About The Pearl (Part 2)

As promised, here's the photo journal of my Hong Kong trip. Heh... Unfortunately, since PL and I are both certified camera whores, it's taking me forever to resize the pics... Which means I'll hafta upload the files in batches.

DAY 1 - THURSDAY, 4 AUGUST, 2005


I was so bored on the flight up, I started watching my toenails grow. Which wasn't a bad way to pass the time, since I'd just gotten a pretty french pedicure. Heh...


PL evidently thought toenail watching was a pretty cool form of entertainment, since she decided to join in. To the bemusement of the ah-mah (Meaning old lady...) sitting next to us, we happily spent the last half hour of our flight snapping pictures of our wriggling toes. :P


Finally, 11.15am, we touch down at Hong Kong International Airport... Read my post on how we spent the rest of our 1st day in the Pearl of the Orient here...
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DAY 2 - FRIDAY, 5 AUGUST, 2005


On the hotel's shuttle bus to Causeway Bay...


PL revealed an obsession with maps that lasted throughout our holiday...


Totally amused at PL's anal retentiveness, I yanked her in for a shot of the both of us as we took the elevator down to the train station... By the way, I love my new pink-tinted sunnies, even though they're so Jessica-Simpson-Wannabe-ish. :P


We thought it'd be cool to mark our trip with shots of all the train stations we commuted between. #1 - Tung Low Wan aka Causeway Bay. A place that screamed Gu Wak Zhai (A slang meaning gangster guy...) since I was a fan of those damn "Young & Dangerous" movies. Hehehe.
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#2 - Sham Shui Po. Home to all the wholesalers of the fashion and apparel industry.


Despite the numerous shops and stalls, Sham Shui Po was quite a letdown. Most places - those that were willing to sell us singular pieces of clothes - required us to place orders for what we wanted, and no one allowed us to try anything on.


How the heck do you buy jeans without trying them on?! PL managed to. I left with nothing more than a couple of belts. Tired from the horrendously humid heat, we stopped for a quick cigarette before we zipped off to our next shopping destination.


You know the problem when it's just 2 people travelling? You end up taking a lot of those "mesh-your-faces-together-and-hold-the-camera-in-front-of-you" type of photos. Look at PL's sunnies'... Her arms stretched out in front of her made her look like she's got beams growing outta her eyes. *snorts*


I was kinda impressed with the techie and funky decor of this Chinese tea shop... Looks more suited to a Prescriptives or Clinique counter, don't you think?


#3 - Tsim Sha Tsui.


We spent an hour wandering around... Ok, ok, we got kinda lost! Thankfully, PL and her ever-present map (Actually, she had at least 4 maps in her bag at any 1 time!) helped us find the street we were looking for. Lotsa funky shops and eateries. Lotsa money spent.


For some reason, I found this huge billboard kinda spastic. I mean, what the hell does "Jackie Chan Sport" mean? Kung fu? *rolls eyes*


8 solid hours of shopping later, we decide to head back for a swim and to prepare for a nice night out.


#4 - Tin Hau. The train station that was across the street from our hotel. Just as well, since I was pooped!
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I found out that the only way to make it seem that I have a cleavage when I'm wearing my bikini is... To squish my boobs together when taking a picture. :P Hah!


Night view of the Hong Kong skyline, taken from the rooftop pool at our hotel. We enjoyed a similar view from our room... I can't even begin to describe what a kick it was to be able to fling open the curtains and be greeted by such a sight. :)


Omigawd. I posted up this shot for 1 reason and 1 reason alone. I look so damn toned! It's like I have muscles! Hahaha...


These floaties belonged to a little Italian girl learning how to swim. I thought they were kinda cute and tried to persuade PL into stealing em before we ran off to the sauna.


She was, however, too busy lolling around in the jacuzzi, pretending to be a prawn being boiled in a steamboat... Yes, my best friend has a warped sense of humour sometimes.


The bloody sauna turned out to be a little wooden box with a very biiiiiig coal oven. We lasted all of 10 minutes before we tumbled out huffing and panting from the heat.


The heat affected us more than I thought, because we started making alien faces into the lens and blinding ourselves with the camera flash...


Isn't it amazing how similar people can look when their facial features are blurred out by blinding white light? :P
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PL and I then proceeded to shower and doll ourselves up for a night out on the town. Don't we look pweeeeeeeety? *grin*


#6 - Central. The heart of Hong Kong's CBD. After a very tiring hike up a very steep road, we found ourselves at...


Lan Kwai Fong. Apparently the place to be on Friday and Saturday nights. Unfortunately, lots of other people thought so too, since every single place we passed was packed to the brim. A couple of hot, sweaty roundabouts later, we decided to walk down and look for a club called Drop... Which, according to this website, was at 39 to 43 Hollywood Road.

20 frustrating minutes later, PL and I found ourselves staring incredulously at a Chinese medical hall with that same address. Wtf?!?!?! We gave up. As I was ready to kill for a Lychee Martini, we settled for a funky, quiet pub called Lush.


Which turned out to be a pretty good choice since we both got kinda smashed. 5 Lychee Martinis later, we stumbled out and treated ourselves to a cheese-filled, half-foot long hot dog each. *burrrrrrrp*


We giggled the entire trip back. So much so, I think we distracted the cabbie with our babbling... He ended up missing our hotel totally so we had to walk about 100m to get back. Not that we minded. The Lychee Martinis in our system made everything good and fun. *cackle* :P


Even this stupid tree growing sideways and blocking the entire pavement was funny in my alcohol-induced euphoria.


Hotel, sweet hotel. Woooooooot!


1 more shot... Of our reflections in the lift before we collapse for the day. Talk about packing a shitload into a single day huh? Can... you... imagine... what... the... rest... of... our... trip... was... like?

Zzzzzz...