Day 3
Today was meant to be a chilled day. We had covered a lot of kms in the last few days so the idea was to take it easy. We started the day searching for a book for Kate and a trip to a Macau restaurant that was nearby for a cheap breakfast, followed with a Portuguese custard tart for dessert - which we took to kowloon park to devour (Macau was settled by Portugal, hence the Portuguese tart craze).
We chilled in Kowloon Park for some time. Being Lunar New Year, people were off work and out in the park enjoying themselves. It was really fun to just people watch. There were lots of family groups picknicking, soaking up the sun and enjoying the festive vibe that was going around. Some students were putting on a dragon show which was amazing, I guess to celebrate Lunar New Year. They ahd a whole lot of drums to which the dragon danced throughout the park. It was so vibrant and really made it feel like celebrations were taking place. At times the dragon would pause so people could line up to get photographed with the dragon for a small donation, I assume the students were raising money for their school or some worthy cause. Otherwise they were just ripping off the silly tourists. Needless to say, I didn't get my photo with the dragon :-).
We moped around, grabbed some dim sum and checked out the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui. We headed to the Victoria Harbour sea wall to check out the festivities, and ended up catching a Star Ferry to Wan Chi for a bit of a stroll, which ended up being a huge stroll on a fruitless mission to find food. This was a stroke of good luck, as when we got back downtown we stumbled across a small Dim Sum place that made great Dim Sum, and was super cheap.
After dinner it was time to check out the Lunar New Year parade which was OK, except for the 6 deep crowd, so we headed to the Hyatt rooftop garden to watch the Victoria Harbour Laser show and the Parade from a distance.
So in the end it was a pretty chilled day, but we still managed to cover a few Kms.
Day 4
Today was slight more eventful. We decided we were sick of the city so we decided to head out to Lantau Island. We figured there would be a bit of hiking and maybe a few less people. We got up nice and early for a run and then headed to the ferry by 10am. It seems Hong Kong is a pretty slow city to get started so we missed the crowd by getting to the ferry by 10.
The ferry ride out was a great way to see the harbour and all parts of the city. We were greeted at Lantau by a very colourful pier and a Croatia-esque feeling town. It was a fun town to explore, and we found a nice little vegan restaurant for lunch which was a sight for sore eyes after all the Chinese. Following lunch we headed out to some trails. To my dismay we found that the trail was paved the whole way, kinda ruining the natural feel of it all, plus it totally smelt like dog turd the whole time so I didn't really dig it at all. After a few hours on the Island we were ready to bail, head back to the Hyatt and chill before the fireworks.
Kate bought herself some Hong Kong gourmet desserts, and I settled for a salad again for dinner. We found an amazing spot to view the fireworks. They were unbelievable. Best firework display I've ever seen. We sat around by the harbour after they finished to let the 300k plus crowd disperse so that we wouldn't have to battle the hordes home.
All in all, it was a pretty good day, we covered a lot of ground and saw some sights that may have been slightly off the worn trail.
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