Weekend trip to hong kong- of tall blocks and shiny malls

I chanced upon this pretty good deal on groupon one day for a 3D 2N trip to Hong Kong inclusive of flight, stay at a great hotel, half day sight seeing and transfer from the airport and booked two of these for my husband and me, since it was a good deal and it had visa on arrival 😊 so our bags packed for the weekend for a much needed break from the hectic schedule at work, we left for hongkong on Saturday morning from Singapore, on 23rd aug. After the usual smooth immigration at Singapore airport and shopping for books to read on the journey, we boarded Cathay pacific. Amazing flight, noisy kids, lunch on board and movies on the in flight entertainment, 3.5 hours later, we land at hongkong airport. To my pleasant surprise, the immigration and visa at hongkong is probably the cheapest ( coz it's free!) and the least hassle free experience, they don't even stamp your passport! That was pretty impressive😊 so we waited at the airport for our guide to pick us up and headed off to our hotel on the bus

 

 

I have to say, the view was quite similar to Singapore , yet quiet different with those hills on the backdrop of really high buildings. We checked in to our hotel by 3:30 pm and headed out to the streets in search of food, since we were hungry again! Now here's the first mistake of the trip- if you don't speak or can't read Chinese, don't venture out yourself, at least in he Kowloon area😊 we tried searchin for places to eat , but couldn't figure out any of the signs, so we resigned to eat at a common bakery in a mall. I got really disheartened and we went back to our hotel to look for stuff to do in the evening. Luckily we found out that there was a harbour walk area just minutes away from our hotel and there was a space museum there too, where we decided to catch the next planetarium show since I love to watch those😊 but I guess luck wasn't on our side, and after a good 20 min walk navigating through a sea of people and glittering shops, we were told that the tickets were sold off😞 nevertheless, the place there was really good and the harbour walk was the best part of the day! There we're live performances going on at various places by street artists, we crossed by sea of stars, which is like an area with statues of famous Chinese actors, their footprints etc. the harbour was beautiful and we walked around there taking pictures amongst thronges of other people taking pictures until sunset..

Tired and thirsty, we headed off to temple street for dinner and drinks, and landed in this bridal house restaurant, with no idea how the food there would be.. We got seated in this booth which was totally private and it was pretty funny being there, just the two of us.. Hehe.. We ordered for beer and some starters and I ordered rice in white n tomato sauce, but we were really dissappointed with the food there. Even I couldn't down any of my food, so that was a disaster of a dinner- we literally just had the beer there😊

Day 2

So since our adventurous 'do it ourselves' sightseeing was kind of disastrous the evening before, we decided to take the effort to wake up early and go for the half day sight seeing arranged by the groupon deal, which was totally worth it! We left our hotel at 7 am with another Singaporean couple and our guide- David, and headed straight to have dimsums breakfast at this famous hongkong joint. It was just superb, the custard bao n tarts, the fish n prawn dimsums, the rice cakes, green tea, everything was awesome! Breakfast done, we headed off to the first place on our list- bauhinia square. This place is named after the national flower of hongkong- bauhinia. It is said that the golden replica of the flower was given as a gift to the people of hongkong by the Chinese govt, to commemorate their freedom from the people's republic of china. We took our usual pictures there, walked about a bit and headed off to the next destination.

Nest stop- Victoria peak, mid level. So at first glance, hongkong seems to have only buildings and some far off hills surrounding it, and this is one such hill, which is not so far off and is probably the most beautiful place to stay at in hongkong, which is why I think only the rich and famous poeple can afford villas and flats there. We saw jackie chan's house there too! It was so dreamy! Sigh.. My husband and I imagined living in a house like that, waking up every morning to a view like that and being that rich. Luckily the day dreaming lasted for as long as our picture taking time there.. Hehe

On our way downhill towards our next stop, we were entertained by our guide and fellow travellers by stories of the feng shui master and his affair with the rich old woman, her downfall followed by his downfall..listening to their stories and mythology, we realised how similar Indian and Chinese cultures are really😊

We reached our next stop which was the Repluse bay ( no there is nothing repulsive about this place, on the contrary it was another beautiful place). This is one of the few beaches hongkong has, and is next to this Chinese temple which was used by pirates and sailors during old days and days when the British still ruled the country. It is said that the place is called Repluse bay, since when the local fishermen would pray to the god of sea, he would create conditions in that area that would 'repulse' any pirate ships 😊 although it was really hot and sunny, I loved the view and calm of this place and was sad to leave this place for our next destination..

Some time later, we were at our next stop, at Aberdeen, which is a small fishing village in hongkong. David, our guide mentioned to us that hongkong was originally a fishing island and the natives used to live in such fishing villages, on their boats and this is one of those few places in the new and shiny city which still gives tourists a glimpse of how it was in the bygone era😊 the funny thing was though, that although we were supposed to view the old fishing village, our boat ride started at the jetty which was laden with really expensive looking, swanky , probably private state of the art yatches! Lol! The boat ride was short and sweet, but I thought the fishing village was almost non existent, to be frank😊

By now, it was 12 already and since we'd has such an early breakfast, I started to get hungry again, but we still had some shops to go to, as part of the tour plan. So off we headed to our first shop- the jade jewellery mall. Now I wasn't allowed to take any pictures here, but the most interesting part of this place was that we were ushered into this hall with only mirrors and doors and a few people in suits. They put some stickers on us and ushered us into another tiny room with chairs, posters of their gems, while

One of the suited ladies explained to is their jewellery making process and quality standards using a workflow of pictures! It was so impressive and easy to understand and remember! I was impressed! After our class was over, we were again lead through this mirrored walk way, like we were being led into some gangster place! Haha.. The doors finally opened and inside was a sea of prospective buyers glued to the multple variety of jewels and jewellery that were on display 😊 sadly, most of this was over our budget, so we just did some window shopping there and left to the next mall. Again, David took us to the gadget mall, where the entry was similar and the stuff was similar to what we already have or had no need for really.. So more window shopping and finally David took us to the lunch place! Thank you, said my tummy quitely😉

The lunch again was amazing for the amount of money we paid, there was rice, scrambled eggs, soy fish, tofu in garlic sauce, barbecue chicken, boiled cabbage and more green tea😊 we also had sweet red beans for dessert, which my husband didn't like as much.. Heheh

With that our guided tour was over, but we still had more than half the day, so we decided to try the space meuseum show again, but sadly luck was not on our side again and the tickets were all sold out again. Now I also wanted to go and see the big Buddha there, so we decided instead of keeping this for the next day, we'll just see him today. We took a cab to Lantau Island, reached the place in around 45 minutes and bought the ngong ping 360 package pass, which is more expensive than the regular pass, but it saves you the hassle of standing in a very long queue for the tickets in that sweltering heat, so is totally worth it if you can spend the extra money😊 we got into the cable car real quick and I have to say, that able car ride was so far the longest and the best cable car ride I've been in, so far! The view was breath taking as we kept going higher into the hills and the breeze was a relief in that afternoon heat😊

In about half n hour we reached Ngong ping, which is like a small makeshift hi see village created for tourism, sour rounding the bid Buddha statue and the monastery. We were thirsty and hungry again, so stopped by to have some ice creams first and then started our climb up to the big Buddha statue. I have to tell you that it was beautiful! I just find Budhism, their monasteries and all the Buddha statues and places around it really beautiful and peaceful- be it in Orissa, Ladakh, bodh gaya at Bihar in India, or big Buddha at hongkong, I love all of them 😊

We spent a good amount of time here, at the monastery, at the Buddha statue, watched a 4D show, had some coffee and bought a few souvenirs before heading back to the cable car for the ride back😊

Now here's the thing, when you're 31 and work in an IT company, you feel as old as a 50 year old, so by the time we reached back to our hotel, we had no strength left in our bodies and all our plans of going out drinking to catch the night life at hongkong went down the drain.. Heheh.. So we just showered, bought some ciders from the 7/11 shop downstairs, ordered in pizza and relaxed at the hotel that night itself😊

Final day

We woke up late Monday, and went to the hotel restaurant to have a leisurely breakfast, showered and checked out of the hotel. Since we didn't want to do much after our really long day yesterday, so we just kept our luggage at the hotel concierge and went to a very swanky mall called 'elements' to watch a movie and have lunch. We saw this movie called Lucy in one of the best movie theatres I've been to! It was a good experience, followed by lunch at a Japanese restaurant, where we had more green tea and different types of udon dishes😊 we did some window shopping at the mall and then headed back to the hotel to be taxied back to the airport. The checkout was as smooth as the entry, and we were back at home in Singapore by midnight😊 

Travel tips:

1. Travel to hongkong in autumn or winter, since we were told the weather gets cooler, else it was really hot even now

2. It isn't a cheap city, so be prepared to spend😊 even without any shopping or drinking outside, I ended up spending around 800 Singapore dollars inclusive of everything- flight, hotel, sightseeing, food etc just for a weekend, which according to my standards is expensive

3. If you aren't staying at the island, or can't speak/read Chinese or don't have friends to show you around, take a guided tour😊

4. I read later that one can hike and bike over some trails there too, which we couldn't explore, so if you're into those things then best to try that out and explore those options

1 day food adventure at Johor Bahru, Malaysia 😊

So, I got tired of spending my weekends alone watching tv at home and decided to sign up for one of these meet ups. And this one was a one day food and shopping adventure😊

So the night before I just couldn't sleep out of excitement and obviously nervousness, so groggy eyes I woke up the next day and got ready, booked a cab and reached the pick up place by 7 am.. We started the day by awkwardly introducing ourselves to the other travelers in the group and the bus finally turned up half hr late and we began our journey. I made friends with a girl called Carla and she and I sat together and talked the way to immigration😊

Now I have to mention the immigration process here, coz for the non Singapore or non Malaysian people, it's alsmot like a race against time! You'll see all the expats get off the buses and literally run to get ahead in those serpentine queues, and is exactly what fran ( another Australian traveler with us) and I did.. And it was quite fun😊

Finally, we reached our destination at around 8:30 am and all of us were super hungry and ready to dive in! Our tour coordinator- David , showed us around and have us a small tour of all the places we could eat at and after buying some bread and curry puffs and banana cake from the local bakeries, we decided to group out and each group went ahead to the place they wanted to try breakfast at😊

I went ahead with a group to eat roasted duck and soup and it was just heavenly! The barbecue sauce that the duck was roasted in was something I had never had before! It was so delicious! We had our fill there amid banter and getting to know each other a bit more and headed off to our bus to get to our next eating destination.

Our next stop was near a village outside the city centre, but we reached there in just about 20 mins and I was having serious doubts about what I could eat so soon, since I was already feeling full! So again, our really friendly and caring leader, David have us a quick tour of the places to eat at, and since I already had my mind set at eating dim sums, I changed my original group and went ahead with a different group to the dim sum place. You couldn't believe how crowded it was at 10 am on a sudsy morning already! We managed to get a table but I was having trouble figuring out what to order and how to order since everything was written in mandarin and the servers wouldn't understand English. Luckily for me, my group people figured out my problem and helped me order and also share some of my food so I could try more stuff😊 that's really nice isn't it?! So I ordered my latest favourite char siew bao- which is like minced pork in that amazing barbecue sauce stuffed inside a cake like dim sum covering.. It's just superb! We also tried a couple of other dimsums like prawn and rice cakes, and then decided to wrap it up with dessert at this really famous nonya restaurant😊

At the nonya place, all of us were dying to find out a place to relieve ourselves and it was funny since there was only one toilet which was at the back of the restaurant! It was really funny to see all the men and women stand in the queue, hold each other's bags and take orders for each other while we waited for our turns! It was hilarious! Bladders relieved, I went back and just a ordered for a lemongrass drink since I was too full and didn't want to over eat, while the others ordered some cucumber rolls , and the local Malaysian dessert cendol. I've already had this when I went to malacca, so I didn't need to try it again😊 we stayed at this place for a little longer to cool off with the aircon and headed back again to the bus.

Our 4th stop was at the ksl shopping mall, where we did some window shopping and 4 of us ladies went ahead and got awesome foot massages from men for just 32 bucks! I kept thinking, wow, go women- a guy is actually touching a woman's feet! Lol

Our next stop was again another mall, jusco tebrau city mall , where we did some more window shopping and had coffee and cake at Vivo pizza cafe, and talked to get to know each other a little more.. Great pastry😊 for just 20 bucks here.. Great conversation, also bought some tights and a ganjee for 50 bucks

Our 6th and final stop was at the street food market to have dinner. We also wanted to check out this famous night market that they have here, but sadly it opens only at 8 pm and we had to leave JB by 7:30 to reach back home on time, so we just walked around and I had some stuffed bread pakoda kind of thing for 1 buck at the street market since I wasn't that hungry yet. The group split up again and I decided to head off by myself for a bit and just walk around the city and wrap up at the mall for dinner and a visit to the clean loo there😏

I finally stopped at a Mexican joint for dinner and ordered some tacos and a lychee fizz for myself for dinner😊 but I had hogged so much already that I couldn't do justice to my dinner.. 

Nevertheless, dinner wrapped, tummies full and legs tired, we all headed back on to the bus and amidst more conversations, laughter and exchanged of promises to catch up on the next meet up, we crossed immigration, reached Singapore, got dropped home and I guess each one of us would've nicely snuggled nicely into beds to be ready to kick off the week😊 

Live to eat! 😊

My first successful and dramatic solo trip!

I always wondered how it would be to travel alone and explore things at your own pace or not explore at all and go to a different place and vegetate without feeling guilty about it.. So I thought what better way to find out than try it out?

Therefore after a lot of erratic and confused planning, I saw myself at the woodlands interchange train station on Friday night. The immigration and customs were a smooth walk but my first shock came when I found out I had booked myself an overnight train ride in a seating only car! Well, there was no turning back and that was the first horrible part of my journey.. The train was lit up throughout the night and was so cold that me and some other first time travelers were freezing our minds off since we didn't have the foresight to bring blankets like some of the local travelers had.. Hehe.. To top it all, the train was on time! So I reached the deserted station of Tampin at 5:30 am when even the sun doesn't rise that early!  So this is when I decide to throw all caution to wind for a solo female traveler and take a scary looking taxi to my hotel hoping for a miracle early check in, since my check in wasn't allowed until 2 pm! To add to this, there is no ATM or money changer at the station so travelers better carry their Malaysian ringgits from Singapore itself, if traveling by train..

Luckily for me, the cab driver turned out to be a nice bloke and dropped me safely at my hotel and didn't even haggle when I paid him in Singapore dollars instead.. Then came my second hurdle when I found out that there was no way I could check in earlier since there were no available rooms before my check in! Luckily for me, the attendant at the hotel was really nice and friendly and he allowed me to crash at the lobby until any guests checked out and use the common loo to freshen up, have breakfast and coffee if I wanted to.. We chatted away for a few hours until sunrise and around 8 am lo behold! Some of the guests decided to check out early, so after a very nice breakfast at the hotel cafe, I managed to check in around 10 am and promptly went off to sleep :)

 

Finally rested and showered, I stepped out of my hotel in the afternoon like a woman on a mission.. Hehe.. I walked down to the only mall in the city to get some Malaysian ringgits first, that done, headed off to have a good meal to give me some energy and settled in for chicken and mushroom clay pot rice at the food court with coconut water and enjoyed my lunch watching a very old jack is chan Kung fu movie that was playing at the mall common area :)

Lunch done, I got a taxi where to my luck the driver turned out to be this extremely amicable fellow who was all too eager to make my touristy dreams come true ;) so he drove me around first to the Portuguese settlement to a fort, where I practised my art of taking selfies, followed by a nice short walk to a place which resembled marine drive back in India. We wrapped up the Portuguese settlement with a visit to this beautiful mosque called salamat masjid Melaka, but what I enjoyed the most was sharing stories with my friendly cabbie really:)

My friendly cabbie finally dropped me at the Dutch heritage walk with a lot of advices and his business card! It was around 5 in the evening, but still quiet hot..but since I was already in high spirits, I dived right into part 2 of my exploration at the Dutch heritage walk. Started off with the remaining wall left of Porta de Santiago and a short climb up to the graveyard, followed by a very interesting walk towards the river quay area accompanied by throngs of other tourists and blaring music coming from these cute little colorful rickshaws!

I was a little late for most museums, but I didn't feel like I missed much there.. However I did visit this naval maritime Meusuem along the river walk which had an interesting ship that everyone took pictures of. I also found some kind locals who saved me the torture of clicking selfies so I could act model for a change on a solo trip! Hehe .. Tired and hot, I finally decided to rest and watch the sunset along the river side before heading it again... It was just beautiful and so calming :) 

So it was time to get to my next agenda which obviously would centre around food ;) so I walked down to the famous jonker walk, which was as crowded as chandni chowk in India! Locals and tourists thronged the place while small vendors were lined up on either side of the street selling nick knacks, small eats, desserts, souvenirs and what not! I tried some local fried stuff that they were selling but guess it was a bad idea, since it was a bit too pungent tasting for me. I had to get rid of my thirst and that taste, so I tried out their local dessert called cendol, which was just superb!! It had crushed ice laced with coconut cream on top of sweet beans and semolina I think.. It was just super refreshing! I walked around a little more and lo and behold! Found a Hard Rock Cafe there!! Obviously my focus changed since good music and beer was all my brain was thinking if then ;) I sat down at HRC, ordered myself a big pint of beer and chicken wings and settled in at the bar. The best part of being alone was that the bar tenders and waitresses there came in and have me company now and then and this young fellow called then asked me to attend re Easter mass celebration happen ending at a nearby church..but I thought and declined since my own religious ideas didn't make me comfortable visiting the church after drinking.. So maybe another time:) 

A little while later, since it was starting to get late and I was alone here, I decided to be sensible and responsible for a change and headed back to my hotel. I was still hungry and luckily for me found a nice little cafe called the elvis music cafe near my hotel where I stuffed myself with amazing chocolate cheesecake and ham and egg wraps! Yeah, people do call me porky pig at times too and I'm not surprised now.. Hehe

Finally my awesome and hectic day was over, I checked in back into

My room, showered, opened another beer for the night, watched some random local tv in my room and fell off to a much deserved and amazing sleep :)

The next day I woke up late and had another round of lazy breakfast but decided not to venture out again since I had already seen everything and it's too hot in the day to enjoy any outdoor walk really.. So I lazed around in my hotel room and checked out just before lunch to have lunch at casa del rio resort.. That again was so relaxing :) if you have the money, I would recommend staying here.. Coz the view and service is definitely worth it and it's right in the heart of the city :) I bought some source owes for myself to remind me of my first solo trip adventure and then boarded the bus at 4. The return bus journey was quite smooth, except for the very long time that it takes to clear the immigration at Singapore, so be prepared for at least a 6 hour journey back :)

So finally, travel tips:

Budget hotel booked via agoda cost 50 sgd per night- sunshine inn recommended, clean and very good service

Luxury hotel- definitely casa del rio

Train ticket- 50 sgd, recommend carrying warm clothes or blankets to combat the killer aircon!

Bus ticket- luxury coach 40 sgd

Total that I spent on tha trip- 200 sgd

Word of advice for solo travelers- just stay alert and careful, the people in general are friendly though :) and definelty try the cendol! Hehe