Thursday, October 23, 2014

Day 3 in Hong Kong, Sight Seeing!

Allowed myself to wake up to a city view a little later today to replenish from the whole day of walk yesterday. The plans for the day seemed very little anyway.
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Based on the speed for the past 2 days, I've estimated more than enough time for me to travel to all the places I've planned for today. Therefore, I took my time in having breakfast, this time in a better and presentable attire at the buffet table. I then took my time to pack my things for my trip to Macau for tomorrow. After all, I'd be too tired and rushed to pack the next morning.

The first thing I noticed as I got off the MTR to the cable car station was an old lady who seemed to be praying in the middle of the pathway.
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There was a very nice girl who showed me the way to the cable car station and we had some small talk. Since she was holding an umbrella, I assumed she saw the weather forecast as a rainy day. However, she said she wasn't sure about the weather up there and was very friendly. Whoever said Hong Kong people are rude? I love this place.
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I finally did a big mistake today by arranging to go to Ngong Ping at 1pm. The queue was just crazy long and I didn't buy tickets online beforehand. I wasted approximately 1 hour before I could get into the cable car from the queue. I got myself a crystal glass ride, which I never got to try the last time I came here. After being on the Shanghai Tower years ago, a crystal glass cable car is just nothing to me. As usual, the talkative yet friendly me got to talk to the random strangers who shared the cabin with me. I continued taking selfies like nobody's business while on my way up to the top. It took only less than 30 minutes to reach the top.
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What more is there to do than to selfie all the way with my monopod? I didn't bring any water up, so I got myself another bottle of Vitamin Water! My trip is all about Vitamin Water! This is one flavour which we cannot find in Malaysia.
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As I was selfie'ing all the way, I saw a bunch of people crowding up and thought that there was a celebrity or some sort. However, it was only a cow... Oh well... might as well take a picture of it too before continuing my selfie environment taking. LOL.
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I had a challenge, which was to run all the way up to the Big Buddha in 1 breath. I failed. I only managed to do it half way up. The mistake I made was to stop in between and take a few pictures. I lost my momentum and that's when my legs felt wobbly and fell to the ground... TWICE! Oh the humiliation...
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As I got down the Big Buddha, I walked on to find something to eat since I was hungry. I bought some fried wanton and also a sausage, to eat with my tau fu fah, Hong Kong style. It is indeed very different.
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Saw a Wishing Tree further up but it appears that you can only get those from certain shops that you actually purchase stuff from. I gave that a pass and walked on, hoping to find the Guai Lin Gou that I ate years ago, which was absolutely delicious. However, the whole place seemed like it renovated and many stores were added in. The old shops were either no longer there or replaced by newer cafes.
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Disappointed, I walked back to the Cable Car station, finding one of those Line Character machines which I saw in my hotel. I got some change from the counter and hoped for the best for I wanted a Cony and Brown. Cony had a map on one hand and a backpack. Brown was clinging on to his bag instead. It was both relevant as I was on my holiday here. Lucky for me, I got both of them! It was my lucky day after all!!! 
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At the station, I bumped into the same girl who welcomed me earlier in the day and she recognized me, asking me how my trip went. HOW SWEET...

At about 4pm, I got off the cable car and headed to the MTR station. I was distracted by what seems to be a wholesale mall which my mom was telling me about. I had to walk in a shop called I.T and it didn’t take me long before I got myself a pair of killer heels at only RM100 at Uptown Heels. It was not only worth the money but also very comfortable!

Finally left the place and took the MTR at about 5pm to Central as I was running late. On the way to the Peak to take the Tram, I just had to stop by to selfie with the nice scenery of Hong Kong’s famous landscape.
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At 6pm, I finally got to the Tram and used my Octopus card to access to the Tram at a discounted rate. It still took me about 30 minutes to get up there due to the crowd. It was worth the rush as the view was amazing although haze was spotted.

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Rushed back to the tram at 7.15pm, enjoying the cool breeze against my bare back as I queued up outside. Everyone else in the queue took out their scarfs and gave me with a weird look. I am not one who gets cold easily. I love the breeze. It’s the heat that I can’t stand.

Dinner was supposed to be at 7.30pm. I was about 5 minutes late because I totally left out the time estimation for queueing up to get back down to the MTR station. Lucky for me that my relatives were nice enough to wait for me at SOHO before taking me to dinner.

It was my first main decent meal in Hong Kong! Can you imagine? My trip was all about street food and fasting. Here’s what I had and a family wefie portrait!
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After dinner, Dee came to take me while I bid farewell to my relatives. He brought me to places with riots but the only things I saw were people sitting around. Apparently they were sitting around watching something going on Live on TV. No danger here. Roads were closed though.
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Then, we walked on to Mong Kok, Jordan and to Causeway Bay. There was an Apple Store which we passed by and I saw multiple stalls set up right in front, which were people who wanted to buy over the iphones and resell. WOW.

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Finally, the last thing on my itinerary was Coffee Academics. Without Dee, I don’t think I would ever find my way there. It was so complicated. It wasn’t even near to any MTRs. The place seemed very homely as I walked in.

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We had coffee after coffee. I had a caramel Latte at first, continued by an Aeropress Ethiopia which I had back in Ipoh once. The specialty in this shop is that they serve ice drip coffee in a wine glass! How awesome is that?
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Since it was my birthday in about an hour, I had myself a piece of caramel and coffee mousse cake and the staff got me a candle.
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The cafe closed at 11pm. As Dee led the way, he showed me where the spots of people “Da Siu Yan” was under the bridge during the day. Unfortunately it was too late to see any of that action.
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Out of nowhere, Dee said he wanted to have some Ramen. It was almost midnight! Where would you expect to get any of that goodies? Man, was I wrong about that. It appears that Ichiran is 24 hours. It usually has a very long queue and I ain’t joking about the queue. There were at least 5 couples waiting in front of us as we walked in. I was already bloated from the dinner and dessert but Dee insisted that I ate at least a little. We were all separated by cubicles, pure Japanese style. There was nothing on the menu than Ramen so I had no choice but to order my bowl of ramen with my preference of spicy level, what to and not to add in and how thick I wanted the soup to be. I managed to eat more than half of it in the end due to the DELICIOUSNESS!!!
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I had to digest all that food, so I asked Dee to walk me to Lan Kwai Fong to look see. Took a few pictures while on the way. Lan Kwai Fong wasn’t as I expected. It’s merely just 2 rows of shops where everyone just hangs out on the streets. I didn’t bother going in because of all the advice given by friends on the surcharge.
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That was day 3. It sure was a tiring day.

Hours spent out: 13 hours

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