Ocean Park Hong Kong (香港海洋公園) was opened in 1977 and located at the south of Hong Kong Island. The park is easily accessible with public transportation… we went there by bus from the Star Ferry’s Central Pier on our 2nd day in Hong Kong.
It was a weekend, and mainland China was celebration their week long holiday to celebrate National Day… so the park was really crowded.
The Star Ferry service has been in operation since 1888 and is one of Hong Kong’s icon.
We stayed at B P International House （香港龍堡國際賓館） for the first 2 days in Hong Kong before transferring to Disney’s Hollywood Hotel later on.
B P is the acronym for Baden Powell, the founder of Scout Movement. The 25-storey hotel building is actually the Hong Kong Scout Centre; the Scout Headquarters only occupied a few floors though, the rest are hotel rooms and facilities.
We chose this hotel because of its reasonable pricing and its location. It took around 5-10 minutes walk to get to Jordan MTR station, it’s quite near to the famous Temple Street, and there are plenty of restaurants and shops around.
We booked a standard room with extra bed for 3 adults; my 2 year old niece stayed for FOC. It cost us HK$1200 + tax for a night… quite reasonable for Hong Kong standard.
The room was small, a bit smelly (cigarettes), but offered a nice view of Tsim Sha Tsui and a bit of Victoria Harbour. Besides, the staff was friendly and really helpful… so we were quite happy with the stay. [Hotel's website]
We headed to Temple Street (廟街, pronounced as Miu Kai) after 10pm. It was quite near to our hotel, within 5 minutes of walk to reach its south point.
Temple Street is a street located in the areas of Jordan and Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon. It is probably the most well know night market in Hong Kong, and is popular among both locals and tourist.
Mahjong (麻將) is a popular game in Chinese community which often played as a gambling game; and it is intensely popular in Hong Kong.
Privately-run gambling businesses are illegal in Hong Kong, but there are legal Mahjong schools for people to ‘learn to play’ Mahjong… but you probably can guess that most people who are ‘learning’ Mahjong are actually experts.
There are not many licenses issued for Mahjong school though; lots of it can be found in Yaumatei-Mongkok area.
I passed by this one on our way to Temple Street near Jordan and Yau Ma Tei. Just beside the entrance is this giant banner teaching the basics on Mahjong… I guess they were trying their best to make it school-like :)
We went to Tsim Sha Tsui’s waterfront promenade after our dinner to catch the Symphony of Light show.
A Symphony of Lights (幻彩詠香江) is an orchestrated light and laser show featured on buildings situated on both sides of the Victoria Harbour. It is the world’s largest permanent light and sound show; it starts on 8pm daily (under good weather) and lasts for about 15 minutes.
Spectators can listen to the show’s music and English narration live along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront between the Avenue of Stars and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre; and the promenade outside the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night.
The show was quite spectacular, but I attribute it to the fact that the night scene of Victoria Harbour was already breathtaking with or without the show. The show was an exciting experience nonetheless, but was one of those that we should see it once in our lifetime, but not more than once.
Wong Tai Sin Temple (黃大仙祠) was the first tourist spot we visited in Hong Kong. The Taoist temple is arguably the most famous temple in Hong Kong, and is often mentioned as a highlight destination in Hong Kong tourism brochures.
Saint-Paul de Vence is an old village located in south eastern France, about 30 minutes drive from Nice.
I had never heard of this place prior to the visit, but our tour guide told us that it’s a wonderful place, that there’s a saying which if Jesus is to be born onto earth again, it will be at St Paul.
The statement might be over-exaggerating, but St Paul was a lovely place indeed. The fortified village structure was something that I had never seen before; and its environment, the narrow streets and stony buildings were simply mesmerising.
The only regret I had, was that we were not able to spend much time there to fully appreciate the place. Back then, I had vowed to visit the place again… I am not so sure about the feeling now, but at that moment, I think I was in love with St Paul de Vence.
