27 March 2011
Central, briefly
This evening I decided to head on the subway over to Hong Kong isaland, to Central.
Once I got there, I had a bit of a walk around, this is the area popular with tourists frightened of chinese food.
Its full of places like outback steakhouse, woolomooloo steakhouse, fish and chippery, gourmet burger king, pizza express etc.
I was quite bored here, I had no desire to look in H&M or Marks & Spencer, I have seen enough of those whilst in London, so I wandered back to the waterfront and caught the star ferry back to Kowloon.
If you are staying in Hong Kong, I think I definitely have to recommend staying on the Kowloon side rather than the Hong Kong island side. I guess it only makes about 3 minutes difference because the subways are so frequent, but you do tend to wander the streets around your hotel a lot (or I do anyway), and the Kowloon side is a lot more interesting to me, that sure was a long sentence, I better end it now.
On the way back to the star ferry terminal, I went through this low class shopping mall. I was confused as it was full of women, all I presume Phillipino.
Turns out this mall is full of remittance agents, for all the live in maids to send all their below minimum wage earnings back to their home countries to feed their families.
Despite that, one thing that stood out was how happy these women all were, singing, laughing, smiling, hugging each other etc.
Sitting just outside this mall, they all set up little cardboard cities, where they seem to play games and eat. I dont know if they stay there overnight, some of them had quite a bit of stuff there with them. Maybe this is the area where those looking for a new owner sit?
I love the star ferry, it amazes me that it costs only 30 cents to ride across the Harbour.
To ride across Sydney harbour, which is about half as wide, costs at least $5.
Yes, another photo of this building, and the tethered DHL hot air balloon, I predict that will be the last photo I take of it this trip.
By sheer coincidence, I found myself in the same foodcourt as my last visit. Last time I had pepper lunch.
This time, I wanted dumplings.
That fellow in front of me is American, and probably about 60. he was there with his boyfriend, and they were quite funny, asking a lot of questions of the girl serving them like 'is this meal suitable for a couple of cute old sea dogs like us?'
Here it is, boiled mystery dumplings (they were very nice), with hot and sour soup (a soup thickened with egg whites) and steamed greens.
It was very nice, and I dont have to tell you, cheap.
Tonight I decided a dessert was required, so I headed over to sweetscoop.
Most of their desserts are of Malaysian origin, at least I think they are, since the main ingredient is shaved ice.
The ice shaving machine was very industrial and dangerous looking.
Update: I have remembered the name of this, its not Ice Kacing, although it is very similar, the green worms make it something called Cendol.
And heres my dessert.