After we disembarked from the ship we went back to Panda Hotel. We booked an extra night in Hong Kong. Actually, it was a half day ( evening), a full day and another half day ( up to afternoon) before we depart.
We were given a room upgrade to Panda Plus. It was a much nicer room.
As my friend in UK was home in Hong Kong during the school holidays, I decided to contact her regarding places to visit. She informed me that we can go and see the harbour lights in the evening, go to ‘Ladies Street, or Ladies Market’ for local shopping, or go to Tsim Sha Shui for posh shopping. Also recommended were the cable car to the peak, Ocean Park and Hong Kong Disneyland. Unfortunately, we did not have time to visit all of those.
We decided to take the evening to go to wandering around town. We decided to go the see the Harbour Lights and to walk around that area. We wandered around the area near the hotel and soaked up the atmosphere and went checking around the shops as we wanted to get dried scallops. We found out that scallops from Japan were no longer being sold due to contamination by the Fukushima Nuclear Plant that happened when the tsunami struck Japan. So we had to settle for scallops from China.
We took the MTR which is the local train service. It was easy and the hotel is situated near two stops. So we went to the MTR stop near the Convention Centre and window shopped as we walked to the harbour. Actually, the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and the Golden Bauhinia Square are near to each other. The Harbour Lights are also around that area. We went to Tsim Sha Shui Promenade.
By the time we reached the harbour area, it was getting dark. The building lights were switched on. So we had a stroll by the harbour and waited for the light show. The light show, also known as ‘The Symphony of Lights’ is a nightly multimedia show, which involves more than 40 buildings on both sides of the harbour.
It is a laser light show, and is supposed to be synchronised with the music. Anyway the show went on. However it was a disappointment as not much ‘new’ lights were on show on the buildings. The music was soft. The buildings were already lighted up and the extra lights that came when the light show was on did not make a lot of difference.
Anyway, we have seen it, so another item is struck off the list. We saw our cruise ship sailed away from the harbour as well. This was nice as we had never seen our ship sail past as we were on the ship!!
We then went back to the hotel. We had our dinner, and then booked the hotel shuttle to go to the city the next day.
The following day, we had breakfast at the hotel. The buffet was an international spread, with Chinese, Western, Malay and Asian breakfast.
Before taking the shuttle in the afternoon, we had a walk around the hotel for a bit of sight-seeing. After about 15 minutes we came across a Chinese Garden. It was a tranquil and lovely oasis nestled among the busy streets. We had a stroll around it.
We then proceeded to walk around the business/shopping area ( more like for local shopping by the Hong Kong residents). We enquired about the dried scallops and found two shops to buy the scallops. We intended to buy it the next day.
We went back to the hotel , well, after we lost our way, getting our directions mixed up. We made it just on time to catch the shuttle bus to Mong Kok which is where the Ladies Market is located. Most of the passengers were going Tsim Sha Tsui for posh shopping and were not aware of Mong Kok. We had to explain to them as we were going there for shopping. I guess we were not posh enough.
Anyway getting there was easy except that when we came out of the station, we were a bit lost. However, we asked around for directions and soon we found ourselves in the midst of things. Haggling over the price was one of the hallmark of shopping here. This is exactly like Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We ended buy some handbags, USB storage, clothes and some presents.
We then went back and decided to buy some ready food from the supermarket in Panda Plaza for dinner. We had our dinner of roast duck, chicken, pastries and fruits for dinner in our hotel room.
The next day we went and bought scallops. We then went for a walk around the hotel again, visiting shops that we had not been earlier.
An interesting observation:
There is this confectionery called ‘wife biscuit’ . It is very popular in Honk Kong and among Chinese generally. I noticed in Hong Kong, not only there were wife biscuits, there were also husband biscuits, grandpa biscuits and grandma biscuits!! I asked the lady at the shop and I was told that the filling are different. I wanted to buy some, and expected to get them in the airport. This way it would be beautifully packed.
We then took the van to the airport for our flight home to Kuala Lumpur. We were very early, and we just checked-in anyway. So we walked to our boarding gate. It took us almost 2 hours of slow walking to get to our boarding gate. We observed that there were at least 550 gates all in!!
We wanted to buy the husband, grandpa and grandma biscuits in the airport shops. However, there were only wife biscuits. What a disappointment.
Finally we left Hong Kong and reach Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Home here we come.
Verdict:
We had too little time to have a proper tour of Hong Kong. Perhaps I will probably book a tour to Hong Kong and Main Land China for a more elaborate tour. I am a lazy traveller and like everything to be planned out for me.
