We attempted an ambitious itinerary on Saturday.
Star Ferry
Weather: grey drizzle. Walked to the Star Ferry pier, took the lower level. It was HK$1.7 (that’s about US 25 cents) for a 7 minute ride similar to the Staten Island Ferry.
Dim Sum at Maxim’s Palace City Hall
City Hall is directly across from the Star Ferry pier on the HK side. We walked in, and proceeded to miss the sign for Maxim’s next to the stair. There’s another Maxim’s on the second floor that’s really for dinner; nobody was in there. The dim sum level was on the third floor with a huge room. Very good dim sum – especially with seafood. Waited for about 30 minutes, and then another 15 because we turned down a smoking table. Our ticket number was 0068, and they were in the forties. I have a goofball picture where I have the ticket turned around saying 8900 – very long wait! Ha chern and Ha gou was perfect; the dan tat (custard tarts) were fantastic. Recommended.
HSBC
Walked across the street through Statue Square to HSBC world headquarters. In New York, they are known just for their retail banking; in Hong Kong, they are one of the banks that actually print the money. On the ground floor, there was a photo display of pictures taken by HSBC staff members throughout the world – the first one was of Prospect Park in the fall. Two lion statues guard the bank from the harbour.
Pacific Place and Queensway
Bought: city atlas and coffee table book about Stanley. There was a hole in the plastic bag that we took away and the atlas fell out in the store. Thankfully, they were honest enough to give back the book. We got vials of this lemon C drink at grEAT supermarket in the basement of SOGO that counteracted the effects of hot/cold that we have been experiencing. Diet Coke is twice as expensive as regular ones, since they are imported from the UK. We picked up a couple of dog shirts from Cen.
Back to the hotel, where we took a breather, and P got to check out the ring in daylight. Way cool bling.
Chungking
We made a quick circle through the ground floor of Chungking Mansions so that P could say that we did it, kind of against my better judgment. It still looks very much like how it did in the movie, having that untamed rough West in the East feel. P’s curiousity was satisfied, and we hightailed it out of there.
Carnavaron Road
We walked up Carnavaron Road to find 3, the SIM card dealer. Instead we found a gelato stand were we got mango and berry gelato. Trying to trace our way back, we found a Hui Lau Shan and got more layered mango and berry drinks. The Hui Lau Shan was actually better then the gelato, and half the price. The SIM card dealer happened to be across the street — we couldn’t see it from the angle we were travelling.
We found a branch of the Todai sushi buffet place we went to in Hawaii, and made a reservation for Monday night (the place was booked solid today and Sunday).
Sham Shui Po
Golden Computer Center in Sham Shui Po. If it plugs into something, it’s here. It’s a lot more cleaned up than before – very little in the way of illicit software packages; much more hardware. Bought a laptop security chain and a couple of chinese linux books for the people at work.
We went back to the hotel, where I proceeded to pass out from jetlag, and P succeeded in making Skype calls.
More rain and more action tomorrow, or whatever day it is right now.