Our upcoming trip to Japan

It was scheduled to happen between 15 - 24 April (9D8N). Spending 3 nights in Osaka, 5 nights in Tokyo.

We wanted to travel on Dec 2010 and spend my birthday/christmas in Japan. But it was pushed back due to limited resources after our 2nd HK trip in 6 months.

Finally managed to book air ticket & accomodation early this year. Been working on the perfect travel itinerary since. He took charge of Tokyo & Osaka, and me, just Kyoto.

Its so unfortunate that this catastrophe have to hit Japan. I am not saying this because it have affected my wonderful holiday. I am saying this because of the deaths and damages brought by this Black Monster. Real footages of the disaster on Facebook and news everyday is so painful to watch & heartbreaking.

Right now, in the midst of all uncertainties after the devastating earthquake, we are not 100% sure if we will be gg ahead as planned, but we both agreed to keep our fingers crossed & hang on till the last minute, unless things are not getting brighter. but so far, things seems to be recovering well.

Right now, the main concern for me is food. those great food places we have been so looking forward to. There are reports about cafes and restaurants now only serving food that are easy to make due to limited food supplies.

Will we still get to eat fresh sushi? curry katsu? ramen?

These aside, how about the places we intend to visit? are they closed? or will these places close early to save on electricity etc?

All these concerns derived from news reports & rumours spreading on social media platforms. We certainly hope that things are not as bad as we perceived, although we are already very positive abt our trip. Now we can only pray that everything gets better in 3 weeks time.

Also, it may also be a rather sensitive period for tourists to visit Japan. Not sure if we will be welcome since everyone is down in the dump but we are going there for merry making. :/

ahhh, dilemma dilemma.

it may sounds juvenile, but we do hope that everyone can go ahead as planned (given that there is no life danger) & contribute to Japan's tourism? Pretty sure if everyone starts to avoid this country, it will be harder for them to stand back up after the crisis.

My heart goes out to everyone affected.

Will update here again when things are brighter! I m sure tomorrow will be better for everyone!

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

Bento goes to HongKong! DAY 3

After drinks at LKF the night before, we went back to the hotel & had some beer. end up staying up till 6 am!

Behind schedule, we woke up near noon, got ready real fast and headed out.

Grabbed some snacks at the stall opposite Comebuy drinks stall.

Beef mix + braised duck breast. 4/5. Its awesome, but not for those who cant take organs. its abit mushy. can try the duck breast tho. HKD 20~ for this.

鸡蛋仔 . Hit & miss. i have tasted better ones during my first trip. perhaps cos its not freshly made. freshly made ones are crunchy and fragrant. do take note! HKD 8.

Tired. so didnt take much pics when we make our way to Shenzhen..

but before we head for the shopping trip, he insist that we stop by this place for roast goose. He saw the introduction of this place on Youtube and he swear he will have to make a trip there.

I was quite dubious and didnt know what to expect. never had roast goose before. and this place is located at somewhat ulu Taipo Market (大埔墟). like far eh? wonder if its worth the visit.

It is somewhat like our Bedok - residential area.

We departed from Mongkok, to Taipo for lunch then to Lowu, which is the custom to enter Shenzhen.

If u are having a day trip to Shenzhen, you may want to check out this place since its along the way. i guarantee its worth the stopover!

It can be quite a challenge to get to this place, took us about 10 mins walk to get to the area, and another 5 mins or so looking for the restaurant.

Turn right once u exit from the station, just follow the people and keep walking. you will see a Taipo Market which is a double storey building on ur left, but that is NOT the market that we are talking about. Continue walking straight. Then u will see this place which looks like a market. That will be it :)


NOT THIS

i supposed durian in hk is rare. let alone HUGE ones.

fruit stall.

tadah! this is the place which i highly recommend!! its called 一乐烧鹅皇 . u can see how happy he looks even with only his eyes showing.


tea served are meant for washing ur utensils.

Lemon Pomelo Tea.柠檬柚子茶. Refreshing and not too sweet. Perfect! 4.5/5


just looking at the pic makes me drool. slurps. this is a quarter goose. succulent but not too oily. tender meat. its orgasmic! 5/5.

Roast pork rice. Dont bother. i rather u order a larger portion of the goose or pigeon. 3/5. HKD 42

Roast pigeon! The skin is well fried and crispy. A bit dry for my liking. i prefer goose, but he prefer pigeon. Both's nice, try both. HKD 45 for one whole pigeon.

He. eats. the. head. try if u dare. its really crispy. i dont.

It was nearly 4 when we are done with our lunch. so late to start our "day trip" to Shenzhen. lol.

Didnt take us too long to arrive at Lowu station.

Just like my first time to Shenzhen, he got abit antsy abt the safety. not an issue to me, in fact i think it "feels" safer than gg to JB. Just mind ur own business, keep ur belongings close to you & ya, its safe. :)

It is also very easy to get to ShenZhen. We cleared the custom within half an hour. there will be clear signs in both English & Mandarin, and there is no way u can get lost.

Do remember to fill up the immigration forms before u queue at the counters, otherwise, u will be wasting time cos without the immigration form they wouldnt let u thru. What u can do is to take the form and fill it while u are queuing up, took less than 3 mins to fill mine. :)

Once you clear the customs, u will arrive at the commercial centre. There, u can find this 5/ 6 storey building high selling almost everything that you want & need. u can easily spend 2 3 hours there, no issues.

But for me, i usually like to venture out further.

We will take their local MRT, to this station called,老街. 2 stops from Lowu, RMB 4 one way.

I find that it is a better place to shop simply because it is not so touristy so the things will be cheaper. :)

Their trains are super clean. i find it even cleaner than HK & SG. Prob because locals usually drive or ride bicycle. =D

Over at 老街, there are tons of shops & malls for u to shop. u can easily spend the entire day there!

one of the shopping place.

Tips to shop in Shenzhen:

1. Always, always bargain. Slashed 30 - 50% of the price straight away. If they are not willing to relent, walk away. You can always find the thing somewhere else. But make sure u really like the item before u bargain, otherwise, don waste their time. they will scold u if they are having a bad day! But the pple there are generally nice and friendly.

2. Vendors are less keen to take HKD nowadays. (they use RMB in Shenzhen). And even if they do, they will quote a high exchange rate which will not be beneficial to us and give us change in RMB. So, do change some RMB, and only use HKD when $$ not enuff.

3. Do check your loots before u leave. Sometimes u may be overwhelmed by getting a good deal that u may not notice the defects on the goods.

4. Most of the shops closes at 10pm & the last train departing back to HK leaves at 12 am. But i advise not to shop till very last minute, in case anything crops up at custom causing u not able to head back to HK. Buffer about 1 hour at night since alot of people will be heading back to HK as well.

**

Headed back to hotel straight after a few hours of shopping. tired. lol.

lets share our loots!

my most prized buy! luggage with moomoo prints! ~40SGD. hehehe

20SGD~
30+ SGD~

After unpacking, our stomach started protesting and then we realised we were so obssessed with shopping that we have not taken dinner!

Walking down the street to find food in 18 degrees night is shiokness.

Came back with the these! (Cant remember the exact place we got these, cos we walked aimlessly, there are just too many late night eateries in Mongkok)

Beef ball noodles soup. 4/5. Bouncy meatball! 10HKD only!!!

Yummy grilled jumbo beef ball! 4/5.
Huge veggie dumpling. not too bad. 3/5

They say, we should never go to bed hungry. i agree, especially when we are in a land where theres SO MUCH good food.

its a sin if we don go to slp, full.

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!