Hong Kong (day 4)

Day 4 (Wednesday, 30th December 2010)

Related posts: Hong Kong Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6

Note: click on images to enlarge and click on links for further info.

Today we planned to meet up with Aliaa’s old university friend from ANU for brunch. In the morning, we went to Sheung Wan district to visit Man Mo temple and a nearby market.

On the way to Sheung Wan district, I took a few snapshots of Hong Kong’s world class MTR to share with you guys.

I was immensely impressed with the MTR system. The trains were spacious, clean, fully air-conditioned, fast and on time. The map provided inside the train were really helpful. It has a blinking dot to indicate which station you’re currently at, and an arrow to show to point the direction you’re moving. It also has a door indicator to indicate which door you’ll be exiting. Pure brilliance.

Apart from the train itself, the MTR stations were really well designed. All of them are passenger and tourist friendly. At each station, there’s a map of the surrounding area with all of it’s major attraction. There is even a picture of the attraction so that you know what to expect and how it looks like when you get there.

Man Mo temple, built in 1847CE, is a temple to worship the civil/literature god Man Tai and the martial god Mo Tai. We explored the interior of the temple and after that we went to a nearby market selling interesting antiques.

Aliaa’s local friend took us for brunch at Lin Heung Tea House (website), which apparently is a very famous tea house. It is highly recommended by Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor and even Time Magazine.

After brunch, Tim (Aliaa’s friend from her days at Australian National University) took us sightseeing around Sheung Wan. We stopped for coffee at Holly Brown (website), a famous coffee & gelato chain in Hong Kong.

After that we took the ferry to go to Tsim Sha Tsui (Hong Kong mainland). From there, Tim took us to Mong Kok Computer Centre (similar to Malaysia’s Low Yat Plaza).  There were a lot of computer devices, just like Low Yat, and some were considerably cheap. Aliaa decided to buy a new laptop there! She bought the Lenovo Ideapad.

The Mong Kok Computer Centre is quite big. It’s around 4-5 floors and each floor looks like the photo above. It feels kinda cramped but that’s partly because there’s so many things sold there. To be honest, after observing the Computer Centre for a while, I would prefer shopping for computer stuff at Low Yat Plaza. It’s much more breathable, not as hectic, around the same number of choices available, and minor differences in prices.

Later that night, Tim took us for a car ride to the south of Hong Kong island. The south of Hong Kong island is not accessible by MTR therefore your average tourist wouldn’t go there. He took us sightseeing at Stanley Bay. We visited the Murray House. Along the way we saw lots of big houses as these areas are where the rich and famous live.

After Stanley Bay, we went for a typical Hong Kong dessert. It was my fist time having these types of dessert. I have to admit it tasted really good, and the chill Hong Kong winter made it tasted even better!

A big thank you to Tim for taking us around Hong Kong. It was a thoroughly enjoying day!

Check out the rest of my Hong Kong (day 4) photos on Flickr here.

Related posts: Hong Kong Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6