hweiming's blog: Hong Kong Trip 2015 Day 2 Part 1 Big Bus HK Island Tour

Saturday 5 December 2015

Hong Kong Trip 2015 Day 2 Part 1 Big Bus HK Island Tour

The morning started off very cloudy. Weather forecast said it would rain today. :(
We walked from our hotel to Star Ferry terminal at Tsim Sha Tsui in the morning to catch a ferry over to Hong Kong Island to start our Big Bus hop-on-hop-off day tour. I booked us on the Deluxe Tour with Night Tour which included of 48 hours hop on hop off and a panoramic night tour of Kowloon Peninsular.

Cloudy day, rain expected :(

The ferry ride across to Central was extremely fast and efficient. We didn't have to wait long for the next ferry (less than 3 minutes!) as we just missed one and within 10 minutes, we were at Central Pier.

On board the ferry named Solar Star

Sky 100 or ICC partially obscured by the clouds

Central Pier

Reversible benches on the ferry

We boarded our Big Bus for the Hong Kong Island tour (Red Route) and sat on the upper deck around 10:30am. We went one loop first on the bus before deciding at which points to disembark for the sights. The entire ride took about 1.5 hours, returning back to Central Pier around 12pm. Didn't get a lot of good (non-blurred) photos as the bus was a tad fast.

Plugged into our audio systems for the recommended commentary

Leaving Central Pier, going on the Red Route

Golden Bauhinia Flower at Golden Bauhinia Square

Bus with Litte Twin Stars advertisment!

Old and New: Electric tram and Modern Bus

The Pawn at Wan Chai

Hong Kong street scene

Hong Kong financial centre

The Peak Tramway - looked at that queue!!

St John's Cathedral

A funny thing happened when we arrived back at Central Pier. What I didn't know was that we had to disembark and go on to the next bus for the loop again. We happily sat on the upper deck. I realised a couple of minutes later that we were the only ones left in the locked bus! I had to bang on the window to catch one of the staff's attention to release us from the bus haha :P We were released just in time to hop onto the next bus just before it left for the loop. Phew.
It started raining 30 minutes after we left Central Pier. We remained seated on the upper deck but we wore our ponchos. It was quite an exciting experience for us, sitting on the bus in the rain in winter and trying to shelter my camera from the rain haha. :D We initially wanted to drop off at Man Mo Temple and then walk around the area for Lower Lascar Row and PMQ etc but the rain forced us to drop off earlier at Mid-Levels Escalator where there is more shelter. The Mid-Levels escalator system is over 800 metres long and costed HK$245 million to build.

Managed to catch this bus after being locked up in the first bus haha

Sitting in the upper deck in the rain. Fun experience :)

Getting ready to get off for our stop

St Honore Cake Shop near Mid Levels escalators, yum yum

About to ride the Mid Levels escalators :)

Street scene along the Mid Levels escalators

SoHo area

The various sections of the Mid Levels escalators

As the rain got heavier, we decided to make a pit-stop at Soho for lunch. :) It was rather relaxing watching people and the rain while having crepes, waffles and apple pie. Who said lunch must be savory?! :P

At Portobello cafe, drinking Zombie Sunset

Can you spot Juliane? Lol

Although it was still raining, we set off for PMQ (Police Married Quarters), a hub for design and creative industries. We walked up 7 levels so that I could get the murals done on the stairs and took the lift down to the ground floor again. On hindsight, I could have taken the lift to the top and then walked down! Haha :P There are lots of design shops and studios but I wasn't able to visit them. :( We were running behind our schedule because of the rain. Next visit.

We went to Man Mo Temple next as it is nearby PMQ. It was tricky trying to read the Google map on Handy smartphone while navigating where we were in the heavy rain. By accident, I managed to bring us to Ladder Street and eventually to Man Mo Temple. :P