE PARADE AND THE FIREWORKS - best thing ever, life feels complete after that :) hard to describe in detail but disneyland makes you feel like a kid, and it's a great feeling i don't think anybody can be sad in disneyland hahaha so my advice is --> hk disneyland may be small but it's worth it if you go at non-peak periods cause you can cover quite a lot of rides and disney is still disney anw :')
so we left ard 8plus and went back to the hostel for a bit and then rested for a while then went to meet baldwin at yaumatei to have claypot rice at somewhr along the temple street night market. claypot rice was okay but it was very good to meet up w a friend i haven't seen for months :) ate dessert at the famous xu liu shan place near mongkok, thanks for the treat bowwin!!
in the bottom right hand corner of the picture above you can also see how tiny our room is hahaha the beds are ok and there is just enough space to open our luggages but the toilet. is. so. small. we. have. to. sit. sideways. on. the. toilet. bowl. 'nuff said. (and also the wifi only worked near the entrance of the room, so it was v unstable! a much stronger signal was for the wifi under this dude wilson fok, wish we could've asked him to lend us his wifi :( )
day 3: tim ho wan + h&m + the peak
so we woke up.......... late cause we didnt set an alarm hahaha and we headed to sham shui po for tim ho wan! we didnt wanna go to the main branch for fear of having to queue so long we'd lose interest and thank god because at this branch we only had t queue for like ten minutes! hongkong eateries are mad packed though, they squeeze many people (strangers) at each table to make sure the queues are minimised which is kind of weird....... within 10cm of us were a table of father and son and we could hear their convos clearly! not that i can understand since my cantonese is like fail to the ends of the world but it just feels a bit uncomfortable hahaha also another point abt moving ard in hk, it's pretty manageable even if you cant speak cantonese cause most of the stuff are in chinese and the people CAN speak chinese although their default language is cantonese but if you give them clueless looks when they ask you stuff in cantonese, they usually get the message and repeat the same thing to you in chinese hahaha :)
so after breakfast we headed to central - which is supposed to be the CBD of HK and walked ard for a bit...... headed to h&m after many wrong turns haha and bought stuff!! many things were on sale there haha so we shopped liberally for quite a while. side point: we later found out that 100m from our place at mongkok was another h&m -.- but i guess the central outlet is the biggest one so it was worth our time lah hahaha
then we took the tram up to the peak..... which is a nightmare zz everyone pushing and shoving to get on and queues that go on forever sigh. and actually when we went up to the peak it was nothing much?? it was just like yeah the view of the CBD which is ok.... except we were a bit too high up so we rlly only saw the top of the buildings hahaha. we managed to sit at the sky terrace until the sun set (as can be seen from the darkening skies in the photo) before we were too cold to take it and we headed to a coffee joint for comforting hot coffee. bumped into nicholas at the peak TRULY A SMALL WORLD !! had t queue for v long to come down again sigh the tram is rlly not worth it?? will take the cab up the next time!
came back and had dinner/supper at one cafe which cnn listed as best bolo bun under the 40 hongkong foods not to miss. this one is at tung choi street which is the same street as our place in mongkok! the bolo bun had a very very crispy top but it wasnt sweet enough imo! also had swiss chicken wings and fishball noodles (see top left hand corner of pic below)
day 4: dialogue in the dark + tsim sha tsui
the next day we woke up early to hav breakfast at another cnn recommended cafe for bolo buns. this one was at bute street also near mongkok. the bolo bun here was much much much better! i liked it more cause the crispy top had a nice sugary sweetness to it, yums!! but crowded cafe and in our tiny round table were 5 ppl superrr awkward sometimes hahaha
then we headed to mei foo mtr and a short walk to the dialogue in the dark exhibition location. dialogue in the dark is this activity where you are brought into a totally dark room and are made to use your other sense to feel the surroundings. it's like stepping into the shoes of a blind person! they have this in sg too (at ngee ann poly) and i highly recommend it. it's much harder than it sounds but it's rlly rlly worth the experience! wanted to have lunch at lin heung tea house (known for its dimsum) but we were too lazy to wait cause it was mad crowded and we ended up eating at a roasted meats place nearby at central.
then we went to buy some wingwah wife cakes and tights at ladies market and because we were too exhausted, we went back for a nap. i know you are thinking WHAT A NAP DURING A HOLIDAY?? YOU CAN DO THAT AT HOME PLS. but rlly we walked abt 3000miles to find the wingwah wife cakes cause we didnt know which shop it was along nathan road (a road which stretches more than 3 mtr stations) and 2 minutes before finding we were ready to give up........ SO WHEN WE FOUND IT WE WERE LIKE OMG WE FOUND IT BETTER BUY MORE. and after buying we came to a consensus that we were too tired to even do anything so we went back for a nap hahahaha
woke upa t around 7.30pm and left for tsim sha tsui to watch the symphony of lights show at the avenue of stars. pretty okay i mean must see but nothing spectacular actually haha but i like the waterfront, the breeze feels v good and is a good place to sit and chill. took a ferry across the harbour to central and went home from there! picked up some buns adn egg tarts for supper and headed home after that hahaha
BY NOW YOU ARE THINKING THIS IS A DAMN LAZY HOLIDAY BUT RLLY !!! I WALKED SO MUCH I DONT EVEN BELIEVE IT
day 5: australian dairy company + ocean park + taicheong egg tarts
so we had breakfast at this palce near jordan mtr, australia dairy company, recommended by cnn for it's scrambled eggs sandwich and yessss it is very very very good! everyone should have the breakfast set there :) then we headed to ocean park!! mtr to admiralty then bus 629 straight to ocean park.
ocean park is......very different from disneyland. for one the rides are MUCH SCARIER! but the view is awesome because it's built on a hill next to the sea (?) so you get spectacular views when you take the cable car there! we took this mega scary rollercoaster, god knows whr we even got the guts to do so hahahaha the lower section of it is the aquarium and the panda exhibit but the top of the mountain (accessible by cable car and train) is for the rides. the park feels a little older but it's still pretty good, some of the rides are tooo scary to even take haha. for me personally disneyland > ocean park! just because disneyland really got the feel hahaha
then we went back and on the way made a huge detour to get these tai cheong egg tarts which you see on the top right. the story is we went to look for it at the tsim sha tsui ferry terminal the previous day but IT WAS CLOSED. also we forgot to go to the central outlet when we were at central and because we heard sooooooo many good things about it we just had to go get it! so we detoured to east mongkok mtr station to get them AND THEY WERE INDEED GOOD. THE SHORTCRUST PASTRY IS PERFECT AND THE EGGYNESS WAS JUST RIGHT. EVERYONE HAS TO EAT THIS IF YOU GO TO HONGKONG!! also picked up some wanton mee (at a mongkok eatery recommended in the lonely planet for hk book) and ate back at the hostel because we were truly too exhausted to dine in and be rushed through our meal at the eateries.
day 6: flight back to sg!
so the last day, we were v poor by now so we decided to have breakfast and lunch together hahah we woke up and took the train to the airport and had lunch there! got pissed at people cutting our queue while checking in (why do disputes also happen to me at checking in?? *note taiwan trip where i had pseudo argument with aunties*) ate porridge and chee cheong fun and had to hurry check in! and then took the plane ride back to sg :)
OVERALL
my impression of hongkong is definitely not as good as taiwan. i mean the food is quite good but it's not cheap at all (Costs about the same or more than sg). other than the food the only other thing i loved about hongkong must have been the cooling weather there. other than that........the people weren't very friendly, everyone operates on a fast forward mode just like in singapore. people push and shove on the streets, people rush into trains before others alight and drivers honk at each other allllll the time it's scary. i would come back again for the food but not for the country itself. makes me wonder if cities (like sg and hk) actually discount this portion just for economic growth and development sigh, guess if i dont like hk there must be some part of sg that i don't like too hahaha
but i'm glad i took this trip, love the bff and love our laziness which manifested throughout our holiday. it was fun, and a good way to start 2012! :)