Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Hong Kong Day 1 - Dragon's Back Trail & Dinner @ Greyhound Cafe

I've finally completed clearing up all the photos I took and keeping the ones I like.

Hong Kong has been quite fun, traveling alone is a lot different, I think being a guy, you try to cover as much of your agenda as possible, I thought I'd be taking it slow during my 5 days there, but I ended up zipping from one place to another trying to cover all the things I wanted to do before my 5 days were up.


The first two highlights for day 1 started with me landing, putting my stuff down and heading to Dragon's Back to check out the trail. It was my first time trailing outside of Singapore (MacRitchie) and I wasn't sure how long I'd take before I could reach back to the hotel preferably in time to catch a sunset by the bay.


First thing's first, it's already pass the cool weather in Hong Kong, and the weather was starting to get hot here. It's not as bad as Singapore but it's close. Secondly, Dragon's Back is full of stairs, stairs stairs stairs and more stairs. I started out running up but later slowed down a lot cause I realise my tactic was failing me miserably.


It took awhile, but soon the stairs cleared and gave way to the skies and windy slopes. It was a holiday so naturally there were a lot of people along the way, making it a bit hard at times to accelerate, but that didn't matter, cause I spent a lot of time stopping to grab photos of the scenery below...and above.




Shortly after, I finally reached the Dragon's Back, I wanted to hang for a bit but I was seriously behind time, and there were way too many tourists up in the area, so I headed for the next destination - Big Wave Bay.


The run to Big Wave Bat was another grueling one for a first timer, I didn't know what to expect, plus cause I was carrying my camera and tripod in my hydration bag, all I had for water was 1.2 litres split between two plastic bottles...not enough.


Reaching at Big Wave Bay though, the scene is rather pretty, a short getaway from the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong. I'm not much of a beach person but it's cool to see how locals here escape from the stressful work life to enjoy a bit of the sun sand and sea not too far away from them.


Heading back, I took a different route, this time passing a cemetery. I was eager to take this route because I'd always wanted to physically be at a cemetery in Hong Kong, you see them stacked up hills and mountains when you watch them in movies but it's really interesting to see it in person. People really do have to scale the stairs to visit passed loved ones, including elders who brave the steps one at a time just to pay respects to people they've lost.


By the time I got the hotel, I was an hour behind time, I had given myself an hour to rest but guess what? A shower later, I had to dash out for Tsim Sha Tsui to check out the view at the Avenue of Stars.

Unfortunately the pollution in Hong Kong was pretty bad, and I didn't have the opportunity to photography a decent landscape, so I sorta gave up.

I wanted to draw both Beatrice Brontosaurus and Toby T-Rex but best part, I forgotten how to draw Toby while I was there...fail la. >.<

So Beatrice took centre stage.


Dinner was at Greyhound Cafe, a franchise from Bangkok which Colin, Hans and Hwee raved about where they were there. I've been eyeing their complicated noodles seeing how it was pretty cool, so I ordered one to have a go at it.


I SIMPLY LOVE THE COMPLICATED NOODLES! It take some time to assemble but I think that's part of the fun! You get to decide how much meat, how much sauce, how much lettuce etc to put into each bite, and they just taste fantastic!

I also ordered their fried rice, it was delicious, though not as unique, but definitely tasty!


I'll end off here, day one was a blast, I was dead tired by the time I reached the hotel to sleep, I knocked out when trying to get a 5 minute shut eye and woke up at around 5am to take my shower. Yikes.

Will blog about the other days in due time.

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