Saturday, January 15, 2011

Hong Kong Day 3 - First Lunch in Macau

Today, we headed to Macau by boat. After a light breakfast that V bought the night before, we checked out of the hotel (leaving our big suitcase there as we’d be back two days later), and took a taxi straight to the Ferry Terminal at Kowloon.

We thought we’d miss the boat as the next departure was in 15 minutes' time but the ferry ticket seller assured us that we would be able to make it in time. So we quickly cleared customs and walked quickly to the pier.

This was one of the few shots we were able to snap before we started to feel the effect of the sea...

Viv and I are ‘landlubbers’. We felt sea-sick during the first 15 mins of our hour-long boat trip because of the waves and heavy sea traffic. The bobbing of the boat caused our stomach to be in our throats and hearts in our stomachs. Thankfully, we didn't need this:

The ferry seats are allocated but as it was a weekday and lunch time, we could sit anywhere (as we found out when a group of HK men took our allocated seats).

When we arrived at Macau, the immigration queues were long! People were literally running towards the shortest queue! It took us over an hour to exit the Macau Ferry Terminal.

At the arrival hall, we found the hotel booth that we were going to stay during our trip - The Grand Emperor. Unfortunately, there was no one there so we decided to take a cab to the hotel ourselves. There were lots of taxi touts, so just be careful. Head straight to the official taxi queue instead. It took us only 10 mins to get to our hotel and the trip didn’t cost that much, maybe HKD20? (Yes they accept HKD in Macau; in fact we have never seen MOP other than lose change in coins).

As our non-smoking room was still not ready when we checked into the hotel at 2pm, we left our bags with the porter and made a beeline (via taxi) to the restaurant that Viv wanted to go (we had been there before and Viv loved the pigeon there). It was after 2pm when we started ordering our lunch - just missed the lunch crowd!


Hong Kong Day 2 - Lunch, Tea Break and Dinner!

The restaurant that V had always wanted to go for goose: Yung Kee 鏞記酒家

What we ordered *drool* heh heh heh: 金牌燒鵝 roasted goose (signature dish), 金牌叉燒 char siew (BBQ pork)& assorted seafood porridge / congee (best-ever!). We ate the 溏心皮蛋 century eggs before remembering to take pictures! We were out of luck, as the roasted suckling pig was sold out - and it was not yet 1.30pm!

After lunch *burp* we headed back to Mongkok to do some shopping. J was able to get his fix of ‘Gai Dan Jai’ 雞蛋仔, which was crispier (aka harder) than remembered. (At another location, two days later, J was able to get another one which was softer and sweeter and cost HKD 10 instead of HKD 15).

We also tried the Gong Cha 貢茶 there. Nothing to shout about but then again we just went for normal green tea with pearls, not their signature 奶蓋綠茶 (milk-foam covered green tea?!).

J went to meet with his friends for dinner at ‘Little Fat Sheep’ for a steamboat buffet.


V needed to rest that night (headache!) but got some breakfast (for the next day) and her own dinner.


池記 Chee Kee 雲吞面 wanton noodles - very yummy! V loves how they separately packed the soup and noodles for take-away. the noodles was QQ and no "gan shui" taste, and the wantons were meaty and fresh! V loves the soya bean curd as it's exceptionally smooth, but what she really misses was the "Red-white" dessert - soya bean curd on top of red bean soup. Sadly it has been taken off the menu *sigh*

V was glad she ate here that night, because our return visit on our last night was bad...

Hong Kong Day 2 - First Stop, Wan Chai

View from the room the following morning.

Entrance to Langham Place Hotel from Langham Shopping Centre.

As we went in search of breakfast on our second day, we saw a Hello Kitty exhibition held at the foyer of the Langham Shopping Centre.

We were there at 10am so there were few people around; we took the chance to take some photos.

This was a quite a cute display. Clap your hands and Hello Kitty will appear!

After taking several snaps of Hello Kitty, we settled for a quick breakfast at Cafe de Coral. (The eggs were a bit too runny for V.)

On our ‘To Do’ list in HK was a trip to Toy Street, so we headed for Wan Chai after breakfast.

Along the way, we saw a pink L'Occitane tram -- so sweet that we had to take a snap.

Here we are – Tai Yuen Street, where we spent less than an hour browsing the shops. (V found nothing she wanted). So we decided to head back to Central for goose!!!