Went to the First Class SilverKris lounge when we arrived @ the airport because my mom is a pps member. Hehe so yes we have perks!! My dad is actually the one with more mileage as he travels way often compared to my mom though. There was a breakfast buffet but I didn't have much appetite. I was actually craving for starbucks but since we went to the lounge instead.....I didn't manage to get my favourite peppermint mocha.
The flight generally was pretty bad for me because I had a terrible headache as I pulled an all-nighter, which was the stupidest decision I made because I was feeling nauseous the whole flight. Not to mention the fact that I couldn't sleep much as my neck felt so stiff and I was in this uncomfortable position lmao. Had fried carrot cake for breakfast on board the plane and watched a korean movie called 'Miss Granny'. Definitely was worth all the rave! After touching down I immediately connected to my mom's hot spot because she bought data for the 5 days that we would be in HK.
We took a cab from the airport and it was about an hour's drive to our hotel because we lived on Kowloon island instead of Hong Kong Island. If you didn't know, HK is divided into 3 main parts, Hong Kong, Kowloon & New Territories. The latter is where a lot of housing estates are located as well as industrial estates while Kowloon is mainly known for the Mong Kok & Tsim Sha Tsui area. On Hong Kong Island, we have Central as well as Causeway Bay among many other districts.
We stayed at Panorama Hotel which is located in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui. The location is really convenient and is only a stone's throw away from the MTR station! It takes only 5 minutes to walk to neighbouring malls such as K-11 and iSQUARE. Travelling to Harbour City takes 15-20 minutes on foot, which is not much of a problem as there is a no-brainer way of commuting there with the help of signs located in the MTR station for direction-less people like me and my mom.
There wasn't much of a view from our hotel room except for an empty street..... but to me the most important aspect of a hotel room is the bed and the bathroom! You definitely gotta have good accommodation in order to unwind after a long day of touring the city.
We rested at our hotel for about 3 hours before going to harbour city! My mom wanted to visit the harbour, and since the weather was pretty cooling and windy, why not right???
Settled on Crystal Jade for dinner (pretty typical chinese restaurant chain) but the xiao long baos were the bomb! Apart from the fact that they tear the moment you pick them up with chopsticks....that was an immediate indication that the xlbs weren't made properly, which was kinda disappointing tbh but still, they tasted great! My mom also ordered steamed cabbage because there wasn't any other vegetable I liked to eat on the menu....sorry mom!
MY SPICY FRIED RICE!!!!!!! Best thing ever tbh omg I'm craving for this right now as I'm typing this. I gotta step up my fried rice game and improve on my cooking man.
One of the best views in the whole world, Victoria Harbour! It was a lucky day for me as I could see the buildings clearly without the haze/fog, which usually appeared whenever I visited HK in the past.
Mom kept forcing me to take selfies and she even brought her selfie stick along, though it failed on us when we tried using in public. Apparently the battery got spoilt while we were testing it in the hotel room...and she blamed it on me. (What's new???) Oh and I finally had my favourite mobile softee ice cream! The delicious soft serve with the crunchy cone on a windy night....the coldness of the ice cream makes it even better hehe. My mom didn't like it because it was too milky for her. She's not a fan of dairy products, what a bummer.
Haha just us being weird at night!!!!
Stocked up on snacks and water, our ritual whenever we go overseas. My mom got pineapple jelly and mango pudding at a local dessert store near our hotel, and it was really good! I actually visited it before in 2012 with my cousins and aunts, but I didn't know it was so near my hotel! I bought lemon water and calbee chips!!! the chips tasted way better than the sg ones, idk why.....haha it's just psychological right?
Morning selfie! Day 2's plan was to go to Kwai Fong, meet up with mom's friends for lunch and then to causeway bay to shop some more!
Chanced upon Tsui Wah Restaurant which is a popular chain in HK! Finally got the chance to try it after all the raves about it by family friends. They have many outlets but I was at the Tsim Sha Tsui outlet.
As you can tell, Kwai Fong isn't your usual metroplitan district like causeway bay/central, but it's kinda located in the suburbs/industrial area of HK? It took us 10 stops to go to KF, but it was a fast ride with the super efficient MTR. There's two malls at KF, metro plaza and Kwai Chung Plaza. The latter is kinda like far east plaza/bugis street with all the independent wholesale stores selling trendy clothes while the former is like your more upscale kind of mall!
I bought 2 outer wears and a denim skirt at Kwai Chung Plaza and that was it...I wasn't really in the mood for shopping that day. One skirt costs like $8 omg????
Went to mom's friend's office and took a toilet mirror selfie. Haha I love how minimalistic the toilet looks (all white looool)
Mom's friend, Andes! He's really friendly and nice, glad to meet you!
Also, I had about 3 cups of rose tea....I didn't think that it would be nice to decline anyway, and whenever I kept finishing the tea, Andes would pour some more for me. Haha it was nice anyway!
5pm dessert break @ central. If i'm not wrong the shop name is called Cong Sao Dessert 聰嫂私房甜品! I ordered black sesame paste while my mom had longan ice. It was kinda filling hence we bought instant noodles and macdonalds to eat in our hotel room. Too lazy to head out....haha.
Before we headed back, we went to causeway bay to shop! It was crazy crowded and I'm not a person who likes to mix into crowds...anyway we saw part of the road being blocked off due to the occupy protests! was quite an eye-opening experience because I have only seen this scenario being sensationalized on the tv and in the news. It was actually quite peaceful at causeway bay.
We didn't go to Sogo department store but went to Island Beverly shopping mall, which has many stores selling clothes designed by local designers :) It is considerably more expensive than Kwai Fong area because the rent is probably more expensive as well! Nevertheless I bought my clutch/sling bag from one of the stores :)
Day 3: Peak + Mdm Tussauds + Hot Pot Dinner @ Mom's friend's place!
We queued for the peak tram @ central and it was really crowded as well since it was a Friday....however we got to our destination (the peak) safely! We were starving as it was already noon and we didn't have any breakfast :( Settled on Bubba Gump and it was really delicious! Mom ordered an alcholic drink which looked really cool while I just had a mango sparkler.
Here comes our food!!! We had assorted shrimp (chilled/boiled, fried/tempura style) + some chicken along with 3 different dipping sauces. Cheese, mayo & chilli if i'm not wrong. Mom decided to be a smart-ass thinking we could finish all of that by ordering a medium rare steak with grilled prawns, mashed potato and onion rings. WTF. Oh btw, i'm not someone who eats prawns much less seafood often, however the prawns were really fresh and well prepared! I think i could get used to it :)
Johnny Depp + Louis Koo
Brangelina + Aaron Kwok. Haha brangelina I can be your next asian adopted child.
Best bae Hitler & cute Gandhi!!!!!!!!!!! Haha omg gandhi looks really cute.
Two very prominent political figures! Mr Lee Kuan Yew & Mao Ze Dong. They looked so realistic that I myself got kinda intimidated just by posing next to them. Haha the vibes.
Ip Man & Audrey Hepburn in her Breakfast At Tiffany's get up. I look so....awks.
Sumo wrestler + David Beckham
View from the sky terrace! Breathtaking once again.
After going to the peak, we headed back to the hotel for a rest until my mom's friend's driver came to pick us up to send us to Repulse Bay! It took about one & a half hours to get there as there was a massive traffic jam :(
Thank you for being such amazing hosts and for being so hospitable! Their children are absolutely adorable as well! The eldest can speak very good english, and is fluent in cantonese + learning mandarin as well! Multi-lingual! Haha he's only 5 :)
Their apartment unit is really huge!! It kinda resembles my place a little but it is way bigger! The living room space is to die for. So much space!!!! They also have a huge HD TV :( omg jealous much. They even have 3 helpers, 3 cars and 2 other houses which they are currently renting out. They are affluent but are humble about it! Haha can't wait to meet them again when they come to sg for their vacation in 2015.
Day 4: Walking around Tsim Sha Tsui + Dinner with friends @ Harbour City!
We went to a dim sum restaurant recommended by the hotel concierge, and it was really really good. I over-ordered as usual and we couldn't finish everything :( I loved their salted egg yolk custard bun!
However one of their waitresses were kinda rude to us...when we asked her to keep the plate due to lack of space on our table, she shaked her head and kept quiet. we were like ??? why can't you just keep it, you have an empty tray with u lmao but then she said "my job is to serve, not to keep your things". We were speechless and just let her do her thing. WTF. Few minutes later, her colleague came over to keep our plates. Bitch it's a simple task, just do your job..... I know service staff go through a lot at work and can be tired at times, it is understandable but hey, the woman just straight up told us "no" with an arrogant facial expression and even dared to make that remark! OMG.
Dinner @ Harbour City! We had our dinner at M&C. Duck (LOL) which is a well-known peking duck restaurant that serves shanghainese, sichuan and some other cuisine. Haha spicy and sour!
This was my 2nd time in HK having xiao long bao, i can't get enough of it!!! This one was made properly and tasted so good too. Loved it! Mom's friend even attempted taking a shot of all our drinks from an angle with my phone...lol i guess he did try. A+ for effort.
Some of the vegetables that were kinda nasty to me...especially the one on the right. Vegetable rolls which had nuts in them. Omg I hate nuts. Haha but the cabbage with ham was alright.
Super nice fried beancurd with a sour/salty dipping sauce!!!! Love!!!!
This was really good too! It's some stir-fried chicken with nuts and other spices that you must fill into the sesame pastry pocket. It was my first time trying such a thing and seems like a good idea!
Seafood baked rice and mala fish!!!! omg loved the fish, it was so fresh and the mala sauce/soup made it even better! Though i didn't drink the sauce...that would be fucking spicy man. I can take spicy really well and this wasn't spicy to me, although after eating about 3 pieces of fish, my tongue started to feel numb. The 'ma' in 'mala' was taking effect......I couldn't really taste anything after that lol.
Day 5: last day in HK!
Went to K-11 for lunch and it was already about noon time when we checked out of the hotel. Again, we had xiao long bao....after this round I got sick of it haha I don't think I can eat anymore xlb in the next few weeks to come... and the yangzhou fried rice is good!!!! we also ordered stir-fried beef. WAAAH YUMS OMG.
Haha I didn't take anymore pictures after this as we headed to the HK airport earlier than our supposed check-in timing. We sat in the lounge for about 3 hours and then our flight got delayed by about 45 minutes -___- but we had a good flight back home and I had a really good time in HK, even though I did not shop much this time round. Bonded a lot with my mom and ate a lot as well. It was a good relaxing trip (um kinda, i was stressed out over the directions haha). This trip also changed my perspective on Hong-Kongers. They seem really nice and helpful this time round compared to in the past, and that is a good change! Many of the people we approached helped us with directions and were even willing to bring us to our location! Thank you to all of you :)
I would go to HK again but this time with friends or even myself haha feel like giving myself a challenge. My mom even said I was familiar enough with the city to roam around on my own, which is kinda true because 3/4 of the time, I was the one leading her....lol.
The next time i'll be posting is probably in 2 weeks time, after my Seoul/Busan trip! I will be taking more photos with my camera this time round as it is finally snowing!!! My first time (or maybe 2nd time) experiencing snow in a foreign land. Oh and this will be my 4th time going to Korea. HAHA.
Till then, adios!!!!!
