and so the long awaited trip to HK was finally here.
i've been itching to return to HK since my last trip there barely even a year ago. and so when ber and wil agreed with the idea of going there to visit hoifai, i was ecstatic! alright i admit im terribly biased when it comes to HK. i don't need a reason to go back there. haha.
we had an early flight which was good because it meant that we reached HK before it turned dark
breakfast at popeyes, and then it was a whole round of camwhoring in the depature lounge
on board!
the view of all the random little islands around singapore and malaysia. i know, i'm fascinated by the strangest things! and i think i'm now completely spoiled. nothing but SQ for me!and barely 3.5 hours later (yes somehow they discovered a way to fly to hong kong in a shorter period of time in the past 11 months) we were landing at the airport!
it's foggy HK once again! :)
apparently there was a strike at the airport just before we arrived (thank god we missed it! some flights had their luggage delayed and had to wait for a couple of hours). no wonder all the staff were scowling. HAHA.we hopped on A21 towards the city
our hotel, Cityview, right off Yau Ma Tei. super convenient! and it was pretty nice although for more than a hundred bucks than the previous hotel i stayed in (Largos at Jordan), it could have been alot better.
but alright, no complaints about the size of the room. service was good too :)fai was waiting for us at the hotel when we checked in, and so we immediately dumped our luggage in our room, got our coats and headed over to our first destination: Avenue of Stars! yes i've been there before but the frosty sea breeze and the breathtaking city skylights always warrants a second visit!
it was a lovely 16 degrees out there.we hit our first shopping spot at Tsim Sha Tsui, adidas being the first order of business of the day! shopping may be expensive in HK but adidas is FOREVER CHEAP! and ahem. the male sales assistants are all really cute.;)
we had dinner at a small eatery along the way, somewhere near East Tsim Sha Tsui station. (fai said it was somewhere near the Little India of Hong Kong. -_-)
because of the cold, hot soup is always welcomed!after dinner, we took a leisurely walk through this gigantic overhead bridge-slash-open air garden towards the harbour
gorgeous isn't it? man, pictures like these make me feel glad that i forked out 400 bucks for my trusty ixus 85!
the sea breeze was almost bitingly cold, but hey, THIS IS WHAT I CAME TO HK FOR!
we were in time for the 8pm symphony of lights show but frankly, that show was a complete joke with pathetic laser lights. it was a whole lot more interesting watching the harbour lights. we left about 5 minutes into the show.
what lights?
a lovely Starbucks building we saw. imagine if you would, sitting on the outside, with the view of the harbour and the cold wind, with a cup of warm coffee... HEAVEN.
the most expensive hotel in HK, The Peninsula. apparently diplomats and other big shots stay herethe plan after that was to head over to the ferry terminal and take the boat over to Central for shopping at the ifc (international finance centre? or something!) building where apparently there were brands like H&M and Zara at discounted prices! however on the way to the terminal, we were distracted by this
bowls and bowls of mango-ey goodness.. gosh. this IS true dessert. all the so-called desserts in the so-called HK restaurants in singapore should all feel terribly ashamed of themselves. and as wil calls them, "truly evil".halfway through dessert we decided that we should give a shot at one of the favourite past times of HK teens (ktv-ing!) instead of going over to Lan Kwai Fong for drinks, and so it was over to a shopping centre in the Tsim Sha Tsui area. (i cannot remember where it was already)
what i do remember though was that there was a huge SaSa and me and ber got so distracted that we left the guys waiting for almost an hour. HAHA. i came out more than S$100 poorer :( ON THE FIRST DAY. but it was well worth it because it is still loads cheaper over here than in singapore. I LOVE SASA IN HONGKONG!
ktv was at a huge and impressively furnished lounge at the basement of the shopping centre.
how kick ass was it? IT WAS ALMOST AS BIG AS OUR TUTORIAL CLASSROOMS I KID YOU NOT! and of course, coming all the way to HK, how could i not indulge in all the canto songs that i know? :)
yes i was sleeping. i have an abnormally high tolerance for late hours but hey, i woke up at 645am!the timeslot for us was supposedly from 11pm to 6am (HAHA!)but we were so tired that we gave up at around 3am. and got the shock of our lives when the bill came and each of us had to fork out S$40 for the ktv.
we cabbed back to our hotel (super cheap because HK cabs do not have midnight surcharges.)and then called it a day!
TO BE CONTINUED!
and now i'd like to take a moment to complain. i've been looking through paris hotels and hostels the entire day and it pisses me off how horrendously expensive hotels are over there. a 2 star hotel costs more than 200 bucks for two nights per person AND sometimes they don't even come with air conditioning. I THOUGHT AIR CONDITIONING WAS DEFAULT?! and all these 2 star hotels/hostels usually have horrible reviews about dirty rooms and bathrooms AND/OR are located at their redlight district.
THIS IS SUCH A PAIN! damn the exchange rate!
Labels: travel log