Our Travel Tales – 5D4N Hong Kong 2009 Day 4 Part 2

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Must shop at Citygate outlets even you didn’t plan to go Lantau Island. The things there are so cheap and really affordable. Even locals are there too.

Must try the Chicken Rice of the Food court. Really Yummy!!!

Places of Interest Visited:

Citygate Outlets

The above are some travel tips I could share based on my own experience. Read on to find out more of what we did in Hong Kong!

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Our next objective was to shop at Citygate Outlets shopping complex near to the cable Car Station. It housed branded outlets like Nike, Timberland, Esprit, Mango, and many more that stimulated spending desire with sales discounts. There was no photo taking allowed at the shops within the complex, and we were warned after many shots had been taken. We spent 1 to 2 hours to complete our shopping action items. I had a shirt, my wife had a cap and Yvette was the biggest winner with most number of new clothes.

We found the familiar home brand “Food Republic Food court” within the complex. Familiar Singapore delights like Hainanese Chicken Rice, Laksa were there to conquer the appetites of the locals. My wife had chicken rice plus a plate of steam vegetable, and a bowl of porridge, while I had scallop rice. We ordered congee for Yvette  but she prefer to share all our food. Then again the undesirable was it didn’t provide any high chairs.

We decided to head back to Hotel to unload our shopping bags before going for the book shop which closed at 930PM.

Yvette at bookshop – lively as usual. She roamed around the shops in the junior department. There were small little steps separating it from the adults section which posed a danger for her…. but at one point she suddenly cried panicky for mama. My wife didn’t find any Chinese book interesting but we spent around HKD 400 of English books.

Good book for sex education

On our way back, we brought this local delight called Egg nest waffle. It taste like our local waffle sell in the confectionary shop. We learnt from other local customer how to order that in Cantonese, 一底？两底？that simply means one or two sets. We were too busying eating that we forgotten to take a picture of it.

Packing up was the last task we had to accomplish before we can to call it a day.

Our Travel Tales – 5D4N Hong Kong 2009 Day 4 Part 1

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Take the Crystal Cabin cable car unless you are afraid of height. HKD 100 more than the normal cabin but the queue is so much shorter. （Save time）

Places of Interest Visited:

Pgong Ping 360 Village

Lantau Island

Day 4 was planned for a trip to the renowned Lantau Island particularly to admire the Tian Tan Buddha statue. In order to get there this was the planned route: MTR to 东涌 station, walk to the cable car station and take the cable car to 昂平360 village.

The above are some travel tips I could share based on my own experience. Read on to find out more of what we did in Hong Kong!

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We weren’t early birds for that morning. Luckily it wasn’t too late for a McDonald’s breakfast. On the night before, we had decided to experience local McDonald’s breakfast even this was something we didn’t frequently do back at hometown.

As we had not spotted any McDonald within the precinct in the past few days, we asked the hotel staff for location of the nearest one. Glad that there was one on the diagonally opposite street. Expectedly, it took us just around 10 minutes to see the familiar “M” signage. We were just in time for the late order for 2 sets of breakfast meal. The environment was spacious with few customers and the ambient was surprisingly serene.  Only undesirable was it didn’t provide any baby chairs.

After breakfast we took a MTR ride from 尖沙咀to 东涌station. It was rather far and required a line switch at Li-Jing station en-route. On the train heading to Li-Jing, my wife offered her seat to a local toddler boy and then we started conversation with his parents. They were going to visit Lantau Island as well. What a coincidence!

Yvette socialising

Finally we reached东涌station at about 12pm. Outside the station, we were so delighted to notice a shop called 奇华that sells老婆鉼. We have been talking about this “must try” delicacy before the trip. So we decide to visit this shop during our way back from the island trip. Opposite the station there was a shopping complex that specialized in factory outlet retails. That will be the next target of visit too.

The cable car station is a few minute walk from the 东涌station. There was this “Crystal”cable car offered at HKD 157 per adult as compared to normal cable car at HKD 107 only. So what’s so special about the “crystal”? Well technically it’s just the cable car base that was made of transparent material. Takers will experience the thrilling sensation of seeing right through the base while suspending in the mid air. Not sure it was being expensive or people avoiding thrill, the Crystal cable care line saw lesser crowd and hence shorter queue – this is what we like

It was a day of fine weather and we were all ready for the cable car ride! The mountains and heights were awesome and I couldn’t resist taking more pictures of the sceneries which captured the HK International Airport as well. We saw people hiking thru the glass of our cabin too. All of us admired Yvette’s bravery or rather “fear ignorance” when she stood on the Crystal base. Even the co-passenger boy was very reluctant to do that. It was a wonderful experience and we will be able to try it once more on our way back. Mountains over mountains the cable car went up and down for roughly 25 minutes. Safely and soundly we landed at the cable car terminal at昂平360 village. (We were scared too. Haha)

Time check, it was almost 2 then. We realized we badly needed a lunch break so we went to the eateries nearby but found that the seating space was outnumbered by crowd. I was tempted for the shaded seats outside even though they were exposed, but they were taken too. Relieved that we found a Ramen restaurant that offered decent seats and air-con although the exhaust from the kitchen still lingered in the air. Each of us ordered different flavor of Ramen to try. Yvette had her little share from my wife bowl. My wife and I almost had our bowl emptied. The meal wasn’t expensive and we were satisfied.

We toured around the昂平360 village was located on the foothill of the Buddha hill. This was a heavily commercialized area with nothing but souvenir shops, animation movie theatre, coffee shop, and etc. At one point, Yvette found a shop with nothing but toy machines. She seemed re-energized and started busily exploring every machine. I guessed it was one of her most wonderful time of the day. There was much to buy for Yvette, but we managed to settle for a nice handheld windmill before heading for the “thousand step stairway” Tian Tan Buddha hill climb.

I was trying to snap a picture of Tian Tan Buddha statue from the foot of the stairway foothill. It seemed impossible as the sunlight beam hit directly on my camera. I kept wondering if this was a design to prevent picturing of the holy statue. Anyway, my wife carried Yvette up the steps while I stopped intermediately to picture the sceneries.

We didn’t have the stamina to count the steps (perhaps someone else’s did already) but confirmed it was draining us badly when we finally conquered the heights. And my wife was quite mad with Yvette repeatedly demanding for either toilet break or milk which was the sign of throwing tantrum rather than real needs. We didn’t spend much time there besides taking a walk through the Buddhist exhibition hall there. Climbing down the stair should be easier so Yvette thought she could join us too. Well it ended up we were tired as the results of bending ourselves down to hold her. She drained herself out without noticing…. Due to physical fatigue (seriously, after climbing up hill) we called it a day for Lantau Island, and give Po Lin Monastery and other well known places a miss.

At 4+, we decided to make our way back to东涌side. Yvette was already knocked out then. Sun was beginning to set and we had a nice view of it.

Our Travel Tales: 5D4N Hong Kong 2009 Day 3 Part 1

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The number of hours we spent in this park was too short. We rushed thru World of Amazing Asian Animals. We only spent 4 hours in the park. I strongly recommend another 2 to 3 hours to cover the park more comprehensively.

If you wanted to watch the show in the park, you need to be at least half an hour or 20 mins early to grab sit.

Places of Interest Visited:

Ocean Park

The above are some travel tips I could share based on my own experience. Read on to find out more of what we did in Hong Kong!

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Hong Kong Trip Day 3 Morning

The highlight on Hong Kong Trip Day 3 is none other than Ocean Park. We purposely planned this itinerary earlier so that in case of rain we still have another day to cover.

Probably due to the Day 2 great fun at Disneyland and the sumptuous dinner that drained all of us out, we woke up rather late that morning. So we hadn’t had time for a proper breakfast other than some bread and bun picked up from a confectionery a few shops from the hotel. We thought that brunch may be a better idea, so as headed for 尖沙咀MTR station we decided to look for a restaurant before the Ocean Park tour.

As we strolled past along Park Lane Shopping Mall where there is a long stretch of shops selling vast variety of goods (footwear, clothing, jewellery shops, dried food stuff, etc), Yvette couldn’t hold her activeness anymore and there she went walking, occasionally tripping over, and we chased behind….

Hong Kong Trip Day 3 Brunch

Finally we reached a traffic junction where尖沙咀MTR station is situated. We tried our luck by crossing over to the left side of the street since there appeared to have some signboards of eateries and restaurants. Indeed we came across some small eateries, but found that they were mostly warm, congested and non-child friendly. Just when we were about to fall back to fast food, my wife spotted a decent restaurant called 翠华餐厅, one that looks spacious enough, air-con and patronized by working crowd. This is just in time to save us from more walk and most importantly a hungry Yvette.

It is a typical HK restaurant with wall-side seat arranged in a back-to-back manner showcased in typical HK serial scene. Of course we had no time to eavesdrop as the time then was 12+. We ordered a hotplate of Sheng-Mian with prawns, a hotplate of fried Udon with Pork Rib, a plate of Kai-Lan and a cup of Homemade Barley Drink. Yvette had a portion of the Sheng-Mian but she was keener towards the other objects on the table. While Yvette was keeping herself occupied, my wife was also busy bringing her up and down for a few toilets breaks….

After lunch, we headed for the MTR station and boarded a train to 金钟 station.

Typical Hong Kong construction set up

Next to exit of this 金钟 station there situated the ticket station cum bus station to Ocean Park (bus 629). We only had to buy 2 tickets for adult since child below 3 years old is free entry. The bus fare could be paid by the 八达fare card which was convenient for us.

Hong Kong Trip Day 3 Ocean Park

There were actually 2 entrance points into Ocean Park – the main entrance and the 大树湾entrance. At the end of the 20 minutes bus journey, the bus took us to 大树湾 entrance situated at the bottom of the hill. It was about 2:15pm then.

Our first stop was to the Aviary Park which was like a mini bird park. Yvette was thrilled when she saw those birds inside the park. Walking up and down the stairs in this mini park posted some danger at least to me. The stairs were too steep. There were several water patches on the floor. I am concern over the bird shit too. -.-!!! We carried Yvette most of the time due to those concerns I had. Perhaps Yvette could sense the danger; she didn’t resist much when we carried her. But she was really energized by the running water inside the park.

We wanted to catch the 3:30pm Dolphin Show at Ocean Theatre so we hurriedly took the 4 layers of hill escalators up till we finally reached the Pacific Pier at the hill top. We took some pictures along our way too.

Again, when we reached the top, Yvette wanted to explore everything that presented in front of her. She was mobile and really can’t stop her from walking and running. Her energy seems so endless that it is sometimes so difficult to keep up with her. Worst still, she really do not have a concept of danger.

By 3pm, we just managed to grab 2 seats at the side of the Ocean Theatre as the crowd was already settled. The leg room was poor but at least better off than late comers who have to sit on the stairway though being warned not to.

First there were the welcome Latin songs. Then it came the flagship dolphin performance, and I was busily snapping photos at the jumping dolphins that I forgot to enjoy the show. Yvette and my wife were busily munching the pop corn.

At some point I realized the dolphin stuns were almost monotonous and no point photographing more. Re-focusing on the show, it was time for the seal show. When the show had ended, we took advantage of the proximity from the exit and departed from Ocean Theatre quickly. Yvette must have been too exhausted by then and my wife breastfed her to sleep.

Our next stop was the Atoll Reef which was like our Underwater World. It has proven to be another popular spot as seen from the long queue of crowd. We spent a brief 10 to 15mins just to have a glimpse of every aquarium while battling through the crowd…

It was around 4:30pm. We rushed for the Cable Car station to cross over to the main entrance side to visit World of Amazing Asian Animals, where the pandas are. The queue to board the vehicle took 15mins and the cable car journey took only about 10minutes.

It was slightly past 5pm when we touched down on the destination. We stopped by the amusement park area and I did the hammer-bell game and donated HKD 20 for fun.

We hurried to the Panda Village to have a close encounter with the rare species. Only saw An-An who was more active. And Yvette was pointing to An-An and keep uttering “wow” and “bear”.

The time was fast approaching 5:45PM and the closing time for Ocean Park was merely 15min away, and the sky appeared really dark. We easily figured out the 629 bus stop location by arrow signs along the road. A long queue was already waiting and later filled the bus before we could even board it. We didn’t get the seat but a kind soul offered his seat to my wife & Yvette. Soon the bus moved on and we bid good bye Ocean Park.