Hong Kong Winter 2011 - Day 1

We arrived in Hong Kong around 6:00pm. After leaving the Arrival Hall, there was a row of transportation companies up ahead, you can't miss them... Ours is Vigor :)
Just go up to the counter, register then wait for the attendant to bring us to the bus departure halls, about 5-10mins walk...
Before that, we bought the extremely useful Airport Express Travel Pass at the MTR counter (Actually we tried to buy the pass via online using HSBC as there a discount. Unfortunately the transaction never got through, we asked the attendant about it and got to know there was a system error with HSBC. There were other tourists facing the same problem...)
Bus trip took about 45mins, and here we are :)
The room is modernly designed and is a lot smaller than the previous trip

And something interesting is the hotel calls... "the Magic Glass" :P
There's a switch next to the bed and another one just above the toilet to turn it on and off

Plus something useful, heated mirror :)
You don't have to wipe the mirror every time you take a shower:

We left our luggage in the room and went down for dinner. There's a steamboat shop nearby which we found using a very useful Hong Kong food website
The weather was actually colder than expected... perfect for something hot!
It's a small shop, all of the customers are locals:

Not sure what this is, seems like soya sauce with chilli, but taste better than that... maybe they cooked the soya sauce?

Fantastic mixed seafood balls (consists of prawn, squid, fish and pork balls)!

I always wonder why meat looks and tastes so much better than anywhere other than Malaysia :x
it's sliced pork, we ordered also fish ("wan yu"), vegetables ("tong ou") and udon noodles... forgot to take photos as we were busy enjoying the food :P
We ordered the clear soup, it come with a big chunk of toufu :) 

The dinner cost only HKD182!
Address: G/F, 130 Electric Road, Fortress Hill, North Point

We took a stroll after dinner and bumped across a dessert shop, pretty crowded so we reckoned that it's gonna be good :)

We ordered toufu far and black sesame, awesome :)

Special thing about the toufu far is it comes in a wooden bowl and you add sugar to taste, different from what we have back home...

HKD44 (HKD22 per bowl) for the dessert :)

OK... let's call it a night, Day 2 coming soon :)

Hong Kong Winter 2011 - Costing and planning

This is my second trip to beautiful Hong Kong! The 5D4N trip cost us about RM7k, inclusive some light shopping. This trip is more for "makan makan" or a relaxing one since the only thing that we did was walk around and look for great food to eat! :)

It's more like a 4D4N trip as we took a late morning flight and left also late in the morning on the last day. It's so much more relaxed and less tiring compared to the last trip :)

Word of advice, there's pretty much nothing useful to buy during winter time in Hong Kong... what they have is only winter clothes, lots and lots of winter clothes...

Anyway, it was a last minute decision, therefore we tried Cathay (previously we flew Airasia)... Most probably we won't be going back to Airasia unless there's no alternative :)
Below is the costing breakdown:

• Cathay Pacific return tickets (2pax) + airport-hotel coach transfer + 4 nights at the Empire Causeway Bay - RM4662 (We find the price rather reasonable considering the travelling period is between Christmas and New Year)
• Airport Express Travel Pass - HKD600 (HKD300/pax) (since our package includes airport transfer, next time we will try buying a normal Octopus card and reload instead because we didn't ride the Airport Express)
• Food - HKD2500 (HKD500/day)

We love the weather! Everyday its slightly less than 20°C, it gets colder at night... fantastic for steamboat, hot desserts, noodles, anything hot! you name it :)

Valentine's Day dinner at Magnificent Fish and Chips Bar (Changkat BB)

This is the first time we celebrated Valentines on the exact date, was a bit reluctant to try due to the bad comments from other couples saying horrendous traffic jams, long wait times, bad service and the list goes on...

Last night we had our dinner at the Magnificent Fish and Chips Bar located at Changkat Bukit Bintang which I booked a table almost 2 weeks back. Good luck finding parking by the road side. We parked at Radius International Hotel, came out to be RM6.50... pretty much the normal hotel parking rate, maybe this is slightly cheaper...

There were not many people when we arrived, though we were 20 mins ate, took me almost an hour plus from Shah Alam, with a few wrong turns... normal KL traffic flow as it was drizzling all the way.

One thing to note that there is no non-smoking section. The menu is written on a green board hung on the wall, place is quite dim though but not bad :)


 
Almost half the patrons are foreigners!


Waitresses were helpful with recommendations, service was quick, plates cleared from the table whenever we finish. We ordered:

1. Starters - Smoked salmon on toast (RM26)
2. Main - Grilled Salmon and Roast Black Cod (RM38 and RM48 respectively)
3. Drinks - Frozen Margarita and Cappuccino (RM20 and RM8 respectively)

The Smoked salmon on toast is something special, it was served on top of salad dressed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Every mouth there is a fantastic combination of balsamic vinegar, wasabi and olive oil! Recommended!

 Other tables already got their Fish and Chip where as we waited another 10-15 mins for ours to arrive. Portions are fairly small... most probably we were served just a quarter or at most half of the cutlet! For that price we could actually buy the them twice the size and cook at home!

Anyway, we started with the cod, surprisingly it was pretty good! The cod is served with potato cubes and cream sauce (like cabonara). The cod is juicy and the potatoes cubes were fried with onions, combined them with the cream sauce, fantastic!

The grilled salmon was served with some kind of vegetable, one should be cucumber or zucchini, can't really make out what was the other yellow coloured one, but it tasted a bit bitter. This dish was somewhat a let down... Salmon tasted dry, most probably over grilled due to the thickness of the cutlet, pretty normal we would say. Try at your own risk :P

The frozen Margarita was strawberry flavoured, no comments, it's a Margarita. The cappuccino was good, we are coffee lovers! Forgot to ask what coffee beans were used but we liked it :)

The bill come out to be RM140 + 10% service = RM154
It was a good experience, will be back in future to try their famous battered fish and chips!

Thanks for reading.

If you have a GPS, here are the coordinates:
N 03° 08.865
E 101° 42.433

Melaka Food - must visit places

It has really been awhile since i posted, felt like there is dust and cob webs everywhere... Anyway, if you happen to be in Melaka, here are my list of recommended "makan" places:

Jeta Grooves - Melaka Raya

This is by far the best (nyonya) cendol (cendol, red beans, santan, gula Melaka) \we have ever tasted! The difference is this shop uses real Gula Melaka (Melaka brown sugar) and very fresh santan (coconut milk). It comes in a very small bowl (only RM2). One is usually not enough for me, but I had to control due to my slightly higher than normal cholesterol level...

Some other food you can try here are the Mee Siam (RM3), tau kua (bean curd) and Durian Cendol (must try for durian lovers - RM3). Their Kuih (desserts) are very "nyonya", original :)

Do drop me a comment if you have any good recommendations, we will be more than happy to give it a try :)

Updates in the location:

Ming Sate Hut - Near Holiday Inn/Dataran Pahlawan
There are quite a number of satay stall/shops in Melaka, some famous ones are located in Jonker Street. Previously the one that we frequented most is located opposite a school, we are not sure about the name of the shop and which street its on, we only know how to go there :P
Anyway, my uncle recommended me this one which is easier to find, cleaner and it actually tasted better! This shop also sells good fresh fruit juices :)

Well... nothing is cheap is Melaka nowadays... but good food is priceless (to us at least) :)

Will posting more soon

Singapore trip Oct 2009

If you are driving to Singapore... the most confusing thing that was noticed (at least to me) is the parking coupon system... even the locals there are unclear of what kind of coupons to use... either they have a monthly pass or they stay in a private residence...

Some info of the signboards can be found here:
HDB info web: car park signboard

There are 3 main coupons that is used, the usual ones (SGD1.00 and SGD2.00) can be bought from 7-11 or any other convenience store.

The special SGD10.00 24 hour parking coupon can only be bought at HDB branches...