Hong Kong 2007 (7)

Was rudely awakened by loud slams of the door and gate created by the absurd roommates, but at least woke up just in time to have lunch. We were getting increasingly exhausted with every passing day, and on our fourth day, we were already missing home. For once, we were even grateful for being Singaporeans.

Had lunch at a roadside cafe, where we ordered this Four Treasures Rice. Four Treasures namely pork chop, char siew, omelette and luncheon meat (When will we ever have Ma Ling luncheon meat in Singapore again!).

Took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui, where we took a walk along Avenue of Stars. Nothing spectacular. Wind was chilly. Skyline of Hong Kong Island was blurred by the haze.

At MTR station

Walking around near Salisbury Road

Hazy skyline

Me and Slug against Hong Kong skyline

Slug and I fooling around at Avenue of Stars

Icons of Hong Kong showbiz

We agreed that his handprints were the most beautiful and detailed

We were surprised to see her handprints here because we did not feel that she deserved a spot at Avenue of Stars. In terms of number of albums and movies, compare her with famous, productive, or sensational stars like Sammi, Beyond, Twins, Wang Jie and Ekin! You get what I mean.

Left feeling a tad disappointed with what this tiny promenade had to offer. It did not even have a spot for Ekin! Trudged on to the Science Centre further inwards near Chatham Road South. Today was Wednesday, so admission was free (HKD25 for all other days)!

Watched an hour-long National Geographic documentary on prehistoric crocodiles in their theatre (nope, nothing like our own Omnimax). It was so boring that I nearly fell asleep.

In the theatre waiting for the show to start

Then proceeded to play around with the limited exhibits, mainly revolving around topics like electricity, transport, food science and psychology. We did not feel that those exhibits effectively conveyed the various aspects of science. There was even a House of Mirrors.

Me and Slug inflated in front of a convex mirror

Eerie white frog at an exhibit

Exhibits at Science Centre

Huge plane model

Slug testing his hands' steadiness

Left the Science Centre pretty disappointed because the variety and fun factor there did not match up to those of the Science Centre back home. We returned to Temple Street with the intention of spending our last night in Hong Kong there. It was dinnertime so we had dinner at one of the tze char-style seafood restaurants there. Ordered mantis shrimps (which were disappointingly small) fried in salt and pepper, fish in black bean sauce and scrambled eggs with prawns and spring onions. Not cheap and not exactly sumptuous. I missed Sai Kung for its seafood.

At the tze char restaurant

Don't these look like fried bleached cockroaches?

An unpeeled mantis shrimp

We did the same again - walked around the stalls, browsed through the junk that collected dust from the nearby vehicles, and finally felt thirsty and had dessert. This time we tried taro with coconut milk, and fruits with jelly.

After that, out of curiosity, took a walk along Portland Street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the local sex workers. The street was dark and sinister, and the shops were mainly closed except for the mahjong parlours. We did not see any, and realised it was not as hyped-up as it seemed to be in movies. Or maybe it had been 'cleaned' rigorously over the years. However, we did see a sleazy joint hidden in a corner, that offered "free previews" of girls of various nationalities. In fact, from what we could see from a signboard, their Russian girls commanded three times the amount of what the local girls commanded. One thing we could not understand was, why would Russians work here and in such professions?

Dark sleazy establishment

Returned to our apartment early to start packing. Went through a lot of fuss packing all those tiny paraphernalia - cotton pads, earrings, keys, pills and all our travel toiletries. Finally we were going home!