Day 3 - Macau to Hong Kong (29th March 2010)

5:30AM "-Wake up and check out
-Take bus to Ferry Terminal
(1 hour)"
6.30am "-Immigration
(30mins)"
7:30am "-Ferry to Tsim Tsa Tsui, HKG
(1 hour 30 mins)"
9.00am "-Reach HKG
-Immigration
(30 mins)"
9.30am -Travel to Dragon Hostel & place luggage (1 hour)
10.30am -Tim Ho Dim Sum ( 2hours)
12.30am - Purchase Ocean Park & Peak tickets @ China Travel Services (30 mins)
1.00pm Lunch
2.00pm "-Check-in Hostel
-Purchase Disneyland tickets"
3.00pm Travel to Tsim Tsa Tsui
3.00pm -Harbour City Shopping
6.00pm -Avenue of Stars, Clock Tower
8.00pm -Symphony Of Lights
09.00pm "-Temple Street
-Dinner"
11.00pm -Back to Hostel

We got up as early as 5am to catch the early bus to Macau Ferry Terminal. We waited for the bus from 6am onwards at a bus stop nearby the hostel facing the main road and reached the ferry terminal around 6.30am. One of the staffs there told us that we could board the 7.00am ferry instead of 7.30am (we bought 7.30am departure 2 days earlier). As it turned out the there werent many people taking the ferry that early.

Macau First Ferry. That's the one we boarded to Tsim Tsa Tsui.



Plenty of empty seats :)

Good bye Macau!

We sat on the right side of the ferry with a nice window view. Halfway along the way I saw Lantau island and the famous Big Buddha sitting on top of the mountain through the window in the ferry. It was quite a sight.

Hello Hong Kong! Just reached China Hong Kong ferry harbour at Tsim Tsa Tsui

We got out from the China Hong Kong City after passing throught the immigration and walked about 5-10 minutes to reach Tsim Tsa Tsui MTR station. We bought an octopus card and took the train to Mongkok.

The route we took from the ferry terminal to Tsim Tsa Tsui MTR station ExitA1

The dragon hostel check-in time was 2pm but we go there too early. So we dropped our luggage there and immediately look for the Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum Expert restaurant (添好運點心專門店) which was the sole reason we woke up super early so that we could reach the restaurant by 10am.

Dragon Hostel

We walked through this market along Yin Chong Street to get to Tin Ho Wan

Fortunately we had a map with proper directions to Tin Ho Wan. If not we would definitely have gotten lost as the shops and streets all looked the same to us. By the time we reached Tin Ho Wan, it was around 9.30am. There was already a long queue of people and so we joined the queue and waited until the shop opened at 10am. We had to take an order slip and decide on what food to order first. That means we weren't allowed to ad-hoc after we have submitted our order.

The shop finally opened at 10am and we walked slowly towards the reestaurant's door. A middle aged lady (with a rude tone) took our order slip, asked us how many pax & name, gave us a piece of paper with a queue number of 13 and told us to come back in another hour. Oh great, more waiting :(

People were already queuing up when we reached Tim Ho Wan around 9.30am




This was taken during the long queue. I'm not a dog person so not sure what's that wrapped around the dog's neck.


So we decided to head next to China Travel Service Mongkok branch to purchase our Ocean Park and the Peak tickets which were cheaper than buying on-site. For Ocean Park tickets, they are be purchased outside the building (there's a counter there) but since we wanted Peak tickets, we went upstairs and got a queue number (waited around 20 minutes). Unfortunately, they didnt enough Peak tickets for the day we were going so we just bought the Ocean Park tickets.

It was already after 11am and so we went back to Tin Ho Wan. We waited about 5-10 minutes until they found a place with 3 seats. We had to share table with other strangers. Anyway a customer came around that time and got a new queue number but was asked to come back after 4pm! Wow!

But the long wait and hassle was worth it as the food was heavenly wonderful. Never tasted any dim sum like this before! Too bad they didnt allow us to order more or else we would have tried everything else in the menu!

Here's the bill. Relatively cheap for 3 persons to eat high quality dim sum in Hong Kong!

After Tin Ho Wan, we went back to Dragon Hostel to check into our room, took a shower and left the hostel again. We took the MTR to back to Tsim Tsa Tsui.

We explored around Tsim Tsa Tsui area and i found an 3-4 storey high Espirit Warehouse. Suffice to say, the things sold were very dear so i left empty handed.

We then entered Habour City Shopping Mall which kind of reminded me of Pavillion and Starhill.

At the south exit of Harbor City shopping mall. Can see the Star Ferry terminal infront. Go down & turn left there is a Hui Lau Shan shop where we took a nice mango dessert


Hui Lau Shan







The menu! Mangos! i love mangos!


Mango Platter (they had a promotion on that day so price was cheaper)




Glutinuous rice balls with mango & strawberry.

I ordered this. Not bad though i found that the strawberry taste was too strong for me :)








The Clock Tower, a special landmark in Hong Kong




Orgasm Illuminator? Wow..

Nice view of the skyscrapers at Hong Kong island from Victoria Harbour. Can see the IFC building from here which is the tallest building in Hong Kong. Also the same building where Batman sneaked in to capture that bad Chinese guy in Dark Knight :)




The Peak!

This proud lady welcomed us into the Avenue of Stars



Avenue of stars. See the handprints on the floor.












The famous Bruce Lee statue


Lights! Camera! Action!

It started to become very very cold around evening time. That plus we didnt have enough clothes on us so we were close to freezing to death. We decided to go into the Science Museum to get away from the chilly wind until 8pm before the start of the Symphony of Lights.

Admission into the science museum costs HKD10 per person. It's usually free on Wednesday but too bad that day we went was Monday. The museum was very cool as it was big with a lot of science gadgets that visitors can interact and also a nice 3D game where you need to physically control a glider and navigate inside a 3D grand canyon environment with your glider.

This was taken 17 minutes before 8pm at Victoria Harbour. Many people started to gather and waited patiently for the Symphony of Lights show. I was sitting hereand almost frozen to death :) Next time must bring a jacket.

Symphony of Light. The sky was filled with light beams and the ferry was part of the show. It was quite cool

It was already 7.40pm and so we exit the museum and was reminded how cold it was outside. But had no choice and bear with it since we didnt want to miss out the Symphony of Light. The show started about 8pm with English narration and it lasted about 10 minutes. After the show we decided to walk to Jordan from Tsim Tsa Tsui along Nathan road.

At Jordan we came across the famous Lee Ken Egg Waffle 雞蛋仔, which is famous for egg waffle balls (Gei Dan Jai 雞蛋仔). Seems like the little stall is famous as there were many of photos of celebrities on the stall (photos of them eating or taking a pic with the owner).

LEE KEN EGG WAFFLE (雞蛋仔) at Jordan. The egg waffles were very delicious!

We then walked across the road towards Parkes Street to look for Mak Man Kee Noodle House (麥文記麵家) and took our dinner there. The shrimp wanton noodle was fantastic thought abit on the expensive side at HKD34 if compared to other wanton noodles we have eaten in Macau and Hong Kong.

Mak Man Kee Noodle House (麥文記麵家)

This wanton noodles at cost HKD34

After our dinner, we were actually feeling quite full thanks to the big wantons. But Australia Dairy Co 澳洲牛奶公司 was just nearby so we went in for our dessert. I decided to order the steamed egg pudding as I didnt want to upset my stomach again while my friends ordered steamed milk pudding. We could order either warm or cold. I ordered my warm while my friend ordered his cold. The egg pudding was very smooth and nice. However my friend didn't like his cold steamed milk pudding.

Australia Dairy Company 澳洲牛奶公司

Australia Dairy Company's menu.


steamed egg pudding




steamed milk pudding

After our nice dessert, we continued our walking journey towards Temple Street market. It looked very similar to Petaling Street. Not special and we found the prices to be on the high side. It was crowded with tourists and since we didnt find the place to be anything special, we decided to walk back to Mongkok.

Temple Street at night.

The thing about Kowloon is that the shops & streets all look the same. Nathan Road is a long stretch of which starts from Tsim Tsa Tsui then to Yau Ma Tei-> Jordan -> Mongkok and beyond.We got to Nathan Road but walked towards to wrong direction along that road. I found out my mistake when i saw the entrance to Jordan MTR station after walking for 5 minutes. And so we turned back towards the right direction..passing through the Yau Ma Tei station (where we started) and finally Mongkok.

We went to Fa Yuen street at night where the road was closed for the night market. I bought some souveniers there which was alot cheaper than Temple Street. I think Temple Street is more for tourists now and that's why it's much more expensive there.

After shopping for souvenirs, we decided to head back our hostel and retire to our room early. Though we were all tired, I was kind of excited that night since I'll finally be able to visit the theme park i've always wanted to go ever since small.

The advance Disneyland tickets we bought from Dragon Hostel. HKD330 per ticket :)