march 04 - hk day 2
2nd day hongkong
woke up and made own bfast with c's kellogs' bars and nutella spread i brought(this was a lifesaver!). no free toasts and coffee/tea in this hostel. promised with runners to meet up at meeting point after they finish running. runners went off around 8.30am.
instead of going to sham shui po(DIY CENTRAL) as planned, decided to just head towards star ferry pier. got off tst mtr and found heritage 1881, a hotel converted from an old building. apparently that place has 5(4?) surrounding old buildings of police station, fire stations, etc. very cool.
also stopped by to see a "chocolate" fair in the mall building next to the pier(not sure the name). played around with huge chocolate bunnies figurines(if real choco sure got lick marks one).
took ferry (from vic harbor) to the other side(hk island), to central. there's a huge building, the ifc, has a mall and also hk mtr station. can check in airlines here, a lot like kl sentral. minum-minum kat starbucks kejap (BEST MINT MOCHA EVER!!!) then realized we were later than predicted to meet runners.
runners already wayyy finished when we meet at the meeting point heehee. took ding-ding(tram) just for a ride, then mtr to central for mid-levels travelator(apparently that's what hkians calls it. we thought it was called the escalator). travelator stops at the top of hollywood road. traversed HR to get to upper lascar row where i was convinced that there would be a halal shop to eat(based on rasa hongkong hosted by farah breep breep). apparently none to be found so i was mad at myself so i sulked. so actually we have traversed HR to cat street(upper lascar row) and found the famous temple but of course i didn't appreciate because i was all pissed(at myself. buruk perangai)
took another way going back towards the travelator and found 1 halal shop we spied while being on the travelator - habibi resto, egyptian food.
halal tapi ada tonggang.
good food. specially the lamb dishes. can't remember the names though.
headed back to hostel because w needs to get ready to catch her flight back at night. she could only be in hk for the running(too bad! she's great).
took the ferry again, this time from central to victoria harbor to meet up with j, c's friend from masters. they had a sweet reunion!
got some lanterns installation over a long pond on the avenue - it was so cool. in front of the clock tower. everything was pretty! we walked the length of the star avenue while waiting for the symphony of lights to start. many of the stars are of chinese stars we do not know of(duhhh). the statue of bruce lee was blocked off, though, so cannot molest(in a good way! i mean in a appropriate way). had some korean style grilled squid - grilled squid pushed into some sort of a laminator-like machine so that it will stretch out - it was good but only when hot. when it cooled off it was quite a chore to finish.
symphony of light starts!! SO COOL! couldn't stop grinning the whole time. it was cold but i felt great. i felt, I LOVE HONGKONG.
after that finished we took off to find dinner. my feet were in excruciating pain. wrong shoes :(. we walked towards tst and finally decided to have mcD. j treated us to dinner, paying using only her octopus card. card of magic!! (which max can be filled is only HKD200, so if you lose the most you lose is just 200bucks). they had some special japanese fish burger promo, so we had that, but... biasa je? fish and fries, and apple pie are fried using vege oil so certified halal.
mrt back to our place, stopped by ladies' market. i expected the LM to be awesome but truth dissappoints. it was totally average. most things are already available in pasar mlm or the penang night market. made in china stuffs. loads of imitation tory burch shoes. learned later apparently TB just opened a boutique in HK. must be the cause(of sudden influx of the imitations). interested in some things but only buy a little because couldn't think straight and my feet hurt SO BAD.
on the way back L bought a bubble tea. streetsnacks aplenty, like lok-lok and taufu busuk which stinks SOOOO BAD OMG
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currently reading murakami's norwegian wood. LOVE IT SO MUCH but now in the middle of reiko's story, i'm like, uh, yeah this part i don't like much and now i understand what m really meant(by this book being a little depressing). she said the reason it depresses her is because the japanese people in this book behaved very differently than what she expected. i basically have no expectations, that's why i like it so much from the beginning, i think. except reiko's tale. (EW)