·
Peak Tram
·
Madame
Tussauds
·
Symphony
of The Lights
After a
brief mentoring session with Chris about our trip itinerary, today we decided
to start our real trip from the very top. Yes, Victoria Peak. But before that,
he suggested us to try a nearby restaurant which served Dim Sum menu every
morning. We went into East Lake Restaurant, near Wellcome Supermaket. The
restaurant looked so nice and clearly not a sidestreet-kind of restaurant. The
waiter brought us to a table and (as usual) started to speak many phrases in
Canton or Chinese I never did understand. We spoke English but he didn’t get
it. Then, came
another well-suited waitress, which fortunately can speak English quite well.
She brought an English menu for us. Thank God we didn’t have to eat unknown random
raw menu picked purely by faith that morning. The Dim Sum was delicious, the
porridge was extraordinary. They’re all so great, but still, the price speaks
for itself. I didn’t expect this breakfast to be cheap at all. Just seeing from
the interior, the guests, waiters and waitresses, I already knew it from the
start. Another fun fact: After taking our order, the waitress put a huge bowl
on our table. I was so
confused, I didn’t even remember ordering an extra jumbo salad from the menu.
She also gave us not one, but two teapots. One filled with black hot tea, and
one with just ... hot water? I thought it was for the tea refill, so I calmly
pour the hot water into the next teapot in case it was empty. In fact, it’s not
its real purpose. I just realized it the next morning when we came for the
second time. While I was doing my routine time-killing activity, which is
paying attention to other random people, I saw a waiter did the same thing to
every table. A guest (who clearly knew what that’s all about) slowly put his
ceramic tea cup, spoon, ketchup bowl, and small plate inside the big bowl and
filled it with the hot water from the second teapot. He literally soaked them
with hot water and then took them out for dry. I have no idea why they do that
here, maybe to keep everything on its high level of hygiene. Wait, did I just
drink the water that is supposed to be for cleaning the day before?
Luckily,
our building location was near an MTR Station, which is Causeway bay station.
We rode the train and reached Admiralty station. The exit led us to another
huge mall in Causeway bay, called Pacific Place. Thanks to Chris’ early
mentoring session, we didn’t have to waste much time on figuring out what is
the fastest way to get to certain places. Our main destination that day was of
course The Peak Tram Station, and this is how we got there.
Admiralty
Station --> Pacific
Place Mall --> Hong Kong
Park --> Peak Tram
Station
 |
| Hong Kong City |
In each
places, you will find direction signs that lead you to your next check point.
After wandering around Pacific Place and WINDOW-shopping (not shopping) from
stores to stores, we headed from another exit door that led directly to Hong
Kong Park. It’s so nice to have a cool and nice park in the middle of the city
like this. We took some pictures there, admiring the architectures of the buildings
that surrounding it, and visited a bird sanctuary there. I forgot the name, but
since it’s the only bird sanctuary there, you can easily find it, and most
importantly, it’s free of charge!
 |
| Hong Kong Park |
 |
| Hong Kong Park Bird Sanctuary |
The
direction signs are everywhere so it’s impossible for you to get lost there.
The “Peak Tram Station” signs led us to a huge crowd in front of a building.
That was definitely the right place. We had to queue for 20 minutes just to get
to the main entrance, and another 25 minutes to get into the train and I already
called this pretty fast, because I’ve seen worst! But more on that later.
The locket
sold three types of tickets: Peak Tram (Single / Return) , Madame Tussauds, and
Sky Terrace. We had our Madame Tussaud tickets bought early from Chris and he
gave us HK$ 5 discount. We only bough those 4 tickets since we could use our
Octopus card to ride the Peak Tram. The Sky Terrace one looked so intriguing,
but it’s a little bit expensive so we didn’t afford it.
 |
| Peak Tram Station |
The
waiting was finally over. We hoped on the tram, and yes that was such a steep tram
we rode on. We were lucky enough to get a seat on the right side that served
the best view along our 10-minute-long tram trip. After arriving at the final
tram station, we were greeted by many colorful stuffs and handicrafts from the
gift shop. They were also a unique gift stall where you can make a wax version
of your own hand. You can also find some cafetaria or shoe and apparel stores
such as Crocs and Giordano, so it’s basically a mall. The Madame Tussauds
studio was inside it. It’s time for me to do my job as the
photographer/documentary of this family trip.
It’s so
good to have a quick reunion with the Beatles family, admiring Yao Ming’s
impossible height, picking on Robert Pattinson’s nose, or messing with Obama’s
office desk. Even “Michael Jackson” was back from the death!
 |
| Madame Tussaud |
It’s not
so crowded that day, so my narcissism side was quite satisfied. Actually, from
the very beginning, I’ve been craving to take a good picture with my uncle,
Jackie Chan. Man, I adore him so much since I was a little kid! Unfortunately
Uncle Jackie was not open for free public photo shoot. He’s surrounded by
officers whose job was to take pictures of him and visitors who were willing to
pay for the “Jackie Chan photo session”. So it’s not just displayed for free.
Gaah! Anyways, it was a surreal experience. Even my mom and dad felt like
visiting their old time “friends”. Most of them are also legends back from the
past.
I wish I
could stay longer at Madame Tussauds, but we still had a tram to catch. When we
headed to the Peak Tram Station, the waiting line was longer than the one at
the main entrance. So we waited for 45-50 minutes and headed back home. The
unique thing was that the tram went backwards
this time. It’s awkward and I felt like falling through a steep hill. Although
we didn’t get the chance to see the magnificent view of Hong Kong city from the
Sky Terrace, we still could see it from a different point of view, which is
from the Tsim Tsa Tsui Promenade – Kowloon Island. That means we had to sail
across the sea from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon Island by ferry boat. We queued
(again) beside the terminal sign that has “BUS 15C – Central Ferry Pier”
written on it. We took our first two-story-bus ride with open roof, again using
our Octopus Card. The view up there was crazy. I couldn’t ask for a better
after-rain city view at the evening.
 |
| Hong Kong Sightseeing |
We arrived
at Central Ferry Pier and went into terminal 7 (destination to Star Ferry Pier
– Kowloon Island) At first I thought that I have to queue and wait all over again
in an extremely long line before all of us could get into the ferry, but no we
didn’t. There was no line at all, and all we have to do was just tapped our
Octopus card, waited for several minutes, and there we go, we were in the ferry
boat with a bunch of empty seats. We were so lucky to sail right when the
sunset came. The sunset sea view is what every photographer would die for. This
is my first sunset sea – ferry experience and I was so crazy about it.
To go
across islands in Hong Kong, there are actually many ways. Travelling by taxi
or MTR may take a shorter time but will cost you more since you have to pay the
toll bill. If you are not in a big hurry, travelling by ferry boat is cheaper
and much more recommended. Plus, you get to see the beautiful scenery from the
middle of the sea between Hong Kong and Kowloon Island.
It’s
almost 7 PM when we first landed our feet at Kowloon Island. Just by walking a
couple blocks and keep following the crowds, we could already smell the sea.
People began to gather around, looking for the best spot facing the most
well-known Hong Kong Skyline. Every night at 8PM, there is a laser light –
building show called “Symphony of the Lights”. The buildings were covered with
synchronized “dancing” lights in all varieties of color. The visitors can get a
great Hong Kong city skyline view from along the road. That’s why this long
road is usually called “Tsim Tsa Tsui Promenade”. But actually the best point
where you can really see the best scenery is at the Avenue of Stars - just a
couple minute walk from TST Promenade. There you can find many interesting
photo spot such as The Walk of Fame, Bruce Lee cooper statue, and handprints of
many famous people. We didn’t go there that day because it’s too full of people
already, so we decided to watch the scenery and wait for the show at the best
spot we could possibly find. The show started at 8 PM when the sky had gotten
really dark. This 15-minute-show narrated in Cantonese (or Chinese, I couldn’t remember) but sometimes it’s in English.
The music played and the buildings
began to reveal their true color. All the buildings behind us were also
involved in this laser light show, so you can actually watch this show from
Hong Kong Island (Star Ferry pier, Wan Chai Ferry Pier or Expo Promenade) to
get a completely different city night view.
 |
| Hong Kong City Skyline |
After the
show, we decided to find something to eat in order to live, but again, this
island is too big and we got lost easily. I saw many stores and art historical
museum near TST promenade but it’s late already and we didn’t have much time
even energy left to explore the new city. So we took the MTR from Tsim Tsa Tsui
station back to our building at Causeway bay, since there was no time to go
back to the ferry pier and go by sea. Our feet and legs ached
so bad, our stamina were reduced by 80 percent
that day, but with the new experience plus those beautiful views we got, those all worth the pain. Another adventure tomorrow, so keep
strong, legs!
(to be
continued)
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