Hong Kong Adventures: Day 3

By Elie - 3:30 AM

As promised, I am now back for my Day 3 experience in Hong Kong. I felt like my Day 2 was the longest day of it all with so much to digest all at once but it gave me a sense of what to expect while I was in Hong Kong: fast paced and lots of walking. On Day 3 however, we did take it slower and decided to split up after a while of walking. Our morning kicked off at Maxims Restaurant in the mall near home because we wanted to have my grandmother come out and enjoy with us just for a fair bit instead of being at home all the time.

From then on, we took the "mini bus" as the locals call it to the Jordan MTR station and did a switch at Mong Kok station in order to get to Wong Tai Sin. I think it's seriously fantastic how all these MTR routes are planned out without you having to get out of the station to switch lines; much unlike whatever public transportation we have in Malaysia. You really just get off this line then walk across to switch lines in less than 10 steps. The station really is just called Wong Tai Sin on the "green line" on the MTR map and it costed us HKD 6.70 to get there.

The entrance of Wong Tai Sin Temple (嗇色園黄大仙)

Found: A monkey with a monkey.

While the rooster meets a rooster.

Much like any other temple, Wong Tai Sin is quite a big thing in Hong Kong. It is apparently very famous for fortune telling (A lot like Temple Street from my Day 2 entry!) and people come from all over in order to get their fortune told. If you have no idea how it works, let me give you a quick break down. It's very common for people to have a belief that Buddha will decide your fate so they will have a whole lot of sticks in a little tub and you simply have to shake it while keeping your mind clear on what you need "guidance" to. The right stick will fall off the shaken tub and from there, you simply have to...

Bring it to one of these guys.

And I laugh at them all the time. I apologize, really but would you really put your fate in the hands of someone who simply sits in a little squared up shop all day long asking you to get your fortune told? There are also ROWS of these fortune tellers if I may add so they've all got a different story to tell you which really means there's more than 50 different versions to your fate that you've got to live on. Which will you choose? My advice, trust in yourself okay?

Uncle Eddie also thought that it would be really nice to bring us into a little underground space in order to perform prayers to our respective Gods of Jupiter. Every entry costs HKD 100 per person and you will get 3 joss sticks, an entrance card, a talisman and a brochure to understand the meaning of "Tai Sui" or stars directly opposite Jupiter. It's quite a Taoism belief and there's a lot to read up on Wikipedia about it, so good luck!

 This is what you get for HKD 100!

It was most unfortunate that no pictures are allowed in the underground room where prayers were performed because it was BEAUTIFUL. The room was briefly lit with little lights above, much to depict the stars opposite of Jupiter and there were statues to pray to; one for each heavenly general believed to be helping the Jade Emperor who looked after the mortal world. That's us, by the way. Mortals.

Walking around Wong Tai Sin Temple. Mum takes decently flattering photos of me nowadays. Good practice.

A family photo!

A failed attempt at a proper jump shot. Because my fats cannot jump...

And then there's me praying at the end of our walkabout at Wong Tai Sin.
What a liar, I hardly pray at home!

We decided to cure our stomachs after by taking the MTR back down to Jordan and walked over to Mak's Noodle House at Parkes Street for noodles (DUH!). My eyes completely strayed during our walk and Uncle Eddie decided that Australian Dairy Company would be our spot for desserts. It's highly typical for people in Hong Kong to have desserts, which is really why you see Hui Lau Shan everywhere!

The next thing on our itinerary was to split up with daddy and Uncle Eddie going their way while Chef, Shin Yi, mum and I went ours. The place we headed to was a street known as Shanghai Street for all things kitchen. That's right, walk around with your brother who is a chef and his girlfriend who came from a baking background and this is what you'll end up with.

These are scales, a method in which the Chinese use to calculate prices of dried goods...I think.

Cutleries of all sizes and shapes.

What looks like a "Sukiyaki" pot to me.

Some stone grill...uh...thing?

Baking molds. There are so many, I puked rainbows.

The infamous Shanghai Street that is well known for all things kitchen.

It was a fantastic walk to be honest, even when I am the least "kitchen" person in the world. While I do bake whenever I feel like it but having to clean up after is a horror so it's a rare occasion to have me work any forms of magic in a spot that is supposedly set only for women. There's just about everything that you will need in a kitchen that you can find in Shanghai Street; dimsum steamers, chopping boards, knives, roller pins and everything else you could think of to be used in a kitchen, you will find it there.

Our night was booked for Uncle Eddie and his friend who graciously invited us to dinner at Lei Yue Mun, a little seafood village that separates Kowloon from the Hong Kong Island. Our taxi ride from home to Lei Yue Mun costed a whooping HKD 97 while the return trip was only HKD 75. It turns out the taxi driver who brought us over had completely ripped us off; something I never thought would happen in Hong Kong but there it was, clear as ever that we were cheated! He had taken us on a longer road that came with a whole lot of traffic jams so that his meter would jump at every wait. 

Mum and I ate Lei Yue Mun that night.

I'm saving up my pictures for the Lei Yue Mun entry on my Hong Kong Eats section so that's the only thing I will show on this post on this place. It was merely 9 PM when we got home after dinner and we decided that what with all the good eats we've had, it was good to walk it off. What better of an idea than to walk to The Promenade, a mere 10 minute stroll away from home to overlook the sea and enjoy the breeze that came with it. 

The lamp post looked like it needed some love.

Always the demented child in pictures. With Chef and Shin Yi in this one.

And then the 3 of us took on the cute path.

It was a really good way to know that winter is seriously approaching because it was so ridiculously cold, I made it a mental note to slap myself for wearing shorts during our walk. In fact, the winds were so bone chilling...it literally chilled my bone. What I learned that night however is that Hong Kong is also ridiculously safe. If your question is why, let me tell you that at 10 PM at night on that stroll, we have seen countless locals jogging and exercising their way through. Kids were allowed to run around and have good OUTDOOR fun at NIGHT with each other and there were well lit street lamps everywhere. I wouldn't ever put the same bet on Malaysia (I absolutely mean no disrespect to our country, I am merely stating a fact) to even walk out alone at 7 PM nowadays. Heck, I don't even feel safe walking in a parking lot in a shopping mall at 3 PM today.

And that was my Day 3 in a nutshell. We didn't seem to do a lot because we did get out quite late in the morning and then we also took the time to spend breakfast with my grandmother so this was considered quite an achievement already. My next entry would begin on Hong Kong Eats, just to backtrack with the past 3 days of whatever I've eaten around Hong Kong. It'll be easier to figure things out, right? Here's a panoramic at The Promenade that I took of the night lights in Hong Kong to end the post. Until then, stay happy and be ready to get hungry!

Hong Kong, you're fantastic.

Will you take me back, please? *Cries*

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2 comments

  1. This makes me even want to go HK more :|

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    1. You should plan a trip then! Hong Kong is seriously amazing! :D

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