HK Day 3 The Peak

Wednesday 28th, Day 3.  Humidity: 77 degrees

Today we went to see The Peak.  It was a much anticipated visited especially after the Kylie Chan books.  Along the way we joked about the possibility of seeing dragons circling around the Chen apartment! 

From Yau Ma Tei MTR, we caught the train to Central.  It was a long and uphill walk from Central to the Peak terminal.  Not fun.  The queue for the Peak tram was quite short; trams come every 8 minutes so we didn't have long to wait.  Ant cleverly figured out we had to sit on the right hand side for the best view and he was right.

Peak Tram

The tram ride itself was uphill as well which I found uncomfortable because of the steepness of the hill.  Once we disembarked, we went through the shopping village where there were lots of traditional clothing and costume jewellery on display.  We found a stamp/ chop shop where Ant purchased one with two entwined dragons.  The chops are custom-made within 30minutes with any text and Ant opted to have his last name on it. 

Looking for Mr Chen's apartment!

Then we went to the Sky Terrace which showed breathtaking views of the whole city.  In addition to asking other tourists to take our picture, we ended up taking lots of pictures for people as well.

Peak Tower

Lunch was at Bubba Gump after a quick browse and purchase of two cups at the souvenir shop.  There was a room in the Bubba Gump restaurant decorated exactly like the Gump living-room and furnished with tables and chairs for customers.  There were lots of still shots and quotes all over the walls of the restaurant too.  Lunch was expensive and cost the equivalent of dinner at the Laurel.  The food was good though!

Bubba Gump

Bubba Gump

After picking up Anthony's chop from the souvenir shops, we caught the tram back to the Peak terminal and walked to Central Station.  We meant to go to Wan Chai too to check out some electronic shops but we were too tired to remember.  Instead, we came back to the Hotel to rest our calve muscles.

Tsim Sha Tsui promenade

At 6pm we made our way back from Yau Ma Tei MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui for the light show on the promenade.  When we left the Hotel this morning, there was a sign saying there was a Level 1 Typhoon warning.  When we returned at 5pm for a short rest, the warning had been upgraded to a Level 3.  This meant it was incredibly windy at the Promenade.  Coupled with light rain, it wasn't very nice weather to be outside.  At about 7:30pm, an announcement came over the loudspeaker at the Promenade to say the light show had been cancelled due to bad weather.  Ant and I then had to find our way back to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR which was easier said than done.  After entering the subway and walking around in both directions, we eventually found the MTR right next door!  The subway station apparently is just a bus terminal.  

Dinner was at Hot Chilli again; turns out it's not called Hot Chilli but something else in Chinese.  This is why we couldn't find the restaurant last night; because we were looking for a restaurant that didn't exist!

When we returned to the hotel we were feeling rather adventurous so decided to find the elusive pool and gym that was mentioned in the Hotel's promotional spiel but we had yet to find.  The ad said it was on level 4 and 2 but all we found was an empty floor on level 4 and the meeting room on level 2.  After following the signs in the hotel lobby, we discovered the pool and gym belonged to the YMCA attached to the back of the hotel.  It also had the ticket booth to the double decker tourist bus that we had seen driving around.  Who knew!

Tomorrow morning we plan to have more restful activities to give our poor calf muscles time to recover.