Christmas Eve @ Hong Kong

Day 2, 24 Dec 2004, Friday
Nathan Road 彌敦道 (Shopping, shopping and shopping), Jordan Road 佐敦道, Food. French Toast 多士 @ 翠華餐廳, Dinner at One Peking 北京道一号, Tsim Sha Tsui East 尖东, More Food! Walnut Dessert 杏仁糊@大良八記, Fish ball 炸绫鱼球 @ roadside stall, "Turtle Jelly" 海天堂鮮製龜苓膏

The second day started with breakfast (bacon instant noodle 火腿公仔麵 and Wonton noodle) at some local coffee shop 源記粉面茶餐廳. 火腿公仔麵 wasn't something spectacular in retrospect, but that's something we dont quite often get locally. At 12.30pm, we decided to continue the trail from yesterday: to cover Nathan road and Jordan Road, and to extend the walk up to Yao Ma Tei and Mong Kok and end at the Ladies Market - this combined 5.6km route takes approximately 1+2½=4 hours, according to Steve Fallon in his Lonely Planet Hong Kong & Macau Guide. However, little did he know this: walking with one's girlfriend around the 'golden-mile' shopping area at Tsim Sha Tsui during an island-wide sale will result in covering the half the route in double the time. Of course, yet another fact he failed to account for is someone like me that stops every other 100 meters to take photographs. (I took >1300 photos in 5 days, not withstanding some lost photo opportunities when all three of my camera batteries ran dried while we're at Causeway Bay one afternoon!)

Anyway, it was good that we did most of our shopping that afternoon and had the remaining few days reserved for sight-seeing. The shopping therapy ended around 5+pm when we found 翠華餐廳 at Jordan Road. This is one restaurant that Stephen recommended for their 冻奶茶. We ordered a french toast set from the tea-time menu. Again, it was great food! *yummy* Rejuvenated from the quick bite, we headed back to the hotel via MTR at 6.15pm - we were to meet Stephen and his girlfriend Jo Jo for dinner at 7.30pm.

The crowd started to build up around 7 p.m. at Canton Road, where Andy Lau's Christmas Countdown Concert will be held. All major roads in Tsim Sha Tsui had been closed from traffic in anticipation of the crowd for Christmas countdown at various spots of Tsim Sha Tsui. It took us 15 minutes (!) to walk from Hoiphong Road to Peking Road, a block's distance of less than 50 metres. Walk is not quite the right word because you simply don't - you just get pushed by the flow of people from one end of the walkway to the other.

Having gotten passed the crowd, we met Stephen and Jo Jo at a Shanghainese vegetarian restaurant at One Peking Road for dinner. It was no doubt a great place to be at! We were seated near the windows overlooking the highrises in Hong Kong Island. From there, we had a totally unobstructed view of the nightly light and fireworks show across the sea at Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong Island. Good company, mouth-watering dinner, spectacular view... what more can one ask for a Christmas Eve dinner! Thanks Stephen and Jo jo!!

We headed for Avenue of Stars 星光大道 after dinner, walking passed the famous Peninsula Hotel, thinking to view the lightings and christmas decorations across the harbour at Hong Kong Island. However, barricades were set up literally all over Tsim Sha Tsui for crowd control and there was no way for us to get there. (As a matter of fact, we were just a sliding door away from Avenue of Stars at New World Center, not knowing that the only way to get there that night was via Star Ferry Terminal. That will take at least 30 minutes away by foot, if we could ever get past the crowd before us). So, we headed to the direction of Tsim Sha Tsui East and finally ended the stroll for dessert near Canton Road at 大良八記. The warm meshed almond 杏仁糊 is superb! We bit farewell to Stephen and Jo jo after the supper and continued strolling. And of course more food after that - Fried fish ball 炸绫鱼球 from a roadside stall and Turtle Jelly(?) 龜苓膏 at Hoi Ting Tong 海天堂! (author's note: it seems inevitable that references to food overwhelms this post - Yen and I had been eating almost all the time when we're awake!)