So, if there's something about expansive, huge, sprawling mixed-use hotel-retail properties that I'm not that sure I like, it is that it's really, really hard to find what I call substantial, yet reasonably-priced food.
Look, I'm not saying that the hotel buffet was overpriced.
I just didn't think I wanted to eat that much at breakfast time.
And if it weren't included in the price of the room, practical me didn't think I wanted to pay extra.
Of course it would have bode us well had we gone on a more thorough exploration of The Venetian Macau, or even The Londoner, or any of the other properties nearby. We might have had a better idea of what was available, what wasn't, where the nearest and best cha chan teng was (if there was one), or if there were bakeries or pastry shops where we could go in and have a tart or a pastry or a char siew bao and a cup of tea.
We might also have had a better idea of how to get there.
But as it was, we hadn't done our pre-breakfast homework, so to speak, and so there we were, the two of us, wandering from what I think is the middle of The Venetian towards The Londoner on the opposite side of the road.
The plan was to find a cafe or even a Starbucks to have a coffee, a tea and a sandwich of sorts, but we couldn't find a directory, we didn't know where any of these was, I was too lazy to ask around, and when we did find a place- a food court- at the third floor, or fourth, on the other end of The Londoner's retail mall, we were too early, and most stalls weren't open.
So back it was to The Venetian where we decided we'd have breakfast at McDonalds.
Irony, this popular fast food place wasn't the easiest to find!
Eventually we asked a staff, found the right escalator, and made it up to the 5th floor.
There was the typical McDonalds menu, yes, and so we decided to have a meal of Hotcakes with Sausage, and coffee.
After breakfast it was a quick pack, then back down it was to the lobby where earlier on we'd collected our tickets for One Bus.
It was a smooth bus journey back to Hong Kong.
What route exactly it was that we took, I don't know- I wasn't paying much attention- but the bus made a couple of turns past the regular 'hoods, passing through from the Cotai region to the Taipa region, stopped at two hotels to pick up other passengers, and then it was across the bridge where out the window in the distance I could see the same Macau Tower that I'd been to just the day before.
This is the bridge that separates Taipa and Cotai from mainland Macau, and although I didn't know it, was very likely the same one that Bus 26 took us on just the day before.
Back onto the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge the One Bus went.
I didn't get to take pictures of the Pearl River Delta this time, but I did manage to grab some shots of the Port when the bus speeded by.
Which container terminal it is, I don't know- there are nine altogether in Hong Kong, including Kwai Chung and Tuen Mun, but with us coming this direction, I think it be Tsing Yi.
It's not a small terminal, mind.
With nine of these around, no wonder the Port of Hong Kong has been one of the busiest container ports in the world for many years.
How the route continued after that, I'm afraid I didn't pay attention- it might be that I fell asleep- but we got to Jordan Road around 1pm, alighted back at the same place where we'd boarded the bus (only just) the day before, and got a cab to Intercontinental Grand Stanford on Mody Road.
It's interesting how the cab driver knew about Mody Road, but didn't know precisely where the Intercon was.
And it wasn't that the sign was small or anything like that.
It was just that there was another hotel right next to it and for a moment he wondered whether he was supposed to turn in from the Harbour View Rooms and Suites driveway, or into the driveway of the destination itself.
Well, we got there, checked in, and first thing about the room that struck me was the View.
See, it's one thing to have seen postcard pictures of Hong Kong.
It's another thing altogether to be in the presence of those postcard pictures and find yourself gazing right out at the harbour to all the skyscrapers and cityscape on the opposite side of the water.
Just like how I'd been at Victoria Gap, so it was the same here.
That same sense of unbelievability.
That same sense of awe that I was really here, in Hong Kong, in a place that had been integral to my childhood and (being Cantonese) I had heard so much about.
I was glad for the room.
I was glad for the view.
Not just of the harbour, but also of Salisbury Road right in front.
There wasn't much time for me to sit and take in the view this afternoon, however.
There was lunch to be had.
So out it was to Harbour City Mall a short walk away from the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry Pier- via bus- which we took from a bus stop along either Granville Road, or Chatham Road South.
I honestly don't remember which road it were- too busy looking at my surroundings, that's why- but I do know the bus brought us right to the final stop on the Star Ferry Pier, and we walked over to the mall.
At another time I would surely have wanted to take the ferry over to Central- it's so iconic after all- but then we were hungry, there was a phone call to be made, and there were places this side of the harbour that we wanted to see.
So into Harbour City Mall we went.
It's a big place, this mall, and since we weren't sure where to go, simply went up to the 2nd, or was it the 3rd floor, looking about the cafes and restaurants.
There's quite a good mix of Japanese restaurants and coffee places here.
For a while we considered whether we'd ought to have a coffee and a pastry, but then that didn't feel like lunch, so we walked further until we came to this place that served Japanese in what felt like a casual cha chan teng sort of nook.
Looking at these pictures now the food seems ordinary- I mean, it's just a bowl of Udon with miso soup, and a bunch of small bites on the side.
But here's the charm about dining in Hong Kong.
It doesn't matter where you are or where you dine at.
Every sort of cuisine that they serve you has that bit of heart.
Even if it be bites like chicken gyozas, fried tofu and seaweed chicken that (might or might not) have been taken out from the freezer only a couple of minutes ago.
How they do it, I don't know, but I didn't leave the place feeling empty, that I'm sure.
We hung out at the mall a little, taking in the view from the terrace outside.
I think this was West Kowloon.
And maybe this was looking towards Central.
To be honest, I don't know.
Yes, I should have been paying better attention to my surroundings, but there was so much to see, and, well, I think I was more fascinated by the water than by the skyscrapers on either side of me.
We decided to walk back to Mody Road from the mall, which, as it turned out, wasn't very far actually.
The route was a wee bit complicated, I thought.
Maybe Google Maps brought us on a more comfortable walking route.
What we did, if I'm not wrong, was to walk on Kowloon Park Drive, then past The Peninsula, where by the way, less than 20 meters away was the Hong Kong YMCA.
Around this area we might, or might not have turned onto Nathan Road.
If we didn't, then it would have been via Middle Road that we went before turning into Chatham Road South, then across to Mody Road.
Along the way we spotted a Wellcome Supermarket- it was in the basement, like many supermarkets in Hong Kong are- so went in for a quick round.
This particular outlet seemed to have a bit more of the dry foods than the fresh foods.
Either that, or their fresh foods were kept so well on the shelves that I didn't get to take much notice of them, distracted as I was by necessities like packet milks, bottled drinks, tea, coffee, biscuits, snacks, confectionery, and pantry stuff like sauces and sugar and flour and oil.
For some reason I didn't get snacks this time.
But we did get two big bottles of mineral water, which we then carried, each one hugging one, back to the hotel.
Fortunately it wasn't too far away.
Past Wing On Plaza, past Kowloon Shangri-La Hong Kong (with a Starbucks opposite), a couple of shopping centers, the Mody Road Garden, and that was it.
Our day, however, wasn't yet over.
It felt a bit silly to go sleep at 945pm Hong Kong time, so out for a stroll we went.
I wasn't sure where exactly we ought to go, but I have a resourceful companion, and after crossing Mody Road and Chatham South Road, we found ourselves in an area covering Granville Road, Cameron Road and Kimberly Road.
It wasn't just a stroll that we took, however.
We were a bit hungry.
So we looked around.
And yep, we found it, at this place called Red Cafe.
Typical cha chan teng food, one might say, what is the big deal, but it's the kind of food that you don't think you need it until you're staring at the menu, and the plates of your fellow diners seated not foo far from you.
I ordered a bowl of noodles- what they call Gong Zai Min, if I'm not wrong.
It doesn't look much- one of the simplest homemade dishes that get served in a diner, but there's little not to love about a bowl of hot, piping (instant) soup noodles with a slice of luncheon meat and fried egg over the top.
Maybe one might think such a bowl too expensive for eating out, but oy, not all of us have a stove and pan at the ready to fry the spam, and trust me, this piece of processed meat tastes much better when shallow fried than poached in the soup.
My friend made a more appetizing choice of curry chicken cutlet with rice.
What's interesting is that even though we knew what to expect, the size of the cutlet really surprised us.
We had forgotten just how large portions in Hong Kong tend to be.
And there was this huge mountain of rice which, I tell you, had to be at least a third more than the largest plate of rice I'd- on this island- had ever seen.
It wasn't just these two dishes that we had.
There was also a cup of milk tea, and a piece of French toast with butter, because late evening or no, thick toast is something uber hard to resist.
I wanted the tea.
You cannot come to Hong Kong and not take their milk tea.
Better yet if you drink both coffee and tea so you can have their yin yang, which, if you haven't tried, is a mixture of milk coffee and milk tea in one cup. Unusual taste, yes, but that's the adventure of Hong Kong favorites for you.
But we were sharing and my friend doesn't take coffee.
So thick, sweet milk tea it was.
We decided to walk off everything that we'd eaten after we were done with our meal.
It was, after all, a bright, colorful, chill kind of neighborhood where you met friends for after-work drinks, where you and a friend met to eat and catch up with each other, where you strolled up and down looking at the eateries trying to decide.
Come to think of it, I wish I had referred to Google Maps as we walked.
I would have then known that the Hong Kong Observatory 1883 Building was not too far away, just somewhere up the hill on Observatory Road.
I would also have known that the St. Andrew's Christian Center was just further up the same hill near Nathan Road.
Sure, it might not have been a short walk, nor the easiest- slopes in Hong Kong are remarkably steep- but it would have been somewhere I chose to go to.
That didn't mean that we didn't have a nice time.
Of course we did, going along first what I think is Cameron Road, or whichever road it was that all the Japanese eateries and izakayas.
Somewhere along the way we might have passed along Granville Road before turning into Carnarvon Road and then Kimberly Road.
I remember seeing Mira Place which was accessible by a sort of staircase.
And I had seen lots of people coming down.
I just hadn't known that behind it was the popular Nathan Road.
On Granville Road and Carnarvon Road, just what restaurants and eateries and stores it were that we passed by, I don't remember, and sadly there're aren't many references for me on Google Maps, save for the buildings' names, all of which, are unfamiliar to me and I don't know which is which is where.
One thing I do remember is The Kimberly Hotel.
Not merely because it was a short walk away to one side of Observatory Road and Chatham South Road, but because I went in to sit for a while and found myself genuinely surprised by the 80s decor that the hotel seemed to deliberately retained.
It wasn't just the huge black leather sofa that I was sitting on.
It was in the decorative pillars, the front desk counter, the paintings on the walls, the lamps, lighting, layout, escalators even.
Perhaps there's a deeper meaning behind the feel of 70s and 80s in this area that makes it be happily existent, carefully maintained.