Tag: Hong Kong

Gourmet Travels in Shenzhen – Day 17: The Return Home

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Friday 13th July 2018

My last day on this holiday! (I’ve really missed the foooood since I’ve come back).

Couldn’t resist another bowl of abalone and pork congee! Yeeeee… Have to wait for another time to eat this!! It’s always worth the wait!

After check out that morning. I took the Airbus all the way to the airport. I was a tiny bit early, so I went around. MummyGeek told me I should find an elastic band thingy for my suitcase in case it gave way to the zip… I didn’t bother buying one in the end. They were too expensive! 
Before checking in I decided to weigh my suitcase on the free weighing scales – yes, you can find them near the check in desks, and they’re basically on the floor. Mine was over 2kg, so I decided to take a few things out… 
After check in (the queuing was better than the queuing in France!!) I went and sat in any space I could to take a deep breath and relax… Trying to find something to eat was hard. The Chinese food section was under renovation, so I had to settle with a chicken burger. 😣 Maybe another time I can eat the Chinese food at the airport… Boooooo!!

The weather was still bad outside which caused a delay with our flight time…

It was well after 2pm before we could board our flight, I think one of the typhoons or heavy rain was on its way into HK…

I queued quite diligently with an old couple flying into London to visit friends. I just knew when to queue before the flight happens. LOL! I used the Cathay Pacific app to board the flight whereas a lot of people seemed to use paper boarding tickets. I’m trying to mordernise here! 
I sat next to an New Zealand couple at the very back of the plane and talked to them briefly about our lives… They had travelled for a long time before getting onto the London flight… Tiring!
The flight was probably one of the best I’ve been on. Food was ok. No babies screaming. No children running off. No Chinese people doing bad things except for one man just being nosey! I watched a lot of foreign stuff… And I tried so hard to doze off… so hard…
Well I arrived in London on the same day in the evening… It was still Friday… I wasn’t in a hurry to get off the plane after landing, and since I have a British passport whereas the majority of the people on the flight were foreign… 
It looked like I had left the airport before most of the people. Took a black cab home who kind of got lost, but anyway, I tipped this person.
And that’s the end of this holiday trip to China. 😆
End of Day 17!!
Next holiday booked for March-April 2019 … I feel lucky coz I quit my job in the right time before my next holiday!

Gourmet Travels in Shenzhen – Day 16: Back in Hong Kong + 17th Floor Hotel Review

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Almost pain free from my wisdom tooth extraction! And I’ve managed to quit my job in the public sector! Yay! OMG, it’s been such a palava in this past year, I think it’s time for me to gooooo…. Go, go, go!!

Thursday 12th July 2018

Gosh it rained in Shezhen on my last morning. There was no way it was going to stop and it looked like there was going to be major floodings (which I think there was).
First thing in the morning was to eat brekkie, and I can’t remember what I had… Mrs Travels mother bought a few things for to take home, but I think I would have outweighed my luggage allowance. LOL. One of the things she got me was a big bag of lychee and I came across this bunny shaped one. So cute!
At the very end, they booked a taxi for me, but the driver didn’t even attempt to help me put my luggage in the trunk, I hugged Mrs Travels goodbye. No tip for the driver she said. Hahahahah.

I got to the border within half-an-hour I think. It felt forever because of the rain. Again the driver didn’t even attempt to get out and help with my luggage! Definitely no tip for this man!! I followed the people going into the border part but I had to find a way to get to the next floor down… Whilst I was attempting to go down the stairs… the zip (already broken) fell apart and my luggage spilled. I had to quickly re-arrange everything… Mrs Travels had already warned me that I should sew up the ends when I get to Hong Kong. SIGH 😢 It was tough work… where was the frigging lift!!
Anyway, I crossed the border in no time. Bye bye Shenzhen! This was the longest time I’ve spent in Mainland China. See you again in the future!
So at Lo Wu Station (the Hong Kong side), I topped up my Octopus card and I off I went to my next location! I took the train to Shatin, I stood the whole journey by the way… So many travellers coming back into Hong Kong that day. Then from there I took a taxi to my usual hotel, Regal Riverside… For some reason I tipped the driver, I just wanted to get in the hotel and relax…

Luckily the reception was able to give me a room before check in time, so first things first find the room, go and eat, plus buy lots of snacks for the night!

I’ve missed eating this abalone congee… Can’t beat it!

Swiftly moving onto the snack snack section. I think I have missed 7Eleven a bit!!! I wanted to try any new-ish snacks… Like the Doritos Wasabi flavour – that was an awful mistake. There was hardly any wasabi flavour… Had a lot of drinks… and had a few sweets. I reserved my stomach for dinner that evening…

After snacking I went out again to the New Plaza and did some HK Shopping… into the old and new buildings… I bought a lot of Aji Ichiban stuff for my parents – they’re almost finished. I needed it to make the most of my luggage weight of 30kg! 😉

Unfortunatly my hand luggage decided to collapse into pieces. I think I’ve had it for two decades, so it was time to throw it in the bin. Well luckily MummyGeek told me over the phone (WeChat and WhatsApp are the most useful apps at this point) to go and buy one of these storage bags in the local stationery shop… I even found needles and thread to fix my suitcase. So lucky I have a mother who nags me a bit in such circumstances. 😅

Dinner was roast pork and char sui with rice from the usual place BBQ King. I think the workers remembered me, they probably thought why I was alone. Hehehehehe.

So the main reason I couldn’t buy a lot of snacks was because I had a big bag of lychees to eat… Mrs Travels sister-in-law showed us a way of how to peel without having to use your fingernails to dig into the fruit. If you look closely at the fruit, there’s a line, and that’s where you push and pull against to open it. So clever!

I ate a whole bag of lychee!! They were so sweet!!

That’s practically the end of the food section…

Hotel Review – On the 17th Floor in Regal Riverside Hotel

Regal Riverside Hotel is just one of those hotels that I’m used to staying in… I decided to book directly from their website. It was a bit expensive for the one night, but I hadn’t spent much in China… So it was worth it….
The receptionist put in a double room on the 17th Floor. When I was close to my room, I thought there was an invisible wall I needed to get through in the hallway! It felt like there was a reflection of the corridor that I couldn’t pass… extraordinary!
All was good with the bed, bathroom, wardrobe etc. Even the TV being on the ceiling was fine. The view was ok. Pretty amazed compared to the superior rooms! I had a small fridge I could use which was well hidden in the wardrobe.

The nice wet view outside…

The only problem I had with the room was the loud aircon noise in the evening… It was so loud. I probably only slept for 5 hours. Less than what I had done in China. 😦

So tired… I think I missed my sleep on this holiday… It’s the only thing I really missed.

End of Day 16.

Gourmet Travels in Shenzhen – Days 1 – 3: London-Marseille-Switzerland-Hong Kong-Shenzhen

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Aaah, the Korean drama Let’s Eat Season 3 is out. That means I need to blog about my Chinese food holiday!

Stuck with title ideas on the next few blog posts so as I was browsing through my pictures, they were mostly of the food I ate rather than of the sites in China… so the “gourmet” part got stuck into the title. 😆 To be honest, we hardly went out because the weather was just soooo hot, worser than England. It’s typhoon season – my first ever experience of China’s heavy rain!

This trip was planned since February 2018! So before we step into the holiday side, these are things you must remember to do before going to China (for all foreigners planning to travel to China as a tourist): 
1. Book your plane ticket and ensure you have booked a place to stay whether it’ll be a friend, family member or a hotel. 
2. Apply for a China Visa (you might be lucky to get a 2-year multiple entry visa for £151 – that’s visa and admin fee combined – I was so happy about mine!).

3. Change currency in a bank or high street shop… If you have a Chinese bank account, you might be able to get better rates!!

Wednesday 27th June 2018
Desperate to go on holiday months ago. I’ve been trying to escape the world of the public sector!
On my first day I first took a cab to Blackfriars Station with my 27kg luggage, I defo wouldn’t have been able to manage to get myself on a bus with that luggage weight. Just too heavy.
Got to Gatwick on time, checked in my luggage (and I was lucky to have already paid for the extra luggage fee), passed through security (I was behind a person who probably hasn’t travelled in a very long time), then went and ate some biscuits which I brought along… Whilst I was eating, a family was sitting behind me they having a family feud, so I swiftly left the scene for the loo, then saw that my gate was opened… rushed into Boots for water and paracetomol (where a couple of youngsters just took their time!), then walked ever so swiftly to my gate!! It was so faaaar. 😥😭 Thankfully the non speedy boarders were still going through security, and I was lucky to have chosen speedy boarding! It’s my favourite part from easyJet. 😅

The flight felt fairly short, and I arrived in Marseille around 11am. Passport control felt slow… but even when I passed it, our luggage from the flight wasn’t even out yet!

After finally getting my luggage, I went straight to the taxi stand… I got to Port-de-Bouc within half an hour… that’s so quick! Everytime I went to see the Travels Family I always arrived to their home within an hour to 2 hours of arriving… Then it was straight to unpacking, eating and then going to the beach. It felt like I never left the town. Hahahahah!!

Here’s a couple of drawings from Missy S and Missy A, they’ve grown up so much!

Thursday 28th June 2018

Skipping to the next day… Mr Travels I take the bus to the airport, and I wanted to take a taxi with two suitcases… And Mr Travels won. I saved quite a bit of Euro, but ended getting told off by the bus driver because I forgot to close the luggage door. 😜 Sorry driver! My mind was trying to get the two pieces of luggage into the airport. Luckily my French is so poor… and to be honest, why aren’t the drivers helping their customers anyway!

After the Travels family arrived, we started looking for the check in, and we ended up queuing for over an hour… really? Why weren’t there other check in counters. An old German lady behind us even decided to jump the queue as her flight was cancelled. So rude. It felt like the same incident like last year… Grrrrrr… 😡 But the lady who served us was actually quite nice, and managed to seat us altogther.

So it was bye bye to Mr Travels who would join the rest of his family in August (he’s there in China right now as I’m writing this blogpost!).

It’s the first time I’ve flown on one of these old fashion airplanes… Wow!!

Oooo, I had to take a pic of this Swiss ice cream!! It was so tasty!! European ice creams tend to be much more flavourable than the British ones.

So we arrived in Switzerland. It’s been decades since I’ve been to Zurich airport. 😉 It would have been nice if I had the chance to step outside and breath the Swiss air. Maybe another time!

It was a five hour wait, but we managed by going into a very peaceful family play area. It was nice and quiet. We also had Burger King… but then when our gate was showing, we had to go through passport control again. People tried to push in front… 😖… I really can’t understand why people like to push in front of us. It’s not nice peeps!!

We finally got onto the flight after a bit of waiting around. The Chinese really like to queue beforehand… Missy A, who is now a 4 year old (and very mischieveous at times) was getting tired. I know how she feels…

Mrs Travels and the girls sat together, and I sat next to a young Swiss couple. ^_^ The flight was ok. I think I got an hours sleep, drifting in and out of it. I saw Missy S sneaking at me. LOL.

12 hours later…

Friday 29th June 2018

We arrived in Hong Kong in the late afternoon… our flight was late, but I can’t complain much except there were no freebies, and the food was actually really tasty! Heheheh.

All of us passed security quite quickly. I didn’t even notice Mrs Travels and the girls had already got our luggage… so quick!

Speedily passing through, we found Mrs Travels’s younger brother, got into a taxi-van and headed straight to one of the border controls that crosses between Hong Kong and Shenzhen… it was a long journey, and going through two borders felt like it took forever! China is really strict.

Finally arrived to Mrs Travels’s family home… We ate like crazy, I even stayed up for midnight snacks before going to sleep. 😇

Three flights in 3 days… 😖😖😖

End of Days 1 – 3! Woo!

Regal Riverside Hotel 麗豪酒店 – Shatin, Hong Kong

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Ah, one more post about Hong Kong!

Last time we stayed at the Regal Oriental Hotel based in Kowloon. My family didn’t really like that hotel even though there was free WiFi and lots of local stores. But we had to try and go back to the Regal Riverside Hotel 麗豪酒店 (Canto: lai hou jau dim) on this trip! Why?

Because the rooms are much more spacious at this hotel than their sister hotel (plus they finally finished renovating whatever they were doing and installed free WiFi)!

In previous stays at this hotel, they used to have a big table and chairs available. Now there’s a squeaky sofa and a small glass table which I kept bumping to at night. 😦 It hurts you know! I mostly sat on the floor to eat my breakfast or dinner… Felt the sofa was too high and the table was too low. >_<"" Not sure if they vacuum the rooms as often as they used to. And I don't think they change the bed sheets because I spilt a bit of soy sauce on the duvet cover, nothing was changed. ¬_¬"

We were put on the 8th Floor (lucky number for the Chinese), but really it was unlucky for us as we couldn’t sleep! I switched the aircon to heat but all we got was cold air. Turned it up to 24/25 degrees… and still no hot air… What kind of aircon did they install?

Forgot to take a picture of the bathroom. They haven’t upgraded their bathrooms for years. I think depending on the cleaner you get, you don’t always get new bottles of shampoo or body wash… 😦

Think the hotel has gone a bit stingy for a 4 star. Weren’t like this 6/7 years ago! The cleaners were much more generous with the teas and coffees and sugar… Unfortunately they give out a lot of bottles of water… In the end we had around more than 10 bottles sitting in our room! >_<" Stupid management idea really…
Didn’t take any of the drinks from the fridge… no point. They were more expensive than the supermarket and 7Eleven. 
The only best thing is how fast the lift goes up and down. ^_^

Pointers when staying at this hotel:
– Close to the bus stops but be prepared to wait for some of them, as some are hourly buses
– 2 bus stops away from New Town Plaza, which is where you can take a train
– Far away from a Metro line, so you will need to hop on a bus to somewhere like Yau Ma Tei
– There is a HK$1000 deposit – in case you break anything or order things like room service
– There are restaurants around but walk around to City One or New Town Plaza… or even walk to the Star Seafood Floating Restaurant…
– If you’ve been put in a room near the roads, then I’m afraid there’s nothing much you can do except purchase earplugs
– The walls are not that thick so it’s possible you can hear your neighboring hotel guest
– There’s finally free WiFi!!!
– Try out their restaurants, I never did, but they look good
– It’s generally a quiet area – apart from the traffic
– There’s a dry cleaners nearby, try and find it as it’s cheaper than the hotel!
– There are family rooms available which have more facilities like microwaves and cookers etc.
If I were to give a geeky rating, it would be defo be a 3/5… but 5/5 for location! :p

Address:
中國香港新界沙田大涌橋路34-36號

34-36 Tai Chung Kiu Road, Sha Tin, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2649 7878

Hong Kong 2016 Day 14: Last Day

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Friday 16th December 2016

Final post on my holiday! (But hotel post is next after this).
I felt the lazy bug step in. I realised why I was not able to sleep. It’s because I usually sleep late and wake up late in London, and that’s what I did on our last day. Really felt the tiredness kick in.
I felt like the lazy person I was supposed to be at the start of this holiday, my laziness was not meant to be on this holiday! MummyGeek was up and I asked if she could buy takeaway because I was being my lazy self…

My last bowl of HK congee!! This time with pig liver. Woooow. I wondered why people liked eating this one. The liver was so smoothly made… Like eating butter or very smooth cream. Yummy!

Breakfast that morning was HK$98 (~£10.32). MummyGeek paid. No prob! 😀

I managed to sleep for another 2 hours before checkout time. I was so tired. I requested a late checkout for 1pm as our flight was in the evening, but it seems Mr Stingy was kicked out at 12pm. So we kind of left. No extra charges were made so they didn’t take my deposit.
We left our luggage around the taxi station area. You’re allowed to leave your luggage at the hotel for up to 7 days before they somehow get rid of it… so during that time we went outside the hotel (it was very cold that day) and waited for the cousin who took Mr Stingy and I around our village on Day 3… 

We saw a couple in their wedding outfits… a happy day for some!

We ended up in BBQ King again. There is no escaping this restaurant! My cousin wanted to discuss family stuff – which I thought was totally inappropriate timing! Ruined my mood really... 

Lunch came up to HK$170 (~£17.89). I seemed to have paid again! :p

After our hour longish lunch of family stuff Mr Stingy and I went to the New Town Plaza Shopping Centre for one last trip. Bought a colleague a traditional Chinese music CD – as it was his birthday soon. 

Came back to the hotel within less than an hour… And then went to the airport. VERY EARLY!

It didn’t matter because we got to see the sunset from the airbus. ^_^

So at the airport we were too early to check in… about 2 to 3 hours. That meant it time to crochet Mr Picky’s scarf which I had started on the plane coming to HK. Was also trying to catch some Pokémon at the same time… free WiFi at the airport!

Finally crossed over to the other side after 8pm. Such a long wait. I think next time I’m going to choose an earlier flight with a different company. Virgin flights are really late!

I forgot to eat one of my favourites. Beef brisket curry and rice!! Oh, how could I forget?!!! I paid for MummyGeek’s meal as well… It’s really expensive at the airport, so I don’t advise you to eat there unless you really have to. Cost came to HK$252 (~£26.52). I don’t think UK airports are this expensive. ¬_¬

Mr Stingy went for char siu and special fried rice… ¬_¬” Typical of him!

Time to walk around and find our gate… Bought some sweeties and Gudetama stuff…

Finally got to our gate and so I decided to charge my phone in the meantime… At the time of charging I think someone had lost their phone or charger, well a couple of males came over so I’m not sure if someone stole something. Didn’t see anything suspicious really. I was playing Pokémon as I usually do. LOL!

Finally time to board…

It was a very unfortunate flight. We had four babies on board. Because they were all quite young they all started screaming and crying at the same time. It was possibly my worse flight in history. I’ll take Ryanair any day for the silly messages and cramped seats. Food was so-so. For a very famous company and bright, you would really expect decent food in the Economy section. :p I can even get decent food in my work canteen for less the price of what they provide per person. ¬_¬” The pasta dinner was basically the pits! Disgusting!

At some point the person in front leaned their seat back and damaged my mini USB cord. I was so upset I hit the seat in front! Grrrrr. I think the long leg room seats are not worth it. Total waste of money to be honest. Going back to a different flight company with better seating.

I managed to sleep somehow after watching some of House of Cards Season 4… think I was beyond tired on that flight. What works is big earphones (always purchase your own because flight ones are rubbish) and very loud music. I dozed off with music. That’s the first time that has ever happened in my entire waking life.
When I was awake, the babies started to cry again… I really wanted to get up, go to the parents and say “would you like me to hold your baby? I have godmother experience” … But I didn’t do it as Mr Stingy was blocking me. ¬_¬””
Breakfast came and I had the full breakfast – not bad! Decent for my taste buds.
We finally arrived in London. We had to do some sort of emergency landing and all our devices had to be completely switched off. Why? It was foggy that Saturday morning. The foggiest it’s been in London since we’ve been gone. It’s really pretty from the top. Not so pretty from the ground. I think we were very lucky as during the day not many flights were going in or out from Heathrow. 
As we got to the airport, queued (and I caught 2 Pikachu’s with Xmas hats on), passed passport control, I saw this poster… American Airlines really know how to make people laugh: “Fly Flat, Arrive Sharp”… Hmmmm…

Got a taxi back. Black cab one. Cost £80. Worth it in the fog. Cabbies need to make money too!

Well that’s the end of our holiday. It was a very hectic one being with family, hardly any shopping, some sight seeing… But for me, that was not enough! Argh… maybe another time…

End of Day 14 and holiday time in HK! ^_^

Hong Kong 2016 Day 13: Kwun Tong

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Thursday 15th December 2016

Second to last day!! We’re almost to the end of this almost happy trip… 
It was difficult to decide what to do on the day before our flight back to London. In the end we all decided to go to Kwun Tong. It has one of those big shopping centres… So we took the 89X from the back of the hotel bus station… 
I thought we saw the shopping centre – but we got off the bus a stop or two too early. Argh… So we started walking to the opposite side.

We kind of walked into the wrong building, so we started walking up towards the shopping centre. I even pointed out where the old market used to be, but Mr Stingy said we’re not anywhere close to the shopping centre… so we had to get back to the bus stop we got off from. MummyGeek was annoyed with me as we should have got off the last bus stop. We walked back and forth to remember which bus number we took as well… When our bus finally came, MummyGeek asked for the wrong stop and we didn’t get on the frigging bus! And that’s when my anger stepped in. I shouted at MummyGeek for being stupid… Grrrrrr!!! (Being with your mother 24/7 for 13 days now was rather tiring!! My Aries sign kicked in… TBH: I’m glad I work). When another bus came we spent a bit more money on the bus… BUT guess what?! When we were walking, we were practically half a kilometer away from the apm shopping centre… ¬_¬”. My annoyance kicked in further… MummyGeek apologised, and I did too with gritted teeth, :p
apm shopping centre had big massive bears for their Christmas display. We walked around and around taking lots and lots of pictures. ^_^

It was finally time to eat! So we ended up in the expensive food hall. Had to thank this German guy who gave up his seat for MummyGeek and Mr Stingy! Thanks dude!

MummyGeek ordered noodles, some crappy veggies and I think it came with some pork chops. Mr Stingy had something similar…

I had a beef or was it pork with kimchi and rice… boy this sort of bibimbap was massive… and there was soooo much kimchi and not enough meat. ¬_¬”” I’ve lost the receipt but think it was quite expensive for what I got… Never again peeps! Think smaller eateries outside the shopping mall is probably the best thing to go to.

Lots and lots of kiiiiimchiiiiiii!

We all went around the shopping centre in our sort of separate ways… I didn’t buy anything because everything was too expensive for my liking. :p

After an exhausting morning, we went back to the hotel… Tough Love. Tough Morning. Tough Everything! :p

Well. It was an unsatisfying morning. So I said to MummyGeek I want to go shopping by myself that afternoon… In which I did! I went back to Ma On Shan… I had to go back to Miniso, which is now one of my favourite Japanese-Hong Kong stores. It’s a bit like the Danish Tiger stores in London, but of course Miniso sells Japanese things. :p I bought myself a new bowl for work and some other useful things…

Went into the next mall, and one of my cousins who I hadn’t seen when we had the family gathering a few days before text me to go out for dinner… Ugh!!! Why me?!! Why did I have to be the sole bearer of a mobile phone with all the contacts. 😦 Had to rush back to the hotel and explain to MummyGeek and Mr Stingy. No more shopping allowed. How unsatsifying! But at least I got what I wanted. 

Ok, so the most satisfying part of the journey back was the sunset. Hong Kong has beautiful sunsets during the winter period.

Miss Pinky was practically asking for one of my cups. One thing not to do is post things on your personal social media site and tell people what you’re buying or doing! Well, I can’t help but show off. So Mr Stingy decided to surprise Miss Pinky. We both got 7 stickers in total. I went down to the 7Eleven next to the hotel to check if they had stock… They did! Yippee!! I had to check which one it was coz I would have swapped with one of the other ones… Luckily the one given to me was a pink cup, and one that I didn’t want. Phew! Surprise Miss Pinky. ^_^

In the end we gave in to my female cousin. The only reason she couldn’t make the family meal was because of her son, my second cousin, LOL. He’s kind of a difficult and hyperactive child. A funny child.
My cousin came with her daughter. We haven’t seen her for about 8 years! Wow, and she’s now in uni going off to study English Literature at a Hong Kong University in Kowloon. Amazing… My cousin’s children really have grown up so fast. 
MummyGeek didn’t want to go so far, so we ended up going to BBQ King for dinner. ^_^

Food was kind of casual. The expensive item here was the soup!
Total cost came to HK$498 (~£52.42) – I paid as this cousin of mine came to London to visit us and paid for dinner last time. ^_^

Reminder of the address:
沙田沙田大涌橋路20號河畔花園D座地下39號舖
Shop 39, Riverside Garden, 20 Tai Chung Bridge Road, Sha Tin


It seemed like a very long day!
End of Day 13.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 12: Tai Po & End of 7Eleven Cup Search & City One

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Wednesday 14th December 2016

Almost towards the end of our holiday…

We had to go and visit Grandpopo and my aunt before the end of our trip. MummyGeek wanted us to eat breakfast in Tai Po before we went, and so we ended up at this tiny diner. We actually wanted to eat at the Cooked Food Centre, but lots of the stalls weren’t opened, and we would have had to share a much smaller table. 😦 Oh well. Mr Stingy was bad luck! :p

What I had wanted most was spare ribs and rice… One of my favourite HK morning foods… It just had to be done!

Unfortunately I forgot to note down the price and name of the diner. Oh well. It’s in the Tai Po Centre area, opposite a 7Eleven…

But guess what?! My search for these 7Eleven cups ended that morning in Tai Po!! Stock did come that night!! Phew!! So I got one for free, and then I paid an extra HK$28 with 7 stickers for the second one. Actually, none of my friends know I have a second cup (the Purin one) – so keep it quiet. Shhhh. LOL! And no, no-one is having these… 

So that afternoon was spent at Grandpopo’s place… Had to fix the TV, show my aunt how to copy and paste stuff from her computer… and we ate loads again! It was very warm that day…

After our visit, we went back to Tai Po so that Mr Stingy could go and look around. MummyGeek and I ended up doing some last minute shopping. I love this area. You can buy your essentials for cheap. I wish things in London could be as cute and cheap at the same time. LOL.

Time to go back. Instead of waiting for the 74A, we took the 73A or B – can’t remember and went all the way to City One 第一城. It’s one of the few places we have been to in HK… and I actually like it. It’s not far from the hotel. So I do recommend this place for small shopping.

We ended up in McDonald’s in City One. MummyGeek said she’ll pay for my dinner… My meal came to HK$55.30 (~£5.82), but I accidentally didn’t select the meal as I thought the “shake shake” seasoning was the price of the fries as well and had to pay separately for everything… total geek moment that was! Ugh. So I had to pay extra for the fries… AuntyGeek is getting old… ¬_¬” I’m sure the youngsters in McD’s were looking at me as a confused HKer… Sorry kids!
This is Mr Stingy’s burger… I forgot which one this is.

I had another Hokkaido burger. This was with salmon, ham slice (or was it chicken) and egg. Had a lemon tea and a double strawberry sundae! Yay!!! ^_^

My shake shake fries with nori seasoning… messy business eating this!

Ooooo… doesn’t my sundae look so cool!

Ended up walking around City One. Not sure why my cousins think it’s an average place to go to… I like it! Need to walk around it during the day time next time… 🙂

End of Day 12.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 11: Sai Kung & The Search For Those Damn 7Eleven cups! ( ͒˃⌂˂ ͒)

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Apologies all! Been a bit busy this week. Took the HSK Level 2 yesterday and so I had to study for that… and before that, I’ve been made into a carpenter… New carpet needed at home.

Tuesday 13th December 2016
The day started late. We didn’t have breakfast near the hotel that morning. Instead we went out to Sai Kung as my cousins needed us to do some family matter stuff. 
So we waited at the bus stop opposite the hotel. MummyGeek spotted a couple of guys canoeing… I think we waited forever for the 299X to appear that morning!

Finally in Sai Kung. As I’ve mentioned in one of my previous posts the journey isn’t that long… Sai Kung is a seafood town, so you’ll see lots of fresh seafood.

We ended up in Cheun Kee Seafood Restaurant where one of my cousins took us last time when we visited. So basically we had a dim sum breakfast/brunch/lunch. ^_^ They make everything fresh, so sometimes you might be waiting for a while for the food… Really can’t fault this place. But yeah, it’s where the tourists would go too.

I think I made a wrong order, but this is prawn spring rolls in cheung fun wrap. It tasted great. Might have this again one day! Just need to remember the name for next time. ^_^

This is a steamed rice with pork and mushroom. They only make this when it’s been ordered by the customer. So order these dishes first so that it comes around the same time as your dim sum. Allow 15 to 20 minutes for it to arrive!

Total cost came to HK$235 (~£24.74). Pretty much cheapish compared to London prices.


87-89 Man Nin Street, Sai Kung
西貢萬年街87-89號地下


We ended up waiting for our cousins for a bit, so we went and walked around looking for Hakka teacakes.

Somehow we ended at this place in Sai Kung Market 西貢街市 (Canto: sai gung gaai si). MummyGeek wanted to buy some char siu and chicken for DaddyChef’s family (again!)… Think they’ve had enough meat, but you know “beggars can’t be choosers!”. We saw two places selling meat, one had no prices but the other did. So we went to this place with the prices. It shows that they’re genuine in my eyes. This place is pretty famous in Sai Kung for their honey char siu – the way I like it! Extra sweet. ^_^ 

The place is called 旺記燒爉 Wong Kee Siu Lap – you can’t miss it on the ground floor of the indoor market!

Address: 67 Yi Chun St, Sai Kung, Hong Kong

Now it was time to find those teacakes! We had to go around some back streets just to find it… If you see this street art, you’re in the wrong street!

If you see this street, which is just a few metres away, then you’re in the right street for those famous teacakes.

But unfortunately, they only open on the weekends! Argh! MummyGeek was not so happy… LOL!!

西貢市場街21號地下
G/F, 21 See Cheung Street, Sai Kung

In the end we walked back towards the pier…

Then we found an old lady who was selling them… I think it was HK$10 for 3. ^_^ … Suddenly a whole bunch of ladies came up to buy some too. Where did they come from?!!!

Our cousins finally came, did our family matters, then ended up walking to find something for them to eat! ¬_¬”” Don’t understand why my family loves food. >_<"

It was quite hot that day, so I ended up drinking a cold coffee…

Finally it was time to say our goodbyes… I wrote some postcards on the bus, and thought I must send them that day urgently! >_<""" Luckily I remembered where the post office was – kind of! Thankfully, I found it – it's basically near the centre. Can't really miss it. Heheheheh. So five lucky friends/family got a postcard all the way from HK. 

So what did I do for the rest of the day? Went out searching for these damn 7Eleven cups (the ones on the left in the picture). Practically sold out everywhere. Just don’t understand why can’t the 7Eleven stores stock more! Got told off from one shop near the hotel that they had no stock. So rude. :p  Mr Stingy went somewhere… not sure where!
Every 7Eleven I went to said they had no stock from Sai Kung to Mong Kok to Ap Liu Street to Sham Shui Po… 😦 MummyGeek was actually with me as she was afraid I would do something crazy and get lost… :p 
Well, we couldn’t find the place. But we remembered to go back to this Dai Pai Dong (big food stall) for their beef brisket noodles and VERY fresh vegetables. The place is still running after many years… ^_^ So happy!

Total cost came to HK$79 (~£8.32). Still amazing prices for a side street food stall – and still loved by the locals! ^_^ I think we had more noodles a few years ago … I guess food prices went up!

鴻記麵家, 深水埗耀東街15-16門前大牌檔
Hung Kee Noodles, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong

Ok, so we gave up on the search for the cups, so in the end we had to trek back to the hotel! Ended back around Mong Kok, then we had to find Laundry Street to take the mini bus back to Sai Kung (and ask again for the cups – because one of the workers said there will be stock that night… not true, think they got stock after midnight!). Gosh. I really dislike those mini buses. They are the scariest rides EVER! Well… couldn’t get the cups but I bought some pen supplies from my favourite store – Japan Home Cenre. ^_^
At the hotel MummyGeek and I ate the teacakes. I forgot what each one was made of, but just imagine big versions of none-sweet Japanese mochi.

Not bad teacakes. Not one of my fave Hakka desserts but decent enough to eat.

End of Day 11.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 10: Ma On Shan & Shatin & Family Dinner

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Monday 12th December 2016

Finally into the second week of our holiday.

I promise a shorter post this evening. ^_^

The day started a little later than expected… I basically didn’t want to get out of bed because Ocean Park was absolutely tiring. I’m not sure if I managed to sleep because on that weekend the hotel again was blasting that stupid music all night. In the end I took advantage, ¬_¬”, and asked MummyGeek to get takeaway brekkie… She came back with this from the congee place…  It’s called 鹹煎餅 (Canto: haam jin beng). It’s a salty and sweet bun with sesame seeds on top. Looks kind of fried – because it is fried. It has a fluffy inside too… Chinese donut? Nah…!

This time I had 艇仔粥 (Canto: teng jai juk), which means “boat congee”… a recipe from Guangzhou. It has squid and peanuts in this one. ^_^

MummyGeek also bought this cha siu cheung fun… Didn’t really like it, think the soy sauce wasn’t sweet enough. 😦 This was my own disappointment with the shop.
Total cost came to HK$98… seriously? I think MummyGeek also bought some for Mr Stingy too…

And again the address for this place is…

南記粥品店，沙田沙田圍怡成坊田園閣地下
Naam Kee Congee, G/F, Greenfield Court, Yi Shing Square, Sha Tin Wai, Sha Tin

Mr Stingy decided to go with us to Ma On Shan Shopping Centre… From opposite the hotel, you need to take the bus 86K or the smaller bus 803. I suggest you take the 86K if you fear for your life! I really don’t like the small buses. They just go too fast. Hong Kong roads are considered as racing tracks for some. ¬_¬” 
You have to get off at Bayshore Towers bus stop 海柏花園. From there you need to go up the escalators to one of the shopping centres… It’s the old one. Just make sure you go a bit late as some shops probably won’t be opened early!

At Christmas time last year they had the Yokai theme. If you remembered when I went to Japan, Miss Pinky and I were very amused by their exercise ending song. Here’s the English song version: https://youtu.be/FQM_r4dbLVU.

Throughout the week, I was collecting these stickers from 7Eleven. As soon as you get 20 stickers you can get a free cup. If you 7 stickers and pay an extra HK$28 you can get a cup… I asked in if that was the case in Ma On Shan… but didn’t get a full answer, didn’t even get a chance to ask if they had any stock, which made MummyGeek kind of angry. ¬_¬” Maybe I should have listened to her! 

We walked to the other shopping centre… I still don’t understand why in HK why there’s an old and new shopping centre next to each other,

We explored the other shopping centre and bought sweets and looked around… Hasn’t changed that much, but they did have a DC Comic Christmas theme last year!

It was kind of boring because lots of the shops were closed due to renovations.

In the end we took the bus 86K back. Mr Stingy went back to the hotel and MummyGeek and I went to Shatin New Town Plaza. I still don’t like this shopping centre, it’s one of those places where the rich need to buy all their valuables. ¬_¬”… Off to the old neighboring shopping centre!

We explored around the old shopping centre and the small stalls. I think I’m just an oldie at heart. I love old HK!
MummyGeek was hungry. We explored the Chinese restaurants, but they looked so full. I spotted KFC, but nope, we weren’t allowed to enter there. 😦 I wanted fried chicken!!! So in the end it was McDonald’s all the way! ¬_¬”  MummyGeek went for a hamburger Happy Meal. And I went for the Hokkaido Salmon Series. Why hasn’t the UK got into the fish burgers yet? It’s always beef burgers… boooo!!!
Cant remember how many burgers were available for this series…

The burger consisted of lettuce, burger and fried salmon. Not a bad burger!

I had a choco apple pie with ice cream and strawberry syrup… Yum yum yum… They need to bring this back to the UK!!! Why has the UK economy gone so bad with their food industry?! 😦

Total cost came to HK$74 (~£7.79). Wow! That’s so cheap for all of this.

Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Wang Pok St, 2-16號沙田中心商場三樓32A及69A號舖

Back into the shopping centre – after buying some cheap scarves from a scapegoat cart… She doesn’t have a licence and they run away so quickly.

And then back into New Town Plaza… gosh everything has changed. There’s no bookshops there either… I searched the lower ground floor for it… Nothing there! 😦

But the one section I love out of this shopping centre is this section where there’s food and a Japanese accessories store is… Can’t remember the name of the store, but will look into my old posts for it. >_<"!

We took a bus back to the hotel… we used to take the 299 because it was the easiest bus to remember to get back to the hotel with. But now it’s so expensive, so I kind of asked a bus driver if there were any another buses that headed there. And there was! Bus number 284 headed back to Regal Riverside at HK$3.80 (~£0.40). It’s around HK$10 with the Bus 299. 

We were to meet one of my aunts (DaddyChef’s younger sister) who just lives close to the hotel and her youngest son with his wife and daughter also live quite close too… so we went to their flat to have a look around, play and talk… ^_^

Trying to take a pic of the full moon from my cousin’s flat using my phone but it doesn’t take great shots… and I didn’t bring my small camera along with me. Oh well. 

We finally headed out for dinner… It was mostly DaddyChef’s family – a big get together with my aunts and cousins! Very rare to see us all together. LOL.  Usually we meet half and the other half another time. ¬_¬”” (It was a painful moment in my holiday… texting, texting and texting…!!). 

We ended going somewhere nearly local to all of them. Walking distance from the flat. But some of us took the car. ^_^ I would have walked… but they insisted… :p

This restaurant called 明星海鮮舫 (Canto: ming sing hoi sin fong) Star Seafood Floating Restaurant. I think the one before this restaurant appeared MummyGeek used to go to this location a lot for parties and weddings… Seems like a popular place. We always passed it every time we came back but looked so far to walk to, to go and eat… Maybe not… It makes me want to try out the restaurant in Regent’s Park… the one next to London Zoo. >_<"

I think we had no idea what to order… so left it up to the family… I have no idea what set they ordered. But it might have been an expensive meal! 
So started off with 白切雞 (Canto: baak chit gai), this literally means “white cut chicken” … boiled chicken, and basically because it comes out white once boiled and then cut into chunks. One of my cousins made a comment about cameras eating first before the humans eat… LOL! Sorry cousin. I take pics all the time. :p

Some sort of sweetcorn soup…

This was kind of gruesome to see… Pigeon! 燒乳鴿 (Canto: siu yu gaap) … roast pigeon ¬_¬”. Mr Sting and I didn’t want to attempt it, but I gave it a go. It tastes like roast duck. But I think I’ll stick to duck for sure. Pigeon doesn’t look exciting.

Think this was some sort of tofu and veggie dish.

Seafood and rice noodles, mushrooms and veggies… my parents make this all the time… Nothing that special.

Ah! But this was a rare thing to eat! Big giant crab with thick legs to indulge in. Hahahah. One of my cousins was so greedy and had the rest of the remainders… The one who took us to the underground restaurant. Hilarious!

Now these are fresh abalone 鮑魚 (Canto: baau yu). A shellfish. You need to actually cut it away from the shell. Just don’t eat the green part that’s attached to the shell… ^_^ This is one of my favourite seafoods.

Big catfish was on the menu too…

And then finally dessert. This is a sort of red bean paste crispy looking pancake 紅豆沙鍋餅 (Canto: hung dau sa wo beng)… it will translate on Google as red bean casserole, but it actually means “Red bean paste pancake”. It was ok.

The last dessert was this sort of plain bun with sugar on top, and red bean paste at the bottom. Not sure what this is called in Chinese… But it was ok.

Leftover pigeon heads… sorry…  Feel sorry for them!!!

As we were leaving my cousin (the big eater) had to show me the fresh seafood. LOL!

Total cost came to (I think) HK$1800 (~£189) for 14 of us, which would have been around £13 each really… Cheap! But I didn’t pay. So, oh well.

Address: 沙田大涌橋路55-57號
55-57 Tai Chung Kiu Road, Sha Tin



End of Day 10.

Hong Kong 2016 Day 9: Ocean Park

On By Bao Bao QiuIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Warning: this post has a lot of pictures >_<"""

It’s been ridiculously busy and tiring for these past few days! Back into the blogging swing again (for now).


Sunday 11th December 2016

Yay!! I threw up the previous night, and the following morning I felt ok, but decided to go light with the breakfast in case my stomach decided to give in. Don’t worry, this happens to me once in a blue moon on a long flight holiday. Surprisingly it didn’t happen when I was in Japan, Texas or New York… Hmmm…

That morning we woke up slightly late but on time. We didn’t walk far for breakfast… We went to BBQ King. Gosh, these peeps wake up early and sleep late! I don’t think I could survive their working and sleeping patterns. 😦

MummyGeek decided to have some spaghetti in the morning, which comes with soup, BBQ pork and sweetcorn plus sausage and toast. I think I ate the sausage and toast. Heheheh.

But I did have a really light, light brekkie! A typical Hong Kong ham and flat scrambled egg sandwich with the crust off. Asians just don’t like crusty sandwiches. I think any sandwich with scrambled egg is from HK. >_<""

I forgot about dai pai dong coffee is so bitter. Had to add a lot of sugar!! HK coffee is like one of those you like it or hate it situations, (like Marmite)… I’m one of those in betweeners. :p

Total cost came to HK$60 (~£6.32). Our cheapest breakfast for two people so far!

It was time to head out to OCEAN PARK!! We took a bus 81C from the hotel to Yau Ma Tei, then went to find this bus stop – Mang Ming Lane at Yau Ma Tei. We took the bus 171 which takes us all the way to Ocean Park. (I checked online, and it seems you can get a straight bus 170 from Greenfield Court, which is a short walk from the hotel… oh well).

We got to Ocean Park around 10.30 am. Got stuck in traffic!!!! Thankfully the queues weren’t too bad when we got there. ^_^

Prices for the tickets at the time were HK£385 (~£40.53) for one adult, they have now gone up to HK$438 (~£46.10). My, my! So expensive these tickets!! Even London Zoo is not that expensive!

So it’s picture time…

MummyGeek wanted us to take loads and loads of pictures! Well, MummyGeek hasn’t been there since her honeymoon with DaddyChef methinks (it was part of their honeymoon). I last went to Ocean Park when I was 18 with DaddyChef and one of my cousins – before she got married… That was a very long time ago… But Mr Stingy has never been, so we gave him the opportunity to go. ^_^ From here onwards it’s just pictures… Stop when you see some writing!

Mr Stingy and I wanted to take the cable car first… get the scary part out of the way… If I remember back a long time ago, I’m sure I had to climb some stairs… that was from the Aquarium end, but you don’t have to do that anymore! You’ll pass an old looking street for the entrance. You can take the Express Train if you’re scared of the cable cars.

The queue looked quite long! But in fact they moved quite quickly… I guess some people wanted to take the train…

It was finally our turn, and we were lucky to have our own cable car.

Time for the riiiiiiide….

LOL!! Mr Stingy got scared, and I kind of became scared for a tiny moment. MummyGeek was just enjoying herself! She asked Mr Stingy: “why are you afraid? You flew 10-11 hours on a plane, and that was high”. His answer: “I didn’t any views to look down”. Blimey!!

We arrived at one of the mountains… And ended up walking around… Mr Stingy also went on a ride to get himself soaked because it was again quite hot that day.

Time to go back dooooown. I don’t think we all wanted to take the cable car, so we took the express train!

Next stop. Giant Panda Adventure area!

But we had to eat first… Already lunch time… So quick! We went into the Panda Restaurant… Both MummyGeek and Mr Stingy ordered the same foods. We also go a free ice cream.

I had the spicy beef brisket noodles… I wanted the panda buns, but they weren’t ready by the time I got there… 😦

Total cost for my food was HK$194 (~£20.42)… ok that is frigging expensive. Advise you to bring a sandwich or something filling.

Had to wait for Mr Stingy and MummyGeek to go to the loo, so I waited and took pictures… Pandas! Here I come!

Uh. Why are these pandas sleeping?!!!!!

Even the red pandas were sleeping. ¬_¬”

Awww, it was great to look at them all sleep… but next time stay awake when I come again… :p

We were heading towards the Grand Aquarium and I saw there was another monkey/ panda section… So told MummyGeek to wait for us.

This was Mr Stingy’s happy moment when he saw these two Sichuan Golden Snub-nosed monkeys make out in front of us… It’s not often you see this…

The male monkey was like, whatcha looking at?!

The female monkey was probably like… We’re doing this for you guys! LOL!

Hahahah… They look innocent now. Naughty monkeys!

Mr Stingy just couldn’t stop laughing.

The Giant Aquarium is what it says, a very giant aquarium! Bigger than the London Aquarium? Maybe. Just want to point out, be wary of Chinese Mainland tourists, they might barge into you or squeeze in front of you to take some pictures… MummyGeek was saying it’s probably because they have limited time to stay then go to their next destination… But you know what, it’s only fair to be polite and say sorry excuse me. :p My British mannerism comes in. ¬_¬”

Phew… That felt stressful!

We actually had to sit down and cool off… ^_^

The fountain was moving to the rhythm of the music.

Time to say goodbye to Ocean Park and see them next time… There were many parts we hadn’t seen. But maybe next time!

We waited for a bus going back to Shatin but that would have taken a while to wait for, there was a guy also waiting for the same bus and tut his teeth when we moved to another bus stop. Uh. Why didn’t you look at the times as well. Idiot. Anyway we took a bus that headed into town… Unfortunately it stopped at Admiralty. So our final options were to take another bus which was more expensive, or take the Metro to Yau Ma Tei and take another bus from there to the hotel. We took the latter option…
Took a picture of thi poster advert. Pretty cute. You can’t see the writing in English but it reads: “It doesn’t matter if it is a black cat or white cat; as long as it manages debt well, it is a good cat.” LOL! A bank ad. =^.^=

It took us a while to find the bus stop from Yau Ma Tei, but we finally got back on the 81C and back to Shatin we went… Just to let you know, the nearest bus stop is opposite the fire station, but Mr Stingy decided to walk more. Poo.

MummyGeek paid for dinner whilst I went to buy a whole load of drinks! Roast duck and BBQ pork… plus an extra dish of Chinese leaves… all from BBQ King again!!

Hm. I’ve not tasted this flavour before. Dark Chocolate Waffle. Tasted like waffle but I think more chocolate than waffle.

End of Day 9… I promise not to add so many pictures in the next post… At least we all enjoyed ourselves – apart from the return to the hotel situation!