Set on the itinerary for the third day, was to venture across to Hong Kong Island. We planned to have a close up look and probably go into some of the skyscrapers such as the IFC, Bank of China Tower and The Peak. So it’s a pretty extensive coverage for us, and trust me I walked till my feet literally cried for help because I ended up with blisters at the end of the day.

We started our journey at 8.30 am  with breakfast of bread and Milo in our room before heading out for the Mong Kok MTR station nearby our hostel.

We chose to stay in Mong Kok because it’s a hotspot for shopping and dining, plus it’s more economical compared to staying in Hong Kong Island. Tsim Tsa Tsui is not a bad place to stay too, also a very popular area but for Mong Kok,  traveling is made easy with a two minute walk to the nearest MTR station. For those who are going to Hong Kong , it’s better to book your room in advance prior to arrival instead of walk-in to avoid traffic and unavailability and there is no hassle as sites such as HotelsCombined would offer information about places to stay according to areas, so you can book your room in advance way before your trip like how we did.

As you can see from the MTR system map, (which you can click to enlarge) Hong Kong’s MTR system covers pretty much every area in Hong Kong therefore covering Hong Kong isn’t a problem except for time constraints. And there are machines in the MTR station to reload and check your Octopus card, also computers with free internet access for 15 minutes! Yea, you can use the computers for free but there’s a 15 minute countdown once you begin.

Anyhow, our journey started from Mong Kok (red) where we traveled all the way to Admiralty, then interchanged to the Island Line (dark blue) and got off at Central.

In Central, there are several landmarks like the Standard Chartered Building, HSBC Main Building, City Hall, Bank of China Tower and the Two International Finance Centre (IFC).

The MTR station at Central is just a close proximity to the City Hall, therefore we crossed an overhead bridge into the City Hall for another breakfast at Maxim’s. Again, no pictures were taken because both of us were so hungry plus the food was just so-so, not very cheap either.

From the we walked quite an extend till the IFC or the International Finance Tower and we took a quick stroll in the building before moving on. There was nothing in there, mostly high end retail shops so it was just window shopping for me.

We walked and walked and walked until somehow we ended up nearby the Central Mid Levels Escalator, from Central to Conduit Road. It allows people to travel quickly between these two places, compared with travelling by the winding roads up the mountain. The escalators is pretty long and it can get pretty steep too, you shall be warned.

As you go throughout the escalators, you will see popular destination exit signs for Hollywood Road, SoHo and Lan Kwai Fong. At the roads near the escalators, there are entrances and exits on each road it passes, often on both sides of the road.

We walked around under the hot sun, where we exited at Hollywood Road famous for antiques, and as we walk my eyes beamed at the sight of people carrying H&M plastic bags! I knew, H&M must be somewhere near. Excited much, as I adore H&M stuffs plus they’re not available in Malaysia we followed the crowd and in a matter of 5 minutes, we were in Queens Road and there were tons of people within the proximity of H&M.

The store is huge, four stories to be exact. The basement is catered to guy’s, the ground and first floor is for the ladies and the second floo is for children. Hugo was obviously out of place there, so he left me alone in the store and went out to look around plus looking for his missing camera eyepiece.

The array of items in the store was impressive, although it was considerably cheaper than the prices in Malaysia, I didn’t really find anything I really liked. However, since my Body Shop blusher was finishing, I swatched two H&M blushers and adored both of their subtle shimmerness, and it’s only 49.90 HKD each equivalent to RM 25 each! I was initially going to choose one, but it was such a hard decision as I kept swatching both back and forth so in the end I took both, went to Hugo and gave him the Puss In Boot eyes.

Obviously from the picture above, the big googly eyes obviously worked. And I’m pretty sure he’s proud of me that I wasn’t my shopaholic-self in Hong Kong. I even chose a shirt for him, which suited him pretty well imho. After H&M we continued to randomly walk around till we reached a tram station, so we decided why not travel around by tram?

It costs 2 HKD per trip (standardized) plus it’s a great way to see Hong Kong. From Central, we somehow landed in Causeway Bay and we went into Sogo hunting for lunch. Since it was a Sunday, it was way way way crowded and somehow there were tons of Indonesians flooding the streets, all the way from the City Hall to the entrance of Sogo.

This is Mochi Cream, not Dream. (my typo error) It’s basically those Mochi you can find from those snack shops, made out of glutinous rice flour infused with variant flavours from Chocolate, Green Tea, Fruity flavours like Peach,  Blueberry, Orange, even Coffee and Rum.

We bought Green Tea and Chocolate Banana for 13 HKD and 16 HKD respectively. 29 HKD for two mochi’s isn’t exactly economical snack but why not give it a try. It’s stored from the chiller and each mochi is individually packed in a paper bag. Taste wise, mine was the Green Tea and it did not made me squirm although the green tea powder was a tad bitter. The flavour was intense and the cream in the center balanced out the intensity of the green tea powder. Hugo’s Chocolate Banana, you gotta ask him because he didn’t share it with me plus his mochi was squished flat because he only ate it after 3 hours. It was carried in my bag all along with my essential things inside, so go figure.

So that was dessert, but before that we had lunch. We scouted around for food and we ended at this Japanese stall that serves Japanese street food. I tried the Takoyaki Soba, priced at 24 HKD and it was just average. I had better back in Malaysia but I was so hungry from all the walking so anything goes at this point.

Hugo’s Okonomiyaki Soba priced at 26 HKD tasted slightly better than mine, although our soba noodles are the same. His pancake had much more stuffs other than flour, compared to my tako’s which was all flour, little potato and octopus. Plus he had vegetables in his noodles compared to mine.

View from an overhead bridge.  We were there for about 8 minutes and in that span of time, I saw 8 Porsche Cayman’s of all colours. Funny thing, there’s no Toyota Vios or Honda City’s in sight, but I did saw our very own Malaysian Perodua Kelisa, Myvi and Kenari lookalikes in the form of Daihatsu’s.

After Sogo, from Causeway Bay we traveled to Wan Chai North mainly for the HKCEC of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. We had to walk like 30 minutes from crossing roads to traffic lights to overhead bridges before reaching. After walking for 2 days in a row, my feet were about to give in on this third day. Every night I would soak my feet in warm water just to sooth it.

Upon reaching, I saw people setting up banners and stage props for an event which is probably a patriotic themed event because I saw the words “?? ” (I can read basic chinese ) but we just went aside to sit because my feet aches so badly and I took off my shoes the instant I sat down. The sky was again hazy and it was getting pretty warm too, thus making me feeling really lethargic. I took out my Green Tea mochi to savour by the sea side, and we rested for a good 15 minutes before continuing to the Bank of China Tower. It was not a brisk walk as it may look near to the HKCEC but trust me, it took us another 30 minutes.

Visitors can go up to the 43rd floor of the Bank of China Tower for free from Mondays to Saturdays, and since we were there on a Sunday boohoo to us. However we did go up the tower on our last day in Hong Kong.

After being denied of access to the Bank of China Tower, we walked everywhere in search of the bus to The Peak. For those who wishes to go up the Peak, there are 2 ways of doing so. You can either: take the 15c bus which is probably 9.80 HKD (if my memory serves me well) or you can take the tram at Garden Road, near St. John’s Cathedral. The tram tickets are priced at 22 HKD for single and 33 HKD for return, all tickets are sold at Garden Road Peak Tram Lower Terminus or appointed travel agents.

We took the bus as we were nearby a bus terminus (why isn’t it called terminal but terminus) plus taking the bus there are more sights to see although the winding road up did made me dizzy after a whole day of traveling.

Posing for a test shot with Hong Kong Island as the background, as you can see the view isn’t that great with all the hazy blurness. The wind was great though, being up high on the hill it was very refreshing. The best was taking a seat, taking off your shoes and enjoy the view although the view at this time sorta sucks. My feet was crying in joy, I felt it!

We bought tickets for the Sky Terrace at the Peak at 10 HKD per person. Since it was still bright, we decided to enter the Sky Terrace at night for some night view particularly for the daily Symphony of Lights. We had probably the cheapest dinner there at Burger King, because the food at the  restaurants and cafes are ridiculously priced! There’s one restaurant  which is the Kyo Hachi Restaurant where their Ikura Sushi costs 92 HKD per plate, that’s like RM 46 for two pieces of Ikura Sushi. There goes my wish of dining with a view, the price is seriously ludicrous so we scraped the idea. So not worth it.

Too bad I didn’t record a video, but when we entered the Sky Terrace the crowd was massive as the Symphony of Lights has just begun. Across the sea, you could see flashes of lights at the Avenue of Stars and the wind was strong and chilly. Again, I had to put on my jacket as I was shivering from the cold wind.

By the time this photo was taken, it was about 9.30 pm at night so we have been out for more than 12 hours.

Hugo sneezed once and he sheepishly donned on the surgical mask just to “blend in with the crowd”. We waited about 30 minutes for the tram as many people were queing to go down The Peak. We paid 33 HKD using our Octopus cards and from the lower teminus at Garden Road, we took the bus all the way to the Star Ferry Pier at Wan Chai. Technically we were supposed to board off at the next stop in Central, but when we reached the Central stop there were no signs around so we didn’t jump off but after 5 seconds the bus started moving, we were like “oh crap we missed the stop” and we went all the way to Wan Chai. Hence we took the ferry costing 7 HKD.

The ferry was less crowded, and it was a nice way to end the day with a quiet relaxing ferry ride back home. It even drizzled during the ride, but that was the only downpour I encountered in Hong Kong. I went home, had a well deserved warm shower and a hot cuppa, all rest and relaxed to doze off. Tired man I tell you.

The plan for next day is even more extensive than Day 3, as we would be heading to Macau! Plus it’s probably the day we spent the most. Exceeding four figures.

♥ Wendy