Hong Kong 2010

Hongkong, Hongkong. What a place. After 3 visits, the Mrs is still not sick of the place. This time round we stayed in Tsim Tsai Chui, a slightly more high class area and the agenda  was shop, shop and shop.

So first day, walked along Nathan Rd to MongKok where Kelly managed to get a pair of trail shoes and some other stuff which left her in bliss. Food was dessert, noodle and dessert again!

Mongkok

Dessert after desserts

  2^nd day was Citigate where we bought shirts and more shirts before we went to Times Square where we hit jackpot and ended up with shoes and more shoes. We also had a very sumptuous lunch and discovered that not only is our Ms Kelly a big eater of egg tart, she was also a big eater of Chee Cheong Fun and we had 4 different type of Cheong Fun in addition to the usual dim sum! And that of course was followed by more shopping in the evening where the ladies bought more clothes and more shoes!

Times Square

3^rd day was when we decided to do the politically correct thing and visit a local tourist attraction and so we  went to Ocean Park. Yes no Disneyland for us. The highlight was the Panda of course. And we also discovered that Ms Kelly is a daredevil as she went for all the rides while the 3 of us cowardly stayed far far away!

 And of course we got to get our fixed of Hong Kong food like smelly tofu, the popular siew mai and fish ball and fried chee cheong fun.

4^th and final day and before we left for home, we went searching for the Avenue of Stars and discovered it was actually just a 10 minutes walk from our hotel. And we get to walk through the rather high end Canton Rd before we dragged ourselves back to hotel and our flight back to SG but of course not before buying more stuff for the folks back home.

Macau

Off for a short holiday in the sin city of Asia – Macau – the most profitable gambling city in the world. But that does not concern us since we were there not to gamble but to run. Yes we were there to participate in the Macau Galaxy International Marathon.

St Paul Wall

After a night of sleep and brekkie, we walked to the Olympic Stadium which was like 5 minutes from our hotel to collect our race pack. We were actually on Taipa, which was like a rural part of Macau and there was fresh air, very few people and traffic. But of course, being Singaporean, we had to go where the people are and after the collection, we took a cab over to the main Macau island itself for food and shopping. And notwithstanding that we were going to do a race the next day, we walked and shopped from 11am till 9 pm!

Giordano - all of 3 storey high

Church Wedding

Macau island is actually not very big. The main area of activity seems to be the bustling Sedano Square where all the shops are and where all the historical sites seem to be a short walk away. We visited the die die must visit St Paul’s Church, or what’s left of it plus 2 other churches and in the process gate crashed a wedding! There aren’t that many shops just the same old names found in Singapore and Hongkong, places like Giordano, Bossini, Starbucks, McDonalds but the differences is that these outlets are huge affairs here.

Portuguese Egg Tarts

Egg flour pancake

There were plenty of street food and we found out our traveling mate, was a glutton when it comes to Portuguese egg tarts. She practically bought one from each outlet that sell them! Then there was this long queue for some sort of pancake which turns out to be simply flour and cake and was a big disappointment.

The day ended with a desperate search for Portuguese food but we failed in the end being too lazy to travel further and ended up at a miserable joint eating such rather nice rice set but at the same time enduring the smoke from the other diners inside the café. 

We then managed to walk to the Casinos area but actually we were looking for a cab to take us back and somehow ended in the casino district. But we only managed to see 2 hotels before a cab came along and end of sight seeing.

Next day, after the race, took the ferry to Hongkong and thus ended our trip to Sin City without us stepping foot into any casino. What a bummer!

3 Days of Holiday

Went for a short break in the land of the fragrance harbour. It has been many years since we last when there. Last time, the airport was still at the old place and we could see all the shanty houses along the sea as the plane fly into the airport. Now the airport has been relocated to a much safer location.

The first stop for the day after check in was a trip up the Peak. First to Mdm Tussauds which turned out to be a big disappointment! It was so small with so few wax exhibits. The night view from the Peak was supposed to be fantastic but there was a perpetual layer of fog or is is haze that prevented a clear view.
The next day, we got conned into accepting the free 1 day city tour offered by the tour agency we booked with and ended up following them for a lousy breakfast and lunch and the obligatory visit to a jewelery and a herbal store wasting half the time. Still we got to go to Repulse Bay,
Aberdeen Harbour and a ride on one of the longest cable car in the world (I think).
And at the top, got to see a giant of a Buddha (shown here half size)After that, pop by Citigate where there are over 60 factory outlets including the Nike, Adidas, Puma and New Balance factory outlets!

Night time was at the Mongkok area and we went gaga over the numerous sports shop there. The range of Adidas and Nike shoes were amazing. See until blur and didn't know what to get!

The next day was spent at Ocean Park
and in the night was back at Mongkok checking out the rest of the shops and Ladies Market.

Too short a trip. M did not get her full day shopping and I did not get to go to Macau. Much has changed in HK since we last went. The people now are so friendly and polite. Everybody now can speak Mandarin making it easier for us to communicate. The MTR is so convenient and afforable. Streets are clean, food is delicious and the things are so reasonably priced. So we were be back to spend more time on shopping!

More photos here