Hongkong August 2014 Day 3: Day with HK-based Friends

My day started early on Day 3, a Saturday.  I had breakfast with my HK-based friends whom I met on different circumstances, but coincidentally they are now good friends as they are in the same circle as HK residents. CC is my closest friend at grad school when we were taking our Masters in Computational Finance, GdR is from UPCBA but we also know each other because he works as an analyst and covered my previous companies,  and WSKP works as a fund manager and we have met on official business but this has developed to friendship over the years.

We met at the breathtaking Ritz Carlton Lounge and Bar on the 102nd floor of the ICC Tower.   The ICC Tower is now the 7th tallest in the world and the highest in Hongkong.   The view was amazing!  I'm grateful to have had the chance to be there with friends.

After breakfast E and I had a late lunch at Tasty Congee and Noodle at the Elements Mall.  Look at their Coke Zero bottle, it's like a solo Coke from our sari-sari stores:

E and I spent the whole afternoon in Elements and went to all the stores before going back to the hotel to rest a bit before our dinner date with good friend RJW.

Dinner with RJW was at Brickhouse, the most popular Mexican Restaurant/Bar in Hongkong and we were joined by GdR since we were all together at UPCBA a few (?) years back:

Thanks RJW for the wonderful dinner!

After dinner, we went out for dessert and a tour of the mid-levels via the escalators, a first for E and I:

We had such a nice time with RJW and GdR!  We were out until we were all yawning!  :-)

Hongkong August 2014 - Day 2: Day in Central

Our second day started nicely with breakfast at the Continental Club Lounge.  As usual, loved the service there and the food was good and filling, I could eat all the smoked salmon I want.  This is also where we indulge in cheese and honey.

We took the Star Ferry to Central. The terminal was just a few steps from the hotel and this was a more convenient way of going to  Central than the MTR, and cheaper too.

Saw the Jollibee branch in Central and couldn't resist a photo.

We had lunch at La Vache! because I read about how the steak was really good.  But we had such a hard time finding the place.  We had to walk up the mid-levels to soho that by the time we got to the place, we were so tired and sweaty.  The food was good but the service was bad so we wouldn't be going back there.

They had only one item on the menu, which was the steak.

The fries were good, fried supposedly in beef fat!

It was an experience that we could talk about, but our conclusion was that it wasn't really worth the effort...

After lunch, we went to my favorite store COS and I was not disappointed!  Also went to Landmark to look at all the shops until we got so tired that we had to sit at a Starbucks Coffeeshop to rest our feet until we had the energy to go back to Tsim Sha Tsui, before the rush hour starts.

We did a lot of walking around at the Harbour City, until finally we couldn't walk anymore that we went back to the hotel in time for the evening cocktails at the lounge.  That was our dinner for the day!

Hongkong August 2014 - Day 1

E and I were fortunate to have had the chance to go on this trip together.  We looked forward to it because Hongkong is our happy place.  For this trip, we used Asiamiles mileage points and as usual we couldn't get an earlier flight, so we had to settle for an evening flight.  Whatever we saved for the air tickets was offset by indulging in staying at our favorite hotel Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel.

Photos at the airport:

We got to the hotel at around 9PM, and we thought that we could still dine at a nice Chinese restaurant.  But the restaurant in Harbour City rejected us saying that they already took last orders. Fine, sayang, gutom pa naman kami!

We settled for Cafe Marco at our hotel.

Our cozy room for the next four nights!

Orchestra of the Filipino Youth Iloilo Tour

The Orchestra of the Filipino Youth (OFY) was performing in Iloilo and as groupies, we decided that it is worth the trip, despite me not being really fond of domestic travel.

We stayed at Injap Tower Hotel owned by the former owner of Mang Inasal before Jollibee bought it and Jollibee's majority owner. It's Iloilo's highest building at 21 floors.

My Mom and I travelled Friday evening.  Our flight was delayed for 2 hours and we arrived at the hotel at midnight. But when we woke up, the restaurant at the top floor made up for the hassles of the night before. We had a nice time at the Horizon Restaurant.  Below are the C girls having breakfast:

The concert was at the University of San Agustin at a 1,000 capacity auditorium.  The kids were excited because it was their biggest audience yet.  We decided to sit a bit far to be able to view the whole stage.  The performance was overwhelming and merited a standing ovation.  I am not a classical music lover but the performance moved me.  It was also probably seeing young people so dedicated with their music. They clearly loved every minute of it.



The next day, Mom and I decided to go to Tatoy's, a very popular seaside restaurant and had freshly baked oysters and their special chicken inasal.  We couldn't order more because it was just the two of us.

In the afternoon, we proceeded to Nelly's Garden for the OFY Afternoon Soiree which was an exclusive event attended by prominent members of the Iloilo community. The setting was at this lovely mansion:

Performances were held at the different parts of the lovely house. Everyone had a good time listening  to classical music in a historic and beautiful setting.

Just sharing some special moments with my sister and niece:

Family Bonding at Abe's Farm in Pampanga

The O Family decided to go to MIL's hometown in Pampanga for a visit to the ancestral home and check out Abe's Farm  (part of the LJC group of restaurants where Abe of Serendra and Trinoma is a part of ).  Aside from the restaurant, there are villas, a spa and a swimming pool for those who want to spend the weeekend there.  The food was exceptional, among our favorites are the pako salad (which is a must), the crispy pata, sinigang sa bayabas and the laing.