Triumph & Disaster

The most famous temple in Hong Kong, Wong Tai Sin Temple (黄大仙祠). Getting here is fairly easy, just take the MTR to Wong Tai Sin Station, and as long as you don't miss the correct exit sign, then you're on the right track.

Heard that kao cim here is very accurate, all prayers will be answered. So you can guess a lot of people came, especially since it was Mooncake Festival that day. The staff there just kept asking everyone to move so that the human traffic is flowing.

There's a wall set up for writing wishes, which I think was there in conjunction of the Mooncake Festival (but I might be wrong), and I wrote my wish, that my family & friends are happy and healthy always. A simple wish, shouldn't be that hard a task right?

Next, we took a bus from Central to Stanley (赤柱). Although Stanley is a famous tourist attraction in Hong Kong, somehow I wasn't aware on how the place really look like, so when I first stood at the Promenade, I kept asking myself, is this Stanley? Is this Stanley? British really left their marks there, the many restaurants and bars are very much western-styled, with open air (with shades) seats which are occupied despite the sunny day. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the sun and their drinks in the hot afternoon, felt like having a cold drink there too.

Blake Pier and Murray House on the right. Murray House is a Victorian-era building, also one of the oldest surviving public buildings in Hong Kong, and was relocated from Central to Stanley in the 2000s.

The waterfront of Stanley Main Street. We went to the Stanley Market, a large open-air marketplace, and did some shopping around there. You can always find a good bargain here, clothing, accessories, ornaments, bags etc. Some might think Stanley Market is solely a tourist place, but I've seen a lot of locals shopping here as well.

Repulse Bay (浅水湾)! I've been craving for beaches since 3 months ago, so my wish came true after all. This is really a beauty, with gold sandy beaches. The housing area here is super expensive too, I've watched enough TVB to know this. Hahaha...

See how excited I am! Unfortunately we were not dressed for a day out at the beach, so we can only take photos and watch enviously as the people played in sea water. I got really tanned after this, always told myself not to go to beach in the mid of the day, and always eating my own words. Sigh...

After having enough of sun and sea, we traveled back to Central. This is my first serious walk around Central, the buildings that we see from Victoria Harbour are all tall and gigantic here. And they are pretty much near to each other, feel so small standing among these tall buildings. From left, Bank of China Tower, Cheung Kong Center and HSBC Main Building.

Night scene of Central, this is Queen's Road.

This is Pedder Street, and the largest Louis Vuitton Store in Asia and outside Paris standing here.

Oh, this is somehow famous too: the Filipino maids of Hong Kong, having their day out in Central.

I also went to Lan Kwai Fong (兰桂坊).

A popular spot for locals and foreigners to dine, club and drink. Instead of going to a bar, we went to Tsui Wah Restaurant for early dinner. Tsui Wah is a famous chain char can teng here in Hong Kong.

We came here again in the night just to see the place came alive. Haha... and it's really different from day time.

Next, took the Peak Tram to The Peak! We queued for over an hour, maybe nearly two hours, just to get on the tram. Funny thing is Nice squeezed her way through and I was left behind for the next batch. So she gave up her turn and waited for me instead. There's a gallery here too which showcased the history of the Peak Tram, very educational and inspiring.

This is to illustrate how crowded it was. But it was all too memorable, simply because it was Mooncake Festival that day, and we were so much closer to the moon!

Look at the gorgeous view of Hong Kong from The Peak. To catch this view, be ready to pay HKD20 (worth it!) for the Sky Terrace experience, or buy a packaged pass, which should save you some.

I ♥ HK~

We met up Aitee after our Disneyland visit, and she brought us to dinner at The Sweet Dynasty (糖朝) at Canton Road. I was told a lot of tourists came here, and it's not a bad place, quality food and nice environment. Just that it was pretty crowded the night I was there, need to take numbers and wait in queue. And I was so hungry then!

Congee, I forgot what kind of congee. Maybe century egg and pork, or shredded chicken?

Dumpling soup.

This is zhar leong (炸两), which is basically yao zhar kwai wrapped with cheong fun. I think it's quite special and nice, haven't tasted this in Malaysia before although I think there might be restaurants selling this somewhere.

Mango sauce chicken. Hongkies are obsess with mangoes, haha.

鼓油王炒面, very tasty fried noodle!

After dinner, we went to Victoria Harbour (维多利亚港) again as it was crowded the night before. Here's me revisitng Avenue of Stars (星光大道).

Night scene at Victoria Harbour is as beautiful as it was 2 years ago.

Somehow, I think, no matter how many times I visit Hong Kong, I'll always come here to the harbour, stroll leisurely and being mesmerized by the night scene.

Even the interchange MTR Station (between Tung Chung Line and Disneyland Resort Line) sounds very cheerful, Sunny Bay!

The Disneyland Resort Line MTR is Disney themed, the windows and hand-rails are in Mickey's head shape, very cute! I think this is a good psychology method to make those aboard feel all merry and jolly.

I'm all geared up for the Disney experience!

We have to walk a short distance before reaching the ticketing counter, you can hear the surrounding Disney music and happiness just soaks into every inch of your skin. I'm not kidding you! I've taken this video at the first themed-land from the entrance, Main Street, U.S.A.

It is designed to resembles the American Town circa 1908, and you can see some of attractions such as Art of Animations, Animation Academy etc here. I quite like the Art of Animations, which is like a museum that collects the sketches of Disney characters.

Disney on Parade is another thing to look out for, check out the video of the parade performance.

Sleeping Beauty blowing kisses...

Tomorrowland is futuristic themed of course. We went in the Alien Invasion adventure, which is like a haunted house, but with aliens and bloodied victims. I sort of cut off my senses and just walked in the dark without looking much at the creepy stuffs. I don't even watch ghost movie! Don't even ask why I went in at the first place. Haha...

And the funny thing is, I actually went in the Main Street Haunted Hotel before this, and it just creeps me out! The group of Chinese that went in with us doesn't speak a word of Cantonese. When the ghost came out, everyone hid behind Nice and I, and kept pulling our shirts, argh! Plus they kept asking the ghost which way to go, and when the ghost gave the direction in Cantonese, they don't understand a word and just kept screaming. In the end I can't stand it any longer so I pushed pass everyone (and ghost), and went in to the fake lift with another ghost. By then another 2 girls followed us and hid behind us (all the time), and screamed like mad (all the time). The climax would be when we got in one of the hotel rooms, with a female ghost sitting in front of the mirror. She got up and kept asking us "新郎系边度啊？" (Where's my groom?), and you can imagine how the girls behind us screamed. I nearly had an heart attack here, in the end I just focused on the glowing exit sign until I saw lights at the end of the hallway! Boy, how we ran out, hahaha! And I told Nice there's no way I'm entering any haunted houses in my life, and how I ate my words when we queued for Alien Invasion!

The Adventureland does not give much of an impression to me, except that it's more back to the basic, with greens and rivers. Took the raft to Tarzan's Treehouse, which is just across the river, very short raft ride. I think the time we used to get on the raft was even more time consuming than the ride itself! Anyway, here's the Treehouse which we climbed up and said hello to Tarzan and Jane.

The Sleeping Beauty Castle at Fantasyland. I heart Fantasyland. ♥~

It's a Small World cruise, the happiest cruise that ever sailed! The dolls are real cute, singing "It's a Small World (After All)" in different languages of the world.

I've recorded this, and tried joining the parts together to make the song continuous, though a bit unsuccessful. Ha...

The Mad Hatter Tea Cups. I went in for a spin of course, just like a kid.

And we queued long time for a photo with Minnie. Mickey's line was too long as you can probably guessed.

Goofy is pretty goofy, he hugged my head with his giant paws, but that wasn't taken down in photo. Too bad...

We were there until 7pm I think! I like the Jack Skellington distress signal, Halloween month!

Saying goodbye to Disneyland. I thought I wouldn't enjoy this as much, but Disney for me, is reliving your childhood dreams and fantasies, turning back the time for a play.

It's a great Disney experience for me, no regrets~

We took the wrong bus, which dropped us somewhere near Tsing Yi (青衣), but not Tsing Yi MTR station. After asking around, we got up another bus that was going to Tung Chung (东涌), and got down at the Ngong Ping Cable Car Terminal (昂平缆车站). The Ngong Ping 360 staff are pretty friendly and helpful, after some consideration, we bought a package to go up to Ngong Ping by cable car, and return by bus, in hope to see different views.

Got in to the cable car after queuing for some time. I looked unnatural eh? Because was sharing the cable car with three very big foreigners, and the cable car was slanting sideway.

The view up here is magnificent! Breathtakingly beautiful, even the foreigners were talking about how amazing the view is. You can see Hong Kong International Airport, Tung Chung Bay (东涌湾), Lantau Country Park (大屿山郊野公园) and Nei Lak Shan (弥勒山) from up here.

Reached Ngong Ping Village (昂平市集). It's such a wonderful place here, thumbs out for this tourism project.

There's a few attractions here at the village, Walking with Buddha show, the Monkey's Tale Theatre and the Ngong Ping Tea House, which I didn't visit due to time constrain. Oh, there's a Starbucks up here too， not that it's an attraction. Ha...

I like looking at faraway mountains, but I'm not that up to climbing...

The Tian Tan Buddha (天坛大佛) behind me, the reason I was there.

Climbing 268 steps to see the Tian Tan Buddha.

Also known as the Big Buddha, the statue sits on a lotus throne on top of a three-platform altar...

...surrounded by six smaller bronze statues known as "The Offering of the Six Devas" and are posed offering gifts to the Buddha.

My only complaint is there's simply too many people around, hard to get a clean shot!

We spent some time choosing souvenirs at Ngong Ping Village, pricier but quality is on the high side. It was very sunny that day, I'm still tan one month after the trip!

***

On a short note, it's soooooo cold today, I've been telling everyone available on how cold it is. It was 29°C max 2 days ago, and over night the temperature dropped to 10°C. Read the alert here. The wind is slapping me hard with coldness, there's a saying that -5°C in Ningbo is colder than -30°C in Heilongjiang. I wonder how true is that! There might be frost near the mountain area, maybe I'll get my first snow experience in Ningbo?

I stayed at a friend's apartment during my stay in Hong Kong. It's at Sheung Shui (上水), closer to Shenzhen than to the city center of Hong Kong. I don't mind the travelling time of course, since I can save a lot on accommodation.

We reached Hong Kong at noon, after getting back to the apartment, I found Aitee (the friend mentioned above) in, thought she'd be working but it's China's National Day after all. What am I thinking of? Haha... Told her we haven't had lunch, and not long after, a bowl of steaming noodles great me. We had the noodles at a shop near her apartment, choose the type of noodle and the dish you want to add in. I chose curry fishball, cuttlefish and some veggies. Delicious! But no photo because I've to tap toi with a bunch of strangers and the table is tiny.

We went to Ladies' Market (女人街) at Mongkok after our late lunch.

Lots to see here, from costumes for both sexes...

...wigs and feather boas...

... to I ♥ HK tees. What varieties!

Streets in Hong Kong are familiar at heart, largely due to all those TVB dramas I've watched. Goldfish Street for instance, with those cute fishes in clear plastic bags. How can you not feel like you're in a TVB drama yourself?

A street in Mongkok, with the many signboards.

I couldn't miss Hui Lau Shan, the experience is just as good as the first one.

With Aitee, she's great, helping me with my itinerary in HK as well as accompanying us around after work.

I love mango desserts!

For the night, we went to Victoria Harbour to watch the fireworks display in conjunction with the National Day of China. We went through such hardships to get to Victoria Harbour, the police changed the routes so thousands of us have to march one big round to get there, and it was already very crowded. This is the nearest I can get to, and still far away from the center stage.

23 minutes long fireworks display, the one which read "中国" is pretty interesting, wonder how they create the firework to display it in Chinese characters. I didn't catch that on photo though...

But did manage to record a video of part of the display that night. Enjoy the recording! I'm especially amused with the crowds' oohs and ahhs nearing the end of the video.

The Statue of Kun Iam (观音像), located on a man-made island and linked to Avenida Dr. Sun Yat Sen by a 60m long causeway. The Kun Iam bronze statue which weighs 50 tonnes and 20m in height, stand on a dome-shaped lotus podium with sixteen petals. I wasn't too keen on the idea to visit the statue at first, mainly because I was anxious to travel back to Hong Kong before it gets too late, worried about available ferry tickets on the Chinese National Day. But the statue is impressive, I'm at lost of words to describe it, but something about the statue standing on the extended causeway, with the sun's brilliance from behind, added with the sympathetic gesture of the Kun Iam... We weren't able to get near (because we were once again too early, and the guard shooed us off after we "trespassed"), so here's a photo from afar.

The Fisherman's Wharf (渔人码头), the first theme park in Macau.

There was a food festival starting the very night we left. Too bad we missed it, if not it would have been nice to attend. Some restaurants here, love the buildings, European-style.

I'm not too sure, but I think this probably is Aqua Romanis, Roman-themed shopping centre. Correct me if I'm wrong!

Roman Amphitheatre, an outdoor Colosseum equipped with 2,000 seats.

That's the end of my long-winded Macau post. Vibrant Hong Kong coming up next.

I'm very happy to be standing in the middle of Venetian Hotel / Casino, hence the wicked smile. It's a little deja vu perhaps as I've been fantasizing just last year about having dinner or attending balls or something equally grand here. Of course reality itself is far from the fantasies, but I do realized how out of place I'd feel IF I ever did attend a grand ball in Venetian someday.

Not feeling out of place at the moment in tees and shorts.

Am I in Rome? I stared at the ceiling for quite a long time, and suffered short dizziness when the spell is finally broken.

The casino. I'm a timid mouse and never placed a bet on my own, and slot machines' devilish screens looked highly dangerous to me!

At the Grand Canal Shoppes.

The fake blue sky ceiling is an even bigger spell I tell you, because you know it's fake but you still keep on looking at it, and wondering why it looked so beautiful, even when it's fake. I walked in rounds, trying to take better photos, but none came out in quite the mood I'm experiencing.

We actually went to Venetian twice, once in morning, while we were at Taipa, and once again at night. There wasn't much people walking around outside, and it feels pretty deserted. The life is definitely inside!

We reached Red Market (红街市) early in the morning to try the traditional style Macau dim sum at Casa de Cha Long Wa (龙华茶楼). Maybe the morning was more quiet than usual, a few tables were occupied by loyal customers, and the owner is indeed friendly. I was actually quite scared to look around, as it was so still and quiet! I was hoping to catch some old uncles with bird cages having dim sum, but there weren't any with bird cages that day. Well, I guess not my day...

The dim sum we ordered.

Now you know why it's called Red Market! Again, we're too early for street shopping, I think there would be much to see around the Three Lamp Districts (三盏灯).

We walked to Flora Garden (二龙喉公园)...

...and took the cable car to go up Guia Hill (松山). This has got to be the shortest distance cable car ride I've ever ridden! No wonder it only costs MOP2.

Guia Fortress (东望洋炮台), which housed the Guia Chapel and also Guia Lighthouse. We're actually the first visitor to arrive, a few minutes before the fortress opening time. We even opened the door ourselves, luckily the guard had came earlier to unlock the door, we just have to push it open. This lighthouse is the first modern lighthouse in Chinese Coast. I've known beforehand that it's not open to the public, and doesn't it looked like a big white bell?

Scenes from the fortress, can spot Grand Lisboa anywhere!

We then hopped on a bus to Taipa (氹仔).

The streets are so quiet, where's everyone? We walked around and spotted Venetian! And that will be on my next post.

The happening street around here is Rua de Cunha (官也街)， where you can shop for souvenirs and for local specialties. It doesn't take us long before we found Dumbo Portuguese Restaurant (小飞象葡国餐厅) located at the nearby Rua de Regedor (地堡街). The restaurant was famed for the food and reasonable price, good thing the waitress is very helpful, and recommended us to order only one main dish so that we can share and at the same time, order other side dishes.

The bun and butter...

Portuguese Fried Rice.

Grilled pork ribs...

Codfish cakes (马介休饼). I'm happy with all the food, although the milk tea tasted so-so.

Our trip to Coloane (路环) was a short one. Purposely went there to try Lord Stow's famous egg tarts! It was raining, so we sat inside, if not, the garden seat would be just lovely! I was very excited when the tarts came, one bite and it's so heavenly! I like the nicely browned top and also the caramel sugar taste, which tasted distinctively different from other egg tarts. The pastry is crisp at the outside, and flaky soft inside. Can feel the layers when you bite into it! This definately stood out among the rest I'd say. Dang, feel like having an egg tart now, Lord Stow's specifically. Sigh...

We walked on, and was blessed with this view of Macau Tower and the Sai Van Bridge.

We saw the casinos not far away from where we were after some time, but the more we walked, the more they disappeared. We still got it right in the end though, hehe... Here's Casino Lisboa (葡京娱乐场),

Grand Lisboa (新葡京), the extension built in the 90s. I didn't went in the casinos surrounding here, and reading this after the trip sort of give me a big slap on my head. I missed Wynn's Tree of Life! It looked very impressive, and I missed it. I should go Macau again.

The horseless chariot outside Grand Emperor Casino.

We were quite happy taking photos of the glamorous casinos when some psycho flasher with a big Watson plastic bag appeared and ruined our mood a little. Not minding the flasher, we walked on to look for a cozy place to rest and have dinner.

We found Macau Restaurant, and ordered our meal. Tried the chicken bun, can't beat Cafe Kam Ma Lon's pork bun.

Tried the egg tart too, our first egg tart in Macau. I was actually saving my first for Lord Stow's, but thought a little comparison is needed to determine the best of the lot. Well, I didn't try that many actually... But this one is not bad, pretty decent egg tart to me.

On our way back to hotel, Senato Square at night. I think the atmosphere here at night is great, a little laid back, a little romantic...

We climbed up to find ourselves looking at the exterior wall of Mount Fortress (大炮台), the principal military defence structure of Macau. One look and I immediately thought of A Famosa in Malacca, although looking back at old photos from Malacca, the similarity wasn't as profound.

In case any one of you are interested to know, the first cannon in the photo is aiming at the Grand Lisboa Casino.

Macau Museum, which is located at the Mount Fortress area, open from 10am-6pm.

I didn't go inside the museum, but Ah Wei highly recommends this, so history buffs should not give this a miss.

Streets of Macau, which is to me, a smaller and less bustling version of Hong Kong's.

So we're on the map again, finding our way to Rua dos Mercadores (营地大街), searching high and low for...

Cafe Kam Ma Lon (金马轮咖啡饼店)...

The pork bun is superb! I don't really know how to describe it, but it's crispy at the outside and tender in the inside. The bun is very nice too! One bite and you can't stop, honest! I was very tempted to order another one, if not for my full belly. I kind of regret not trying the egg tart though...

Milk tea is delicious too, very gao and smooth until my camera was also distracted and went out of focus. Haha! It's cheap too, only MOP9 compared to other shops selling at MOP13. Unlike Malaysia, the food culture of Macau/HK is to add your own sugar for milk tea. My face crumpled together when I had my first sip and the concerning waiter immediately came to my aid. "糖系个边..."

Tried the 马豆糕 and 朱古力糕, not as impressive as the pork bun, or maybe I'm not familiar enough with the taste of these kuih.

A-Ma Temple (妈阁庙), open from 7am-6pm, we weren't paying attention to the opening and closing time most of the time, this proved to be an unwise decision, luckily we had about 10 mins to look around but in quite a haste. Not a big temple, but I think the fact that Macau gotten her name from A-Ma Temple is pretty interesting. Always the language miscommunication!

Carvings on the stone...

And we walked along Sai Van Lake (西湾湖), and had a good view of Macau Tower at the opposite site. Initially planned to go near the tower for photos, but we were not too sure how to get there on foot, and we weren't planning to go in the tower too, since there's still a lot of places to explore in Macau.

One good walk around the lake, and continuously taking shots of the view until the night fallen...

Next up, the glitz and glamour of Macau...