[HK] Day 2 14/11/2004
General November 26th, 2004 @ 0803h
14/11/2004 ? Sunday
I couldn?t really sleep well the previous night. I am sure I was pretty tired. But I woke up a few times in the night. As my bed was just beside the window and my bed was in the upper part, I was very worried that my phone will just slip out and fall down, to its doom.
As time passed it was soon 6 am. I woke up just in time as Eamon did. After a quick wash-up I was at the dining table again. Only to discover food, Dim Sum. As you know I am one who doesn?t have or rather doesn?t have the habit of having breakfast in the morning. As Eamon?s mum asked me to eat more, I wondered what?s so famous about Hong Kong?s Dim Sum? Don?t they taste the same back in Singapore too?
It was Sunday. The streets were deserted. There was no morning rush. There was no hurry to wake up to get work. There was no hurry to get to school. And there was only hurry for us to get the school.
When we reached school, we split into our ?groups?. I learnt about the experiences of others in their home stay families. We all had fun I guessed. And soon the bus was here to take us on a one day tour around Hong Kong,
The first stop was at Wang Da Xian (王大仙). It is a very famous temple in Hong Kong. People go there for the ?first joy-stick? during Chinese New Year. According to Miss Liu, the teacher in charge of group 6 who turned out to be a free tour guide, the temple was renovated. I was kind of shocked to find bricks in the temple?s structure. And she explained to us how dragons came about and some other histories.
Our next stop was the Avenue of Stars which you can find on the walkway, the hand prints of many Hong Kong celebrities. But before that, we diverted our journey a bit off to look at Victoria harbour opposite us. You can see Hong Kong Island?s business district. The view is magnificent. And there was a clock tower which saw through War World II when the Japanese destroyed the train station there. After some photo taking we went to the avenue of stars. Sad to say, I can?t recognize more than half of them, probably because I don?t watch much Hong Kong dramas or TV.
After a morning?s walking, it was lunch time. The venue of lunch was at a sea side restaurant at repulse bay. The Hong Kong people have a strange tradition. Whenever some one pours you tea or whenever you need to thank someone, tapping your fingers on your table and nodding your head is a sign of ?Thank you?. Also they tend to ?wash? their utensils in a cup of tea before eating. Why? I do not know.
After lunch we had a walk along the beach. The beach was filled with people from all walks of life. Just like what you would find in East Coast Park. There was a temple nearby in which fishermen prayed so as to get a safe voyage when they are out in the open sea fishing. Instead of visiting the temple, a few of us, including Miss Liu, were throwing stones into the sea to see who could throw the furthest or who could make the stone skid on water. It was pretty funny.
We were on to stanley-murray house next. Murray House used to be located in Central, on the Bank of China Tower site. When the bank was built in the 1980′s, the building was dismantled in 1982 and reassembled in Stanley. The building now contains shops and restaurants. You can find more information at http://www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/hk-stanley.htm. There was nothing for me to buy. In the end, we walked into some kind of a bazaar. I bought a stamp which had one of the twelve animals of Chinese Zodiac. I chose the Snake and the Sheep and had the person carve my and my brother?s names on it. I was only to find out later that he carved the wrong name on the wrong stamp.
After that was a long ride all the way to The Peak. As the name implies, it?s the peak of a certain mountain. The bus ride was around 45 minutes. The view from the peak was magnificent. You could feel the winds. And along the way up my ears felt weird, signaling pressure change. We spent a while there, capturing photos. And soon we were on our way to the place where the 1997 ceremony for reunion of Hong Kong with Mainland China took place. I can?t remember the name of that place though. And there we were to meet out Shanghai counterparts for the first time.
As the bus drove towards the destination with haste, I was worried again. I was afraid that they would be as how Mr. Kiw, commonly known as ?Molecule? or simply ?The Q? has said. They would be those who would talk all the time about politics. But as far as I had interacted with them, I did not feel that way.
And after the meeting, Eamon, Billy (From Shanghai) and me were all getting along pretty well. We talked lots. And we were having dinner.
After dinner, we were on a ferry ride around Victoria Harbour to look at Night time Hong Kong. The winds on the deck were cool and kind of chilly. The view of night time Hong Kong was pretty. It is pretty similar to Singapore?s though. There was a sort of Starbucks-styled ?restaurant? onboard and we had coupons entitling us to a small snack drink. After an hour ride with a lot of flashes from cameras and bone chilling wind, we got off the ship and back to PLKNPLC to get back to home.
Eamon?s mum instead of bringing Billy and me home, brought us to Mongkok (旺角) and we walked around Women?s Street (女人街) and I had a first look at the stalls similar to our Chinatown (though ours was meant for tourists, theirs was meant for everyone else). I also had a look at their parking system. They do not use parking coupons. They use their Octopus Card as a mean of payment and they have to punch in something to a small machine at the side of the road to specify how long they were going to park etc.
And soon we were back to Eamon?s house again. And this time, I was already very tired. And after washing up, me and Billy slept in Eamon?s room while poor Eamon had to sleep in the living room, on a sofa that apparently is also a bed. (Billy slept naked XD)
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