Hysan Place 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!

Hong Kong 2019 Day 15 – Sino Center and Hysan Place

Posted on April 13, 2019June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Hong Kong Day didn’t start well with the weary weather that loomed overhead. Instead of going to Lamma Island that mommy initially wanted to go, fearing that the weather would not hold up (with weather forecast thunderstorms throughout the day), we decided to go have morning tea before deciding.

Called Uber and a BMW 5 series came to pick us up. Was informed that per car only allowed 5 persons and thus not to call Uber if we had more. After a few conversations on the location, he finally understood that we wanted to go to City hall and drove us there, just a couple of minutes away.

We got off and entered what looked like a concert theatre. Went up to the 2nd floor and found tons of people already queuing at the Maxim Palace restaurant. Went to pick up a queue number and was shocked to find that we were queue number 56, and the next in line to enter was number 4, a whopping 52 numbers behind. We abandoned this chance to eat the traditional push cart dim sum and walked into IFC instead.

Was introduced 2 restaurants by the IFC staff one more expensive with less queue and the other more affordable with longer queues. We went to the more expensive one first but found that there were reservations already and we had to eat within an hour. We didn’t want that so tried our luck at Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop and thankfully there was already one readily available for us. Ordered some porridge, carrot cake, XO sauce rolls, egg tarts and wantun noodles upsize and a bowl of sesame paste for dessert for about 300plus HKD. The noodles were pretty good and K almost finished the entire bowl on his own while the rest was ok too. While eating, we realized that we were lucky to get there early as a queue also started to form outside this restaurant.

After randomly roaming a few stores in IFC and deciding to abandon going to Lamma Island altogether, we decided to go to Sino Center in Mong Kok to buy some Nintendo Switch games which I thought that it would be cheaper to get from Hong Kong, and Sino Center was indicated on some webby that the concentrate of video games shops was located there.

Walked to Central station and took the subway to Mong Kok, and then it was a short 10mins walk to Sino Center. The whole street was crowded with people and so was the building itself. We took the escalator, went to the third floor skipping the second and immediately we found a shop that sold the games. Walked in to ask for the cost and was quoted 355HKD. Negotiated for a discount and was given 350 which I took it. I knew for a same game back in Singapore, it would have costed me 70SGD, and buying here would save me about minimum 7%. But it would have made more sense to get more since the transportation costs to get there would have equaled the amount of savings.

K was complaining about being tired so we made our way back to the hotel. My parents was given a new room on the same level as us and fortunately, they were upgraded again, room with a nice view, a living room and not many mirrors! It even came with a nespresso machine!

We put K in bed for a short nap and during this time, I went out to the park for a walk to play my Pogo and was surprised to see that the people in Hong Kong were pretty crazy over this game as well. There were many holding umbrellas in the tiny drizzle (I didn’t have one) catching the Pokemon as they strolled in the park (there was an event ongoing, explaining the sudden surge of people there). I spent about an hour walking to and fro and checking out the park where kids were racing water boats inside a fountain area before returning to the hotel to find K just waking up.

Panoramic of one of the fountain at the park

We got ourselves ready and got out the hotel for dinner. This time we wanted to try roost goose and walked about 1.2km there. When we arrived at Kam’s Roost Goose, it was again crowded outside the restaurant. Asked if there was a queue and was informed that the restaurant was no longer taking customers and those outside were actually people lining up for takeaways. We left for another place to eat.

Retracing back the same route, we went into a certain Restaurant Kowloon to eat. Ordered fried rice, broccoli, sweet and sour pork, soup and white chicken, 2 drinks and a red bean ice for 400plus HKD. The food was not too bad but the amount was definitely more than just filling. K got a toy from one of the staff from an earlier incident which made him cry and was very eager to return to the room to play.

After dinner around 930pm, we walked to Hysan place and when we entered the building, there was an event ongoing for the Avengers movie and lots of toy models and characters models on display. We wanted to get a photo of K with his Ironman cap and realized that it was left in the restaurant. I returned to retrieve it and the staff actually kept it safe in a drawer.

After taking photos amongst the many people who were there for the same purpose, we decided to skip the shopping and return to the room. En-route, we stopped at a beancurd store called Yan Wo Dou Bun Chong (人和荳品廠) and bought some beancurd to eat. Shared with mommy original cold one while my parents got the hot almond flavored one and one with fruits cocktail. All these for about 30HKD, affordable simple desserts.

Back at the room, K played with the toy and later proceeded with bath. Then it was milk and some a page of the Avengers sticker book before going to bed, slightly past midnight.

Hong Kong 2014 Day 1 – Arrival, Eat and Shop

Posted on July 12, 2014June 3, 2020 by ziyi

The day started at 4am for our Cathay flight to Hong Kong. As expected the drive to the airport was seamless but upon arrival, there was already a slow moving queue to check in. Had some hot drinks over at Wang’s, one of the few shops opened in the early morning.

The boarding was fast, although it was for a big airplane and soon we were in the air en-route to Hong Kong, dozing off just as quickly.

We were awaken for some omelette breakfast which was pretty filling, and then back to sleep. Before we knew it, we are landing in Hong Kong!

There wasn’t any immigration card on the flight and only got it from the stewardess upon landing. Proceeded to a very crowded immigrations, there were 7 rows of people waiting to get through. We had 15mins of perpetual walking in the lines before clearing immigrations, which was about 5mins, not too bad.

Immediately on the outside of the immigrations, there was a counter selling Airport Express train ticket. A lady at the front of the queue informed that we should get the Kowloon tickets since we were alighting at Jordan. As we proceeded to the belt, our luggage was already in sight and we quickly retrieved it before exiting. The train station was just another 20m away and we boarded the quite empty train that came in in a short 7mins – to Kowloon we went.

Once onboard, we noticed that it would be better to take to Hong Kong station and do a direct transfer to MTR that goes to Jordan. Oh well, already paid for the tickets. 24 mins and many views of super tall dense buildings later, we reached Kowloon.

After alighting the train, we entered a really spacious building where we got a drink from 7-11. Moving on to the 2nd floor, the signs pointed us to a free bus transfer for all airport express customers to major hotels. Checked with the staff and she advised us the bus number and the stop to get us. Boarded an almost empty mini bus and we were on the way to the hotel, city sights along the way. It was here that every advice along the way seemed to make sense. Getting off at Kowloon station is the right advice.

Checked in was pretty straight forward at Novotel. Situated along a small street off Nathan Road, it wasn’t easy looking for it. Luckily Google map is working without the data requirement and we easily navigated there from Eaton Hotel, one of the bus stop.

Check in at level 2 was quick and we were given 10th floor. The superior room was expected small, but the view was bad, blocked by the parallel buildings packing the sense streets of Hong Kong. What we saw were roofs filled with rubbish. Never mind, we were here for the shopping and the food anyways. If not for the better price offered from my company’s contract with then, I might have chosen another hotel.

We walked the 5mins walk to Jordan MTR station and bought single trip ticket to Admiralty and changed to the blue line going towards Wan Chai for our first stop – Wing Wah noodle shop. Easily accessible near the main road on the opposite side to the station, but not really recognizable if you don’t read Mandarin.

Entering the shop, we were called to the end of the shop where there were 2 seats from a table of 4 where the other 2 seats were already taken. Guessed this would be the way to eat around Hong Kong. The menu on the table had both English and Mandarin so it was easy. Ordered the original Wanton and one with Pig knuckles.

The noodles were really springy though the dumplings were just ok. I liked the pig trotters particularly, chewy but not tough, good taste and not fatty. Only problem was there were only two of them.

Pork knuckles noodles. — Pig knuckles noodles.

Everything was fast moving, ordered ate and paid in 20mins at most.

Left for our next destination, Ho Hung Kee at Hysan Place. Getting off at 1 station away at Causeway Bay, Hysan Place was immediately connected to it. The restaurant was located at the 12th level, but the elevator took years to arrive. We had to travel to basement first before getting to the 10th storey. From there, by elevator to the 12th floor.

Store front of Ho Hung Kee at Hysan Place

The restaurant had a modern decor but the sitting arrangements were similar to the previous ones, you share. We ordered congee, I had fish and tangerine peel congee and my wife had fish ball congee, thinking that this 1 star Michelin restaurant was popular for congee till we read it’s history on the paper on the table.

Congee was smooth. The fish ball was made of real fish meat, but tasted of ikan bilis. I liked the tangerine flavoured congee which was kinda different.

We ordered a small bowl of Wanton Mee to share. The noodles here were skinnier. I thought it was not as springy as the one I had just before. The dumpling was better here, though I thought there were more taste of fish.

Left satisfied in terms fullness but not in terms of expectations.

Causeway Bay had many various malls and a lot of people. I thought it was something like Orchard Road, people everywhere, lines everywhere. Spent some time at the huge Forever 21 before heading over to Times Square. Took a short break at the Agnes B cafe, shopped a bit more before going to Sheung Wan station and proceeding to Burd street for more congee, Sang Kee congee.

Batmobil on display outside Times Square

Multiple storey of luxury goods stores in Times Square

Sheung Wan was a place without the crowd. Googled map our way there and we were initially mistaken for another of their chain selling noodles. As we moved around the corner, we saw the little shop and entered the cosy little shop. Ordered fish ball congee and minced pork congee. It was really good, the porridge tasted soupy. The balls was tasty and bouncy with a good taste of the fish and pork. It was cheaper than the ones that we had before too. The only pity was that the more popular one with the fish stomach was already sold out. It must have been good.

Went back to our hotel tired and but feeling great. Surfed the web to find more food and I made one more attack on a popular steam egg pudding at Yee Shun Milk company. Daobao the original for HKD22 and back ate it back at the hotel. The store closes at midnight and it was still fairly busy at that time of the day.

The chilled pudding had taste of sweetened milk but the tofu softness of the end product made the chilly pudding a great desert to end the food trip for today. More research on the food trip tomorrow before going to bed. Some early waking up and queuing was anticipated.