Shenzhen - Hong Kong Part 2: Arrival
After touching down at Macau International Airport, we managed to book a mini van to take us from Macau to Shenzhen which cost us about 1700RMB for a round trip (worked out to about SGD56 per pax). The ride took about 2.5 hours which I figured is shorter than the cab - ferry -cab transition which we had planned earlier...

We were lucky in a way as the driver is a 地头蛇. He's got connections with the immigration checkpoints and could actually whipped us through lanes meant for diplomats!!! As a result, we saved precious time as it's almost constantly crowded at the checkpoints. People kept travelling to and fro Macau - Shenzhen - Hong Kong, pretty much like our own checkpoints at the causeway...

There was an accident on the highway which caused a little jam, quite amazing how this truck could have overturned like this on a 4-lane highway... Not sure if the driver was hurt cuz there was no sign of blood and the truck did not appear to have suffered any major damage, despite being overturned...


The rest of the ride was smooth and we finally reached our budget hotel... It cost 924RMB for a 5D4N stay but don't expect much.. It's kinda old and well, not exactly clean (the rooms are ok but not the lobby, corridors, etc)...

But then again, we were on a budget so we can only imagine how it would feel like to stay in this hotel across the street... (In case you can't read the signboard, it's Shangri-La)...

Opposite our hotel is the heaven for piracy and counterfeit goods, from Rolex watches to LV bags, to Sony 64GB thumbdrives to DVD players, you name it, they have it...

It's a paradise for Singaporeans who like to bargain... Some tips:
1) to always slash 50% from what the sellers quote you,
2) never express too much interest in the goods, else you will not be able to get good price,
3) pretend to walk out when the sellers can't match the price you quoted, 8 out of 10 times, they will come after you and strike a deal and
4) if they offer a price close to your expectation, and if your travel companions wanna buy something too, try asking for the same price again, chances are they will sell...

Marcus and Evan bought 2 remote controlled 4-channel helicopters (those that can fly in almost any directions de, think it cost close to SGD100 if you buy in S'pore) at 150RMB (that's SGD30)each using the above tactics... The initial price quoted was 330RMB for one helicopter!!!


One thing I do not understand though, there are shops being shut down for selling counterfeit goods and yet...

There are others who openly display fakey Coach, LV, Burberry bags and they are still in operation, so how does that work??? One thing they dun openly display is pirated DVDs but at every corner, somebody will come and ask if we wanna buy DVDs, the hot favorite seems to be those featuring 张柏芝 but of cuz we din buy lah... seriously, we didn't...

Oh well, but not everything in the building is fake though, this restaurant has the most authentic Peking Duck that we had ever eaten, it's always crowded and we would make it a point to have our dinner here if we can, so that tells you how good the food is, and it's cheap too... They ran out of Peking Duck on our last night there though =(


Here's a picture of the mouth watering dish

And this is a video clip that I have taken while the chef was carving the duck:



With the skin gone, the rest of the duck got transformed into another nice dish, and all this at just under SGD30!


Another yummilicious dish is the 醉虾, I forgot to turn on the video mode so you guys wun be able to see how it's being prepared... But I think you can imagine just by looking at the flames ya?


After the early dinner, we decided to explore a little since it was too early to go back to the hotel, the train system is very similiar to the MRT and it's extremely easy to get from place to place... And we DO NOT have to wait for 5-6 min for the next train during NON-PEAK PERIODS, unlike our so called, efficient train system...
They even have different colored lights to show you the stations that you have past and the stations that you are approaching, something that our 'wonderful' MRT lack..

4 happy people:

Here we are, at 'loh gai', I thought it's cantonese meaning ' 老鸡' ? >_<

老街 is shopping district much like the 西门町 in Taiwan although I prefer the later...

A random pix:

I chanced upon this tea shop which sells some really good tea, the salespersons are really friendly and the service is superb... We were very impressed by their level of service. They will go thru the extra mile to explain the different between the different types and grades of tea leaves, let customers sample all they want without pressurising for sales...

And of course we ended up buying and cam-whoring...

The guy is the outlet manager and he's just as friendly and cheerful as the gals...

These 2 wun let me go without taking a final shot... la la la...

And that's the end of part 2, coming up next... A day in Disneyland, Hong Kong....