day two (15 sept)

Guys, firstly right, the rate of pictures can decline quite abit after the second day ok? cos we all start work and it's hard to take pictures. I realise I didn't even take pictures of what I wore too - to show proof to my brother (ok and everyone else, ok) that I am actually wearing very decently :)

So well, back to what was planned.

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After konking out in bed and waking up in the morning realising that I really was not home, we proceeded to go ahead with the day that we had already planned out the day before, which turned out pretty packed.

The groundsman, Chen Bo (Uncle Chen), is a reeeeeally nice, kind, skinny but strong man had offered to show us around on his off-day. So we woke up early about 7ish, even while sleeping only about 2am the night before, so that we won't that nice old man waiting.

Eh, considering the place, he really does not look as fit as his body. See dad, you should really continue with your daily walking ok? It keeps you fit :) Oh and then with Peter's enlightenment, we realise we have not seen ANY fat local yet - probably due to all the walking and hill climbing.

Some buildings round the bend of our area, said to be a rich man's area - so it's pretty safe

This is along the main street outside our hostel, towards Central.

He walked us down from our Breezy Path road, along Caine Road to a section of the Sheung Wan district known as Lan Kwai Fong (sounds vulgar, but nooo ok) and Soho. It's basically a place that's really happening at night (we found out on Friday) - with a whole line of pub crawl, art galleries, cafes, restaurants and indie boutiques. Weeeeell, kinda too bad when we actually have a 'curfew' at 11pm cos we feel bad too if Chen Bo has to climb 5 floors to open the doors for us, when it's too late.

With my limited basic Mandarin, I really had to pick out what Chen Bo (who is already one of the rare few who can speak Mandarin) was trying to explain. Along his tour, he would randomly point out places which were cheap and good or reasonable but not too cheap either, etc.

And because our district is pretty much on a hilly slope, they even created a long, segmented escalator to bring people down from up to the street level.

The Mid-Levels' Escalator(s)

Ingeniously, the escalator changes direction as well - it goes downwards in the morning but from afternoon onwards it goes upwards - to cater to the majority traffic. This is damn helpful when you're wearing heels, climbing hills is not fun.

Chen Bo dropped us off at the nearest MTR (same as our MRT) station by foot. And we decided to take a train ride towards our workplace, Quarry Bay, which was abouuuut 4-5 stations away.

On the train

At Quarry Bay station

The MTR feels like it's really many floors down, cos there's really alot of walking involved after you take the MTR - just to get to the street level

This would cost us about HK$5.40 each trip. Sigh, thus the frequent topping up of the Octopus Card (like the ez-link, though its name comes from the idea that the card can be used for 8 modes of transport).

South China Morning Post is just one office, in one section of a cluster of builings, if you can call that.

I wanted to doublecheck if my memory, of the office address, hadn't failed me

It's in the cluster called Taikoo Place, but in Somerset House (one section), on a few floors.

just one of the 'sections', behind the signage

Mom it's like your UE Square, but maybe bigger to cater to more companies? Also cos it was a public holiday, the place was closed - like most shops along the streets too.

The boys' office is just a 3-4 minute walk from my place to reach theirs, a shorter building to house the Business Traveller magazine employees.

Taken on the reflection of their office building

Not sure how it's like there as well, but it's closer to the street shops and stalls.

Pet retriever we got distracted by outside their office

And because by that time, 11ish, we have not eaten breakfast, the Indian was grumbling and so we found a small corner shop to eat our breakfast.

I ate some porraige thing that I let the lady choose for me; the boys ate some noodles-&-western set thing

Later on, with Jeanie and Gor's help, we went to meet up with their friend, Kok Wee - who has been working at Hong Kong for 2 years already.

This is Kok Wee. Ruiming managed to sneak a snap of the 'camera-shy' friend of the sibling and Da Sao

Meeting at the station, we took a train to Causeway Bay just to see the touristy bits but not the shopping yet :)

Causeway Bay area

More of these brightly signages things. It makes you feel that the signages try their best to stick out their head more each time to get attention and not be blocked out by those in front.

Oh we saw some emcee interviewing some HK star (Edison isit?) for some charity humanity drive thing. He looks a little orange from maybe artificial tanning to be hot though, though he has a pretty cute face haha

post-note: it's apparently Louis Koo, thanks to media researcher, Lim Wwei. :)

For meixing.

I have to say that gor gor Kok Wee was really nice! Super sociable and I think I stressed him out by asking him quite abit of Hong Kong related questions which he could not answer. And then I realise I'm the one with the guide book! But really, I think cos he pitied us as poor students, he paid our whole 'excursion out' - food and even entry fees, refusing to take our cash! Though we realise cos cigarettes are much cheaper, Gor and Da Sao - he really smokes quite a bit ah, like through out the 3-4 hours, he probably smoked a pack! But really, he was damn nice to us THANK YOU! :)

So, we walked about Causeway Bay - no shopping but just to get a feel of the crowds - so it's Times Square and even eating dessert (damn good in super duper hot days like lately) that consisted of loads of mango.

Outside some major traffic light junction area, that is connected to all buildings around that junction apparently.

This looks silly, but it's street food we (or Kok Wee paid rather) bought - meatballs and mini siewmais

from stores like these:

They have other things on a stiiiick: large intestines, pig ears, etc.

The usual mango icecream with mango bits and pomelo and tofu jelly thing below

I liked this one; mango icecream with mango and strawberry with some sweet glutinous flour balls - chewy!

Mango ice cream with mango bits and some coconut noodle, which is actually like kway teow but from the meat of a coconut

Then with some time left before we met the boys' boss, Marge, Kok Wee let us take a tram towards The Peak.

crowd on the tram

other trams

how the roads look like from here

rare picture of the photographer and his 'beard'

The tram, for any distance just costs HK$2 but it's space-limited and well, it can be slow. But seriously, that's like 50cents! Plus the experience on it is pretty interesting :)

Because it was a public holiday, domestic workers get day-offs and like our lucky plaza areas, here, the maids flock open spaces. almost any, from underground pathway connectors to empty office blocks like these:

if not it's usually, empty.

When we reached the place, we had to take another special tram that brought us up to The Peak.

On the Peak tram that goes up the hill at 45 degrees angle - damn steep. And ruiming kept saying how it'll be scary if the cable snapped at that moment. Felt like killing him!

It's one of the highest points of HK island where you get a great view (different in the day and night) of the island and beyond. Thanks Kok Wee for sponsoring the tickets :) With the pollution issue in HK, it's common to always have that smog/haze hoovering above HK and thus, the only view we kinda got was:

Few of the many skyscrapers on HK island

There are even blocks and houses built along the hill, thus, the rich people. The tram would go past apartments that are big and modern - showcasing the shiny silver-spooned elites of HK to tourists. But you see, we noticed this graffiti that was really true (though it might be the work of sour grapes):

Money doesn't buy happiness

How apt is that.

After that, really really generous smoking Kok Wee dropped us off in a taxi (he took it home after) at our hostel, since the boys were visibly rather tired, before we made our way out again in less than an hour, to get to the Central Library in Causeway Bay to meet their boss.

Meeting her around her area really gave us a teeny eyeopener to the Mid-Autumn festival in HK. Apparently in her district, a village area has been doing this Tai Hang Fire Dragon festival for the 129th year for 3 days every year. It's when a stuffed dragon, like dragon dance, is spiked with loads of incense sticks and there's a line up of lanterns as well. This is how the dragon looks before:

the head

the super duper long body

Marge insisted we open our mouths like the dragon

Well, the dragon dance apparently goes round and round the blocks from night til almost 11am every year. The place is very organised; policemen in safety vests to settle traffic, metal barracades erected to keep the pedestrians on the sidewalks, etc. It's pretty impressive. *sorry, the pictures are blur or really far away cos the barracades are quite a distance :/

policemen getting briefed and prepped

some lanterns with characters, probably held by members of the clan

little girls, dressed in traditional chinese costumes with lighted lanterns

close-up of some of the girls

the crowd was packed! and it was pedestrians filled with people. we had to squeeze our way out, before people snatched up our prime spot.

and the fire dragon dances

even the ball thing is poked with loads of incense.

But after waiting 2 hours - standing - and after my pleas of staying 'awhile longer, they're coming out soon' to get a glimpse of what it really is like, we decided to leave since the boys were starting their first day at work the next day.

we decided to invest in the cheapest iron at Times Square. and since we didnt have an ironing board then, the boys used the extra bunk bed next to mine as the ironing board.

Well, that was our second day. Pretty packed eh :)

Ah-HA, see what happens when you search for my name at scmp.com:

as of 19 Sept.

Haha ok ok ok not really my writing though; just my rephrasing and stuff. The many wire stories I helped to edit and trim are also up but not credited cos they have to be credited to the right news agencies like Reuters and Associated Press.