Skating at the glacier

One of the most surprising activities I found at the local malls is public skating. Considering it's about 30C outside, it's no wonder skating is such a popular past time to cool off with. Most of the larger shopping centres in Hong Kong island as well as Kowloon have a small rink (compared to typical community centres in Toronto anyway) inside. I saw lots of kids come skate with their friends, or have private coaches that teach them to figure skate.

Here`s the "Glacier" skating rink at Festival Walk in Kowloon (Photo: CathC)

I didn't end up skating but instead had lunch rink side at Festival Walk's Exp restaurant. The restaurant was right beside the rink and they set up some bar tables next to the rink. I'm use to skating rinks that are pretty cool (<8C) but I guess since the rink is inside a mall they don't keep the temperature that cold. So fortunately my food didn't get cold too quickly even though I was by at the rink.

Clockwise from the top: pepperoni, salami, and mushroom pizza; softshell crab  in rice paper rolls;  raspberry & gauva soda and a orange & ginger juice; gelatin desserts with coconut ice cream. (Photo: CathC)

I enjoyed the eastern/western fusion of the menu. The dessert I tried had a nice variety of gelatin desserts: taro, sago and coconut milk; citronella and coconut milk, espresso and cappuccino. Even though there was about a 20 minute wait for seats, it was a good restaurant to spend a relaxing meal. The skating rink also gave a nice sense of familiarity too.