HK Trip 2012 - 20th to 22nd July - Part 2

21 July - Food, Shopping and more Food!

There is only one spot to have breakfast, Honolulu :-) I find it interesting that somethings so simple like macaroni and beef with a plate of egg and bun can be so satisfying. I wonder why it never takes off in Singapore ... Is it the culture or maybe the lack of specific ingredients? Hmmm might this be the next big thing in Singapore's food scene?

We had our fill and proceed to walk around the Wan Chai area. We like roaming the street market. Meimei used to live around the area and this was where the local get their grocery shopping done. As we near lunch time we hopped on a Ting-Ting to Sheung Wan. I'll never get bored of getting on one of these hehe. We are meeting 2nd Uncle and Aunty to have lunch at a famous claypot rice place.

 

Usually when 2nd Aunt recommends a place, you can't really go wrong. She is kind of a food connoisseur and pretty picky about food.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping at Mongkok, as usual. Dinner was at the hotel buffet restaurant. We were beat from all the walking and didn't feel like venturing it out. It's really hot and dry ... I'll feel deflated after just 20 steps ... this is a big cry from the lovely winter weather when we were here in 2010. It's been draining to walk about and am already surprised we covered so many places for shopping. 

22 Jul - Lazing Away the Day

Lots of shopping errands to be done. Meimei and office colleagues are into Longchamp bags and so we were at their Central outlet. I lost count of the number of bags we bought, I think there were like 5 to 6 of them? We were then at HMV to look out for DVDs. The prices are not terrifically better than in Singapore but you could find a few special imports from the US.

Lunch was at Yung Kee ... we don't miss the chance to have this. You can't get a proper roast goose in Singapore, period. And if this wasn't enough, we shopped a bit more in the afternoon and was back at the hotel close to 3pm. I had a flight to catch at 8pm so we decided to have high tea (yeah! one of my favourite meals) before I set off for the airport. 

I was supposed to get on a bus at 4pm but for some reason there was a delay. I found out why later at the airport, my flight was delayed too. There were typhoons all over China and the Cathay planes couldn't get to Hong Kong for the transit to Singapore. The airport was packed to the max when I arrived. I couldn't get food at the cafeteria as people were jostling for seats. Eventually I decided to use the food coupon they had gave out earlier at the counter and had a crap dinner at a noodle restaurant. I was supposed to fly off at 8pm but didn't get onto a plane till close to midnight.

I wished I could spend more time in Hong Kong. But Meimei is here to work and it didn't make sense of me to stay on to roam around alone. Plus I have to get back to work as well. A new job awaits me in the coming week. 

HK Trip 2012 - 20th to 22nd July - Part 1

Woot! We are in Hong Kong again! Meimei has to be here for a week or two so we are here earlier over the weekend. It's been a year and a half since I came here for Christmas ... how time flies. We would have come more often if it wasn't my work schedules. It's summer time though and the weather can be hotter and dryer than Singapore.

20 July - Arrival

We took half day leave and flew into Hong Kong in the evening. We are now staying at the Excelsior Hotel. Meimei was here the last time and it was a very convenient and comfortable hotel to stay, with MTR and shopping district right at the doorstep of the hotel. As always, the first itinerary is to make a trip to Grandma at the east Kowloon area. We brought a special gift this time, Durians! Apparently Grandma loves durians and so we had make a trip to get a box of our favourite Mao Shan Wang the night before. And the stall had unique vacuum pack versions for us to pack into our check-in luggage. It seems they have quite a few Chinese customers who would tabao the durians when they go home to China and they had 'perfected' the packaging to cater to that.

It's always warming to see the Grandma, uncles and aunties. Grandma loved the durians. You can't get these in Hong Kong, or so I've been told.

Durians! 2012

It's durian season and we've been on a binge recently. Meimei's colleague has a contact at the popular durian stall up at Upper Serangoon Road which specialises in the Mao Shan Wang variety. I love this breed, sweet with tingle of bitterness and all so creamy! We would literally drive down every time there was a deal. Even then it wasn't cheap but it was worth it. Typically we would spend $60-70 each trip. We must have made 2 trips a week recently haha. Well it's not going to last too long since the season can be short at about 2 months. So we are enjoying as much as we can on this wonderful King of Fruits.