Today we were scheduled to tour the city first then go to Shenzhen,China. Eric had instructed us yesterday to have our breakfast first then be at the hotel lobby by 8:45 AM.So when we had finished bathing and dressing up,Jaja,Sieg and I headed for the McDonald's at Nathan Road to have our complimentary breakfast.Mau, Tina and Jana texted Jaja that they would follow us but they ended up eating in another McDonald's at Cameron Street.
Eric showed up in the hotel lobby on time then hustled us to the van waiting for us outside. He briefed us on our itinerary for the day,which was to consist mainly of a tour around Hong Kong and a trip to Shenzhen,China. As I was taking videos of the surroundings I would sometimes catch him on camera and he would cover his face and ask not to be videotaped during the tour. He explained later that he was once videotaped and the footage had been included in some sort of a documentary about Hong Kong without his permission. Fair enough.
Our first stop was the jewellery store owned by Jackie Chan. We were given the tour of the place by an Ilocana turned Hong Kongite, Shierly. The shop had a big showcase area and they had a 50% discount for tourists who would buy their pieces.Jaja almost bought a necklace that was selling for HK$ 136,had I not intervened and asked her if she really needed to buy it.
The rest of the group just walked around and looked at the displays but did not really intend to buy anything so we all went out of the shop so we could get on with our tour.
Our next stop was a photo session by the Victoria Harbour against the background of the IFC building. The photographer accompanying us was a young chap who looked like one of the F4 characters. Jana had photos taken with him. We also had photos taken against the Golden Bauhemia which is the national flower of Hong Kong.
From there we proceeded to the Aberdeen Court which was once the harbor for the junks and where a segment of Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon," was shot. The "squatter" junks were no longer there since the government had started a program to clear the waters of these floating houses.
We rode on a boat that took us around the boats that were docked there. Nothing much to see though but it was a somehow relaxing. it also cost us HK$50 each as out contribution to our boatwoman.
Next, we were brought to the base of the Victoria Peak where we had a pit stop and a photo session. We didn't go up the peak because it was not in our plan, and we needed to be at the train station sometime before 11 AM for our trip to Shenzhen, China.
Mau asked if we could stop by a forex dealer but Eric volunteered to exchange some of our pesos for a higher than forex rate, so Jaja and I changed P2,000.
Before we went to the KCR Line station, we passed by the photographer who sold us our souvenir plates with our photos for HK$ 140. The others didn't get theirs but Jaja and I bought ours as a souvenir of our trip.
Eric went down with us at one of the Tsim Sha Tsui subway entrances and accompanied us to the gate that would take us to Shenzhen (Lo Wu station.) he bought our subway tickets and gave us instructions on what we were to do when we got to the Lo Wu station.
He gave Jana a piece of paper which had some Chinese characters on it. We were supposed to hold this up at the booth number 8 and our contact in China would take it from there.
Our destination, Lo Wu was at the end of the KCR Line and took us about 30 minutes or so. After we alighted from the train we followed Eric's directions to the letter.
We passed thru an Immigration section then when we walked through a gate we were in China!
As instructed, we went to counter number 8 of the Immigration at the China side and when Jana held up the piece of paper Eric gave, a young man wearing glasses andin a black T shirt and jeans waved at us and directed us to an area where we could talk.
He told us to line up according to the arrangement of our names in the group visa he handed over to us and directed us to a counter where he would inform the immigration officer about us.
It didn't take us long to pass through Immigration so when we were all at the other side Mike our guide raised his hand and said:"Ready...follow me." And he led us to where our van would pick us up.
First thing I noticed was that it seemed hotter in Shenzhen and that the surrounding area seemed a little more "provincial."
Mike, who we learned later was single and only 28 years old, was a pleasant fellow. He was not as glib in English as Eric but he was always smiling. I told Jaja, he reminded me of S' Ato Tanmantiong of Jollibee because of his features.
When we were inside the van and were on the road, Mike started his spiel about Shenzhen, informing us that the city was just 25 years young. He pointed to a row of buildings which he said was known as the "Mistresses Apartments."
According to him,Shenzhen has more women than men,with a ratio of one man to seven women. Many of the men who work around the area come from Hong Kong and they stay in Shenzhen most of the week and just go home during weekends. Since residential units are cheap, these Hong Kong men buy or rent apartments and since they are there most of the time anyway, they go on to get themselves mistresses to take care of their second homes.
Our first stop was what Mike called a "de-laceous" place, and told us to prepare our stomachs for delicious dimsums "for free!" Since he mentioned dimsums we envisioned eating siomai or different types of Chinese dumplings. This expectation was heightened some more when we saw pictures of dumplings outside the building we were going to.
Inside the outlet though,we realized that Mike had just given us hype. It was really an outlet for "dimsums" meaning cookies and local sweet delicacies, but not siomai or siopao we were thinking about. We were given samples of the products they were selling and if we were interested, we were to tell the salesladies who were assigned to us.
We were not sure if the prices of these products were cheaper in Hong Kong but to make sure we had some authentic Chinese "pasalubongs" for the office, Jaja and I bought a value pack of 5 boxes of assorted products for HK$ 95. Jana, Mau and Sieg also bought some items.
It was about 12:30 when we left the "dimsum" place, and thankfully, Mike informed us we were having lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant. Again, I was looking forward to a delicious lunch...after all we were in China!
When we were finally served our food though,something told me the lunch wasn't going to be "de-laceous" after all. First, of all, the soup looked like water with some vegetables boiled in it. The sweet sour pork was more bones than meat, the veggies didn't look appetizing and the fish though promisisng at first didn't really taste spectacular. I didn't bother to take photos of our food since it was a big disappointment. Since Mike did not eat with us, we joked that maybe he was eating a different, more "de-laceous" fare,perhaps as part of his commission.
When we left the restaurant there was another person that rode with us. Turns out he was a photographer who would take a photo of us at the next stop and like the F4 lookalike we had this morning would sell our souvenir photo sometime during the trip.
We passed by Shenzhen's famous theme park, Window to the World, which was like Epcot Center at World Disney World. It had famous landmarks of different countries like the Eiffel Tower of France, the Colloseeum of Rome and even had replicas of David, Moses lining the entrance. We had decided earlier not to go to this place because besides being expensive (US$ 30 entrance fee!) it was really hot outside.
When we reached the place we were supposed to have a photo shoot we hurried up the photographer because the girls specially couldn't stand the heat!
We went to a museum next which had 4 Terra Cotta figures (of the famous 3,000 Terra Cotta soldiers) on display and which also housed a shop for jade products and other Chinese handicrafts.
Apparently, many Filipinos have been thru this place because the sales ladies knew some Tagalog already. One of them kept calling Jaja "Maganda lady" whenever she wanted to show her something to sell. Jaja, flattered by this, would oblige by taking a look at the item for sale. But like in the other souvenir shops we went to, none of us bought anything. The highlight of this stop was when we each took turns rubbing a jade dragon boat for luck!
Next on our itinerary was a visit to a factory which sold pearls and silk clothing. The come on of this shop was to show tourists how pearls are removed from oysters. When we entered the shop floor though there wasn't anything much worth buying so we wanted to move on to the next stop of our tour. Mike, however, seemed to be working according to a prescribed timetable and would not let us go until we had stayed in the shop for 30 minutes.
Our last stop was to take us back to the area where we arrived. It was about a 30 minute drive through a business district which was quite impressive considering that it had a 9 lane road and tall buildings some reaching 70 storeys high.
Along the way Mike started talking about the classifications of "fake" goods (A,Double A etc)which we were going to see at our next stop. I wasn't listening to him much because I was busy videotaping sights and was also starting to feel drowsy.
When we finally reached our destination, we took all our things and walked to a building which looked like a condominium. We went up to the 32nd floor and when we got out, Mike led us to one of the rooms. Inside were all kinds of imitation "branded"goods: sunglasses,wallets,bags, Samsonite luggage,leather shoes,belts,perfumes,shirts etc. Jaja saw a pair of shoes she liked and would have bought it except that there was a problem with the heels...they weren't level with each other. Again, we browsed but we didn't buy.
It was about 4:30 PM when we left the condo "tiangge" and proceeded to the Immigration office and train station for our trip back to Hong Kong. Mike double checked if we really didn't want to drop by the Lo Wu mall, a huge complex which contained stalls selling imitation goods...and supposedly the only "legit" place for vending these stuff. We declined the offer since all of us were tired and just wanted to get back to the hotel.
Mike brought us to the Immigration area and assisted us in getting thru. We thanked him and said our goodbyes then walked to the Hong Kong side of Immigration. Among the six of us,Sieg took longest to get out because there seemed to be questions about his passport. The girls kidded him about it.
During our tour, I had asked Mike why there were two Immigration sections when technically, Hong Kong was already under China's jurisdiction so was really part of the country. He explained that it was just because Hong Kong had a different system from China, hence the separate Immigrations.
We all managed to get seats for our trip back to Hong Kong and good that we did because it was right smack in the middle of rush hour when we went back.
When we reached the Tsim Sha Tsui station I reminded the group that we had entered thru the letter "N" passageway so we just went back the way we came. From there it was, as Eric said, about a 10 minute walk back to our hotel.
Before we each went to our rooms the Coffey team decided on their agenda for the evening. Since this was supposed to be a planning trip,they decided they'd start their planning session tonight after dinner at the Pacific Coffee shop along Nathan Road.
Back in our room I tried to call Dona so I could arrange for our own get together this evening. When I couldn't call her I just sent her a text message which she got. We agreed she'd come over at 9 PM.
For this evening's dinner Jana and Sieg suggested we eat in one of the Chinese food stores that we had seen along the way. There were many along Camarvon and Cameron Streets, so it was a matter of figuring out which would be the best.
Since most of the menus were written in Chinese we had to find one where the menu was in English and had the prices. There was one near the McDonald's at Cameron and when one of the servers there noticed us studying the menu he spoke to us in English. I pointed to one of the items and asked:"Duo shao tsien?"(How much is this) and he seems to have understood me becasue he gave me the price. Since it seemed reasonable and we were sure we could communicate with someone in the shop, we went in.
Jaja and I ordered separate items;she had wonton noodle soup while I had Soy Chicken rice. Sieg had a pork rice topping while Jana shared her siomai with Mau. Tina, who had eaten biscuits earlier, decided not to eat anymore but just went window shopping at the nearby stores.
When we had finished, the Coffey group proceeded to Pacific Coffee while I went back to the hotel to wait for Dona.
At about 10 past 9, I saw her outside looking at the hotel sign as if not sure if it was the right one, so I went out and called to her. She told me she would have been there earlier but had gone to Kimberly Street, not Kimberly Road.
We walked to Pacific Place where Jaja and the rest were, and I introduced Dona to Jaja's teammates. After she bought a drink there and exchanged some pleasantries with Jaja, we left them to plan and headed for Lan Kwai Fong, which I saw from the map was the place to go for a night out.
We took the MTR going to Central,which is at the Hong Kong side. On the way there I told Dona about our trip to Shenzhen.
When we got out of the Central station we walked about about a block and we were at the Lan Kwai Fong area. I started videotaping the sights and sounds around us. We saw a Crocs store that had just opened. Dona wanted to check it out but it was already closed.
As we walked, Dona told me that usually on a Friday night,the street was usually packed with people such that no vehicles can get through. The bars that lined the street were full because tomorrow was going to be a holiday in Hong Kong.
We entered one of the bars (Jeigermeister?) and were served by Pinoy waiters and waitresses. The band playing was composed of either African-Americans or Jamaicans (I couldn't tell.) While listening to them play Dona and I ate nachos and drank red wine.
From there Dona took me a to a tour of the area, which reminded me of Adriatico because of the many bars and tourists around. Dona remarked that she had no choice but to become familiar with the place because duriong her first few months in Hong Kong she didn't have much to do at nights.
Some of the streets we went through were deserted but Dona assured me we were safe because unlike Pinoys, Hong Kongites didn't really go much for night action.
From there, we went to Wan Chai, the red light district of Hong Kong where Pinay "working girls" could be found. When we got there I noticed signs of Pinoy presence immediately. There was a store that had the sign "Tindahan ni Mang Ambo," and the girls who could be seen outside the clubs were all Pinays.Dona pointed out that the clubs that had dark curtains covering the entrances were strip clubs.
We walked the whole strip and back and after I had taken some video clips we headed for home.
While inside the station I asked Dona for a crash course on how to use the MTR since Jaja and I were planning to go to Hong Kong Disneyland tomorrow. She showed me how to get tickets and explained what the red lines and blue lines meant and how to transfer from one platfrom to another.
Since she was going another way she got me a ticket back to Tsim Sha Tsui, and by the time I got off my stop it was about a quarter past 12 already.
When I entered our room, Sieg was already snoring away and Jaja was still awake. After I changed I told her of my evening adventure before we went to sleep.
End of Day 2
