Fun travels: Hong Kong in January

Hong Kong in January

We decided to take a short trip to Hong Kong in January 2013.
It had been quite a while since I was there and it would be a first time for gf!

Wish there was a Skyteam direct flight from SIN to HKG but there were none, so decided to go for UA 876. This flight uses a 747 and an old 747 with overhead monitors. Wish UA would phrase it out.
Today's flight was very empty, less than half of economy class was filled and I had a row of 3 seats to myself.

Breakfast choice was stir fried noodles with chicken.
Wasnt all that appetizing, to be honest.

Leafy Dog waiting for arrival of the next flight.

We finally met up and on we go to Tsim Tsa Tsui.
We took the HK express train and switched to a taxi.
Really love the fast express train!
Just 3 quick stops and bam, right in downtown HK.
Every city should have something similar.

After check in to the Panorama Hotel, we headed to a nearby shop for lunch.
Roast duck rice! It was quite good.
Dessert was a creme brulee.

Headed off to the waterfront.
Despite it being January, a winter month, the weather was so warm.
I ended up taking off my jacket and wore just a tshirt.

Took the old style boat over to Central.

This is a really nice looking Apple store.

Didnt get to ride one of these, looks really squeezy...

This Starbucks store was quite popular with the tourists.
Lots of tourists were taking photos of the interior, as shown below.
The interior was made to look like an old time Hong Kong coffee shop.

For dinner, we went to a famous roast goose restaurant.

Service was terrible and frankly, the food wasnt all that great.

I did like the noodles better than the signature roast goose.

Went back to Mongkok via the very crowded MTR.

Nice thing about Hong Kong is that the shops stay open until really late, around midnight.

Very vibrant city.

The next day, after a breakfast of wonton noodles which were really good, we went off to Stanley.

It was a rather vertigo-inducing bus ride through the hills, to end up at the other side of Hong Kong island. Lots more open land with natural surroundings, very different from Central or Mongkok.

We met a local friend for dinner.
She took us to a quiet residential area which looks like the old government flats in Singapore.
Interesting to find a full fledged restaurant right below the flats.
Never would have occurred to me.
It is one of those places that only locals would know about.
The food was very good and reasonably priced too.

The hotel had a viewing deck near the roof which overlooks the harbour.
There were just low railings and open air so had to be a little careful.
We had a nice corner room which was really large by Hong Kong standards.

Next day, we went to The Peak over on the Central side.

We went early to avoid the crowds at sunset and didnt have to wait long to get on the cable car.

Alternatively, there was also a bus that takes passengers up.

The view from the top of Victoria Peak is fantastic on a clear day!

After getting down from the Peak, we went to find a famous egg tart shop at Central.
It had quite a long line of people queuing up, tourists and locals alike.
Wow, the egg tart was really good. Warm and very custard like. Well worth the 15 minute queue.

I like the contrast of the old British style colonial building with the tall skyscraper at the back.

We went to Ladies market and Temple street which had stalls selling pretty much anything.
Clothes, knick-knacks electronics, bags and plenty of food stalls and restaurants!
Had to try HK claypot rice so we checked out a popular restaurant there, near Temple Street.
The claypot rice had different varieties including frog legs and sausages.
Mine was black mushroom and chicken.
The food actually came without the mushrooms! Had to tell the waiter about it and they added some back in. The black sauce in the bottle is a must and gives a lot more flavour to the claypot rice.

Back near the hotel, we had dessert at a popular dessert shop.
Their molten chocolate cake was really good but we didnt try it this time.
Had the pear soup, mango sago and chocolate souffle.