Hong Kong: Afternoon Tea @ Peninsula Hotel The Lobby

October 7, 2014
I wanted to try afternoon tea for a while now and my friend also recommended it, so why not pretend to be fancy for the afternoon? Hehehe.

The Peninsula Hotel was right off the exit at Tsim Sha Tsui, but getting to Exit L3 was a troop as usual. 

The theme was “Peninsula in Pink” to support breast cancer awareness (October). HK$338 or HK$598 for two (+10% surcharge for service). 

We were worried we wouldn’t have enough time just because there was so many people in front of us in line since we didn’t get there ahead of time, and it’s an activity where people just sit there to relax, so when will it ever be our turn?! But in the end it was only about an hour or so wait. Maybe an hour and a half, I forgot, but it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated and passed by pretty quickly.

According to the menu, it came with:

• A selection of finger sandwiches and savoury pastries 
• Home-made afternoon tea pastries
• Freshly-baked raisin scones (which ended up cold cuz we took too long with taking pictures fol)
• Devonshire clotted cream
• Strawberry preserve

Our choices of tea: Early Grey & Chamomile Orange Blossom 

We actually just had lunch like…two hours before we got served so we were still full so halfway through I felt like I had to force myself to eat because…I wanted to try everything. Maybe I’m just a fatass fml. The food was pretty good though! 

The tea, well, I’m not really picky when it comes to tea and I can’t differentiate between good tea and bad tea, so I have to admit that it tastes like my $2 box of teabags from the store. Wompwomp. 

Hehe it’s nice to indulge myself once in a while. This definitely didn’t have to be a Hong Kong activity since you can do afternoon tea just about anywhere for like the same price, so I dunno if it was a good use of the time I had left in Hong Kong but it was a relaxing way to end it. Definitely want to do this again :)

With this, I'm done with my Hong Kong posts! We rushed back home to pick up our luggage and went straight to the airport. Shitty Spring Airlines delayed the flight (by like 2-3 hours?) and didn't tell us, so we didn't get home until really, really late. 

Until next time!

Hong Kong: Street Markets (Lady's Street, Mongkong, Temple Street)

October 5, 2014
First thing we did in the morning was have dimsum. I wanted to go out into the city for it but we ended up going to 二宜楼 instead. I dunno, maybe it's just me not distinguishing my foods that much, but it tasted like any other dimsum place to me. 

 It was so cool how their 奶黄包 (yellow custard steamed bun) is actual egg yolk and it's melty O_O I'm used to that sweet yellow custard.

Nasty veggie dish that costs more than the other dishes too

Next we took the train to 太子 (Prince Edward) and walked around Lady’s Street and Mongkok. It’s like the street stalls where you had to bargain or stuffs. It’s been a while since I’ve done it and I didn’t know the price point of stuff in Hong Kong so I felt like I probs got ripped off for the bag I bought fml. I also bought a bracelet hehe. 

Street of the protestors? It was blocked off but it was also empty, so I was kind of confused as to whether the protestors actually come here and if not why is it blocked off.

We then walked to Temple Street for the street market there but it turns out that it wasn’t open til night time… >:(

So we went to Golden Computer Arcade. SO crowded inside O_O Like the place was packed with people + it was quite narrow in the first place. Things are kinda okay priced, but I feel like I can get stuff online for cheaper. They had keyboards, screen covers, computers, accessories, games, etc. I dunno how legitimate the things are, but probably enough if it’s such a popular place. 

Before going to the next place, we were standing outside of the station eating our food and just kinda chilling. My cousin told me that this woman was like glaring at us for trying to steal her business WTF. Apparently prostitution is quite common in Hong Kong..so after my cousin told us about that, I couldn't help but think this girl or that girl was a prostitute and every other man who stood on the streets scoping out girls were probably looking for prostitutes wtf. I don't mean this to be ignorant, but it's just one of those things that were pointed out and I started noticing. It doesn't mean I actually did think 

Next was Tsim Sha Tsui. We got there at like 6:30PM, so quite early for the night show at 8:00PM and we actually waited until then too. I was the only one who’s never seen it before so I felt bad for dragging Cory and my cousin along and wait for that time too because they both seemed bored out of their mind and they weren’t talking either. Awk. 

Avenue of the Stars. Sorry, Li Li Hua, I didn't know who you were...until I Googled just now...

It was less impressive than I had thought because I was expecting something super, super grand :X It was just music and lights flashing here and there. Dunno if it was worth the wait ><;;;;


We went to Temple Street afterwards since it shoulda been open by now. I told my cousin to go back first because she seemed super tired. On our walk to Temple Street, we stopped by at this seemingly famous 鸡蛋子 place but it was quite disappointing. The shell was crispy, but the inside was empty WTF >:( I dunno why they're famous for serving empty 鸡蛋子 and they're more expensive than other places too! Maybe that's what's make them good? But I like my inside to be nice and fluffy.

Ok ok so Temple Street wasn’t that interesting either. I bought a pack of film for my polaroid for Hk$60, which was the cheapest that I could find anywhere. Also saw prostitutes on the streets/corners eehh. Fml because the one I noticed was like wearing a black scoopneck and shorts (?) and it was similar to what I was wearing T_T I just remember that I was wearing a similar black scoopneck sobsss.

Super tiring day, not really the most interesting either even though it seemed like I did a lot. Next post is on Disneyland ^^ Until next time!

Taiwan to Hong Kong

October 4, 2014: Taipei, Taiwan >> Hong Kong

Last day in Taipei! We started off with a traditional Taiwanese breakfast in Guting at a small stall. It was pretty good, especially the pancake thing. It was still morning, so I wasn't that hungry. This was enough for three people + one more pancake dish.

Then we realized that we didn’t even get to try 牛肉面, so right after breakfast, we went to the shop next door for more early lunch wtf. It’s not traditional beef noodles, and it’s more like a fast-food chain sorta thing, so maybe next time I can have something more authentic. I don’t even remember how this tasted, I think it was just ok. The other thing is a tofu appetizer.

I thought that this part of the terminal was cool for some reason.

After getting lost in the area of the bus terminal (since there were different parts of it) we finally found it. It’s NT$125 for the bus to the airport, so much cheaper than cabbing it :X But we had no choice the first day because we got back late. We still had a lot of time to spare, so we walked around the station. 

Naturally, we gravitated towards food...

Mos Burger….yummmmmmm….. basically sticky rice patties with food filling. We also bought a seafood one to go incase we got hungry (aka when we wanted to be a fatass). 

Apparently Uncle Tetsu’s Cheese Cake is a famous chain and there were a lot of people in line so we decided to get that too (NT$199). It’s not like actual cheesecake, but more like a fragrant sponge cake. It was nice and fluffy but by the time we ate it, it cooled a bit even though it was straight from the oven or whatever. I bought one for my aunt too since I was staying at her place, but they don’t eat that kind of stuff T_T 

(I think) this time our flight didn’t get delayed, yay! 

Hong Kong

When we landed in Hong Kong, I realized that I had been a bit misinformed on which bus to take to get to my aunt’s place. Because there was some miscommunication and it was just frustrating talking to my mom because she doesn’t listen >:( All the while, Wi-Fi was a bit limited and I disconnected whenever I got to the bus terminal of the airport.

“Aunt told me to take this bus but the board said it doesn’t go there! Are you sure it’s XX bus?"

“WHO TOLD YOU TO TAKE THAT OTHER BUS? DID YOU GET ON THE WRONG BUS? I’LL TELL THEM TO GO TO THE OTHER BUS STOP TO PICK YOU UP.”

“No I didn’t get on any bus yet.”

“SO YOU TOOK THE WRONG BUS?”

“No, I’m going to take the bus that I was supposed to.”

“I’LL TELL THEM TO GO TO THE OTHER STOP TO PICK YOU UP.”

-Bye-

Luckily, this lady lent me her phone on the bus so I was able to call my cousin to tell her which bus stop I'll be getting off at. The bus ride took longer than I thought so she ended up having to wait for us :( 

Got some wonton noodles (HK$25) from a random stall. It tasted okay, but made me realize that things weren’t as cheap in Hong Kong as it is in Shanghai, such as for food… 

I also met one of my older guy cousins for the first time. Nothing significant about the meeting, but it was just unexpected because I forgot that I had one LOL -_- 

Still dreading the rest of Hong Kong posts because of all the photos >< I'm going to try to get all of my China posts done. 

I'm going to go to Tokyo right after the program ends ^__^ It's kind of funny because when I was 14-15, there was a point where I said I'd go to Japan when I'm 20 and it's really happening :O

Taipei, Taiwan: Taipei Zoo/Muzha Zoo

Our main objective was seeing the pandas!! Apparently all zoos in China have pandas though… The thing with this zoo is that the pandas are still relatively young and supposedly when they were born, a lot of people took off work/took sick days just to see them :O

The train/train station, so cute!

NT$60 for the entrance fee! Forgot if there was a student discount or not. I don't think so because ours was from China.

Onigiri for breakfast, still obsessing over these, but I don't get them as often anymore.

Anyways, don’t really know what to say, so I’ll just spam you with animal pictures. My camera started dying at this point, so they're mostly phone pics :(

Tried to be artsy

We went on the gondola lift afterwards. I thought were going to go to this cliff or some scenic place but it was literally just a cable car ride, so even now I don’t understand why we went on it. At least it was Hello Kitty themed.

We shared our car with this old couple because it was kinda rush hour so we couldn’t go on our own. Apparently they were criticizing (?) us in Taiwanese because we were speaking in English O_O? 

So next we went for dinner at Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐), which is right at Taipei 101.

Saw this and thought it was a Michelin star restaurant, but turns out only in Hong Kong!! So misleading.

They're known for allowing people to be able to see the food being prepped.

They’re known for their 小笼包 (xiao long bao - soup dumplings). But we had lots of food as well. I wouldn’t say it’s the best restaurant I’ve been to, but I think given how we haven’t had a proper meal in a while, it’s was really good. I would give it maybe a 4/5 food-wise.

We wanted to go up Taipei 101 but the line was massive. You have to wait for 1-2 hours to get tickets and then another 1-2 hours in another line to get in. Just look at this from outside and call it a day hehe.

So we went for dessert instead…at Dazzling Cafe. 

So good…..why don’t we have this in the States…. -drools- Truffle fries were ok. They were kinda soggy. 

Went to Shilin after, which I just combined into one post [here] since it’s easier that way ^^;;

Okay, almost done with Taiwan, just one more to go...