Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hong Kong Island Trip

Fifth day in Hong Kong. We spent our time to visit a few places in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. We would like to focus our sharing on three places- the Peak, Golden Bauhinia Square, and the Symphony of Light presentation. For our complete itinerary, please click here.

Our first destination of the day is The Peak (山顶 / 太平山顶) at Hong Kong Island. We found some refer The Peak as Victoria Peak. We walked from Hong Kong MTR station to Chater Garden through J2 exit. From J2, we went straight to Bank of China Tower, then towards Citibank Tower. The Peak Tram Station is located at the ground floor of the building next to Citibank Tower. It was a gloomy morning with heavy downpour. We used covered-pedestrian walkway most of the time to avoid getting wet. Lucky, we brought our umbrella, as there were some gaps between the walkway which were not well covered. We spent about 20 minutes to travel from Hong Kong MTR station to the Peak tram station. The normal fare for the tram was HKD28 per single trip or HKD40 per return trip. We used Octopus Card to pay for the tram. The journey to the Peak took about 10 minutes.

The Bank of China Tower is a prominent landmark in Hong Kong Island (upper left). Most of the walkways from Chater Garden to the tram station are built with covers (upper right). Private Banking was the sign of the tram station during our visit (lower left). We could get to the tram from the ground floor of the building.

This is how the building of the tram station looks like from a distance away.

Our photo inside the tram to the Peak. The whole journey took around 10 minutes.

More than 400 meters above sea level, the Peak is really a good location for everyone to enjoy 360 degree view over Hong Kong Island. We later discovered that instead of Peak Tower, which we always see in the advertisement and tourism booklets, there is in fact another shopping mall beside it- Peak Galleria. Peak Tower opened the top floor to the visitors with an additional of HKD29 (we could opt to buy the ticket together with the tram's ticket), while Peak Galleria offered its top floor to us free of charge. So, we chose to take the generous offer from Peak Galleria. It was extremely foggy when we reached the Peak in the morning. So, we roamed around the shopping malls, enjoyed the cooling air outside the building, and after 2 hours of waiting, the view was getting clearer and eventually, we saw view that we had expected to see.

We could see many of the skyscrapers below us from the Peak Tower.

This is how Peak Tower looks like, from Peak Galleria.

Peak Galleria has a less fancy look than its counterpart. However, it offered a free observatory platform to us. Photo taken from the exit of Peak Tower.

Hong Kong Island and Kowloon from the observatory platform of Peak Galleria.

Another side of the platform offers different view of Hong Kong.

We would like to drop few advices. To get to the Peak Tram Station, first, follow the Bank of China Tower and Citibank Tower as these two buildings are prominent and easy to recognize. The tram station is located beside Citibank Tower. Second, try not to buy the ticket to the observation platform of Peak Tower at the foot of the hill. Take a look on what Peak Galleria can offer free of charge, before you make your decision to proceed with the payment for Peak Tower. We couldn't find much choices of food at the Peak. However, Starbuck, Burger King, and a few coffee houses were there for us. By the way, not all the food and souvenirs available at the malls up there were expensive. We found that a few souvenirs sold were in fact cheaper that what we could get in Temple Street. Must visit? Definitely!

We met Bruce Lee at the Peak Tower, and he didn't mind to pose with our parents :p

After we came down from the Peak, we took the electric tram from Chater Garden to Wan Chai (弯仔). Then, we took a 15-minute walk from Wan Chai tram stop to Golden Bauhinia Square (金紫荆广场). To reach the square from Wan Chai, what we did was keep walking towards the sea (north).

This is one of the electric tram (with Picasso painted on it). We can see Chater Garden behind this tram.

Golden Bauhinia Square. We can see Kowloon commercial area far behind on the other side of Victoria Harbour.

Closer look on the sculpture of bauhinia with Hong Kong Convention Centre at the back.

Well, about Golden Bauhinia Square, there was really not much thing to see, except the 6-meter tall sculpture of golden bauhinia which was given by Central Government of China to Hong Kong on 1st July 1997, as a symbol of forever growing and prosperity. Historical value was what we could find at the square.

To be frank, the square was not an attractive site. We walked a little bit north to the esplanade by the strait to take a rest. We found that the scenery of Kowloon on the other side of the strait was much better than the square.
Kowloon from the esplanade.

We went to Causeway Bay (铜锣湾) in late afternoon, followed by Tung Choi Street (通菜街) and Ladies' Street (女人街). We took our dinner at Ladies' Street before we went to Avenue of Stars to witness the world's largest light and sound show- The Symphony of Light. For us, the avenue itself was lack of attraction, while the light and sound show was a little bit disappointing as well.

However, we would like to put things in this way- the admission for Avenue of Stars is free, so as for the show. So, if you have a night to spare, then it will do you no harm to take a leisure evening walk down the avenue and enjoy the night scenery of Hong Kong Island, then find a nice place to sit and watch the show. Well, just don't get dissapointed if you can't catch these two attractions in your itinerary.

The iconic sculpture at the entrance of Avenue of Star.

Sitting at the avenue, the night scenery of Hong Kong Island can clearly be seen.

The night scenery itself is the best part of the show.

We used MTR to go to Avenue of Stars. The avenue is just next to Tsim Sha Tsui East Station (尖东站). It can be assessed through the underground walkway from Tsim Sha Tsui Station (尖沙咀站) as well. The walk from Tsim Sha Tsui station to Avenue of Stars took us around 10 minutes. Rain started a few minutes before the show started. As we brought our umbrella with us, we won the advantage of getting a good open place to sit and watch the show, while many others were busy running and hiding to avoid getting wet. We went back to Mong Kok to continue our shopping after the show.

Sixth day, we travelled north to Shenzhen in the mainland of China. However, we would like to share about Accommodation, Food, and Shopping in Hong Kong first. Follow us now.



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Accommodation, Food, and Shopping in Hong Kong

We stayed in Bridal Tea House Hotel at Li Tak Street, Tai Kok Tsui, Kowloon (利得街, 大角咀, 九龙) for six nights (please read our post Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen Trip for our complete itinerary). Li Tak Street is around 50 meters long, with several workshops located at the sides of the street. The workshops make the street really greasy and filled with the smell of iron work.We were shocked for a moment when we saw the scene at Li Tak Street, and started thinking that the driver must had brought us to the wrong place. Then, the Bridal Tea House appeared in the middle of the street.

The hotel was small, but in good condition. We felt a bit comfortable after we realized that our room looked nice and it's bigger than we had expected (around 10 x 15 square feet). Room service, comfortable bed, tea making facility (sorry no coffee available), air conditioner, LCD flat screen TV with local channels, and hot water shower were available. When we started to explore the area in vicinity, we found many food stalls, eateries, convenient shops, and restaurants were located only one or two streets away from our hotel.

Then, on the second day, we realized that Olympic MTR Station is located just about 10 minutes of walking from our hotel. Third day, we discovered that Mong Kok MTR Station is just about 15 minutes away. Well, we would call the location strategic. FYI, the Olympic Shopping Mall is located next to Olympic station, while Mong Kok station itself is located at the major shopping area in Hong Kong.


Putting one small double bed and one single bed side by side, there is not much space to move around in the room (upper left). The hotel has utilized the limited space to squeeze in as much as the utilities as possible (upper right). Lower row shows the streets in vicinity of the hotel.


Streets around Tai Kok Tsui.

Generally, the food in Hong Kong is good. At least, suits our taste, except the wantan noodle at the Peak. We tried many local food, porridge, soy milk with you tiao (fried bread stick or fritter), wantan noodles, dim sum, roasted duck, roasted goose, steamed chicken, stewed pork, as well as some Japanese food, Vietnamese food, Taiwan delicacies, etc. We had our meals at many restaurants, shops, eateries, and small stalls, which most of them served nice food. 

In fact, we didn't really get into any shop with terrible food. Beside the taste, another good thing about eating at Hong Kong was all the eateries and restaurants that we had visited in Hong Kong were operating with air conditioners. So we could escape from the hot weather for a moment while we enjoying our food inside the shop. Now the down side- the price. A normal meal in Hong Kong can easily go up to HKD30. The price jumps double or triple in many tourist spots, such as the theme parks.

We took our breakfast in local eateries in vicinity of our hotel. Rice noodle row with beef or prawn (upper right), you tiao with soy milk (lower left), and different types of porridge (lower right) were some of our favorites.

Hong Kong dim sum is one the famous food in Hong Kong. We managed to find an eatery with delicious dim sum at Tung Choi Street (DimDim Sum Dim Sum Specialty Store, 112, Tung Choi Street). The taste of dim sum there was different from what we have in Malaysia.


We tried many types of noodles, such as wantan noodle (upper left), da-wan noodle or the noodle in big bowl (upper right), noodle with abalone (lower left) and Japanese noodle. All of them tasted good.

This is where we took our first dinner in Hong Kong. The eatery was small and everyone had to squeeze in the shop. Luckily, the food was delighting. It was located beside Tai Kok Tsui Road, about 70 meters away from our hotel at Li Tak Street.

We tried these pan-fried delicacies (upper row) from a food stall by the roadside at Mong Kok. We bought the roaster duck, goose, and chicken wing from a food stall at Tai Kok Tsui (lower row).

Tang yuan in ginger soup (upper left), mixture of beans and potatoes (upper right), almond papaya with snow fungus (lower left), and durian pancake were some of the desserts that we would like to recommend to all of you.

We spent most of our shopping time at Temple Street, Tung Choi Street (or Ladies' Street) and the area in vicinity for several times. Those are where the night markets are located.

Nathan Road is a happening place at night. We could see many shops with dazzling neon signboard stretching along the road. These photos were taken along the road when we were on our way to Mong Kok from Temple Street.

Tung Choi Street (or Ladies' Street) is really a red hot place for shopping, saturated with signboards and discount banners (upper left). The photo was taken right at the exit of Mong Kok MTR Station. The crowd started to form around 6 -7 pm (upper right) and the street became extremely crowdy around 9:30 pm (lower right). We bought several good quality Hong Kong themed t-shirt with HKD30 per piece from the market.

Compared to Tung Choi Street, Temple Street was less crowded during our visit. The northern side of the street is marked with this arch.

Temple Street was not crowdy even it was 8:30 pm (upper left). However, we could see some people were gathered at the food corner (upper right). Many items were sold with fair prices. Well, our parents bought a tea making set with HKD110, cheap if we compared to what we could get in Malaysia.

Overall, Hong Kong's night markets were not much difference from the night markets in Malaysia. In case you wish to buy anything from the night markets, please haggle vigorously. For example the tea making set, the original price was HKD300. We expressed that it was too expensive and we would only consider to buy at HKD60. After a few negotiation, we bought it with HKD110 (reasonable price for us). However, we did bought some items with the price a little bit higher compared to another stall. So, a survey might helps in ensuring a lower price.

We stayed in Hong Kong for 7 days 6 nights. Please visit this post to know more about our itinerary. We spent one day to visit Macau and Shenzhen as well. Let us start with Macau first.



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Saturday, May 12, 2012

Yogyakarta Trip Day 1 - Prambanan

We took a 4-day-3 night trip to Yogya (pronounce as Djog-ja, or Jog-ja). Our brief itinerary- first day, we reached Adisutjipto Airport at 9:30 am, settled and took our early lunch at our hotel, followed by a 3-hour tour around Prambanan. We took our first dinner at Malioboro night market. The second day, we departed early to Borobudur and spent a whole morning there. Then, Kraton Palace and Tamansari Water Palace in the afternoon. We went to Malioboro Mall at night. On the third day, we went shopping at Malioboro in the morning, then we went back to Tamansari Water Palace to catch some of the interesting parts that we missed on our second day's visit. After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon time at Ambarrukmo Mall, the largest shopping complex in Yogya. We had our very wonderful dinner on the top floor of our hotel. Fourth day, we took our early flight back to Kuala Lumpur.

Yogyakarta is a city built on the old kingdom of Sailendra and Mataram. Beside the city are two prominent religious edifices. Borobudur, 40 km north west, and Prambanan, 17 km east, are both UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Overall, the trip to Yogya was more leisure than our previous trip to Siem Reap, with more time to spare and to rest. The weather in the month of April during our visit was hot and humid, which we had no problem to get along with it, as we enjoy the same weather condition in Malaysia whole year round. Hot weather is a blessing in the sense that, we could take beautiful photos with clear blue sky.

So, let's start with our trip to Candi Prambanan (Temple of Prambanan). 17 km east of Yogya, the temple is in fact located in the province of Central Jawa (not in Yogya). We took a taxi from our All Season Hotel, with RP 70,000 (approx. RM 24 or USD 8) and extra RP 5000 for the entrance to the parking area. The journey took us 25 minutes. The taxi driver refused to wait for us at Prambanan. He gave his company's business card to us and instructed us to call for another taxi to return to the hotel. We paid RP 125,000 per person for the entrance ticket of Prambanan National Archaeological Park (approx. RM 42 or USD 14). The local name for the park is "Taman Wisata Prambanan", which means "Prambanan Tourism Park".

Candi Prambanan is believed to be built by Rakai Pikatan and other Kings of Mataram at 850 AD, 300 years earlier than Angkor Wat. As a counteract to the great Borobudur and Candi Sewu of Buddhism, the purpose of building the temple itself made it had to be huge, majestic, and a wonder of architecture. With the highest point of 47 m, it is considered one of the largest Hindu temple outside of India.

The temple faces east- a sign of the dominancy of Shivaism. So, it's not a surprise for us to know that the tallest tower at the middle of the temple is dedicated to Shiva. Flanking the Shiva's tower are two lesser towers dedicated to Brahma and Vishnu respectively. These three huge towers are called the Three Trimurti. In front of the Three Trimurti are three small towers dedicated to the Vahanas- Nandi the bull for Shiva, Hamsa the goose for Brahma, and Garuda the eagle for Vishnu. The tower dedicated to Shiva was closed to visitors during our trip. The main temple complex is surrounded by 224 small pervara towers (the guardian towers). However, by far, only two of the pervara towers have been restored.

We can see all six major towers from the main entrance of Candi Prambanan (facing east).

Our photo with Candi Prambanan a hundred meters away.

The towers of Vahanas, dedicated to the Nandi (right) and Garuda (left). The photo taken from the tower of Brahma.

Story of Ramayana starts at the Shiva's tower and continues to Brahma's tower, depicted by the bas-relief at the inner side of the balustrades, starting from left to right. So, the correct order to read the story is to follow the bas-relief in clockwise direction. Story of Krisnayana is depicted at the bas-relief at the Vishnu tower. As we didn't hire a guide, what we could only try our best to figure the story behind the aging stone works, by ourselves. Anyway, the bas-relief somehow brought our memory of Angkor Wat and Bayon back to us- same stonework, but at different period of time, at different places, by different civilization.

The staircase is not as steep as the temples at Angkor. We had no problem climbing to the upper levels of the tower of Brahma. The first level of the tower of Brahma with panels of bas-reliefs depict the stories from Ramayana (upper right). The lower row shows two of the panels available at Brahma's tower.

A part of the Shiva's tower with great detailed artworks.

There is a legend that connects Candi Sewu (Temple of a thousand towers) to the statue of Durga in the tallest tower of Candi Prambanan. The legend tells that there was once Prince Bandung falled in love with Princess Lara Jonggrang of Boko,  and pressing for a forced marriage. The princess succumbed with a term- the prince had to build a temple with a thousand towers in one single night. The task was not too hard for the prince as he summoned spirits from the earth to help him. At the very blink in completing 999 towers, the princess deceived the spirits by faking the sunrise- pounding rice and setting fire at the east of the temple, which lured the cocks to crow, and drove all the spirits back to the ground. Mission failed, and the prince drove mad. He cursed the princess and turned her into a stone statue. Well, the story ended sad, the unfinished temple turned to be Candi Sewu, while Lara Jonggrang, turned to be Durga statue in Candi Prambanan.

We spent more than one hour at Candi Prambanan, admiring to architectural wonder and the wisdom of the past. We were lucky to have the chance to witness the greatness of Candi Prambanan with our very own eyes. One of our friends went to Prambanan a year earlier in 2011, with the construction of recovery was undergoing. He couldn't see much as the protective curtains had blocked many parts of the temple. Well, our advice to all our readers, go and visit the temple as soon as possible before next quake hits it (touch wood).

Towers of Prambanan from the west- backside of the temple.

A closer look on the temple.

Most of the guardian towers are still lay in ruin. Many years are required to restore the temple to its former glory.

This is how Prambanan looks like from the northern side of the temple. This photo is taken at the opposite side with the previous photo.

There are other three temples in Prambanan National Archaeological Park- Candi Lumbung, Candi Bubrah, and Candi Sewu. Lumbung and Bubrah were literally lay in ruins. The restoration was still ongoing during our visit, but we could anticipate that the full restoration is still a long way to go. These two temples could be seen along the way from Candi Prambanan to Candi Sewu. We took around 20 minutes to walk from Prambanan to Sewu. Shading trees and the resting areas had made our journey by foot bearable (we were indeed quite tired after staying for more than one hour at Prambanan).

This is how Candi Lumbung looked like during our visit.

The condition of Candi Bubrah was even worse. We couldn't even see any gathering stones that resemble a temple. However, we could see the restoration work was ongoing (upper right).

Candi Sewu (Temple of Thousand Towers) is around 800 m away from Candi Prambanan. It is the second largest Buddist temple complex in the area (which the biggest is Borobudur). The temple is believed to be built 100 years before Candi Prambanan. Although named a thousand, the actual number of towers are 249, with the main tower building errects about 30 m above the ground. Candi Sewu is a temple that worth a visit. We stayed and roamed around the temple for 20 minutes.

This is how the second largest Buddist Temple looked like from the main entrance during our visit. The main tower complex have been restored. 

A close look on the main tower complex. The highest point of the tower reaches 30 m high.

We climbed to the top level of the main tower complex, turned around, and this is what we saw.

Photos taken inside (left) and outside (right) of the main tower complex.

Most of the small towers surrounding the main temple complex were still in ruin.

Candi Sewu is badly damaged over time. But not all of them by nature. The missing head of the Buddha is believed had been taken by somebody as a private collection (upper left). Many of the missing pieces of the puzzling temple has been found in the villages nearby. On the same type of the towers, the photo on the lower left shows the one with many of the original stones found, while the lower right shows the one with the replacement stones.

On our way back to the entrance (park operator office), we visited the park archaeological museum and audio visual presentation. The archaeological museum was quite attractive (free entrance), which many of the statues and pieces of the ruins discovered were displayed. The audio visual presentation, on the other hand, was not in good quality. However, with RP 5000, the presentation was proven a bit helpful for us to understand more about the background of the temples. The air condition helped to cool us down after a long walk.

The park was quite densed with trees, so travel by foot is not a problem, even under the blazing sun (upper right). Many artifacts were displayed in the museum (lower left), which includes many stones and sculptures which their origin are yet to be identified. A part of the museum has the photos on display, showing how Candi Prambanan been discovered and restored. The photo on lower right shows the condition of Candi Prambanan in 1923.

The entrance to the parking area of Prambanan Archaeological Park (upper left). We need to pay RP 5000 to enter the parking area. The ticket counter is around 100 m from the entrance (upper right). Food stalls and souvenir shops are available only at the exit of the park.

After we left the park, we call the hotline number writen on the business card, which was given by our taxi driver. The operator requested our location and handphone number. Our experience was, we have to understand a little bit of Indonesian Language (which thank God, is quite similar to Malay Language) in order to communicate with the operator, and we had to tell the operator that we are the tourists with oversea handphone numbers, or else, the operator will keep on asking and confirming our handphone number. Our taxi reached within 15 minutes.

Our advice to all of our readers, if you can endure the hot and humid (like us), a visit in the afternoon can be a good idea. We arrived at Prambanan around 1 pm and went out around 4:30 pm. There were less visitors during that period of time and we had a lot of opportunities to take good photos with all the temples. Bring along a foldable umbrella or a hat is a good idea. A pair of comfortable shoes or sandals is a must. Bringing a bottle of mineral water is really essential, as the one-and-the-only-one canteen in the park is the only place that we can buy drinks and food. Tram service is available from time to time, but walking around might offers different experience to us. Last but not least, if you can't understand any of Indonesian Language, rent a car might be the safest way for you to visit Prambanan. Or, get a taxi, deal with the driver to get him wait for you at Prambanan. Most of the taxi drivers that we encountered were not good in English. Try to use simple language when you deal with them.

Trip to Prambanan was a great experience to us. We would like to recommend that your trip should start with Prambanan first, before you step your foot on Borobudur. Borobudur is much more "monumental" than Prambanan. So, if we start with Borobudur, we might get so called "anti-climax" experience. 

Second day in Yogya, our trip to Borobudur started early in the morning. Please follow us to Borobudur now.



[Yogyakarta Trip Day 1- Prambanan] [Yogyakarta Trip Day 2-Borobudur]
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