20 Sep Wednesday

JT and me were too tired and overslept only to wake up 'in a shock' at 8.30am, with the other 2 knocking on our door, ready to set off. With the speedy wash up, we set off around 9am+ for our breakfast at Temple Street ����.

As we stepped out from Yau Ma Tei exit C, we started searching around for this famous Mido Cafe �������� (oftenly shown on hk drama serials ... appeared in recent �Ƶ���� which they called it �������� instead) located at 63 Temple Street. I was looking out for cornered shop with green window grilles cos I'm the only one who had 'seen' the shop. After much failure attempts, I approached a nearby 7-11 along the same street for direction whom surprising none of the staffs heard of the cafe name. So we were on our own again and continued from the way we came until we FINALLY FOUND IT!!! It was just few shops down from 7-11 and to think that they had never heard it!!!! (I tiao gang want to emphasis that :D) Note: located just opposite the Tin Hau Temple ������.

Ok, back to Mido Cafe ... we (or rather me) was so excited when we stepped into this cafe but was quite disappointed when we were told that the upper level wasn't opened yet. Nevertheless, we still choose a nice seat and ordered Ham Macaroni set ����ͨ��, Luncheon Meat Macaroni ����ͨ��, Chickenchop Macaroni ����ͨ�� and Porkchop Macaroni ����ͨ��. After our proper breakfast, we ordered the highlyly recommended ����ԧ��� which wasn't as fantastic as we thought so ... tasted more like our chendol.

Upon payment (HK$115), I approached the lady boss and asked her about the opening hour of upper level. She told me that they will only open the upper level to public at 11.30am. Who knows! (maybe I looked so sincere :P) She told me that if we like to, we could go up and have a look. I almost couldn't believe my ears cos I confirmed what I heard with her again before I told the rest the 'good' news ... hehe ...

After thanking the lady boss and was about to leave, she told us about their dinner serving time and closing hour at 9.30pm, hoping to see us again for their set dinner ... but I think we preferred to have dinner at a different place instead :D

So now to our next destination on the itinerary... Central �л� ... for The Central Mid-Levels Escalator �л�����ɽ�Զ����� which at 800m long, it is the world's longest covered escalator. It links from Des Voeux Road Central ���ҵ��� to Conduit Road �ɵµ�. As the escalator only run one-way downhill from 6am to 10am, and then uphill from 10:20am to midnight, as advised by HKTA website, we should take that after 9am when the morning rush hour is over. Anyway by the time we reached Central, it's 10pm+ liao.

We started off going through the shops and markets at Li Yuen Street East and West ��ԭ���ּ����� before arriving at the long long escalator. After which we stopped by at the SoHo ������ʳ�� and went towards Lan Kwai Fong ���� which was a quiet place during the day.

As we walked along Stanley St ʿ������, we chanced upon this herbal teashop ������ and decided to take a break there. Each of us ordered a herbal drink, while PL ordered "Tortoise Jelly" ���߸� and AG ordered Almond Paste ���ʺ�.

After the dessert (HK$78), we noticed a boutique directly opposite which ended up as a killer to us cos we bought a lot of clothes there at their low pricings.

It was 1.30pm+ by the time we stepped out from the boutique and were quite hungry then. JT suggested having lunch at a famous Yung Kee Restaurant �޼� which specialised in roasted pigeon ���, where none of us know the exact location. After the directions given by the salegirl of that boutique, we headed up straight to Wellington St. ����ٽ�, passing the distinctive street of stone-slab steps of Pottinger St ����է��.

After walking up so many steps, we were super hungry and tired by the time we reached Yung Kee Restaurant. While waiting for our order, we saw someone familiar ... and oh my! ��һ�� (of ����) was there with 2 others dunno-who too!

After our satisfying late lunch (spent around HK$95), we roamed around that area again and starting seaching for this famous tea stall ����԰. It seems that the OLs/OBs on the streets of Central were not so approachable until we went into a nearby office building and approached their friendly and helpful receptionist and security guard for direction. Sadly to say that none of them know where Gage St. ��־�� was but when we mentioned ����԰ which sell ˿���̲� with stall on a slope, they could immediately point out the direction to us. With the given direction, we finally found it just at a turn from the corner further down.

Though we were full from our lunch taken not long ago, but given the excuse of energy used for slope walking and searching through the streets, and being one of the main teahouses where we die die oso must go, we couldn't care much about our stomach and went ahead to the tea stall. While figuring out how were we going to sit on the only 3 stools available at the stall, we were led by their friendly staffs to their seating teahouse just behind the stall. We were quite welcomed by the staffs the moment we stepped in ... dunno why ... cos they kept talking to us, finding out where we were from lah, how easy it was for Singaporeans cos we knew so many basic languages lah, the currency exchange rate lah, blah blah blah ... until I dun think I remembered how the 'stockling' milk tea ˿���̲� and toasted bread we ordered tasted like ... hmmm??? Since they were so friendly, we also take the chance to take shots inside their shop and even at their counter ... hahahaa ... well ... we were tourists wat!

It was 4pm+ then and our next destination was to the Victoria Peak ̫ƽɽ��. I returned back to ����԰ for direction to the bus terminus where it could take us to the Lower Peak Tram Station ɽ������վ. The friendly staff pulled my hand and showed me where to take a cab instead, which cost only HK$20 up to the Upper Peak Tram Station ɽ������վ since it could be easily shared by the 4 of us. Super friendly sia :P However in the end we just took the cab to the Lower Peak Tram Station instead which cost only HK$15 cos we wanted to exprience the tram ride. Upon reaching at the gantry, a familiar figure caught our sight ... Jackie Chan!!! Not the real person but a wax figure ... but it's incredibling real lor ... As the tram was reaching to the terminus soon, we quickly tabbed our octopus card and went in to wait for the tram. Extra info: HK$20 for ride up. HK$10 will be reimbursed for the ride down.

We standby-ed in a nice position for a while so as to take some quick shots when the tram was approaching ... well ... we were not the only one doing that :P Upon boarding the tram, we realised that the flooring was unusually waved ... quite difficult to walk ... but might be to served as a safety precaution for some gravity pull or whatever during the ride cos when the tram was going up the slope, I felt as if my neck was going to break. The gravity pull was exceptionally great when the tram was going up at a steep angle of 60 degree (I think). Anyway it was an awesome ride.

We reached the peak after the 5-10mins ride. A weird feeling when we alighted as we still had not 'recovered' from the steep slope ride. We went straight to the top of the Peak Tower to have a panorama view of Hong Kong Island, the harbour, Kowloon and the hills beyond. All the while we were a group of hyperactive tourists but when JT and me was at the top, we were quite �� ... reason being ... we were afraid of height!!! ( _ _ ) Both of us tried to stay away from the railings while the other 2 were taking pix non stop at the top. After waiting for a while, the 2 of us decided to go back into the tower for some souveniers shopping while that 2 were STILL taking pix @_@

We walked out of the tower and started taking the peak walk which seems easy from the walking route given on the HKTA web for better scenery views. After a long walk, we realised we were the only 4 there. Since the air is fresher up hill, we decided to walk on to embrace the mother nature and went in search of ... superstar's houses? ... Tony Leung or Andy Lau?? hahaha ... dreaming ... As we came to a junction where it seems nothing much ahead, we decided to walk back. The returning route was more tedious cos it was up the slope ... AGAIN!

By the time we reached back to the tower, we were very tired liao. After refreshing ourselves and taken pix with the wax figures of Bruce Lee and dunno-who, we proceeded to go opposite to the Peak Galleria for a different angle view at their top and also for some window shopping.

As we came out from the Peak Galleria, not knowing what to do next, my eyes caught sight of a big Hello Kitty balloon which attracted me to it :D This big balloon was actually belonged to the ice cream shop Gino's Gelato behind it. This was an interesting ice cream shop. As we had no idea which flavour to choose, the cute guy kept scooping small tea spoon of different flavours for us to taste and choose ... and it's absolutely FREE!! (our local ice cream shops never offer such service) ... cos I think the amount of ice cream we tried could have accumulated to a scoop or 2. So we (or rather me ... hehe) jokingly teasted him that we were full and so no intention to buy liao ... hahahaa ... well ... with such cute guy around ... we were not that 'cruel' lah :D So after ordering 3 scoops of dunno-wat flavours, I requested to take a pix with him and he was so ON! ... hehe ... think I only dare to do such thing overseas cos no one knows me there :P

Actually the air at the Peak was quite chilling cold then, but it was a nice experience to eat ice cream at such atmosphere ... haha ... So after our chilling dessert, it was around 7pm then. We decided to head down to Li Yuen St. East again to buy the bag that I spotted in the morning before we returned back to our hotel and left for dinner elsewhere.

The ride back down was quite fast due to gravity pull. As we reached back to the Lower Peak Tram Station, we took some shots with Jackie Chan's wax figure which we didn't have the chance to do so earlier on.

And soon we took a cab back down to Li Yuen Street and look for the stall I saw in the morning. The old lady must be too happy to see us as we bought almost HK$500 worth of bags from her cos she kept smiling away and willing to give us lots of discount :-)

As we had too many barangs on hand, we went back to our hotel rooms to put down our barangs and rest a while before we set off to Temple Street (again) for our late dinner and night market shoppings.

There was a big contrast of the day and night of Temple Street. It was rather quiet where you could hardly see any soul walking around during the day. The night however was full of activities. Other than the numerous nightclubs around, there were lots of eating houses selling claypot rice.

Not knowing which to choose, we just tried our luck in one of them since we were hungry liao cos it's about 9pm+ then. However the table given to us was rather bad ... or extremely bad ... it was beside a very dusty aircon compressor. I was quite scare of this area cos maybe I watched too much of the late 90s' Young and Dangerous movies (�Ż���) series. So I was quite afraid to leave the place as we had already seated down. Anyway we proceeded to leave the place after much hesitation but was called back by 2 of their staffs ... suggesting us to go upstairs for more choices of tables and there was tv available too. So we thought should be fine and went up. It was much better there but still not up to our expectation, in terms of cleanliness. Nevertheless, we just placed our orders and hopefully the meal could atone for that. But who knows this dinner was the worst dinner of our trip cos the dishes were either too salty or overcooked. Somemore I still felt quite uneasy cos there came a big group of funny hairstyled young chaps and a young girl. They looked like those in high school age. It wasn't until another big group of 2-3 families with kid came in that I felt safer :P Anyway, we made our way out as soon as we finished our meal and foot the bill of HK$104 ... mai tu liao (dun delay in hokkien).

Hmm ... if we reached there much earlier, we would have chosen Mido Cafe which was on the same row, just 2-3 shops away.

Anyway after the dinner we din really shop much at the Temple Street. The stalls along the Temple Street towards Public Square St. �ڷ��� was opened concept with only a table and some simple set up. It's different from the other side of the Temple Street leading from Kansu St. ����� to Nanking St. �Ͼ���.

There was a very interesting lane Market St. ���н� just infront of the Tin Hau Temple where 2 rows of chinese fortune telling and tarot cards reading stalls were set up side by side along the whole stretch of both sides of the street. As we moved along, we saw a set up where some aunties and uncles were enjoying themselves singing away with band of their own (just like those scenes from �²�����). After recce-ing around the Temple Street, we realised nothing much there as compared to Ladies' Market, and so we decided to head off to Ladies' Market again.

Even though we were there the night before, we were still able to buy some more stuffs there :P After roaming around some shops along Nathan road, we finally settled down inside a popular dessert shop ����ɽ which branches were easily seen everywhere. However this was the only dessert shop where they prohibited us from taking pix (shit! cos my other friends who went to other branches could do so). Anyway, that night dun seems too smooth for us cos some dessert that we wanted to try were sold out ... so sad :(

It wasn't until 12.30pm that we were back at the hotel lobby again. Though we were very tired (but not as tired as the nite before), we were still very happy cos we had covered quite a lot of places and bought a lots of stuffs. After our daily routine of gathering in our room, we went to sleep near 3am AGAIN!!!

My ս��Ʒ of the day

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