Hong Kong

So we finally went to HK and now we're back in good old Melati. Travelling is great fun, but to me the best part of travelling is always coming home. Better still if we can go back to Malacca. So anyway what are my views of Hk? Anyway it isnt even the first time I was there. I went some time in 2002 - August 2002 when I went to present a paper on testing at the IAEA conference. Then I think I was quite impressed with the place but this time around I wasn't really impressed, quite the opposite actually.

Our plane touched down at 5.36pm and a guy from Ann's travel agency was there to meet us. He took us to Kimberley Hotel, our "home" for the next few days. Kimberley Hotel sits amidst a shopping area ( not One Utama style but more like Petaling Street) . The area is crowded and busy , lots of people and all kinds of things to see. But the hotel itself is not big - the rooms are ok I guess, pretty average though the price was quite steep for a 3 star hotel. After checking in, we decided to go out for dinner so we trudged to the main road - Nathan Road - and after walking hardly a block we found this Pakistani place., called Pakistan Mess. And its a mess all right! In fact mess is an understatement. Its a fire hazard - don't know how it was passed by the authorities. The food is average but beggers can't be choosers, right? Pretty scary place though. Sara said the people looked kind of like thugs.

I think the cost of living here is way up. Everything is expensive here, esp food. Imagine - a plate of beriani rice costs HK60, that's about RM30 in Malaysia. And we complain if our roti canai goes up by 10 cents. That does not include the chicken and dal which have separate prices.

Mineral water costs HK18 per bottle and we get it here in KL for only RM1.20 even at the most expensive place! After that meal we decided to try the other halal place on our list - Shadowman Cyber cafe on Ashley Road. Its owned by a Singaporean Muslim, a Mr Abdul Kadir.

At least here they serve western food as well as Asian. The nasi lemak is tolerable but the spaghetti is really delicious. I wouldn't advice serious curry eaters to try the curry though - its too bland to be termed curry.Kudos to Mr Abdul Kadir for the cafe - one of the very few places we can have halal food in Hong Kong, or at least in Kowloon where we actually were.