Walkabout Hong Kong

17 Dec 2016 Sat

Today is a day of rest. It has the schedule that Pat loves – to wake up at his leisure as long as we get to  Tim Ho Wan North Point for breakfast on time.

THW opens at 10am but being the kiasu Singaporean that I am, we were there at 9.30am to join a little queue that has already formed. While waiting, we checked in little squares on a yellow order form so that we could be fed as soon as possible.

We were seated as soon as the store opened and in no time, 6 little plates of food filled every available space. It was carbo overload and I was barely able to finish the dim sum. We had crispy charsiew bao, carrot cake, sugar cake, siew mai, humsoykok and lotus leaf rice ( 122 Hkd ) Of these, I could only rate highly are the char siew bao, siew mai and humsoykok because the texture was delicate and flavorful. But Pat said I should give an extra half a star for the toothpicks!

We topped up our Octopus card and took the ferry across to Hung Hom where we walked to Tsim Sha Tsui in the sun. Victoria Harbour was as usual, hazy and city outline hard to make out. At TST, it felt as though the whole of China has descended onto HK as it was hard to find a local Cantonese speaking visitor.

We took the star ferry back to HK Island and walked through the covered walkway at IFC , then rode the mid-levels escalators all the way to the mosque. It was a slow motion thing because of the crowd and because by then we were tired out.

We followed the hoards down the steps and navigated to the nearest MTR station a distance away. From Central St, we zoomed down to Causeway Bay in search of souvenirs. At Koi Kei, we stocked up biscuits to be given to friends and neighbor. A chance visit to Chow Sang Sang to check out the gold did not yield anything because the choice was limited and the service poor. Further down the street, at Luk Fook Jewelry, a charming sales girl got us to part with 2272 Hkd for a gold chain (6.999 g) and 2 gold foil coins ( 158 Hkd each )

We were back in Ibis in time to Skype with H. Thank God for wifi that allowed us to talk to her even though we are worlds apart physically.

Dinner had to be something frugal since we are running out of cash. We stumbled upon a claypot rice store with the cook doing his magic outside his shop. A claypot set only costs 55 Hkd which came with a very tasty soup and dish of vegetable. It was one of the cheapest and best meal of the holiday.

I have made some mistakes with the planning and thus tomorrow, though Sunday, would take us to the offshore island of Cheung Chau, a place I