Blog - HKG 2006 #5 - Day 3+

HKG 2006 #5 - Day 3+

On our third day, we took it a bit easy after the long previous day travelling to another country (despite how close it was). This time we didn't buy train passes, we used some bus, some taxi and quite a bit of tram to work our way around.

Foot massage

The previous night, we had got the hotel's concierge to book us a reservation at foot massage salon Happy Foot in Happy Valley (1/F Elegance Court, 2-4 Tsoi Tak Street). So first thing in the morning, we headed there and got those feet what they deserved for having walked so much the previous day. I got a 50-minute massage that felt very good.

Then we went to nearby restaurant 《正斗》 (G/F, 21 King Kwong St, Happy Valley) for some delicious shrimp wantan noodles, fish ball congee and spring rolls.

For dessert we went to 《蓮園》 (G/F, 61 Sing Woo Rd, Happy Valley) next door and had some pudding.

South Horizons

Our next destination was South Horizons to go to the large Joyce Warehouse (21/F, Horizons Plaza, Lee Nam Road, Ap Lei Chau). The plan was to get to the area by bus, and then take a taxi to Horizons Plaza, a tall building with lots of warehouses and discount shops.

So we got to South Horizons by bus with no trouble, but then we were hit with bad luck when we got into the first taxi we found. Communication was about zero, but that was ok since we had a pamphlet from Horizons Plaza with the place's address on it. However, the address was only written in English, and the driver either couldn't or didn't read it. There was also a phone number on there so he called and I guess he asked "what's the address?". Turns out the phone number was the one of the management office in Wan Chai, and he headed right there... It's when we neared the highway toll, that we had passed by bus earlier, that I realized he wasn't driving us to our destination. I tried to stop him from going through the toll, but he went right through it, and then through a long tunnel that we had also passed by bus. Soon enough we were at our starting point, damn!

It's only then that he understood that he had made a mistake. So he did a U-turn and proceeded back to South Horizons, once again through the long tunnel and passing the toll. What was initially supposed to be a 5-minute HKD$15 ride took about half an hour and I was getting nervous about what would happen when the time to pay would come.
We got to our destination, we gave the driver "now what??" looks, and he pointed at his meter that was up in the $90s, plus he expected us to pay the two $5 tolls he had been through. After some reasoning he wanted us to pay $40 which we dealt down to $30. Whew.

So we finally did a bit of well-deserved shopping. I got some nice Marni shoes for a good price!

The way back was much easier since we caught a bus nearby that took us straight back to Causeway Bay.

More shopping

We did a bit of final shopping around the place. One of the places we went is a definite stop in Hong Kong, it's a shop called GOD ("Goods of Desire") that sells furniture and home accessories, but also a bit of clothing, bags, and really all kinds of things. Most of the stuff are original designs, and a lot of it is very cool. If I'd live in Hong Kong I'd probably get most of my furniture there, but meanwhile I get bags and T-shirts and small stuff.
We also enjoyed some coffee and huge cakes in the shop's café.

Across from Times Square, we found a skaters' shop where there were plenty of BNE tags (Japanese tagger). We figured he must have been there very recently. There was also a large "BNE was here" graffiti inside the building.

Once it started getting dark, we went to two small crowded malls on Great George Street. One called Causeway Place reminded a bit of Nakano Broadway, with several shops selling toys and collectibles and also a degree of otaku clientele. The other one, Island Beverly Commercial Centre, was more like 109, with about nothing but girls' clothing shops. Both had several floors and very narrow alleys.

Another destination was Krispy Kreme, the U.S. donuts chain that is set to invade Japan later this year. They give one free sample donut to anyone who walks in and to the counter, and that just keeps people going inside. However they weren't cheap at HKD$10 for an original and HKD$12 for other flavors. They do get cheaper when you buy larger quantities though. Especially the original donuts were light and good, though maybe a bit too sweet. I wonder how they will do against Mister Donut who often has most of its donuts on sale at ¥100.
Something that kinda sucked is that even though I only bought three donuts, they were handed to me in a large flat box that can hold six, with no easy way to carry it. It was quite a pain to drag around on the tram and everywhere.

Then, we were getting pretty hungry, so we went to eat at Crystal Jade Restaurant in Times Square (《翡翠拉麵小籠包》, B224). We had a lot of delicious food including very spicy noodles, fried rice, dumplings and boiled vegetables.

After a bit of last minute supermarket shopping, during which I was getting really tired (especially of carrying that insane donuts box), we took the tram back to our hotel. We packed all of our stuff and went to bed a bit late.

Leaving

We slept only a few hours until about 4:00, when we had to get ready and go to the airport for our 8:30 flight. Luckily Hong Kong's airport has rather easy access, and also luggage can be checked in at Hong Kong station before taking the Airport Express, and that makes things really easier.

In Hong Kong too the security was tight, we had light body searches before entering the gate area. Water was again being confiscated but there were free dispensers at the gate.

On the flight, we watched Nacho Libre and it was hilarious! We landed early afternoon and were home about 16:00.

Larger photo sizes in my Hong Kong/Macau 2006 set at Flickr

Posted on September 13, 2006 at 22:52 | Tweet |

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