time for some updates before i get cramps on my legs. okay, so the thing is i just came back from the last-minute napfa test which was such a huge disappointment. after three holy years of freedom, luxury and comfort, i feel so comfortable walking around and munching down all sorts of food happily. but this very day blew off my hope for a shorter national service life. i should have jumped further and pulled harder - i failed at the freaking first station aka standing broad jump. =( i could jump as far as tarzan and jane back in secondary school and this time, it was a mere two over metres. shit this im going to have my last try next wednesday.
alright, i was away happily so enjoying in hong kong since last wednesday till sunday. morning blues were killing my sister and i. we shopped as if the stores are 7-11 till we had a baggage filled with just shopping items. summer is a damn good time to go hong kong where summer sale is almost everywhere. the best bargain? true blue 70 percent off clothings of local designer labels. i swear GSS (great singapore sale) is nothing compared to this man!
the trip started waking up early for flight to terminal three and the journey was sloooooooww... my moms friend came to fetch us from the airport despite the hot weather. cabbed from airport to hotel at kowloon island. this time, we had a change of hotel cos of the recommendation by my sister. hotel miramar (the hotel we always stay) has now become so chic and even had a name change to the mira hong kong. anyways, we didnt fuss much over the hotel as we are always out. after checking in, we went for tea at a traditional tea house called mido cafe at yau ma tei right below the dorsett seaview hotel. hahaha, super hard time to find and the damn guide is wrong! okay, i couldnt really remember the remaining places we went to cos it was just alot! walking, eating and shopping were the things we did la. but i think the place we went to was argyle centre where my sister searched for the girls stuffs. it was basically around mong kok area and temple street on the first day. dinner at maxim's cafe. guess there was abit of shopping again after dinner.
the next day was breakfast at canton road's famous dessert place (tang chao/tang dynasty) then shopping at our all-time favourite citygate outlet. super good place to search for branded, sports, casual, formal clothings at factory outlet prices! huge mall that stretches across the lantau island and theres food republic there where a plate of hainanese chicken rice costs 8 singapore dollars! but the portion of food items are huge la, can last singaporeans for two meals but because of the long walking distance along the streets and the mtr (train) stations, the food will be digested in no time. we had simple lunch at the hong kong's version of food republic. okay, then few hours of shopping at just one mall (ralph lauren, burberry, puma, adidas, nike, giordano, nautica, quiksilver and so on), we headed over to kowloon for the new mall - elements. very quiet like ifc mall probably because of the branded stores like versace, dunhill, dior and all. went to w hotel to look for my previous asst front office manager at mandarin. extremely cool hotel because of the whenever/whatever attitude. the huge 'W' which reflects different images through the computerised LED screen is innovative and stylish! they also offer free drinks of which, i was told by the staff its a must-try signature drink of W hotels. i didnt try though. haha, wasted. nothing much at elements and the h&m there sucks big time! shopping at the mall was nothing much either. thereafter we headed to central for dinner. the cafe was super crowded with tourists and locals! the portion, as mentioned, for hong kong and hong kongers are too much for singaporeans! =) before that, my sister and i went to buy their famous egg tarts almost near soho. damn far and we had to "risk" our lives because of the ever-horning taxis. after dinner (super busy cafe and you see the whole outlet filled and more coming in. its double-storey opposite famous yung kee restaurant, just away from lan kwai fong), we took the world's longest outdoor escalator up but did not take the entire from the bottom to the top all the way to mid-levels. along the way back to tsim sha tsui (tst), we went pass the central branch of h&m. tell you, this has got to be the best outlet of all in hong kong! haha, guess it was three levels in total and things can range from head to toe. the ladies' accessories can be as low as hkd19.90 man (approx sgd3.61) to around hkd35.50 or above! its damn good deal and its all from the new season! and of course, we had our own bags of shopping there. =) otherwise we would be there for nothing right? in between all these, we had xu liu shan (hui lau shan, healthy desserts which hong kong is famous for, a couple of times). if you love ice and fruits, this is the place to go!
third day started with dim sum breakfast at a maxim's restaurant facing the victoria harbour/hong kong island. as usual, it was as good as the previous time we went. during breakfast, we were deciding if we should actually travel to macao for half-day trip since we were already so near. but the boats/sampans/ships/ferries traveling across the harbour made me hesitate. in the end, we still went ahead with the macao plan. haha =D along the way, i wanted to check out the olympic piazza but it was already closed and left with the huge olympic rings. sadly, all i could see was the rings and the torch. oh yes, we bought tickets to macao and it was quite okay la. the jet ferry took an hour to reach. but we have decided not to go macao in future unless really necessary because there wasnt much to do! the tourist attractions were way out of the ferry terminal and the only resort was to take the shuttle to the casinos! hahaha we dont game but we went ahead still. there were like almost ten casinos-hotels-resorts counter and shuttle service to serve every arriving passengers. haha you can see mandarin oriental, mgm, wynn, the venetian, lisboa, galaxy starworld to sands, so many and you get confused! oh well, because of the attractions at the far other end of macao, i suggested to check out the world's largest casino - the venetian at cotai strip. in fact, cotai strip is sort of on the "other island" linked by quite a few bridges and the strip itself is still building up more casino resorts at a very scary number (sheraton, st regis, w hotel, marriott, ritz-carlton, four seasons, shangri-la, traders, hilton, conrad, fairmont, raffles, swissotel, galaxy and so many others). its all just about a street across or next to one another. its all along that strip and in order to get there from the ferry terminal, the shuttle service takes about 15 minutes. and as fairytale from outside as it is of the venetian, its like disneyland theme resort or the hokkaido chocolate factory. the venetian consists of over three thousand guest suites spreaded over four wings i guess? i saw main hotel lobby, hotel lobby west, east and so on. the interiors were renaissance-victorian style, all inspired like venice. very very grand, you feel like a royal member. theres a food-court selling different food such as hong kong, western, macao, singapore cuisine. then we went walking around the grande canal (shopping mall of the venetian) which is also linked to the shoppes at four seasons. we also checked out the mega casino. haha my maiden casino visit okay! i didnt manage to get to those casinos i went during my past trips in gold coast (conrad jupiters), kuala lumpur (genting) and seoul (sheraton grande walkerhill). the slot machines and the gaming tables, im totally amazed! i dont understand a single shit on how to play with those games and the simplest like the jackpot machines arent any easier either. we left after exploring quite awhile and got the taste of this super nice casino! hahaha its really really something you will get awed.
even though the macao trip wasnt something so nice (boring!) but the casino was definitely an eye-opener for me la. i mean i didnt expect myself in there watching those people play. haha, we went back to hong kong in another one hour ferry journey and it was tiring! dinner continued at the temple street for some good seafood feast followed by night shopping with my sister at granville. shopping doesnt stop after 2200hours, but 2300hours or later! you get really good deal at the summer sale there, seriously! haha, all thanks to our plan and maps. we have our own piece of harvest every day, really! silvercord mall is a good place to shop but even if its sale, its still so expensive! haha, y-3 was the worst la after deduction it was still around sgd400 plus. omg! hahaha, some other local designer labels too. so we went off after checking out most of the stores. if you are going to hk, check out a store d-mop and you can faint after seeing their prices! super super frightening, your bank/wallet will shrink and step back ten steps! hahahahahah. fred perry there is around the same as singapore though. oh yes, grandville is like the hong kong version of ximending. they have a whole stretch of stores (clothings, yes all) along the street and hidden in weird buildings. thats where we found our prey.
fourth day was breakfast at a mong kok porridge place (good for their pig's blood fish porridge, but i didnt take it). the doughstick and sesame dumplings are good too! went around the wet market in search of the fresh vegetables and then over to all-time favourite langham place for shopping. the shops there dont open as early as what we have here. its usually from 10plus to 11am. 13 levels of shopping ranging from toys, accessories, bags, clothings, souvenirs, food and too many to name. currently they have the zodiac machines where you throw in coins/notes which will be donated to worldvision charity. about two zodiac machines will be placed on each level and you select the fortune you wish to know for example, love, in general and so on. the zodiac machine will then flash colours and the colour that stops will be reflecting your luck. details on the colours are attached next to the machine for easy reference. very interesting! then we went to langham's h&m and its the better outlet compared to elements but not so to central's. again, we had our shopping bags from there. the jeans are less expensive than levis by alot! okay, it was a great shopping thing la. next was how can we leave without buying good and good-for-our-bank-account shoes? sneakers and sport shoes along this "sportshoes street" is the place where you get the latest designs from lacoste, puma, onitsuka tiger, nike, adidas, new balance and others at very good prices! though no bargains can be made but if you compare it with singapore, its so so much better in price! halfway through shopping for shoes, my mom got a call from her friend to meet for lunch as well as collecting some local products. so we met at times square for lunch at this chinois restaurant. not really very chinois, okay its zen. the abalone sauce with phoenix claws (chicken feet) is damn damn good! ive never dared to try out chicken feet but this is the one that made me try it. its the fragrance and tasty sauce used to cook the abalone that attracts hence the good taste. plates and plates of dim sum really filled us up. though its located at high-end mall but this outlet doesnt bill you the tea (different varieties) and the taxes (10%) so its really worth it! the dishes are well presented and highly recommended!
after lunch we went to the bazaar sale at level 13 where they slash prices of really branded labels like chloe, juicy, stuart weitzman and so on. but the juicy flip-flops were too "lian" to accept. hahaha... we didnt get anything from there cos after the discounts, an item on average can still remain at sgd300 plus and above. we continued abit at gucci where its infested with mainlanders, lane crawford and juicy couture. juicy has its own version of monopoly which is interesting and cute, for girls especially and a set of writing materials in baby pink or pink which is about sgd 100 i think. hahaha not exaggerating but its true! then we checked out the first agnes b deli which serves cakes, pastries, chocolates and the usual drinks. pretty much like normal cafe but its agnes b so its cool. haha, i couldnt takeaway the cakes due to the hot weather and that we wouldnt be returning to the hotel any time soon, so too bad for me la. =( out of times square, we went to sogo and some other streets where they have a store that imports authentic abercrombie, hollister stuffs (from flipflops, bags to clothings) but its damn expensive. a tee for men is around sgd90, so too bad also because initially i was thinking if i can "sup" some home rather than getting it shipped home which in the end is cheaper but bo hua also. i have alot of "thens" in this entry because in one day, we went round and round non stop la. its just "mai dong xi, chi dong xi, mai dong xi, chi dong xi" (buy things, eat things, buy things, eat things - hktb (hong kong tourism board) ad many years ago). then we managed to find this jardine street which is much like bugis village but narrower. hahah, we didnt go la cos it seemed like a sauna inside. anyways, we found another store where you can get stuffs from the retro era, beatles and u.s. universities' clothings (harvard, michigan).
we returned to the hotel after that and took some rest. dinner was at harbour city's c!tysuper food place. very crowded place as well. not much shopping there also except walking around my favourite supermarket, c!tysuper. my parents went back to rest while my sister and i did out last night of shopping at a couple of places. and it was, again, because of the huge poster outside this store that wrote up to 90 percent off, we went in and got trapped. hahaha, it was the first day of their sale at this outlet and therefore, the items were available in sizes. not just us, even the locals were running their hands through those moutains of clothings. shoes on display were everywhere on the floor and all the sales people could do was to welcome and greet because arranging them in order is useless. hahaa, its chaotic and hong kongers are damn good in flipping pieces after pieces of clothings on the rack. its like the formula one! hahaha...
so the night ended with my sister and i crying for help - legs overworked from walking long distances, up and down slopes, stairs in commercial buildings, in and out of stores. we settled at mcdonalds without ordering anything, just seeking a place for a short rest. haha were so afraid that eyes will start darting at us but thank god it didnt happen. our shopping ends at 2300 plus every night, so you can see how much we have walked, shopped and bought. =) *applause please*
our last day was breakfast at a cafe nearby mong kok which was damn far from the mtr station! we took cab to langham place and had to walk quite a distance we almost gave up. but the food didnt disappoint us! it was really good and its an award-winning cafe okay! went to buy mooncakes from the famous maxim restaurant. oh yes, i forgot there was a wet market before all that. the veges are very very green. my parents headed back to the hotel to pack the stuffs while my sister and i went all the way back to central to get the famous egg tarts. as it was near lan kwai fong where many steep slopes are around and require a good pair of legs la. haha, we went to the comme des garcons store. the shop didnt seem open due to the weird exterior. its covered with wooden carts from inside, looking as if its still under renovation. anyways, i shall show the photo here in the next entry. its four levels high with the last level as an art gallery sort of thing, in white all over with mannequins dressed in black dresses. kinda freaky, oh well. the things there are overly priced la to be honest. haha i really like the heart with the pair of evil eyes but i cant bear to lay my hands on it. i gave up there and went off with my sis. we headed back to tst to get my mooncakes from the peninsula. to no avail, they ran out of stock and left with the huge assorted boxes costing over sgd100 each. so we had our last resort which was at the airport. we headed back to watsons and to the hotel for pack up and also check out.
rested for quite awhile cos we extended our check-out times for both rooms. hahaha, yes ive practised the demands of a hotel guest. anyways, we were punctual and waited for the booked cab by my moms friend to pick us up. the bell boys at the hotel were very friendly la, they spoke to our parents when my sis and i were walking around the hotel's shopping arcade. the journey to the airport was so fast! memories started to flow and to think, time just passes so quickly. so dinner at the airports maxims cafe, ran for my mooncakes and my sister went to the disney store. the flight back was really fast, i wonder why. so much faster than when we were heading to hong kong.
alright, i guess this entry is long enough to keep you for a few minutes and i shall update again soon before i enlist next friday. i may have missed out some, but if i do remember, i will update soon!
p.s.: mainlanders are super duper rich! they go to lv and gucci stores like they own the whole place. they take the bags from the displays freely and out of the store, they have at least one to two big bags. oh my, they are so so rich! but... *************************************** (this shall be kept to myself) =D
