Hong Kong 2012 - Chaper 4: Day 3 @ SOHO and The Peak

Day 3 in Hong Kong, everyone woke up bright and early to go for breakfast *scratch that* everyone woke up early except me O.o... We'd planned to meet in the lobby at 8am to head over to Central Hong Kong to have eggtarts for breakfast. I have no idea why but I actually forgot to set my alarm and woke up at 8.10am, rushed downstairs right after brushing my teeth and changing so please pardon my my haggard looks in the pics taken that day.. T_T

Doesn't this place look like someplace straight out of a TVB drama? :)

I forgot to adjust the white-balance on my camera that day, but I think this looked quite nice~

First thing we did was to wander around Soho looking for this shop called 泰昌饼家 or Tai Cheong Bakery which apparently sells very yummy eggtarts. Its a tiny shop located at Lyndhurst Terrace which has been open since 1954, according to the date emblazoned on the floor.

Me footing the bill for the first round of tarts to redeem myself for being late XD
HK$5= S$0.80 for 1 tart~

I miss you eggtarts!!!

My bribe to all of them.. hehehe..

we very spontaneously decided to just simply pop into a shop for breakfast: part 2.. haha..

my very very smooth and tasty fish congee, the bowl was so huge that I couldn't finish T_T what a waste..

literally fishy tasting 油条, I prefer our local ones more...

The difference between all dolled-up and just woke up, hahahha XD
This is where the Central Mid Levels Escalator is located by the way.. I was so happy to come here since I'd just seen the place being featured in the Hong Kong edition of (my current favourite show) Running Man :):):)

We only went up a few levels since its so super long and supposedly will take you 20 minutes to go all the way up, the steepness of the slope is quite scary.. one wrong step and you could find yourself rolling down the hill~

The very aesthetically pleasing former Central Police Station, but it looks a little like a haunted abandoned building if you look closely :S

We walked all the way from Soho to the Central Peak Tram Station to ride the funicular train that brings you up to Victoria Peak, I think we walked quite a distance but it was so cool that we didn't feel tired at all~ I wanna go again in January/February just for the weather.. Aaaaahhh...

Passed the very grand looking Government Office Main Wing

So cute, they have slope registration numbers and tree registration numbers, what next? grass patch registration numbers? :P

Finally reached the intersection leading to the Garden Road Central Peak Tram Station~

The slope was incredibly steep I think the angle was more than 45 degrees, so exciting!!! My only grouse was that it was too hazy/cloudy for us to see the scenery outside properly, and the tram ride ended quite quickly also, but all in all, it was a fun experience and I'm glad we didn't leave it out of out itinerary.. Skipped Madame Tussaud's and the viewing area though, since we wanted to save some money for shopping, heehee.. According to my colleague who went to both, we didn't miss much since it was too hazy to see much from the viewing platform, and we all know what's inside the wax museum already anyways :)

The hazy view from our hiding spot at the back of the Peak Galleria, nothing much to see.. nothing much in terms of shopping as well, although my colleague did get something from the Hard Rock outlet

Proof that I was at The Peak! It was really really cold and we all just ran helter skelter into the mall to hide from the cold after just a few seconds outside.. hahahha.. I guess the people who live there have adapted well to the weather since we saw many people walking their dogs or jogging around in shorts.. @.@



















This has got to be my favourite part of The Peak experience.. So many doggies everywhere!! All very nice doggies too~~~ :D:D:D:D

Oh yeah, we managed to fulfill our dream of meeting some celebrities while in Hong Kong as well.. As luck would have it, just as we were planning to head over to the tram station for our return ride, we spotted a whole mob of photographers flashing away so we quickly rushed over to have a look~ Turns out the fashion brand Moschino Cheap & Chic was having a spring/summer showcase at the Peak Lookout restaurant with real HK stars, whee~~~

Only posting pics of the 2 stars I recognised that day, Jennifer Tse Ting Ting (Nicholas Tse's sis) and Nicky Chow, Nicky Chow is so pretty!! The other people we saw which I found out later were models Amanda Strang and Janice Man.. funny how you can still be starstruck at any age.. even though we didn't really know who was there at first, we still tried our best to peer over the hedge, luckily I was tall enough, but you can still see part of the hedge in all our photos, hahaha.. my colleague who was shorter resorted to squatting down and making a hole in the hedge to see... lol..

Really have to give credit to these celebrity people, even though it was so cold, they had to come out in summery dresses and stand in the cold for interviews, you could practically see them shivering! We left before Ah Sa from Twins arrived, too bad.. but like I said it was cold so we didn't want to keep standing there!! *defensive*

The sky cleared a little on our way down the hill~

On our way back to the hotel from Mongkok station, we saw this very interesting street artist, he was using flour to write, his writing was so neat, I can't even write half as nice with normal pen and paper T_T

Ended up at the mall next to the hotel for lunch. We wanted to have dimsum but all the restaurants were jam-packed so we ended up having roast pork and goose at the food court. The roast goose was super yummy even coming from a food court. Wonder how the ones from those famous stalls taste like then O.o...

After lunch we went back to our rooms to rest a bit before meeting in the lobby at 4pm to go for our open-top bus and cruise down Victoria Harbour for the Symphony of Lights show, stay tuned.. Will post a short clip of the awesome lights show in my next post~

Hong Kong 2012 - Chapter 3: Dinner at Hu Tong Restaurant on Day 2

3 February 2012

O.M.G. I have dined at a Michelin-starred restaurant and never even realised it!! *hyperventilating* Only found out when I was researching the menu of the restaurant that we went to for dinner on the second day of my Hong Kong company trip - Hu Tong （胡同）Restaurant located on the 28th floor of 1 Peking Road.

Our boss found out about this place from the hotel concierge and we went there without realising that it was quite famous for its harbourfront view~

The very understated signboard downstairs (I realised that Hong Kong isn't very easy to navigate for people who don't know chinese/cantonese, so glad that I know both!)

Saw this on the way to the restaurant... wonder when we'll get customised number plates in Malaysia @.@

My first thought when we first stepped into the restaurant was that it was too dark and dimly lit, the overall lighting was more like the left and right sides of the picture above.. The decor was very nice by the way, since Hutong means alleyway in chinese, there were many antique-looking items all over the place, even in the toilets!

This was taken in the toilet by the way.. super eerie right? The toilet was dark as well and they were playing the upbeat version of 我等着你回来 (the song from the Hutong website, if you want to know what its like) which is an eerie song even on its own.. luckily I didnt go in alone!! The doors and tap were very special though, the doors had no actual lock but a small wooden bar to prevent the doors from opening like those you see in ancient buildings and the tap was a strip of bamboo with water coming out when you pushed on a small bamboo knob, we spent a long time in the toilet admiring the surroundings, hahaha...

The table settings, see the super thick spoon? The heaviest spoon I've seen so far..

Appetiser was edamame beans and some kind of pickled vegetable~

Chilli Spiced Bamboo Clams 圣旨到
This tasted quite good but was rather garlicky..

Crabmeat and Turnip Rolls 白云卷

Prawns Fried with Chilli Green Peppers 尖椒虾
This was super yummy!!

Me staring into space while my colleague was testing the lighting on her camera :D

Beef Tenderloin Wok Fried with Scallion 果木烧牛
This was yummy too!!

Spicy Minced Pork with String Beans 干煸四季豆

Hutong's Spicy Fried Rice 胡同米饭
This was too spicy for almost all of us, they fried the rice using chilli oil, felt like my tongue was on fire XD

Crispy De-boned Lamb Ribs 京城羊肉
This is apparently a very famous dish of theirs, but it was a bit too strong tasting for our liking, in the end we had to cajole each other to finish the dish!

Sauce and garnishing for the ribs, had to put a lot of sauce to mask the strong taste of the lamb

Chinese Pancake with Yam Filling 土饼

Double Treasure Box a.k.a. jellies and mango in glutinous rice wrap @.@

Vegetable and Mushroom Noodles 峨嵋素面

We kept ordering as there is a minimum spending of (i think) HKD400 per person and we just couldn't eat enough to reach the minimum.. In the end, my boss ordered a bottle of wine to go since we were stuffed to the brim and nobody could eat any more..

After dinner, some of my colleagues caught the shuttle bus back to the hotel while the rest of us took the MTR to Ladies Market to soak in the atmosphere~

Me in my Topshop jacket which I only bought the day before we left for HK, it was on sale for only SGD39!! what a steal.. Luckily I bought it.. Hong Kong at night during the end of January/ beginning of February is quite cold, loved the weather there!

The brightly lit and busy street at night~

Street performance~

Finally got to try 鸡蛋仔 after seeing people in HK dramas eating it all the time! Tastes like crispy waffle and I quite like it.. There are all sorts of fillings you can choose to put in it too, but I chose the original one... Got this from a stall that was selling all the standard HK street fare like curry fishballs and stinky tofu, wish I could have more curry fishballs, but don't come near me with stinky tofu, I can't stand the smell, so don't ask me to put it in my mouth :P

We walked around Ladies Market until the stalls closed at 11pm, there was so much interesting things to see, and all of us ended up buying lots of little trinkets even though we all said that we didn't have anything to buy when we started O.o...

(our boss even bought herself a fake branded bag.. Oooo, didn't expect her to be using fakes~) We wanted to take the MTR back to our hotel, but I think my boss couldn't stand the thought of experiencing public transport again, so we all took a taxi back, I don't remember how much it cost since my boss paid, so we just savoured the experience, muahaha...

Hong Kong money is so colourful :):):)

After the harrowing experience on day 1, day 2 was a very satisfying day, since I managed to do some shopping and eat some food that cannot be missed while in HK.. ended the day with a nice long bath and watching k-pop music on cable tv while enjoying my super lovely room.. aaaahhhh.... We'd made plans to visit Central Hong Kong the next day, so stay tuned for chapter 4~ :)