Kowloon Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Escapes From The Little Red Dot

Hong Kong 2015 Day 4 – Tin Lung Heen dim sum and shopping

Posted on September 27, 2015June 2, 2020 by ziyi

Started the day waking up at 8am. Since there weren’t food to prepare, we managed to get ready by 1030am and left the room. First stop was to get breakfast en route to Mira hotel, where my sister stayed. We had to borrow their steamer to cook baby K’s meal.

Found Tsui Wah restaurant at the exit of Tsim Sha Tsui MTR and headed there, about a 10mins walk away. It was still not so crowded and we headed to the 2nd floor as directed. Ordered Set C comprising of vermicelli, butter bun and a hot drink and addition butter with condensed milk bun and milk tea.

Preserved vegetables vermicelli and the condensed milk bun.

Full during lunch time on the 2nd floor.

After our meal, went to K11 that had free wifi and called my mom using Whatsapp, which meant the call was free. Found that we had to bring our own rice to cook for baby K as there weren’t enough so we walked back to the hotel for get it. By the time we arrived at Mira hotel, it was noon already.

Kept baby K busy while wife prepared the porridge. By the time we left, it was almost 130pm and we had a reservation at Tin Lung Heen at the same time too. They would hold the tables for 15mins.

Rushed to take the MTR to Central and as we found ourselves at an unfamiliar place, I called the restaurant and they told us that we were at the wrong place – they were located at ICC at Kowloon while we were at IFC at Hong Kong! However they were able to hold the table for us which was great news.

Took the train for another stop to Kowloon station and walked towards Ritz Carlton. Took the elevator to the 103rd floor and at the left hand side was the elevator down to the restaurant.

We requested for a window seat on arrival at 2plus and were given. The weather wasn’t fantastic with what looked like haze but still, we could see something. Ordered 5 dishes and it was really delicious! Baby K, while not enjoying the food was getting cranky so I had to carry him around to distract him. The delicious food came with a very expensive price, the priciest dim sum I have ever eaten, about 260 SGD for 7 dishes. Don’t think I will have this 2 star Michelin restaurant again.

Free custard moon cake and osmanthus jelly.

My failed attempt at taking a selfie with baby K admiring the view.

After Dim Sum, we went to the mall below called Elements to shop around. Wife made use of the beautiful nursing room while I waited outside with the sleeping baby K. That room set the highest standards of comfort for parents, come with milk warmer, thick change mat liners for free, lotions and even a seat for babies, impressive! We bought something for baby K from Zara and left when he became cranky.

Room for nursing, nice comfy couch and changing station.

There were lotion and milk warmer available for use in the nursing room.

As time flew past, we decided to drop by Harbour City ( which was minutes walking distance from our hotel) Toys R Us to get some toys. When we arrived, we couldn’t find it on the directory so instead we did some window shopping. There wasn’t a sale going on and things were really expensive so we went back to the hotel to drop some stuff that weren’t required before going to the mall known as The One to meet up with relatives for dinner.

While at The One, there were specific lifts for specific floors and queues for the lifts managed by a controller. Interesting concept to regulate flow of passengers.

East Ocean restaurant took the whole shopping space at the floor alone. We were the last to arrive at 730pm, having still feel full from the dim sum that only ended at 4pm. Food was served shortly after, mainly Cantonese cuisine. Didn’t really take much since I wasn’t hungry but I guess it was alright. The last dish was huge longevity buns that we took away back to our hotel. Unlike the one in Singapore, even though it was exactly the same signboard, the cuisine served was different.

We walked back to our hotel via the huge underpass that connected our hotel to the shopping strip of Tsim Sha Tsui ( which was what we did for the whole afternoon) and took a detour to the jetty area as we saw quite a crowd coming from there, thinking that there might be some celebrations on this Mid-Autumn night. We were right as there were some exhibits of lantern near the jetty and quite a bit of street performance by young people to earn some pocket money. There was quite a crowd walking around, enjoying the outdoors of this popular Chinese tradition. After we purchased some more lanterns for baby K and our nephew, we went back to the hotel and I knocked out rather quickly, due to exhaustion. Carrying bags and baby and walking around was really tiring.

Night view of the harbour, on Mid-Autumn's night. — Night view of the harbour, on Mid-Autumn’s night.

The full month shone brightly in the cloudy skies.

Macau and Hong Kong 2015 day 3 – Macau and Victoria Park

Posted on September 26, 2015June 3, 2020 by ziyi

Our day started really late, after all we only slept at 1 am. After waking up at 9am and carrying out the tasks of bathing the baby in the tub and cleaning up the bottles, we finally left the hotel at 11am.

Left the luggage at the luggage deposit and took the free bus to the terminal. Going back to the terminal and at the immediate right of the terminal was a bus and taxi queue. Initially wanted to take the bus (bus 3A, 3.20 MOP per trip) to the famous ruins of St. Pauls but in the end took the taxi instead for about 50MOP ( in bad traffic) to Almeida Riveria Road. The streets were particular busy with hordes of people, probably because it was a Chinese long weekend due to mid Autumn festival.

Buses that going to the various attractions.

As we walked towards the direction of the church, it started to drizzle so we diverted to a cafe THS Honolulu for lunch. The meal we ordered was a tasty pork chop rice and so-so Portuguese fried rice. The soup of the day of carrot and radish pork soup was good though. The set came up to about 58MOP per meal.

After our meal and a very cranky baby (as he didn’t have his porridge and we had to give him rice and soup and Heinz pumpkin purée), it was still drizzling and so we had to give up and go back, through the same route on a taxi. It cost about 80MOP to get back to the hotel where we got our luggage and boarded the free bus to the Cotai jet terminal (Taipa).

Macau tower from taxi. Drizzle on the outside.

Interesting shapes of the casinos. Grand Lisboa was the huge golden odd shape building.

Upon arrival, we found that the route Tsim Sha Tsui was sold out till 5pm. As we were rushing for time to meet up with my sister who were on their way to Macau and require my mom to babysit him tonight, we took the route to Shueng Wan instead.

Cotai jet ticketing counter at the Taipa ferry terminal.

Checked in the luggage at the same price (although the staff tried to overcharge us so we made him weigh all the luggage) of 75MOP, and waited at the waiting room right after going through immigrations quickly. Fed baby K some milk where he then fell asleep as we walked a 5mins walk to the jet cruise. Another 1hr and we should arrive in Hong Kong hopefully in better weather.

As the jet rocked slightly with the waves, the weather didn’t seem to improve. There was even lightning that we saw. We fell asleep easily as the baby was also asleep in my wife’s arms.

1hr later, we arrived in Hong Kong and had to go through immigrations again. It took a while longer as the officer was more strict and had used quite a bit of time to go through the document. Our luggage was ready just behind the immigration counter, not at the luggage reclaim area.

Upon exit, which was the same entrance as we first took to board the cruise jet, we met up with my sister’s family and our Hong Kong relative. The relative had been of the greatest help, if not for them, we would not have been able to meet up in time. After my sister left for Macau, we loaded up the luggage into the relative car and they drove us to Tsim Sha Tsui YMCA hotel.

Check in was done quickly while the porters helped with the luggage (even helped to bandaged one of the broken handles on my Samsonite which had an exposed metal piece). The room was a lot smaller than the one we had in Sheung Wan but it was adequately equipped. No tub though.

My mom left with my nephew and relative as they went back to my sister hotel while my wife had to expressed milk. Baby K became incredibly cranky so I brought him down for a stroll, which was when he amused himself with the various lights of the Hong Kong street. It was mentally exhausting sometimes.

Went back when he was a little calmer, fed him porridge before we went to Causeway Bay for makan. Exited near Sogo but couldn’t find anything to eat so we went to Itacho. There was a queue waiting and so I went around the building and found a local noodles store. We decided to move since the queue wasn’t moving.

It was a great choice as the Prince noodles was yummy. My beef noodles had soft meat mixed with Q noodles and tasty soup base. My wife’s pork noodles was equally nice, the similar Q noodles. The iceless iced tea was a little disappointing as it wasn’t cold enough and the red bean drink was a tad bit too sweet. For 115 HKD, it wasn’t cheap but it was tasty.

We took the MTR one more stop to Tin Hou and walked towards Victoria Park. There was a Mid Autumn festival exhibition of lanterns going on and there was a crowd there. Baby K who fell asleep while at the noodles store woke up to find lights and lanterns all around, naturally amusing him. It was actually quite a big area but there were so many people and the weather was extremely humid.

We bought a toy with spinning lights (not a exactly a lantern) for baby K and took some photos before we felt droplets of rain on our arms. We decided not to test our luck, especially when we don’t even have an umbrella on hand and left for the MTR. It even started to drizzle a bit before we reached the MTR entrance. Bad luck with the weather.

The train ride back was smooth. I was offered seats by the passengers twice because I had baby K on my hip seat, good folks of Hong Kong!

Back in the hotel and it was all about entertaining the baby till bedtime including the cleaning up. The trip was ending soon and tiredness was creeping in.

Hong Kong 2014 Day 3 – Eat and Shop and Home Sweet Home

Posted on July 14, 2014June 3, 2020 by ziyi

World Cup finals with Germany facing off Argentina on the TV in our room. Didn’t spend all the energy on the game and nodded off every so often until the goal in extra time sealed the fate of the South Americans, leaving the Europeans champions of the world. With that, I also welcomed the sunrise peeking out in the distant clouds. Not fantastic but was too tired anyways.

The next thing I knew, I jolted out of dreamland having remembered somehow that the alarm had already sounded previously. 850am already and we had to wake up to get to some dim sum. It was our last day in Hong Kong and we had to have Dim Sum, and we already had a target.

Got off to the concierge on the 116th floor and was informed of our airport transfer at 130pm. Had informed that it was possible to be dropped off in Prince Edward station complimentary for a single time and part of the hotel package. When we arrived on the ground floor, we were informed that the car not available as the guest who booked the later time slot was arrived sitting in the car. What a bummer.

Took the MTR and we went northwards instead of going the usual Hong Kong – Central – Prince Edward route. It was just an additional 1 station but less walking.

Upon arrival, there was a slight drizzle and we had to brave through it for 2 small streets until we arrived at One Dim Sum, a one Michelin star restaurant. The opening hours is 11am and we arrived at 1030am, sat outside on the plastic stools provided, first to arrive. It was not too long before the queue began to grow and soon the line of stools were taken up.

Once we got a table when the doors opened, we quickly ordered some the common dim sum that we loved in Singapore, such as glutinous rice, Har Kau and Siu Mai. The turnip cake and the fried spring rolls were our favorites. This was one restaurant that we thought was really worth the wait. The traditional taste of dim sum could be rediscovered here.

Yam cake, Spring roll, Siew Mai and Glutinous rice.

Left really full at 1145am and we left for Tsim Sha Tsui, our last shopping attack, this time at Harbour City. It looked really far on the map but thankfully the travellators made the walk easier. Did our shopping and left at 1245pm back to hotel, again with a drizzle going on.

Took a quick bath and enjoyed one last view from the highest room in the world before checking out. The limo was already waiting for us and it was an effortless trip to airport. Even at the airport, there were hotel porters there to bring out luggage to the check in counter, service was excellent all the way!

More window shopping before a long boarding line into this big aircraft. The tiredness was setting in due to the lack of sleep and the return flight was a combination of sleep and entertainment.

This birthday escape was filled with many food makan sessions taken from various web recommendations. Some suited to our liking, some not but overall, achieved our objective of pigging out, shopping and enjoyed a luxurious stay in the tallest hotel in the world with a excellent view to kill for.

We had tried the biscuits from Jenny’s bakery, the one we spent 2 hours lining up for it. The smell of the cookies was strong, the taste was really heavy flavoured and the texture was crispy. Overall the cookies were very nice. But the hype from the internet, and the long queues and all really drove my expectations sky high. In my opinion, it was definitely not worth my 2 hours, especially travel time. If anyone really wanted to try this, they could buy at a higher price from the shops neighbors. I wouldn’t line up for it again and I wondered why would anyone buy 30+ boxes back home. Different people different poison I guess.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — 4 mix cookies. The 8 mix flavours are totally different from the 4 mix. Preference for the 4 mix though!

Hong Kong 2014 Day 2 – Eat and Shop and the Highest Hotel in the World

Posted on July 13, 2014June 3, 2020 by ziyi

6am and it’s the start of a brand new eating journey. Packed our bags and got out at 630am for our journey back to Central station. Our breakfast starts at Tsui Wah restaurant. The empty shopping streets had a few overnighters that hadn’t gone home since their night of fun at Lan Gui Fong, probably enjoying the World Cup match of Brazil vs Holland 3rd position playoff.

Popular sweetened milk with butter toast.

The restaurant was fairly busy at 7am, ordered some vermicelli and the popular sweetened milk toast. Although it was sweet, the toast volume balanced it out and the sum of it was a crispy sweet bread. Had the milk tea too but in my opinion it was just ok.

At 730am, we proceeded over to Jenny’s bakery to buy biscuits. It was well known all over the web and we had to queue for it ourselves to see it. The shop opens at 10 and by the time we arrived at location, there was already a couple from Taiwan waiting. While waiting we chat with each other to pass time, and soon more and more people started to join. At about 930am there was already a line of at least ten people in front of the shop, even in the slight drizzle. There was even people with luggage waiting to lug the metal boxes of cookies back home. We saw a couple buying cookies from the shop beside, supposedly source from the same shop but marked up. Still everyone waited for the original. We also understood that the one at Tsim Sha Sui was worse, having to start waiting even at 5am. Madness.

945am and the queue had stretched pretty long. The shops owners were only just coming in and at 10am, the shop was opened. There was a notice to inform about the limitation of boxes that each could purchase, 4 boxes per person and so we bought ourselves 3 big ones consisting one 2×4 flavours and 1×8 flavour and 2 small ones with 4 flavours. We helped the ones in front of us to purchase another 3 small ones as they had promised their friends back at Taiwan to get some for them. There was another Taiwan family of 4 that was getting 16 boxes and they had came the previous day too, to purchase another 16. They brought along a luggage bag each time. Simply incredible.

Jenny bakery store, just when it opened in the morning.

Visited the public toilet just opposite the cookie store and proceeded to walk towards the popular egg tart store on 35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Tai Cheong bakery. An easy 15 mins walk although upward sloping. There were few customers who like us were there for the egg tarts. We got ourselves one each and finished it. The egg tart was tasty, now sweetened egg center with a crispy tart. I liked it more if the tart was crispier but it was good enough.

Bought some wife’s biscuits and egg rolls at Kee Wah and brought all these back to our hotel, filling up my haversack, brought solely for this purpose.

Our limo picked is up at 12 noon after we checked out. The start of excellent service began there. Even before this, they called me to confirm my pick up time and driver and even send a memo to the hotel direct to my room just in case I didn’t get the message. The huge Mercedes even had wifi in car and an ipad for use.

Once over at Ritz Carlton, immediately we stepped off the car, there was already a personal assistant to follow us from registration to room. We got into a lift that brought us from the 9th floor to the 103rd floor for check in. But having gotten the deluxe club room, we did our check in at the room itself. Brought to the room on 117th floor, the highest in the hotel and currently in the world, the view of Victoria harbour was simply breathtaking. This backed with the luxurious deco of the room and the complimentary amenities and facilities, made the romantic package pretty worth it. Made a few changes to the arrangements for in room dining (included) and airport transfer the next day, we were left to our room where we soaked in the view for a while before leaving for Mongkok.

The only thing about the hotel was the indirect accessibility of it from the main shopping areas. We had to take the MTR to Hong Kong and loop back to Kowloon and there is a fair bit of walking at Hong Kong station to Central itself.

We arrived at Mongkok at around 2pm and went into Argyle Center and had our lunch at Cafe de Coral. It was an integrated food center but the place was super crowded. We had to find a seat by stalking people about the finish before lining up to pay first before lining 2 different lines for noodles and rice. The food was not particularly tasty but it had to do for this crowded shopping plaza.

Char Siew rice with red bean coconut drink.

The center reminded me of Platinum Mall but the weekend crowd was really bad. We only got up to the 3rd floor before we decided to leave for another area, the products on offer not suited to my wife’s liking and also the crowd and tight space was a turn off.

Inside Argyle shopping mall. — Inside Argyle Center.

On the roads, it was just as crowded as well. This was like holiday weekend Singapore Orchard road crowd and people were just everywhere. Similarly, many domestic helpers could be seen, like in Singapore. MTR were packed just like Singapore. Sometimes I think it was much worse here.

Street stalls that we didn't venture into. — Street stalls that we didn’t venture into.

Super crowded. — Super crowded Mongkok street.

We walked around on the main streets but wasn’t seeing much and proceeded over to Langham Place mall. Interesting shop layout but not much interest with the shops offering. It was not long before we left for Tsim Sha Tsui.

Once arrived, we walked towards the Avenue of Stars. That was a really long walk, maybe 15mins. And the weather wasn’t helping. Quite tiring for me, not to mentioned for my preggy wife. We ended up sitting on the plastic seats when we arrived, just admiring the Hong Kong island view and the slight breeze from the sea as throngs of people arrived.

One of the statue at the Avenue of Stars.

After that we went back towards the MTR station and got onto the main streets. The street view reminded us of similar shopping streets such as the previous Mongkok or Causeway Bay. Large malls around with various interspersed boutiques located around. Same same but different, maybe. Fatigued, we decided to stop at Xu Liu Shan for mango desert drink before taking the train back to our hotel.

Evening view from our room was great. Took a bath before our 3 course meal was delivered to our room. It was a great feeling, having restaurant made dinner within our room with a fantastic view. The ambience was right as we played the classical music from the iPod on dock in the room but because we were dining ourselves, it was just comfortable. All this come with a price but I think it was worth it for that once a lifetime splurge.

Spring Chicken as a replacement for seafood.

The staff was kind enough to deliver a second time our deserts and coffee and also a birthday cake for my wife. They even made a photoshopped photo of us in a room of theirs with handwritten well wishes as a momento. Definitely something different and close to the heart.

Our next activity was at 116 floor, a spa for two. As part of the package, we each had a 80 min massage by ESPA. There was maternity massage available and I had a lava massage, something about using warm sea shells to rub the tired muscles. It was enjoyable as we relaxed but nothing extraordinary in my opinion. We weren’t brought to a room with a view although it was a suite. There were sauna available in the changing room but we didn’t utilized it. After the massage, we left for our rooms to use the bath tub before turning in for the night. It was a long day after all.