We continued our walk to the promenade area at Tsim Sha Tsui. I was hoping I would be able to catch a glimpse of the nightly light show at Victoria Harbour. We got ourselves a decent spot and hung around for a couple of hours. Victoria Harbour is truly and awesome spectacle and it never ceases to amaze me. Half and hour before the light show was supposed to start, I vaguely overheard an announcement that the light show will not be held that evening! I tried to find out why when I realized that it was in support for Earth Hour.
Of all the days, it had to be this one! Anyway, flexible as we are, we quickly changed plans and decided to pay a visit to the Chungking Mansions. I have only been there only once and I never really liked the atmosphere there. It felt seedy and it was as if people were all looking at me. That was almost nine years ago. Now with more people in tow, I got the nerve to dare them to go to Chungking Mansions. I was hoping we could have some sort of exotic food like from Africa or something.
When we got to Chungking Mansions, my friends bravely charged into the ground floor when they were met and smothered by an army of touts for restaurants above. For some reason, the touts were ignoring me and we only focusing on them. The sudden barrage of touts rattled my friends and they signalled for a retreat. We managed to get a couple of name cards of the establishments so we can choose which restaurant to eat at. Apparently, most of these places were Indian restaurants. I was kind of disappointed since I could easily get Indian food in Singapore. Anyway, my friends don’t get to eat Indian food that often and I would at least want to try the food here.
So which restaurant won? I guess the one that has the best name recall was Taj Mahal Restaurant. Finding the restaurant was not easy as we had to navigate the complicated building of the Chungking Mansions. I found out that this is the place for cheap rooms. And the accomodations don’t seem to be as dingy as the building itself. It was rather confusing since we got lost trying to find out where the Taj Mahal Restaurant was. Apparently the Chungking Mansions has certain wings and you need to make sure you get up the correct wing or you’ll have to move from one wing to another.
We actually had to walk through a budget hostel (forgot which one) in Chungking Mansions just to get to the Taj Mahal Restaurant. The restaurant itself was quite small, but it was full, giving it as very cozy, but authentic ambience. Fortunately, there were still enough seats for us. The owner recommended a package where were can try a lot of stuff, not knowning any better we agreed. It turned out to be a good decision. The kebab was nice and tasty. They have fried stuff like onion and eggplant which turned out to be great. The curry fish and chicken was nice, though, not as spicy as I wanted to be, but as my friend confirmed, it was already killing him. I was thoroughly satisfied with my meal and it was probably one of the better Indian meals that I had. I don’t get to eat big Indian meals like this in Singapore since my friends there don’t really fancy curry. Which is too bad since they are missing out on a world of taste.
As for Earth Hour? Well, by the time we got back to Victoria Harbour, the buildings were already starting to light up one by one. I would have wanted a photos of the Harbor pitch black but I didn’t have a tripod with me. It was going to be my last night in Hong Kong and we wanted to make the most of it.
Taj Mahal Restaurant
B4, 3/F, Block B, Chungking Mansions
36-44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon, Hong Kong
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