Hong Kong 2007 – Day 2
Yawn. Woke up at 9am to prepare for shopping! So where are we going to shop? Hong Kong is known for “mai dong xi, chi dong xi”. So the stuffs should be cheap around here. Other than the pirated goods. So we are going to visit some factory outlets (Adidas, Nike, Esprit). These factory outlets aren’t located at places like Orchard Road. These places are quite out of the place (Kwun Tong, Kowloon Bay, Lai Chi Kok).
Our first destination is Kwun Tong. We visted Wong Tai Sin temple before that as it was along the way. Reached Wong Tai Sin MTR and we made our way to the temple. Was stopped by aunties selling joss sticks (incense sticks). They are hard selling their stuffs! They blocked our roads, stuffed the stuffs into our pockets and bags. The police there simply stood there and watch. My advise to people travelling there would be, avoid the narrow stairway to the temple. Spent quite a short amount of time there. The temple is pretty crowded. I didn’t know Japanese people visit chinese temples as well.
Went over to the shopping centre beside for breakfast. So what good meal did we have? Just a simple MacDonalds breakfast. They offer macaroni for breakfast! Other than that, they have turkey ham sandwich or burger. Travelled over to the factory outlet after that.
Even without the use of GPS unit. The factory outlet is surprisingly easy to find despite the similar looking buildings of Hong Kong. Similar buildings don’t deter you? How about crowded and similar looking? The naming convention for floors are also different. For example, G represents ground floor or rather the first floor. Had a hard time getting used to their naming convention. The units on each floor are also named differently.
Ok back to the factory outlet. It is utterly disappointing. I cant find a decent looking jacket over there. The prices aren’t really competitive. I feel that the prices are quite similar to Queensway. Perhaps I went there at the wrong season. The other few factory outlets are similar as well. But they do have items I don’t see in Singapore.
Spent almost half the day going through the factory outlets before stopping by Central MTR before going up to Victoria Peak. Spent sometime understanding the confusing direction signs that led us round and round before reaching Peak Tram Station. My advice would be, take bus 15C instead. Period.
Was greeted by a long queue of people at the Peak Tram Station. Wish to cut the queue? Spend abit more for the tram + wax museum combo! Most of the people queuing were on tours and I suppose going up the peak is part of the half day city tour package for them. Wax museum is only so so. But where can you find a decent wax museum in Singapore? Don’t wish to spend the additional money? You can still take pictures at the entrance of the wax museum. During my trip there, bruce lee was outside happily taking pictures with tourists. And that’s one of the reason why I can’t get a shot with him.
Took the escalators up to the viewing platform right at the top. Lost count of how many escalators I took. Advice would be, on level 2 or 3 of the building, there is a lift that takes you up to the floor one or two levels away from the platform. You can effectively avoid the crowd. The view on top is magnificent! Got a nice view of Central and Tsim Sha Tsui area. It is pretty crowded up there. On top of that, windy. If you care alot about your hair and how it looks. Probably consider wearing a cap and pray that it don’t get blown away. Got a couple of hours to spare hence we visited the wax museum while waiting for the sun to set.
The wax models are pretty life-like for some, and pretty off for some of them. Jay doesn’t really look like Jay. Oops. I meant that the wax model don’t really look like him. I saw Minister Mentor Lee there!
Ding dong ding dong. It is almost sunset. Went up to the platform again (this time by lift). It is very very very very crowded down there. If you plan to snap some night shots over there, consider going up early and have your tripod set up. Else you can go to the canon people down there and have your pictures taken and developed for a fee. They have taken the nice spots. So if you know what I meant good. Don’t know? Let me put it bluntly, try taking your pictures at the spots where they have set up the camera, you will get a pretty nice shot (provided you got a steady hand or a camera which allows you to control your ISO and shuttle speed). Snapped a few pictures up there with my 5 years old Minolta Dimage Xi. I ain’t a shuttle bug, but I do realised that I need a new smaller size camera which can recognise bigger capacity storage cards and longer battery life even with the lcd display on when taking shots. More importantly, no dark shadows at the 4 corners of the pictures taken. It would be even better if it does come with macro mode.
Went down the peak at 8pm. Yes, I didn’t catch the lightshow up there. Why? Because of hunger. Went down the peak and had a meal at one of the roast meat shops. Yummy.