Friday, October 14, 2011

Day 10, Sunday funday


Sunday Juju and I woke up, watched TV went and got brunch. We went to a typical looking casual dining type place not far from our hotel. Looked at the picture menu and for some reason fried chicken wings and white toast with fruit salad sounded good to me haha. We also got radish cakes (standard dim sum item) and a pineapple bun, the famous Hong Kong pastry! It’s supposed to be one of the most unhealthy things you can eat in HK. The “pineapple” is actually just sugar, eggs, flour, and lard pressed on top of a bun to look like a pineapple. Then they also put a large pat of butter inside. It is tasty….Juju and I shared one, don’t worry! hahaha
After brunch, we went to get our hair done at a salon Juju visited before that she felt was a good price. Place is playing hip hop music, everyone is wearing black, definitely trendier than the little in home salon I went to in Beijing! A lot of the hairdressers in Hong Kong have you pay different prices depending on if it’s a new stylist, intermediate, or master. I went for the low end since I was just getting a wash and flat iron. Juju got her hair dyed and cut. She said the last time she came, she splurged on the master stylist, but he didn’t speak Mandarin or English :-/ She said it didn’t matter anyway, because since he’s a “master” he wouldn’t listen to her objections or ideas about her hair!! Geez. I had a Mandarin & English speaker wash my hair, but then the person straightening only spoke Canto. Darn! Juju’s stylist was really cool and helpful and spoke all 3 languages thankfully. Everything turned out fine for both of us. Cost was more than Beijing, I think about $12 USD.
Then we met up with the boys, headed to a café--chatted, read magazines, and had some smoothies and pizza. I picked up a wedding mag to enjoy the photographs

Thursday, October 6, 2011

DAY 9, moving back across the bay~

It's Saturday and my friend Juju is arriving from Guangzhou!! So, I am moving out of Hong Kong, and back to Kowloon, but to Tsim Sha Tsui, a bit nicer area than Mongkok.
Ben and I grab breakfast at the hotel first, nice buffet spread with Chinese style (dim sum, congee) and Western style (porridge, toast). Then go up to the rooftop pool to relax. Yeah, I told y'all this place was posh.

The boys swam, I read a magazine and took pictures of them and the scenery. Rich stayed behind to do some work, and Ben accompanied me on the long cab ride to Kowloon. We met Juju at the hotel and walked around the nearby area. Grabbed some frozen yogurt at a cheesy shop which labeled the sizes as "cute" for small and "sexy" for large. As annoying as it was, the girl working was nice, and the fruit was fresh. They were even making mochi fresh!
Bringing sexy back with yogurt

JuJu and I walking up to the mall
New hotel is Acesite Knutsford Hotel, it's definitely not as swanky as the website makes it seem, but it's economical and good location.


We weren’t sure exactly what we were gonna do that day, Ben initially made a very nice itinerary, which we immediately scrapped and decided to just kinda do the fly by style. We glanced at it for ideas though, and ended up heading on the train to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha.
It is a loooong MTR ride to the end of HK to get to Lantau Island. We made it to the first part which has a huge mall and dining area and ate fries with ketchup and sugar in the raw (Juju’s style) while we waited for Rich. You can either take a bus or the cable car to get to the island. The cable car is nice, you really can relax and enjoy the scenery outside. We saw the airport, fishermen, the resort style high-rise Discovery Bay, and of course the 112 ft tall Buddha statue. It was built in 1993 to be the world’s biggest seated, outdoor Buddha--a huge tourist attraction. Once you arrive your picture is taken and sold to you on a keychain, then you go and enjoy a cold drink from Starbucks. Yep, capitalism at its finest. Funny to see the stark contrast, while mainland China blocked Western products and rampant consumerism, Hong Kong embraced it and it can be seen everywhere. Near where Juju and I live, there are 3 Body Shops (lotion and cosmetic store) within only a couple of short blocks. How much mango body butter does a person need?!
Ben, Rich, Juju and I walked around, took pictures at our designated Chinese zodiac sign statues, then walked the 200+ stairs to the top of the Buddha. The Buddha is seated and surrounded by devas giving offerings. Their faces are so beautiful. It was funny, on the way back to Hong Kong we saw this sweet little girl, about 5 years old, whose face looked just like those devas. Very symmetrical and all features were not too big or small (except ears haha). We were so relaxed on the train, we ended up missing our stop!  We got back on track, and ..honestly I can’t remember what we did after this?
Later on we went to Lan Kwai Fong for dinner. Rich was craving steak, Ben and I had found an Australian steakhouse that looked pretty nice the night before, so we headed to Wooloomooloo. Since all my friends live in China, Hong Kong is “civilization” to them. Shopping, dining, internet—all the products and quality they cannot get on the mainland. We went all out when it came to dinner. As are most high end restaurants, everything was priced a la carte and we each ordered a soup, side dish, plus steak. We shared 2 bottles of wine and desserts. Dinner was about $100 USD each!!
After dinner we strolled around the nightlife district, people watching, and grabbed some drinks and danced on the street. We were so silly, but had a lot of fun! Eric (couchsurfer/friend of a friend) said he was going to a nearby pub for a birthday and we went to meet him. More drinks, more dancing. Juju and left the bar at a decent hour, I think it was after 1am and the boys were behind us.


DAY 8, moving to the big city

Friday afternoon my good friend Ben arrived from China! I got to move to Metropark Hotel in Causeway Bay Hong Kong Island side ;)

Check out the view from the 29th floor~


Here's the room: