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.:))