It's our second day in HongKong. Our main destination for the day shall be Ngong Ping 360. During our first trip to HK (2006), there was an accident in Ngong Ping 360. One of the cable car actually fell from great height landing on the ground. Cement cracked and fortunately, there was no one in the cabin. It was a relieved that we last minute made changes to part of our plan. Otherwise, I might be in the death list and not blogging over here.
CHOY! Touch-wood.
I was happily making preparation to set off when I heard the news.
The temperature falls to 12 degree celsius and the wind strength was 29. Oh holy great man! This means that Ngong Ping weather gotta be worst. I presumed that it's going to be
below 10 degree celsius up the hill.
Opened up the curtain of my room.
Hell, the window was filled with water droplets.
Giving a light touch on the window. It's damn cold man.
Haha, heck! I am still going ahead with my plan.
Had
Char Siew noodle at this famous restaurant. Its neither a high class nor well renovated restaurant. It's famous for the great quality of it's mee.
This restaurant had appeared numerous times in papers and TV.
Look at the papers(above). The man pressed the mee using a bamboo. Till today, they are still applying such past methods instead of machinery. They believed that past method from previous generation maintain a good taste in the mee.
It's really terrific.
The portion was quite small. As for the price, it's approx SGD7. It's not really expensive when you are trying out something which you haven't. The mee was slurpy with lots of Char Siew.
Drools.
The Restaurant.
Remember not to miss it.
Similarly to Japan, they had shops in MTR station. Even so, Japan ones are times more tempting.
We took MTR to Tung Chung. You got to really plan as Disney, Citigate, Ngong Ping were located at Tung Chung area. Therefore you must manage you time well, not to miss out great funs.
Like 菠萝包?
The onea we had in 新旺茶餐厅 adds slice of pineapple in between. That should not be the way how its made. The traditional ones we had in Hong kong had no slice of pineapple. HK's 菠萝包is like a bun with fragrance pineapple taste on the crisp surface on top.
We've reached Tung Chung Station. Due to the strong wind, the cable car stopped operating. Just imagine, a wind strength of 29 gotta make you swing in the cabin for 30 minutes. It's going to make you puke and collapse before you reached the mountain.
Alternatively, you may take a bus (below, Bus 23) which cost about HKD35 for a round trip.
It's approximately a 20 minutes ride despite the timetable provided state 10 minutes.
Here we are, Ngong Ping. We were going to see up the hill to see the big bronze Buddha Statue. You must be filled with doubt regarding how the statue was built, so do I. Well, we'll never find out.
The buddha was so big that you can simply spot it along your journey in the bus.
Aww, poor doggy. Aren't you cold?
Hell, why am I talking to him. Haha.
Over the years, they had preserve these historical places. Unlike Singapore, tearing down almost abit of everything. I hate that. It's so pathetic that people had to go Railway Tracks for Bridal Photo Taking session.
The photo(s) are sort of white and pale. It's due to the weather being foggy.
The stairs might look short, but it's long and tiring for me. You must understand, despite my small size, the gravity had great impact on me. Every single level, I got to rest and semi-hibernate a little.
It's very cold. Confirm below 10 degree celsius. My fingers were in pain and I had to shuff them into my mini pocket. I had difficulty in photo-taking. Well, I had bangs and curtains open wide under strong wind. I got to set and adjust it every few minutes.
It was to a certain extend, I hardly bother about it. I just leave it open and adjust to side-fringe.
Photo-taking are not allowed in the Buddha Statue. Internally, there are stairs to different level. It's similar to a museum basically. You will see rolls of sutra and teachings in glass tables, interesting drawings and extra knowledge to the learning of sutra/teachings.
Love Vegetarian Food?
Next, we went for Vegetarian Lunch at a restaurant. I feel like their local, going for prayers followed by a sumptous lunch. You got to purchase tickets from tickets booth. It cost approx SGD50/- for both of us. This Vegetatian Lunch is optional, you may forgo if you find it expensive. I will recommend you something cheaper if you read on.
We bought the tickets. Woohoo.
The Restaurant
The 50 bucks we had paid doesn't allow you to pick your own choice of dishes. The menu had been pre-decided. It's like a package instead. It definitely comes with soup and rice. They usually served 铁观音, standard.
No worries about the portion not being sufficient. They will increase portion based on number of pax. Soup will always be served, it's nice and refreshing.
Fried Vegetables and Sweet Sour Toufu.
I prefer the Sweet Sour Toufu. The sauce and corns were appetising and I had lot of rice.
Fried Spring Rolls and Mushrooms.
The Fried Spring Rolls is super big, twice bigger than what I usually had. It's really crunchy. The ingredient wasn't what we had usually, instead they added they own recipe of cabbages.
Anyone love Shrooms?
Never missed their shrooms. They aren't big but they are juicy. You will feel the juice when you chew. Haha.
Isn't it a sumptous meal for just 2 of us?
Below is the ticket booth.
(Above) Previously I mentioned about recommending something cheaper. You can purchase yummy beehoon and curry at the stall. Take note, it's all vegetarian food. I'm not sure about the taste, but I'm sure it's cheap though.
Having a sweet tooth, we ordered some light snacks(kueh) and beancurd.
HK people like to add ginger to their dessert. It was said to make you stay away from illness and keeps you healthy. I didn't really like ginger. Still I enjoyed my bowl of bean curd.
The Kueh was damn nice lah.
Here we are, going to the village.
I warned him about taking off his hoodie, he went on a deaf ear. Great, I gonna post it EVERYWHERE to make him learnt his lesson. Haha.
There's lot to see in the village. Chopsticks or even crystal etc. Basically, they are interesting stuffs that you hardly get to see in SG. Look at the chopsticks, I guess you might have the urge to buy one set back. It comes in couple and family design. Innovative. Expensive though.
Tried 油葱饼 before?
It's my first time too. You will enjoy it if you love sweet stuffs. It's wrap around with a layer of rice paper. The ingredient was cold and crunchy. It's like biscuit.
By the way, it's cold and crunchy because of the cold temperature. If the weather is slightly warmer, it will melt and becomes sticky. I still prefer to eat it in cold weather.
Chris enjoying his 油葱饼.
Heard before 许愿树?
People wrote wishes tied to an orange before throwing it up on a tree. You can join "Monkey Tales" to know more stories about the origin.
It's getting late, and here we go off in Bus 23 to Citigate. Citigate consists of numerous retail outlets. Mango, Espirit, Guess, RL, Armani Exchange, CK and many more. Everything begins with a minimum of 30% discount. If you are lucky, it's possible to get your loots up to 70% discount. It's a great shopping place specially for high ended brand. Yeah.
Christopher got shopping swing. He gets grouchy after my shopping spree. His tummy must be growling out loud. Haha, poor him. Instead of enjoying his spree, he ended up carrying bags for me.
We encounter some promotional Disney tickets for sale at Citigate. It comes with little freebies if we were to purchase our tickets here. So here we go. I've got some little clips from Disney which worth probably 20 bucks. Great! We even took pictures with Minnie.
After Citigate, we headed to Temple Street. It is also known as 庙街. Wow, you gonna find lots of accessories there. It's all selling at cheap price.
Note: Kindly ran through Temple Street before heading toward Ladies Market/Street. This is because Temple Street is selling cheap while Ladies market can be slightly commercialise on tourist.
Bangles and Beads.
You might be hungry after the whole day. 庙街 might be the best place for you. (Below) You'll find restaurants or stalls by the streets selling great dishes.
Like 烧卖?
You can see stalls selling finger food. Remember to give it a try. 烧卖that you eat in such stalls taste differently from the ones we had in restaurant. Its hard to describe. Try it and you'll find out.
(Below) Christopher was adding spices and sauces to his 烧卖.
Comes in 5.
Shopping
Right after shopping at 烧卖, we roam around MongKok and Yau Ma Tei area. There's little shopping centres all around. Your eyes got to be sharp to spot them as they might not even look like a mall to you in the first place.
It's a great place to lurk around for shoes and accesories. It's a pity I went during winter. Great weather, but not a terrific shopping season. All the shops were selling coats and winterwear.
Guardian.
They are called Mannings in HK.
It's rather late and we headed back to our hotel area for dinner. Oh, not my dinner but his. I'm damn full after the day and was amazed that he was hungry. You must have thought that i'm crazy for eating just a sandwich for dinner. Seriously, I'm not kidding.
Let's do some maths about what I had for the day.
- Char Siew Mee (morning)
- Vegetarian food( 4 dishes)
- 菠萝包
- Beancurd
- 油葱饼
- 3 Kuehs
- Ice-cream
- 烧卖
Don't you think that I am too full to be true?
I had yummy milk tea and he ordered beer. Oh, the weather is too cold. Hot coffee is not enough keep him warm.
I had my sandwiched and he had his Honey Char Siew rice.
Another tiring day had gone. Weather was so cold here. It's getting late. Nights everyone.
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