holiday: and a little odd a day (7 Oct)

Internet is still temperamental sooooo that's why it's backdated, again.

Today was a day more for exploring.

All of us slept in :) but left about 1.30pm to walk towards Central. With their boss' suggestion, we found this superbly (considerably) cheap bowl of wanton noodles near our place. We already ate this for dinner the next before, but they still wanted to go back.

It's quite a small place but rather well-known, since there was a queue (like every other HK eatery during peak periods) and many newspaper cuttings displayed on the window. I found a few other pretty interesting places to eat nearby too! So we're gonna try them the next time.

I had King Prawn Wanton noodles, Peter had his usual Three Toppings (Wanton and GIANT handmade fish balls - looks like HUGE pork balls) and Ruiming had what we ate last night: Beef noodles.

The bowl isnt huge, but it's pretty reasonable for only HK$16. The wantons? They are HUGE too. It's ONE big fat juicy prawn in each wanton - must be super easy to make, no need to mix with meat and all that. Three wantons in one bowl.

Peter left off after that for the Central Library in Causeway Bay to do some reading up and all that while I accompanied Ruiming to explore Wan Chai.

Wan Chai is a few stops away from Central, but with a rather cool weather, we decided to walk. Place looked very much like most streets: People, markets, stores, etc. But apparently, it's known for their red light district at night - which we werent there long enough to experience!

some side alley stalls that turn the place awfully lively at night

Would you believe they still have these narrow wooden stairs that go up to people's homes?
It's probably exactly how my parents' houses would've looked like!

We walked around, trying to keep with the still-in-development walking heritage trail of the place but we wandered off towards this forestry place. It was just overgrown with grass, trees and roots and brown leaves. Tons of mosquitoes (I was actually smart enough to choose jeans over skirt) and climbing steep bits.

But with curiosity fueling our minds, we continued, walking up steps and over fallen tree trunks. The place had tall granite walls, all being strangled by tree roots, a blanket of dried brown leaves covering everywhere and small colonial balcony things that have been covered with moss and dirt.

It's amazing how we think we can overrule nature, but at times like these, it's just evident how she can just overwrite us so easily.

Nearby there was this old-looking red-green building with rusty iron grilles - Jie! The one like your in-laws have! But we couldnt go in cos the place had been barred from public entry and the windows were just too dirty and dark to peer in.

Admittedly the place did seem to have its own character and mystery, one that we wanted to know. How was it like before? What did it look like? What was the place for? Why is it abandoned?

But you see, the striking moment is when we met another man coming up from another part of the place, who was there to take pictures too. He asked if we lived here and Ruiming answered we were tourists. The guy actually said that the place we are standing on is actually very well known for ghosts.

That kiiiiiiinda made us decide to leave the place soon enough.

Post note: Ruiming happened to tell his co-workers where we walked that day, and they all apparently gave very odd pained looks - hmm, seems like it's a known place then.

After that, we wandered off to nearby places of Wan Chai too, seeing a small temple and just exploring the streets. It was eveningish before we came by this Blue House too.

It's also along the Heritage Trail. A pre-war building that has a history of over 80 years. It used to be a small hospital and was rebuilt in 1924, turning it into a famous chiropractic clinic - apparently it was established by one of the disciples of famous kung fu master, Wong Fei Hong.

(I absolutely LOVE watching the old movies that had martial arts practitioner, Jet Li playing as Wong Fei Hong. MY FAVOURITE! Can sit and watch the whole like 2-3 hour show with my dad!)

Anyway, not being able to go in, we continued walking til we found the old Wan Chai market, which was already closed down. According to Ruiming, the market was used in the war as a place to store dead bodies. I didnt take pictures, but when I peered in from the staircase, it was dark and the individual, assumingly, wet market stalls were stripped off of anything. It just was a liiittle eerie.

Hmm we seem to be hitting alot of those places today. Thank goodness it's pretty early so by the time we left it the area, it just turned dark.

Say goodbye to tearing 50cents' parking coupons. These are TOUCH SCREEN.
And uses the Octopus Card (like the ez link) to fund it. Tells you how much time that particular lot has left too.

haha I was quite tickled by these. It's just like a giant ash tray, hanging at the side of the railing.
It even tells you to extinguish the butt on that gauze thing first.

Dinner was after when we met Peter at Central where we went to find food (like almost every night, can be a little tiring) and tried to get back earlier than usual - in case Chen Bo got annoyed again (even though we came back by 11pm the last few times. he would even call Ruiming at 10 to check where we are!)

Oh oh oh before we came back, we made a short trip to a stationary store. It had such a HUGE FAT CAT. We were all playing with the 13-year-old cat. SUPER FAT! And its name is Ting Tong haha. It gave me a slight scare too! While I was patting it and cooing at it, I called its name while looking directly at her face, she meowed right into my face! She has quite a bit of attitude too: turning the other side when Ruiming wanted to take a picture. But she was huuuuge! The biggest I've ever seen. Lying down, she'd probably need an A3-sized paper to cover most of its surface area base.

Sigh, made me miss Tehping :(

I dont understand why, but I've been eating alot of fruits suddenly. When I got back, I ate two oranges and an apple. See dad, quit worrying, I do try to eat two fruits a day at least - i usually have bananas, China pears, apples or prunes. Haha they are all dont-have-to-use-knife fruits. :)

Ok gotta go to bed soooooooooonish, got work again tmr - BAH. goodnight! :)