Arrivals- Penang Airport

Touchdown. Quick dash to the toilet first.

Then, it's off to baggage claims or so we thought

Cathay Pacific HK-Pen

Somehow or another I ended up here, just behind Business Class.

But my screen is screwed up , fried, not working, flicking and changing channels all the time.

The crew and head of staff offer their apologies.

Yeah whatever. Sigh.

Departure Terminal

Once inside the airport, we converge at this screen. Cross reference to check where we should be headed

Woah....so many self check in terminals.

Last Day Blues

All good things must come to an end . Today marks the final day of our trip

Check out first and then it's onto our bus

Hong Kong Metro- best in the world

The Hong Kong subway system or also known as the MTR is said to be the most effective in the world. It's almost always on time ,with hardly any glitches.

Great for people watching too.

I held my breath as I watched a lady barge through the doors as they were closing. Miraculously, they bounced back instead of squashing her like one case in KL.

Soy Street By Night

I love Soy Street,  when the madding crowd spills out here from the various shopping streets.

I find a melancholic calm, as I walk amongst the light mini buses that line up and patiently wait for passengers

Cats and dogs of Hong Kong

There is a marked difference when you walk the streets here.There is no dog poo anywhere for you to accidentally step on and there is absolutely no smell of dog pee.

The people here love their pets but they are responsible pet owners who fastidiously clean up after their mess.

This nice doggy was waiting outside a shop for his master to finish his grocery shopping.

Soy Street by Day

I have many fond memories of Soy Street. It marked my first foray into this bustling city, during my maiden trip to Hong Kong many years back.

I love how everything comes to life here in the morning.

Scenes from Nathan Road

Nathan Road is 4 kilometres long .

It stretches through several districts from Tsim Sha Tsui to Jordan, Yau Ma Tei to Prince Edward and Mongkok.

Don't ever attempt to walk to the end of it as it takes 

2 hours to walk the entire length without stopping to shop.

Scenes from Tung Choi Street

Tung Choi street is not all about fishes sold in small plastic packets lining the sidewalk.

It's also a great bargain hunting ground for cheap,good quality,long lasting boots and shoes , especially in the area where the pedestrian bridges start.

Also, if you love watching Hong Kong tv shows, this is one place, where you'll want to be.

In fact, a few famous gift shop chains in Malaysia get a whole lot of their supplies from the shops around this place. Thus if you come here, you will find most items sold at half the price compared to back home.

Shanghai Inn, Hollywood Plaza - Part 2 ( NH )

After hearing a bunch of old seniors complain about the lack of toilet paper inside each stall and the wet floors , I hurried back

Beef rice rolls.

An eye opening experience.

Scenes from Sai Yeung Choi Street

Also known as Electronics Street, at night especially towards the weekend, this street comes alive with varied street artists, protestors and performers.

This fellow has only stubs for hands yet he can skillfully make flowers out of what I presume to be either polymer clay or dough

Only a handful of performers are awful. Depending on how you look at it.

While a group of fat hokkien speaking aunties scared the shit out of a whole lot of people with their dressing and dreadful dancing, we were cracking up at their brazenly fun, devil may care attitude

Some are so talented(one night, there was an Eason Chan lookalike that sounded like an angel ) I am sure they are waiting to be spotted by some record labels.

This Gwai Loh couple, was there every night, even though the music they played was pretty ordinary.

Scenes from Argyle Street

It was inevitable that I ended up crossing this main artery several times, every day that I was in Hong Kong .

Always relied on Bossini as a landmark, in order to get my bearings right .

By day, a Falun Gong protester sets up shop just in front of a huge poster of Andy Lau.

Something I got off a newstand here. A thick Doraemon comic book that cost around RM50.

Rolls Royce Showroom

After seeing the trams and whizzing through Toy Street, we veered off the beaten track towards Queen's Road East since we noticed the area was alive and buzzing.

Turned out they were punters deep in concentration outside The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Sprawled all over the pavement, scrutinising the numbers,their slips and the papers, as if they were studying for a last minute exam is quite an extraordinary sight that you might not want to miss.

Continuing onwards towards the busy main road, we came to this pedestrian skybridge on our right.

What's so amazing about that eh? It's just an ordinary crossing .

But it's not the bridge, rather, it was what lay on the other side of the bridge that got us all excited.

The Rolls Royce showroom with a few eye popping Phantoms inside.

It's just under Cafe De Coral and right in front of a bus stop. Gosh.

Turning back, we find this Malay sounding sign on top of another sign that promises a fine for feeding the birds.

So, there's definitely more to Wan Chai than trams and Toy Street. Put the Rolls Royce showroom on your must see list.

Toy Street

On my second trip here, I came a little too late. It was dark already, a typhoon just passed and most of the shops were already closed.
Still I managed to get an extremely good quality immitation 12 inch plastic toy that cost me just RM$10 ( I think they would milk $80 to $120 off me, back home for the same item because it was so well made, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference )

So,many years down the road, here I am again . I've taken the MTR this time from Kowloon Island . Last time I took the tram because I was staying on Hong Kong Island.

Toy street was remarkably easy to locate. We just crossed the street and found it immediately

Alas,I was quite dissapointed as I found the toys sold in the shoplots here, not very cheap compared to Malaysia.

Also I thought that there were too few for me to want to spend the entire afternoon here.There are so few shops I really began to wonder why the heck they even bothered to name it such . You can go through every toy shop here in under 2 hours.

Just as we were about to give up, we found this bargain from a makeshift stall in the street.

Now, let me tell you that I have always turned my nose up against fake building blocks. Out of curiosity, I held one in my hand and it changed my view forever .

Such a good copy it can put one company out of business I tell you.

Due to the fact that it cost a ridiculous RM12 or so only for one box that would cost $100 above for the real stuff, we went ahead and splurged on 3 more.

This is the second one.

My only regret is not getting the bigger,more elaborate sets.

Till next time !

Shanghai Inn, Hollywood Plaza - Part 1 ( NH )

We want to spoil ourselves today. Having dimsum for breakfast. The restaurant is located on the 2nd floor of Hollywood Plaza. Have to take the lift up.

Classy entrance

Trams of Wan Chai

Stepping out onto the streets of Wan Chai district is like taking a step back in time . There are trams everywhere !

The trams are known locally as Ding Ding because of the light clanging sound from the bell, used to warn traffic and pedestrians of their approach.

It's an awesome,magical experience you won't want to miss when you are on Hong Kong Island

Riding one however, is quite a challenge because you need coins or an Octopus travel card. Also you need to know your destination and when exactly you want to get off.

While it is not exactly easy, it's worth a try at least once. No worries about getting lost. Each tram is numbered and you only need to remember which side of the road you were dropped off on.

Central Mid-Levels Escalators

According to the Guinness World Records,the Central Mid-Levels Escalators is the world's longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world.

This 790 metre interconnected ride, takes 20 minutes to get to the top.

On my second trip to Hong Kong, I tried finding it but failed until this round .

Am going to divulge my experience so that whoever is reading this blog can hopefully benefit from it.

We started from Central MTR Station exit D2.

Walk along Pedder Street and you should arrive at this intersection where there is with a shopping centre with huge posters advertising the luxury brands

Make your way towards Lyndhurst Terrace, where an ex governor got his egg tart supply from .

The best road to take would be Wellington Street where Yung Kee, a famous roast goose restaurant is.

Take note that the pavement here has many levels of steps that go bobbing up and down throughout the length of the street

When you reach a sign that says Lyndhurst Terrace, a lot of tourists get confused here. Some tend to either give up or make the mistake of going up the terrace to look for the escalators.

Continue walking until you see an overhead covered pedestrian walkway that looks something like this example connecting the two buildings, in the picture below.

Look for an opening that can take you into the overhead pedestrian walkway, the escalators start somewhere around there.

I have to confess that I had no idea how far up and where we would eventually end up .

We even made plans to backtrack later after our little adventure, to go for lunch at Yung Kee and even takeaway some egg tarts

It was after we passed by the Soho area and interesting sights such as this , that I realised, tourists had seriously begun to trickle down

The most pressing issue on hand was , there were a heck of a lot of stairs to climb all the way down to the bottom again.

The escalators only go one way.

But we really wanted to go see where and how the entire journey would end.

It was not only extremely quiet and lonely. I actually begun to get a little spooked out. Fearful even. Panicking about our journey down .

We were already so high up, the air was definitely cooler

Thank goodness we finally came to this.

Your journey will end abruptly cos there isn't much to gawk at except for some expensive condominiums with bellmen .

It was here that we attempted our first minibus ride

Goodness ! What a scream it was !

The driver tore down the steep hill, almost like he was drifting around the bends till my knees started to quiver .I held on for dear life to my seat,knuckles white, face drained of colour.

I think the seats are plastic wrapped in case tourists like us throw up.

In no time,we found our selves at Pedder Street again.
We chucked out our plans for roast goose and tarts and headed back to Kowloon Island via MTR.

Once is definitely more than enough.

Mobile Softee ( U )

We were strolling along sports shoe street when this van pulled up

Busybody time again. Camera goes a snooping.

Mickey Mouse Waffles ( U )

Found this stall selling these cute cartoon waffles on Main Street

5 toasters in a row to stave your hunger