Day 4: Hong Kong - Singapore

It was our last day in Hong Kong. I still had about half a day to shop before going to the airport. Sigh.. this trip was really short.

First, we had our breakfast at Hau Fook Street. We went to Hung Lee this time.

We had soya bean milk, ham chim peng, you tiao and fish porridge. Wonderful!!

After the breakfast I continued to do some shopping at Granville Road. There was this place called Rise Commercial Building that has six floors of small shops selling clothes and accessories. Unfortunately, the shops were mostly closed during daytime. I guess they were only open in the evening. :(

Rise Commercial Building viewed from our hotel room. Building as old as this was a rare sight in Singapore. I should be thankful. :)

Since we were just shopping around Tsim Sha Tsui, we went back to Hau Fook Street for our lunch. This time we had some dim sum.

Caterking Dim Sum

A hearty dim sum lunch to mark the end of our stay in Hong Kong.

Went back to the hotel and took the Airport shuttle bus to Kowloon Station. We checked in our luggage here instead of the airport. I love that they have a city check-in facilities.

Kowloon Station check-in counters, looks like an airport itself!

After leaving our luggage here, we took the Airport Express train to the airport.

Hong Kong Airport is really huge. We even had to take a train to go to the boarding gate.

Mom asked me before we even landed in Singapore, "Where are we going next?" :D

Day 3: Hong Kong (Double Decker Tram, Hong Kong Park, Victoria Peak)

My parents told me their legs were still sore from walking and climbing so much stairs yesterday hehehe... So today I brought them to ride a double decker tram for sightseeings. We took the tram from North Point till Sheung Wan and passed by some iconic buildings of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong tram has been around for over a century.

Inside the tram

I'm surprised to see an Indonesian mini mart here.

International Finance Centre, Lippo Centre and Far East Finance Centre

Louis Vuitton at Central

After the tram ride, we had our lunch at Yung Kee near Central. This restaurant is famous for their roast goose.

Yung Kee Restaurant

Roast Goose

Roast suckling pig

Char siu

Yung Kee received a lot of awards for their culinary skills especially for the roast goose. But based on what we had that day, I think it was overrated. Our Dian Xiao Er tastes better.


Hong Kong Park                
Located in the Central, it is a lush greenery amidst the high rise buildings.

It was so peaceful here.

Waterfalls

The park has an aviary too.

Why we don't have this kind of park in Singapore?

From here we walked about 5 minutes to the Lower Terminus of Peak Tram Station. I was quite taken aback that it was so crowded on a Monday. But the waiting time was pretty fast, we only had to wait about 20 minutes considering there were about hundreds of us.

Victoria Peak
After many times visiting the Peak, I still feel like going up there and experience it again. I think it's the best skyline I've seen in my life, even better than New York. :D

Waiting to board the train

The tram comes every 10 minutes.

Let's ascend.

Sunset at the Peak

 
We had our dinner at Mak's Noodles which has a branch at The Peak Galleria. This restaurant is famous for its wonton and beef brisket noodles.

Wonton and beef brisket noodles at Mak's Noodle

Can't say the noodles were really good. I'm wondering why the famous ones was not good enough for me? I still prefer the unknown restaurant near our hotel. :)

One last photo before we took the tram down.

The best shot I could get without a tripod.

Day 4 >>

Day 2: Hong Kong (Nan Lian Garden, Wong Tai Sin temple, Granville Road)

The hotel staff told us that there are many small eateries in an alley called Hau Fuk Street which is just a block away from our hotel. We saw about 6 Hong Kong cafes and we tried 3 of them during our stay. What I love about them is they are unpretentious and serves very good food.

Ming Yuen restaurant

We ordered two bowls of fish porridge with a plate of you tiao. Dad had a ham and egg sandwich. The porridge was really good, and to eat it in a cool weather it tasted even better. :) I told my parents that I would like to come here again tomorrow for breakfast. Yeah.. I don't mind having porridge everyday.

After our breakfast we went to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR and took the train to Diamond Hill MTR for our first sightseeing.

The train was pretty empty at 11am. It started getting more crowded in the afternoon.

 

Nan Lian Garden
This garden is a hidden gem, a side of Hong Kong that I never knew exist. It is very well maintained that I felt like visiting a temple in Kyoto, Japan. And the best part is it's free. :D

At the garden entrance

Beautiful rocks and bonsai like trees

Looks more like a Japanese garden than a Chinese one.

A pagoda that looks like Kinkakuji in Kyoto

The bright red bridge reminds me of the Shinkyo in Nikko.

Chi Lin Nunnery
This nunnery is also part of the Nan Lian Garden. It is more like a palace than a nunnery complex. Stunning!

Beautiful structures and trees

The lotus pond

Rock Museum 

Mom and Dad were enjoying themselves.

My parents are bonsai lovers, they were so happy admiring all these trees.

Three gardeners worked on one tree. They cut, trim, and even scrub the dirt from the trunk. Maintaining a bonsai is really a hard work. And they have so many in this garden.

The waterfall

Aerial view of the garden

I highly recommended this garden to everyone. Hong Kong isn't just a shopping destination after all.


Wong Tai Sin Temple 
Located just one MTR away from the Nan Lian Garden, I decided to make a quick stop to visit one of the most famous temple in Hong Kong. We came here not to pray but to see the crowds hehe... It was really crowded, mostly tourists from Mainland China.

The main gate

The main temple

The temple is famous for getting your prayers answered. If only life is so easy...

Granville Road
Many years ago when I visited Hong Kong, I accidentally went to Granville Road and fell in love with the shops here. So this time around, I sort of planning to come here to do all my shopping and coincidentally the hotel where we stayed is just behind this road. Imagine how happy I was. :)

Photo from news.bbc.co.uk

Most of the shops here cater for the youngsters. The price is cheap too, you could get a dress for as little as HKD 100 (SGD 16). The only bad thing about shopping here is no fitting is allowed. So if you are slim, then it's really a shopping haven.

So Mom and I went shopping together and Dad preferred to watch TV in his room hehehe...

After shopping, we had our dinner at Ming Yuen, where we had our breakfast this morning. Their cze char was pretty good too and came in a very large portion.

Stir fried beef with black beans, stir fried kailan and pig stomach soup with salted vegetables

Day 3 >>