HK

Heyo.. We're finally back in sg. ;D Our trip was a fruitful one, as evident by the bulging bags we brought back. Hehe. The bellhop as the hotel, as well as the taxi driver who brought us to the airport, thought us pretty hilarious to be travelling alone, and with such huge bags. I overheard them talking to each other in cantonese. Despite not understanding the words they used, I could tell from their way of speech that they were laughing at us.. Ahwell.

The plane ride was pretty uneventful, but we were raring to go, and therefore the 3hr40min ride felt like a really looong time... Upon reaching macau int airport, we hurriedly boarded a cab, and asked the driver to take us to the ferry terminal. Luckily, the driver clarified with us which ferry terminal it was we wanted to go to. If not...... we might have wasted time being sent somewhere else.

Here's a pic of the ferry we took from macau to hk. It was so spacious that I could stuff my huge bag in the leg room and still had lots of space for my legs. :D The one we made our return journey on was bad though. Squeezy and noisy, like a market early in the morning.

Our first stop upon reaching tsim tsa tsui was a pit stop at tang2 chao3 (sweets dynasty) to refuel. Last I was there, they had really delicious double boiled egg white with milk.. Unfortunately though, it was taken off the menu.. Here's a pic of tang2 chao2.. There's loads of ppl enjoying their desserts.. I like the atmosphere there, even though the standard of the desserts has dropped. It bustles with activity, at all times of the day. Despite the name, tang2 chao2 doesn't only serve desserts. They do pretty good meals too.And this is my mango dessert.. It has sago in mango juices, with mango chunks and pomelo as toppings.. ;)

This is mar's mango pudding in a lovely heart shape. We almost forgot to take photographs as the food looked so inviting.

After that, we made our way to ramada hotel on foot, with the help of our trusty map kindly supplied by mar's uncle.. :) Our room's nice. It's on the 18th floor, and comes with a view, albeit one of hk's not-too-pretty skyline. I still wonder why they were so nice to give us a room on the highest floor. The only drawback is that the lifts end on the 17th floor, and we had to climb up a flight of stairs to get to our room, but in any case, how could a lil bit of exercise be bad for us? ;) After doing a lil bit of unpacking, we went meandering down granville road (the road next to our hotel) and found lots of lovely clothes, shoes n bags shops. It's like a road full of shops like those n far east plaza, but mostly at approx half the price and with uncommon apparel.. =) sounds good, doesn't it? We were on a roll peering in all(almost) the shops, exclaming over delightful items.. As we proceeded down nathan road, our stomachs started to rumble.. We started keeping an eye out for a small cosy restaurant with good food and reasonable prices, and found one in the str next to temple str. The food was good and abundant, for a mere S$8 each. :) We ate our fill and proceeded to check out the deals at temple str night market. We found pretty good gifts, as well as a few bags for ourselves.. ;D They're totally unique. I love 'em. We decided to not be lazy and take the mtr.. To reward ourselves for our diligence, we went to xu liu shan for mango dessert before trudging back to the hotel.. I ate sth that's almost identical to what I had at tang2 chao2, other than an additional scope of home-made mango ice cream. :) Mar had sth similar, but with tiny dumplings too.. We walked back, tired but happy..

The next morning, I woke up at 3.30am cuz it was FREEZING. brr. And I thought it's summer. Adjusted the temperature to the hottest, thereby changing the air-con to a heater. Heh. Got up again at 7 though, and couldn't fall asleep again. Mar and I changed and went to scout out the church her uncle wants her to go to.. We didn't see any opened restuarants on the way there and had to wander ard all the way to a short str off haiphong rd. There we found a macau cafe which has been opened since 6.30am.

Here's a hungry me eating my pork chop bun with scrambled eggs. It's not a bad deal. Approx S$4 for a meal with a drink.. I got the yuan1 yang1 every single time. =) It's like milk tea with coffee, and taste really good. I love the pretty tin cups they come in (pictures later).

We went on to wander around harbour city and china ferry terminal as it wasn't time for service yet.. Harbour city is this really posh shopping centre with all the luxury brands.. Walking around there before the shops are opened was pretty fun as we could point and scrutinise the bags/shoes/clothes in the display for as long as we wanted to. :) We proceeded on to china ferry terminal as mar was keen on xu liu shan. Alas, it was not opened yet. We chanced upon this tiny shop selling genuine leather bags on 70% discount!! Mar and I bought a nice bag each. Mine's a dark blue hobo while mar's a mustard yellow in a shape I don't really know how to describe.. We bargained down the price further, and got a really good price for the bags imo. The bag's now in my mum's possession. :)

We then hurried down to st paul's church, which was bursting at the seams. There weren't enough seats for all those attending, and we had to stand in front of the pews for the one hr service.. I'd say that a catholic service is rather different from a christian (or rather a methodist one). It was a pretty interesting experience; the reader was really cute in a father christmas kinda way. ;) As we were leaving the church, it started to pour, but we didn't wanna change our original plan of walking through ladies street before heading to jade market. And that was what we did. Only catch was that the stalls at ladies street weren't fully opened, either cuz it was too early, it was pouring, or a combination of the two. In any case, we were pretty disappointed with ladies street, but decided to walk down to jade market anyway.. On the way, we saw a place selling double boiled egg white with milk!! I was so happy and dragged mar in for a brief respite from the rain.. I found their version delicious, but a lil bit too sweet; mar didn't really like it.. After that, we proceeded down to jade market where we bought a few pretty trinkets. Nothing of much value though, I think, as I was too lazy to bargain down the extremely high prices quoted by the sellers. It's sorta my fault though, I didn't really believe that the items were real and therefore wasn't ready to pay handsomely for the pretty pieces.. Ahwell. When I know my stones better, I'd buy more. :) We proceeded to trek down to harbour city to check out the shops we found interesting earlier on, and trust me, it's a trek, not a short walk. With my birks and mar's crocs sloshing in the rain, we trudged to harbour city.. We meadered through underpasses when available, ran through traffic lights, and finally reached our destination safe, albeit not dry. The trek was good exercise though. We felt hungry and grabbed some jap mochi for lunch. They're the really authentic tasting kind which has to be kept refrigerated, and has an icy smooth texture which I love. How I wish we could bring some home... We didn't spend a long time at harbour city as we were tired after our trek.. Thus, we made a trip back to our hotel to relieve our shoulders of our purchases and rest for a while. However, we were waylaid by the shops along granville road where mar made her purchases of 2 skirts and 2 tops.. :) We went back to try on our purchases and modelled for each other..

We went out again after that to shop around and get dinner. I found mar's skirt so pretty that I bought one too, in a different denim wash.. Mar found a nice rip curl tee/sweater at the same shop. 'twas quite funny that mar described the sales boys at the shop as chickens as they shouted to passerbys to lure them in to the shop.. We wandered ard the area somemore and found a nice noodle restuarant tucked away in a corner. Mar had dumplings with noodles while I had dumplings alone.. :) Their dumplings were pretty darn delicious. :D We proceeded to find the shop where I saw pretty scarves the other day, but weren't successful.. After a while, we decided to get dessert at xu liu shan so as to take a break from our hunt. After a nice long break, during which mar had her usual while I got the harsmar double boiled egg white with milk, we went on another round and discovered that the particular shop was closed for the day. Ahwell. 'twas no wonder we couldn't spot a shop selling scarves..

The next day (ie. day 3), we went back to the same macau cafe as I was craving for my pork chop bun.. Hehe. Then, we went on to take the mtr to causeway bay where we wandered ard sogo, bought belts at giordano to keep mar's skirt from slipping down.. After a while, we took the mtr again to central where we wandered down li yuen str before reaching the mid levels escalators.. Mar wasn't very keen on going higher up, so we went on to take the mtr to admiralty where we visited the spacious and luxurious pacific place. =) And that's where I came to meet my lovely nike bag. It's a steal, at half the price it would have cost in sg, so I'm pretty darn happy I bought it. Mar got herself a bright yellow nike messenger bag from the same shop which has yet to appear in sg. :) I then tried the xiao long baos at the food court but they weren't very good.. I miss crys jade la mian xiao long bao! We went to great supermarket to get bread for tml's ferry ride.. and check out the interesting goodies. I bought a barrett's jelly babies snack pack! :) They're really delish.. my fav jelly babies. Cold storage stocked them for christmas, but they are not to be found after the festive season.. Ahwell. We did some mall walking while mar ate her bread, and got ourselves some weird looks from the other shoppers. What's wrong with two teenage girls in a luxury shopping mall???? :P

In any case, we were tired, and wanted to go back to our hotel room to pack.. but before that, we went back to get a second identical denim skirt each. Ok, they aren't exactly identical since they're of different washes, but still the same design. :) We then painstakingly stuffed everything (almost) into our bags.. Mar wanted to nap, but I was restless. I convinced mar to go gai gai with me at harbour city as I wanted to get my sesame mochi. ;) After much ado, we chanced upon a nice looking shanghainese noodle restuarant and were tempted by their tea time sets which included a drink. As usual, I had my dumplings with yuan yang and mar had her dumplings with noodles and a almond drink.. With our tummys happily filled, we proceeded to harbour city to shop to our wallet's content. I felt very broke looking at the lovely clothes and bags in the shops.. :( And then I decided to heck it, and charge whatever catches my eye.. :X Almost immediately after that, I saw a cute powder blue nike bag in the shape of a flower basket, and thus bought it. It's a design which the nike shops in sg do not carry! ;) Isn't it sufficiently unique? Mar spent the last of her money on a looooong shrug. 'tis pretty.. Haha. We were pretty reckless that night. We walked back satisfied with having made the most out of our hk trip.. n ended the night with a mango drink from xu liu shan.. ;D

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to cab down to the ferry terminal.. I looked longingly at the bag shop but it wasn't opened yet (it was sth like 8am). :X Haha. I regret not buying more.. ahwell. The ferry ride wasn't exactly the most comfortable I've had. The ferry was packed with so many passengers it felt like a market place early in the morning.. :( Mar and I kept eating our mochi and jelly to distract ourselves from our surroundings. ;) Upon reaching macau, we hailed a cab to senado square with our luggage in tow as there weren't any lockers to be found. For the entire day, we dragged our bags up and down the stairs (the shops in senado sq are mostly 3 storied).. But then, it was a rewarding day as we found too- good- to- be- missed bargains all around. =) We lunched at this lovely chinese restaurant where they actually seated us in an alcove for 8 ppl.. Mar and I had our usual noodles and dumplings with a dish of eggplants in this special hong2 shao1 sauce. It was totally delicious! :D Not bad for a lunch of approx S$10 in a beautifully decorated restaurant. After proceeding with more shopping, we were shagged from hauling our luggage ard and went for a 1.5hr rest stop at starbucks. Their venti is called te1 da4 (extra large), while their grande is called da4 (large). I sillily ordered the large, thinking that it's the venti as in singapore.. Ahwell. Soon after, we went to espirit to take a look before having double boiled egg white with milk.. =) Mar almost killed me for ordering an extra pork chop bun to takeaway for dinner. We were left with 58 patacas for the taxi ride.. :X To our relief, the taxi ride costed sth like 56 patacas.. *phew* We were v worried for some time as there was a jam.. But then, we still got to the airport safely. :D