HK. august 23-25, 2008

as the typhoon lifted in manila on august 21, it traveled to Hong Kong on august 22; thus, canceling our flight and postponing it till further notice. our 4 day-3 night stay turned into a 3 night-2 day stay at the marco polo hongkong hotel.

as if having our trip lessened by one day wasn't disastrous enough, i just had to slip on the bathroom floor and hit the wall face-first. so, the whole time i was in HK (till now actually), i bear an evidence of what happened the night before i left for HK - a black eye.

when we reached naia 2, the lady in the check-in counter was nice enough to ask a guy to escort me to their clinic to issue a quarantine clearance letter for my eye.

august 23, 2008 - arrived at HK approx. 10am. walked around harbour city while waiting for our room. ate lunch at the food court. took the ferry to central ifc mall to meet up with gilbert and emma.
walked around central a bit and ended up staying at fairwood for the rest of the afternoon. it was pretty cool listening to gilbert, emma, and achi's conversation - the language shifted from english to mandarin to cantonese to japanese. it was pretty awe-inspiring to listen to them juggle from one language to another.

we walked emma to her bus stop. gilbert rode the bus with us back to tsim sha tsui. then we headed off to temple st., ladies' market, mongkok. it was actually my first time to go to HK's night market, so it was a thrilling experience. i enjoyed looking at tables that were scattered in the streets, just like the ones we see in TV series.

august 24, 2008 - achi, gilbert, and emma went to lantau to meet some of emma's colleagues. i asked to be left behind. instead, i joined the half-day city tour. we went to aberdeen court (jumbo floating restaurant), victoria's peak, and a jewelry shop called JC. after the tour, bryan (our tour guide) and i got off granville st., as the bus and my other tour mates were going to HK disneyland. bryan left me at a corner since he still had to go to his office and gave me directions on how to go back to the hotel. but being someone who is bad with directions, i THINK i turned right when he mentioned left, or something like that. but i ended up in a street full of stores, and that made me one happy camper. :)
brands such as bossini, giordano, g2000, and levis are a must-by when you go to HK. they're cheaper compared to the PI. :)
after my shopping spree, i took my time and went to central via ferry. i wanted to have a glimpse of what HK sundays looked like. there were two bridges that connected the landmark to the central ferry station, bus stations, etc. but what really caught my eye was that the bridge i was walking across was diverse - americans, chinese, indians, etc. - while the other bridge was, lo and behold, filled with filipinos. i crossed over to the other bridge, just out of curiosity, and saw that there were PNB stalls, lottery tickets on sale, and even piolo pascual's poster was there. the place was surrounded by filipinos. it was packed. so that's how the OFW's spend there sunday afternoons in HK. :)
achi and gilbert came back to the hotel at 7:30pm. achi bought food from the food court while gil and i watched the closing ceremonies of the beijing olympics 2008. i'm so proud of china :) hee hee :)

august 25, 2008 - ate breakfast at sweet dynasty. checked out of the hotel and went to causeway bay to meet up with gil. walked around for a while and had lunch at east lake (yam cha). went to sogo and bought some stuff. we had to leave at 4pm, and so we parted ways with gil at the causeway bay MTR station. *sniff sniff* waited for the airport shuttle at the hotel and left HK at 9pm.