Thursday, September 21, 2006
Hong Kong 2006
How does one spend one week in Asia's most vibrant city?
Here's how. Muhaha. Just FYI, HK was a trip meant for studying architecture (hahaA), through a whole series of educational activities about anything and everything about HK's architecture. Our hosts were the City University of Hong Kong, who generously housed us in an extremely plush hostel, complete with 3 rooms for 6 people, a living room, dining area and a kitchen, together with all the expected amenities of a 4 star hotel. With regards to the program, of course, we took the liberty of cancelling one day's worth of activities to devote it completely to shopping and buying stuff.
Monday - Bubbling with enthusiasm!
-Flew in at 2pm.
-Rushed to hostel to put down our stuff.
-Had a welcome high tea at the uni archi studios.
-Short lecture about HK.
-Visited Langham Place and MongKok.
-Had dinner at a streetside claypot restaurant.
-Saw a brothel! It was funny because different nationalities of 'working girls' had different prices, with Russians hitting HK$530, HK ppl getting $400+ and Thais getting a paltry HK$180
-Retired to bed.
Tuesday - There's still so much time...
-Took MTR and bus 970 to Cyberport.
-Toured Cyberport and its shopping arcade.
-Toured Bel Air showflat, and its flashy clubhouse. Heck. ONE apartment with a 2200 sq ft floor area cost a cool S$7 million! Its clubhouse is gilded with gold everywhere, and offers very 'basic' services like an Egyptian themed indoor pool, private jet services to anywhere in the world, a car club that rents out Ferraris and Bentleys, AND an authentic art collector's club. People commented that it felt like a dream after we exited.
-Bus to International Finance Centre complex, whose tower is currently the tallest in HK.
-Ate Mac's, saw coins exhibition at 55th floor (but were more interested in the views out of the windows).
-Walked by linkway to HSBC, and IM Pei's Bank of China building.
-Peak Tram to Peak.
-Caught the famed nightly 8pm skyscraper top laser show, but was thoroughly disappointed. Probably because we were viewing it from the wrong side, as it was meant to be viewed form Kowloon, not from behind the CBD area.
-Dinner at Jap restaurant at Peak Galleria, a shopping mall.
-Tram back down, heavy rain, took train back home.
-Reflection time with light snacks from Taste, a supermarket in a nearby shopping mall.
Wednesday - Hai. Middle of the week sia. Time flies.
-Rainy walk to Gravity archi studio, lengthy briefing by Frank Yu, one of the most popular and respected architects working on projects in China today.
-Lunch at noodle restaurant.
-Train to City Uni.
-Joined their studio until 4pm. I must say, we are not much different in terms of programme, but they are so slack! aiyo... Poor us, working like horses during work.
-Saw the floor plans for 2 major residential developments, got shocked by their ridiculously complex GFA computations.
-Settled at hostel, on to Mongkok's Ladies' Market, and then Temple Street. Bought quite a lot of stuff from those famous night markets.
-Taste again. Yay.
-Major supper - sashimi, cup noodles, tang yuan, siew mai.
-Guys did stupid group photo shoots of themselves.
Thursday - Shopping day. Yipee.
-Hong Kong Housing Authority exhibition centre.
-Light bus back to Mongkok.
-Lunch with uni students at Taiwanese restaurant.
-Langham Place shopping, Ladies Market.
-Back to hostel to settle.
-Off to Central.
-Stupid Pottinger Street, a historic market area (its amazing how it has changed throughout the years, as we saw a photo of it in 1935 too!), was closed. We then had a very cheap dinner at yong tau foo-style restaurant.
-Passed through Lan Kwai Fung, HK's clubs and bars district. Many Singaporeans have compared it to Clarke Quay and said that their's is more lively and thriving. This is very true. However, my own visit there shows one obvious difference: it is full of ang mohs! And the HK uni students also cautioned us about drugs abused in the bars. Obviously, Western nightlife is not popular amongst Hongkongers. At least, in Singapore, locals still outnumber expats and foreigners.
-MTR to Tai Yuen Street, disappointed cos it was supposed to be a busy wet market with things not found in Singapore, but it had closed by then.
-Took tram to Central
-MTR back to Kowloon Tong, Taste a little while, and had a short little discussion session back at the hostel.
Friday - Final day feels so... surreal? 'Noooo.. don't want to go home...'
-Central Station, Infrastructure exhibition gallery.
-Star Ferry and Kowloon Canton Railway back to City Uni.
-Dim Sun lunch at City U, paid for by their archi dept. Got our cute little model chairs.
-Walked thru Kowloon park and saw many pink flamingos, Cartographic Survey of Historical Buildings exhibition.
-Shuttle bus to large residential development (with residential blocks reaching 80 storeys - Singapore's tallest is Duxton Plain, which only has what.. 50?), visited its clubhouse.
-Short shopping session at Causeway Bay, full of youth stuff! Wish we could have spent mroe time there.
-Dinner at Felix Restaurant atop famous Peninsula Hotel, which has its interior, furniture and cutlery fully designed by Phillipe Starck. took photos at street level later, then the KCR back to our hostel.
-The last supper (lol) party we had. Reminisced about many funny things (esp about accidents where clumsy classmate walk into stationery objects like transparent glass windows or streetside metal poles... *ouch*).. then we slept.
Saturday - Sad. Really sad. ='(
-Morning shopping at Mongkok and Langham Place. Shops were barely open.. 11am.
-Walked around Festival Walk (nearby shopping mall), lunch at Garden Cafe (hostel's eatery).
-Bus to airport, lunch at Popye's fast food, shopping at Disney souvenir shop.
-Boarded flight home to Singapore...
-Arrived in Singapore at 8pm to the welcoming arms of our families...
What did I buy?
-Watch from ICH
-2 LED Torches
-Wristband
-Cowboy hat
-DC-3 model aircraft
-Reebok shoes
-Laosmiddle sling bag
-20 small keychains
-Pants from Esprit
-2 caps
-2 belts
-2 pendants
-2 leather keychains
-Lao Po Bing, pastries
-Group photo from Madame Tussuad's Wax Musuem
In addition to really cool 'famous chair' models given by a HK lecturer. I got the BARCELONA CHAIR! Woo~
jOhn thought at 8:40 AM
