Day 4 - Valentine's Day in Hong Kong

We checked the rate to stay another day at the hotel, but $200 US is no deal - hotels.com even has a better rate. Plus we realize that if we check out on the same day as our Macau trip, it might be more hectic on Thursday. So we wake up and check out around 11am. We decide to pay in cash, since the Excelsior is offering 7.4 and we weren't able to exchange our $20s (all that I got from my ATM before we left) at the bank that was offering a better rate. We're not sure what the credit card is offering, and don't need to carry cash all the way to HK & back again.

We meet up with Sam & Dave and head over to Dave's mother-in-law's apartment (The Apt from now on) with our luggage. Sam tries to get internet access to upload some pictures and that takes a while. Once that's kicked off we head out for noodles. Eunice (Dave's wife) says that there aren't any good Chinese noodle places around, so we head off to a Ramen place. I opt for the curry since I've been craving it since seeing so many pictures in windows. Guess Causeway Bay is where a lot of Japanese tourists come. No pickled ginger or other vegetables though :-( Everyone else likes their noodles, but after tasting Wei Yan's broth I decide I probably won't like it more than Hakata Ramen in SoCal, since I like my broth light.

After lunch ($130 HK for 5 people, including appetizer - yummy garlic beef), we head over to buy tickets for the tram to go see the big Buddha from Eunice's travel agent, but before we finish, they tell us we have to be back by 5pm when the trams stop running. We get a refund and head back to The Apt. There we decide to go to Stanley market. Once at Stanley market, Sam breaks down for some Starbucks, and seeing his weakness only makes me finish going down the escalator and then head right back up to get in line behind him. Coffee costs about the same as it does in the US, at least at Starbucks, but what can we say

At Stanely market, we visit a Tim Hau temple (goddess of the sea). It's really small, but there is a feng shui way - where there is an unobstructed view of the ocean from the temple. We also see a building that was moved from Central - and placed as to not disrupt the view of the ocean from the temple. After all the sightseeing, we head to the markets. Prices here are better, not as good as Temple street, but good.

After a few purchases (some paintings, a hand warmer), we take a taxi to Victoria Peak. We were expecting it to be a little less crowded, but a lot of couples have made their way for Valentine's day. We took some pictures of the view from Victoria Peak - but I don't think any of them do it justice. It kind of reminded me of the view we had from the top of the bald hill in PV, but lacking the distance it wasn't as peaceful. Dave & Eunice head back, and Sam heads to the top of the mall type building to take some more pictures. Wei Yan & I decide to check out what's in the view, since we're already a little bored of the view & the tons of people trying to look at the view. We spent about 30 min at EA experience! The games are cool, but it's a bit embarrassing to have the workers come to help us since we look so lost. The superman game looks cool, but there are always some kids playing it. We see Jackie Chan & Bruce Lee's wax figures, and when we finally head up to the top of the mall, it's so packed! More than a ton of people up there, so we don't spend too much time before we head back down. We find Sam at another Starbucks, and head back to Causeway bay.

Wei Yan and I head out to get a bite to eat, and spend a little time "alone" - which in the middle of Hong Kong amounts to being in a sea of people, but not knowing any of them. We head to try some Japanese octopus balls that Eunice says are yummy. Wei Yan gets some fish ball as well, and we try to find a place to eat them - we end up at Times Square, sitting on the little wall for the decorated pigs display. We sit down in front of "Eight Ball" and get to eating. The octopus balls are really really hot. I decide to try them with the mayonnaise, and like them a little better, but I conclude that they are more fun to watch being made than eating them. We also get an "Egg Ball" which looks like a bunch of ping pong ball of dough put together & curled to make a roll. Surprisingly this is crunchy, but I think it has a bit of a weird aftertaste, so I'm done after eating maybe a third. My back is now killing me, so we head back. After hearing that restaurants are charging a 50% mark up for Valentine's day & that most of them will be booked up well in advance, we had decided to try to spend a little time together, but do valentines when we get back in the states.