This was actually 2 days ago but I've been slacking on the posts yet again lolz. My roommate and I were being bums on a Friday night. We didn't feel like going out or anything but we decided to eat out. Since we didn't really know any local places we just walked around in the plaza. Then all of a sudden this guy came out of a cafe and gave us these promotional coupons so we decided to just eat there. It was sooo worth it. The whole meal you see above came down to HKD$110 which is like USD$7 per person. We could build our own meal and we chose the sweet & sour pouk, the grilled mackerel, and baby bokchoy. For the rice, I decided on a white and red rice veggie combo while my roomie just got the rice with veggies. She also got an ovatine while I got a horlick drink. The food was really good. I never knew rice could be eaten that way. Instead of like normal plain white rice, this was actually savory. The sauce on the pork was also really well done. The fish was a bit disappointing but overall it was a great meal. It was really cheap by american standards but apparently it was actually on the pricier end for this kind of meal. Afterwards, we walked around to get dessert. The great thing about HK is that you will find a dessert joint wherever you go and the dessert is always sooooo delicious and adorable. The pastries are so cute and they're actually on the lighter side so we each got like 2 mini-cakes. Freshmen 15 NOPE. More like Abroad 20 at the rate we've been eating. lololz
Just as the title says, this post will be about my touristy adventures in Hong Kong with the other exchange students. The first place we visited was Wang Tai Shin Temple. It's actually one stop on the MTR away from us but since our school was nice, we were all driven there by coach bus. The place was so amazing. It was a traditional Chinese temple and people were their burning incense and praying for luck. The architecture was a sight to behold but the smell was a bit intense. I was never a fan of the incense they burned because my mom would use to burn them too. If you walked beyond the original temple structure, there's a smaller version of the summer palace inside. Filled with waterfalls, ponds, waterways, and mazing walkways, the garden was so peaceful even with the bustling of all the visitors. Our next stop was the Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Causeway bay. The place was a 3 floored dim sum restaurant on a massive boat. It was built to look like a palace on both the outside and the inside. We had to take another smaller boat just to get to the restaurant. Once we were inside though, there were massive marble stairs leading upstairs. There was even a western touch with the glass chandeliers on the ceilings. The place was gorgeous and the food was really good too. It had better dim sum than the first place we visited. There were even fried mantous. These are basically fried chinese buns dipped that you eat dipped with condensed milk. The outside is super crunchy because it has been deep fried but the inside is soft and fluffy. It was the best I've had so far and even though I was super full at that point, I still had to eat another one. The next stop was stanley market and the surrounding areas in causeway bay. I walked around with a friend and even drew on a bubble at The Lovers' Terrace. That was actually quite adorable and I thought Brian would like something like that hahaha. We kept traveling around and even found another temple. This one was less crowded though and I was able to actually try the bamboo fortune telling things. Sadly though, I got a bad luck reading but it's alright. The guy there told me that it I didn't have to believe it and he actually burned the piece of paper for me lololz. Next we went to Stanley market, which is actually a market similar to Ladie's market in Mong Kok. A major difference though was that they were actual shops and the walkway was airconditioned. The shop keepers seemed like they were used to foreigners so I'm guessing that it was also a tourist trap. The only thing I bought was a pack of Hong Kong post cards. The last place we went to was Victoria's Peak. Since we didn't have much time, all we did was look at Hong Kong's skyline and take some picture. The view was breath-taking. Hong Kong is truly a beautiful city. I wish I came here at night and took the tram. The entire city lit up in lights must be amazingly beautiful. After this though, I was sooooo tired. We visited so many places in one day and all we did was walk. It was worth it though because we hit so many of the major must see points. I'm excited to see the local sites now and try their local foods.
What I didn't understand about HK culture was why they called entire meals afternoon teas. It's not like an english tea where you have like small snacks and tea. Here in Hong Kong, an afternoon tea is basically a full blown lunch. I ordered a tea set and it was a chicken cutlet rice set and dimsum appetizer with milk tea. So apparently, HK people call this tea even though it's a meal because they don't really eat lunch but rather have a late meal. Honestly it doesn't make much of a difference for me but I've learned that HK tea sets have more food and are actually cheaper hahaha.... XD Im probably gonna have more of these tea meals instead of lunch hehe since I have such late classes anyway. So after the orientation, my roommate and I decided to go trekking. It is so amazing how similar we are. We both like outdoor activities and we both have active lifestyles. Okay, so maybe it wasn't after orientation. It was more like during orientation while everyone was sitting in the hall, we were out finding mountain trails to hike. So there's a small mountain next to our school. We decided to find the path and hike it but they were all gated. It was so hilarious though cause the first thing she said when she saw the gate was, let's climb it. That is legit what I say every time I see a gate but no one ever takes me seriously. She's the first person to think so like me. I love this hehehe. So we jumped the gate and climbed up the path for a gorgeous view up on top of the mountain. The only bad thing about it was that I got bitten by like a million mosquitos. Afterwards we headed to park n' shop. It was like the asian version of stop n' shop lolz. So we bought a whole bunch of asian snacks and ramen. I even bought this kiwi juice thing that tasted really ...interesting.... It tasted like kiwi hi chew for those of you that know what it is. Honestly it was too sweet for my taste but it was a nice experience. So later that night, we were too lazy so we just went to the canteen to buy takeout. I was finally able to try the legit 3 boh fan from HK. It's basically rice with 3 types of bbq meat. Most of it was good except the char siu. I hate our canteen charsiu because it's always so dry. But after this meal, I'm starting to seriously feel like a local HK student. XD hahaha
Orientation was boring as eff.... So we just cut the second half after they brought us to a dim sum place ahhahaa. But seriously, I hate sitting in a place for so long and just listening to them talk. It makes me kind of anxious to move. Something cool I noticed though, was this small gallery of Chinese tools and tea sets right inside of the Chinese medicine building. That made my day since I like finding new and interesting random things. Ahhhh it's been so long since I made a new blog post. It's just been so hectic lately. It's like I'm busy but not really busy at the same time. I'm just finding it kind of hard to keep up with this blogging. So the other day my sensei brought me around Mongkok before church. It was so amazing that because the streets are crowded with little shops and pedestrians as well as cars. I was so afraid of getting lost that I had to trail closely behind Jack. But it was quite an experience. We visited goldfish street where there were literally tens of shops selling just goldfish in tiny little plastic bags. There were also shops that sold just dogs, or just cats and even chinchillas. They were all so adorable but too bad I wasn't allowed to take any pictures. Later we went and got bubble tea at this Taiwanese place called gongcha. Since I didn't like bubbles I got a green milk tea with herbal jelly. It was unlike any of the milk teas I've had before. The foamed milk was poured on top of the tea, sort of resembling a latte. But it was hands down the best bubble tea I've ever had. After that we headed over to his church. It was a friendly little church and I took the bus for the first time. I felt so proud. HK people definitely have the most efficient transportation system around. The buses are double deckers and there are even mini-buses that take you all over Hong Kong. That day I was also bitten by a heck of a lot of mosquitoes..... Dammit... But anyways we later went back to Mongkok to get street food. I had this skewer with little hotdogs wrapped in bacon thing and it was so good. It was just really oily as well lolz... Oh, and I also tasted this fried intestine thing. It wasn't that great though because it had this really weird smell coming from it....Next time I'll definitely try the stinky tofu. It was just a little overwhelming though cause it literally smelled from a block away. We also visited Ladies' Market which was a collection of street vendors selling fake products. It was a cool experience because it started raining all of a sudden but the wonderful thing is, all we had to do was just walk onto the sidewalks again. The awesome thing about shops in Mongkok is that they're covered. We also got dessert close by. I got some GaiDanJai which were so fluffy and sweet. Then we went to a dessert place and got greentea shaved snow. It was sooo good. Food in Hong Kong is just amazing. There are so many different things to try and I feel myself getting fat already. Time to start gyming again. |
ShirleyAsia | Hong Kong NYC to Boston to HK
Babson Class of 2016 Work Hard | Play Hard | Sleep Hard | ~ I love the beauty in details~ Archive
June 2015
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