Hong Kong Summer Spectacular with HKTB – Day 5 of 6

October 14, 2010

4 minute read

On our fifth day in Hong Kong, Rachel and I started out day with breakfast at a claypot restaurant near our hotel in Sheung Wan (上环).

The restaurant, 永合成茶餐厅 was recommended by a Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) guidebook. It is owned and operated by an old uncle who started as a baker, but developed the place into a full restaurant over the years.

We ordered their signature claypot rice and chicken wings with fermented bean sauce to share, on top of some toasts and hot drinks. It was a very heavy breakfast, but we enjoyed the meal very much. The restaurant address is 上環蘇杭街113-115號 if you are interested. It is within walking distance from the Sheung Wan MTR station.

We had breakfast here, not at the snake restaurant

Rachel ordered peanut butter toast and yin yang tea

Chicken wings marinated in fermented bean paste - yummy! — Chicken wings marinated in fermented bean paste – yummy!

We then parted way after breakfast as Rachel headed off for a work interview while I headed to the Hong Kong Book Fair (香港書展). The book fair was a harrowing experience for me – the Hong Kongers really love books. I had to queue for almost half an hour just to get in.

Once in, I was a little lost among the sea of shoppers and the three levels of booth area. All kinds of books were being sold, from children’s books to religious books to idol picture books. Each has it’s own dedicated section.

A lot of the booths were also offering tremendous discount of over 50 percent off the cover prices, making the HKD$25 admission tickets seem quite worthwhile. I bought two sets of Chinese books at less than a fifth of the prices I would have to pay to buy them in Singapore.

Hong Kong is a very crowded city like Singapore

Rachel and I love the cheap and efficient ding ding trams

Protest against DBS regarding the mini-bonds saga

There were so many people headed for the book fair that special arrangement was made for crowd control

Passed by this interesting character while navigating to the book fair through the queue

Queuing to buy tickets - they are cheaper if you purchase in the morning — Queuing to buy my ticket – they are cheaper if you purchase in the morning

Look at the packed activities schedule for the book fair!

There's even a religious books section — There’s even a religious books section

Children's books section — Children’s books section

Booth where you can customise your own plastic food toys

No wonder so many people - books were going for as cheap as 50 percent off — No wonder so many people – books were going for as cheap as 50 percent off

After the book fair, I met up with Rachel again and we headed to Harbour City (海港城) and the Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀) area for some hardcore shopping. To crossover to Tsim Sha Tsui, we opted to take the iconic Star Ferry, enjoying the sea view along the way.

We bought quite a lot of stuff that day – mostly from novelty store, G.O.D. and Hong Kong clothing brand, Izzue. In general when we travel, both Rachel and I believe in buying local brands and products; eating local food. No point travel to another part of the world and end up spending on items which are also available in Singapore.

Taiwanese famous illustrator, 幾米 (Ji Mi)'s design products — Taiwanese famous illustrator, 幾米 (Ji Mi)’s design products

Boarded the Star Ferry to cross over to Tsim Sha Tsui

Me, happy to have reached our destination

G.O.D. - Goods of Desire, a novelty store selling many Hong Kong designed stuff — G.O.D. – Goods of Desire, a novelty store selling many Hong Kong designed stuff

Rachel and I bought some gifts from G.O.D. - Goods of Desire, for our family — Rachel and I bought some gifts from G.O.D. for our family

Where there's Hong Kongers, there's a seven-eleven — Where there’s Hong Kongers, there’s a seven-eleven

We had a late lunch at Macau Restaurant. Nothing particularly memorable, but more of a quick meal to fill our tummies before we embark on to the Peak.

Rachel's roasted pigeon — Rachel’s roasted pigeon

We headed up the Peak via the Peak tram to visit Hong Kong’s Madam Tussaud’s wax museum. You can read more about the visit in my blog post yesterday.

Basically, we took lots of photos with the various “stars”.

We encountered an interesting incident while waiting for our tram ride up the Peak. A fat, middle-aged Caucasian lady almost fainted in the tram on her way down. The staff were quick to react and fed her sugar cubes before carrying her out of the tram. That delayed the tram for around half an hour.

We took the star ferry again to this pier to change bus to the Peak

The angular, futuristic Lippo Tower in the middle — Check out the angular, futuristic Lippo Tower in the middle

Various artefacts featuring the Victoria Peak tram

Rachel looking visibly tired as we waited for our tram to arrive

A fat Caucasian lady had fainted in the tram, hence there was a delay in boarding

Tram staff rushing in to help the faint woman

The staff fed the lady some sugar cubes and then carried her out

It was raining heavily when we reached the top of the Peak. Fog was heavy too. Hence we did not get to see any beautiful scenery. 🙁 Maybe on our next visit.

Raining really heavily and the wind was strong

It was foggy outside too, hence we figured no point we brave the rain as we won't be able to catch any scenery — It was foggy outside too, hence we figured no point we brave the rain as we won’t be able to catch any scenery

The single scenic picture I took from the Peak before it started to rain heavily

To round up the night, we went for dinner/supper at two restaurants. We decided to pig out as this will be our last night in Hong Kong and we wanted to try out as many delicacies as possible.

First stop was a dessert specialty restaurant. I forgot to take down the name, but we ordered a beef brisket with fried tofu set meal and a glutinous rice balls with black sesame paste to share.

Next, we ate at 利苑粥麵專家, located at 銅鑼灣駱克道539號, within walking distance from the first restaurant. We ordered their giant bowl of specialty congee which comes with an assortment of ingredient from cuttlefish to fish slices to beef and pork innards to share. This place is open till 1.45am, hence is a good place to head to for supper.