Hence, this time, I make sure myself visit the single most popular and opted as the best Dim Sum in Hong Kong by many people, Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum, which is also a Michelin starred restaurant.

Oh, they are the cheapest Michelin starred restaurant too from what I search.

I also had read about the long queues to dine here. Luckily, you don’t need to be in Queue. Just go and grab a number, and come back at a later time.

Oh, a thing to note yes, nearby the shop, is a boy’s heaven. Boys? Well, it sold loads of toys that guys like, especially RC cars and guns. Yes, those air guns. Man, just look at those superbly crafted guns is an art. Ranging from pistols to snipers. Too bad, I can’t bring it back to Malaysia or else I will DEFINITELY get one!!!!

Oh….look at how small our tables are!!

After quite a long wait (almost 90 minutes of waiting), finally it’s our turn. We are lucky as many people had took the number but does not come back in time, hence it jump past few numbers very quick.

At this point of time, I also noticed that at Hong Kong, it’s best to go as a couple for those places that need to queue. You will get your seat faster.

The restaurant is really really small, which can accommodate at max around 30 person at one time only, which explains the long long long queue eh. 

Traditional glutinous rice with chicken (古法糯米鸡) arrived first at our small small table. The first thing I get to notice is the strong lotus leaf smell when it’s on our table. The rice is very soft. However, I don’t really prefer this type of marination. 6.5/10

The Steamed Fresh Shrimp Dumplings (晶莹鲜虾饺） is pretty awesome as the prawns inside is huge, and most importantly, the prawns are still juicy, unlike most places where the ingredients are usually dried up due to being steamed too long. 7.8/10

One of the most famous dish here is the crispy cha siu bao (酥皮焗叉燒包). However, this dish ruined everything. No, it’s not because that it’s bad.

I din’t expect that the char siu inside is so damned hot, and hence the first bite of mine, the whole burning hot char siu fly straight back to my throat. It totally ruined everything as while my throat  is very pain that I can’t really enjoy the food. To make thing worse, Tim Hou Wan does not served any cold drinks at all, and I have to live with the hot tea, which, well, just won’t help in my situation.

However, the char siu bao is really good. 8.0/10

Steamed rice noodle with char siew is pretty good too since the rice roll is silky smooth, something which you can’t get in Malaysia. 7.5/10

Teochew Fun Guo (潮州蒸粉果) seems to be pretty famous in most Dim Sum Restaurant in Hong Kong, but it’s not something which I and LY enjoy. It’s main ingredients are dried shrimp, dried radish, chopped peanuts, mushroom and few more. 7.0/10

The Siu Mai (鲜虾烧卖皇) here, to me is out of the world delicious!!! It’s literally the best ever Siu Mai I ever tasted before. I don’t know the ratio of the pork and parwns, but man, it’s delicious!! Some little bit of mushroom slices make this even more wonderful! 9.8/10

In total, it cost us HKD 110, which is definitely one of the cheaper Dim Sum among all those famed ones in Hong Kong.

Yes, it might be expansive if you were to compare the price to Malaysia, but bear in mind that in Hong Kong, cost of living is very high that almost every meal is at least double the price from what you get in Malaysia.

Oh, and besides, if you were to compare with others Michelin starred restaurant, Tim Hou Wan is definitely far far cheaper since most of them cost at least HKD150 per person to dine there.

However, if you were to asked me will I ever queue up for 90 minutes again for my next trip in Hong Kong, it will definitely a big NO.  90 minutes is just way too long for me.

Another however, since Tim Hou Wan is very near to ladies street, I might as well go and take a number, then walk around for like 1 hour before I going back and wait for my number. A 20 minutes or so queue is bearable.

Total Damage: HKD110 for 2 pax

Operation Hours: 10am-11pm.

Location: Shop 8, Taui Yuen Mansion Phase 2,2-20 Kwong Wa Street, Mong Kok

1 particular person helped me a lot on planning my itinerary, which is Northasian, the forum + blog owner of AllAboutHongKong. Just go over her (I think….) forum, and you can ask her for advice, all for free and most importantly, prompt and good advice. Thanks again, Northasian.

It’s a food court in the Mong Kok Cooked Food Market, and finding a place to sit is real hard…..even when ‘dap toi’ aka sharing table with others. 

The first thing 1 should do at Hong Kong is definitely getting the Octopus card. It’s something similar as our Touch n Go card, but far more convenient since many vendors are accepting it. I get 1 each for me and LY for the sake of convenient purpose of KTM rides.

I also straight away reload HKD500 for my octopus card since I heard that many restaurants accept Octopus card for payment. Also, I can use it at 7-11, and best part, by paying just a bit, I can cash back all the leftover amount in the card anytime I want.

For most of the food stalls here, you were need to collect your food yourself. But I was told that they will sent it to me when it was ready. However, the wait is so long (around 20 minutes) that we wonder, is it that I listen wrongly? LY went and asked again, and we are assured that they will sent it to us when it’s done.

It’s usually easy for me to hunt for food since I am using GPS ( Thanks a lot to guys from Malsing and Malfree). Just set it and go.

But it’s totally different in Hong Kong. Without Papago, I am helpless. I did subscribe to the PCCW wireless, where there are over 9000 hotspot in all over Hong Kong. BUT it’s still not convenient at all. The range of wifi is so short, and hence I can’t really use google map with it. 3G is so much a win over wifi.

The Curry Pork in Bread set (咖哩豬柳農夫包) @ HKD48 is well worth all the foot work. The texture of the pork itself is nice and gooding. Besides, the small bowl of curry that were given for you to dip the bread taste nice too. However, it’s sweet based so it’s very different from what we had in Malaysia. 7.8/10

It was noon time and we are walking around quite aimlessly to find where the hell is my target restaurant. There are like a gazillions of shops around, making finding the sign board of anything is just so damned hard.

Both me and LY are hungry, and the burning sun doesn’t help. It was mid-October, but the weather is still hot.

The super crazy famous Gong Cha. We queued up for almost 20 freaking minutes on it!

There are times that we almost gave up for finding where it is, since we are walking around that area for like 20minutes or so, but still couldn’t sure that are we finding at the right place or not.

Luckily, it wasn’t long before I finally saw the Mong Kok Complex word on 1 particular building, which is where the food court – Mong Kok Cooked Food Market located at.

The absolutely unworthy drink. 0.1/10 (It ain’t that bad, but the wait make it so)

After that, we head to the famous Ladies street, which actually reminds me of Petaling street very well. The whole street is full with people around, which makes walking around very hard. Only then, I remember it’s Sunday…..Sigh.

4 days 3 nights in Zhuhai (include 1 day in Macau) end so fast, and we are back to the Zhuhai Jiuzhou Ferry Terminal (九洲港) to take a ferry to HK-Macau Ferry Terminal (港澳码头), Hong Kong.

Our ferry is 9am, and hence after we purchased the ticket, we have our breakfast at KFC. The pork burger tasted amazingly good, even better than the one I had at Macau as it’s juicier! Yummy.

After 1 hour of ferry ride, we arrived at the HK-Macau Ferry Terminal (港澳码头), and after being sardined when passing the border, we arrived at our hotel in Hong Kong, which known as Wifi Hotel.

It’s really a small hotel as each floor only have 3 rooms. The room is very small too, but well, suited for our purpose. iPhone dock and DVD player are available too.

The really small toilet, reminds me much of First World hotel at Genting.

Although the staff at the hotel service is quite good, but seriously, I won’t really recommend anyone to stay here. Reasons is there’s nothing much you can do nearby the hotel (under 10minutes walking distance), and due to the hotel is located middle of the Wanchai MTR station and Causeway Bay MTR station, it also take 10minutes of walking to reach either of the MTR station.

As MTR station is consider as everything in Hong Kong, so if your hotel is located like 100m from your hotel, it will really save your energy a lot.

Oh ya, although the hotel brand itself as boutique hotel, I seriously can’t see anything about it.

Total Damage: RM1952.18 for 4 nights, purchased from Agoda.

Website: http://www2.wifihotel.com.hk/

Locaion: Wanchai, Hong Kong island, China

Thanks god too, after raining for the whole morning, it’s finally stopped at around 2 PM and we can explore around here.

While there are many historical buildings around here, there are many food stalls around too. I just love the bubble milk tea here, and I especially enjoy their smaller than usual bubble. 8.0/10

Of course, how can one miss out pork burger when at Macau?!! However, the quality differs from each stall , and while some are super tasty, the one I had is just normal. 6.0/10

The crazy famous Kui Kee that got like 5 to 6 shops (or more) in the tiny Senado Square. And each of them is full with people!! You can sample most of their cookies before you buy, and I guess almost everyone come to Macau will buy something back from them. To me, I am not a fan of all these cookies.

While walking around, we also saw a short line queueing up somewhere, which is Poon Weng Kee Cookies (潘榮記減蛋金錢餅).

Each cookies is hand made and since they did not mass produce, each of them is oh so fresh.

However, seriously I don’t find anything special on this thing that made by using egg yolk, flour, sugar and butter only. 4.0/10

After finish explore around Senado Square, we saw Yee Shun Milk Company(義順牛奶公司).

They are famous for their Double steamed milk pudding, which many had says it’s superb. Too bad, I don’t really like this type of pudding too….neither did LY enjoy it. However, it’s so so so so much better than the one I tried at Fohsan, Ipoh, lol. 5.5/10

All in all, Senado Square is still a must visit place for anyone came to Macau. I regretted very much that I can’t find Margaret’s Cafe to try their famous Portuguese egg tart. Too bad, maybe next time.

Total Damage: Pork Burger + Pearl Milk Tea @ HKD 23

Poon Weng Kee Cookies @ HKD10

Double steamed milk pudding @ HKD20

Location : Sendao Square, Macau

We left our hotel early at around 8.30AM, and prepare to spend 1 full day here at Macau. However, the weather destroyed my plan totally. It’s raining heavily and well, I just have to shift my plan here and there, leading to many of my initial plans of eating cannot be met.

One thing good about Macau is, since there are so many mega-casinos here, once you are out of the Gongbei border (拱北口岸) and step into Macau, there are just so many casino bus around willing to give you a free ride to their casinos. Buses available are from Wynn, Venetian, Sands, MGM, City of Dreams and many many more. The bus won’t wait until they have full capacity, instead they leave every few minutes hence the down town is actually very small.

Since it’s raining heavily, we went to Venetian first and have our brunch here.

One of the most famous dishes in Macau is the Portuguese Curry Chicken. I had a very bad experience on a super tasteless and extremely expansive version of this dish the last time here at Venetian, but at another restaurant. However, since LY did not try this before, I decided to order for her to try and see the difference between Malaysia’s curry and Portuguese.

However, this particular stall served good Portuguese Curry Chicken. It’s very fragrant and thick. Besides, they also give a whole 1/2 chicken to us. 7.0/10

The braised oxtail is also quite good, as the meat is very tender. However since the curry is too strong in flavour, making it taste too bland after eating the curry. 6.6/10

I also try their beer to cheer up the day before we starting to explore Macau.

Total it cost us HKD190 for our brunch, which is not entirely cheap, but well, what’s cheap in Venetian? We then walk around to see the skies and hear they sing, then head to City of Dreams to see the bubble bubble which is quite okay, and then head to Wynn to see the pretty lame dragon (in my opinion).

After that, only we head to Senado Square, which is in my next post.

Total Damage: HKD190 for 2 person

Location: Food court in Venetian, Macau

However, almost 99% of my friend who went to China, they all came back and whine about how sucks the food there is. However, that’s also because 99% of them who went to China, they all follow tour, and as far as I know, if you follow a tour for any trip, the food is usually 99% sucks to the max.

Most Malaysians also complaint that food in China is wayyyy too oily, but you might have to take note that in China, they uses chopsticks and rarely use spoon. They don’t pour the gravy on their rice like what we always do.

And hence, I always have faith for food in China. Luckily, even since the first time I visited Zhuhai, I am in loved with the food here. This particular restaurant - Hong Yu Xuan, which served authentic Szechuan （川菜）is my absolute favourite restaurant when I am in Zhuhai.

Century egg, also being listed as 1 of the most disgusting food by CNN is 1 of the must order appetizer here. I am not a huge fan of century egg back at Malaysia, mainly because we either eat it plain like that, or fried it when eating lor bak.

However, the century egg here are dip with the chilli oil and chillies on top just make this an amazinnnng appetizer. Absolutely perfect! 8.8/10

Their steamed grill fish is also 1 of the signature dish here. The fish itself is briefly grilled before it was steamed. It’s a bit spicy and taste a little sweet, but overall, very nice. However, since most of the fish here are grass carb, a freshwater fish with loads of bones, it’s a minor setback.  7.0/10

And finally, the dish that I loved the most here – Xiang La Prawns (香辣虾）. Although the prawns is a bit small, but the numb and spicy feel when eating it, while drinking some nice cold beer, man, it’s good to be alive! Besides, we also opt to have some black fungus and Enokitake (golden needle mushroom) in it. Arghh…how I wish I am in China now!!! 9.5/10

Usually when the portion is not big, they will mix all the prawns, crab and frogs（牛蛙） in 1 bowl, but since there are 6 of us, they separate it into 2 bowl. The Xiang La Crab (香辣蟹）taste exactly the same as the prawns, and it’s as yummilicious as it. 9.5/10

Oh ya, before I forget, there are 3 level of numbness and spiciness level that you can opt for, which is either small, medium or big. We usually opt for small spicy and small numb, but 1 day I would definitely want to try the big version, hehe.

The forgotten dish actually tasted quite nice too, but well, the overall taste of the crab and prawns is just too strong that makes the fish forgetful. 7.5/10

My absolute No.1 favourite restaurant in Zhuhai. The whole row got many other restaurants, just that I don’t have the chance to try it all yet.

Total Damage: RMB674 for 6 person (Most of the food here including the fish and prawns is very cheap, it’s just that crab is usually very expansive in China. The crab alone cost at least RMB300 already)

Contact: 07563228229

Location: 珠海市情侣南路青蓝食街344号

Finally, 2 weeks ago, I am able to squeeze a small trip to Zhuhai, Macau and Hong Kong.

Well, since the name Zhuhai appear again, it just means that this is not a pure holiday trip, but it’s a combination of holiday + business trip. I wonder, when only I will have a pure holiday trip out of Malaysia eh? My last pure holiday trip is also in Hong Kong, which was 2 years back, and no…..Danok is NOT overseas, neither that I counted it as out of Malaysia too…….

Chee Cheong Fun with some shrimps and soy sauce only. It will be wonderful if inside have prawns and char siew, too bad. 6.0/10

Hong Kong is basically the country I visited the most, even more than Thailand. Although I only went to Hong Kong for holidays 4 times up till today (twice during my secondary years), but almost every time when I visited Zhuhai, I will take a flight from Penang to Hong Kong, and then only take a ferry to Zhuhai, China.

Har Ji Mee aka shrimp roe noodles. While the noodle itself taste good where it’s really hard to find noodles with this type of texture in Malaysia, it really tasted too bland. It’s just plain noodle with some shrimp roe on it, which makes it quite tasteless in my opinion. 6.0/10

We arrived safely at Hong Kong Internation Airport at around 11.45AM, wishing to be able to catch the ferry to Zhuhai at 12.30PM, only to be told that we need to purchase the ticket at least 1 hour beforehand since we have check-in luggage.

Too bad, our next choice is the 2.30PM ferry. A 3 hours wait is just so waste of time! We have our first taste of Hong Kong food here at the airport which cost us HKD87 in total.

The wonton (dumplings) come with the noodles, and taste very good since it’s big in size and full with meeeeattttt inside. The soup is yummy too. 7.5/10

The ferry from Hong Kong International Airport to JiuZhou Port, Zhuhai takes approximately 60minutes.

You DON’T need to pass the customs and take your check-in luggage yourself. Just pass your check in luggage ticket to the staff when you purchase your ferry ticket at the counter. And poof, your luggage will magically appears when you arrive at the port in Zhuhai.

Again, I repeat, you DON’T NEED to pass the customs, or else you won’t be able to take the ferry from the airport, but need to go all the way in to Hong Kong city and board from there, which is a waste of time.

At only RMB320 per night, the room is pretty good. Free internet connection too. 

Our hotel in Zhuhai is Zhuhai Holiday Resort Hotel, which is only 5 minutes from JiuZhou port.

It’s a HUGE 5 star hotel. You can play tennis (4 outdoor court and 1 indoor court), ping pong, bowling, swim, arcade, and even fishing or row a boat at the lake inside the hotel. Amazing, no?!

Absolutely love the bathroom, I gonna install this at my house in the future, right in the middle of the living room, hell yea!

However, since the hotel it’s so big, every time I want to go out, I need to call the front hall so that they will arrange a bus/van to my room and fetch me to the front hall. In my opinion, this is way too troublesome although the wait time is acceptable (around 5 minutes max only).

Besides, the hotel is located out of the city, and anywhere I go, I have to call a cab, unlike my previous stay in Zhuhai where the hotel is located right in the city.

With an opening on top, 1 can certainly enjoy the nice smell while the others is doing his/her big business inside. 

We stay 3 nights in here, 1.5 days are busy visiting expo and meeting with suppliers, and the other day we head over to Macau early and came back late. Hence, we really don’t have much time to walk around Zhuhai at all. We also never used any of the facilities inside the hotel, which makes me kinda regretted for not spending 1 more day here.

In my opinion, if you are coming over to Zhuhai for whatever reasons, and don’t plan to use any of the facilities in this hotel, don’t stay here as the location is bad. You can easily find many other hotel which offers the same service  and room, at a cheaper price (not much difference) but with a much much better location.

Total Damage: RMB320 per night

Website: www.zhuhai-holitel.com/

Locaion: Zhuhai, China

The next morning, we wanders around for breakfast. There are few stalls beside the road full with people, and hence we decide to have our breakfast there.

The pork leg rice @ RM4 looks really pale and uninteresting when it served, but it’s good. The meat is super tender, the gravy is nice and it just taste amazing! Eat it with their chili, it is just greatttt!! However, the vegetables taste bitter though. 7.5/10

The koay chap @ RM5 in the other hand, does looks interesting with loads of ingredients. It taste good too. 7.0/10

The chicken rice @ RM4 again, looks uninteresting and as a carnivore, the meat is really just too little for me. BUT, the rice itself tasted really good! 7.2/10

After checking out from the hotel and before heading back to Malaysia, we have our lunch at a place where I forgotten. Couldn’t be bother too since the food is mediocre.

Steamed Keng Som Fish, something which I just don’t like how it taste. 4.0/10

Fried Lala….. Normal la. 5.5/10

The forgotten roasted duck and roasted pork until we remind them, which is just meh too. 4.5/10

After this trip, I finally found that food here ain’t that cheap as in the past already. Crazy amount of Malaysians entering this small town had made it become a small tourist place and hence, price soar.

However, people still come to here for the one and only one reasons……..

My next trip to Thailand will definitely be Hatyai, a place which the last time I go is more than 10 years already.

I usually came here for few hours only and I am back.

However, for the first ever time, I decided to overnight here.

One of the many fried chicken stall. Yummy if you don’t mind the cleanliness. 

And no, it’s not what you think. My mum and LY are with me…….

HAHAHA!!

Sticky rice with mango, which my mum loveeee…..

Unlucky for us, most of the newer and cleaner hotel are fully booked! It really shocked me. Well, I can understand if we are in Hatyai, but here?!

A small stall that’s rather interesting to me. BBQ! 

Luckily, finding a hotel is never a problem here since there are just so many around. BUT to find one which is cleaner is quite a big task. Walking around with our luggage, and finally we managed to check in one which seems okay to us.

BBQ intestines, which is delicious. 

The expressions of the receptionist is really funny when my mum asked for a room with extra bed, or a room that have 2 single bed instead of a queen size one. Guess you should know what kind of business they are actually in eh?

Crab cooked with curry powder at my favourite Ped’s Restaurant.  The crab are fresh and kinda huge, too bad it taste okay only. 6.5/10

Since it’s a hot day, I decided to buy a can of beer to cool down, but I can’t open the fridge door in 7-11. It’s locked!!! WhatttttT????!!!!!

Thai style Pork Leg which is rather disappointing too as it’s too hard to bite. Besides, the crab and the pork leg cost us RM122, which I find that it’s ridiculously expansive. 5.8/10

Then only I noticed that there’s a notice on the fridge, saying something such as “Today is an important Buddha day, No liquor can be sold”.

Whao!!!! I never know that, culture shocked eh!!!

It’s 16th July 2011 when I am there by the way.

Elephants on the street!!! 

And yes, 7-11 do follow the laws well. I end up able to buy it at some other restaurants, but was told I can only buy back and drink in my room, and not at their shop.

Looks like they do enforce their law well eh?

To be continued….

The lounge is nicely design with floor to ceiling glass window offering some great view of Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya.

Royal Club Room guest can enjoy this lounge whole day, either having some small chat here while enjoying the view, or using the free wireless broadband, or even use the 2 iMacs here. Besides, you can also enjoy free flow of coffee and tea, bottled mineral water, soft drinks and bottled fruit juice too.

Hors d’oeuvre, or better known as appetizers or starters are served daily from 6.00Pm to 8.00Pm too. I personally feel that starting at 6.00PM is a bit too late for me as I usually have my dinner quite early. Starting at 5.00PM or 5.30PM will be much better, but that’s for me.

Food choices are limited with some salads, fruits and some fusion dishes.

Besides, evening cocktails are free flow during this hours too. It seems to me all the liquors here are the cheaper ones in the market, but since it’s free, can’t complaint too much right?

Besides liquor, red and white wine, and champagne are served here too. LY loved the champagne here since it’s sweet based.

I try to eat as little as possible when I am here, but ended up I treated the pre-dinner as my dinner. I enjoy the pandan chicken very much, and end up I have to cancel my reservation at Prime as both me and LY are too full for it.

Total Damage: Complimentary from staying in the Royal Club Room @ Le’ Meridien Kuala Lumpur

Operating hours: 6.00PM to 8.00PM for Hors d’oeuvre

Location: Level 33 @ Le’ Meridien Kuala Lumpur

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