Disclaimer: I swear this is the last vacation entry I’m going to post for the next half of year. Unless of course my favourite newscaster comes to Canada and by some miracle I can teleport myself to Vancouver. Please bear with me. I need to finish this before I seriously forget everything I did back in November.

So voilà ~ I present you the last entry: Hong Kong

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It’s been almost two years since I last step foot in HK, however when we landed at the airport, everything seemed exactly like how we left it. We took a late flight from Tokyo, arriving in HK close to 10pm. First order of business was grabbing our luggage and hailing a cab to Kwun Tong. Our first taxi driver turned us away cause we had too much luggage. Luckily the second taxi driver had elastics to close his trunk because we ended up piling everything in the back. The ride was less than an hour so we got to Kwun Tong close to midnight. After lugging everything up, we called it a night and headed off to bed.

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The next day we slept in a little later, then made our way to Chai Wan for tea with our grandparents. I had forgotten what it was like to be back in Chai Wan (a really really dingy part of HK). Everything is so small in comparison to Toronto! Also in my grandparent’s apartment, there’s only one toilet (whereas we have three in our house). Not to mention the fact that there wasn’t any running water to work the plumbing!

Yeppers…that’s what it feels like to be back!

We went for tea nearby, then uncle took us out to shop at Tai Koo. Originally I had wanted to go to Causeway Bay, but because someone drank too much tea at lunch, we needed to stop to locate a washroom. Hence we got off earlier at Tai Koo and decided to stay at the mall. There wasn’t much to do after spending all my money in Japan, so we went and saw a movie to pass time. Unfortunately MW was already out of theaters, so we couldn’t catch Tamaki. *Tear* Later that night we went for thai food before heading back to Kwun Tong.

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The second day we made plans to go for tea with PoPo at Hang Hou. We picked her up from the nursing home and headed over next door. It was only my second time going for ‘飲茶’ in HK and it was already more than enough for me!

Afterwards, we took a bus over to apm for some shopping. Since I didn’t have time to get my nails done in Japan, I decided to splurge a little at the mall to get them done there. However, it was obviously a mistake because the girl took more than two hours! We were late getting home to Chai Wan for dinner with our grandparents, but they were very forgiving. After dinner, uncle finally took us to Causeway. We spent time wandering around Times Square and saw the Christmas decorations out front. Later we went to a Haagan Daaz and ended up stuffing our faces with ice cream. Yum!

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Thursday was our only ‘free’ day to ourselves. We started off at Wan Chai in the morning so I could browse through Design Gallery. Later we made our way to Central for 鏞記 roast goose. We ended up going around in circles in Central before we found the restaurant, so it was nearing 1pm when we finally got seated inside. My sister and I both ordered a bowl of 瀨粉 then a plate of veggies and half a roast goose. It was so yummy! However, I didn’t really like having to 搭臺, so it was a little awkward when there were three other parties sharing the same table.

Afterwards, we headed off to the Sino Centre in Mongkok. I never knew this place existed! But of course, since we just came from Japan, we pretty much bought everything we needed over there. However, I did get a good deal on the Arashi 5×10 CD promotional poster. Only $20! Sweet!!

We didn’t have anything planned afterwards, so we went and found a karaoke place to kill time before dinner. I was surprised that Neway had a few Arashi songs, plus the actual PV for Ashita no Kioku! However, their Japanese song selection was quite dismal, so having one PV was not enough to redeem their reputation. LOL! We ended up just putting the song on repeat. =P

Later on, I made plans to meet up with a few online friends for dinner. Agnes and I decided to meet in front of the Sino Centre. I was surprised she was able to find us right away cause we had no idea what each other looked like! We walked a couple blocks to a Chiu Chow restaurant nearby, where I met Nancy and Alice. Everyone was so nice! I was so happy that I had the chance to meet new friends on this trip!

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Friday was our last full day in HK. We started the morning at Central where we met uncle and headed over to Long Ping to see the giant buddha. It was actually a nice day out, so we had a great view from the cable cars. (That, and because we paid extra for the see-through seats!) It was really warm too and so I was sweating as we made the steep climb to the buddha.

After touring the top, we went back down and had lunch. Then we made our way over to the Wisdom Path. I ended up more excited feeding wild puppies on the path than actually being ‘enlightened’ on the path. Heehee. However when we reached the summit point, it was really beautiful.

Afterwards, we ended up back in Central. My uncle took us to different famous restaurants, including 麥奀雲吞麵世家 for wonton noodles and 蘭方園 for HK style tea and french toast. I wanted to eat more, but I had to leave room since we were going for dinner with my grandparents at night. After making it back to Chai Wan, we all went out again, along with my uncle’s girlfriend for dinner. Dinner was really nice, but it was sad having to say goodbye to my grandparents.

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The flight the next morning was early in the afternoon, however we got all our bags ready and were out the door by 11am. After getting checked in, we had Café de Coral for the first time on our trip. I was so disappointed because there was no 焗豬扒飯! (I had been craving it the entire time we were there!) Taking in the last bits of HK, we finally boarded our flight and were on our way back home to Toronto.

I think it was nice ending our vacation in HK. It was way more relaxing than trying to squeeze in the last bits of Japan and nearly missing my flight. I hope my grandparents will stay healthy and that I”ll be able to visit them again in the future. Goodbye last remnants of my wonderful vacation!

~Fin~