The Flower Market had one thing in common with our Petaling Street – after a while everything looked the same. So G and I left the Flower Market Road in search of a place to have lunch. We walked quite a bit, went past a few street markets when he finally decided to take me to one of his favourite restaurants on Hong Kong Island. So we walked back to my hotel, I had a change of clothing and then we walked to the Yau Ma Tei station and took the MTR to the Central station.

Central district

Hong Kong Island is nothing like Kowloon. NOTHING! At least Central was not. It even outstrips Singapore city – higher and higher skyscrapers, offices for famous companies and shops for world-famous designer names. Massive billboards were all over the place. It was quite intimidating, really. Of course you can see photos of the buildings on postcards and what-not, but seeing it on print and being there to feel the proximity of the tall and impressive buildings are two very different things.

By the way have I mentioned the tram? It was cute.

Said tram…

We were at Charter Road where there was some kind of activity for kids going on.

There’s no escaping from kids

There were also a lot of Filipinos sitting on the sidewalk. I mean, literally sitting, asses on the hard tar and everything. A lot means the whole street. I have seen KLCC with lots of foreign workers on Sundays before but this was something else. Basically they sat on mats or newspapers and they had all sorts of bags with them, which G told me later was food; snacks and stuff. The majority of them were playing cards sprawled on the floor, just little groups everywhere talking and playing cards. I didn’t dare take a photo of them but here’s a random one of a couple girls with a huge luggage bag. Honestly speaking the whole scenario was as if they all just arrived on boats.

Notice the girls…

We walked to Lan Kwai Fong; the Bangsar/ Sri Hartamas of KL (old Bangsar at least), the Boat Quay of Singapore. But I suppose it could pass off as an area in London – the atmosphere was just so… elite-y. The pubs were rather quiet though, then again it was a Sunday. The roads were a bit uphill; I was panting and whining and G just looked at my unfit state and shook his head. At least I think he did, I was too tired to look up and see. Christmas is definitely a big thing especially in this area.

There be uphill roads…

The obligatory tourist photo

G took me to a restaurant called the Yung Kee Restaurant. According to him it is the most famous restaurant in Hong Kong, all the important people eat here. He personally knows someone in Malaysia whose craving for Yung Kee’s roasted duck see him perform A-list movie stars actions; the person would occasionally call the restaurant and ask them to fly in a roasted duck the next day. A lot of money can’t hurt.

Food in Yung Kee

We had dim sum and fried noodles with beef. Erm, it was nice. The problem was that the food gets cold rather quickly because of the outside weather and in-house air-conditioning, so unlike in Malaysia you can’t leave it for 10 mins to chat then eat, unless you like your food cold. But I was not lying about it being nice though I know a place in Taman Megah that serves equally good dim sum.

In case you were wondering, the bill came up to HKG$240 (thank you G).

While walking back to the Central MTR, we saw a couple of Hong Kong police. Like most Hongkies they were small in size. They should meet our Malaysian police force, learn some tricks and gain some weight.

Read more:

Day 1 : To Hong Kong
Day 2.1 : In Search of Tin Hau
Day 2.2 : The Octopus Strikes Back
Day 2.3 : Flower Crazy
Day 2.4 : Central; A Different World
Day 2.5 : Night Time, Light Time
Day 3.1 : The Buddha Beckons
Day 3.2 : To The Peak and Back
Day 3.3 : This Girl Needs a Beer
Day 4 : Leaving Hong Kong
Some thoughts on Hong Kong