Life Without Boundaries 逍遥自在: 海港城

Showing posts with label 海港城. Show all posts

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Avenue of Star

If you come from the direction of Tsim Sha Tsui clock tower, you should be on the left of the map above. For those who more interested to take photo with their favourite artist plaque, those more modern artist is at the mid and end of the promenade. The begin of the promenade is mostly older celebrity.

I am not sure if I miss any of them, I am too tired to walk back and make sure it. Below is all the photo I took there.

This statue marks the entrance to Star Avenue.

Anita Mui statue. She is one of the most memorable star in Hong Kong entertainment industry. A singer and also an actress with numerous awards. She is not just famous in Hong Kong but I believe any country with Chinese people would hear her song or watch her movie before.

A bit sad with this plaque. Leslie Cheung, he left before leaving his hand print.

Andy Lau. Another legendary status celebrity in Hong Kong entertainment history. Andy Lau achievement is massive and he even got recorded in Guinness Book of Records "Most Award Won by a Cantopop Male Artist"

Jet Li, a martial art actor that is famous even in Hollywood. His martial art movie is remembered as one of the best in Hong Kong Movie history.

He is still alive. I guess he don't want to leave his hand print because of some superstitious old belief.

A cute piggy statue. Can guess who is this? I got visit this statue earlier at Comic Avenue.

Her hand print is so deep. Don't know is good thing or bad thing.

歌神, Jacky Cheung.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Victoria Harbour

Pre Hong Kong & Macau trip | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Comic Avenue | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Victoria Harbour | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Avenue of Star | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 2 - Wong Tai Sin & Australia Dairy Co | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 2 - Sheung Wan, Central, Wanchai, Clearwater Bay | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 2 - The Peak | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 3 - Tim Ho Wan | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 3 - Ap Lei Chau Outlet | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 4 - Macau | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 5 - Hong Kong and home

Plan for the day : Tour Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀) and walk around until my leg want to break.
Main venue : Avenue of Star(星光大道)， Victoria Harbour(維多利亞港), Harbour City(海港城), Comic Avenue(漫畫星光大道), Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower(尖沙咀鐘樓)
How to go : To go Victoria Harbour, from the MRT station exit at L6 and then walk towards 1881 Heritage direction. Follow the road till the end and you will reach a small round about full of mini buses. The Star Ferry Pier is here. And by now, you should see the sea. Walk to the promenade and find a nice spot.

After finish my walk at comic avenue, I walk around Tsim Sha Tsui till I reach Harbour City mall. Getting lost in with direction and spending some time in some of the shop doing unnecessary shopping of skin care product in Sasa. I wonder why without me noticing, I have bought RM 600 worth of skin care product and the sales girl is not really that pretty or my cup of tea either. Anyway, shop in Hong Kong is mainly pharmarcy, skincare or beauty product, jewellery shop, dried seafood herb shop and branded shop. For Pharmacy, mainly it is Manning (HK version of Guardian), Watson. Skincare and beauty product shop is mainly Sasa, Bonjour, Colormix, Angel Cosmetic and Aster. Jewellery shop is mainly Chow Tai Fook, Luk Fook, Chow Sin Sheng, Jin Sui Lian, and many more. Dried seafood herb shop is opening many shop here. Main things sold are things like sea cucumber, abalone, shark fin, scallop, bird nest etc. And lastly branded shop is selling things like Channel, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, etc almost all the famous brand has a shop here.

While getting lost here, I understand why the Hong Kong shop owner change their attitude. In the past, they will look down on anyone that do not dress nicely to enter the shop. Especially tourist from China Mainland. But in recent years, China Mainland tourist is the main source of business for the shop owner. While shipping in Sasa, I seen a chinese tourist drag a luggage bag that is big enough to hide a normal adult in it. Open the luggage bag and start to order the sales assistance to fill it up with a list of item she want to purchase. There is also long queue of people outside of shop such as Louis Vuitton. The way they wish to enter the shop, it makes me wonder if LV is doing a 50% sale. But it is not. Just that these China Mainland tourist is so super rich.

Ok, enough rambling about how these people spend money to buy a HKD 30000 handbag as though it is just HKD 300.

While walking at Harbour City mall, I pass by this Le Cafe de Joel Robuchon. For anyone who wonder what so special about this cafe, it is one of the cafe open by a famous Michelin chef Joel Robuchon.
More info about him at here

A simple cafe latte. The art work is not that impressive though. The art work at my neighbour table is much more impressive. But too bad, I can't thick face and ask to take the photo of that coffee.

A simple chestnut tart with a burberry on top. I like this tart as it is not too sweet and too hard to cut. A very simple combination but enough for a simple high tea.

The Cafe also have a very nice scenery view of the Tsim Sha Tsui pier. As seen above, it is almost sunset. Which means I need to quickly go to nearby Victoria Harbour to look for a good spot and enjoy the famous
"A Symphony of Lights" show.

Tsim Sha Tsui clock tower. A tower that has stand for a long time at this Victoria Harbour. I remember see this tower in some HK movie or TV Drama.

Found a nice spot at Victoria Harbour. The day is still early. Less crowd to fight for places. But I think better to sit here and patiently wait for the show

Took some photo while waiting, the red Chinese Vessel is a ship use by the Hong Kong Tourism Board to promote tourism. Ship name 鸭灵号. If you are interested for a ride, please check the info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duk_Ling

The show started. It is hard to actually see the whole show. As some building is behind me. And some is on my left, or right. I heard some expert tourist say this spot is better. Because more building particpating the show at Hong Kong Island. Less building at Tsim Sha Tsui here.

After finish the show, feeling is "That is all?". Yes, the show ended just like that. I don't know what am I expecting before I come to Hong Kong. But I sure feel it should be something more. Maybe if there is some fireworks, it will be better. I guess.....

Anyway, I have put a ticked to a places that I have visited before. Seen this beautiful night view.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Comic Avenue

Pre Hong Kong & Macau trip | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Comic Avenue | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Victoria Harbour | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Avenue of Star | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 2 - Wong Tai Sin & Australia Dairy Co | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 2 - Sheung Wan, Central, Wanchai, Clearwater Bay | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 2 - The Peak | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 3 - Tim Ho Wan | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 3 - Ap Lei Chau Outlet | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 4 - Macau | Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 5 - Hong Kong and home

Plan for the day : Tour Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀) and walk around until my leg want to break.
Main venue : Avenue of Star(星光大道)， Victoria Harbour(維多利亞港), Harbour City(海港城), Comic Avenue(漫畫星光大道), Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower(尖沙咀鐘樓)
How to go : From Tsim Sha Tsui MRT station Exit A1, turn left from the exit and walk straight along the road. If you pass by a mosque means you have gone wrong direction, make a U-turn. If you walk the right direction, you will see Comic Avenue on your left in the park.

The trip in the morning with me leaving the Guang Zhou city and reach Hong Kong via train. I choose train because it is safer and more comfortable. I am not sure if it is more expensive or cheaper. The train depart from Guang Zhou East Station to Hong Kong Hong Hum station.

There immigration is at the Hong Hum station. Hong Kong immigration do not stamp at the passport anymore. They will provide a small paper that stated the visa is granted for the holder and please be careful not to lose the paper.

Once come out from the station, I go to my hotel first which is very near to K11 Mall. Just a station away from Hung Hom station. Check in is a problem here. The hotel is very money minded. Early check in is not allowed at all unless you pay extra. I have requested for early check in during my booking via website but still not allowed. In the end I have not choice but to leave my luggage with the hotel people and go out.

First stop is a nearby 7 eleven for my mobile phone sim card. Although there is a free wifi in almost all the mall but these only offer 20 minutes of free wifi. But bad luck happen here, as the 7 Eleven sim card offer is only offering those with call and not mobile data. I walk a few street at Nathan road to find a telco shop. And the telco offer HKD69 for 5 days of 1.5GB data package.
(Note : Not promoting for any telco company. My personal advise is to check for the current package offer by telco when you visit Hong Kong. Because package like these will differ every period.)

Now that I have solve my most important need in this trip, mobile data anywhere, start my tour for the day. My plan for the day is to visit all the tourist spot at Tsim Sha Tsui.

First stop is the Comic Avenue. If you take the MRT to Tsim Sha Tsui MRT station, exit via A1 and then turn left. Follow the main road and you will see the Comic Avenue on your left. Although I am not die hard fans of Hong Kong comic, but I know most of the famous comic that is published by Hong Kong author. For most people, the more familiar comic is those that is converted to Hong Kong movie such as 古惑仔,风云，百分百感觉 Feel 100%, 麥兜. But most people have forget about 老夫子. Almost every Chinese people have seen a 老夫子 comic before during their toilet time or saloon time.

Cloud 步惊云 is one of the main character in the comic Wind Cloud 风云. One of the best selling comic in Hong Kong. Also created a few spinoff Movie and TV drama.

This character perhaps is less well known. But he is Wah Hero. Also have a spinoff movie by its name.

Dragon lord is less well known to non comic lover but for Hong Kong comic lover, this is a very special comic. The story is set at modern Hong Kong and is more science fantasy rather than ancient china martial art.

老夫子 in my opinion should be the most famous Hong Kong comic. Almost every chinese have read one of the comic before. Either when they are cutting their hair in saloon or doing their business in toilet.

海虎 another Hong Kong comic that is not so well known to non comic fans. But it is a best seller too. A very funny setting in the comic is the martial art mimic animal style and happen in modern age. And in order to differentiate the power of the punch, the author will say this punch has how many thousand horse power.

Chan Hou Nam 陳浩南 the main character in Hong Kong triad society comic 古惑仔. He begins as small nobody in the group 洪興. But slowly he rose to become the Godfather for this triad and lead the triad to wage war with other triad from other country. In other words, he is the Godfather of Hong Kong triad comic. The movie spinoff from this series is one of the most successful comic movie in Hong Kong film history. The comic itself also start a new trend of triad comic wave in Hong Kong.

许乐 is one of the main character in the comic Feel 100% 百分百感觉. It is one of my most love Hong Kong comic. But I damn hate the author. One year only one volume of the comic. And sometimes it took him 2 years for one volume. Anyhow I still manage to collect all the comic and still keep it as my collection.
The comic itself have a feel spin off movie but I most remember the first movie. It has the song I love the most from Sammi Cheng . This the movie Feel 100% main theme song.

龙虎门 Dragon Tiger Gate comic is the begin of the Hong Kong comic era. Before this comic, the comic industry of Hong Kong is very much influence by the Japanese comic. 黄玉郎 started to come out comic that is very cheap but only contain a few pages every week instead of months with more pages that is the standard at that time. Very fast it is selling like hot cake and become the trend in Hong Kong.

This figure may not ring a bell for most of the comic lover. Because the comic itself, character is not the only main attraction. The weapon that they use is another main attraction. The comic name is 神兵玄奇 and this comic started a trend to give free miniature replica of the weapon in the comic.

McDull is a very special figure here. From my memory, I never seen a McDull comic. McDull from what I know is a cartoon character. The story is based on the little pig and his daily life with his friend and his single mother. It created a lot of laughter and sometimes it talk about the current problem with current Hong Kong situation. A lot of the joke though only meaningful if one has a deep understanding to the chinese or cantonese word. Beside a running TV cartoon, there is alos a few movie based on this character.

While walking along Nathan road, I pass by this building. Chungking Mansion.
If just the name of the building, most people may not remember what so special about this place. But if say the movie Chungking Express 重庆森林 by with Wong Kar Wai 王家衛, starring Tony Leung 梁朝偉, Faye Wong 王菲and Takeshi Kaneshiro 金城武. The movie is mostly shot in this building secretly without permission.

But nowadays, this building is a mini world in it. One can find almost all the different country people inside. There is a lot of cheap motel operating inside the building but most advise is to stay away from staying here.

我们最接近的时候，我跟她之间的距离只有0.01公分，57个小时之后，我爱上了这个女人。 from the movie Chungking Express

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Avenue of Star

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Victoria Harbour

Monday, October 6, 2014

Hong Kong & Macau Trip - Day 1 - Comic Avenue

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