Day 2 (Saturday) - 1st August 2009
It was day 2 of our trip. We have agreed on 11 am as our meet-up time.
Max took us to Causeway Bay by MTR to have dim sum at a restaurant. I rarely had dim sum (being more of a Western food person) but it was great.
After that, Max managed to get in touch with a friend's friend to show us around some local TCG shops. We took the MTR to Cheung Sha Wan to meet up with him and he showed us around one of the shopping centres.
It was close to 6 pm when we decided to visit the Peak. It was one of Hong Kong's famous tourist attractions. We had to travel up a mountain via tram. It took quite a bit of walking to reach Peak Tram Station. Upon arrival, we saw a massive queue that snaked round and round outside the building.
Max managed to learn that there was a special ticket package that allowed us to join the express queue, so with the power of money (tm), we found ourselves ahead of the pack and actually inside the station. We were marveling at the fact that we just shaved off possibly 2+ hours of waiting time. After some more waiting, we finally got on the tram and were on our way to the Peak.
The first thing we did when we arrived was to have a quick dinner at McDonald's. After that, we were off to the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. The first thing that greeted us was the wax figure of Obama but we weren't allowed to take any pics because it was a paid photo shoot.
We walked around the place and posed with the various stars. I was actually surprised that they allowed people to touch the wax figures. The place was a lot larger than I thought, spanning several rooms and a few floors. It took well over an hour to check out everything.
It's Jackie Chan! Recognize the pose?
At one point, there was an attraction that was like those 'haunted houses' at amusement parks. Inside, there were no barricades separating us and the actors, so we were told to walk with our hands clutching the person in front of us. We had to keep it that way cos' if at any time we hit the actors or caused any injury, the whole thing would be called off.
It was actually quite well-done. The rooms were very dark and illuminated by dim flashing lights. It was set up to look like a mental asylum. As we made our way through, actors would jump out to scare us or by smashing some props. I definitely screamed a lot.
Looking back, I wondered what the heck was a haunted house doing in a wax museum. It was definitely out of place. haha.
After the wax museum, we went up to the sky tower, which was an open-air balcony where we could view the city. It was quite scary to be so high up in the mountains and looking down with the wind blowing in our faces.
It was finally time to leave. We didn't really want to go through the hassle of taking the tram down again so this time so we decided to share a cab. We all agreed that the cab driver was a real 'pro', driving down the steep and narrow mountain road rather quickly with so many twists and turns. He probably watched a lot of Initial D.
To finish off the day, we went to Lan Gui Fang for drinks.
Max described this place as being similar to Clarke Quay. It was all pubs and bars, chicks and loud music. We stuck around and had a bit of drinks at one of the bars named Coconut before returning back to the hotel.
On the way back, we stopped by at the 7-Eleven and I had curry chicken for supper. HK instant foods are awesome!
