28072007: Hong Kong Day 02: Chi Lin, Kwun Tong, Harbour City, Symphony of Lights, Lady's Street

Had dim sum at 鸿星 for breakfast. Ate my first and only one roast pigeon there. Not much meat, but at least I tried it before. Nothing fantastic about pigeon meat... The dim sum quite interesting. The Siu Mai dun look like our normal siu mai. The cute penguin design dim sum only look cute on the menu. The final product is a great difference sia. AL ordered the 粉条, and it turns out to be the joke of the meal. Bird Nest egg tart so so only... FR said the bird nest totally spoil the egg tart taste, which I totally agree.


After breakfast, we set off for Chi Lin Nunnery at Diamond Hill. TY need to get some stuff there for his mum. Accordingly, this nunnery is based on Tang Dynasty design, not a single nail is used in the building's structure. Today is the 15th day of the lunar calendar, but surprisingly, there aren't many devotees there. Only a couple of people were there. In fact, this is the least crowded place in all places i been to in HK. We are suppose to find tranquility here, but I can't seem to find peace at all... maybe is be cos of the terrible weather bah. It's super hot and I'm sweating like mad. One thing I discovered while see see look look is the spikes on the horizontal beam. My only conclusion is: to prevent birds from resting there and dirty the place.

Next stop is stopping at Kwun Tong. we went to the factory outlets like Adidas, Nike, New Balance etc. Wanted to buy sandles, but can't seem to find a suitable one. The shoes there also dun have my size (sold out). In the end, for the whole trip, I'm the only one who left HK without buying any footwear. Another observation while in HK: people dun like to wear sandles; Most (almost everyone) are wearing shoes. Even shops don't like to sell sandles.

Had dinner eating 烧腊, got goose, chicken, veg, 炖汤 etc. Only HK$47 per person. Taste good, but the only complain is the food is too salty. In fact most of our meals in HK are too salty for us. Make us feel thirsty and got to drink lots of water.

Harbour City is a super big shopping maze. Lots of upmarket shops => expensive stuff. Left for Avenue of Star at around 7.30pm to watch the Symphony of Lights. Tonight is a special night as there will be fireworks display to celebrate 10th year of the Return of HK to China. We waited patiently for the clock to strike 8 o'clock. But hor, when the show was about to start, an idiotic ferry cruise appear from nowhere, with tourist on board and came very close to the shore. This is the harbour cruise ferry. This stupid cruise totally block our view of the fireworks. I can even hear people swearing at it. It can actually stay far away from the shore and the people on board can still see the fireworks, while those on shore can enjoy too. Isn't that better? But heng, after a few minutes, the cruise left and duno sail to where. Nobody is interested in that ship at all... While our attention is on the fireworks, the laser display carry on. I will take a peek whenever the fireworks took a brief rest. The laser show dun seem to be as good as it was advertised. Maybe got fireworks, so they scale back on the laser show bah.

After the show, we decide to proceed on to Avenue of Star to look look see see. But alas, it's ultra crowded, with tourist from the various tour groups. Gave up the idea and went to Lady's Street Night Market instead. Same thing as Temple Street, nothing much interesting. Both night markets are selling roughly the same thing. The most interesting thing is, I was looking at a chess set with the 3 Kingdom theme. The stall owner quote me HK$280. I told her see see nia.. Then she auto cut the price and say I can have it for HK$200. But I didn't buy as I felt it's meaningless to buy. I dun play chess and neither am I interested to use it for decoration purpose.

Jing Wen recommended that I must try the 榴莲飘香 and 榴莲班战 at 发记甜品(Soy Street). Gosh, it's ultra nice. The durian meat, is 1 piece, 1 piece kind. Quite surprise that HK people actually eat durian. Initially thought that they hate durian smell. They even sell durian in the supermarket, both in unopened form as well as packed in syroform boxes.

TY was buying some medical products from a medical hall (Think it's the one next to 发记) and he was cheated!!!! 1. The boss tried to cheat him by quoting a higher price than his assistant, by claiming that the cheaper one is made in China, while the more expensive one is made in HK. But both packaging are identical lor. 2. The shop dun carry 笑佛牌平安膏. It only have another brand. The boss cover the brand and show it to TY. TY only saw the word 平安膏, so he thought it's the one he wanted. 3. TY saw the boss warp up the product listed in point 1 but when back in Ashley Apartment, it turns out to be some 枫油. TY paid duno how much for things that he dun need at all and he was hopping mad. Lessons Learned:

1. Don't buy medical products from those medical halls. Buy only from branded medical halls.
2. Don't let them wrap up anything. Who knows when they will 偷龙转凤.
3. Once you discover the shop owner is dishonest, dun buy anything from him.

Continue to walk around after the desert (feeling damm full lor... lol). And to my surprise, I found a shop selling Taiwanese product. I rush in and bought the 胡椒饼 (taste terrible compared to the one I had while in Taiwan). I search around and manage to find something that I lust for :绿茶南瓜子酥!!!! The packaging is different the one I bought last year in Taiwan, but the taste is still as great as ever. Now I regret buying only 2 jar (HK$45 per jar). Should buy more!!!