Hong Kong Summer Spectacular with HKTB – Day 5 of 6

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This ended our fifth day in Hong Kong. Stay tuned for my next post on our sixth and final day in Hong Kong. 🙂

My previous Hong Kong Summer Spectacular with HKTB blog posts:

Flying Off to Hong Kong in a Few Hours

Hong Kong Summer Spectacular with HKTB – A Prelude

Day 1: Dragon Boat Carnival Opening, Robatayaki at Busy Suzie

Day 2: Yuen Po Street Bird Garden, Flower Market and Goldfish Market; Gingko House at Gough Street; make-over with Celia Wong; and on board the Bounty

Day 3: Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival 2010; Hong Kong Old Restaurant; Tsim Sha Tsui and Temple Street shopping

Day 4: Lau Fu Kee Congee, Central/SoHo, Yin Yang with Margaret Xu, Gough Street and Temple Street

Day 5: Hong Kong’s Madame Tussaud’s wax museum

Technorati Tags: hong kong travel, summer spectacular with hktb, hong kong summer spectacular, sheung wan travel, 永合成茶餐厅, hong kong ding ding tram, she wong lam, 香港書展, hong kong book fair, hong kong book fair 2010, alvinology in hong kong, madame trussaud, madame trussaud hong kong, 海港城, harbour city, hong kong harbour city, tsim sha tsui shopping, hong kong god, hong kong g.o.d., goods of desire, izzue, izzue hong kong, star ferry, hong kong star ferry, macau restaurant hong kong, hong kong the peak, hong kong lippo tower, hong kong the peak tram, the peak tram, 利苑粥麵專家, hong kong congee, hong kong claypot rice, hong kong shopping