Monday, February 28, 2011

5D4N F&E HongKong - May 1 - 5 2010

Day 2

Good morning! Greeted by a nice view of the neighbourhood.


Headed to Fa Yuen Street @ Prince Edward MTR.

One down side to Stanford is that, it is located a tad far away from Mongkok MTR station (about 10 mins). But to me its not a problem, because there is just SO MANY things for you to see along the way. heh.
on our way to Mongkok MTR.

Along the way from Prince Edward station to Fa Yuan street, we pop into this 茶餐厅 name 洞天. signify its 别有洞天? hmm..

豉油炒面. 4.5/5. i love this kinda fried noodles. dry & springy. but the portion was way too big for me to finish by my own . 33 HKD

红烧豆腐rice i think.. HKD 34.

Ice lemon tea & milk tea. 4.5/5

Total bill comes up to HKD 70.

Some tips for you when you eat in HK:

1) Take note of their lunch timing. It is most expensive to visit some eateries between 11am & 2 pm and the price difference can be up to 10HKD per dish. We happened to be there between that timing, otherwise my fried noodles cost only 23HKD.

2) The cups/glasses of plain water/tea they serve you are meant for you to WASH YOUR UTENSILS, not for drinking! if you need plain water, ask if they serve. because i am not sure if those are tap water, but i see locals dipping their utensils into the glass while waiting for good to be served.

3) All of the milk tea (as far as i have tried) requires you to add in your own sugar for sweetness.


Feeling satisfied, we walked out of the cafe & headed to our destination. again, we were distracted by this long queue outside this bakery. and trust me, the smell of the bread or whatever that was baking in the oven was out of this world. and so we decided to check it out.

its a traditional bakery selling fresh from oven Milk bun & egg tarts!

freshly baked!

up till today we regretted that both of us just shared 1 egg tart cos we were too full. don have pics of the milk bun but it as awesomeeeeeeeee...... 5/5 BOTH MUST TRY.

now feeling bloated, we finally got our ass to the Fa Yuen street! which was honestly, so much more boring than before?? sigh. roamed around for awhile and decided to head to Tsim Sha Tsui to do something very important!

We kinda got lost trying to look for Prince Edward station and ended up at Mongkok East Station and change to TST Station.
Next destination: Silver Cord Centre 新港中心.
It was located amidst the luxury stores like chanel & dior. but of cos i wasnt there to look for those.
As a die hard Mayday fan, i was there to visit StayReal's store!
tadah! if u don like Mayday which i dont understand WHY u will not like them, perhaps u wanna check out STAGE ? (Show Lo's shop). And if that dont interest you, there is always H&M on Level 1! hahaha. which i didnt check out this time round.

After a round of shopping at Silvercord. We took a leisure stroll towards the harbour. In any case, this Silvercord centre is located very near Habour City, something like our Paragon, & the TST Ferry Terminal where u can catch the Star Ferry!

Took us about 10 mins to reach the pier and we had our first 许留山 drink - Mango Jelly with Mango chunks.


4.5/5. A tad too sweet. but a sweet treat from all e walking.

Tiffany glass house.
Atas looking place near the habour.

Managed to catch the sunset when we were by the bay! aww so romantic!

We then took the star ferry to Central. Cant remember the cost, but i think its less than 10HKD, payable by Octopus card. the trip took about 15 - 20 mins. it was smooth and not bumpy. a v good way to catch the beautiful sights.




Side track abit, the famous 泰昌餅家 has an outlet at TST Ferry Terminal, take the stairs to access to Upper deck and you will be able to see it. It was closed though, when i was there, so no egg tarts for me. :(*

It was quite a bit of walk from Central MTR to the Peak Tram terminus. It is important to know the exact exit, we walked for almost half an hour, and with the down and upslopes, its really not funny. Just ask if unsure. :)

The queue to the tram was MAD. perhaps it was on a Sunday evening. We queued for almost an hour, altho it was about 20 degrees, he sweat like mad. so please! dont go on weekends or PH, its madness.


Another alternative way is to buy the package of Sky Terrace + Tram Ride + Madame Tussaud so that u can go to the express queue. Access to Sky Terrace alone is 20HKD, payable by Octopus card.

The view at the Sky Terrace was magnificent! And it was so cooling we just sat on one of the bench and talk while watching people taking pics of the beautiful night scene of HK. This is a MUST DO if this is the first time to HK, u can skip the musuem if you want. hahahaha.

We went to the Pacific Coffee for a drink before we head to our next stop. Over at the cafe, we can get a good view too! And theres free usage of PC which we made full use of to get to our next destination, Lan Kwai Fong.

From past experience, the queue to take tram down is crazy too. so we decided to take a Mini bus, which happens to be my fav transport in HK. You can take the bus from the Bus terminus near the Peak Galleria, but not situated at the main area of Victoria Peak. :) There will be signs once you exit the Victoria Peak.



Take Bus No. 1 and alight at Pedder Street.

Bus journey took about 15 mins.


cant miss the brightly lit Coach.

@ Lan Kwai Fong. Equivalent to our clarke quay or boat quay. lotsa pubs and clubs. :)

Hungry! If you noticed, this is like 2nd meal of the day. :( So we chose to eat at this place call, 翠华. This is also recommended by my HK colleague. Like 香港仔鱼蛋粉, where we had our dinner on Day 1, 翠华 serves very decent HK style food as a chain cafe.



They listed down the Top 10 recommended food in the cafe. Order according to that and you wont go wrong. :)


Swiss Chicken Wing. 3/5. not so good for me, cos i prefer fried chix wings. But this is nice and fragrant, soaked in Soya sauce but not too salty.

you just cant find this kinda milk tea in sg. he doesnt like it cos of the idea of having to add own sugar (hes a big fan of teh). but i love this cos, its sooooo smooth and fragrant! almost orgasmic! 4.5/5


生面. aka Crsipsy noodles with gravy. Must try! Portion wasnt too big, noodles are really crispy n served with loads of crunchy beansprouts~not oily. 4/5


猪排包. Pork cutlet bun with lettuce & mayo. the bread was too thick, had a hard time biting it. but the pork cutlet was AWESOME. 4/5.

Good thing about this place situating in LWF is that, it opens till late. i am not sure if its opened 24 hours tho, but after clubbing at 4 am, it was still open & still crowded. =D





If u are a big fan or wish to try roast goose,慵记 is located directly opposit of 翠华. I have heard that they serve decent roast goose & apparently very famous. But when we were there it was already close. It was about 9+ pm. I tried it during my recent trip there, i think it is nice, but way over priced.




Personally, i prefer 一乐 roasted stuff most. I will share more on Day 3 itinerary.




We read on Jetstar magazine that this pub called Stormies is a hotspot. But when we pass by there was hardly any people inside. So we picked Zinc instead, it seems decent & was playing clubbing music. need clubbing music!

We ordered one drink each, one bulmers cider & 1 flirtini. 75HKD each, no service charge.


Hang around for awhile and decided to head back. Its been a long day. Just as we were contemplating if we shd take a cab back, we were lucky to be touted by this mini bus driver as we were talking down the street.


"Mongkok! Mongkok!" he shouted. so we waved to him and he led us to this queue of buses. how lucky! the ride only costs us HKD 6 each, would be easily 80HKD if we take cab!


Put a really nice ending to Day 2 :)

P/s: Unlike sg cab, that can only accomodate max, 4 pax (i m talking abt legally), look out for cabs that can fetch 5 pax. There will be a small round size in front of the car that states '4' or '5'. So if there are 5 of u travelling, no need to split cab!

5D4N F&E HongKong - May 1 - 5 2010

Bento goes to HongKong! DAY 1

This was our first trip to Hongkong together! In fact, it was OUR first trip together. lol.

I myself have been to Hongkong twice, once was when i was at a very young age, the last time i simply went with the wrong people. So, i didn't expect alot from this impromptu trip (we booked the tickets and accomodation 1.5 weeks before we depart) and neither was I prepared to the awesome fun that was awaiting for me in Hongkong.

It was a very memorable and meaningful trip to both of us, but that's for us to know. heh :P

My first experience with Tiger Airways was a good one, nothing very different from Jetstar. Budget terminal was small but clean, at least you don have to walk for super long just to get to your departure gate (Jetstar's departure gate is always rightttt at the end).

Our flight was at 1605, i know thats like late afternoon but no choice in order to go budget. Arrived at Hong Kong Airport almost 4 hours later.

Decided to take a Airport Bus A21 to our hotel, Stanford Hotel in Soy Street, Mongkok. This mode of transport cost only HKD 33 compared to HKD 100 for the MTR. As we have little baggage, taking a public bus was no issue at all. If you have more than 3 person, you may want to opt for cab or book a private limo, which was what i did the last time i went in group of 5 pax, total it costs around SGD 60 one way.

Anyway, the bus terminal is located on the right side after you exit from the arrival hall.

According to the map i found, we were supposed to alight at the 8th stop from the terminus. But as the bus doesn’t stop at all station, so in the end we overshot by one bus stop, which is no joke because in HK, on a straight road, the bus will only stop at certain bus stops, so it took us about another 20 mins or so to walk back to the correct area.

So if you are staying along Soy street, it is best is to look out for Sino centre, 信和中心. Get ready to alight once u see Metropark HK. The entire journey took us about 30 - 40 mins, excluding the part where we got lost.

So i was saying, we stayed in Stanford Hotel for 4 nights, which was located on Soy Street 豉油街. It is an awesome hotel recommended by fellow flowerpodders. Its a 3 star hotel located in buzzling Mongkok, but the best thing of all it, it is not noisy at all, cos its tucked at this small corner. On average, it cost us abt 900 HKD per night, BUT, we went there during peak season where there were some conference going on. usually it cost abt 600 - 800 HKD, so really quite affordable.


Theres a view! Tea making facilities and complimentary bottled water

Twin bed, which we joined together. =P
Theres alot of late night eateries around and its a 3 mins walk to Ladies Street 女人街, provided u are not distracted along the way. Alot of shopping places around, all in walking distance. Hotel also provide free Wifi, but you gotta call them to ask for password. Sheets are clean, toilets are clean, basic amenities like towel, comb, dryer are provided for. Generally, hotels in HK are small, but to me, this is big enuff, space for me to leave my luggage lying around.

OK! Enuff on the hotel reviews! Food pics coming up!


Famished after we checked into the hotel at 9. We freshened up and ready to check out buzzling Ladies street on a weekend.

There was this tea stall along the way. Called Comebuy, and they sell really nice Yakult Green Tea. Tried every Yakult green tea in singapore, honestly, only Happy Lemon's version come close.



Yakult Green Tea with Mini Pearls. 4.5/5

but if you prefer something more local, 许留山 is just next door.
some random stalls. theres alot of such stalls around. most are good, with exception of some.
my favourite curry fishball! bouncy! 4.5/5

Sotong Fritters. 2.5/5 Nothing fantastic

Lucky dessert shop. 4.5/5. More on this on Day 5.

Fancy looking softee mobile.

After shopping for awhile, we decided to go have some decent 'dinner'. Of all the places around, we decided to pick this place called - 香港仔鱼蛋粉. what a mistake.

honestly, dunno issit because we ordered the non-specialty, but the food was simple ok-ok. didnt give us a warm welcome to HK! :( later we found out that this is a franchise eating place.

Coke with lemon in old school glass bottle

clean eating place

Had craving for Taiwanese style braised pork rice so i ordered this. Serve me right for doing stupid things. 2.5/5

+ wanton noodle for him. 3/5

didnt know 油条 is called fried baguettes. lol.

After the not so appetitising dinner we decided to head back to hotel to rest for long day tomorrow. It was about 2am anyway.
To add on, most of the street vendors at night market packs to go home at ard 11+ 12 on weekends, slightly earlier on weekdays. As for eateries, most operates till 3 4 am, so in Hongkong, especially Mongkok, u dont need to worry about going hungry.
7-11 is every where too, literally.