Hong Kong Trip Day 2: Macau and Zhuhai

I'm really sorry for the late HK travel post as I was simply too caught up with work. My emails was like a Mountain Everest when I first opened it. I had to resort in penning down all the follow-up item before I lost any of them.

So what did I do for Day 2 in HK? I went to.. MACAU and Zhuhai! It was suppose to be at Disneyland but since the weather report application says that there will be light showers in the afternoon, we didnt want to dampen our mood.

We took the earliest ferry at 9am via Cotai jet thinking that we can avoid the human traffic but well.. we were VERY wrong. We only get to reach Macau Venetian at about 11am due to the long immigration queues. We did our touristy act by taking photos at every corner. Venetian have not changed a single bit since last year. See below for a few of our photos...

See how beautiful Macau is

Us doing our signature jump

At Venetian Casino entrance. Got some taiwanese boy to help us with the photo which did not turned out great. 

Outside his favourite shop.

We are actually indoors.

Pretty like this artistic shot. It looks like I'm shopping at Portugal but actually I'm still at Venetian Shopping Center. Hahaha!

Me in the Victoria Secret Costume. I had to queue 15 mins for this.

I did not take any photos in Zhuhai as it was pretty dangerous over there plus I was busy shopping for handphone cases. The mall is really big and it is quite impossible to go through all the shops in one day as there were many section to it. It's pretty dirty over there as they encouraged spitting and smoking in the shopping mall. Handphone cases are really sold at a very CHEAP price over there even though the exchange rate was S$1 - RMB$5. I bought a very pretty handphone cover for just S$8. So for those who are going there, please please please... BARGAIN! It's fine if you are being rejected cause no one in China remembers you. :)

 We took a free shuttle bus back to Macau city from the Macau-China checkpoint. Please take the free shuttle buses whenever you can and not wait for the TAXI. Cabs are pretty hard to get in Macau cause of their strict laws that they are not suppose to stop anywhere. It's hard to find a taxi-stand cause it's more like an invisible taxi stand. Unless you're a citizen or a frequent there, else it is really IMPOSSIBLE to know where the taxi stand is.

One thing I must admit about Macau is that the Casinos are REALLY beautiful.. but why why why... are their sea water so dirty? It's not even green in colour.. IT'S BROWN!! 

Hotel Grand Lisboa behind my bf. We didnt try our luck in any of the casino sadly.

After a cab ride from a random hotel, we are finally here in Senado Square.

We had our favourite Strawberry Frappuchino from Starbucks. Slightly cheaper than Singapore.

Bought a pork bun from a random stall after hearing so much raves about it. I will rate it 6/10 only!

Made our way to the St Paul church. The view was magnificient. A very nice lady from Austrialia helped us with this photo and I must say she is really good in taking photos. She captured everything which I wanted in the photo.

We made our way up to the back of the church.

The bf with his crazy act again.

That was how high I was.

After all the climbings and walking, we were really hungry. Bought Portugese egg tarts to fill our tummy and god.. I was really AMAZED by how tasteful it was. I'm feeling so hungry now.

After a long day at Macau and Zhuhai, we finally took a ferry back to HK. Total damage for the ferry was ~S$60 To and Fro.

PS: Macau uses HK currency but do not accept $10 coins.

We made our trip down to TST area to have our dinner.

Lan Fong Yuen

Shop 26, LG, Chung King Mansion (Woodhouse), 36-44 Nathan Road ,

Tsim Sha Tsui Hong Kong

The Cha chan ting was filled with Kenny B's photos. It looks very old school especially when it is located in a shopping center.

The Stocking milk tea which taste really good.

But we were very disappointed in the food they served. The garlic was just WAY TOO STRONG.

Here's the picture of the signboard. The po lo bun and stocking milk tea is a must try items there.

A snapshot of me in the clothes I bought from China. I look like a kid right? I know!

And that simply marks the end of my second day in HK. Do stay tune on my next post for our DisneyLand pictures! Hehe!!!

 

Hong Kong Trip Day 1

It's my third time to Hk but was my first with my boyfriend. Knowing my bf very well, he's a great planner when it comes to Holiday Itinery and directions hence I left all the planning to him after his exams. I trusted him in planninga good 1 week trip for both of us. YES.. you heard me right.. we are there for 7 days 6 nights. Crazy I know.. but it was just nice when it comes to touring in HK.

We did lots of blogs touring on Hk but never once get to see 1 super fantastic itinery recommendation. There's just not enough impact to make us fantasize our trip, hence I'm now sharing with all of you what we did for our 7 days 6 nights and hope that it will help you a little when it comes to touring HK. :)

1st and foremost, here are the Handphone applications/website which help us really alot during our planning

• Tripit
• Openrice
• Official HK MTR application
• timable.com - events page

I have also asked around a local colleague of mine(who is ard the same age as me) to introduce some fantastic places. Not forgetting my bestie who is a HK fanatic (Chan Xinyi) to tell us what are the MUST GO PLACES for a tourist. I will separate the post into 7 days so not to bored you guys.

1st Day - 20th May 2012

We woke up at 5am for our 7.30am flight. Thanks to my dearest bf's dad who woke up very early that day to fetch us to the airport. We had Ya Kun at T3 before boarding our SQ flight to HK. The breakfast that day was alright and the airplane was not having too mang people on board. We were like having our own jet to Hk. :) What surprised us most was when the air steward asked my bf if he was from SJI previously. HAHA!

We reached HK about 11.30am and rushed to the Departure level to get our prepaid cards at TOTO. It cost only HKD$100 for micro sim and HKD$88 for the normal sim card. The benefits we could have was that we are able to stay connected wireless for 7 days. The internet connection in HK was really fast and fuss free. 

Since we are there for 7 days, we have also gotten ourselves a HK Airport Express Train tickets to ease the long cab distance cab fare. We have gotten 2 tickets of the to and fro airport express tickets which entitled us to have 3 days of unlimited train rides and $40 off disneyland tickets. GREAT bargain right? I really recommend having this ticket if you are travelling for 4 days or more with a partner.

Our small and cozy hotel room

The small toilet with a humongous rain shower head

The basin area

The train ride was fuss free and FAST. We reached Kowloon station at abt 12.30pm and took our free shuttle bus to our small and cozy hotel at COSMO MONGKOK. The hotel is really convenient with the shuttle bus services and it is considered really cheap for a HK hotel. After checking in and settling down, we walked to Mongkok to have a warm up. I do NOT recommend walking to Mongkok from Cosmo(if you are staying there). The road to Mongkok is quite dirty with a number of homeless old folks sleeping on the street. The bf even stepped onto a dog shit when walking along the street. HAHA!

We felt hungry especially when the weather was cold and pouring. We wanted to eat this Chinese Wanton Noodles at Mongkok area when we realised the restaurant is closed on Sunday. We headed to one of the best Cha Chan Ting instead. 

Tsui Wah Restaurant

Mong Kok Shop

G/F., 244 Portland St., Kln.
Open 24 hours
http://www.tsuiwahrestaurant.com/eng/info_e.html

The food simply needs no introduction. Cheap and fantastic. The above costs only about HKD$78 which is about S$13. But please take note that you will need to share your table with some other peeps if there's a crowd. :)

After our lunch, we went to Wang Dai Xin temple to have a look. The place is rather accessible as it is walkable distance from Wang Dai Xin station. We find the place rather serene and magnificent despite that it is my third time there. There's an instruction board to inform tourist on how to pay your respects to the gods.. so please obey them before you are being scolded by the guards there.

After our tour ard the temple, we wanted to shop around the supermarket at the shopping center near the templem but the crowd at the queue was maddness hence, we went off to Tsim Sha Tsui instead. Thanks to my HK colleague, we found out that SOGO was having their anniversary sale during this period through TIMTABLE.COM. We walk around sogo and I was ELATED when I saw that Calvin Klein is having a sale on their underwears. 3 undies for HKD$240 (~$40 for 3). Other than that sale, there is nothing much to be happy about. Steve Madden and other branded shoes cost the same in Singapore even though there's a sale.

We saw Iron Man when we were walking ard the shopping malls in TST.

 The rest if the avengers came.

After all the walking, we decided to try out a Japanese restaurant at TST area. It's called Mochi Cafe and I swear to you... its the best UDON I ever had. So much better than anywhere in Singapore. The udon is just so bouncy and yummy.

Mochi Cafe

G/F, 19-23 Hart Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui

尖沙咀赫德道19-23號地舖

                                                 

Queued for 40 mins for it under the rain. BUT.. it's all worth it!

All of the above cost us about HKD$130(Can't remember much) which is about S$22. Not as expensive compared to Singapore Ramen Ippundo. Hehe! The servings are pretty huge too. We shared the Udon since we ate really alot during the day. Mochi is really a MUST GO place if u love Udon.

We continued our shopping hopping at DNA. Nothing much to get there but it good to just walk around the mall to check out their HK style and fashion. We took another long walk to Harbour city to check out their HnM and shopping centers. I wanted to get a branded wallet there but after converting the price of one of my favourite Prada wallet, it still cost S$720 which is just 50 bucks cheaper I think.

After a long day, we took the free hotel shuttle bus back to the hotel from HarbourCity. After a satisfying rain shower, the bf and I headed str8 to our lala land.

Day 2 Itinery to be continued.

 

My first GEO Lens

Seriously, I have no idea where have all my blogging sense went?

Anyway, I shall quickly blog about what I have gotten myself for this week that earned a blog entry. I bought a.....

PAIR OF GEO LENSES!

It's my very first time purchasing it and I'm really so excited to see how much it will help to increase my pupil. I have not tried it out yet cause there's 1 more lens that I'm currently using.

After hearing so much about Eyestation.com , I went down straight to one of their optical store to order a lens. Those lens which I wanted was all without a degree and I randomly chose one really stunning lens from the rest of the beautiful lenses. Since this was my first time purchasing, I have gotten a pair of monthly lens instead.

As mentioned, I have not tested them out yet but seriously, with the amount I am paying.. I'm so glad that it came with a eye lens container. Woo hoo!! I will try to blog on how my eyes turned stunning in a couple of days later. :)

The way I plan my trip

Darling will be finishing his studies in May this year and in order to celebrate this very last marathon, we are planning to go

HIONG KONG aka... HONG KONG!!!!

We have been to HK last year actually but since we have gone with different grp of people (Me with my bestie and he went with his family), we have decided to spend more moolahs this time with a 7 days 6 nights trip.

I know right.. 1 WEEK in HK is indeed quite crazy, but it was actually an accidental decision. HA! The story goes like this:

Daddy was suppose to help me book  this trip using his KrisFlyer pts but thanks to his very busy schedule, he had to book the tickets when he was on his business trip. He called me at 7.20am on a weekday to book the tickets and since I only wakes up at 7.45am to 8am for work, I was still in LALA LAND when the phone rang.

He was asking me on the flight days which I am planning and since I was still in a sleepy mode, I told him 20-26 instead of 20-25(which was the original plan). KNowing my dad who always think more than 4 days is LONG for a vacation trip, I was persistant to confirm that 7 days was indeed the right timing I am planning to go. So that was how I ended with a 7 days 6 night trip which I am pretty glad with the mistake I have made.

I have been to HK 2 times and in these 2 times, I am always there for more than 5 nights.

1st trip - 10 days (cause my friend had a relative there who gave up his apartment for us)

2nd trip - 6 days (with my bestie for her graduation trip)

And.. I always have a emo feeling whenever I left my last footsteps in HK. I simply just love HK!!!

I love the food, the shopping, the scenary, the people (who dress so professionally in the CBD area) and EVERYTHING else abt HK!

So since I will be travelling for 7 days, it is definitely a MUST to plan for the itinery so that we don't over-spend our limits. I have build out a excel spreadsheet for it which honestly.. is my first time utilizing a excel for a travel budget purpose.

Interested to know what I have planned for my itineries? I will blog more in the next post!!

I am back again with gifts from Anna Sui

Hi friends, I'm once again back to this blogsphere. Where have I gone to?

Nowhere in particular. Work is eating up 10 hrs of my time per day - 8hrs in the office and 2 hrs of solutions thinking for the next day. I am pretty getting used to the life now and in fact, I am enjoying it! I am glad that despite all these stress that I am having, I do have a very supporting team who recognize my effort and a group of very cheerful colleagues who never fails to brighten me up when I'm 99% of giving up.

I still remember those days when I felt like I'm a useless bum who could never be able to manage all the artwork stuff by myself. I kept blaming myself, the boyfriend and the society almost on every single day. I was even worst when shit happens in the first 6 months of my job. But look at where I am now... Still in PG, surviving quite well!

I really wanna shoutout to all my fellow fresh grad friends. It's ok if you are not in a fantastic company or met tons of challenges looking for a job or surviving in it. Stay positive and give it your best shot and you will never know what fruitful result you can have in the end.

Alright, here's a good news for those who have read my 1st blog entry of the year. I'm going to share 2 of my Anna Sui gifts to one of you. Leave me a message of your name and email address to tell me that you want it in the comment link after this entry.

Gifts are as of below:
1. Anna Sui Mouse Pad (Authentic)
2. Anna Sui Color Powder - Gold (Authentic)

I might consider doing more of this especially when I spotted any sales. :) And of course, I do promise that I will blog more often and much interesting stories other than work related problems.

*I'm taking down my chatbox cause there are too much foreign people with wierd links*

My dearest boy birthday surprise

29th October was my dearest boyfriend, Lionel Lee, big day. Due to his coming papers, we have decided not to spend too much time on the birthday celebration. Hence, it became a hush hush birthday celebration where there's just 2 of us. I wanted to actually bring him out of Singapore but knowing how important exam is to him, I decided to forgo the thought of it.

It was reallll....y hard to plan for so a small yet meaningful and unforgettable birthday celebration. Money is not an issue but TIMING IS! Hence, I told him that we will have crab noodle from Uncle Leong instead since it was pretty long ago since we had crabs from very nice restaurants.

We went to the Punggol branch since we believe that the ambience will be better beside a park. We chose an outdoor sitting to enjoy the breeze of the after rain. We went there about 6pm on a Friday evening and was quite pleased that there was no queue.

We check on the menus and as usual, we order the dishes without knowing their prices cause they are not stated even for vegetables dishes. Excited to know what we have ordered?

1. The Fried Tofu

2. 3 different types of eggs Spinach (4 stars)

3. The famous CRAB NOODLE (5 stars)

4. The must order crab (Jin Sha Nai You Crab)

The total number dishes we have ordered for just the 2 of us

I think we are really CRAZY when we saw all the dishes arrived. People around us must have thought that we have not been eating well for the past 3 days. We tried to finish up EVERYTHING but we just couldn't store anymore food into our tummy for the MUST-ORDER Jin Sha Nai You crab and so, we got it packed for mummy instead. Mummy finished up the whole crab all by herself and kept praising that the crab is really good. :)

Darling went back to study after 2 hrs of dinner while I started sending my dedication to Yazmin on Class 95fm via the radio website. Mummy hide the small cake in the refrigerator where darling will least search it. :)

@11.58pm - I acted very busy running around the house to pack some stuff just so that he doesn't find something is amiss. I got the 2 slices of very delicious cake out ( it's 2 slices cause I believe that we will be very full after a good dinner at uncle Leongs and the 2 slices should be enough to feed Mummy, the bf and myself) and stick a candle on it. I was searching in vain for a lighter in my house but all I could find were MATCHSTICKS and so I tried to strike with the least sound I could do. Finally.. 12am came!

@ 12am (29 oct) - I sang a Happy Birthday song to him and the dedication was played after that. Mission accomplished!! He was very surprised and happy as well. However, he was too full to have even a pinch of chocolate. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARLING!!!

Punggol Branch

6 Tebing Lane, #01-03

Punggol East, Singapore 828835

Tel: 6441 1848

Operating Hours: 4.30pm - 11.30pm

Website: http://www.uncleleongseafood.com/

Movie Preview: Tower Heist

In this movie preview, I brought a colleague along to watch it with me. It had been eons since I had last watch a movie with a girl friend and when I found out that I had gotten myself 2 tickets from OMY, I knew I had to whatsapp her about it.

Before I share with you guys on my reviews about the show, here's a little synopsis about Tower Heist.
Tower Heist is a 2011 crime comedy film directed by Brett Ratner and written by Ted Griffin and Jeff NAthanson based on a story by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper and Griffin. Main lead actors are of course... Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. This show is about how the employees of an exclusive apartment building who lose their pensions in the Ponzi scheme of Wall Street businessman Arthur Shaw steal back their money with the help of an experienced criminal theft (Eddie Murphy).

Pre thoughts about the movie

When I first knew that I had got 2 tickets to the movie, I was really very excited. I must admit that I knew NOTHING about the movie even before entering the movie theatre but the thought about seeing Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy just excites me. Tuesday was a really stressed up day to end with especially when my head was thinking of solutions and solutions for the whole of TUESDAY! I met up with Rika at 6.30pm after sending one last important email. She was asking me if there was an issue at work and I told her immediately that Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller better make my day end with a good laughing moments. Eddie Murphy have been my one of my favorite comedian since Big Momma and Nutty professor days. He's just a really very talented guy. Rika and I got a popcorn set to enjoy the movie on our Tuesday Night.

Post thoughts about the movie

I pretty like the storyline of the movie. It shows how 4 noobs have to make their way through a high security building and steal  $20M out from the safe only to find out that the $20m was made of GOLD to build a CAR instead. The story in the beginning was a little too serious for the 2 comedians but I had a great laughing moments towards the end where they had to transport the big and heavy car out from a high level. It was reallly hilarious.

Even though the movie did really make my day end with a good laughter to forget the stress I had at work, I do think that this movie also did gave me some disappointments as it is not as funny as I really expect it to be.

Loudness of my laughter: 2/5

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank omy.sg for the tickets! :)