Hong Kong

I was in Hong Kong for 4 days about a week ago. It was a very short  and rushed 4 days, there were too many things to eat and not enough time! The weather in January was awesome. It was cooling, at certain times cold, there was no rain and it was just like you were walking in a giant air-conditioned box. For a person who is quite afraid of the cold, I realised that as long as I am well-prepared and sufficiently covered, I can have a great time as well! :)

We arrived at about 11am in the morning, by the time we reached the city area where our hotel was, it was 12+pm. We absolutely adored our hotel!

Honestly, when you arrive at the Ground Floor lift lobby, you would be super apprehensive and wary. But fortunately, the hotel really exceeded our expectations.

And THIS was what enticed me to book this hotel actually...

It was great fun at night sitting here chatting, enjoying the aircon and playing cards...I've seen this type of rooftops umpteen times on HK drama serials, but to be able to stand on one was an experience in itself. :)

Not that we had time to watch DVDs....

A hand drawn MRT map on the wall...you really have to admire the patience.

The room was really tiny, but adequate. We aren't fussy people. :)

The room rate was pretty reasonable, at HKD$640 per room per night, which is about SGD$100+. Even though the room is small, but hotels in HK are all around this pricing. In addition, the staff there were fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese (not sure whether they know other languages) and were extremely helpful.

9/F James S Lee Mansion,
33-35 Carnarvon Road.
TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
www.hopinn.hk

Note: there are two Hop Inns in HK, both relatively near one another, but only the one at Carnarvon has the rest lounge and roof garden. The other only has rooms and nothing else.

By the time we've checked in, we were famished. Asked the staff at Hop Inn to recommend a good cha chan teng, and she recommended Tsui Wah. It's quite a popular chain in HK and they serve good food. The above Curry rice with Pork Chop was amazing, the curry was fragrant and the pork chop was crispy and tender. It was love at first bite.

Prawn dumplings that we ordered to share...big fat juicy prawns in the dumplings..yum!

I was really hungry and wanted some rice. Above was my rice with tomato egg and beef. It was good, the sweet and sour sauce was just right and the portion was big. My only gripe was that my beef wasn't tender enough.

The boyfriend's fried rice. The portion was huge and the fried rice was fragrant.

One of Tsui Wah's signature dishes. According to my friend, this is really delicious.

Tsui Wah has several restaurants around HK and they've managed to maintain the same standard for their food in their branches. Unfortunately, the service level is another thing. However, when you're in HK, don't expect too good service from eateries, restaurants. Even the more atas restaurants we went to didn't have fantastic service. Oh well. Just eat and go. :)