Hong Kong Visit: 4th for 2015

Hong Kong is starting to be my second home as I'm finding myself visiting more often.  My 4th for the year had me staying at Novotel Century Hotel in Wan Chai.  It was my first time to stay in that area and I felt a bit lost.  But later on discovered that the place had a lot of cheap and delicious restaurants.

Managed to see my HK friends CC and GDR, we dined at Victoria City very close to my hotel.

Our meetings were held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, around 1 km. from our hotel.

On our second night, our hosts brought us to 1938 Hey Hey, and authentic Hongkong restaurant offering roastings.

Day 2 of meetings, also at the Grand Hyatt with a view of the Hongkong Exhibition Center.

Hongkong for Business and Pleasure

I was lucky to be in Hongkong again for work. Got to stay at the Mandarin Oriental and it was great.  Loved the room and the Hermes bathroom amenities.

Also had the chance to see my MSCF BFF CC for dinner at Cafe Causette of the hotel.

E joined me and we got to see one of my college BFFs RJW. We had a most delicious breakfast at the Clipper Lounge of the hotel.  Had so much dimsum.

Also had two good meals with E, such as Cafe Angelina, the famous french cafe at IFC.

And this Asian restaurant in Landmark.

New Year 2015 in Hongkong

The C Family in Manila decided to spend New Year 2015 in Hongkong!  We had a wonderful time bonding over food, drinks, some shopping, but mostly food. We stayed at our favorite hotel, the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel.

Hongkong and Singapore in One Trip

My third official trip was to Hongkong and Singapore in one go.  One night in HK, whole day of meetings and then flew off to Singapore in the evening.  Then another whole day of meetings.  Tiring yes, but the hotel rooms made up for the stress. Got to stay at the Island Shangri-la again, this time with a view of the harbor. Although 32 hours in Hong Kong were just not enough, I got to go to my favorite store COS.  We were also invited to dinner at Ye Shanghai, an award winning restaurant serving, what else, Shanghainese dishes located at the mall below our hotel.

On the Singapore leg of the trip, I got to stay at the Fullerton Hotel again.

Invited my Mom's BFF in Singapore and her husband for dinner to thank them for letting us stay in their apartment last year.

Also got the chance to see my Singapore based High School friends.

Hongkong on Business

This time around, my Company sent  me to Hongkong, my favorite vacation place and I got to stay at the Island Shangrila.  Best of all, I got to see my good friends based in Hongkong!

Island Shangrila was nice but I wouldn't spend my hard earned money there, way too expensive.

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!

Hong Kong November 2013

E and I have been so stressed lately that we decided to take a break for the long weekend in November. Our happy place has always been Hong Kong.  We went on the first  Cathay Pacific flight at 5:10AM.  We tried the Cathay Pacific Lounge for the first time and we didn't like it.  The Miascor lounge is much much better.

We arrived in Hong Kong at around 7:00AM and were on the Airport Express within an hour:

Excited even if it was soooooooo early in the morning.

 Upon arriving at the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel at 9:00 AM , we didn't expect to check-in and to have complimentary breakfast at that, but they were already expecting us!  It was just a welcome surprise especially because we were up since 1:30AM.  Just because of that, I will be a loyal customer to them!  I loved the service and I thought worth every hard earned peso.

At the Continental Club Lounge for breakfast

Our home for the next three days

After a short nap in our nice hotel room, we went down to Harbour City.  My favorite clothing store COS was already in Harbour City and I almost went crazy, especially because their stylish clothes came in my size!  Purchased my clothing quota for the year :-)  Aside from COS, we went to all our favorite shops just to see what's new.

We shopped and mostly window-shopped till it was time to meet our dear friend RW in Lan Kwai Fong (LKF).  We looked forward to this because it's been so long since we've been there.  RW chose Mayta, a hip and happening (hip-hap) Peruvian restaurant.   We had a great time, but missed the gang!  We finished all the food we ordered, which included a suckling pig and a beef dish, plus appetizers.  We also had mixed drinks to go with the food. Thanks RW for taking time to have dinner with us!

RW and I wished that we wore high heels as what the party girls were wearing in LKF especially since I had a newly bought pair of heels.   But  we really doubted we could make it because we had to take the MTR and then climb up the cobblestoned hill.  Maybe we will just put our heels in our big bag until we reach the restaurant and then change into our heels then.  That will be for the next night out in LKF, hopefully with the other gurlz!