Hello, Hong Kong!
We left Macau around 10 am and rode a ferry back to Hong Kong. We met a wonderful lady named May Lau, who took us on a tour. Nothing like the locals to show you around the best spots.
If you want all your senses stimulated, go to Hong Kong! Everywhere you look, there is either beautiful art, history, architecture, and the smell of glorious food!
We first went to Aberdeen fishing village, where we saw some cool sampans (boats) and yachts.
Then, we drove to Repulse Bay Beach which, thankfully was nothing like its unfortunate name suggested, and was actually quite beautiful, with fine sand and clear waters. We dipped our feet in the water and walked on the beach for about half an hour.
After a quick peek into the local jewellery factory, we headed for Victoria peak, eager to look over the city from that wonderful vantage point. We rode the cutest red tram up the peak and spent an hour wandering around Madame Tussauds museum and trying to imitate a kick as good as Jackie Chan’s. After making an absolute fool of myself and embarrassing my poor husband sufficiently, we walked up two floors to the viewing point and got a brilliant view of the city, dotted with glistening lights.
Reluctantly, we left to check into our hotel rooms at Harbour Plaza 8 degrees, at around 9 pm. But, of course, I couldn’t rest without visiting the local supermarket so off we went again — this time to a trusty 7 Eleven. Wary, on account of the seaweed chip fiasco from Macau, I bought Tim Tams and Snickers with dark chocolate while Suhas bought a chocolate oreo bar. We also grabbed a cup of haagen-dazs strawberry and cream flavored ice cream. Quite satisfied with our conservative choice of snacks, we happily drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, we boarded a cable car to Ngong Ping, the loveliest little village I ever did see. It was beautiful and looked like it was straight out of Kung Fu Panda. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see good ol’ Po wandering the streets. Walking around the little village was dreamy! We walked up 250 steps to see the large Buddha and then walked back down and through the little shops and restaurants for lunch. We ate at the Zen Noodle Cafe (because of all the restaurants, this one resembled The Noodle House the most) and ordered a generous portion of smoked duck ramen. We were lucky to catch a suspense-filled martial arts show that was absolutely fantastic!
We then went into a little tea store called Li-Nong Tea and indulged in some ice cream after that to wash down our meal. For dinner, we decided to have some authentic Chinese fried rice and chicken noodles and we were not disappointed. The portions are enormous, which for someone like me, is just the right amount. While we were waddling back to the hotel, we caught a whiff of some caramel popcorn ice cream and could not resist! It was pure genius! Why aren’t we eating this food combination all the time? A mouthful of the warm crunchy caramel combined with a chunk of cold vanilla ice cream is a match made in gastronomical heaven.
We hurried off to bed because the next day, we were off to the happiest place in the world — Hong Kong Disneyland!
