Hong Kong and Singapore 2016

Results tagged “Walking”:

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 8 - Thursday 21 January - Hong Kong to Singapore

Another 6am wakeup.

Got ourselves organised, then breakfast as usual.

Out the door at 8:45. Train to Hong Kong where we did the In-Town Checkin so didn't need to cart our bags on the airport train.

Inside Hong Kong airport

Went through security, then had a drink, then headed to the plane.

It was a very full flight. Fullest I've ever seen a Cathay Pacific flight. I should have picked our seats weeks ago, but didn't, and only did it at the web checkin in the morning. They'd given me a window seat nearish the front, but too close to the wing for my liking, and they hadn't allocated Stu a seat at all yet. So I changed them both. There were no seats together, but luckily we could both get window seats up the back, so that was pretty good.

Belly cam of the plane

Takeoff was to the east, but Hong Kong was covered in cloud, so nothing to see there.

Lunch was a very nice chicken dish - the chicken was lovely and tender.

Lunch on the plane

I watched Pixels first up, which was of course completely ridiculous, but a bit of fun.

Then a documentary - The Secret World of Lego - about the company and designers which was interesting.

We flew over Vietnam - lots of fires :(

Coastline of Vietnam near Bai Xep

Coastline of Vietnam near Tuy Hoa

Fires in the mountains in Vietnam

Then saw Singapore from the air before landing from the south.

Changi Airport

Ships in the Singapore Strait

View of Changi Airport from the plane

Getting through immigration at Singapore took what seemed like ages - about half an hour. And both my phones refused to connect to the airport wifi :( So that was all hot and frustrating. We took so long that instead of getting our bags from the carousel, they'd taken them off and left them next to it, so it was all a bit of chaos.

Kinetic Rain sculpture at Changi Airport

Then it was out to find money (easy enough), phone sims (Singapore Recommends didn't have them and no 7-Elevens in sight), train cards (Singapore Recommends had sold out). So that was all a bit fail. Got the train card at the airport station, $12 with $7 credit on them. Asked if that would cover the trip to the city - she said yes.

So two trains into town. Getting off, turns out the fare from the airport is like $1.30. Sydney please pay attention!!!

Everything here is in four languages. Except when it's too hard, they just go with English.

The heat and humidity here is like a blanket. At hot, wet blanket. I really think I'm going to die here.

But we did find a big mall (Raffles City) to walk through which saved walking a city block outside.

Carlton Hotel, Singapore

Checkin at the hotel was easy enough (although they only gave us one room key, and you can't use the room power without it, but you can't use the lift without it either - not very practical if one person wants to go out and the other wants to stay in the room - so went and got another key).

Our room at the Carlton Hotel

View from our room at the hotel

USB charger points, power and light switches

View from our room at the hotel

National Museum of Singapore

View of the pool from the lift lobby of our hotel

View from the lift lobby of our hotel

St Andrews Church

Top of the Marina Bay Sands hotel

For dinner we just went to the executive club lounge and had a couple of drinks and some snackages.

Went to a 7-Eleven across the road to get some sims, but they'd sold out :(

Then I decided to walk down to the waterfront to have a look at the Marina Bay Sands light show. The walk down was a little frustrating in places - seems this place is not too well designed for pedestrians - presumably of course unless you know all the underground and in-mall ways to go. At one point I found myself in this underground walkway, that had a gallery inside it! You could never do that in Australia - it'd get destroyed by vandals instantly.

Walkway under Esplanade Drive

Finally got to the waterfront and saw the Merlion and the light show which was quite pretty.

Light and Water Show at Marina Bay Sands

Singapore Flyer by night

Light and Water Show at Marina Bay Sands

The Durian, and Singapore buildings by night

Light and Water Show at Marina Bay Sands

The Fullerton Hotel and Singapore skyline by night

Merlion by night

Esplanade Bridge by night

Merlion and Singapore skyline by night

Sinapore Flyer, Art Science Museum and Marina Bay Sands by night

Sculpture at Marina Bay waterfront

Lighted trees at Marina Bay waterfront

The Fullerton Hotel by night

Back to the hotel to shower and crash.

Anderson Bridge by night

Esplanade Drive bridge by night

Victoria Theatre and Victoria Memorial Hall

National Gallery of Singapore

Memorial to the Civilian Victims of the Japanese Occupation

Carlton Hotel, Singapore

Also. Why do old people take so damned long to go to the toilet?

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 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