Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Hong Kong - Day 4

2 November 2010 - Tuesday
Wanted to try Hong Kong Dim Sum for breakfast. Decided to ask the front desk for a good nearby dim sum place. Connie recommended us a dim sum restaurant located just at the next road.

So we walked over to Carnarvon Street. Found the place. Took the lift up to the 3rd floor to Tao Heung Restaurant. (now closed. for alternative dim sum restaurant downstairs, click here)

This is the entrance of Tao Heung Restaurant.

This place is packed. Most of the were locals. First impression was good since we love places where locals dined in.

Ordered some Chinese Tea.

Since the menu was in Chinese, we asked for the English version. The waitress there was surprised that we could speak in Cantonese but yet could not read Chinese. My sis just told her that we learned Cantonese by watching TVB drama series! Haha

The dim sum then came one by one. Let me show you the photos of the dim sum first.

Time to feast your eyes.

This crispy barbecued pork puff pastry is good.

Prawn Spring Rolls was good too. There were whole prawns inside them, unlike Malaysia's version of stingy prawn pieces.

I love the siew mai-s. These Premium Siew Mai-s consisted of two big prawns for each Siew Mai. Talk albout premium!


This is Lor Mai Kai, and it was wrapped with lotus leaf. Very fragrant and flavourful.

The only dish we did not like was the Chee Cheong Fun. Did not like the sauce. And the skin were kinda too thick to our liking. Thumbs down for this dish.

Har Gau-s were good too filled with succulent whole prawns too.

The Char Siew Pau-s were super the delicious. The char siew paste literally melts in your mouth.

It was all delicious man! I now know why people say Hong Kong dim sum is nice. It is really nice.
Actually, it was an unexpected high quality of dim sum with bargained price for Hong Kong standard.

We ate so much and the bill came out to be only HK$115.

I was still having fever that morning, and yet I was still gobbling up the dim sum. It was that good!

What we like about this place is that it is one of the few restaurants that open early at 7.30am. We decided to come back here again before we leave Hong Kong.

Tao Heung Restaurant 3F, Carnarvon Plaza, 20-20C Carnavon Road Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong 2367 1328
(now closed. for alternative dim sum restaurant downstairs, click here)

Since my fever was back, we decided to walk back to our Guest House to nap for an hour before we head out for the day as that day's itinery was only to the Big Buddha and shopping. This is the good thing that we plan our own itinery. It is more flexible and we can make changes depending on situations.

After the 1 hour power nap, I felt energized and was full of excitement to see the Big Buddha. On the MTR subbasement, hubby bought another desert from Coco Frans - their signature Fondant Au Chocolate Puff (HK$17).

IMaybe it was our high expectation since it was their signature dish. We were a little disappointed with it. It was merely cream puff pastry with chocolate muffins with liquid chocolate inside, something like the molten chocolate.
It tasted good. Just that we expected something more special. Haha.
Yes, we are hard to please.

I also went next door 7-11 to buy some Swiss Roll just in case we got hungry later.

We are going to see the Giant Buddha via the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car.
To get there, from Tsim Sha Tsui Station, we alighted at Lai King Station. Then change from Tsuen Wan Line to Tung Chung Line. Go all the way to the last station and and alight at Tung Chung Station, Exit B. From there, find the Ngong Ping 360 Terminal.

It was a long ride. It took us almost 45 minutes to reach the Tung Chung Station. Out from Exit B and you could see signs which will lead you to the Ngong Ping 360 Terminal.


I realized that at Citygates, the apartments there are much nicer looking. They look more like the apartments in KL or Singapore. Not those dready-looking apartments in Tsim Sha Tsui. I wonder if these are most expensive apartments. Hmmm....

Anyway, we had to queue up for about 15 minutes to purchase the cable car tickets.
We bought the Round Trip on Crystal Cabin. We had a 10% discount voucher so we ended up paying only HK$141.30 per person.

If you prefer, you can just purchase the Normal Cabin for one way and the Crystal Cabin for the other. It would save you HK$ 15.

We skipped the Ngong Ping Village Tour since mum just went and told us there was nothing much there.
Was not interested to watch the Walking With Buddha and Monkey's Tale Theatre so we skipped that too and did not purchase tickets for that. I reckon these are much more interesting for ang mohs who have not heard of the Monkey God legend before.


The Crystal Cabin is a cable car with transparent, or should I say crystal clear glass bottom.
It is designed to feast your eyes with an astonishing bird's eye view. Feel the boundless sea and the rolling grassland slopes right underneath your feet.

Before you step in the cable car, there was someone who mopped the floor to make it clean. So it was kinda cool to be able to see everything from underneath your feet.

But after a while, I tend to look out from the window instead. Haha.
But nevertheless, it was still fun just to be able to sit on a Crystal Cabin Cable Car.

Upon reaching there, you first reach the official gift shop to purchase souvenirs. Alternatively, you could come back later to buy them before you take the cable car back.
And it was also the place for you to view the photos those professionals took of us three when we were first seated in the cable car.
A photo of us with two keychains were selling for HK$ 150. We did not buy of course. Waste of money! :P

There was a viewing pavilion in front of the gift shop. From there, you could see the Giant Buddha sitting majestically, but side views only.

There was even a free binoculars for your viewing pleasure.

Then you would have to walk by shops lining the street to get to the Big Buddha.

There was a Bodhi Wishing Tree there as well.

Hubby & I posted as the Emperor and Empress :)

We got hungry and we wolfed down the Swiss Roll in just a few minutes.

The shops were interesting, although mainly were food shops or those selling snacks and ice-creams. One shop caught our attention. There was a whole shop dedicated to selling chopsticks. There were like hundreds of chopsticks on display and for sale!

Walk further and you see this Ngong Ping Piaza greeting you.
It was a very bright and sunny afternoon. Me & my sis took out our umbrellas while walking there. (we were not the only one using umbrellas to block the sun!)

Then, we reached the foot of the Giant Buddha climb. You need to climb a flight of 268 steps to reach the bronze statue of the Giant Buddha.

Because of the sun's location, the view of the Buddha was kinda soaked up by the Sun's ray.

An individual photo with the Buddha is a must. My soon-to-be Facebook Profile. Haha

Walking up the steps, we enjoyed a panoramic view of Lantau and the South China Sea.

This is me with a closer photo of the Big Buddha. Next is Peter doing the Buddha pose.


The huge statue body is a breathtaking sight, and the kind smile on His face instills a sense of peacefulness. The Giant Buddha sits solemnly atop the 482m Muk Yue Shan.

This statues were on the top of the flight of stairs nearby the entrance of the exhibition hall.

Inside the pedestal of the Tian Tan Buddha there is a three-storey exhibition hall presenting a number of invaluable Buddhist items.

Inside we saw the deceased 'memorial plate' (I don't know what they are called in English) like what we see in the temples in Penang. The only difference - these plate are so small in size.
Really, you really need to pay for space in Hong Kong!
Even saw Anita Yuen's memorial plates there!

Could not resist buying ice-cream atop there. The weather was hot!
This is Mango flavoured Drumstick Ice-cream. I can't find mango flavour back in Penang!

After awhile, we walked down the flight of stairs again.

Then we walked to the nearby Po Lin Monastery.

You see these big joss sticks? Visitors can donate money to burn these giant joss sticks at the entrance of Po Lin Monastery.

Nothing much at Po Lin Monastery.

Took some photos and then we left.

When we took the Cable Car down, the sun was almost setting. We were looking at the sun set from our Crystal Cabin Cable Car. It was a pretty sight.



Next on our itinery - Shopping at Citygate Outlets which is just in front of the MTR Exit B.

Citygate Outlets is the only outlet shopping mall in Hong Kong. You can find more than 80 international brands offering yearly discount of at least 30% to 70% on designer fashion, sports, beauty, accessories, children’s wear, and home items, etc.

But first, we went to hunt for dinner. We were starving by that time.
Ordered some not-so-tasty Chicken Rice Cet (HK$ 48) and Wanton Noodle Set (HK$ 36). All three of us were having some sore throat so we tried to order some mild food. Turned out that our decision was not good.

Wanton Mee was bland. Not nice.
Chicken Rice Set was better. But only when compared to the Wanton Mee. Eeeks!

Hubby could not resist trying some Mango Wrap Desert when he bought some Longan Lemon Drink. Both desert and drink was quite nice.

After dinner was shopping time!

We then glanced round and saw Nike, Adidas, MNG, Esprit, Kookai, Body Shop, Laura Ashley and many more.

Peter went to search for bookstores and Min & I went shopping from shop to shop. (We were so busy until we forgotten to take photos of inside the mall)

At about 9.30pm, we decided to call it a day since we need another hour to reach our Guest House.

After taking the MTR back to Tsim Sha Tsui, we stopped at this 'Leung Cha' shop at Cameron Road. Since we were all kinda heaty, decided to have some cooling drink.



Ordered one hot 'Twenty-Four Herbal Tea' (HK$8) and one cold 'Ya-Li Pear Tea' (HK$8).

Wah...the Twenty-Four Herbal Tea was so bitter. Luckily there was a pot of sugar on our table. We asked for a spoon and I think I scooped 5 tbsp of sugar inside and it was still SO bitter.

The Ya-Li Pear Tea tasted much better.

Our choice to drink some cooling tea turned out to be a big mistake. Mum later told us that by drinking the drinks, we let out all the bad things in our body. Turned out she was right as the following day or two, I kinda lost my voice. Haha.

After that was good night for Min as she konked out.
But at midnight I could hear my tummy growling. I was hungry. Hubby & I decided to go down and see what was at the streets.

Saw this stall selling Curry Fish Balls at the corner of Carnavon Street and we tried some (HK$7 each).


Also tried the Pork Chop Bun at hot.com for HK$10. Delicious!


With a full stomach, we went back and went to sleep contentedly! Very sinful indeed but who cares! :P


Hong Kong - Day 1
Hong Kong - Day 2
Hong Kong - Day 3
Hong Kong - Day 4
Hong Kong - Day 5
Hong Kong - Day 6
Hong Kong - Day 7 (Part 1)
Hong Kong - Day 7 (Part 2)

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