lightspeedzone.net

Hong Kong 2008 Day 07

lightspeed — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:02:51 +0000

Last day in Hong Kong!!! Sob sob sigh… after that it’s back to boring Singapore Sucky!!!

Always get this sucky feeling on the last day

Anyway… it’s mummy’s birthday!!!

Happy Birthday mum!!! Hope you have a good celebration with sis and Dave and Rachel and dad and Bert and Chloe

and another birthday wish for TKL too

Last day in Hong Kong! and a so so dinner last nite on Aly’s birthday…

So thought we should have a good meal before we went home….

Brought Aly to the famous Yung Kee at Central for lunch

View of the roasted food stuff they have….

Close up view …

Yung Kee Restaurant http://www.yungkee.com.hk/

Er… they asked if we wanted preserved egg…. NOT complimentary
Tasted pretty good… I’ve never had preserved egg like that… the yolks were really soft… is this the way it should be?

View of the restaurant…

We were being seated on the ground level… seems that there’s another level upstairs…

Were we suppose to go upstairs? Got a feeling it’s the proper dining area upstairs ‘cos I saw lots of caucasians going up…. hmmm ….

The 2 women seated to my left….

Stole some shots at what they were eating…. goose rice

Yum yum …

Waxed duck and chinese sausages for sale

Stole a shot of the beef fried hor fun that the couple seated next to Aly’s right ordered

Warm towels upon arrival…

We ordered some goose meat for 2 …

Plum sauce to go with the goose….

Looks yummy?

Looks like a whole mini duck or something

Two bowls of rice to go with the goose

I found the goose okay…
Aly didn’t enjoy it … she said the meat was too tough …
She preferred the one we had at Mongkok… cheaper and better

We ordered the end of a fish …. Initially they caught a whole fish … but Aly went nuts when she heard the price…. the waiter then threw the fish back into the tank and suggest we get the end of some other fish or something …. er… It was up to Aly… she’s the cat… not me

Waiter asked me if I wanted to take a photo of it first before he started cutting it up… hahahaa
So obvious we were not locals?

Then he started cutting the fish up….

and then pouring the sauce over….

and voila! Done … Aly really enjoyed the fish… she said it was the only thing that she liked here

She said the vegetables were pathetic and quite tough as well…

Only the fish was good she said

More shots of the place….

and busy people having their lunch …

There’s this other cool looking restaurant opposite… but didn’t really check out what they were serving

Hmm… where shall we head to next?

We were at Queen’s Road Central as you can see….

Episode… but not going there….

We made our way back to CityGate Mall at Tung Chung MTR…
check out the map of the place… there’s braille as well… quite cool

Read on the internet some dude bought a cheap Tag Heuer watch from one of the shops here….

But we couldn’t find any watch shops selling Tags Only other brands… Sasa and Triumph bras

Burberry didn’t have anything much …

Heavy rains…..

Thunderstorm signal… Hope it would die down soon… don’t want our flight home to be cancelled ‘cos all flights were cancelled yesterday

Changing trains at Hong Kong Station… back to get our luggages

Didn’t get to try this chinese fast food place just beside Ashely Apartments

Artistic hor?

Okay… lens not blur anymore

Sigh…. waiting for the cab to come and take us to the airport…

Gonna miss this place….

Starting to miss it already …

Well… time to go… where’s that cab?!!

Ashley Apartments by Citadines…

Interesting place… feels like a studio apartment lor… but I think I still prefer to stay at Prudential… just right on top of the MTR…

But I love the internet broadband though

and off we go…. took a shot while in the cab… express shop… 7-11 kind of shop …
LAMB next to it isn’t selling meat and then there’s the Esprit outlet store….

and finally …we’re in the plane….

Sigh… faking a smile ‘cos we’re leaving

Okay… happy again… bloody hungry …. I had chicken rice…

While Aly had fish … the rest of the stuff were the same … bun… salad… ice cream….

Carrots were tossed to me as usual though

and our snack at Popeyes at Changi Airport Terminal 3 after we touched down

Hungry lah …. need some food for the journey home….

and… that’s all

The end of our trip to Hong Kong….
Was it good? Of ‘cos!!! Managed to visit some of the places we set out to…
I managed to buy lots of shirts and cds … for the first time in many holiday trips I’ve been with Aly… my suitcase was filled to the max… I had to jump on it to close it

People have been asking me what’s so nice about Hong Kong such that I go there so often….

Very often? This is only my 3rd time there and my last trip there was 2 years ago…

Truthfully speaking? I love the place more than Singapore I suppose

Folks say the people there are rude … seriously I don’t…

At least everyone makes an effort to not hog seats… not study and hog tables during peak hours at restaurants, keep to one side of the escalator so that people at a faster pace or in a hurry go through (yes… Sharon… Raffles Place… BUT IT’S ONLY at Raffles Place… everywhere else … some fat ass will stand in the middle of the escalator)… etc.

The first thing that I saw upon arriving back in Singapore was at Popeyes … where I saw people bringing food over from the food court and eating the food at Popeyes…

Then I was caught behind a very inconsiderate couple in front of me who took 10mins to decide what they wanted to order… what the hell… if you’re gonna take that long… let others order first… Why couldn’t they have made up their minds before hogging the the entire line ….

and then we had students studying there… okay… it was midnite… it wasn’t peak hour… I guess I can’t complain?

Back to Singapore… Welcome home…

I say Singapore is WORSE… and I’m Singaporean…. sigh ….

Sigh…. I miss the beef brisket already Sob sob

Dar dar…. when are we going back to Hong Kong again?

Hong Kong 2008 Day 06

lightspeed — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 03:21:15 +0000

Day 06!!! Hmm… wasn’t this in black the other day…. oh… the other end is black…
So here’s a yellow tile shot

Another failed attempt

We woke kinda early (or just in time for lunch) to head back to Gough Street to get my fix of cow noodles… at Kau Kee (九記牛腩)

Jialat lah… I didn’t even attempt to read….

Damn… just realised I didn’t take pics of the place….

We sat upstairs… the place was air conditioned…
But space was really cramp….
Just imagine 7 people sharing a really small table

Yes… small table… smaller than your round hawker table back home….

Think people in Singapore are too pampered… I always wonder why a couple must occupy a 4 seater in restaurants back home

Plus another thing to add… Realised that the people at my table… when they were done, they left immediately freeing up seats for others ….

Something you don’t see in Singapore with idiots hogging the tables

People say Hong Kong is a terrible place, full of rude people …. I disagree
I say Singapore is worse in terms of social graciousness
Singaporeans DESERVE to be scolded if they go around with their attitude in Hong Kong (and other countries) and I guess that’s what happened to those who cry back home to say Hong Kong people are rude …

Just my thoughts

Ice lemon tea yet again… safest thing to order in Hong Kong
Not that we mind though

Ordered 2 bowls of 牛腩 noodles (beef brisket noodles)

Spring onions!!! Yummy! Poor Aly had to transfer hers to mine

Soft tender pieces of beef …. totally yummy …
Aly found it too fatty…. she preferred the one we had at Causeway Bay 2 yrs ago….

The noodles here are like our mee pok …. they have hor fun too

I think I would’ve preferred thin noodles to this mee pok
But overall I enjoyed it… especially the meat!

Curry beef tendons and brisket….

Was just wondering why the tendons only come in curry ….

Anyway, the meat was good ….tendons were really soft … melts in your mouth…

The curry was a little spicy and too oily though
Total for 2 beef brisket noodles, 2 iced lemon teas and 1 curry tendon+brisket was HKD122

After some cows… we went opposite to Sing Heung Yuen (勝香園) as Aly wanted to eat the Nai You Cui Cui (奶油脆脆) again

Sing Heung Yuen’s menu… not sure if you can make out what they are

Wonder if they have an English menu

Didn’t even bother to attempt to read

Okay… last part of the menu

Everyone was drinking this … Aly’s colleague Theresa had told her about this drink too…
We didn’t know what it was called… so we just pointed and said we wanted the same thing

Just what are those bits at the bottom?
I see a slice of lemon as well….

Poured the sprite in….

Took a sip …and I turned green amp; ….
The bits were some sour plum thingy…. eeeecks…. something I didn’t like….

Salty Sprite!!!
How come everyone else likes salty sprite here

Mee Lun Street…. where the place is ….

Nai You Cui Cui (奶油脆脆) !!!
That’s what it’s called lol
Cute name… I don’t know if it’s the offical name, but the guy at our table previously ordered it with this name… so I just followed

Crispy Bun…. plus

Butter….. plus

Condensed milk equals…

Super yummy toasted Nai You Cui Cui (奶油脆脆) !!!!

Okay okay… one last shot of it

Saw someone else at another table order this….
Pork chop bun!!!!

So ordered one as well….

When the guy came with my order …he said “Ju Pa Bao Hang Gai!” … so funny….

In cantonese it means pork chop bun walk street…. literally translated…. instead of take away or something

This was also really yummy… and I didn’t even eat it on the spot… I had it for supper much later on back at the hotel …. after so many hours…. still yummy

Okay…we’re not gluttons lah…
This toasted bread belonged to a lady seated at the same table ….
She saw us taking pics and all and asked if we would like to take a photo of her buns… oops… her bread as well…. she said it was really good too

Looks like toasted bread slices with condensed milk and butter… hmmm

She was really nice and asked us where we were from and offered to help us take a photo….
She spoke really good English as well
After that Aly whispered to me if I wanted to take a pic with her

I wonder if she will find my blog one day and see this pic… if you’re that nice lady… please send me a message

Small tables… like the ones at Kau Kee… but able to sit at least 6 people

Hahaha… the owners of the place … not so busy now … looks like they all lined up for me to take a photo of them

After lunch, it was back to Tsim Tsa Tsui…. changed trains at Admiralty

Ventured into this place called Cke Mall

Nothing much to see here… dead town…. empty shops and all… Difficult to run a business

Cute Rabbit…. cute name for a shop

Selling women stuff…

Aly trying on some boots….

Reminds me of Inqbox

Lucky there weren’t the boots Aly was trying on…. rubber boots!

I’ve spotted quite a number of women wearing these already

Big sale… but only 20% off

This shop has everything! Boots… shoes… slippers… caps… earrings…

Walked past this place… scary place… alot of Africans, Indians… etc.
Not being racist here… but just intimidating when you’re the only 2 Chinese in there
I thought Chungking Mansions was a Chinese place…
Think I must go back and watch Chungking Express again

Yup… Typhoon Signal Number 3

It was drizzling lightly…

SOGO…. my SOGO girl… are you still there waiting for ahMao?

Sadly… we didn’t go to Sogo to look for her … Aly wouldn’t allow it

We made our way to Harbour City instead…..

Check out the dark gloomy sky

Hopefully the clouds will just go past us on their way to Guangzhou

Quite scary if you can experience it as it’s really high tide now …

and we can still smile about it

Walked around for awhile and we were at Toys R Us before the announcement said the store was closing early due to the typhoon signal which has just been announced as typhoon signal number E I G H T

Darn it … we left the place and all the other shops in the mall were also closing due to the typhoon signal and it’s only 6pm!!!! Wah lau. … boring…. and we didn’t get to check out the Hello Kitty shop here

Braved the rain which was getting heavier and ended up at this japanese restaurant just opposite Ashley Apartments

Not the place we had intended to dine at…. but had to make do since everywhere else was closing and we didn’t want to be stranded somewhere as well….

Hot green tea for the cold weather

Place had several slips of paper with all the sushi listed down… just tick whatever you want, state the quantity and hand them over to the waitress

What fish was this? looks scary … lucky Aly only ordered 1 piece lol …. for herself

California handroll for her and Tamago Handroll for me Nice thick slice of egg

Ordered some salmon sashimi and octopus…. really chewy

Avocado salad with egg

The dressing looks like some fish netting

Chawanmushi …. looks like some shark’s fin soup

Lobster sushi….

Erm… can’t recall what this was… I remember some meat inside though…

Some other stuff that Aly ordered as well… must ask her what’s all this

Ordered some soba….

Cold noodles!

Very “generous” with their portions

Dipping sauce for the cold noodles…

Pick the good bits… bochap ahMao….

Insert into mouth…

Munch munch munch…

Contentment

Prawn tempura….

Really ….erm … skinny prawns

Dipping sauce for the tempura

There was a LCD screen in the restaurant….

It was pretty cool…. the right side of the screen was a movie playing…
The left side of the screen had some ads and the time and weather as well with their own background …
Wonder if this thing was running on windows or what

Last but not least… our veggie tempura
Don’t know why they bothered to do this

Wet Tissues to clean up….

Make sure you’re germ free as well after using this

and then it was back to the hotel after dropping by at Macs round the corner …
SIAN!!!!! BORING!!!! It was only 8pm!!!

Bought some nuggets to bring back to the hotel and also this Chocolate Pie for Aly

Soft inside! Cripsy Outside! I hope they don’t mean the box

or carton… or whatever you call this…. packaging

and just a few more hours to go!!! about 4 hours in fact….

few more hours of Kitty’s birthday!!!

and that’s her birthday “cake”

Here’s Aly trying to cut her “cake”

Happy birthday to mew!

Happy birthday to kitty…

Happy Birthday to mew!!!

Aly’s miserable birthday “cake”
Soft on the inside! Crispy on the outside!

Watching the news on the typhoon that’s hitting Hong Kong right now….
Safety helmet and all for the reporter

Floods in other areas

and that rounds up Aly’s birthday!!! Typhoon Signal number 8!!! Unforgettable

Happy Birthday Darling Muack!

Hong Kong 2008 Day 05

lightspeed — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:20:17 +0000

Had a tiff with Aly this morning ….
We were suppose to wake early to go eat dim sum…
But I didn’t know where or which one to go to… she said she already told me to decide… plan… etc.
So I just decided to go the Maxim’s Palace at City Hall…. ‘cos I thought the other place we had done some research online on was abit out of the way ….

Took the MTR… and alighted … came out… lost…

Walked around… still couldn’t find City Hall…

It was damn hot….

I see nothing but buildings after buildings….

Reminds me of Raffles Place back home

Aly wasn’t too happy… I got fed up and said let’s just forget about it….
She said since we were already here… just look for it lor

and all was forgiven….

when we managed to find the place….

and I ordered some yummy tummy

Beancurd Skin rolls….

Some prawn meat… chicken meat …and luncheon meat… didn’t care much for the baby corn though… not a fan of it

Mushroom chicken….

Beancurd skin rolls with mushroom….

What’s inside the bean curd skin roll… some shredded shoots and mushrooms….

Chee Cheong Fun with char siew filling…

Some siew mai … pretty good… really meat and shrimp fillings… not like those cheapo ones with nothing but flour ….

This was the expensive dish…

Shark’s fin soup dumpling with conpoy …. really yummy… well… better be for the price!

Chicken Feet …. I was the only one eating this and the beef tripe…. Aly doesn’t eat them
But all the better for me … I get to finish them all by myself

Pork ribs… “pai kuat”

Steamed carrot cake

With some say sauce thingy…

Too much dressing… too salty… but just eat more of the carrot cake and it wouldn’t be so bad…

I overheard the lady at the next table asking for less sauce
Placing the spoon there to let you see the thickness of the carrot cake

Our table full of dim sum

This was funny… the pushcart ladies doing their rounds when 4 of them got stuck in a jam

Mango pudding for dessert….

Real mango bits mashed up…. super yummy… the whole thing’s mashed up mango flesh… or at least 90% of it…. MUST TRY!

Sago with chestnuts

That red ruby thai dessert thingy…. bloody sweet… … but still nice

We had one more almond paste soup thingy…. shiok

and then washing everything down wtih Golden Buddha tea
Look at the pot… it’s labelled

The pushcart thingy… notice the red and white signs… it’s basically whats on each cart…
If something runs out, the lady would just remove one of the tags… neato

This place is really popular… a mix of locals and caucasians and even indians

Er… my wet tissue packet… shouldn’t have torn it before I took a pic

美心中蔡 Maxim’s Chinese Cuisine… Maxim’s Palace @ City Hall

Every dim sum ordered would get a stamp in the corresponding box

Just hand this to the cashier for bill payment…

Aly was saying wonder what’s the charge for losing this

We made our way back to the MTR only to realise… yet again… that we made an entire round for nothing …. it’s really quite easy to get to City Hall from the MTR

Took the MTR to Mongkok and headed to Langham Place…
Thirsty… so bought an iced milk tea from Macs….
The packet at the side is the syrup… milk’s already in the cup
Darn it… I wish they had this in Singapore
Can only get milk tea at MOS Burger …. grrrrr

I think I need to lose weight
Again… where am I staring?

Monster Sushi!

Wonder if the size of the sushi is monsterous

Stupid Mario stole my kitty!!!

I knew that plumber was up to no good!

There’s actually a studio where you can have yourself photographed in a Mario game setting for a fee

Shop selling lots of local road signs and stuff… you can even customise them

There were signs saying that taking photos of the shop was not allowed… so I took them from far

Some horoscope forecast thingy in the building

Aly and I are both Librans - Aly claims she’s in between though ‘cos her birthday is on the 23rd Sept, some horoscopes include that date for Virgo… confusing only

So which are the correct dates?

Insert some coins (any amount) and then hit the button

Choose any button…

and then wait for the thing to stop flashing… where the color stops would be your horoscope
Aly and I were so glad to get rid of our useless coins

Some chinese restaurant….
Why do they like to name the shops 扒皇? Tyrants?

Longest escalator in a mall

Langham Place Hotel … when will we be able to stay here?

Art or useless metal

Some truck thingy with some see thru windows at the back with some humans in it

Okay… time for dinner…..

Proceeded to MX …. it’s located in the basement at one of the buildings nearby

We were here for this …

We saw the ad on tv few nights ago and were keen to try the soup

Check out the seats… eat and watch live tv at the same time…. how cool is that?

I went to order at the cashier…. better hurry up… crazy hungry kitty eating her own paws

After ordering at the cashier near the entrance, you wait for your number to appear or be announced before proceeding to collect your food from the counter

Ordered some iced lemon tea to cool things first

Dipping sauces for the food

We ordered 2 sets…
Aly had Beef and pork while I had beef, pork and chicken…
She made the better choice as the chicken bits came with bones… sigh…
The set also came with prawn paste (the filling in that black thing across the container)

Veggies… mushrooms… fish cakes… pumpkin slices… udon….

Looks like alot of food eh?
Vegetables, mushrooms… meat…

Pumpkin paste

You’re suppose to add this paste to the soup

The milk soup base with corn

This is how the soup looks after adding in the pumpkin paste

I was afraid that the fire wouldn’t last… so I kept dumping in all the ingredients as fast as I could…
Aly played it cool and did everything slowly…
We were there for like… 45mins to an hour… and the fire was still going strong…
Smart of Aly… kiasu me

Soup was really good… but it became thicker over time… but still shiok….

After a satisfying meal… back to the streets

See the greedy kitty running to the ice cream van

Uncle looks bored

Aly reading the menu

Mister Softee!

Aly didn’t buy Mister Softee though… she bought the Jumbo Orange….

Which was really just orange sorbet

Oh well… Kitty’s the one eating anyone… I only took a few bites of it
As long as she’s happy

Needed a drink though…. bought this herbal tea at the MTR on the way back
Aly had Aromatic Madder, Honeysuckle & Chrysanthemum Tea
I had American Ginseng , Ephemerantha & Ophopogonis Root Tea… what the heck are all these names and ingredients lol
Anyway it’s suppose to be good for us… forgot what the description of what it’s suppose to be good for though

健康工房 Healthworks Chinese Urban Healing Tea
http://www.health-wks.com/

They have branches at various MTR stations… selling lots of different types of herbal tea with different uses…. for heatiness… to aid digestion… etc.
Everything is explained nicely in Chinese and English as well… very cool…
Wish they had this back home… Anyone?

Was afraid that I’ll be hungry later on… so bought a packet of microwaveable noodles from the convenience store….

Made good use of the microwave at the apartment….

Noodles were too darn salty though

Surfed the internet for awhile more before going to bed… End of Day 05 …