Theme of the day, Birds! Please excuse all typos. *update w/photo link*

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***Updated: link to photos: http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Tanyahh1/slideshow/The%!E(MISSING)ating%!t(MISSING)rip/Day%20-%!H(MISSING)K%!I(MISSING)sland%!a(MISSING)nd%!T(MISSING)emple%!S(MISSING)treet%!M(MISSING)arket

I gave up on the photobucket stories features, so here is just the link to the album, password turtlebutt. The wireless connection for all the spots we've been to have been too slow to upload the quantities of photos I want to upload, so I've had to resize them in batches before uploading to reduce the load time but still, it's not broadband speeds by any means! I'm working on next ones, Enjoy!***



Muggy, Humid, Sticky!

(Ok, so it wasn't THAT bad, I've been in worse but it always seems worse when you're in a nice air conditioned building and then you step out into the humid weather - I don't like humidity, can you tell?)

So we exit customs after our very bored customs officer got through with our paperwork (good morning to you too!) at around 7am and headed over to the Handy kiosk and rented out the a Samsung Note as our smartphone for the next 3 days. It's an android and I'll have to say, it took getting used to and I hated the map and navigation (google). The best thing with the phone was that I never lost service, even two levels down in the subway system I had service and was able to get online. I think it was a great option if you don't want to get a simcard for your phone.

The next two tasks was for us to exchange some money just to get us to the hotel and get the Octopus card so that we can tap and go on the transportation system. Easy purchase, esp. since we arrived so early in the morning, there was thankfully not many people around. For the most part I think that California really is lacking for our transportation options for tourist and visitors. I love trains and they are so easy to get around on, we really should do more about connecting our whole state so that I can got to LA more easily without having to deal with the airport hassles!

We got lost getting out of the airport, I'm not even sure how. Since there were no crowds to follow, I had to ask a security officer which way out of the airport. By his directions, we ended up at what it seems to be the back tunnel of the airport and had to find our way out but we did! We finally managed our way to a train station and got on! The train ride took us to the Kowloon station in about 25mins. Very pleasant ride! When we exited the train station, I attempted to use the Google map on the phone to navigate us to the guesthouse - what a headache. The navigation (for walking route!) sucked. To add to the frustration, it was really hard to figure out what street we're on or at which intersection. I'll tell you now, I'm SOOOOO glad that the airlines limit our carry-on to only 14lbs because we walked around probably close to an hour with our packs and personal bag (purse) in the humidity! Whew! (John would like to add that he had no problem with the weight he was carrying).

When we finally got to our guesthouse, our room wasn't ready yet since check-in is at noon and we were only about 8:45am at this point. They were happy to get it cleaned for us to get in early so after I paid the balance for our room ($1000 hkd, only $128 usd heh), we heading out to find something to eat. Our guesthouse is located on Nathan Rd at TST; the main hustle and bustle for the touristy area, so there were plenty of big stores, malls, and shops but not so many eateries that were apparent. After wandering around pretty hungry, we found a place called Chiu Fat and ordered two plates of things to share. The chicken was called Spicy Saliva Chicken, that's the translation, I'm sure the original name is much more appetizing! The other was just a plate of braised beef, also very good. Add a cold water bottle and an iced chrysanthemum tea and the whole meal was quite pricy for what it was ($170 hkd)

After eating, we walked back to our guesthouse and John took a quick nap while I had a cool shower. I booked our guestroom 'ensuite', a fancy name meaning we get our own private bathroom so we didn't have to share a common one with other guests. It's simple, and if you've been to Asian countries before, often times the shower is just the shower head in the same room as the toilet and sink. So you need to make sure you put your clothes somewhere away from the showerhead or risk it being wet while you shower!

Situated, I told John that our first objective is now to go try some of this roast goose that Stanley and Ferdi keep raving about and he was all in! The train station for the line that we would be using the most is literally right out our door, so we made our way over to Hong Kong Island, got lost for around 30 mins - thanks Google map. I mean the darn beacon on the map was so retarded, it kept moving around while we were standing still looking at it! Hong Kong Island is interesting. It's pretty posh and freaken crowded, I guess due to lunch hour as well. There were many people in suits and such running around, as well as many people in very casual attire. I'm not sure I would love living on HK island. Anyway enough of that, to the geese!

We were looking for two establishments, Yung Kee and Yat Lok. Yung Kee is very well known and upscale while Yat Lok is still small hole in the wall status. We found Yat Lok first and there was a line waiting to get in as well as to 'take away'. When we got seated (communal seating) the lady wouldn't let me order just one meal and share it with John. She just said no, something in Chinese and then started another task. I figure it'll be easier than to argue (I can't speak Chinese to her!) if I just went to the front to order take away. They shooed us to the end of the line for take away orders. Ugh! With some difficulty, an order was put in and waiting ensued. So apparently we order just goose on rice, but it was part of the wing cut and not the leg. We just stood outside and dug in forgetting to take a picture first heh. That's why the only picture of that order was just really a piece of skin. Finishing up, we found the next place almost around the corner - next street over. At this point, I gave up on the stupid Google map for navigation and went back to my trusted map reading skills.

Yung Kee is almost like the rich city cousin to the poor country cousin who is Yat Lok. I swear at least 25%!o(MISSING)f the cost for their goose on rice was the packaging for the take away. In comparison of the two meats, I will have to say I have a preference for Yat Lok, the skin was crispier and even though I didn't get a leg for that meal, the meat was really well seasoned and moist with a dark sauce. Yung Kee's goose was not by all means bad, it was also very good with moist meat and flavorful skin, but I think what elevated that meal as a whole was that they used better quality rice and their sauce was creamier, almost either peanut-y or had some kind of sesame paste in it. So I would go with Yat Lok if you want to just get the goose by itself, and go with Yung Kee if you want it with rice. Either way, YUMMMY. John said it just all tasted like duck, what does he know...

After getting a scoop of haagen daas for John (for $5 usd!) we walked uphill to the Zoo and Botanical garden to enjoy the awesome plants and wildlife. Note of interest, on our walk over to the garden, I pointed out to John that all the scaffolding in HK were from bamboo. ALL OF IT! Just bamboo tied together. Crazy Neat huh? The highlights for me from the zoo and garden were the huge birds, and the twin baby orangutans! They were so cute.

PART 2 -

So after HK we made our way back to the room so that I could rest my poor footies and took a nap before heading out to the Temple Street night markets. I'll leave most of the talking for this part of the day to the pictures. I thought most of the stuff they were selling were kinda junky, kind of like if you were going to the Berryessa flea market; almost everyone was there selling almost all the same things that you really don’t need. The food stands were more interesting!

http://s9.photobucket.com/user/Tanyahh1/slideshow/The%!E(MISSING)ating%!t(MISSING)rip/Day%20-%!H(MISSING)K%!I(MISSING)sland%!a(MISSING)nd%!T(MISSING)emple%!S(MISSING)treet%!M(MISSING)arket

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Photos

at the fountain at the garden
Doesn't this remind anyone else of Married with Children?

Comments

[jeffery truong]

did you check out lady street?
Temple street sells weird and used items such as bras, sex toy, but what's interesting there is the fortune tellers. But did you check out lady street? I like that more, there's much more to see and some street food along the street. I don't recommend eating there though since it's more for gau-low. I also saw your post in facebook, with John in the 7-11 store at the airport. And when you mentioned muggy/humid, it takes me back and I swear I smelled the scent of AC. Nevertheless, Amy and I are very jealous.

[Turtlebutt]

Yes, temple street did have the sex toy sold from carts, I thought it was such an odd thing and John thought it was a hoot. We wandered and walked around and actually went from temple street to the fruit wholesale market, but it wasn't open yet so we kept walking around until we actually came upon Ladies market. we just walked through (very crowded) since on route back through HK to fly back to SFO we will be staying in Mong Kok so we will explore it more. Jeff I don't remember if you said you liked Malaysia, I really like KL much more than HK on food and crowd-wise.

[jeffery truong]

part of the experience
Don’t mind the rudeness. They have to server thousands of patrons each day and since business is that good, no need to be polite. But call it sadomasochism, I enjoy the rudeness. I see it being part of the adventure.