One night in Mongkok....

(Warning! LOTS of pictures, may take time to load!)

....It was raining on an extremely cold and chilly night in December. The unmistakable smell of the famous 'chou toufu' filled the air. We had just came down after showering in the hope of exploring the place on our first night instead of wasting it away in dreamland. The rain got smaller, the locals started dashing across the streets, we joined in, ran from street to street and somehow ended up in the infamous Portland Street. The sight of the triads having their supper at the street cafes and the pimps and whores touting along the dark corners was a sight to behold. It was something new, it was the beginning of a long journey....

I'm back, in fact I was back long ago like afew days before this entry but I haven't had the chance to blog and I had like over 900 pictures to upload. It's impossible to place all 900+ photos on the blog so I've uploaded almost all of them onto my multiply photo album. The link is just below. Sum it up, HK + 1 day in Macau was great, I didn't wanted to come home. The x'Mas period especially had an x'Mas feel about it - something which Singapore lacks. Maybe it's the cold (i mean really cold) weather, maybe it's the way the locals there celebrate x'Mas (it's totally different from SG!) or maybe it's the sight of all those winter clothings, but nevertheless it was way better than Singapore and that's excatly what I was there for!

Hong Kong is a shopping paradise really, but I will say there are more girls stuff than guys and finally I can officially say that despite being winter, there were TONES of summer clothings on sale. Forget about those people who say winter sucks because it's all winter clothings. That sentence has 0% truth in it! I've also learnt how to walk fast and eat fast basically on the streets of HK everyone walks super fast and u just cannot stop suddenly when walking. Sometimes I felt I was living in the middle of Orchard Road on Christmas day or eve! This was my most memorable x'Mas ever and the entire trip was a big success!

A little diary of my trip, with the rest of the photos in my multiply album. Click the link below to view them.

Day 1
We spent the day shopping at the local markets like Fa Yuen Street, Ladies Street, and Temple Street Night Market after checking in. Also passed by the famous Goldfish market and went to Argyle Centre, a far east style mall selling basically all girls clothings and stuffs and the mall was so packed and hot we felt like we were in an oven! The sports street at Fa Yuen rocks, lots of bargain sportswear, bags, shoes, everything! A pair of Adidas sneakers which can't be found in SG costs only $80! Cheap! The street markets are always packed and crowded and finding a place to eat there was terrible! At our first meal, I followed the local way of standing behind people who are eating, stare at them when they eat, make them eat faster and buzz off so I can take the table. Yes that's how things work there, rude in SG but normal in HK! Don't even think of having a nice big table, we had to squeeze and share with others. Nice experience and the best part of it was all the menu were in chinese words which I can't read for nuts which means I had no idea what was available. I simply pointed to what others were eating! At night, we left Liyin to sleep in the room herself while Dino & I went down to walk around and ended up at Portland Street. We decided to sample one of their famous 'free preview' and headed upstairs into 1 of the many motels (or whatever u call it). 1 by 1 or in groups, the girls walk in while we sat on the bed, smoking and shaking our heads. We spent about 20 minutes shaking our heads much to the disappointment of the person who had hope we'd each take a girl. We had no intention of doing it anyway, just wanna have a look and laugh afterwards. We did, it was so funny and we headed back to rest early for what was going to be a busy x'Mas eve the next day.


Changi Airport


Dino trying to copy my stunt


Off we go...


Octopus card - can be used for basically anything!


Airport transfer bus


I told u I had no idea what I was ordering!


Fa Yuen Street






This is how they sell fish at goldfish street!


This desert cafe has excellent Mango Puddings!


Yummy! My bird nest mango pudding!


Goldfish Street






They sell cute pets on the streets too!


Argyle Centre, a Far East style mall (Packed with girls stall)


Mongkok junction crossing- can u see the huge crowd?


Temple Street Night Market


We had dinner here...


...and tried the local beer!


At Nathan Road waiting for bus


HK's 'Singapore Pools' but it was packed with people inside!


Mongkok MTR



Day 2
Took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui, followed by the star ferry across the habour to Central. The morning ride was great, there was no crowd, the weather was very chilly and breezy and the view of Hong Kong Island across the habour was clear and nice. Then we went shopping at Li Yuen Street East & West but not before grabbing some nice egg tarts and puffs along the way! Went to H&M too, the store rocks. Its to HK what Topshop is to SG and I bought some stuffs inside there. Had lunch at one of the many nice and great restaurants cum bar at SOHO. Food was great but the place was even better! How I wish SG had such a place. It's basically like a slope up a hill but along the way it's all filled with restaurants, pubs, bars and so on. Very good to chill off at night! We explored the entire SOHO and took the Tram too before heading back to Mongkok to shop around at the tallest shopping centre in HK - Langham Place. The mall was really talll and big with a variety of stuffs on sale. After that we headed back to prepare for the night. Went to Lam Kwai Fong for the countdown to x'Mas and guess what? There wasn't any countdown! Instead the locals had their own ways of celebrating x'Mas by dancing and doing all kinds of funny things on the streets. It was jam packed, every club was full house and the entire place was rocking. We went to chill off at 1 of the pubs after the 'countdown' before heading back to sleep! The atmosphere was something I won't find in SG and I won't forget it either.


Tsim Sha Tsui Pier






Inside the Star Ferry Pier terminal




Me & Dino on the star ferry


Great view across the habour, thats HK Island!


Great egg tarts but definitely not as good as those in Macau!


Drools!


H&M store








The longest escalator in the world!




This is SOHO!


We found this on the gates of 1 of the houses, have a laugh!


Yummy!






Lots of seafood at the local markets!


Traditional old convenience stalls

On the tram!


View from my tram window


Langham Place










Love this sports store!!


All soccer stuffs!!


And its all Liverpool stuffs, the owner must be a Liverpool fan like me!


View from the top of Langham Place


On the subway to Lam Kwai Fong




Lam Kwai Fong!




Found time to have sushi there!


Look at the crowd!








Police controlling the crowd flow lol


See it? Its a couple frenching in the 'x'Mas circle'!



Day 3
Went to Wong Tai Sin temple in the morning. It was a bad choice to dress up as all the incense smoke and ashes means I smelt like a temple dude afterwards. Terrible! We went to hang around at Habour City. The armani there was having great sales but I couldn't find my size for the jeans! Habour City is like Vivo city anyway so we get a view of the habour. It was x'Mas and along the Pier there were huge crowds snapping photos, singing songs and the whole place was basically rocking. We went back early to refresh and most importantly, change our clothes before heading to The Avenue of Stars to watch the Symphony of Lights at night. The whole place was crowded and it was so cold that I had to borrow Dino's sweater despite wearing 3 layers of clothings! The Symphony of Lights rocks, beautiful lights but unfortunately my camera sucks at taking pictures of bright lights at night! We then took the star ferry to Wanchai to have dinner before walking down to causeway bay to sample the atmosphere. Simple and nice x'Mas!


Electronic MTR map, its so much better than ours~!


Yau Ma Tei MTR Station




Avenue of Stars


Symphony of Lights


Andy Lau's handprints

Day 4
Woke up early and headed to Lantau Island. The place was quite warm unlike HK or Kowloon and packed with tourists. There, I took the most thrilling bus ride of my life to Po Lin Monastery where the Big Buddha lies. The whole place is like a hill and the roads were bumpy and extremely narrow and yet the driver drove like the bus is some Ferrari car! I felt like throwing up my breakfast throughout the 25mins journey! Lantau Island has some of the most natural and beautiful views of mountains, hills and rivers that I've ever seen. I guess alot of movies were shot here on the mountains. We climbed afew mountains as well thanks to Dino's enthusiasm and because of that, we had no time for Disneyland which turned out to be a blessing in disguie as the place was said to be small and very expensive. Hence we went to Tai O village in Lantau Island instead. There, we took the speed boat out to sea to watch dolphins and had a sample of the simple village life. The village's main source of income is the sea which means they specialise in Seafood. So we couldn't resist trying one of the seafood restaurants there which turned out to be good in terms of the food especially the crab.


Po Lin Monastery


After climbing 295 steps to the big buddha statue!




Look at the background! This is how far I've freaking walked and climb!! Exhausted!


Help!!


Tai O village at night its extremely errie!



Rest of the days
Yes I'm getting lazy, well I will just summarize it up. The rest of the highlights include Ocean Park where I took the most scary ride aka 'The Abyss' which is almost 40 storeys high and plunges u down like nobody business not once but twice! I'm brave unlike Dino who took zero rides!! I wonder if he paid $40+ to watch the pandas & animals!

Then of course we went to the Victoria Peak where the view at night was amazing and it could have been alot better if not for the weather being kinda foggy! Damn it and boy the place was the coldest in the entire HK! I regret not wearing more cool and everyone was just shivering down there! The dinner at the restaurant on the peak was fantastic mainly because it gives us a perfect view of the peak!

Macau was all about casino and shoppings. The stuffs there are about the same prices as HK but the variety is alot better. The egg tarts were heavenly, I've never eaten such nice egg tarts in my life! But the downside is the fucking ferry terminal in Macau in which we took 2 fucking hours to get through customs! The whole place was a disaster waiting to happen - no proper lane markings, no proper security and everyone doesnt know where to queue but push and push I felt like suffocating! Of course we visited the Casino save for Liyin who choose to sleep in the room. Sometimes I felt like I'm in Las Vegas with all those bright lights and people all over the streets. Visited afew Casinos but I like Sands the best as it's more leisure kind and there were people performing on the stages. I'm a cheapo, I drink alot of free beer, wine and other drinks whilst at the Casinos. Dino brought me to watch an adult show there as well and I swear I will never watch one anymore in my life. It was so fucking lame, stupid and pathetic! Yes pathetic is the word! I felt the entire thing was so boring I felt the couple giggling in 1 corner was more interesting than what was going on at the stage. After every show, the girls will go around collecting tips from every single person! I felt like it was some scram or something. I don't understand why we paid $80 SGD each to watch such a fucking stupid show! Anyway the person said the show had ended after just 4 shows and I feel so mad like we were conned of our money!


Ocean Park!


Animal show for dino muahhaha!


The Abyss!!!!


Spot me?


View of the park....see how tall the Abyss is?




In the restaurant at Victoria Peak


Most delicious chicken ever!


Cafe Deco


Victoria Peak, I'm at the top of......HK!


Stupid Macau Ferry Terminal! Wasted 2hrs here to clear customs!


Emperor Hotel


The ruins of St Pauls'


Casino Lisboa


The streets of Macau at night






The fountain at Whymm casino/hotel.....!










OX noodles, some find it disgusting i find it nice!






Baby Pigeon - A delicay!


Traditional chinese herbal soup....tastes.....omg..


Very bitter!


We saw this street protest by over 3000 mainland chinese people while walking on the streets!




Preparing to depart!


Baking those delicious doughnuts!


I almost missed my flight while buying these doughnuts!


The most delicious doughnuts ever!

My Christmas Present for myself! Heh!