Day 3: Ocean City

If you're into rides, Ocean Park should be marked on your map. Bring sun lotion if you're expecting a sunny day because queuing for rides can take up to 1 hour! It's that crowded!



The main things to watch here is the dolphin show and the ...


irresistibly cute pandas! They are cuter than the soft toys!



The strange thing about Ocean City is, there's not a lot of fish.

All the days in Hong Kong:
Day 1: Looking at Kowloon
Day 2: Visiting the Giant Buddha
Day 3: Ocean City
Day 4: Macau

Day 2: Visiting the Giant Buddha

For first time visitors, I found the Discover Hong Kong Itinerary Planner extremely useful. It lists all the major attractions, groups them into days and comes with travel directions.



On day 2, we visited Lantau Island where the Giant Buddha sits. There seems to be a walking trek up but unless you're paid to walk, don't. The cable car ride is more relaxing.


At the top is Ngong Village. This place looks exactly like an amusement park except it doesn't come with rides. I guess it can't help itself now that tourist swarm the area. The shops sell very interesting items and food.



That's it, that's the Giant Buddha. 268 steps make for a tiring climb. From the top, you can see the Po Lin Monastery.



Po Lin Monastery has less shops and hence feels less like an amusement park.


I admire their dedication but walking is probably not the best way.



There's a Food Republic in the shopping centre near the cable car station. Did I already mention that food is more expensive here than in Singapore?

Let me break down what I had: apple orange juice for HK23, wanton noodles for HK24, mango snack for HK12. The mango snack shown in the photo is to die for. Oh, the Hainanese chicken rice is HK40.


Next stop Time Square at Tong Lu Wang Station. As you can see, there's a bit of a crowd here. There are plenty of shops and road side stalls around.


At Time Square itself is this ridiculously huge shopping centre called Lane Crawford. It has 13 floors!

The highlight for the day is this particular restaurant inside Lane Crawford. It's on the 10th floor by the corner. I don't have the name because I can't imagine I forgot to take down the name.

I guess Xiao Long Bao dumplings are always good.


This pig knuckles dish is extremely deadly. 70% fat, 30% meat. The fat has the feel of a hard boiled egg. It gets tiring very soon because of the fat.


The meat filling, to be put inside the bun, is very nice.


This torn apart chicken taste good with its chilli sauce, which is a bit hot to my personal liking.


There's a big bowl of vegetable soup by the side, good for 2 servings for everyone.

And all these for $HK474. It's really value for money!!

All the days in Hong Kong:
Day 1: Looking at Kowloon
Day 2: Visiting the Giant Buddha
Day 3: Ocean City
Day 4: Macau

Day 1: Looking at Kowloon

Hong Kong's pretty similar to Singapore with the exception that it has more hills and sea around. The difficult terrain was what contributed to how Hong Kong was built. Residential areas consist of high rise buildings, and in the city areas, there are shops occupying the first and second floors. There's no clear separation between residential and commercial area.


Getting from the airport to the city is easy and fast via the Airport Express. The fare is at HK100 and can be paid for with the Octopus card. The Octopus card should probably be the first thing to buy in Hong Kong. It covers nearly all forms of public transport.




If you want to visit The Peak, you would want to stop at Hong Kong station and walk down to the Central Pier. The bus to take would be 15C at the time of this writing, and it will take you to the Peak Tram station.



It's crowded but the queue moves fast. Once you're on the tram, it's a 45 degrees climb up the hill.



The view of the city is beautiful at night. But this is not the place to catch the city harbour light show, aka Symphony of Light.


There was an advertising signboard at the bottom telling us that houses on this hill cost upwards of $HK20 million. This one probably cost much more.


Dinner's great! They have road side stalls where you can order whatever you want, if you can name them. If you don't speak cantonese, it might be wiser to let the assistant recommend which are the better food. Always ask how much each dish cost. Food in Hong Kong is relatively more expensive than in Singapore. There's a flask of tea and bowl on the table for washing utensils.

All the days in Hong Kong:
Day 1: Looking at Kowloon
Day 2: Visiting the Giant Buddha
Day 3: Ocean City
Day 4: Macau

AntiSTOMP

This is great. Attacking where STOMP is the weakest, the quality of content.

Walle 2 Months Late in Singapore

You got to be kidding me! Again!

Ratatouille was just like that also.

Meanwhile, you can check out the book review I've on The Art of Walle, pictures included.

(Mario) Garcia Media

Didn't realise that Mario Garcia actually has a blog!

It's an essential read for basically everyone in the newspaper or magazine industry, especially so for those doing design work.

garciamedia.com/

garciamedia.com/blog/

New Intuos 3 Driver is Out for Mac OS Leopard

Wacom has finally updated the Intuos 3 driver for Mac OS Leopard.

And it has been a long time since I touch my tablet also.