We left on a cloudy Thursday morning for Hong Kong, with three pieces of check-in baggage in tow. (Mum and Dad shared one.)

I was really tired on the way there, only clocking four hours of sleep the night before. Economy class is really, well, economical when it comes to legroom, yikes. The close-to-four-hour flight was turbulent, and it was a relief to finally arrive at the destination.

Over the next four days, we visited the Kowloon (where we stayed), Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and Causeway Bay areas of the SAR. Further descriptions will come in the following posts. ;)

THE weather in Hong Kong was, in a word, abysmal. Hong Kong (w) indeed. :X

It must be said that June is not exactly an ideal time of year to visit. It rained all four days we were there, and it hardly ever let up. The worst weather came on Friday, when torrential rain caused a black rainstorm warning to be issued round about the time the above photo was taken. One hundred millimetres of rainfall was recorded that day… yikes. (w)

This is a very common sight. Whether you're in a slum area or glitzy business district, the public housing seems very old and not well taken care of. Tall skyscrapers of glass and steel are never far away from buildings with peeling paint. Makes us appreciative of the HDB, haha. (y)

Oh yes… and the ground is never, ever dry in Hong Kong 'cos those darn air-con units are forever leaking!

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Sleaze is treated with some degree of tolerance. Girlie magazines are available on every corner store, and "spas" and "saunas" are advertised gaudily with burnt-out neon signs.

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Ah, the shopping. Much like it is in Singapore, there's an even mix of high-end, atas designer boutiques (especially in the Central [中環] area) and little hole-in-the-wall, Far East Plaza-esque clothing shops (easily found in the Tsim Sha Tsui [尖沙咀] area). Prices aren't that different from those here, but those of HK brands like U2 and G2000 are lower by quite a bit! And somehow, the range seems to be bigger too.

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Food is coming up… well that warrants individual posts, heheh. :P

Here's a short guide to districts in Hong Kong I visited. Take note that this is by no means an exhaustive list; I didn't go to that many places. :P

Our gameplan was to hit all the shopping and food districts, and skip all the touristy stuff like Ocean Park and Hong Kong Disneyland. Exceptions were made for personal requests like the Wong Tai Sin Temple (from my parents) and the Madame Tussuads wax museum (from me and my sister, heh).

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We stayed in Kowloon [九龍], which is one of the three large divisions of Hong Kong (the others being Hong Kong Island [香港島] and the New Territories [新界]). Our hotel, the Majestic, is situated on Nathan Road, the main thoroughfare of Kowloon. The nearest MTR station to us was Jordan Station; the picture above is the junction of Nathan and Jordan Roads. (By the way, is that Daniel Wu in the large billboard showing off his abs? Hmm)

This is the Temple Street night market, which basically is one humongous pasar malam. Everything from cheap T-shirts screaming "I Got Lost In Hong Kong!" to opera CDs can be found here. But be warned, the thousands of naked lightbulbs give you a headache after a while, and the temperatures skyrocket in the narrow aisles. D:

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One stop away from Jordan on the MTR line is Tsim Sha Tsui [尖沙咀], which surrounds Victoria Harbour. There's lots of shopping to be done in TST, including an Esprit factory outlet (half-price!), Granville Road (a very long shopping street with lots of little shops), and also Harbour City, a huge shopping mall which will probably take you an entire day to trudge through. ;)

Besides the shopping, TST is also home to a number of museums, eg. the Hong Kong Museum Of Art and the Hong Kong Space Museum. Entry fee is just HK$10 (about S$2) and there is no admission charge on Wednesdays!

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Another MTR ride or a short jaunt on the Star Ferry will take you from TST to Hong Kong Island, and the Central area [中環] to be exact. This is the business district of HK, which is quite obvious by the scores of towering steel structures that greet you on all sides.

Also to be found in Central are Lan Kwai Fong, the famed clubbing street; Hollywood Road, aka Antique Street; and SoHo (South of Hollywood Road) which has lots and lots of restaurants to suit every palate.

The lousy weather prevented me from taking many pictures of the scenery (what scenery? :@)… this is one of the better ones already. TST from across Victoria Harbour, at the Avenue Of Stars. It started to rain literally seconds after this was taken. (w)

We begin with some breakfast delights. Hong Kong is quite famous for its yum cha (re: drinking tea) culture, and it is common to see the locals having their morning tea and a quick bite before heading off to work.

Just a brief sample of what I had! There's macaroni with ham, very thick milk tea, toast with eggs and sliced fish porridge. This can be found quite easily at any cha can teng [茶餐厅], which is probably the HK equivalent of a kopitiam.

HK's wanton noodles are supposedly quite delicious too… however, I never got to verify that. Of the two bowls of noodles I ate, once was decidedly bland while the other was really salty. D: Plus points go to the vegetables though, they taste perfect despite being just boiled in water and nothing else. Maybe the oyster sauce dip has something to do with that.

This one's about roasted goose! We tried it twice; the pick of them had to be the one from Yung Kee, a restaurant in Central.

The drool-inducing shop front. Look at the number of roasted geese! D:

The appetiser: century egg with preserved ginger. I'm not a fan of century egg, but this one's supposedly to die for!

Char siew never, ever tasted so good. See how juicy it is? Wah piang… hungry!!!

Ah, the star of the show. Does it look like roast duck? Well… it tastes like roast duck too! Just more tender and tasty. I have to shamefully admit that I gobbled up the skin (without the fat though)… too delicious to resist. This is definitely a must-try if you go to Hong Kong…

We had dim sum for lunch on our second day. It had been a frustrating morning with the bad weather and too much walking, so the food was just heaven-sent! :) For the record, we actually ate it twice, haha: once at Maxim's Palace at City Hall, Central, and also at Jade Garden in TST. Both also very nice!

Some closeup shots:

Har gow! The rice-flour skin was paper thin and the whole prawn within, super fresh.

Man, this was fantastic. Just look at how juicy the roasted pork is… and honey sweet too!

I'm not sure what the sauce is made of, but I could eat it with anything :X

One of my favourite food photos from the trip, heheh.

Dim sum rocks!

Desserts are known as tong sui [糖水] in Cantonese. On our first night, we found a small dessert shop near our hotel, along Jordan Road.

Traditional desserts! My sister had walnut cream paste [合桃糊], my parents the black sesame cream paste [芝麻糊], which are both hot desserts. I wanted something more refreshing, so I had the cold steamed egg custard [can't remember what it's called in Chinese!]. It was good! Very smooth and sweet without being cloyingly annoying. Everyone else complimented their desserts as well.

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Over in TST, there's a dessert shop called Sweet Dynasty, or a very witty 糖朝 in Chinese.

The old-school shopfront 招牌. And inside…

I had the best mango dessert in the world! Below it is the paper placemat which tells the history of 糖水… it kinda reminds me of those Heaven & Earthgreen tea cans, haha. :X

A closer look at my lovely mango:

A combination of sliced mango chunks and ice blended mango puree! Pure goodness.

Meanwhile, everyone waited 45 minutes just to eat this:

A freshly steamed tub of soya beancurd [豆腐花]! Enough to served 12 (!) bowls.

A special ladle is provided for you to scoop the beancurd out!

Look how nice it is, haha. You can add as much (or little) syrup as you wish; I found that a spoonful was just right, heheh. It's unbelievably smooth… a must-try. By the way, the shop is just opposite Harbour City, along the same stretch of road as Hard Road Cafe.

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Finally, on our last day in HK, we checked out Hui Liu San aka 许留山, which is a chain of modern dessert stores quite easily found there (the airport has a branch). The one we visited was in Causeway Bay [銅鑼灣].

Old-school shopfronts are apparently quite popular amongst these dessert shops, haha.

Dad and Mum shared a bowl of Chinese herbal jelly [龟林膏], which wasn't too interesting so I didn't take a photo of it, oops.

My sister's dessert! Lots of mango and assorted fruits including coconut, kiwi and strawberries.

This one's mine! More mango (again) with a pudding base which tastes like ice-cream, yum. I wish they had such stuff back here at home, darn it. I would go there everyday! Haha :P

Heheheh. XD

The Hong Kong version of the world-famous Madame Tussuads wax museum of famous figures is situated on Victoria Peak [太平山頂] in Central. A seven-minute tram ride (impossibly steep!) will take you to the top, and thereafter its a short walk to the museum.

It had just reopened on May 18 after some months of renovation, and the funny thing was that staff at the tram station did not seem to know this! When I asked for directions, they looked at me funnily and said: "Madame Tussuads is closed…" ^o)

But we did find our way eventually, and it was a very enjoyable respite from the damn rain that was postively hurtling down that wet, gloomy morning.

And now come just some of the (many, many) photos we took!

My film idol, Hugh Grant! He's really tall and has such blue eyes.

Albert Einstein and his famous formula.

Erm, hello, Hong Kong already give back to China hor. Why are you all still here ah?

Someone doesn't look too happy about being bitten on the shoulder. :X

Dubya, hucks, and Bill! Heheh. :P

I suggested this photo, haha XD Dad gives Tiger Woods a few tips on how to sink the shot. XD

Bring back the Cup, Becks! (y)

I love this picture! A dream come true… With The Beatles. ;)