It has been sometime since I returned from HK, and I 'm only writing this down now. Hopefully, I can still remember what we did, the thought and stuffs =)
Om 4/1/11 to 9/1/11, I went to HK and Macau with Ben, Yanjia, Yuxing and Qianhua. We spoke in English and horrible Cantonese around Macau and HK, but still managed to get around well. Personally, I thought the experience in HK and TW with the company was rather similar, but I had more things on my mind in HK that made it less totally carefree compared to TW.
Some background. The return air ticket, one way trip from HKIA to Macau via ferry, Macau and HK accommodation were all pre-booked online.
4/1:
It was a morning flight, at 940am. We took SQ and sat in the supposedly awesome A380 to HKIA before transiting to the Cotai Jet at the airport to bring us to Macau directly. The transit was like 1.5 hour or so.
The A380 is nothing to rave about.Compared to our return flight on a normal plane, the economy seats were actually harder in the A380. But then again, this is subject to individuals. Food wise, similar, and although there were more entertainment options in the A380, it did not help cuz I was spoilt for choices. Haha! Little choices also wrong, a lot of choices also wrong. Singaporeans =D
When we reached HKIA, we walked around the airport and cam whored a little before settling down at the transit lounge while waiting for time to board our ferry to Macau.
The ferry ride took like 45min or so, and when we alighted the ferry, it was SUPER cold! We were in our jackets but the wind everything made it damn cold. All 5 of us were jumping around like idiots and blowing "mist" from our mouths. Grabbed our luggages and made our way to The Venetian where we stayed for ONE night.
The Venetian is the most popular resort hotel in Macau now, and the interior is really beautiful. We got a choice of either lower or higher levels. Of course we chose the higher levels. It was on the 31st story and we stayed in a Suite. The suite had 2 queen sized beds and a sofa bed, and a GIGANTIC toilet comparable to our WHOLE room in HK =D.Me and Ben, YX and QH, YJ on sofa bed.
We put our stuff down, freshened ourselves a bit before taking a cab out to Taipa Village to look for the legendary Macau Pork Buns (猪扒包) and some other dessert shops and local products shops in Macau. Lost our way a bit and a kind lady took us to where we wanted to go in her car! All 5 of us squeezed into the car with her! =D
As we walked around looking for stuff, we grabbed some egg tarts(Macau specialty) to fill our tummy before dinner because our last meal was breakfast on the plane!
First up was Koi Kei Bakery. We tried their almond biscuits and egg rolls which are their specialty. I bought the almond biscuits back. Next was Pastelaria Fong Kei, where I bought their pig ear biscuit! They are super duper fresh and tasty and crispy! One roll of about 25 pieces cost like SGD2 only. I regretted buying only 4 rolls! This was followed by some ice cream dessert place, Gelatina Mok Yi Kei, which is famous. But I thought it’s nothing much. Maybe we were too cold from the weather to appreciate the cold desserts. Dinner was at this random thai restaurant. The food was really tasty. We only order the specialty braised pig trotters, friend rice and tom yum soup. All 3 were very very tasty and the seafood fresh.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel resort to explore the place to see what's at the shopping area in Venetian. I took the chance to look for another legedary Lord Stow's egg tart which has a branch in Venetian. It was good! The skin was thin and crispy yet still having the fluffiness, and the egg filling is tasty enough.
Despite it being top class, Venetian does not have any supermarket, and so we only could purchase expensive drinks around. Water costs like $2.50 for a 500ml one. Grrrr... This is when I did my uncle thing of boiling and cooling lots of water in the room to drink and to refill our water bottles.
Walk walk walk, got tired, and we went back to the room to bathe and wash up. Yj and myself then went out again to talk through the casino area to look see. The people there are super chill! We were wondering how the guards would react if someone came in, killed someone and ran off. Really.. everyone super chilled. Walk walk see see, we went out of the hotel to take like 1893712389 pictures with the exterior deco, which were beautiful. We eventually called it a day at like 3am, and returned to sleep.
5/1:
We woke up early at like 9am, and travelled back to Taipa village for our Pork Buns because we buay kam wan find so long the other night stil cannot find. It was so worth the trip back. Freshly baked bread and grilled pork chops from Café Tai Lei Loi Kei. The pork chops was not tough at all and we could easily bite them off without needing to struggle like most pork chops! Aside from the pork chops, we shared their wonton mee, and teh as well.
Next up, we took a can to Senado Square where there were 12938274 people. Cam whored. Ok, I will not talk about camwhoring cuz it's what we did the entire time. At Senado Square, we looked for this Yee Shun Milk Company and tried their legendary steamed egg and stuff. Good, and soft and palate cleansing. We tried the Pork Chop Buns but it's horrid. This was also where we took “couple shots”. Everyone posed a couple pose with everyone and took a nice couple shot. I really liked the Ben and YJ one! Super sweet looking. I am so going to kop that idea for my wedding montage!
We continued walking through the streets leading up to St Paul's Ruins, a tourisy spot. Next up, rush back to hotel to check out, and make our way to HK.
Upon reaching HK, we walked like 381278km before finally managing to find out hostel. It was Ah Shan Dragon hostel. Cheap! Just like $50 per room per day for twin sharing. The ONLY down side is that the rooms are tiny, and the toilet is jus like 1 step to any wall if you stand in the centre. Because it is in PRIME district, beside us is 花园街, and just one street away is Argyle Centre, 2 streets away Mongkok MTR.
After checking in, we we out to Kwun Tong, where there are supposed to be warehouse priced clothings, but did not manage to spot then. It could be due to the wrong place, or that the stalls are closed. We reached there only at likr 6pm or so.. Pretty late cuz the ferry to HK took some time, and we spent more time getting to the hostel.
Next we took a cab to Lei Yun Mun Seafood bazaar where there were lots of restaurants, but they dont actually sell the seafood. There are many small stalls outside the restaurants selling live seafood. Anything from fishes, to sotong to shellfishes. We went into one and ordered
- Oyster sauce Kailan
- Steamed fish(I forgot what fish)
- Garlic vemicelli steamed scallops (This is wonderful! Burst of flavour! Even yanjia who hates garlic enjoyed this the most)
- Cold sotong with some sauce (This is horrid)
- Bamboo Clams with Black bean sauce (Nice wok Hei! But a lil salty)
- Marmite fried king prawns (Tasty, fresh prawns with shells cooked to a crisp)
- Butter Mantis Shrimp (My first time having it. I did not really like it because the flesh was soft not firm, and it was difficult trying to get the flesh out of the shell. The taste was good, but i would perhaps prefer it with the usual prawns.
Next up, Langham place, which is the same artsy giant mall that I went to a few years back when I visited HK alone. We took a neoprint in one of the shops and that’s just my second neoprint in my life. Yj is like the ultimate expert… fast fingers!
This was followed by 许留山 desserts! I want my mango and coconut noodle thingy! But it’s not longer available =(. After desserts, we walked around the streets in Mongkok before suppering at a café near out hostel. You tiao, pork and century egg porridge, and some rice kueh thingy.
6/1:
Disneyland!! We woke up and went for breakfast at a HK Cha Chan Teng(which serves the usual normal food and so-so tasting), before going straight to Disneyland!
Super duper cold there! And partly because so, I got “conned” to but the giant mickey mouse gloves. =D I buy it for 效果, and happy that everyone played around with it! Haha!
Camwhored like a sombodehhh in there! Taking photos with Winnie and Goofy etc. It’s not like wow or boomz to me actually. It’s just another theme park with the Disney characters ba. The rides and shows are all very kid friendly!
Disneyland is just a place of happiness. You just feel happy being there! Perhaps it’s cuz everyone there is happy, and when you’re in the midst of happiness, you just follow everyone, and be happy. Haha! What an analogy… But Disneyland is indeed a colourful place!
After finishing with Disneyland, we went for dinner at some place in Mongkok, before YJ left to go to King Edward to meet up with WangQian, Jesse, Amelia and Melvin for another meal. I walked around aimlessly myself and finally ate my Char Siew Roast Goose rice. Horrid. Haha! But it was the craving.
I met up with the Jesse gang and went to catch the last MTR back to Mongkok. They ate again at some random noodle shop. After which, we split and all went back to where we stayed.
7/1:
Woke up and head for our first Dim Sum in HK. It was 新兴食家 at Central area. We reached only at about 11 and had to wait like 45min before finally getting our seats. The dim sum was not fantastic, but reasonably priced. For myself, I would not mind spending more on a fantastic tasting dim sum since I’m already in HK.
After eating, we walked around Central and Sheung Wan and SoHo. Really nothing much there and wasted precious time =(. However, we did meet up with Kee Onn at about 4pm, and started our food spree.
- Mak’s Noodles (Ok la.. not bad, but I’m not a big fan of noodles)
- Law Fu Kee Pork and Century Egg Porridge (So-so.. not that fantastic)
- Kau Kee Beef soup and beef curry. (This is absolutely fantastic! The beef soup was full of flavor and the beef was super tender. A wonderful dish on a cold cold day. The curry was tasty too, but compared to the soup, it’s never going to be No 1!)
- Tai Cheung Egg Tarts (I really do not know what’s the hype! It’s not nice at all! Our Red Star trashes it hand down)
- Some roast pork and char siew and roast goose Kee Onn rec, that was beside Tai Cheung. No good. Horribly dry and lack of any real taste.
After all the eating, we went to Causeway Bay to shop at the shops nearby including H&M before going back to Central for Lan Kwai Fong. We walked around and everywhere was packed with Caucasians. I preferred a place that’s packed with locals cuz I can go to Clarke Quay and mix with the ang mohs. Eventually, we decided on a bar, and played drinking games and stuff. Ended up 5 of us half drunk(Kee Onn left before LWF to return to his hostel), and I was the most undrunk. Or maybe I was equally drunk, but forced myself to be awake to take care of people. Esp people feeling down… One thing’s for sure, the drinks are much cheaper than in Singapore!
Sometimes, trying hard to sleep, and letting one just fall asleep is a good way to escape from reality. After all, we all get better after a good night’s sleep. Emo-ing over someone and feeling super down the entire night, and after waking up, the past night’s incident seemed to disappear. Haha.. how we can cheat ourselves…
8/1:
Our 2nd last day in HK. Time flies! I spent like 9 days in TW and only 6 in HK! I MISS TW! This is the ultra tourisy day of the trip!
Woke up and had brunch at this small café thingy serving zi char kinda dishes.
- Stir fried Maggie noodle (tasty, good wok hei)
- Special sauce stir fried chee cheong fun (Unique, but the sauce was a little creamy making it gelat after eating a bit)
- Won ton noodle soup (Not my kinda thing)
- Special deep fried wontons (Nth much except that it’s BIG)
Next up, Noah’s Ark. We had great expectations cuz it’s Top 3 must visit places rated by Asiaone. We went to 3 areas of the place. 1st was horrid, or rather, did not really suit us. It’s like many rooms on different categories of simple knowledge of say “Transport” “weather” “music” etc.. More for kids.
The next place taught us how to make a cake using a towel. It was like omg! Haha! Take 2 different coloured towel, put one on top of the other, fold and roll, and stuff it into a piece of plastic. Ta-dah! A towel cake! Like wad the… Haha! Cam whored with some of the wall decorations though.
The third place is the outdoor area where they showed a lot of life-sized animals, and screened the story of Noah’s Ark. This place overlooks the sea and seaside. We saw a couple taking wedding shots there! The sand is like white, and not like singapore’s… Black!
After Noah’s ark, we headed to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum and the Peak. I bought custard pao, and some ice cream crepe to eat before going to the museum.
Ok, the museum. Nothing much to write except lots and lots of wax figures. Like 1/3 of my photos were taken here! I thought it was just one story but turned out to be 2 stories and never ending. Oh, there was this “haunted house” place in the museum. Free so we went to try out… Not too bad! Haha! People were screaming as we walked and the “ghosts” came from all over surprising us!
Next up was the peak! We went up, and yes, wonderful view! The down side, toooooo many people for it to be romantic or wad. I have a place in Singapore that can match up! And we cant really take photos cuz of the lack of tripod. The photos turned out shaky. And yes, it was super duper cold! Cold to the max!
We headed back to Temple Street after that to shop and eat. We felt like eating claypot rice and ordered one, which was not exactly claypot because of the lack of charred bits at the bottom. But the rice was really tasty with reasonable amounts of ingredients. We also ordered a garlic fried prawns which were fresh and tasty. Lots of garlic helped the taste but yanjia had to scrap every single grain of minced garlic off her prawn before touching it! =D Lastly it was black bean sauce mussels which took forever to come. The mussels were super fresh and did not have any weird smell or taste. With fresh seafood, you juz need minimal cooking. It’s good enough!
After all the salt, we needed some sweet and went across the road to a quite populated roadside dessert stall and ordered mixed fruits with tau huey and papaya white fungus soup. Healthy ppl! =)
Walk and walk and walk and walk and shop and shop and shop before going back to the hostel to call it a day.
9/1:
The last day in HK!
Woke up, checked out, and put our luggage at the “concierge” =D No concierge at the hostel, but they allowed us to leave our luggage there.
Breakfast was at KFC which I skipped, and we split up. Me and yj walked around ladies street and there were like 123089138291 people around on the Sunday morning. Lots of shops having nice clothing at damn cheap prices! I did not take down everything because it was impossible. Grab, try, not bad, go! Grab, try, not bad, go! Over and over again! I got my nice shoes during this time too! And yj was praised by so many people! 好身材 =D. I also finally managed to eat a nice roast goose, char siew and roast pork. My last proper meal there… and I left HK with no regrets! =)
We met up at a Hang Heung branch in Mongkok to purchase the lao po bing and stuff, before RUSHING back to the hostel and rushing to the airport! We were late late late and ran to the gate!
Boarded the plane, and that’s the end of the trip. If 天地人合，we could have extended the stay by one more day because we spotted lots of nice cheap clothing at the end. One more day would be good! Oh wells…
This concludes my HK trip, and return to reality….