dim sum tales: a 'me' day (16 sept)

Today I went to wander off on my own. Since the two silly boys thought they started work on the 17th (which i requested to start on as well) but they actually start today. I decided to walk around Sheung Wan (known for Lan Kwai Fong and Soho which had mainly pubs and restaurants) or Central to settle my bank account.

I walked a different path from the Mid-levels escalator. Down many many steps that really cut across streets like Hollywood St (known for their art galleries) and Antique St (erm, yah antiques sold by peddlers) or even some cute-sounding ones like Cat St and Possession St, to get to the Central area.

Wow we actually stay near the legendary HK police station, having very Brit-structures, that houses some criminals too.

Seeing the grey-blue building, I keep remembering those old-school dusty cheezy HK-catch-the-criminal evening serials, with sideparting hair styles and high-waisted pants.

I ended up wandering into (a) wet market(s) too.

Looking like Singapore's but just that they were all on the street, roadside stalls that sell fish, flowers or fruits all as cars drive by.

I also realised the markets seem to stay open even til 3-4pm and i don't understand how/why. My mother always makes noise that if we don't go by 10am, everything's sold out or closed. Hmm, unless they open later - which also is a little odd.

Anywa, later I finally found the bank I wanted while wandering towards Central:

which really has quite a biiiiig office floor for a normal bank area kinda thing. The place - with tellers, private banking corner, etc - has a floor space about maaaaybe bigger than the student plaza.

While waiting to settle my settle, I explored Central - which was mainly office buildings and more high-end shopping like Coach and LV.

I found these too:

(which i was good and didnt buy anything from yet)

Oh and i had my first street stall lunch, which was chicken rice haha but was normal priced at HK$29.

Looks a little dodgy right, but ok la not too bad, at lunch time many office people were there for lunch.

After settling my terrible tedious and rather puzzling finances, I decided to take another different path of walking: up various funny small streets that led me to even this small lane that sells costumes, wigs, etc.

Apparently according to a friend, Halloween is quite a big thing here.

The many many steep climbling slopey alleys that we have to walk through. It's almost 60 degrees gradient I think.

Today was also the day I went to settle the Internet for our floor and finally it worked well and I could retrieve emails and even do my first part of blogging to tell you people that I'm still alive after 1 day of MIA.

I met the boys for dinner at Sheung Wan MTR before we were searching around to find a cheap place for dinner. Ended up at some food hawker centre that knew we were 'tourists', thanks to having an Indian around. See, Peter's useful :) Thus, we got menus with English translation. In any case, our food turned up looking like that:

Rice with some pork cubes thing cooked with sweet corn sauce

Rice with some beef slices i think, with scrambled egg

Fried Rice

All almost looking like the puke that Peter threw up earlier that day at work. And worse still, after eating alllllllll the way to the end (I realise the food in HK isnt cheap but their servings are pretty big so you end up being quite full), I notice this:

That's part of the order paper.

I didn't continue eating anymore.

Then to save on cash and also to show the guys the shortcut from our hostel main road to the MTR station, we walked up 23080327498623785325 steps, which were much easier when I went down.

Being seriously ridiculous, they decided to have an impromptu race up (with two very fit boys) the darn steps (There are like 239842936598237450 steps remember? NOT easy) with the forfeit of having to sleep with Ivan.

Guess who had to be the scapegoat.

Wha seriously I ended up walking so much today, uphill especially that I came back with really sore feet. The next day I woke up with very suan thighs and calves.

Hmm, no wonder there are hardly any (or not as common as Singapore) fat, obese locals.

Oh yes here are just some interesting things seen that day:

One of the many many hair salons along the streets, but this Hair Corner is interesting enough - with a long row of windows showcasing their hairstylists working on the customers.

A firm.