Hong Kong: a trilogy of 8 parts

Part five


12th Jan.

KK Airport ----> HK Airport. Flight: Dragonair.

was so-so... 3 hours, good in-flight radio. average looking stewardesses save for one ultra-hot one. she asked me if needed an immigration card. and i said yes. whoo chemistry. ok, so, i'm not really that pathetic... its just, probably the most eventful thing that happened on the flight, other than queueing up to go to the bathroom. and eating the salad of my in-flight meal.

anyway, upon arrival, i bought a really crappy and expensive hong kong sim card. wait. i bought 2. one for will. so, will buys a train ticket to Central. wait. Kowloon. wrong destination, so we get off and get on the MTR to Central via the Tung Chung line, and then switch to the Island line at Central to get to Wan Chai. at the Wan Chai station, we look for a map. didn't help much because although the Renaissance hotel is supposed to be real close to the station, we just couldn't find it. so will goes "fuck it we'll take a cab."

"to the marriott hotel, harbour view." he says to the cab driver. and the cabbie takes us to J.W. Marriott. very very impressive place. will goes up to the check-in counter and tries to check in... and apparently the J.W. Marriott is NOT the Renaissance hotel. go figure. so we take another cab down to the Renaissance. check in, dump bags, and we're on the streets again. supper time: 2AM. we walk down the streets of Wan Chai and practically everywhere we turn there's neon lights. closer inspection reveals that the signs actually say things like "Cinta-J" and "Dragon Club". walk past, and you'll see pictures of girls in skimpy clothes. walk further down the streets and you'll see more "clubs" with indonesian, malaysian, philippino girls sitting outside trying pull tourists in. hence i arrived at the conclusion that the place of our temporary residence is in fact a red light district.

well, it's supper time, and will seemed to be craving some porridge. congee. whatever. porridge was great, but what made it even better was the yeo cha kuay. you know that deep fried stick of bread? yeh. its nice. its so good. i swear, its like HEWJ. one over there is the size of four of ours, and its crispy! at 2AM! crispy at 2AM!!! well after our little escapade, we return to our hotel and retire.

oh yeh, its winter in hong kong, but not unbearably cold. about 15 degrees. its like an outdoor air-con. i got by fine with t-shirt and shorts.



the view from the room during the day.


this is what the room looks like.


PART TRES

13th Jan

ok, we wake up and shower blah blah and set off looking for shoes in Mong Kok. fairly easy to get there, we took the MTR (we realised it actually was close to our hotel. just a bit hard to look around with our baggage the night before) down to Central on the Island line and switched lines to the Tsuen Wan line to get to Mong Kok. oh man, at this point i tell you, there is this thing called the octopus card, and it is the best thing they've done in hong kong imho. all you do, is plop your wallet with the card inside on to this sensor thing and walk through. its like a prepaid credit card. you can use it at MTR stations, 7 eleven, and supermarkets. so cool. anyway we get to Mong Kok and look for the street with shoes. cause every street sells different things, but every shop in the same street will sell the same thing. like there was the pet shop street, which was probably the longest street that sold the same thing, there was a floral street, oh man, we just couldn't find the shoes street. eventually we did and we got some really cool shoes. i got a plain pair of converse sneakers and a really cool pair of reeboks.



its the pair with red laces. there's 2 pairs missing from the photo: beige converse low-tops and green adidas stan smiths (will's). but yeh, basically that's 7 pairs of shoes... in a room with 2 people. 5 of which we bought. haha. haha. by the by, i forgot to mention that we are staying in this hotel for free, courtesy of will's uncle. very very kind of him. and because we were staying for free, we got more money to spend! anyway, after dumping all our stuff in the hotel, we went to Lan Kwai Fong via the Tsuen Wan line to meet up with will's friend from singapore, Tim. so we met up with Tim and his friends and walked around a bit looking for a place to relax and have a drink. and you know what?we stumble into this alley with indian guys trying to hustle us into a malaysian restaurant. why the HELL would i want to eat in a malaysian restaurant, when i'm from MALAYSIA. but then, they don't know that do they? heh. the indian guy had huge sideburns and a fro. was funny. so we finally settle with this place whose name escapes my memory. but the floor was covered in peanut shells. yeh, we had like 4 baskets of peanuts between us that night. got back to Wan Chai fairly early cause the MTR closes around 12+


Part DEUX

14th Jan

so. we're basically rather free, shoes done, so we crossed that off the shopping list. the tailor was our next destination. apparently, the best place to find a tailor is in Tsim Sha Tsui. you know what, i'll just post a picture of the MTR lines and you can figure out how we get around.




as you can see, we didn't need to go to Central every time we wanted to switch to the Tsuen Wan line, so today we got off the Island line at Admiralty and walked right across the platform and boarded the Tsuen Wan line to get to Tsim Sha Tsui. got there, found a shop, and did business with a couple of indian guys who outsource everything to a local guy. will needed to get a suit made and some shirts, and i got some shirts made too. they boasted that hong kong tailors were the fastest in the world, and that they could make 50 suits in 7 days. nice. so we have to come back tomorrow to get our first fitting.

being done with the day's task, we looked around the area. it was full of dodgy hustlers and dodgy back alleys and dodgy shopping... locations. cheap jewellery, not so cheap weapons, like swords, scimitars, katanas, fishing poles... etc.

alright. so we met with will's friend Sunny for dinner, he takes us to this place called Red Ant for baked rice. its pretty good. crowded but good.




Part ichi

15th Jan

so we woke up and went to Causeway Bay. Took MTR via Island line. went shopping in Times Square, bought myself a nice shirt and a hoodie. just a plain black one. oh i also bought a nifty little camera here. so pictures actually only start from the next day.

met up with some of will's friends, Edmund and Jason for lunch. they were working and on their lunch break so we had a quick one. was really really nice. the lunch i mean. and almond milk tea.

went back to TST for fitting later, apparently they lost our measurements so we had to get that done again. and the tailor doing will's suit came in with a half made suit for the final measurements. so after that was done, we didn't have much else to do. so you know what i did? i went into one of those dodgy back alleys and bought myself a silk bath robe. with like chinese words one it. how awesome is that? apparently it says happiness and longevity.

ok... so we met up with Sunny again somewhere else for dinner. i forgot where, but we took a bus down to the place Sunny grew up in and went to an "Islam Restaurant". now i know what you're thinking: "but chris, you live in malaysia! what the hell are you doing eating curry in hong kong?! its not going to be any better than kk anyway you stupid idiot."

well guess what? it is! bloody hell, look at how packed it is!

yeh i had chicken curry there and it was so good! better then bloody salim's. or maybe i'm just sick of salim. either way. and they have these... beef cake things. its like a xiao long bau with beef instead of pork, and wrapped in a murthabak skin instead of the usual xiao long bau type. oh man, it was so good. i crave it just thinking of it. anyway, we take a bus to star pier and take a ferry back to Wan Chai.


pre-roast duck chinese tea session.



PaRT SeVeN

16th Jan

i'm going really spastic with the titles cause i'm not sure what to do... anyway back on topic. so today we decide to walk down to causeway bay to take a ferry to TST, cause its alot cheaper. anyway we sort of... mmfff... got lost in Causeway Bay. well no, we didn't, we figured while we were there, we'd have lunch and shop around a bit. had lunch at yoshinoya, that japanese fast food chain.


i had a chicken teriyaki meal. will had beef something i think. worst meal we had in hong kong and even then, it was delicious. so yeh, eating in hong kong was excellent.

so we looked around some more and came upon this tunnel.


hmmmmmmm. pipes? leading to the harbour? its a conspiracy of shitty proportions.

so anyway, we get to TST eventually via the ferry. this time we took a taxi up to the Peak. will pointed out it didn't make sense to walk up to the Peak. so we took a taxi up. heh. last taxi ride in hong kong. but yeh, we get to the top and it's like 5 degrees. great. so i took a few photos...




didn't expect to see jungle did you?


will found this spot, great view.



so we followed this path down. and down. and down.


saw some interesting things along the way...



a lamp post for instance.

alright i'm sick of waiting for the pictures to load, its take over an hour, i've spent almost 3 days trying to post this damn post.

no pictures for you!

you wait til next time. til blogspot stops glitching over.


ok, so we walk down the steep path and realise oh shit, we're not coming up this way, that's crazy! so will decides we go all the way down and take a bus up. cause taxis are rip-offs. guess what? at the bottom, no bus waiting for us. hmm. after walking around the town below the peak we eventually spot the tramline. so walk around and find the tram stop and press the button. lots of pictures to show at this point but TOO BAD. stupid blogspot. anyway. then we get on the tram and go up. by this time its rather late. so... that was rather pointless. also, i'd like to point out that the walk down was rather... well it kept me warm so i took off my jacket and stowed it in my bag. so here you have a dumbass 17 year old hero in a very thin lightweight shirt and boardshorts in winter. oh sure, it wasn't freezing at that level. and the tram stops inside the mall so it wasn't too bad. we head upstairs and take a look and lo and behold, its the EA Games Expo! so we spent 2 hours playing games, burnout, need for speed, etc. eventually we get hungry and look for a place to eat. the mall we were in was rather boring in terms of culinary delights. so we head across to the other mall. stepped outside and HO SHITWHOOOSH i'mfrozensolid.

idiot. a thin t-shirt and boardshorts? what was i thinking? in 4 degree weather! so we quickly make our way to the mall opposite. and then we decide on mackers. mmm... had my first big mac in ages. again, there's a funny pic i wanted to show you but blogspot is being a PMSy PSYCHOBITCH.

anyway, after our nice meal, we head back to the tram, and stop at the tram stop. from there we found a bus that goes to Central. so we boarded it and took the open air top deck. just so i could freeze and take trippy pictures. that i would like to SHOW YOU BUT BLOGSPOT IS *censored*.

anyway the bus stopped at the Central pier. couldn't take a ferry from Central to Wan Chai cause that's just stupid, its on the same island. so we wait at the bus stop for the next bus that goes to Wan Chai. get off at Wan Chai and head back to the hotel, shower, change and its out on the streets again! this time i wanted pork. so we went back to the same restaurant we had the duck, and OMG it was f***ing delicious! the charsiew there... they give you the whole strip, chopped in fairly thick slices and its so tender, the crust is perfect, it was, how should i say... good. better than good, but i can't think of a gooder word cause i'm tired.




P.a.r.t.8

So its the 17th, our last day here. things to to do, have lunch, pick up clothes from tailor, and... yeh, that's it.

lunch, we walked over to Causeway Bay, met up with Sunny, Edmund and Jason. five of us had lunch at this jap restaurant. it was so good. so Edmund and Jason rush off back to work, and Sunny needs to get to TST to get a card for his quiz and i'm not sure what that was about but we wound up in TST via ferry anyway. so we walk down the movie star avenue thingy, like the stars in hollywood thing, only this is with chinese/taiwanese/hongkongese actors. yes yes bruce lee was there, no i did not take a picture with him, and even if i did, it would be of little use because BLOGSPOT IS A BITCH.

anyway. eventually its time for Sunny to go, and me and Will just head into town to look around. i got magically drawn into Tom Lee music centre. and i bought a guitar. HAH. i wish it were so simple. we walked in looked around, i found a guitar that i've wanted for a long time, and i asked to try it out. at this point i'd phoned my mom to ask if it was ok if i bought a guitar, the verdict of course was, "sure, it's coming from YOUR savings." and my savings account is really a "chris' guitar fund" account anyway. so finally i try to pay for it mostly by my ATM card and a bit by cash.

didn't get through. so they suggest paying a smaller amount by card and more cash. didn't get through either. more time wasted and eventually Will realises he's running out of time because he wants to buy his nintendo ds in Mong Kok. so i told him to go first, and meet up at the tailor's. more time wasted, i go to Standard Charted bank to check my balance. what i found was shocking. i'd been robbed, swindled, my cash is GONE! i only had a meagre amount of HK dollars left in my account! more panic ensued, i called mom, she checked with bank, and apparently, my concern was unnecessary. the amount in my account was in fact correct, but in ringgit. so the ATM machine there was just being stupid. so i go back to the store, but the payment still wont go through! by this point i'm really impatient, Will has called and confirmed that he has his ds, and i have no guitar slung across my back. grr. so i head back to the atm and draw out cash. cold hard cash. and i use it to buy my guitar. in CASH. can you imagine walking around with more than 4000 HKD in cash? that's about 1800RM, about 800 Brunei Dollars.

this is the baby i bought. i'd show you pictures but BLOGSP- uh... i'm sure you've heard enough...



so yeh... isn't she pretty?



so i go in, get my guitar, walk out with my precious on my back and make my way to the tailors. Will was already inside. i try on my shirt, its nice blah blah blah, part with more cash, and we head to the MTR. get back to the hotel, and we go out again for the last time. walk around, find nothing interesting to do, and head back to the hotel. ok.

||P|A|R|T||s|i|x||

wake up at 4.30. shower. shave. brush teeth. board shuttle at 5.20. sleep. arrive at airport at 6.10. check in. THEY MADE ME CHECK IN MY GUITAR! i was horrified. reluctantly i checked her in at the oversized baggage place. had breakfast at popeye's fried chicken. its nice. really really good... for friend chicken. and the cajun fries. that was nice. and the gave a scone. scone + coke = awesome.

ok, so we get on board, flight was ok, i sat next to a total dick, who was too lazy to find out which channel the in-flight movie audio was on, so he had to ask a stewardess, who explained to him that it was all listed in the back of the in-flight magazine, but mr "...i can't even think of a name to call him" is not satisfied and calls another stewardess, who was not allowed to leave until she gave him the exact channel. other than that, touchdown, kk, yay, whatever. sigh. i miss hong kong.





so. there you have it.



did you all miss me?