day 3: for the love of food

woke up to very bad weather, and it was nothing like macau's 5 minute rain miracles.

still, nothing was going to stop us from heading to the Michelin 1 star dim sum restaurant, TIM HO WAN!

arrived at 940 (opens at 10) but CHECK OUT THE QUEUE IN FRONT OF US... (this was after we obtained our queue numbers and having admitted 20+ pax)

what we ordered for 4 pax. pretty affordable, about S$15 each for the entire meal. (but - see below)

THEN THE FOOD WAS SERVED!

ma la cake, veggie dumplings, har gau

problem was.. the food came.. and came... AND CAME. forcing dim sum down your throat is no joke.

MORE FOOD!! (16 dishes on the table already)

HIGHLIGHT DISH - MUST TRY, even if you've just downed 5 longs of food

FRIED CHA SHAO BAO!!

the exterior reminds me of polo bun or roti boy, fried to a golden crisp.

then when you open up the inside, the piping hot char siew gravy OOZES out.. char siew itself tastes fab too.

simply the best I've tried.

quick shoutout to our adorable couple in the making..

it was still raining elephants and donkeys when we left the place so that was a fantastic excuse to go shopping! Langham Place (single storey H&M), Mongkok New Town Mall + Argyle Centre (bugis village style). got ps-ed by royston to squat outside some random stall in MKNTM.

loots for the day: two tops. hahaha. yeah I'm not an avid shopper really.

damn tired from all that walking, so we headed into a nearby 许留山 (a chain of 糖水 stores in HK, no SG equivalent I can think of) for dessert.

mango mixed platter, mango with black glutinous rice (tang yuan??), mango sago

more shopping (Queen's Road Central H&M) before we all decided our wallets were bleeding too much.

time for dinner - TWO michelin star restaurants in a day? who would have thought?

Yung Kee restaurant at 32-40 Wellington Street

restaurant exterior and award winning roast goose

their famous roast goose (a tad too salty after having too much) and honey glazed char siew..

total bill came up to about S$25 per pax for these, a tofu + veggie. kinda pricy but I think it was a memorable gastronomical experience.

to be honest, the visits to the two michelin star restaurants didn't exactly gel with my mental image of a michelin star restaurant. somehow I had expected them to v proudly display the award (yeah, I was thinking there'd be a real star logo somewhere) but there was none to be seen. almost didn't feel like I was really in an award winning restaurant. nevertheless, the food they served was truly quite good. will definitely be returning (at least for dim sum) next time I'm in HK.

somehow didn't have any memories between Yung Kee and being back in hostel (save for forcing royston to get off at Causeway Bay to visit his Burberry Black).. and HTHT at night. ample rest. I like!!

new discovery of the day: everything in HK is tiny, even their stamps!!

day 2: of egg tarts and shuffling around

day 1 ended with the three of us squeezing on one queen-sized bed, trying to force royston to take the other bed to maximise his $$ spent on venetian. but he was so bloody stubborn.

anyways I ended up sleeping in the middle (safe ground - or so I thought) but hell was I wrong. NEVER THOUGHT THAT I WILL STILL GET KICKED - ON BOTH SIDES - even when I was practically sleeping in a straight line, legs crossed together to allow both sides more space.

think something like:

worst part was waking up and realizing you're the only one awake at 5am. scrambled over to the empty bed. ahh. sweet liberation.

day 2 morning, we set off for phototaking in the famous Venetian shoppes river and gondola.

and not forgetting some fake/sensual touristy shots

but the highlight of the morning probably had to be the FOOD.

Lord Stow's Bakery portugese egg tarts - I LOVE!!!

and others..

Tai Lei Loi Kei pork chop buns we missed out earlier (imo, soso~)

金马轮 polo buns and pork chop buns. very authentic cha chan teng feel, complete with the cramped seats.

concluded that I'm not a fan of pork chop buns.

some games at the casino and several shuttle bus rides later, finally we were headed for HK!

(no photos, busy trying to catch more sleep)

dinner at 美心 maxims! kind of like our crystal jade, with western/chinese/bakery stores, but more affordable?

chef's recommendation - 蜜汁叉烧炒蛋

i generally like fried eggs so this was an okay~ meal.

next, exploring causeway bay (and getting tricked to walk to CK and Burberry Black!)

also spotted a life-sized (?), 3D promo campaign for HP7 part 2.

how cool is that?

other weird sightings: huge meiji meltykiss (approx 30x30cm), and a fujifilm BEAUTY shop (??)

called it a night after returning to hostel!

speaking of which, we were practically living the romance of 道明寺 and 杉菜: THE SIZE OF THE HOSTEL ROOM WAS EVEN SMALLER THAN THE TOILET IN VENETIAN!!

quick comparison:

vs

also, wifi reception was v poor so more often than not we found ourselves squatting in the hostel walkway tapping on wifi :(

and the phone that "couldnt" work.. turns out that we (vivien) was trying to dial our OWN room extension.

bimbo moment.

k la, at least it was cheap, rather clean, and in a pretty good location. no other complaints!

day 1: almost paradise~~

photos from the fabulous 7 day trip to macau+hk!

firstly, to introduce my travel buddies -

clockwise from left:

meisi, subject of most of our stirshit sessions, queen of 自拍

royston (aka royston burberry klein kin hao/everydayi'mshuffling), the one who does all the planning and map reading

vivien, who is damn good at researching all the must-try food places in hk/macau.

okay, first day upon arrival at HKIA we proceeded to macau via TurboJet ferry. checked in at the Venetian, film site of Boys Over Flowers. (I feel a real need to blast out the ALMOST PARADISE~~ song now.)

huge venetian room meant for two people. viv and i think it can fit 8 comfortably.

chiong off before 3pm to find the tai lei famous pork chop buns only to find that it was closed - AND THAT THERE WAS A BRANCH RIGHT IN VENETIAN ITSELF.

so we settled for the next best alternative(s).

bird nest tart/pork chop bun/sawdust pudding

anyhows, randomly chanced upon what i thought was 'the Venetian' but later turned out to be it's sister hotel, the Galaxy.

surprisingly good photo taken by the security guard there. nice angle!

then proceeded to ruins of st paul's, one of the few touristy sites in macau. it's erm. very 2D.

what else? being very singaporean, we started doing jump shots and made attempts at sensual shots

simply love this photo - very 巴厘岛的日子feel! hahaha

night scene from the ruins.

time for dinner! ate at this place supposedly good for it's noodles. mamatei la..

next up.. VIVA LA MACAU!! huat ah!

but alas, no mood for gambling tonight, hence more phototaking:

yet even more sensual shots and profile pic shooting process -

okayyy. maybe not.

one last shot for the night! venetian is so pretty really.

I'm glad I went for e乐大赏 concert. But I'm very, very disturbed that some korean group that I only heard of the second time today (shinee) was getting more applause and attention than 金曲歌王 EASON CHAN and imo potential 金曲歌王 YOGA! Can't believe people were leaving during their performances!

Is there some generation gap, or are people just losing their ability to appreciate good music?

(On hindsight, I forgive them. Was once mad about 5566 too. HAHA)