Hong Kong no Phooey TR (Apr 2012)! The Yee's have it....TR finish #1101, 07/09

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by kmedina

I think it is cute that you got a gadget while DH ended up with clothes too. My sister bought the 7D a week after I bought the 50D, and I've had 7D envy ever since. Granted, I only use the camera on manual mode, but the 7D also has a video camera. Hope you are enjoying that baby. Why are cameras so expensive in Austraila? I am glad you were able to get one for the US price there and save some dough. You poor thing with the sickness. I would have left DS with my Dad for as long as possible while DH shopped if I felt that badly. It was nice of the Saint to worry about you and try to assist you in getting help. I know you were sick for 5 weeks when you got back, so I am sorry it did not work. Here's hoping you at least got some nice rest back at the hotel.

The new baby is quite nice. There are a few more features to play with and I'm glad I got it. I seriously considered sticking with the existing body and getting another lens...but that would have meant that DH didn't get the camera back.

The 550D model is the T2i in US parlance. It has video capability as well.

Cost of goods are more expensive in Australia than in the US....heck...than anywhere else. The retailers think we are a captive market....until the internet came along.

Originally Posted by kmedina

*automatic mode. My bad. I wish I could use the camera on manual mode. Sounds like I was having a little wishful thinking and suffering from lack of sleep during that post.

I keep saying....you need to try some of the other modes, rather than automatic.

Originally Posted by queenie82

That is amusing

Sounds like a pretty good day to me

My boss recently bought a new Nikon (on advice from my almost pro photographer friend) in Australia because of the warranty issue.
At least Hong Kong has quite a few people links for you now should you have anything go wrong. and a saving of 40% is pretty good

Yup. We were originally going to get a Nikon for DH. But the Nikon camera didn't fit either of our hands and the logic around the function buttons didn't seem intuitive to either of us. We tried all the other different makes and in the end, the Canon was the one that suited our hands the best. Aside from the region warranty on camera bodies, its worked out to be a good decision for me. At least there is an international warranty on Canon lenses.

Originally Posted by zanzibar138

Yay for the new camera!

I'm enjoying reading all about the different markets and shopping experiences you had

Thanks! It was fun with the different markets.

Originally Posted by ACDSNY

A very good day indeed!

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

Yes for the new camera!!!!

More food porn for us....if I ever get back in the kitchen for decent cooking!

[dgbg100106]

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

More food porn for us....if I ever get back in the kitchen for decent cooking!

You and me both!!!

[PrincessInOz]

Praise the Noodles!



This is where the activity and picture taking for this trip falls down a steep cliff. I think I realised that I was seriously sick at this stage and took the pedal off the sightseeing. DS was happy to just hang around the hotel room and watch the Cartoon Network; DH was happy to leave us there and go-see and go-shop by himself.


But…..we still needed to eat.



So, for dinner on Day 9, we hopped on the hotel shuttle and went down to Tsim Sha Tsui. My parents had been trying to get us to go to a noodle shop in i-Square mall since the first night we got into Hong Kong city. The i-Square mall is located at 63 Nathan Road, at the corner of Nathan and Peking Road. If you catch the train to TST station, it will have its own exit.
The noodle shop in question is Praise House Noodles. You’ll find it on level 5 in the i-Square.





And as expected for a establishment in a mall in the heart of touristville, the décor was modern chic.





Our table was suitably dressed.





The menu consisted of noodles, congee or rice. So, if you want a banquet meal, this is NOT the place for you.

DH ordered congee.





DS predictably went with the fish ball soup noodles.





I ordered a serve of prawn wonton soup noodles.





Most standard serves in this place will set you back about HK$40 – 60. The meal for the 3 of us, with a soft drink, amounted to about HK$150. This is $20 in our money. It is not as cheap as some of the other places we had been to; but this is high tourist country.


The noodles here were the star of the establishment. They were amazingly fresh, light and had that al dente feeling to it. In fact, you might find that the “Yee’s definitely have it” for Praise Noodles for the next couple of days. It was easy to get to, DS really loved eating here and the noodles and congee dishes were exactly what I needed to eat.

I can’t praise the noodles enough! Seriously good noodles.




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[PrincessInOz]

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Symphony of Lights



We had left my parents and our TA friend to their own devices for night 9; so it was just the 3 of us. Dinner had been good and it had provided me with some fuel to keep me going for a bit longer.

And there was one thing that I wanted to see whilst in Hong Kong. It had taken me 9 nights to get here.


The Symphony of Lights is a light and sound show that is staged every night at 8 pm in Hong Kong. The show comprises of various buildings across both sides of the harbour (in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island) lighting up, either with lasers, decorative lights and/or projections along the exterior of the buildings. The lights are coordinated to music and the whole ‘event’ lasts 10 minutes.

The best viewing spots are along the waterfront…on either side.

I will admit to having at least another 140 shots to go along with the 8 that I’m sharing here. I figured you don’t need to see them all to get the drift.

Feel free to play “Spot the Difference” with these.













Without a doubt, the skyline looks beautiful at night. Quite a few of the buildings were involved in the event and it was nice being along the waterfront with the other tourists, and to watch the boats go by.






















In the PTR section, I had thought that I would be seeing this event at least twice.
In reality, we only made it this once.
In hindsight…it was for the best.

The ‘event’, whilst cute, is not exactly spectacular. It might be better on nights that coincide with major holidays e.g., New Years; where there would be fireworks involved. Still….it does fill in a night and provides tourist with something to look at and firmly focuses on the wonderful skyscrapers of Hong Kong. It also provides tour operators an opportunity to market night cruises in the harbour, coinciding with the Symphony of Light show. I had hoped to make it to one of these tours….definitely something I will plan for next time.



Day 9 drew to a close after this. We headed back to the hotel where I crashed on the sofa bed and went to sleep. I don’t know what the boys did….but TV would definitely have been involved.

[dgbg100106]

Sorry to hear that you were not feeling well at this point and understand the need for the rest.

The pictures are great!

The noodles looked really good

[kmedina]

While I am sad you were not feeling well, I am glad you had a night with just the three of you. Your travel companions seem awesome, but it is nice to break away with just immediate family. All of the pictures look different and beautiful to me. It is awesome that you saw it, and I think once would have been enough for me as well. We LOVE noodles, so I will check that place out if I ever get the chance.

[ACDSNY]

Love the symphony of lights pics, I bet a night cruise would be awesome.

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

Sorry to hear that you were not feeling well at this point and understand the need for the rest.

The pictures are great!

The noodles looked really good

Thanks Brandi.

Originally Posted by kmedina

While I am sad you were not feeling well, I am glad you had a night with just the three of you. Your travel companions seem awesome, but it is nice to break away with just immediate family. All of the pictures look different and beautiful to me. It is awesome that you saw it, and I think once would have been enough for me as well. We LOVE noodles, so I will check that place out if I ever get the chance.

My travel companions also headed to the noodle shop for dinner. They got there later than we did because they were meeting more of our TA friend's family. If we had waited, we would have missed out of the Symphony of Lights. But DH and I did appreciate just some quiet family time.

Originally Posted by ACDSNY

Love the symphony of lights pics, I bet a night cruise would be awesome.

If I get to Hong Kong again, I am definitely going to book in for a night time cruise. I bet it would have been awesome too.

[franandaj]

All caught up again. Glad you got the new camera, and those noodles you ordered looked divine. I wish we were having something else for dinner tonight...it will just make me crave my upcoming Shabu Shabu even more!

Sorry you were not feeling well, but at least you were able to take care of yourself.

[aussietravellers]

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

The man seems to be shielding his face, or he may have a headache, or he is saluting you Maybe he was impressed by your new camera, thinking you were a professional photographer

[queenie82]

I like your Symphony of Lights shots. Very Atmospheric
The fog is enough above the buildings that it enhances. Sadly the fog was thick the whole time I was there. Not just blocking the Peak but also making the already rather sad lighting on the buildings even duller

It's most unfortunate to have gotten ill. But having spent most of my last trip to Vegas in the hotel room ... at least you had done MOST of the stuff in Hong Kong...and HK is a city that a little wander is ok

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by franandaj

All caught up again. Glad you got the new camera, and those noodles you ordered looked divine. I wish we were having something else for dinner tonight...it will just make me crave my upcoming Shabu Shabu even more!

Sorry you were not feeling well, but at least you were able to take care of yourself.

I hope that you enjoyed your Shabu Shabu!

Originally Posted by aussietravellers

The man seems to be shielding his face, or he may have a headache, or he is saluting you Maybe he was impressed by your new camera, thinking you were a professional photographer

I still had DH's camera on this night.

I hadn't noticed that man...but you're right. He might have been avoiding my (er...DH's) camera!

Originally Posted by queenie82

I like your Symphony of Lights shots. Very Atmospheric
The fog is enough above the buildings that it enhances. Sadly the fog was thick the whole time I was there. Not just blocking the Peak but also making the already rather sad lighting on the buildings even duller

It's most unfortunate to have gotten ill. But having spent most of my last trip to Vegas in the hotel room ... at least you had done MOST of the stuff in Hong Kong...and HK is a city that a little wander is ok

Thanks. I was rather glad that we'd gotten most of the sightseeing done early. There were still things I had on my to-do list; but they can keep to next time.

[PrincessInOz]

The Yee’s Have It Again – 1881 Heritage



Day 10 of this vacation and the pictures are few and far between. We…or I…didn’t do very much today. I spent the day mostly in a fog and coughing my lungs out.


But there was one thing I needed to do today. There was one particular place that I wanted to visit and so I dragged myself out of bed to go there. It was located in Tsim Sha Tsui, so it was an easy hotel shuttle ride down. I had assumed it opened at 10 am but when I arrived, I found that the place wasn’t opened for another hour.



So, with some time to kill, we meandered down to 1881 Heritage – again.





We’d already seen most of the uber expensive shops here so we thought we’d try around the hotel.





Seems like a very nice place to stay; if you want to be in the heart of town.





This place had formerly been the Marine Police Headquarters. I don’t know if the guns here were original or not but they did add to the ambience of the place.





Aside from the main building, there was a Signal or Time Ball Tower.





The Signal Tower or Round House was constructed to provide time signals to ships in the harbour. The ball at the top of the building still rises and drops at 1 pm every day.





We climbed up the stairs….





…and checked out the mechanism.









The view was reasonable from the windows.





This was back towards the main complex and the shopping. The orange coloured building in the front is the original Fire Station and Shanghai Tang now occupies the space. I did spend some time browsing in the shop; lovely things but expensive.





I was glad we headed back here. Whilst I wasn't in any mood to shop, the Signal House and looking around the Main Building was a nice way to spend the hour.










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[PrincessInOz]

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Canon, Hong Kong



So, what drew out me out of bed? Canon!


DH had bought me a replacement for the camera that was originally his. I was more than happy with the deal – but needed to make sure that I gave him back a camera that was at least as sound as possible.

I hadn’t exactly been gentle on DH’s camera and let’s just say that the front grip of the camera had been decimated. When I had bought the new camera the previous day, one of the guys behind the counter noticed and told me that I could go to Canon to get them to fix it.


Canon’s customer service had recently moved to iSquare, where the Praise Noodle House was. It was fairly easy to find as it was well sign posted. We caught the lift up and headed in.

There is an automatic ticket machine which you will need to get a ticket from if you want to be served. Your number will be called in turn.





Service was brilliant here. The person who served me knew her stuff and was more than helpful. I had a black speck that had been somewhere superficial in my camera (not on my pictures) but I could see it through the viewfinder. No one in Melbourne could help me and as it didn't interfere with my image, I learnt to live with it.

It took Canon 2 minutes to fix it. Now I have to learn to live without the black speck!



Sadly, they didn't have the hand grip part in stock but pointed me in the right direction for a Melbourne shop, which has now been resolved since my return. DH was rather pleased with the turn of events as he got the camera back the way he’d “loaned” it to me.


The fun bit? Check out the hands on concept shop that I got to play in.













It really was a smorgasbord of all things Canon!





Take a look at the lenses I got to play with as well.





The shop is located on Level 20 of the iSquare building. With these babies, I could see clear across the harbour for amazing detail on the buildings on the Hong Kong Island side. I checked out some of the office buildings this side of the harbour through the paparazzi lenses…and could read details on computer screens. Really, really cool!





The staff around the store were very discreet and watchful. They never pressured anyone about the amount of time they were spending on an item and I didn't see any sign of "pushy sales". The staff were more than happy to wait for someone to ask for assistance and stand back. I was just happy to mess around with lenses I will never have in my collection.






It was a great way to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of the streets below.




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[PrincessInOz]

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More Yee’s Have It – Praise Noodle House



When we left Canon, it was lunchtime. And we were right in iSquare Mall.

Well….there really was one place that we were going to eat lunch here. DH and DS wanted to eat at the Praise Noodle House again and I was in no condition to argue.









DS ordered the Fish Ball Noodles (again).





DH and I settled on congee. I think I ordered mine with chicken and I'm pretty sure DH ordered his plain.





We also ordered an accompaniment for the congee. This is You Char Kwai, a kind of savoury deep fried bread stick.





You dip it into the congee and eat it!





I also like to eat it with coffee. It really is a savoury doughnut! Yum!