THAT WITH THE ORCHID BANNER - The Rest of the Story

the Hong Kong flag

As I thought my previous entry would be too cramped with pictures and might take forever to load, I decided to cut it into two. And here's the other half of it.

Let me continue showing you my trip.


THE CITY

I honestly failed to prepare some HKD, worse, I forgot to withdraw some cash (of any currency) while I was back home. I only have with me some bucks that my boss handed me. Aside from that, zilch.



Also, I learned from a fellow tourist that you can't depend too much on the devil when abroad, as sometimes your bank would block your account from transacting overseas, esp. if you failed to notify them about your trip (ouch). Well basically, the bank wants to make sure that no one else is using your credit card. They (ironically) protect you by not letting you transact.

So there I was, in the middle of a foreign city, penniless. Good thing there were money changers around the city, and, a Citibank ATM allowed me to withdraw from my BPI account

Dolllars I got from the money changer

Cash I got from the machine

strolling downtown

I never admitted to myself  that I got lost until I reached this part of town, a wet market

the tram - i'll definitely try this if ever I get a chance to come back

I decided to make a stop in a small joint, just right along the Jardine bazaar

and this is their menu

Baked Fried Fish Fillet Rice with Cheese Sauce - $45

Best dish I had in my entire stay in HK! Crispy Garoupa Rolls in Sweet Corn Sauce - $48

Honey Lemon Iced Drink - $19

my morning view of the bay

the very spacious cab - really nice ride, resembles a mini cooper (or was it a type of a mini?) anyway, note that HK also employs Right Hand Drive

bus transpo system is also as efficient as their MTR (MTR = similar to our MRT here in Manila but much much much much better)

me inside the double-decker bus

a snapshot inside the top deck

view from the top

the archway that marks the entrance to the Yau Ma Tei night market (Kowloon)

the Yau Ma Tei night market where I shopped most of my pasalubong items

the first dining hub I saw right after I killed my legs from my night market spree

this was particularly a challenge as no one from their crew spoke English

I managed to order just fine but I didn't like the food as much as I loved my garoupa the previous night; also, I didn't expect that the honey lemon iced tea would literally be a hot tea with ice cubes

side dish - these are tendons, I believe

back in the hotel with my shopping bags

THE BUSINESS

The purpose of the trip was a business meeting, hence, the suit. I was actually pretty surprised at how decent I looked in suit. At dahil dyan, I took a handful of photos of me since I was pretty deluded that I sprang out from a GQ page.

THE DEPARTURE

Riding the MTR to the airport

the map of the entire HK MTR system - pretty complex as compared to ours

Back on the walkalators

the Pinoy queue

when travelling abroad you will need to fill out forms like this; it will be checked in the Immigration

form for the Customs

THE IMPORTED GOODS

As a kid, I always get imported goods from my neighbors and relatives who used to work in Japan. I never thought that I'd be bringing some myself when I grow up.

Here are some of the items that I managed to get cross-border.

pastries

preserved plum

(finally) a wristwatch

some 7-11 goodies

a preserved food - courtesy of my hotel, The Excelsior

part of my Cathay Pacific meal

Some shirts

THE BOTTOMLINE

And for the first time, I put my passport into use. Weeeeee! I'M STAMPED! It means, it's official. I have now travelled overseas. =)

I wish there will be more to come.