Krabi 1

*A deviation from normal postings - more photos (personal inclusive, less words).*

A long awaited trip that was planned for a couple of months before departure. Six friends, one trip. The last time we had something like this, was in 2001. This was a holiday different from the others. There was no museums, no buildings, no parks to visit *or planned*. It was a solely R&R getaway.

Arriving @ Krabi Airport

There was quite a queue at immigration, but it was so fun seeing everyone in summer/beach clothes. Such a relaxing atmosphere. Even the immigration officers are friendlier! At least he laughed with me when I did something ... unintelligent.

ST made arrangements for transfer to the hotel prior to departure which made things much easier. We checked in immediately on arrival, and got free room upgrades. Both rooms. All I can say was, WOW!

Red Ginger Resort

Boys'

The boys got upgraded to a Club Room, which could sleep 4 on its 2 storey room. Pretty convenient as we initially wanted to sleep 3 in each room. Which means, the girls on a room of their own!! *grin*

Girls'

The gang :)

We headed out to lunch soon after, at a restaurant just 5 minutes walk away. Food was reasonable, coconut juice was the highlight. *and many many more servings of coconut juice for the rest of the trip*

First view of the beach :)

Headed back into the hotel after, donned our swimwears, lather ourselves with sunblocks, sunglasses inclusive and off we were into town! With a tuk-tuk! :)

Tuk Tuk

Aonang

We decided to take a boat to Railay Beach to catch the sunset as well as for our first experience with the beach :).

While waiting for our boat

On our merry way to Railay

Towards Railay

Railay Beach :D

We were there a little too early for sunset, so we decided to brave the sea and went out on kayaks. It's been ages since we had such fun :).

We went out for about an hour before making in back just in time for sunset. Laid down on the mats that was provided by the restaurants there, we lied down and enjoyed the breathtakingly beautiful sun as it was setting.

:)

*Courtesy of ST*

Went back to Aonang via boat in the dark, searching for food before heading back to the hotel. We had our hotel organize a massage for us earlier in the day, and boy, were we impressed with the place. A pricier choice of massage, but definitely a proper massage place. Some of us got the traditional massage, and the others aromatherapy massages. I personally prefer aromatherapy massages, for reason I don't really know myself. Perhaps, its the scent or maybe its the feel of oil being rubbed in. We finally had dinner at 10 odd, 6 starving young adults.

Hong Kong Part 2

We started out the day with yumcha @ Maxim's, which was conveniently also located in the mall next to our hotel. We decided on a weekday rather than a weekend for the fear of queuing a long long line, Hehehe.

True enough, there wasn't a queue on Monday, but there was still a pretty big crowd. We definitely stood out as tourist as we didn't have much of an idea how things worked there. But that was okay, the staffs weren't unfriendly :).

Dim sums :D

I have to say that I had very high expectations of dim sums in Hong Kong as it is what they are famous for after all. Plus with all the chinese restaurant dim sums in Melbourne being run by Hongkies, the food's great. Maxim's however, fell below expectations. Compared to Melbourne & Perth anyway. But would surpass KL's standard.

The healthy cart

After yumcha, we made our way towards Citygate Mall in Tai Yu San via the MRT to Tung Chung. It's a factory outlet sort of mall. There's plenty of stores, so much that even by 6 p.m, we weren't done yet. A big range of shops, from Adidas, Nike, Roxy, Crocs, I.T, Esprit to Nautica, Polo, Club 21, Burberry.

Let's just say we had heaps and heaps of fun :D. Especially looking at kiddy's clothes. King Kow.. That's a cute one!

A hard day @ work :D

We had a good laugh over this one! LOL

We were supposed to leave after tea, but somehow got distracted and only left at about 630 p.m. But not before finding out where to get some good roasted goose :D. We initially wanted to head towards Yung Kee in Central which was recommended by quite a few people, but we found out that a single roast goose can go up to HKD 700 there. The nice salesgirl in CK also said the same and recommended Tai Hing to us instead, which is a franchise restaurant, and there was one near our hotel. She even gave us directions.

Roast pork, BBQ pork & Roast Goose

Yummylicious roast goose! *dribbles*

I am never a big fan of roast ducks or goose, but this - this was a class of its own! I so upset that I only got to eat this once!! :( . The meat was soft and juicy, with the crispy skin. The smell.. oh, so delicious :D. Oh, and it was only HKD 150 for half a goose. *double grin*

After dinner, we walked back towards the hotel again via Nathan Road, and this time, A and I got shoes instead. 3 pairs for me, and I think 1 pair for her. Cheap, cute shoes! Hehehe... Let's just say, I can get perhaps only 1/2 a pair in Melbourne for the 3 I've bought there. Absolute bliss.

Went back to the hotel to quickly change and headed out to Lan Kwai Fong for the night. See it on a lot of tv dramas and the hyped up talks about it, it's somewhere that we've just got to go! We initially wanted to head towards Aqua on No 1 Peking Road, which is said to boast a beautiful view of the harbour, but it closes at 1030 p.m on weekdays, which made it impossible for us to get there.

LKF

We went to Fong's in LKF. Someone's told me that LKF was really just a street that was lined with pubs, which was partially true. It wasn't a straight street as I thought it would be, it was more of a street that ultimately forms a square. Not a very big area, but definitely populated with pubs. More tourist than locals though.

Drinks @ Fong's weren't too bad. I had Fong's cooler, which was pretty decent though there wasn't much alcohol in the drink. It was more of a lounge than a pub.

Fong's

A fight broke out at one of the pubs nearby and B saw a guy with blood on his head escorted to an ambulance. The next thing was, policeman and women were walking up and down the street and interviewing witnesses. Interesting night indeed. We called it a night not too long after that.

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Woke up early the next day to fit in breakfast & shopping. We headed toward Fa Yuen Street to have a look around, but it was still too early at that time. Finally settled on a random char chan teng which served great hot soya milk and fried mee hoon!

Congee, Hot Soya & Fried Mee Hoon

It was one yummy yummy breakfast! I ordered 'Teng Chai Chouk' instead of the usual century egg & pork congee, but little did I know what they served in the bowl. Needless to say, I had all the eggs, and left the 'I-don't-know-what-pork-parts' alone. While the fried mee hoon does not look as appetizing, it really wasn't too bad. *We did have our doubts initially as it looked so pale!!*. They also had 'yau char kwai' which is a pretty good complement to congee :).

Yau Char Kwai aka Chinese Doughnuts

It was still too early for the shops to open, so we wandered around Fa Yuen Street instead where some of the vendors were already open. A few things to look and touch, but nothing much to buy. We managed to kill some time before heading back to the mall so that I could get my hands on the famous egg tarts - Tai Cheong egg tarts.

We had to kill more time while we were there as the tarts were being baked when we arrived. First batch of the day was to be ready at 1030 a.m.

1030 a. m - Egg tarts!!! :D

We had take aways, for both the egg tarts and bubble teas. The egg tarts weren't as good as I thought it would be. Not even comparable to the Tong Kee egg tarts in KL. For some reason, the egg tarts tasted a little salty. But the pastry was pretty decent. The bubble tea was apparently quite good according to the others.

Had them in the hotel room :)

Packed and left almost immediately after that, as our flight was at 2:45 p.m. Overall - it was a good 4 days of shopping in Hong Kong. More for some people than myself. LOL. Actually, definitely so.

"Cos I'm leaving, on a jet plane.
Don't know when I'll be back again...."

Bye-bye Hong Kong

Hong Kong

We spent 4 days in Hong Kong, mainly for shopping as we've all been there a few times previously either with full tour itinerary or free&easy tours which also do some sightseeing. So all we did this time was, wake up-eat-shop-eat-shop-eat-shop-eat-sleep :D. A total turnaround from the trips I've done in a long long time. The last time I've done this was way back in 2004!

Red taxis!

We made reservations at Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok which itself was a pretty decent hotel but I have to say that MRT station isn't all that close at all. The actual 'station' that is located under the hotel was actually a train station instead.

Hotel lobby

Our rooom

The mall is located next to the hotel, which is connected to the lobby. Really convenient. There is also a Pacific Coffee branch in the mall on the 2nd floor which provides free internet access for it's customers :D. *No need for hotel broadband access - the charges are ridiculous for this age and time! HKD 120/day or HKD 40/hour for access in your rooms*

We were starving when we got there and quickly headed out for a late lunch at Tsim Sha Tsui. We stumbled across a quaint little shop in a smaller alley, which caters a lot for the locals. It just had that charm - though there was several times I felt a little intimidated by the staffs there :( . But the food wasn't too bad for a random shop that we just selected :D.

Doesn't it just reminds you of the shops in HK dramas??

Lunch/Tea

It started raining pretty heavily after that, and we had to walk in and out of buildings to minimize being drenched by rain. It wasn't all that fun, to be honest but we finally got ourselves umbrellas after an hour or so, AND IT STOPPED RAINING after that. *sigh*

Came across a cute Mr Softie Ice-cream car :D

We spent a fair bit of time window shopping along Nathan Road and Canton Road in TST. Wanted to try the porridge and wan tan noodles on Canton Road initially, but we were still too full from our late lunch to do so.

After spending a fair bit of time (and $$) at one of the shops in TST, we headed back to Mongkok for supper before returning to the hotel as we were already pretty tired by then. But not before some curry fishballs!! And 'kai tan chai'!! :D

We had supper at a char chan teng opposite the stall above, but the food wasn't great so on our way back to the hotel, we got more of these :

A : You've made a new addition to my favourite foods!! :D

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The next day started with an A++ breakfast! :D I absolutely love char chan tengs. I don't know why, but somehow they have this appeal *to me anyway* Hehehe..

My breakky - Nissin + Egg + Ham :)

There was a crepe shop just beneath our hotel, in the mall, which apparently sold pretty decent crepes. I didn't have any, but they did look pretty yummy. Good enough for a second buy the next day... Hehehe

Isn't the display pretty? :)

While going through tripadvisor a few days before we left, I came across a thread that recommended Space, which was a prada outlet in Aberdeen. Not exactly a factory outlet, but they do sell goods at a lower price, though they may be either last season's, or in funky colours. Getting there was a little adventure itself. We took the double decker public bus :).

We didn't know where exactly the shop was and which bus stop to stop at, so we kept a lookout for it. Luckily, we saw it and got off right in front of Marina Square, with apartments and the sea nearby.

View in front of Marina Square

I love tall buildings :)

Dark, angry clouds on the horizon

There wasn't much to get at Space, so we left after a few pictures and headed back to Central for some shopping :). On our way there, we saw a group of protestors. What they were protesting about, we had no idea. Or rather, I had no idea..

It was a long long line of protestors - but calmly done though

Anyway, made our way to IFC Mall which didn't have all that much to offer after where we've been, but a view of the harbour it certainly had.

Outside IFC

IFC

We decided to give our poor feets a rest and decided to head to the top floor of the mall, where there was an outdoor dining area and enjoyed the view. Sigh, I bet the view's much much better without the cloudy skies :(.

We initially wanted to wait till dark so that we could take the Star Ferry back to Kowloon, but it was only 4:30 p.m at that time, and that means waiting for 3 hours with nothing to do!! Gave up on that idea and headed back to Kowloon for Temple Street.

Look at the crowd!

Temple Street

We decided to have dinner at the other end of Temple Street as we were too lazy to retrace our steps back to the earlier dinner crowd. That turned out to be a bad decision. Dinner was probably one of the least okay meals we've had in HK. The only thing that turned out okay was the braised goose.

Braised goose

It was time for dessert after that - Hui Lau Shan!! Where else!?! *grin* I remember the last time I went with a friend many many years ago. We practically lived on the mango desserts. It was for brunch, tea and dinner/supper. At least 2 meals a day!

Bird nest boiled in coconut milk

Mango + Jelly + Mango Ice-cream

Mango + Sago

Look at the amounts of mangos that they put in the bowls! Plentiful! Hehehe...

After that, we decided to walk on Nathan Street to Prince Edward Street from Mongkok MRT instead of the pedestrian bridge so that we could see a little more before going back to the hotel. See a little more we certainly did. They bought 3 pairs of shoes!! :D

Nathan Rd @ Mongkok