Here is what I managed on day 5 (Wednesday):
Dropped off laundry around the corner. Even though they spoke English, I’m not sure what the price is – it sounded expensive as I wasn’t sure if she was quoting me a per-pound price or not (it turned out to be reasonable, HK$42/US$5.40 for a few pounds of laundry, possibly up to 7 pounds).
Ate tasty dim sum at a resto called Dimdimsum Dim Sum Specialty that I found on openrice (a user resto review site, like Yelp) in Mong Kok (Kowloon). By oneself is not the optimal way to enjoy dim sum, as it’s meant to be shared, but I won’t let that stop me.
Walked around Tsum Sha Tsui a bit and stumbled on the (in)famous Chungking Mansion, a group of highrise apartment buildings that contain a lot of cheap guesthouses and hostels. I’m glad I chose Causeway Bay, even if my room more expensive. Area feels a little dodgy, but most annoying are the Indian touts (“SIM card!?”) who get a little too in your face compared to the rest of the city. The ground floor of the mansion is like walking through Little India (inc. Indian food) where you can apparently buy just about anything you want… That and there is only one little elevator for about 8 floors), which makes it very slow, especially when people have luggage. Interestingly, a monitor on the ground floor next to the elevators showed the elevator-cam images.
HK Space Museum – interesting exhibits, though I only perused the ground floor. It was free museum entrance day (Wednesday), so it was probably busier than usual and I didn’t wait in lines for the little interactive things. I’d go back and spend more time there on a future trip.
Avenue of Stars – like Hollywood Boulevard (i.e. stars and hand/foot prints of local movie stars embedded in the sidewalk) but much more scenic, as it is on the waterfront promenade looking directly south over the harbour at “Hong Kong” (vs Kowloon). There is also a statue of Bruce Lee (the only statue of an artist).
HK Museum of Art – skimmed this since it was free (you’d have to be an art junkie to appreciate it more, I think, or have specific art interests that match their collection)
I did a 1hr45min buffet dinner cruise harbour tour (which I had bought on groupon.co’s HK site a week before my trip). I chose the 17:45 sailing since I wanted to see both day and night views of Hong Kong and Kowloon. It was sprinkling a bit, but the view was still good and I got to see more than just on the ferry crossing, as it went deeper into
the harbour. The buffet was better than I expected from reviews, with lots of seafood. The boat was only 1/4 full – I’d hate to see the buffet lines if it was completely full. Oh and a live “band consisting of a guy on keyboards, a tambourinist (is that a word?) and a singer, playing recognizable Western songs, albeit a little lounge lizardy.
I sat at a round 10 person table with 2 nice Filipino women (and the
daughter of one of them) who have been living in HK for 20 years, both married to locals. They were supposed to be a bigger group of coworkers, but a few people couldn’t make it. They even bought me 2 drinks, which was a pleasant surprise.
