Eslite Archives - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Hong Kong 2019 Day 16/17 – Hong Kong Space museum, shopping at CHKC and Home Sweet Home

Posted on April 14, 2019June 2, 2020 by ziyi

This day started with early as I woke up to resume my Sunday morning run after a 2 weeks hiatus as it was simply not possible to run in freezing cold Korea.

Left the hotel at around 645 and jogged towards the bay only to find that there weren’t any roads along the bay to run. So I ran inland and at certain point, headed towards one dock to snap a view of Kowloon and continued on. While jogging, I found that the place where they shot Transformers was on this side of Hong Kong and within running distance and thus headed there. It was not too difficult to reach but to get that particular view, I had to go around the building.

View of Tsim Sha Tsui from Hong Kong Island.

Since it was really early, I was the only one there taking photos and left shortly, realizing that there were notices put up to inform people not to take photos as these were residential areas and privacy should be respected. The return trip from the hotel to Yik Cheong building was about 10km.

The rest of the family slept in late till 10 and when we were finally ready to leave, it was already noon. The rainy weather was bad; it was a drizzle that would soak when exposed to it and yet the clouds wouldn’t just pour to empty the clouds, dragging the dreadful wet weather to indefinitely drizzle.

We went to Hysan place and found the queue to the toys still packed with people. Hong Kong people really loved their toys and there was no end in sight for the queue. We decided to visit eslite bookshop instead, on the 8th floor.

Large screen stretches the entire building

The bookshop had 3 levels, many books to sell and other decorative stuff as well. Mommy initially thought of getting a fountain pen for slightly more than a hundred HKD but decided not to as most likely she won’t be using it. After hanging around a bit, we left for the Hong Kong Space Museum.

We thought we would get lunch at Tsim Sha Tsui and thus took the subway there. Upon arrival at the museum, after getting stuck in between 2 traffic lights and slightly wet from the rain, we found a long queue at museum ticket counter waiting to get tickets. There weren’t any place for lunch and so we went in search for one, which was funny because HK was supposedly a food paradise but somehow we just couldn’t find one, as if they were hidden behind the cloak of rain.

In a desperate attempt to eat and get away from the dampness, we entered a One Peking shopping arcade and got up to a 10 floor to have our lunch there, at Imperial Treasure. They were at their last orders so we had to pay immediately after the food arrived but were good for us to stay till we were done eating. Ordered fried noodles, a bowl of pig lung soup, vegetables and char siew, a bowl of walnut paste and a mango pudding for a whopping 669hkd. The food was pretty tasty though and the 10th floor offered a nice view except that we didn’t get to enjoy it as we were seated away from the windows.

Dessert of Mango pudding and walnut paste

We walked back to the museum and I charged ahead to get tickets first, and I found that the queue from the morning had disappeared (but not the drizzle). After K and mommy arrived, we entered the museum that had 2 floors, one focus was on the cosmos and the other was on space exploration.

There were a lot of interactive displays used to describe concepts which made this place interesting and we spent some 2hrs there just for the exhibits itself. K didn’t bear to leave the place and had spent the last few minutes trying out the interactive exhibits (spinning around to talk about Newton’s 3rd law) before we finally exit for the shop (which was another struggle to get away and eventually bought a pen in the shape of a NASA rocket for 85 HKD) and out of the museum.

Interesting exhibit about how Auroras were formed

Room with visual simulation on floating in space station

We walked to our next destination which was our favorite shopping place for every Hong Kong visit, the China Hong Kong City Mall as mommy want to get something from the Esprit outlet. We took to the street to walk there since the drizzle paused. Bought a black sugar tea from the TP tea shop there and went to the 3rd floor where the outlet shop was. The MMhouse which sold Disney clothings was closed, unexpectedly early and so mommy went to the outlet herself while K and I sat outside to chill, mostly K spending some time on my handphone looking at the videos that I took.

When we were done, we returned to Causeway Bay in search for dinner. After getting thru the drizzle that resumed, we arrived at a King’s Dim Sum Store near our place and settled our dinner there, consisting of a bowl of chicken porridge, crusty char siew pao, XO carrot cake and a tapioca roll and a Milk tea for almost 300hkd. After a very filling meal as I normally will clear everything left on the plates, we return to the hotel room.

We packed for the return trip to Singapore the next day and played around with the direct phone to TV mirroring with my iPhone which I was pretty impressed with, although buffering was an issue. Then it was nights off after the usual kids banter, close to midnight.

Day 17 Home Sweet Home

Last day in Hong Kong after a long time away from home and we took it easy waking up late and just chilling and some packing. I went downstairs to get some milk tea from some 南龍冰室 cafe, one that had the old style Hong Kong feels and seemed like it had some really good milk tea. My parents had gotten quite a bit of pastries from the night before when they were out with the relatives, we had the egg tarts for breakfast. K spent the remaining time running between the two rooms, until it was time to check out and head for the airport slightly after noontime.

Mommy booked an Uber, the XL one but when it arrived we were unable to fit all our luggage in and my parents to had leave on that one while we booked another taxi. The hotel bell was especially helpful by moving the luggage in and out of the hotel when we had this crisis and also directing the jammed up traffic of the street just in front of the hotel due to some road works. He had advised us against using Uber since we may not be able to get everyone up whereas for the taxi companies, they would provide one that could allow space for more luggage when requested. The taxi came 30mins later and while it may be a little later than we planned, at least we were on our way.

The rest of the journey was no drama, checking in and some shopping at the airport (of course) where there was a Disney store. We were contemplating on getting another set of Ironman PJs for K as he loved wearing that set to sleep but didn’t and bought something else. Proceeded to board the plane soon after where I was met with a stuck screen but no biggie as I slept and K enjoyed his entertainment. Nothing interesting for the trip home except a visit to the latest Jewel mall where I had preview tickets to see the giant rain vortex, which was mesmerising.

Colourful lighting show of the rain vortex

This trip was one that we planned to go with the entire extended family after many failed attempts to do so previously. It was difficult to manage not only in logistics but more so in expectations since everyone of us were different in interests and tastes. However, it was made easier by allowing flexibility (a lot of it!) and isolating to just one or two locations. I was glad when my aunt from Hong Kong thanked me for arranging this, and that there weren’t any disagreements along the trip. This was not our first time in Seoul but it was still refreshing to visit since our last visit was very long time ago. I do not know if such trips were going to happen again but am certain it was going to be a while till the next time!

Taiwan 2016 Day 1 – Arrival in Taipei

Posted on November 19, 2016September 22, 2019 by ziyi

Our trip started with quite a bit of traffic as we made our way to Changi airport, for after midnight flight to Taipei. There was already a long queue and it took about 15 mins before our check in at the Scoot counter. I knew we couldn’t make it at the time of packing and complaining to the wife, as the weighing scale gave us away at an overload 4kg – let off lightly as the staff gave a “don’t do it again next time”.

Wife was interested to get an Apple Watch and thought that by purchasing from the duty free, it would be cheaper. But the variety was pathetic and the model was out of stock at iStudio. K was having fun though, hyped up by the knowledge that he was about to take a plane and was running around. The Pokémon craze was still on and these colourful monsters could be seen displayed everywhere in the airport. While killing time before boarding, we went to Wang’s to eat a small supper of egg and coffee, something to last our entire flight later.

The flight to Taipei was a big plane, a Dreamliner Boeing 787. I was impressed by the spaciousness but the seats were rather simple, expected of a budget flight. It must be the school holidays and the air traffic was bad, with our plane taking off 15mins late, after a queue of planes. The flight was nice and smooth, benefits of a large plane. Although K resisted sleep for a while, he eventually snoozed, lying across my lap. While the flight had 2 instances of air turbulences, there weren’t much of a biggy. My only qualms were the irritating light buttons on the armrest that was all too easy to be pressed upon, and so frequently it activated because my arms were accidentally hit them while I adjusted after a while due to discomfort from K sleeping on my arms. We managed some sleep before landing.

Not too long after, we woke up at 5am, ready for landing. The jumbo jet landed so gracefully without a bump, indeed a very stable plane. We gained some time as the plane was 13mins early but the plane had to taxi quite a distance till the gate. We didn’t rush to get off and we’re in fact one of the last few, taking our time to fill up the immigration cards. After alighting, we proceeded to transit lounge B, where there was a very well equipped baby care room (to change diapers for K), one that came with a tissue warmer!

After taking care of our personal needs, we got to the immigration and was shocked to see so many lines of people, at this early of the day! The lines were very slow moving but luckily for us, we were spotted midway by an officer and proceeded to the counter. Retrieved the luggage at waiting on the belt. Moved to the arrivals halls and prepared milk for K, at some sitting area and then washing the bottles in the baby care room.

To get from Taoyuan International airport to our Airbnb in Taipei, we were going to take a bus on the first floor. The bus 1819 tickets costed 250NT to Taipei train station. As we waited in line and the bus came, we couldn’t get onboard as it was full. The second bus came late and we managed to board at 745am. All this time I kept K busy having him explored the airport.

We boarded the bus and fed K some bread before falling asleep, a result of the lack of sleep on the flight. Only woke up as we approached our stop at east gate of the Taipei station. Then we walked through the underground to exit Z3 and climbed the steps before crossing the road to 24hrs McD, all the while K still sleeping in my arms and mommy had to lug the luggage around. Found ourselves some seats in McD and had our breakfast for 130nt while waiting for the landlord to our Airbnb. As it was still to early to check in, we were only allowed to leave the luggage at the apartment, handing over the luggage to the landlord first who picked them up from us at McD. With K still sleeping, we just sat at McD, played phone games and chatted until he woke up briefly at 10 before dozing back, and finally at 1020.

24hrs McD next to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi mall

We wanted to get a data plan and proceeded to the ground level stores near the McD where there was one selling phones and SIM cards. There were a couple of options available but none that fitted the 9days itinerary that we have, so we got 2×5 days card instead. Activation of the card took some time, requiring to send an SMS and what not, but the storekeeper sorted it out for us.

There wasn’t anything planned for the city visit as we would expect ourselves to be tired. First we went to the nearest mall Shin Kong Mitsukoshi‘s supermarket to see if we could stock up on some groceries for K’s meals but we didn’t get anything – not much variety and we didn’t have a fridge to keep our groceries yet.

Our next stop was the K underground shopping mall with Eslite stores. Window shopped the bookstore where they were some interesting moving toys on display, K was throughly amused with the hanging gorilla. Mommy bought a peppa pig book before leaving for the Taiwan Railway Administration to get our train tickets for a train trip out of Taipei planned at a later date. Mommy booked the tix online and we only had to collect at counter. The station was decorated in anticipation for the Xmas coming in another month’s time, a big xmas tree and some walls deco caught the attention of K slightly while we waited for mommy who had to wait in queue for collection.

The data plan didn’t seem to work while we were trying it out at TRA and decided to return to the store after lunch. Within the huge station on the 2nd floor was a gourmet heaven, entire floor full of restaurants and eating places. Our choice was a Chinese restaurant Long Tang that had porridge in their menu, so that K could eat that. Other than that, it boosted a view overlooking the main ground floor of the train station and also baby seat was available. We ordered Zha Jiang Mian and fried rice eventually because as we picked the porridge item twice, twice we were informed that the items were sold out. Thankfully K ate some fried rice. For the so-so food, we paid 280NT for the lunch. We tried to look for other alternatives with worry than K hadn’t have enough of food, we went downstairs where they were quite a few other food outlets. Thought of getting waffles but they came with honey, something K hadn’t tasted before. Bought him a totoro bun instead.

Upon return to the shop, the lady owner checked the phone and sorted out the APN which was the cause of the problem, taking of time for troubleshooting. After that, we visited Shin Kong Mitsukoshi mall again, this time going to the 8th floor, where the entire floor was dedicated for kids stuff. Changed out K’s diapers while spending a little time time, as there was a climbing structure in the shape of a train and loose Lego bricks and pad for K to play around. We finished the visit at the same supermarket we visited earlier to buy groceries and milk and the remaining time till the agreed meeting time of 315pm sitting around near the mall.

The landlord of our Airbnb agreed to meet at 315 on the 6th floor. We ended up waiting at gloomily lit corridor till 330pm, all the while not knowing what to expect as the landlord didn’t show up nor did she informed. Even at 330pm, she only gave us a temporary room as she said that the cleaning of our room was still in progress, blaming the earlier guests for being too dirty. We just rest in the room and K fell asleep on the bed drinking milk.

At 4pm, we shifted to the right room but we were disappointed to find the apartment small and didn’t have a kitchenette. K continued to sleep and mommy also took a rest while I took the time to clean up the milk bottles. As the apartment was kinda run down, I had doubts on the sterility of the tap water and whether it was safe for consumption, I sterilized the bottles with boiling water. I took a nap myself till 5ish while mommy woke up to prepare dinner for k.

K slept till nearly 730 and woke up grouchy. I gave him a bath and afterwards, left the apartment at 830 to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi again, this time for dinner. Went to 8th floors after looking at the floor directory and found only a few restaurants there and were not too affordable. We then went to the food court at B2 as mommy wanted some food quick as she was famished. Bought omurice and cheese baked rice for 318NT and had our dinner in the sparsely crowded food court.

After dinner, we spent the last bits of the night catching region specific Pokemon. While out on the street, we stopped at a shop selling accessories, we bought a candle in the shape of the number 2 for birthday cake. After successfully catching the monster, we went back to the apartment, sweaty.

The night time was spent washing up the dishes, as expected of all trips and frankly used to it already. Sleep happened at only 12MN.