Hong Kong Trip, Day 2 - IFC and the Stinky Durian Dessert
Me and Wei, view on the ferry ride from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island around noontime
Day 2 (Friday, 7/25)
Total money spent (in USD):
$20 - Lunch at Isola in IFC
$10 - Transportation costs
$40 - Shopping, clothes
$20 - Dinner, dessert
$10 - Drinks at Lam Kwai Fong
Net expenses: ~USD$100
We left our hostel at around 11AM and took the ferry from Tsim Sha Tsui to Hong Kong Island to have lunch with Wei’s Stanford buddy Doug. The view on the ferry was amazing as usual and the weather was bright and sunny. Since we were going to eat inside the IFC building (tallest building in Hong Kong as of now), we shopped around there a bit and checked out this cool CD store with very aesthetically-pleasing listening booths. We met Doug at a restaurant called Isola Bar and Grill. It was on the third floor and we dined outside, amazing view of Kowloon:
Lunch was nice, a bit expensive but pretty reasonable given the awesome view. Doug recommended that we check out Causeway Bay, so that we did. We headed there via MTR and came across a cool Japanese candy store along the way. I’m a sucker for candy, both Wei and I bought some candy we’ve never seen before. We got to Causeway Bay around 3PM and shopped for a few hours there. There is a Times Square and Sogo area over there, basically a modern shopping center with lots of stores and restaurants. We bought some clothes at a G2000 store because the deals were simply too good to be true.
At around 7PM, we met up with my friends Queena, Winnie, and Cliff at Causeway Bay. Cliff drove us all to a very authentic Hong Kong style restaurant in Happy Valley. Wei and I discussed this name ‘Happy Valley’ quite a bit ;) It’s actually a very high-class, expensive area on Hong Kong island and also where the horseracing arena is. The name is a bit funny, no? ;) Anyway, we had a really nice meal there, it was totally packed. Even though Queena had made reservations, we still had to wait 10-15 minutes to get our table. Well worth the wait though!
During our dinner, we had a long discussion about the Thailand fruit, durian, that is very popular in Hong Kong. If you are not familiar with durian, it is this super stinky yellow, slug-like fruit that is IMO disgusting. We had a long debate about durian because Queena and Winnie love it while the rest of us are not such big fans. It really is a hit-or-miss food. I had actually never tried durian before, smelling it was enough for me. But as you know, I’m always up for trying new things. So after dinner, we headed to a popular dessert place called Lucky Dessert and ate some durian. My long-time Hong Kong buddy Sherman also met up with us. Along the way, Wei and I tried some shaomai, which is very well-known in HK:
Wasn’t that great, I guess there are two primary types of shaomai: fish and shrimp. We had fish, which was …ok. The durian was pretty disgusting as I had predicted haha but it was definitely worth trying. Winnie and Queena were quite delighted with the dessert, here’s Winnie with her scrumptious and stinky durian ;) :
After our durian session, Wei, Sherman, and I went to Lam Kwai Fong (the nightlife area) for some drinks. It was fun chatting with Sherman, hadn’t seen for about half a year since the last time she visited Taipei. We went to a bar called ‘D26′ which was pretty nice, there was a jukebox there so Wei and I invested a few coins and chose some tracks. If I remember correctly, we chose four songs: 1) Jamiroquai - Cosmic Girl, 2) David Tao - Airport song, 3) Blur - Song 2, and 4) Oasis - Don’t Look Back in Anger. We stayed there for a few hours and then took a taxi back to the hostel. Me and Sherman in Lam Kwai Fong:
It was an awesome day!
Bottom line:
- If you want to shop at a cluster of modern stores, Causeway Bay it is.
- Dining at IFC = expensive but phenomenal view of Hong Kong.
- Durian is disgusting. lol
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Tags: Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay, durian, Hong Kong, Lam Kwai Fong
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