Hong Kong and Singapore 2016

Results tagged “Sleep”:

Day 12 - Monday 25 January - Singapore to Canberra

And continuing onto Tuesday ..

Had a bit of a sleepin on our last day - til 7:15am!

View from our hotel room

I did photo and blogging stuff then headed out for a walk around the Gardens by the Bay.

Dragonfly Lake

Marina Bay Sands

Supertree Grove

Supertree Grove and Marina Bay Sands

Supertree Grove

Floral clock

Marina Bay Sands

Marina Bay

Singapore Flyer

Gardens by the Bay

Marina Bay Sands

Dragonfly Lake

Gardens by the Bay

Supertree Grove and Dragonfly Lake

Dragonfly Bridge

Water lilies in Gardens by the Bay

Walkway between Bayfront MRT station and Gardens by the Bay

And got some morning photos from the roof

Marina Bay Sands infinity pool

Sands SkyPark Observation Deck

Downtown Singapore from Observation Deck

Singapore from Observation Deck

Victoria Theatres

National Gallery of Singapore

The Float @ Marina Bay Grandstand

The Durian

Sands SkyPark Observation Deck

People in the infinity pool

View of Singapore over infinity pool

Came back and got ready, then headed down to Rise for the buffet breakfast. It was a lot bigger and the hash browns were actually hot (they hadn't been anywhere else this trip), but also a lot more people so a lot more craziness. Plus I was stressing about getting everything done before we checked out.

After breakfast had a final swim in the infinity pool to have it under morning light. We watched a rainstorm come closer and got out just as it hit.

Stu and Kaz having a last swim in the infinity pool

View of Singapore and incoming storm from infinity pool

View of Singapore and storm over infinity pool

Then back to the room to repack all our bags, and we managed to checkout right on 12pm.

Left our bags at the Concierge then went for a wander through the Shoppes. Stopped and had some ice tea and macarons, and wandered around for a bit. But The Shoppes is a really awful boring mall. Unless of course you're into the high end super expensive watches and handbags. Boring boring boring.

Stu with his tea and macarons at TWG Tea

I couldn't stand being there for another hour or two, so we jumped on a train and went one station to Downtown and had a bit of a wander around there. Stu stopped for coffee and I wandered, and even found an outside bit to get a view of the bay from another angle.

View out the window on the train to Downtown

Dream sign and Marina Bay

Marina Bay panorama

Marina Bay Sands

ArtScience Museum and Singapore Flyer

Finally headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags. Then three trains to the airport.

Singapore Air Traffic Control Tower

Had some noms and some bubbly (and a shower!) at the Qantas club before boarding. Our boarding passes must have been checked at last half a dozen times. Security was only at the boarding gate, not any earlier.

A330 for this flight - up near the back on the left. Took off to the north so no interesting views (other than the airport).

Airbus A330-200 VH-EBV at Changi Airport

Had the beef goulash for dinner.

Dinner on the plane - Slow braised smoky beef goulash with mashed potato and steamed vegetables

Watched The Walk first up which I really really enjoyed. I'd seen a documentary on it relatively recently, and this was a sort of a docu-drama. Very cool. All CGIed of course. Although even if the towers were still there, they'd have had to CGI a lot of stuff *out* of it.

Then watched The Hangover which was actually ok.

It was midnight by this point so attempted to sleep. Failed.

Thinking I had time, I put on Boyhood, but the time listed was wrong and I was still watching it right up until arrival at the gate in Sydney, so missed the end of it :(

(They turned the cabin lights on at 1:30am, and got a bit of breakfast at about 2am. Landed at 3am, which was 6am Sydney time).

Breakfast on the plane - sour cherry pastry

I was feeling about anxious about everything actually (mainly missing the end of the movie), and I thought this set off an upset belly. But in actual fact I just had an upset belly which was making me feel queasy. Stuff came out both ends which was fun. Not. Luckily all at Sydney airport and not on a plane! And felt better after that. Stu was feeling a bit delicate too.

Then our last flight to Canberra. A fairly empty Dash8 in the back row on the right. Took off from half way down 34L and were airborne by the time we passed the east-west runway. Rain and clouds all around Sydney though, so not much of a view.

Qantas Dash 8 VH-QOC at Canberra Airport

Chrissie picked us up at the airport which was lovely of her.

At home we snoozed for a couple of hours then started tackling the mess that is our house.

So pretty good holiday. It was spoilt a bit by the rainy weather in Hong Kong and the unbearable humidity in Singapore, as well as not having much of a plan for what we wanted to do. But we did do some cool stuff and eat lots of good food, so pretty good in the end.

Day 11 - Sunday 24 January - Marina Bay Sands

Had a super slow start. I'd had trouble sleeping (woke up in the middle of the night and took forever to get back to sleep). Ended up sleeping in past 7am.

Spent some time getting ourselves organised, and went down for a fairly late breakfast. Then back to the room to pack up.

It was 11am before we finally got out the door.

Our destination was just across the harbour - the Marina Bay Sands. At over $600 a night we certainly weren't going to stay here more than one night, but as it was the last night of our trip we decided to splurge.

Also because it was our last night, the hotel staff let us checkin when we arrived at 12pm instead of waiting til the normal checkin at 3pm. And they gave us a late (12pm) checkout instead of the usual 11am. So lovely :)

The hotel is amazing. Even the atrium is spectacular. When you get into the room and plug your card into the power, the curtains open up and you see the amazing view. Although we missed that effect because we didn't plug it in straight away heh. The room is *huge*. The bathroom is nearly as big as our bedroom heh. Just amazing.

Kaz looking out the window in our hotel room
Photo by Stu

Bathroom

Our hotel room at Marina Bay Sands

View from our room at Marina Bay Sands

View northwest from our room

So we enjoyed the view for a bit, then headed up to the roof to have a look at the pool and the observation deck. Wow.

Bayfront Pavilion

Gardens by the Bay

Infinity pool and Singapore view

Rooftop of the Marina Bay Sands

Downtown Singapore

The Durian - Theatres on the Bay

The Merlion

Stu and Kaz on the rooftop at Marina Bay Sands
Photo by Stu

Singapore from SkyPark Observation Deck

View east from SkyPark Observation Deck

Singapore Flyer

Gardens by the Bay

Marina Barrage

Then we headed down the "shoppes" downstairs to find some lunch. Got some food at the food court but it was very busy and getting a seat was a challenge. We were a bit hot and frustrated by the end of it.

Marina Bay Sands atrium

Canal in the shopping mall under the hotel

Atrium in The Shoppes

Back to our room briefly.

ArtScience Museum

View from our hotel room

So we came up and had a swim in the Infinity Pool. It was super windy up the top, and then it rained, which successfully cleared out most people. But then the rain stopped and they all came back - doh!

Went back to the room. Stu chillaxed and I went out for a walk to get some photos of the building in the afternoon sun and go over the "helix" bridge. It was hot, but the breeze meant it wasn't too unpleasant.

Marina Bay Sands atrium

Looking across to Gardens by the Bay

Helix Bridge

Heilx Bridge and Marina Bay Sands

Then got ourselves ready for dinner. We went to "db Bistro" by Daniel Boulud. Had some lovely scallops for entree. Stu got a *huge* bowl of seafood, and I had a very tasty coq au vin blanc. All super yummy but there was so much food we struggled to finish it!

Appetiser at db Bistro

Rosemary skewered Diver Scallops, smoked bacon, savoy cabbage, soft polenta, hazelnut brown butter sauce

Stu's seafood dinner at db Bistro

Coq au Vin Blanc, white wine braised chicken, smoked bacon, carrots, local greens that I had for dinner

Went and watched the 8pm light show outside.

Downtown Singapore by night

Marina Bay Sands sound and light show

Marina Bay Sands hotel by night

Took some photos from our room at night

View from our hotel room by night

ArtScience Museum by night

Then had another swim at night.

Stu in the infinity pool at night

Watched the end of the 9:30pm light show from our room.

Marina Bay Sands sound and light show

Then I went back to the roof to get some photos at night.

Helix Bridge and Benjamin Sheares Bridge by night

Gardens by the Bay by night

Singapore Flyer by night

Marina Bay Sands Hotel rooftop and infinity pool by night

Was about to collapse into bed when I realised I hadn't washed my hair. Doh.

So just a note about this hotel. Don't come here expecting any peace and quiet. You'd think from the price it'd mostly be business people, but unless (presumably) there's a convention on, business people don't seem to stay here (why would they, it's nowhere near the CBD). There's a *lot* of families and young people so there's a lot of noise and activity in the corridors. They make a bit of a fuss about the dress code, but since most people coming and going are using the pool, there's a lot of very casual clothing and bathrobes in the lifts heh.

Day 10 - Saturday 23 January - Shopping and Chinatown

Had a bit of trouble sleeping - stoopid thermoregulation issues.

Woke up at 6ish though. Got up, did photo and blogging stuff, then headed out by myself.

Pedestrian underpass sign

Swissotel at Raffles City

The sun was out so I thought I'd make the most of it before it got tooo hot. Decided to walk down to the harbour again. Even at 8:20am, the Merlion is super popular with the tourists. So got some photos of it and the harbour and it was all quite pretty.

Esplanade Outdoor Stage - with fogged up camera lens

Singapore skyline

Clouds over Marina Bay

Esplanade Bridge and Raffles City

The Durian - Theatres on the Bay

Merlion

Clouds over Marina Bay

ArtScience Museum

Little Merlion

Then back to the hotel to have a shower and have breakfast.

After breakfast (it was about 10:45 by this point) we headed out.

We took a train out to Orchard to see a couple of stores Stu wanted to see.

Shops on Orchard Road

Chinese New Year - Year of the Monkey

The first was Kinokuniya - a huge bookstore. Had a good long wander through there.

The second was The Demin Store - Stu thought maybe he could get some better quality jeans there. But it was just before 12:00 and they didn't open til 12 (!?) and the shop was quite small, so we gave up on that idea, figuring they wouldn't have anything in Stu's size anyway.

While we there, it rained. When we came out, the temperature was actually almost bearable. We headed back to the hotel, and by the time we got there, the sun had some back out. And it was HOT. And HUMID. Just awful.

Carlton Hotel, Singapore

Chilled out briefly in the hotel, then headed out again - downtown to go on a foodie tour. But this one had a lot more culture and history than the Hong Kong ones do. In fact we didn't actually eat anything for the first hour and a half - we just looked at some buildings and went into the Singapore City Gallery which was in the town planning office and it had all these super cool models of Singapore as well as history of the place and future planning.

Singapore Model

1:400 Singapore Central Area Model from above

Singapore Master Plan poster

1:400 Singapore Central Area Model

Singapore Island Model

The foodie tour bit then kicked off. We went to several food courts, where old street hawkers had been moved under cover, which gave them the benefit of running water and electricity and more space for customers but presumably less character. I guess similar to what they're trying to do in Hong Kong to move the little green sheds into more fixed premesis.

At the first one we had sugar cane juice, chicken rice (almost a rerun of yesterday's lunch!) an oyster and mushroom cake, and a banana fritter.

Maxwell Food Centre

Sugar cane juice

Ah Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice store

Chicken rice from Ah Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice store

Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake store

Making the oyster cakes

Oyster and mushroom cake

Banana fritter

At the second one we had a vegetarian popiah (which is a wrap made with the same skins used for spring rolls, but not actually deep fried). Very fresh and very nice.

Ann Chin Popiah store

Vegetarian popiah from Ann Chin

We heard some of the history of the local streets.

Old terraces on Smith Street

At the third one we had a Chinese-Malaysian chicken curry which was a tad spicy for me but very tasty.

Ah Heng Curry Chicken Bee Hoon Mee store

Chicken curry

Finally we ended up in an actual mall, and had a cake made with pandan juice. So light and fluffy.

Pure Pandan store

Classic Pandan Chiffon Cake

So all up a pretty good afternoon.

Singapore Art Museum

Headed back to the hotel, had a shower, then had a swim in the hotel pool.

Glass in the lobby of the Carlton Hotel

Had some drinks and nibbles at the hotel, then went across the road to the Swissotel to have a drink in the CityScape bar (after we found the entrance to the place - have I ever mentioned how much I hate malls?!). I had a Singapore Sling (as you do) and enjoyed the *ambience* and the view. Super expensive though :( Also didn't get the full panorama. Might have to try the restaurant next time.

Singapore by night

Clarke Quay by night

St Andrew's Cathedral by night

Decorations at Swissotel Raffles City

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 6 - Tuesday 19 January - Po Toi

Another day, another island.

Slept til only about 6am.

Breakfast was the usual, although a little earlier. We were actually out the door by 8:45am!

Walked down towards Causeway Bay to catch a bus outside the library - a 42C to Aberdeen. Got a front top seat which was good.

Got to Aberdeen arond 9:30. Hacked some portals while waiting for the 10am ferry to Po Toi.

Fishing boats and buildings in Aberdeen

The ferry is a private ferry, so no Octopus cards. $50HKD each return. Took about an hour to get there.

Buildings in Wong Chuk Hang

Ocean Park

Looking towards Repulse Bay

Hong Kong Satellite Earth Station

Tin Hau Temple, Po Toi

There's not much on the island, and even less in winter. But we were there to do a hike. Starting in the town, around past the Tin Hau temple, a couple of false starts due to inadequate signage, but then up and up and up over the island. Basically the island is a great big lump of granite sticking out of the South China Sea, and it's very exposed. The walk was pretty good and we took our time and took lots of photos.

Maris Tsui Wah Ferry A7663 that we took to Po Toi

Waterfront at Po Toi

Mat Chau island

Flag and dog at Tin Hau Temple

Tin Hau Temple, Po Toi

Granite hills on Po Toi island

Ferry pier at Po Toi, Mat Chau island and ships in the South China Sea

Hong Kong Satellite Earth Station

Granite hills on Po Toi island

Rock on Po Toi island

Stu at Kwoon Yat Pagoda

The second part of the walk, down from the pavilion, was all paved which made it even easier (just a *lot* of steps going down!)

Looking south from the top of Po Toi island

Fishing boats off Po Toi island

Cliffs along the south side of Po Toi island

Stu at an intersection on the footpath on Po Toi

Fishing boats off Po Toi island

Walkway on Po Toi island

Granite rockface on Po Toi island

Rock carvings on Po Toi Island, possibly around 3000 years old
Photo by Stu

Rock carvings on Po Toi Island, possibly around 3000 years old

Ferry and ferry pier at Po Toi
Photo by Stu

Got back to the ferry pier around 13:30 in time to finish our lunch and catch the 14:00 ferry back (there's only one ferry each way per day during the week - and only on Tuesdays and Thursdays). About another hour to get back.

Breakwater in the Aberdeen Channel

Buildings on Ap Lei Chau island

Statue of Queen Victoria at Aberdeen

In Aberdeen we hopped on a bus back to Causeway Bay.

Got back to the hotel about 16:30 but it was about two hours til we were going to meet up with Chris and Anne, so I thought I'd do a quick walk around Victoria Park to do some Ingress missions. Two hours and 8000 steps later... whoops! But did do the "Victoria Park" mission series which looks pretty good in the scanner.

At 18:45 we met Chris and Anne and Bronte and wandered into Causeway Bay - this time to have dinner at Lei Bistro which was pretty good.

Apple Store

Times Square building

Dinner at Lei Bistro

Buildings on Hennessy Road

Buildings on East Point Road

Had some dessert back in Tin Hau - I had this shaved ice cream dish which was awesome.

Shaved ice cream

Then back to the hotel to wash hair and crash.

Metropark Hotel, Causeway Bay

Breakfast floor of the hotel still decorated for Christmas

Day 5 - Monday 18 January - Peng Chau

(Blogging on the same day for a change!)

Best sleep in so far - 6:50am!

Also! Sun!!

View from the hotel pool floor

Pool at the hotel

Got ready just a little bit earlier, but then we tried to find the laundry man we went to last time, but he was gone, so called Chris and he recommended another laundry so we went to that instead - and it worked out a lot cheaper - only $61HKD for our bag of washing. So it was about 9:45 before we managed to get to the station. And of course that meant we missed the 10am ferry, so took our time and caught the 10:45 ferry.

It had already started clouding over by then too. But it was still a nice ferry ride out to Peng Chau. There's not a lot to see and do on the island. We did go on the "northern" walk around the edge and middle of the northern half of the island. We debated doing the "southern" walk as well but we were a bit tired (had already done 10000 steps!) so didn't. Hacked a few portals then caught the ferry back to Central.

Sea Success arriving

Hong Kong Island buildings

Kowloon buildings

Hong Kong Island buildings

Welcome to Peng Chau sign

Tin Hau Temple, Peng Chau

Kam Fa Temple, Peng Chau

Kam Peng Estate - we got stuck in this trying to make our way north

Tai Lei island

Pier at Tai Lei island

Boats in the harbour

Pier at Tai Lei island

Beach on Tai Lei island

Beach on Peng Chau island

Looking east towards Hong Kong

Jackfruit growing on Peng Chau

Farm on Peng Chau

Beach on eastern side of Peng Chau

Looking east towards Hong Kong

Pagoda on Peng Chau

Peng Chau Ferry Pier

Kowloon buildings and Discovery Bay 19

Hong Kong Island buildings

Our ferry back from Peng Chau - Sea Splash

At Central we walked up to go to Dim Sum Square.. CRISPY PORK BUNS!!!! So awesome. Also some turnip cakes and beef and parsley rice rolls.

Pan-fried turnip cakes at Dim Sum Square

Minced beef and parsley steamed rice rolls

Crispy pork buns!!

Then caught a tram back to the hotel, arriving around 4pm.

Des Voeux Road Central

Trams on Yee Wo Street

On the way to the laundry to pick up our clothes, Stu started getting a migraine. So back to the hotel to dose him up on painkillers, and I washed some underwear. Another nice thing about this hotel - even though they don't have a guest laundry - they have big bathroom sinks, with plugs, and a retractable clothes line in the shower. Epic win!

Then I met up with Chris and Anne and Bronte and Marg and we went to Din Tai Fung for dinner. Got some shrimp xiao long bao, some mushroom dumplings, some spicy shrimp dumplings, a noodle with peanut sauce dish, some greens and some wonton soup. All delicious.

Dinner at Din Tai Fung

Headed back to Chris and Anne's, and we went up to the roof and saw the Symphony of Lights from their rooftop - just lovely. Then borrowed some lightweight pants off Anne, because I stoopidly forgot my own lightweight long pants - and I wanted them for Singapore evenings. So that was good.

Walkway in Victoria Park

Symphony of Lights from Chris and Anne's building

Then picked up some snackages for the sweetie's dinner and back to the hotel.

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 3 - Saturday 16 January - Hong Kong Island

After waking up at 4am the first morning, this time slept through til 5am!

Spent the dark hours blogging and doing photo and gps stuff. Eventually Stu got up and we went down for breakfast. We didn't really have a plan for the day which is always dangerous. We struggle to find a good balance when travelling. Stu is happy to take things slowly, but I feel like a caged animal just sitting in a hotel room. The other problem is the rain. I might have gone for a wander by myself, but anything I'd normally want to do requires no rain. So I ended up in a pretty bad frame of mind before we'd even gotten out the door. Which was at 10am again.

Pool in the hotel

View from the hotel pool level

Stu did come up with a plan for the day though. We took the MTR all the way out to Kennedy Town. We wandered down to the waterfront (nothing much to see except grey) and around the park.

Happy seats

Inside a Hong Kong MTR train

Green Island

Kennedy Town waterfront

Buildings at Kennedy Town

Kennedy Town waterfront

AGA-200 Acetylene Gas Operated Lantern

Pacman sign

Then we hopped on a tram at the Kennedy Town terminus and rode it alllllll the way along the island to the North Point terminus. This was actually quite fun, and we had the top front window seats the whole way. Took forever though heh.

Interior of the tram upper deck

Catchick St

Des Voeux Road West

Western Market building

Des Voeux Road Central

Chater Road
Photo by Stu

Queensway

Another tram
Photo by Stu

Hennessy Road

Looking into the tram in front

Johnston Road

Another tram

Johnston Road

Hennessy Road

Yee Wo Street

Kaz on the tram
Photo by Stu

Causeway Road

King's Road

Chun Yeung Street

Our tram at North Point

At North Point we had a bit of a wander through the markets, and even found a bakery to get a pineapple bun. It wasn't as fresh as the one we had last year though.

Pineapple bun!

Then things started to fall apart a bit. Stu wanted to go see a movie, which was fine, except it meant we had time pressure. We thought we'd maybe get some lunch first. We went to find Din Tai Fung, but missed where it was so had to backtrack. And it was crowded anyway. And Stu accidentally trod on my achilles tendon so I was in pain. That bad frame of mind came back. We decided to go get the tickets and just find something to eat around the cinema. Except we only had half an hour left at this point, and didn't want to go into any of the restaurants in case they took too long. So thought we'd go outside. Except there were no food places around. Eventually found one but couldn't get any service so we ended up getting a sandwich from 7-Eleven. Yay. I was grumpy which made Stu grumpy so it was just bad all around :(

Olympic stairs at Causeway Bay

Yee Wo Street

Pearl City Mansion shopping centre entrance

Anyway, we went to see The Big Short, about a few groups of fund managers who bet on the housing market crash in 2007-2008. It was really interesting and quite well done.

It was 5pm now, which actually turns out to be a really good time to go to Din Tai Fung - no queues! So we got a few different sorts of dumplings.

Xiao long bao

Stu at Din Tai Fung

Then we walked back to the hotel. It was only about 6pm now. I messaged @Chrispycon and later (after watching a bit of tv) we met up with Chris and Anne and her sister Marg, had an over-priced drink at Guay, then came back to the hotel.

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