The beginning of a new week again. 2 months plus after the political tsunami that hit Malaysia, political condition in this country does not seem to improve in any way. Heck care to politics today. And my all time favorite football team won the EPL last night, a much deserved win and we will end this month smiling with the Doubles. Ferraris did well in Istanbul. It seems that the Reds are having hell of a week last week.
However, I am still not done yet with my Hong Kong trip. This post around I will write about 黃大仙祠 and The Snoopy World that I pimped during my recent trip there. Click to enlarge the the picture below for the panorama view of Hong Kong island. I still miss Hong Kong very much, very very much indeed.
In Hong Kong, this is one of the most important card that you cannot live without. It is even more important than your credit card. Remember to get this Octopus card at the nearest MTR station and it is just like a prepaid card where you can use in most convenience stores like 7-11s, etc, and not forgetting too, the public transport. This card is a MUST.
黃大仙祠 or in pinyin known as Wong Tai Sin Temple is the most famous shrines in Hong Kong. If you have not been there before, you most probably had a glimpse of this place before in some Hong Kong TVB dramas.
Getting there is pretty simple. Take the Kowloon line MTR and stop at the Wong Tai Sin station (obviously right?). Like any main MTR stations in HK, you normally walked through your way in some shopping mall greeted by a very helpful signages all over.
As soon as you step out from the station, it will be obvious that you are approaching the temple soon as along the way, you can see many stalls like the below selling joss sticks & prayer items. My advice is that, you can buy the joss sticks but not those burning papers because you end up not being able to bring it in.
This is the main entrance of the temple. Burning paper is strictly prohibited in the temple. First timers normally do not realize this until the guard warned. You will only be allowed to bring in joss sticks, those burning papers will be left in a special basket in front of the entrance.
You will be welcomed with a garden with pretty peaceful surroundings. You can see people busily praying and placing their joss sticks at the numerous shrines in the temple.
This is also the place Buddha devotees praying their Buddhist chants here. Everyday, the people of Hong Kong will flock this temple to wish for good health & prosperity. You can see mainly ladies will do the tradition of 求簽 (Kau Cim), a Chinese fortune telling methodology.
Neat & clean, it has clear signages to lead to various parts of the temple. Right behind the main altar, there is a garden where you donate minimum HKD$10 (if I am not mistaken) to enter. There is no ticket conductor or so, purely based on your sincerity.
In this garden, you can see traditional Chinese architecture resembling Pagodas. There is a pond which housed Japanese Kois, tortoises & lilies.
As you climb up, you will be greeted by a stream & a waterfall.
I managed to self-timer camwhored myself as I am traveling all by myself. Excuse this camwhore bitch ya :P
The view on top of this temple is simply amazing, with the not so hot weather, it is an enjoyable noon afterall.
Some large vending machines in the temple. Coke Diet is not that popular, in HK they have this Coke Zero.
After the 2 hours tour in Wong Tai Sin, from the Kowloon MTR line, I took the railway line to Sha Tin (沙田), direct translation 'Sands Field'. Like I mentioned before, in HK, you really do not need to own a car, the whole public transport system is so complete, car is not an essential criteria to get attached here :)
Upon reaching Sha Tin station, it is another shopping mall-cum-station called New Town Plaza. There is nothing much to talk about the shopping mall except that it houses IKEA furniture store (our Malaysian store is much larger though).
At the balcony of level 3 of this mall, that is where the Snoopy's World is. I thought it is a pay-to-enter kind of park, but it is absolutely complimentary. I am not a Snoopy fan though but cannot help myself to camwhore a bit in this park :P
Finally the last picture. My message on this picture to all my readers is that, "Traveling in HK is PEANUTS! You will never get lost"
There are more to come on HK.
Stay tune!
Sorry for the long delayed of my Hong Kong trip pictures. While posting this, I am actually already planning on my 2nd trip there end of this year, hopefully with my other half *cross finger that things will b positive*
Looking at the transportation system sometimes in other country really amazed me. In Malaysia, I do not bother to travel on Putra or Star LRT or our Rapid KL or Intrakota whatsoever. It seems like what these operators in Malaysia have narrow vision & all they care is profit only.
In other country I had traveled, the system is so well organized and coordinated. In other countries, even if you are tourist, you hardly being conned like you will be in Malaysia. Public transport in Hong Kong is so convenient that made car not a necessity there. As long as you are equipped with your Octopus card, you can travel anywhere via MTR, bus, taxi or tram.
I went to Kowloon from Tung Chung, as Tung Chung is in Lantau Island, it is not part of Hong Kong mainland. Tung Chung is where they housed the Disneyland and the International Airport. Traveling to Kowloon via Tung Chung MTR line is so convenient and it cost about HKD$16 and takes about 20 minutes or so to reach the Kowloon station. Upon reaching the station, I took the public bus that cost about HKD$5 or so to go to the Kowloon Central. Though I am a banana (yellow outside, white inside - meaning dunno how to read & write in Chinese lar), the signages are pretty helpful and informative. Trust me, you will never get lost there.
Walking around the narrow street of Hong Kong's uptown & downtown, you will see a lot of big sign boards hanging and dangling. Street is pretty clean and people do not simply smoke anywhere as they like.
For most of my travel experience in other Asian countries, I always make it a point to go for local food, instead of fancy restaurant. During my first day there, I went to this local restaurant, in Hong Kong, they called it "Char Chan Teng" where most local common average Joe will patronized. Having a meal in Hong Kong is not cheap but be assured that your one value meal, you will be blardy full and will hardly get hungry easily. The value meal normally comes with a main (noodle/rice) & drink.
When you are in any "Char Chan Teng" in HK, the only drink you must drink will be the tea-milk or "Nai Char" they called in Cantonese. HK's tea-milk will put Wong Kok or Kimgary so called HK Char Chan Teng to shame.
I went breakfast with my brother at this particular "Char Chan Teng" in Kowloon. I had this beef fried with egg & rice. Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!
While my brother had this pork chop in sweet sour sauce & rice.
My brother's gf opted for their "Wan Tan Mee". Look at those dumplings, I had a bite. Again for the price you paid for it, you won't feel any bit cheated because the quality ingredients in it.
All in all, I spent about HKD$140 for the breakfast meal for 3 person, we felt bloated really finishing and beware, in HK, do not be a smart alec to order additional like what I normally did in Malaysia, cos it is not easy to finish the whole main meal by yourself.
HK people also like beef stew with its parts a lot, they called it "Ngau Lam", and no matter what the people commented how good is the Ngau Lam in Peel Road & Jalan Alor Malaysia, I beg to differ. HK got the best "Ngau Lam" ever!
Just look at this picture, too bad for those who do not take beef :P
As we walked around, in some of the major complexes you can see these horse statuettes, this is where the local Hongkie but their stake on the horse racing. Chinese people surely love gambling don't they? Hehehe...
Ok... it's about 2.30am now, tired of resizing my photos d, so what's the next thing I gonna write bout HK? A bit of teaser at the picture below.
OK dudes, I am signing off for now... HONG KONG, I MISS YOU!!!
I have somehow miss HK a lot... blardy a lot... Phew... Back home is not so pleasurable really... My work been piling up and for the past few days since my return, I had been working till late, and by the time I finished, my energy level was so low that I am too tired and not inspired to write any shits here.
Work, work and work and my company sent me away for training again on the 24th-25th... off site full-day training and finally my weekend here back in Melaka, I can finally really sit my fat ass in this comfy sofa to BLOG!!!! ahhhhh.... ok here you go,
"Hujan emas di negara orang, hujan batu di negara sendiri"
These are some very true words, always pleasurable to visit some foreign countries and see how well they managed the country, the people, etc. In Malaysia, we talk about who's country this belongs to, we define Malaysian as bumiputra & non-bumiputra, double standard to own a house, many inequalities, etc.
In Hong Kong, as long as you got the dollar & cents, you will be on the go. On my first night in 东涌 (Tung Chung), waited for my sis as she was at work. I was waiting at this Citygate which housed plenty of branded factory outlets here, Esprit, Benetton, Ralph Lauren, Nike, Adidas, to name a few.
By the time she finished her work, we met up and we went for dinner together with another younger brother of mine who happened to be there honeymooning with his gf. We went to this famous Indian restaurant, which a lot of expatriates patronized this place. At the Tung Chung MTR Station, this restaurant has this pick up service to their restaurant.
The restaurant is known as "Curry Corner", and during my journey there by the pick up service, I met and chatted up with 2 gwai lous from Australia who worked as a private jet pilot in Hong Kong. Now you can imagine how many rich & famous in Hong Kong who owned private jets ya :)
This restaurant looked simple but it serves one of the best curry & massala I ever had in my whole life. I would say equivalent to India. The owner was from India anyway.
Without delay, we browsed through the menu and ordered the food as we felt like hungry ghosts. Ordered a few kind of massala & curries - fish, chicken, mutton, beef & potato. Check out the pictures below;
Tempting? I will be going to HK again end of the year.... anyone interested to join me? And I am not very sure whether these few curry & massala dishes we had expensive or not, the bill came at HKD350 (approx RM175) for 4 persons.
After dinner, went back to my sis place, my first time there. You cannot see any bungalows or link houses here in Tung Chung. What you see will be 70 storeys high condominums & apartments.
My sis stayed in one of these condominiums, the Carribean Coast, with the built up of only about 600sq feet and cost about near to a million ringgit. Crazy huh? That's Hong Kong. Though high in density, the security is tight. You will be greeted all day long by professional local staff in monkey suits. My sis stays in 33rd floor, just a short tour around here with a few pictures of the place that I stayed for the 4 nights I had in HK.
Finally a picture of from the house balcony. Warning: few post to come I will still write about my HK travelogy with plenty more pictures.
Cheers!
