Day 3: Hong Kong in retrospect

I loved the anonymity (sic) of travelling alone, i love making all the decisions myself, taking the MTR to some god forsaken place that i have no idea where i am going. I love that i can end up getting so frickin lost and i dont have to explain to anyone why the hell did i choose this route.

No black faces, no struggles to tell ur companion ' you go this way, i go that way, no hard feelings'.

Most people dont understand why in the world would i want to travel alone. Obviously because i can live with myself? I came back to my hotel on saturday night and received smses from my friends " where did you go", "why did u go?" and the umbiquitous " WHO did you go with?"

Desdragon swears that i took a lusty trip to HK, like dirty old men going to Batam. hahaha... i like the way he put it. =)
But... my response is ... "whatever."

I am, afterall, an INFJ.

I like it that i can sit at my dinner or lunch and i dont have to talk to anyone at all and can take out the Hong Kong Daily newspapers and read it. Or if i am in the mood, make conversation with the person next to me.

Ironically, i find that when one travels alone, you get to experience the locals more than if u were travelling in a pair or group. Locals tend to be more friendly to someone travelling alone, particularly to a girl!

Dress nicely, put on a properly made up face and smile alot, you'd have lots of people to talk to. If that fails, just buy a good book! I like Lonely Planet, even though i have serious doubts about the food choices it recommends (Like Delifrance in Mongkok!!!! Huh!!!!) because there is lots to read about the history of a place.

I like it that i am able to sit at Victoria Harbour's Avenue of Stars and stare at the scenery for 30 minutes without having some companion to insist that we take photos of the Bruce Lee statue that would eventually lie in some silly photo album. I like it that i am able to take that 30 minutes and reflect on how i got to this point in my life, how i got here etc. To clear my mind and breathe (though not too deeply cos of the smog) and just absorb in the moment that at 1908 hrs on 27th Oct, i was here at Victoria Harbour.

I like it that i can go all the way to some outskirts to watch a movie without having to explain to anyone why.

I had travelled alone in Europe previously due to unforseen circumstances and after surviving having only 5 minutes to run to a upper deck in Hamburg to catch the 1 and only train back to Amsterdam otherwise spend the night in Hamburg without any accomodation, i think that 3 days in a cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong is not really a big deal afterall though everyone seems to make it out to be some unthinkable thing to do!

I really liked HK very much and am planning to go back soon... but after HK, what's next? Shanghai? Taipei? Tokyo? I will be looking forward to doing so with me, myself and i.

Day 2 of Hong Kong:

Woke up with a sense of adventure...My plan was to explore Hong Kong Island! I took a ride to Tsim Sha Tsui and ending up at the 星光大道 (Avenue of the Stars) en route to the Star Ferry terminal.

I was completely blown away by the sight of Victoria Harbour. It was absolutely..... breath taking and fantastic. Unfortunately the view was pretty much marred by the pollution in the air... it was soooo hazy =(

Anyway i walked the entire "avenue" and had alot of fun looking at the stars' handprints...

I met Tony Leung (!!!!!!!!!!).....'s handprints. hehe.

The big contemporary stars like Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Maggie Cheung, Jet Li, Andy Lau, Wong Kar Wai had their handprints at the most prominent of the walk, right in the middle! Guess Andy Lau must be the biggest star as his had the best "feng shui". Anyway at the end of the Avenue was the star ferry terminal... guess what? the Octopus card was actually usable here!

Actually i thought i would be pretty bored during the ferry ride as i take ferries everyday for the past 5 years...

The star ferry was really something else though. Its open air and a 7 minute ride across Victoria Harbour. You get to see the entire city scape of Hong Kong Island for like HKD 2.2. That's like less than SGD 0.50.

If yesterday's experience was like a trip back to the old Hong Kong, today was really a day of new Hong Kong. Saw the infamous Bank of China building ( i thought it was pretty iconic actually), the Jardin House, the IFC1 and IFC2... Actually HK island reminds me alot of Raffles Place. If anything, i actually prefer Raffles Place as even on a Saturday morning, the crowd is maddening and in such a rush. Imagine on a weekday...

I ran into some trouble because of my stupid crocs shoes, started blistering really terribly and couldnt find a good pair of slippers/shoes to buy... ended up walking around in pain and ended up improvising by buying alot of bandages and plasters. =(

But spent some time at Pret-a-porter at IFC1 drinking iced coffee and reading the HK papers... it was really a treat. :)

I had very much wanted to go to Victoria Peak but in my state , i quickly decided that its pretty much out of question and ended up going to Sai Wan Ho to visit the HK Film archive. This again was a really old estate, had a little difficulty finding the film archive but eventually ended up there. They were having an exibitionon Zhou Xuan and the famous chinese literary ghost, Xiao Qian. It was really pretty interesting to read their takes on these 2 characters.

HK is now very much different from my memory of it 15 yrs ago. Now, everything is tri-lingual! Everything is subtitled in Chinese and English, while its spoken in Cantonese. I had very little difficulty finding my way around and even interaction with the HK people.

My feet anyway was really hurting so i ended up at Wan Chai for lunch.... Ended up in one of those little restaurants that you can imagine them filming a TVB serial in. If not for my cursed blisters, i would have gone to Causeway Bay and Victoria Peak. =((((((

Ended up going back to Yau Ma Tei and rested in the hotel before venturing out in heavily bandaged feet in the evening.

Somehow, i had wanted to go back to the Avenue of the stars as i was still so amazed by the sight of Victoria Harbour. As i was feeling better, i decided to venture to Tsim Sha Tsui via Mong Kok MTR. Ended up in the night market of Ladies' Market at Tung Choi road... Had a really great time feasting on the street food of the smelly toufu, cuttlefish, fish balls... Really wanted to try the intestine but was worried i would be having a porcelain cruise back in Dorsett Seaview so decided to skip it.

Finally ended up at the Avenue of the Stars and it was dark and the buildings were all lit up. If i thought that the day time view of Victoria Harbour was good, this really left my speechless. I sat at the Avenue of the stars staring at the scenery for at least 30 mins as it was turning cold and windy. Of course the photos dont do the harbour any justice.

I decided to go back to the hotel, of course, en route Sai Yeung Choi street south, gobbling as much smelly toufu as i could :)

Here's my last meal in Hong Kong, wanton noodles with lor goose... it was fantastic. =)

I'm so coming back to Hong Kong for the sights (Victoria Peak, Lan Kwai Fong) and for the food.:))

YMM: Here's my Hong Kong account!

As some of you might know, i 'm in the midst of clearing leave and all of a sudden, maybe after watching too much Hong Kong films, especially influenced by In the mood for love (2000), I had decided to take off for Hong Kong last week... Why? Because i can. =)

(Dont hate me just because YOUR gratification in life involves stretchmarks!)

Departed for HK on friday on Cathay Pacific and arrived at HKIA at noon time, during the airport transfer to my hotel (Dorsett Seaview @ Shanghai Street), passed by the beautiful Tsing Yi bridge. Was really amazed to see the coastline dotted by so many condominums that would not have been out of place at the ECP. Most of the design really resembled the condos at ECP and the heights were at least like 40-50 storeys high. This doesnt sound like a feat, but imagine these are built on the mountain ridges. They all faced the sea and imagine coming home to a view like that everyday. Well, according to the guide, these are very inexpensive housing, that cost something like as low as HKD 2000 psf as noone wants to live this far from HK island/Kowloon. And indeed, these housing were very much purchased by residents who work at the airport.

The journey was very pleasant as the scenery was dotted with much splendid a view of mountains and valleys and harbour views. Anyway, the transfer took something like 30 mins and we reached Kowloon where my hotel was at.

I would recommend Dorsett Seaview hotel for anyone who would like to have a quality 3 star accomodation (read: no frills), mainly for its fantastic location. It is right next to Temple street and just 3 mins walk from Yau Ma Tei MTR station.

I wonder if its prophetic that my room number is 911. Maybe for "Kao ming ah!! ngor mm sek tak kong cantonese ah!!" (Help! i dont know how to speak cantonese!"

More on that later...

Here's gorry sitting on my luggage and my view of the Kowloon city. Seaview hur-ee bin to ah?? (Where's the seaview?)

Actually, if my floor was higher, i would be able to see the Victoria harbour. I'm actually facing Tsim Sha Tsui...

Anyway the room is really tiny but extremely clean and i would say it serves its purpose lah, dont expect too much!

But its location is really fantastic. There's the famous Hui Lao Shan "healthy dessert" store opposite the hotel. 7-11 is behind at Temple street and in close proximity to good food stalls in the evening.

Anyway after dumping gorry at the hotel room, i went for lunch at Sai Yeung Choi Street South... On Lonely Planet's recommendation, went to Saint Alp's Teahouse. This is something like a mini modernised Cha Chan Teng, i ordered a Pig Neck Noodles with Ice Milk Tea.. Here it is ... Not bad lah i would say...

Actually it was just instant noodles that was improvised with yummier condiments. =) Rather salty though... Regretably not enough chilli and i didnt dare to ask them for more chilli... =(

After that satisfying meal, i felt alot more refreshed and went to explore the MTR to go to Kowloon Bay's UA Theatre Mega Box. I had purchased online the ticket for Lust, Caution! yes!!! The uncut version!! Eat your heart out girls!!!

Anyway here's the MTR line for the Kwun Tong line to Kowloon Bay... I bought the Octopus card, which is like our Easi-link card except that it works for 8 various forms of transport, hence Octopus... Anyway, Kowloon Bay was very much like an industrial part of HK... but as you will have it, every MTR station has a shopping center either on top of it or next to it... I had no idea where Megabox was and ended up having to ask a lady in broken canto where Megabox is.. " Mm goy, megabox bin to ah?" She ended up speaking in broken english as i guess her broken english is better than my broken canto.

I ended up walking like 2 km around just to find the red building... turns out there is a free shuttle bus service.*_*

Anwyay the Megabox looks so out of place in the industrial town. Imagine a vivocity in the midst of .... Ubi industrial park? I was grossly early for the movie so ended up wandering around the shops in Megabox.

There was some California Fitness Center recruitment thingy and this really cute HK guy was trying to get me to join until i told him i am not a local. We ended up chatting abt where i was from and he warmly welcomed me to Hong Kong. Of cos, like the Hawaii incident with the Jap beach boy, i ended up running away AGAIN!! hahah! Sigh. Now you know why my gratification in life doesnt involve stretchmarks... He was really cute though! I was warned by my friend that the HK guys look reallly cheena and indeed its true, but they do have their leng zhai-s.

The tour guide who brought us from the airport to the hotel was encouraging us to try the street food stalls where they sell the fishballs, cuttlefish, smelly tou-fus (ala those in the TVB serials) and was telling us thats the reason why HK has so many fei zhais & fei loois.

I must say that they're rather obsessed with slimming. EVERYWHERE you go, there are sooooo many adverts on slimming. Myolie Wu looks fantastic, if the pictures are to be believed of course. But in general, i thought that the HK pple would be more slim than sgpreans. Turns out the locals are indeed rather horizontally challenged. Sgpreans are much slimmer though i believe via very unhealthy means. The HK girls look more horizontally challenged BUT i think they look content compared to sgpreans.

I noticed something strange as well, in my 2 hour wait for the movie of the year... that while in general, sgpreans locals are in general more well groomed, our celebrities are definitely not even in the vicinity of their celebrities. I was at many DVD stores and looking at our best foreign import's VCD next to theirs, i felt rather.... embarassed. Their celebrities oooze glamour from their toenails compared to ours in totality! OMG!

Anyway.... here's my ticket stub for Lust , Caution. I absolutely refuse to pay my taxes and be a law abiding citizen anymore. I watched the NC-16 version in sgp and the HK version and blardee hell, the story is so different in the HK version. Why are dumb ass shows like Superbad M18 and Lust, Caution NC16!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Of course, Tony Leung doesnt disappoint. *tee hee* Nose bled all the way back to the hotel on the shuttle bus to the MTR and on the MTR back to Yau Ma Tei. Walked around in Temple Street in a haze and still nose bled while eating my wan ton noodles at a food stall at Temple street.

Anyway i went back and KO-ed while reading "Stumbling on Happiness" by Daniel Gilbert

Dear all, for everyone interested in the banana conversation:

Sales gal - "Sir, this is the set of wafer with ice cream and soda, but
no banana"

Desmond - "Huh? No banana huh? But picture got banana what!"

Sales gal - "Sorry, the set does not come with banana"

Desmond - "How can? Like that misrepresentation. You should tell your
management to correct the photo."

Sales gal (pissed) - "If want to have banana, have to charge you extra
one dollar"

Desmond - "One dollar, I can go cold storage and buy a bunch of
bananas!"

Sales gal - "Sorry lah"

Desmond (still grumbling pays up for non-banana wafer and soda set) -
"How can I dun have my banana"

Complaining the whole way back to his seat..."without banana, the wafer
tastes different...sigh..."

Yes. Stop it. I look like a monkey. Shaddup already.





Better than desdragon's or lu lu bananas. Yah, go ask him abt his black banana that is the same price as the ikea sausage. YES, we meant it that way.

Amigo, mi mejor amigo

Amigo, mi mejor amigo