Sunday, 26 September 2010

Rainy Hong Kong

Warning: Read with patience. This is a long entry. Thanks.

We have gone to Hong Kong and returned. The trip was all right for me because it was raining quite a bit. So, we were not able to do much sight-seeing or street shopping. Or maybe, I really wanted to sight see more than shop. Instead, we ended up eating a lot and exploring shopping malls - not to shop, but just to explore. We also watched movie on one night when it was pouring.

Here are my after thoughts after surviving rainy HK.

1. The food servings were really big. But the girls were all so slim. How is that possible?

2. A must-go-to restaurant in HK is the Peking Restaurant at City Plaza HK. It's on the 2nd/3rd level of the huge mall and serves really nice Salted Egg Prawns. Our favourite is this melon cooked in some broth. It was very tasty. The Xiao Long Bao was disappointing. But the Cod Fish was really good too.

3. It is good to buy the 3-day MTR pass when you are there. Walking is absolutely possible because there are really many shops and malls along the streets. There were also tonnes of eateries. So, the one thing you do not have to worry is - lack of things to buy and lack of food to eat. That was why we ended up eating a lot. Cos when something interesting caught our eyes, we went in. But, buying the pass is still good. Cos we did stations hopping since it was raining, to catch a glimpse of every stop, which was kinda' fun!

4. We also popped by a neighbourhood mall. It was boring but we bought food at the supermarket.

5. People in HK walked very fast. The streets were almost always too small to accommodate everyone. I felt claustrophobic walking on the streets. The streets were so messy that I couldn't shop - cos I felt confused.

6. Speak Mandarin. I think they will attend to you more than if you speak English and look Chinese.

7. If you miss certain brands at a mall in the city because of lack of time, worry not. There were so many malls selling the same thing, with the same brand. I could find H&M almsot everywhere. And international labels almost everywhere too. Of course, I shopped at Mango again. Like always...

8. Many people own a Chanel!

Since it was a trip to celebrate our first marriage anniversary, we were happy to just spend time relaxing with each other.

"I appreciate you a lot because I have given you the most precious thing of my life... My Lifetime." - Baby

This is the first time I am travelling so light. But of course, I still stayed chic. I merely squeezed most of my clothes in and also brought lighter clothes.

Baby chose a ballerina picture to colour and wrote "Happy Anniversary" and gave it to me.



Oi Suen Guest House - It was almost like living in a rented room in a flat. The guest house itself was very clean and safe. But I couldn't say the same for the block. We even saw a bumper being put out to sun. It was a good experience staying in a guest house. Nothing bad about it. Just that, right below our block was Baby's favourite - Smelly Toufu. That was the biggest minus staying here.

We saw a strike outside DBS - they were still on the Lehman Brothers issue.

Some sights on the street. One of the shopping malls is called "Yong An", which is Ray's name! So, I took this picture for him.

Mona Lisa having an ice-cream. Made of slices of bread!

The bread - so creative!

K11, a shopping mall, was all sweets and candies. How inviting to hide from the rain.

So, how could I resist some? Especially gigantic ones.
(Note: I was wearing Crochet Trapeze Mini in Navy Blue from Moda Shoppe and flats from Pazzion.)

On our first night, we had our 1st Marriage Anniversary Dinner at Restaurant Petrus. It is one of the best fine-dining French restaurants (Michelin 2-star rating) in HK, located the 56 level of Shangri-La HK Island.  It offers a view of the harbour and TST. The service was impeccable. But the food was a tad disappointing (not every dish on our degustation menus were appealing to our taste buds). Nevertheless, the most invaluable is the companion and time spent at dinner. We ate for 4hrs so, it was really a good time to talk and catch up on time loss when we were both so busy back in Singapore.

The restaurant exuded opulence, extravagance and elegance in traditional French style.

We had a table next to the window and folded drapery.

As we were starving and could not make up our minds, we had two degustation menus. The most unglamarous thing we did at the restaurnt was - swapping plates and food. But well, we wanted to taste a little of everything. So, here are some pictures. The rest? We were too busy eating, criticising, chatting, swapping food and did not bother shooting.

And as always, some funny faces shots.

The restaurant did what I expected. They surprised us with something for our anniversary. If they didn't, I would be quite disappointed, given their standards.

Photo at the doorway - really full and sleepy.

I transformed the day look to night look by adding black tights and I swapped earstuds for pearl earrings.

The wall paintings were so vivid and beautiful.

The second day, we set off in our new shoes.

And did what tourists usually do - taking lots of photos at the harbour.
(Note: I was wearing Bright Turquoise Knitted Overlay from Moda Shoppe with a black tank top beneath. This overlay was good. It kept me warm in the malls and was cooling enough in the heat.)


Followed by a cheap ferry ride from TST to HK.

And bought egg tarts - in this case, egg cups. The yellow one was normal egg tart. The white one was egg white tart. We both liked the white one more.

From this shop

And of course, some street shopping shots.
From left: Colour Kimono Inspired clothings on the wall. An elderly looking at a Hardware Stall and there were so many of these shops along this street we were on. Some nice dresses at Ladies Market. A shop with many laterns.

We finally saw a Mahjong place. But we were only outside.

Baby's favourite smelly toufu place, right below our block.

The smelly toufu stall.

Last day, we were heading back. There was no photo of myself on the third day because it was raining non-stop. So, we kept eating. We also bought magazines and lounged around to read.
(Note: I was wearing Miss Selfridge Inspired Cardigan in White with Black with Fringe Sleeves Top in Silver from Moda Shoppe.)

New On the Menu

I just realised that in the recent blog posts, I been posting chicken menu. Well, that's one of the most convenient - especially roasted chicken.

So, here's another one.