I'm on MC today.  Oh well, instead of lying on the bed the whole day, I decided to do some blogging! Growing "rusty" liao, so let me start off with the easier part - Hongkong & Shenzhen.  ^_^

After Korea, I continued my trip in HK for another 4 days, which was good enough for me to do shopping and eating. No sight seeing since this was like my fourth or fifth time to HK? And still my Cantonese sulks like anything. Compared to years ago, I think now you can communicate with mandarin and english. I even saw one HK cafe offering a specially made menu - pictures of the food with english & japanese wordings for the foreigners. Pretty tourist friendly, I must say. Anyway, if you wanna read about sight seeing in HK, can read my previous posts.

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From the airport to the town area, you can take the Airport Express which has stops at Tsing Yi, Kowloon and HongKong (there's this MTR stop called HongKong station, I dont mean the country hor). Currently, there's this "Buy One Get One Free Offer on the Airport Express Single Journey Ticket for Visa Infinite and Visa Signature Cardholder".  The website also offers other tourist cards, so depending on the duration of your trip, you may want to compare to see which card will help you save the most on transport fees. =)

For me, the single journey airport express works best and I just need to "loan" the octopus (MTR) card with a HK$9 fee, and I was good to go anywhere, including to Shenzhen. Simply, just pay HK$150, consists of HK$100 stored value and  HK$50 refundable deposit, at the Customer Service Centre available at all MTR stations.  

My hotel near Olympian Station. I cant really say the location is good. Hmm, it is walking distance to Olympian Station, Mongkok Station, Mongkok East Station, Fa Yuen Street, Argle Centre etc.  Then again, it requires a lot of walking to everywhere but taking the MTR will involve changing to different lines and takes up a longer time. So bo pian lah, we almost walked everywhere. The good thing is the hotel offers free shuttle bus to Kowloon Station, Langham Place & China HK City and probably the best part, it's near Olympian City (about 15 mins walk), so I managed to have brunch at Tim Ho Wan before my flight home. Keke


Hey hey, my hotel room number was my birthday 16 September! Keke

Here is a quick run through of the places that I went:

1) Luowu Commercial City (Shenzhen)

Direction: Take the East Rail Line to LuoWu MTR station (took about an hour from Mongkok East Station and cost about HK$33 for single trip).  Follow the crowd to clear the customs. Once you cross over to Shenzhen, you will see LuoWu Commerical City in front of the rail station.

What I did here was to do tailoring at the Cloth City (布城) which is at Level 5 recommended by a friend. You can choose the cloth and design and just let the tailor do his magic. There are many tailor shops at that place. The one that I went,  workmanship costs about S$30+ and after that, just need to add on the cloth's prices.  My dresses cost me about S$50 on average and my husband's shirts cost S$30 each.


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2) Eastern Garden International Food & Spa (Shenzhen)

Direction:  福田区金田南路文化中心2009号. 

Take the East Rail Line to Lok Ma Chau MTR station (yes, this is another station to go to Shenzhen). Similarly, just follow the crowd to clear the customs and there, you reach Shenzhen.  You can then either take a cab or the spa's shuttle bus.

Opening Hours: 24 Hours

I dunno where to board the shuttle bus since I went to LuoWu Commercial City to collect my dresses first (Yup, can collect after 3 days, otherwise the tailor can also arrange shipping to your country but at your own risk lah).  The cab from LuoWu to the spa was about RMB $30, so I reckon the cab fee from Lok Ma Chau / Fu Tian Custom should be cheaper than that.

Oh ya, the spa provides shuttle service to 2 customs, namely Fu Tian and Huanggang. If you wanna take the MTR, go to Fu Tian Custom.

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We took a queue number from the counter near the door, and waited for 1.5hour. Please dun dumb dumb and wait outside of the cafe, people already got their queue number and were waiting for their number to be called.

If you are not there where the staff calls your number, you can still try your luck when you are back. If the queue number already exceeded 30 counts, you got to re-take your queue number. Hey, that's what the chinese notice says, I tried my best to do the translation....

The super famous Baked Bbq Buns, who can miss it?


The baked skin reminded me of Po Lo Bun (aka pineapple bun) somehow and I must say it was really good.  Eaten best when freshly made and still good, when it was eaten cold. Erm, we liked it so much that we tabao and brought it back to the hotel for supper.

And guess what, I tabao back to Singapore as well... =p


Credits to these shi-fu working hard in the kitchen! Kudos to them!



The carrot cake was another die-for.  It was really addictive, and I missed it so much that I went for a second time in my 4 days trip in HK.  The pictures here were a collection of 2 visits lah, I cant eat so much at one go.  On average, we spent about S$30 for 2 pax per time.

Back to the yummy carrot cake, I like the fact that I can see/taste small little slices of radish/winter melon in it.  It was so good that you can totally ignore the chili sauce.



The glutinous rice was really fragrant having steamed in the lotus leaf, and I cant help but went for another serving of the rice although we were suppose to cut down on the starch in-take. The meat filling was also tender and tasty. 



The Malay Cake was suppose to be another signature dish. It was fluffy & soft alright but I think it's just personal preference, so I dun find it remarkable.



The bean curd sheet was crispy without being too greasy and the fillings were just nice.

But of coz, not every items was fantastic, which I think should order as last options to save the tummy for the better ones! LOL

Pan-Fried Beef Dumpling with Black Pepper Sauce  (HK$20)

This was not beef dumpling lah.. more like pan-fried beef fillet.  Lousy translation on the english menu.  Anyway, the beef fillet was okay lah, just that probably it should not be considered as a dim sum item.

Steamed Beef Ball with Bean Curd Skin (HK$16)

This was a no-no for me. It tasted so weird that we didnt even finish it.

Vermicelli roll stuffed with shrimp (HK$22)

Nothing to rave about this. I suppose we should have chosen our of the 4 Heavenly Kings - vermicelli roll stuffed with pig's liver.

Steamed Pork Dumpling with Shrimp (HK$24)

The siew mai also tasted funny.  *Frowned* I think it was the minced meat...

We cant bear to leave the place.... COM'ON, we queued for 1.5hours, I was not going to leave after 20mins! Keke



Normally know as osmanthus cake lah, served cooling.



Surprisingly, the dessert was served warm.  It probably felt kinda weird at first as we are used to the taste of melon or mango sago. It was a pleasant change with lessened sweetness.

Direction: The Olympian City is located beside the Olympia MTR Station
Address:  Olympian City, Block 2, Unit No G72

4) LAW FU KEE CONGEE AND NOODLE SPECIALIST 羅富記粥麵專家 (Hongkong) 

The porridge was super good lor, highly recommended. Why cant we have such porridge cafe in Singapore?? Uncle from HK, please come Singapore to open one? I will patronize your shop frequently, promise... >.<

I tried the sliced fish & pig liver combination, since you dun find pig liver porridge in Singapore. I finished the porridge in record time, with the ginger and spring onions (which I dun take usually) coz it was really good! I'm drooling now just by looking at the photos!


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This was really passable. The custard was okay but the pastry was nothing to rave about. I preferred KFC's egg tart, anytime. Dunno why other people is recommending this... Hmm

6) Tsim Chai Kee Noodle (Hongkong)




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7) Kwai Chung Plaza (Hongkong)




I read about this shopping plaza from blogs and so decided to check it out since I've never been there. My opinion? It's like People Park Shopping Centre. It's not quite trendy lah, make up of many small shops,and the items are just so so.

If you have exhausted all the shopping places, maybe you can come here. Otherwise, I think can skip this place. I spent like just 15 - 20 minutes "scouting" the shops, and couldnt find anything that fancy the eyes and so hopped back to the MTR to other shopping places. LOL

Direction: Kwai Fong MTR Station, Exit A. The Plaza is located just across the road from the station.


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8) Yuan Lang Lo Po Bin  (Hongkong)




The red boxes in the glass panel are containing the fluffy pastry with sticky winter melon filling, aka "Lo Po Bin" or "Wives Biscuits". The ready-packed ones (e.g. wing wah selling at the airport) are nothing comparable to these freshly made ones!

Hey, never go for the alternatives when you can easily get the best. There are quite a number of Hang Heung Cake Shop in other locations, so just google to find the most convenient location. 

Direction: Hang Heung Cake Shop, Counter at Sogo Department Store, Basement 1, Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station, Exit E/F or L

Opening Hours: 10am – 10pm daily


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Part 2 to be continued.....Stay tuned!