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.