Day 1 - Welcome to Hong Kong!

Finally I'm done with my year-end closing, now it's time to update on our HK-Macau trip :)

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Back in October 09, hubby and I decided it's high time for a trip and time-off from work. Both of us had been so busy the entire year we were pretty close to burnout. It was a six-day trip to Hong Kong, including a day trip to Macau. Since it's basically a free-and-easy trip, we spent 3 days wandering around Hong Kong, one day to Disneyland, and one day to Macau.

Day 1
We took the Air Asia morning flight and reached around noon. For the first three nights we stayed in L'Hotel near Causeway Bay, HK Island. It was located directly opposite Tin Hau MTR station thus very convenient for us to travel around. The rest of the first day was basically spent wandering around Hong Kong island like a tourist.

Some highlights of Day 1 :

Western Market, Sheung Wan

Western Market is one of the oldest buildings in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island. What attracted me here is the unique Edwardian style architecture. Inside it is like a mini shopping mall selling specialty items. We just took some photos of the building and left after that.

IFC Mall, Central

IFC Mall is part of the Internal Finance Centre building located in Central. It's a swanky huge structure with lots of upmarket brands to keep shoppers happy. I quite like the Christmas decoration of a gold blimp with presents.

1881 Heritage, Tsim Sha Tsui

Prior to our trip, I saw Link posted a picture of this place on Facebook. Seems it is a new attraction and I just loved every bit of it when we went there. The original site of 1881 Heritage was the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine Police from the 1880's to 1996. Much effort has been spent to restore and retain this place as a heritage site, while keeping it attractive by adding a heritage hotel and some luxury shops within the vicinity.

We spent quite a fair bit of time taking photos of the Former Time Ball Tower, the huge trees around it and also the Christmas tree located at the entrance. I'm really impressed with how it is possible to restore a historical site without making it look tacky. Maybe our government isn't taking restoration so seriously, how sad :(

Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui

{Photo credit to Lum via Facebook}

We went to Harbour City mall just to admire its beautiful purple-themed Christmas decoration. Spent some time taking photos, but have to 'fight' with the other hoardes of tourist taking photos as well.

The Symphony of Lights Show

This was one of the main reasons why we crossed over to Kowloon - to enjoy the daily Symphony of Lights show. We were lucky to be there early, and got a nice unobstructed spot facing the Bank of China Tower. Initially we wanted to go towards the middle section of the harbour for a better panaromic view but gave up the idea as we saw so many people already there. The light show was a very interesting concept but even more special was that the Christmas light decoration was already up. It was less than 30 minutes but entertaining nevetheless.

We also took a photo of the Clock Tower before we left.

Food highlights

Our lunch was at a noodle shop in Causeway Bay. I ordered beef and wanton noodle, plus a plate of vegetables. I noted it's very common for local patrons to order one side dish (usually vegetables) to accompany their rice or noodle dish. Didn't take any photo because we were too hungry!

We headed over to Tsim Sha Tsui for dinner. Not knowing what to eat, we stumbled across a very packed Macau Restaurant and decided to have our dinner there. This is a typical "Cha Chan Teng" 茶餐厅 where it's so packed and we had to share tables with other patrons. Hubby ordered some macau fried rice with satay chicken, while I ordered stewed beef macaroni soup. There was also pork burgers but we didn't order those.

My stew serving wasn't very big, but surprisingly filling, I think it's due to the macaroni. It's full of flavour and I enjoyed it very much due to the cold weather outside.

*Side note* - To my surprise, it is actually more common to find beef being served in HK as compared to pork, especially in this type of restaurants. I'm not sure why.

Later after the light show, we did some window shopping. When we came to Haiphong road quite late at night, hubby was looking out for the fruit juice and "lok-lok" stall which he came by in 2004. It's still there!

Their "lok-lok" is mostly deep fried food, not the ones we put inside soup! We had some black pepper beef balls and fish balls for supper. I love the beef balls, so juicy!

We also ordered fresh juice from the adjacent stall. There were so many fruits and vegetables on displayed that can be juiced. I took mango. For the price we pay (Around HK$16 per cup) it was worth it as the juice is 100% pure fruit and no added water. The mango was so sweet and did a good job quenching my thirst.

We walked till around midnight before heading back to our hotel, in preparation for Day 2...

Next - Day 2 : Disneyland!