Hong Kong and Singapore 2016

Results tagged “Rain”:

Day 9 - Friday 22 January - Singapore Flyer and Chinatown

Another approx 6am wakeup. The bed here is a lot more comfortable. Pillows ok. Worst thing is temperature control. Too hot with the doona on, too cold with it off.

Got up and had breakfast at the executive lounge. Not quite as fancy as the Hong Kong hotel, but perfectly adequate.

Breakfast bar at the hotel

So then we headed out. Into the hot wet blanket that is Singapore air.

First stop was the Raffles Hotel to get a photo of it in the morning sun. Except as soon as I took my camera out it instantly fogged up :( Next time I'll need to give my camera a good long hug to warm it up before heading out.

Raffles Hotel

Then a long slow walk to the Singapore Flyer.

Memorial to the Civilian Victims of the Japanese Occupation and Raffles City

Park under Benjamin Sheares Flyover

This place hates pedestrians. Apparently nobody walks here. At least not outside. Every other intersection you're redirected to the other side of the road or to an overpass or underpass. Now I'd be happy to walk through malls and passageways *if* once you got into them you could get out again. Malls are completely evil - once you get into them it's impossible to find your way out again. Super frustrating.

After much weeping and gnashing of teeth (ok maybe just an awful lot of sweating) we made it to the Flyer. $33 each. Which would be fine. Except. People. I hate people at the best of times, but when you're sweaty and exhausted from a whole hour of being in Singapore heat I was ready to murder people. Especially those super annoying ones with the selfie sticks who don't just take the odd selfie to show they've been somewhere, but dozens and dozens of them. Get over yourselves people!!!! Hate.

We had ok weather for the ride. It had been a bit sunny earlier, but had clouded over by the time we got there. Not thick cloud so it wasn't too bad.

Singapore Flyer

Singapore Flyer sign

One of the capsules of the Singapore Flyer

Marina Bay Street Circuit for Formula 1 racing

View south to Gardens by the Bay

Marina Barrage

Moet and Chandon capsule at the top of the Singapore Flyer

View northeast to National Stadium

Singapore buildings looking northwest from the Singapore Flyer

The Float @ Marina Bay Grandstand

View south to Gardens by the Bay

View southwest towards Marina Bay Sands and Singapore city

View southwest towards Singapore city

View west

Marina Bay Sands

Sands Expo and Convention Centre and ArtScience Museum

Top of Marina Bay Sands

View west to the Durian and National Gallery

The Durian - Theatres on the Bay

Fullerton Hotel

Looking into the Singapore Flyer structure

View southwest to Marina Bay Sands and Singapore city

Looking into the Singapore Flyer structure

Gardens by the Bay

Looking into the Singapore Flyer structure

Afterwards stopped for another drink so we could decide what to do next. Decided to find the nearest MRT station and head to Chinatown where we were meeting Kit's friend (and our former neighbour) Audrey for lunch. We didn't have very clear instructions (the ticketmaster booth) so it took us probably fifteen minutes of wandering around, including through dreaded malls, to try and find it.

Trying to find the MRT station

Once again this city hates pedestrians

No durians!

Once we found the meeting spot, we still had about fifteen minutes, so walked up through the street markets and even through a Tintin shop!

Looking down Pagoda Street

So Audrey found us and we went to have lunch in a big indoor food court place. Had some "chicken rice" which is rice with some chicken. I thought chicken rice might have had the chicken mixed through it somehow.

Chicken rice

Stu, Audrey and Kaz
Photo by Stu

It was also good to chat to Audrey. I'm not sure if we'd met before or not. She lived behind us for a year or so about five years ago, so we probably saw her in passing. We chatted about Singapore and travel and of course Kit ;)

After lunch (it was probably nearly 3pm by this point and some rainstorms had passed through) we trained it back to the hotel with the idea that we'd go for a swim. Except the rain closed in and didn't go away again. So I spent a few hours in the hotel extremely frustrated. Bored in the room, but not able to go out without getting soaking wet (from either rain or sweat) and/or hit by lightning.

Pool in the roof of Bras Basah MRT station

Pool of the Carlton Hotel

Carlton Hotel, Singapore (this was our building, our room was on the other side)

Had drinks and food at the hotel then spent more boredom time before giving up and going to bed.

Day 7 - Wednesday 20 January - Disneyland

Since this is now our third time to Hong Kong, and it's possible we won't be here for a while, I decided it was time to visit Disneyland.

Slept til 6am again. Breakfast much the same.

Bought my Disneyland ticket at the hotel which saved me the stress of buying it at Hong Kong station or at the park (although given the complete lack of queues at the park it would have been fine to buy it there).

Then trained it out. Took about an hour from door to door.

Disneyland MTR train

The park opens at 10:30am at this time of year, but when I arrived right on 10:30, people were already in the park walking around. I don't know if they just let people into the shops in advance but just don't let them on the rides?? Who knows.

Disneyland Hong Kong entrance

Disneyland manhole cover

Fountain at the entrance to Disneyland

Main Building at Disneyland with a train in front of it

So went over to Space Mountain first to get in a couple of rides. But Space Mountain has a singles line (win!!) so I knew that wasn't going to be a problem later.

Entrance to Tomorrowland

Space Mountain

Then over to Grizzly Gulch to have a ride on the runaway mining cart roller coaster. There's no big dips, but it has a couple of surprises in it which makes it quite fun. Ended up having three rides in a row - one at the back, one at the front and one in the middle.

Train crossing the bridge at the entrance to Grizzly Gulch

Mystic Manor

Then I just wandered around the park, going on things as I went.

The other super fun ride was RC Racer, which is kinda like the Pirate Ship ride on steroids. Zero G fun! Had a couple of goes on that early on, and one as the last ride of the day.

Entrance to Toy Story Land

Toy Soldier Parachute Drop

RC Racer from Toy Soldier Parachute Drop

RC Racer

Walkway in Toy Story Land

I actually chose to go on a rainy day. I know right. But as locals seem to hate the cold weather, I figured the rain might keep even more of them away. And this seemed to be true. I barely noticed the crowds. Part of it was the singles lines, but generally I didn't have to wait too long to get on things. I even wondered at one point if I'd have everything done by like 4pm. There were a couple of things I didn't go on because of queues (eg the teacups and Dumbo), but easily could have waited the 20 minutes or so if I'd felt like it.

Entrance to Fantasyland

Rapunzel's tower in Fairy Tale Forest

Dumbo the Flying Elephant

Broom and buckets in Fantasy Garden

Mad Hatter Tea Cups

Entrance to It's a Small World

It's a Small World

On the It's a Small World boat ride

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

Entrance to Adventureland

Selfie sticks are not allowed!

Tarzan's Treehouse

Leopard in Tarzan's Treehouse

On the Jungle River Cruise

Steaming poles in Adventureland

Autopia

Main Street

Toy Story Zeotrope in Art of Animation

Looking west down Main Street from the main building

Disneyland City Hall

Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars ride

In the end I stayed til 19:00. I did a quick race around the park to get photos of it all by night - it's sooooo pretty at night! But I didn't stay for the parade.

Tarzan's Treehouse

Walkway in Toy Story Land by night

Cinderella Carousel by night

It's a Small World by night

Space Mountain by night

Entrance to Tomorrowland by night

Sleeping Beauty's Castle by night

Main Street by night

Main building by night

I did enjoy the roller coasters, there just wasn't enough of them. And getting to see It's a Small World when it said on the website it was closed was pretty special. But seeing the place at night was probably actually the highlight. So all up quite a good day. And it only rained a little bit.

Fountain at the entrance to Disneyland

Thankyou for Visiting

On the Disneyland MTR train

Came back to the hotel, and we went to the Scottish Restaurant for dinner (don't judge us), but also got some skewers from meat on a stick place next to the station.

Day 4 - Sunday 17 January - Sha Tin and Sham Shui Po

Much better sleep - slept til nearly 6am!

Another rainy morning, another morning lacking motivation. But at least we had a plan.

We did start with watching the finish of the Hong Kong marathon, which we could see from our hotel room. So that delayed us a little.

Hong Kong Marathon in Causeway Bay

Hong Kong Marathon finish line in Causeway Bay

Runner 20947 finishing the marathon

Bag collection point for the marathon

By the time we'd had breakfast we didn't get out the door until 11am :(

We took a train (well actually four trains - and we went east from Tin Hau to avoid the worst of the post-race crowds) up to Sha Tin, and had a bit of a wander through the New Town Plaza. Well actually it was a long walk around trying to find the Starbucks there. Hrmm.

Then a wander down to the river and along to the Hong Kong Heritage museum. Had a little bit of a wander around there.

Lek Yuen Bridge

Hong Kong Heritage Museum

Opera replica stage

Opera costumes

Colony Armorial Bearings

Sha Tin in the 1930s

Sha Tin in the 1970s

Sha Tin in the 2000s

Cloisonne vase, reunification gift from Beijing

Sha Tin Park

Tortoise in Sha Tin Park

Waterfall in Sha Tin Park

Sha Tin Park

Then back to the plaza to find some lunch (it was about 3pm at this point). Ended up at a Japanese place which was quite nice.

Ballet performance in the open air auditorium

Nice Japanese lunch we had

I wanted to get more $2 lightning cables, and Stu needed a new luggage tag (his previous one had gotten ripped off on the way over), so we stopped in Sham Shui Po on the way back. I found what I was looking for straight away in the Golden Computer Arcade (which was super crowded), and even found a USB light that does very nicely as a keyboard light for when I'm doing stuff in the dark (my $300 lappy doesn't have keyboard lighting). Got two cables and the light for $8AUD. Then went to Apliu Street to find luggage tags, although I think we would have had better luck at the ladies' market or the Temple Street market. We did find something in the end though for about $3.

The sun came out!

Then headed back to the hotel. We picked up some beer on the way back and I did go out for some more snacks and we just had a quiet night in. Saw the Symphony of Lights, although from here you don't really see much. But there was nothing on tv worth watching so we ended up going to bed really early.

View from our hotel room

USB light for my laptop

Symphony of Lights from our hotel room

Day 2 - Friday 15 January - Causeway Bay and Tai Po

So woke up yesterday morning at 4am and couldn't get back to sleep. Stoopid body wanting to wake up at normal time :/ Also had a bit of trouble with the bed and pillows. The bed is very hard - probably the hardest bed we've had since Hiroshima in 2009. And three of the pillows are quite thick - only had one that was thin.

Got up at around 6am to blog and download photos and gps. That was mostly all done by about 7am. Then had to get the sweetie to wake up.

Murky view from our room at the hotel in the morning

Eventually went down for breakfast which was pretty good.

Breakfast bar at the hotel

Came back up to finish getting ready and got in contact with @Chrispycon. Finally got out the door at 10am - six hours after I woke up. Yeup.

So met up with Chris and we went for a wander down to Causeway Bay so the boys could get some coffee at a funky little cafe (I had hot chocolate). Chatted for a while and caught up which was nice.

Chris at Café Corridor

Signs in Café Corridor
Photo by Stu

Then headed out into the rain again (it rained. All. Day.) and wandered around Causeway Bay looking at stuff and going into a shopping centre and more wandering.

Tang Lung St looking east

Pinwheels at Hysan Place

Stu with a bear at Line Friends in Hysan Place

Atrium at Hysan Place

Pool in an atrium at Hysan Place

Hennessy Road intersection

Umbrellas in a queue on Hennessy Road

Ladies bathroom in Hysan Place

Lego Woody and Minifig at Lego store

Innis Free store

Yee Wo Street

Causeway Bay Tram Terminus

Came back to the hotel around midday to get organised and have a snack for lunch.

Metropark Hotel, Causeway Bay

Murky view from our room at the hotel

Snacks to keep us going before the Foodie Tour

Then headed out again to go up to Tai Po Market (it took four trains to get there) for our third Foodie Tour in Hong Kong. Not just food, but a bit of history about the place.

Our first stop was Chan Hon Kee for some rice rolls - we tried some filled with pork liver and also some with dried scallops. I think I preferred the scallops.

Making the rice paper

Rice paper rolls - with pork liver

Rice paper rolls - with scallops

Our second stop was a bbq meat shop. It would have been Yat Lok, but they were closed for a few weeks, so we went to one a few doors down. There we had roast goose with rice spaghetti noodles. I think the goose was probably my favourite dish of the day (altho having to pull out all the bones was a bit painful).

Roasted goose with rice noodles

In between we went up to the railway museum and also Man Mo Temple.

Narrow guage steam locomotive

Inside a carriage at the railway museum

Super skinny highrise building in Tai Po

Markets in Tai Po

Man Mo Temple
Photo by Stu

Man Mo Temple

Our third stop was Macau Phoenix City Souvenirs which is a nut/sweet shop where they make their own nut confectionary. We got some sample bags of candied pumpkin seeds, candied peanuts, and a sweet chewy ginger thing. I was holding cameras and umbrellas so it was all a bit complicated, so just tried a bit then put the rest in my bag to have later.

Sample of nuts we got

Nuts and candies at the candy store

Also walked down to the river to have a look at the "peaceful" side of Tai Po and across into the newer government developments on the other side.

View east from Kwong Fuk Bridge

View west from Kwong Fuk Bridge

Our fourth stop was Snake King Hoi for snake soup. I've never had snake before. And you know how people say about things "it tastes like chicken" - will this time it was actually true. It was surprisingly like chicken in both texture and flavour.

Our guides - Elise and Silvana

Snake soup

Our fifth stop was Miss 3, which was housed in a big building that has both wet markets as well as stores that sell cooked food. There we had deep fried squid balls which were pretty good, some steamed mullet with black beans which was very tasty - maybe my second favourite dish of the day, and some steamed glutinous rice with crab - crab is always super fiddly but this dish was more about the rice.

Tai Po Hui Market and Cooked Food Centre

Steamed glutinous rice with fresh crab from Miss 3

Steamed mullet with black bean sauce from Miss 3

Deep fried squid balls from Miss 3

Our final stop was sweet beans for dessert soup. They gave us three to try - almond, walnut and black sesame. The almond I probably liked best, but I struggled to get through it.

Almond Soup and Black Bean Soups

For some reason this tour felt really *long*. It was the same time as the other tours (four hours), but maybe because of my lack of sleep, maybe because of the rain (it rained. all. day.), maybe because it was dark for the last half of the tour, I just felt super tired by the end of it. Too tired to feel up to meeting up with Chris for drinks - we'll have to try for another night.

Made the long trek back to the hotel and collapsed in a heap.

View from our room at the hotel by night