Slept in yet again, becoming a regular habit these days. Today’s plan was to go see Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island, The Peak and then head back home to have a a bit of a drinking night at Knutsford Terrace behind our hotel. I completely forgot that I was meant to meet up with the tailor for my suit that afternoon, so when I got up and headed down there to change the appointment for tomorrow.
After a late start we headed out in seek of Dim Sum at Aberdeen. Aberdeen is a town on Hong Kong Island, but it is actually a bit further away than I originally thought. The plan was to get a train to Central, then a taxi to Aberdeen.
We got ready to go and I thought I’d bring my tripod today to get a decent shot from The Peak, so packed that into my camera bag and headed out. Walked to our TST station and caught a train to Central. When we arrived I realised that even though I was carrying my camera bag with tripod, I wasn’t getting sore shoulders like I normally do, that’s when I realised that I forgot my camera! I had my point-and-shoot, but the battery was dying and wouldn’t last long at all. Decided that we were at the point of no return and kept going, thought I’d just get a copy of Michelle’s photos… so shattered!
We got to Central and after a quick coffee at Starbucks, we couldn’t find a taxi so I ended up asking someone where we could go to get one and lucky I did because this security guard warned us that it would cost quite a lot to get there and we are better off getting a bus. The bus took about half an hour - which would have been quite expensive by taxi!
From the bus terminal we walked up the shore line towards the floating restaurant pier. This place was no St. Kilda, it looked quite old and dirty, but it had its own unique character. Instead of being offered suits and watches, we were offered boat rides, which we didn’t take to because the floating restaurant offers a free ferry taxi to and from fairly frequently.
We eventually boarded a free ferry taxi to the Jumbo floating restaurant. The ferry was quite old looking too. I could tell Michelle wasn’t really keen on this sort of thing, so we weren’t exactly sure what to expect from the restaurant. Once we docked at the restaurant we were pleasantly surprised - the restaurant was really fancy!
On the way in we saw a chef with a big chef’s hat on so Michelle asked for a photo with him. She absolutely made his day! He was so happy that he went to get his own camera to get one for him self. He even ended up getting another one on our way out! Between the photo requests and the fancy restaurant, I think Michelle must have felt like a celebrity that day!
As we got there quite late, there wasn’t many people there, we basically had this huge fancy function room to ourselves. We got to our table and ordered enough yum cha dishes to fill our table. I thought the food was fantastic! There was only one dish that I wasn’t really big on, which was supposedly a chicken satay-like bread thingy, which wasn’t great but it was still ok.
They also had a “seafood exhibition”. It looks as if this is where they breed their produce. It was pretty cool that it was open to the public.
We finished up and headed back to Central. This time we caught a different bus line and it took forever! It was probably just over an hour to get back, by this time it was already dark. Instead of going straight to the The Peak, we decided to go back to the hotel room to get my camera!
Michelle had already seen The Peak last time she was here, so I left her at the hotel, put my point-and-shoot camera battery on charge and headed out there. The Peak actually has a whole bunch of shops and restaurants in the area too so you could spend a bit of time there, but I was mainly there to check out the view!
Bought my ticket to the top level of The Peak and caught a tram up. The tram was pretty cool, starts off just like any other tram ride, but then the angle increases quite dramatically as we climb up the mountain. I tried to get a photo to show how steep it actually was, but didn’t succeed to well - wasn’t a good day for photos today :(
Once I got off the tram it was about 8:05, which was the time of the Symphony of Lights, so I skipped straight past all the shops and tried to get to the skydeck as fast as I could. I just caught the end of the show from the top, which looked pretty good, but the view at the harbour would still be better I think.
The skydeck was so nice. the weather was perfect as usual and the view was stunning, all I needed was a hammock and a beer! I waited for the other tourists to get out of a prime photo spot and jumped to set up my tripod to take a few long exposures. Finally some acceptable photos! After taking in the view for a bit I headed down to go through the shops on the way out, get some snacks and head back home.
Eventually got back to TST and Michelle and I got some dinner. We went to a nearby Chinese restaurant which was probably my worst meal so far. I ordered rice noodles and shredded beef, but it was so oily I could just about see my reflection!
After showering and changing for a night on the town we finally went to Knutsford Terrace for some drinks. After starting the pub crawl at one place we headed to All Night Long where we met a really tall Danish guy named Brian and his Norwegian wife Cellia, who was also quite tall! We ended up spending all night together and had a great night!
After All Night Long, we headed to Joe’s Billiard Bar for some pool. From there we decided to go home and it turns out that Brian and Cellia were actually staying in the same hotel as us, except due to some reservation errors, they got a free upgrade to the Safari room - so cool! :)
Their room had twinkling stars on the ceiling and a tv that gets raised out of the table at the foot of the bed, a real coffee machine and a separated bedroom, living room and bathroom.
We went from Knutsford Terrace to 7-11 to get some beers and met one of the bar tenders from the pool place who finished work at 4:00 AM and had to wait till 6:00 AM for the trains to start. So the 5 of us went to Brian and Cellia’s Safari room and got the “grand tour”. After that we thought we would go see the contrast between their fancy room and what they were going to get - our room.
Unfortunately there was now 3 smokers in our room, but luckily they all smoked in the bathroom, which made it easier for me to mask with the air freshener :P
We eventually said our good byes as Brian and Cellia only had 1 more day left in Hong Kong before going back to -20 degree weather! By this time the sun was up and breakfast at our hotel had started, so we got our passes and got some breakfast.
This was a really big day hence this massive blog post and I think I have still missed some details! Naturally I didn’t blog that night, so this post is a little delayed, but you can see why! :P