I Love BJ

Before I start writing about our trip to Beijing I want to emphasize how disgusting and creepy Chung King is:



If you look really closely you can see that people added air conditioners by grabbing some bricks and made it into a DIY project.

The First Day

On to Beijing! I was pleasantly surprised to see that Beijing isn't as crowded as I imagined. Maybe because Beijing is 16 times larger than HK so it seemed like it is less populated. However, tourist attractions are a totally different story - way too crowded and way too hot! Just to remind everyone we went on a tour and good thing because no one speaks english or cantonese.

So the first day was pretty relaxed. We went to dinner at a restaurant that tried to mimic a feast an emperor would have back in the day. The food was okay but to be honest I didn't particularly like any of the food we had. It might've been because it was tour food or because I'm not used to the type of cuisine. Anyways, after that we went to Wangfujing where we shopped a little and tried the street food. I was hesitant to try anything but I had to try the asian-style candied strawberries on a skewer. So delicious I went for seconds!



They had some interesting local delicacies like star fish, silk worms, etc. Of course Norm had to try something gross:



It looks like meat but it's actually water beetles =\

After that we checked into our big hotel room, which was a nice change from HK. But no matter how big the bed, waking up at 6:30 am everyday is still a chore.

The Second Day

The next day was a very long and cruelling one. We had a 6 hour walking journey through Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (Pic 1), the Summer Palace (Pic 2), and the Olympic area. The Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms and we saw all of them! Kidding... we only saw one part of it. There are so many rooms there that if you were to live there from birth and you lived in different rooms for everyday of your life, you'd be 27 before you'd finish living in every room. It was very cool to see how emperors used to live. They have a building for everything - even one for greeting his counsel every morning.




We couldn't go inside the Bird's Nest stadium because we made our own plans to go see an acrobatics show. Before watching the show we needed to grab some dinner, which was very very difficult to do. We ended up going to one random restaurant, didn't like the food, and went to KFC. It was all worth it because the show was amazing! Way better than any acrobatics show I've seen in Toronto. (Norman's Note: 10x better than Cirque de Soleil)

-M

The Third Day

Before I discuss the third day with you, I just want to emphasize how semi-balling the Beijing Marriot is. It's considered "5 stars" and just take a look at the room. Pretty swanky if you ask me. At least it's better than the Marriot in Toronto.



Anyways, the third day is what I call "tour guides squeezing money from silly tourists". There are always these trips that the tour guides take you to convince you to purchase something, and the tour guides get commission for the purchases. Anyways, in the morning we went to to an Eastern medicine shop and obviously the elderly Chinese people end up purchasing everything under the sun. Next, we went to a Jade store, where the purchasing spirit was more tepid. In any case, Mandy and I were just bored and hung out. Nothing particular of interest.

After that, we went to do the cultural stuff. We check out the Ming tombs where various emperors were buried. Pretty cool stuff. Below is the "archway to the dead". When you're leaving, you have to walk through the door and say "I'm back home" to go back to the land of the living.




The coolest cultural thing was when we visited the Great Wall of China. Talk about a workout... it stretches over 9000km and slopes up and down these large hills. Amazing view, but also amazingly tiring during the trip up the hills. I have to admit, there were some seniors that managed to get up and down the same hills that I got winded in. I'm not sure if that's an indication of their vitality or an indication of me being out of shape. Regardless, I was still impressed. Some of the scenery:



Anyways, that day for dinner we had Hot Pot, which to my gwai loh friends is a pot of boiling water and various meats and vegetables that you boil, then dip into sesame/soy sauce. Quite delicious, but eating at home is much better in my opinion.



Lastly, we checked out the Bird's Nest stadium at night... which is way better.



The Fourth Day

To begin the fourth day, we went on a ride in Hutong Village via rickshaw. It was a really cool village - a blend of old China and modern China. There were a lot of tourists and expats there so it was cool to see some white faces. Check it out:



After that, some more cultural stuff. We went to Tian Tan to see the heavenly stone, and the village surrounding. To be honest, though it was good to get back in touch with my cultural roots, it was quite trying with the weather being very hot and the lack of air conditioning. Also, all these villages which the emperor may visit do not have trees whicih exacerbates the heat issue. (Trees are absent because they pose a danger to the emperor through assassins, etc.) Here's a picture:



Another notable thing we did that day was that we went to see a Kung Fu show. It was about a young boy who became a buddhist monk, I thought it was pretty good, but Mandy looked like she was about to fall asleep. I guess the violence of Kung Fu is able to catch my attention. (Mandy's note: it had no plot and the Kung Fu sucked)

The Fifth Day

Good thing the very last day in Beijing was just shopping trips because we were pooped. We had imitation "shark fin" soup for lunch along with some bland chinese dishes. After lunch they tried to kill time by taking us to a mall that sells all fake stuff and a silk linen store. Finally after many hours of boredom we arrived at the Beijing airport =)

We are sooooooooooooooooo glad to be back in HK. Beijing was clean and spacious but it's great to be back home!

-Normster the Gangster

How can the Louis Vuitton store be so close to the ghetto!?

Today my aunt was ditching us for lunch so we had to get by on our own. Good thing for us, Leo suggested a good place to eat in the K-11 Mall. This place was called Hana and it was the best 98 HKD I've sent on food yet.



Mandy got the eel rice, but my dish was obviously more delicious. But you be the judge:




Afterwards, we went to check out Tsim Sha Shiu. The sketchiest place there is a place called Chungking Mansion. We walked a circle around, but Mandy was already super sketched out going there and for good reasons. You can stay there for 100 HKD per night, but obviously you get what you paid for. Don't believe me? Google the hotel and see what previous tenants have said about it... Ironically, it is less than a block away from the most expensive hotel in HK (Peninsula, 1 night is $1500 for the cheapest room and there is an option to ride the Rolls Royce back to the airport on checkout for an additional $1500 HKD). Also it is steps away from Louis V and Gucci and all that other baller stuff.

We also did some museum hopping (museums are free on Wednesday). The space museum is horribly outdated and none of the exhibits even worked. The science museum was in much better shape. The coolest exhibit was the optical illusion exhibit. However, the ROM in Toronto is still significantly better.

Anyways, packed at night and is going to Beijing. In Beijing, the censors will be preventing us from updating so expect a longer post in about a week. Gonna get in touch with the asianess in me!!!

-Norm

Tuesdays at the movies

One thing that remains consistent between Canada and Hong Kong is that the movies are always cheaper. We watched Exam, which was a very interesting movie, despite the low rating from Rotten Tomatoes. Essentially, it's a movie about 8 candidates locked in a room for a job interview and there are three rules: 1) Do not try to talk to the Invigilator or armed guard in the room, 2) Do not choose to leave the room, 3) Do not spoil your paper. When they flip open the piece of paper, the paper is blank and the candidates have to try and solve the problem. It's a pretty good thriller, and for an indie film, it is pretty good.

We also took a gander at real estate in Hong Kong as my aunt is interested into moving into a new place. We checked out the Hermitage and learnt a few things. One was that real estate is crazy expensive in HK (about 12,000 HKD per square foot, even more 15,000 HKD/square foot for ones with views). Second, real estate agents are super aggressive. While walking, I was approached from this real estate agent and I kind of pushed my way through. He offered his card anyways, and I inadvertedly took it and immediately got swarmed by more agents. Note to self: never talk to anyone in Asia.

Afterwards, we also went to Temple street to check out the night market. A little bit of drinking on the streets plus a bar afterwards. Check out some of the palm readers.



2 more days till Beijing!

-Ndawg

Modern Toilet + Bowling

On Monday we met up with a couple of friends to eat from a toilet and drink from a urinal... not kidding:



The restaurant is called Modern Toilet and it's a hot spot for young school girls. The food actually isn't very good but it has an interesting atmosphere. I needed to use the washroom and I fell for the fake washroom door trick. =(
After that we went bowling and after 2 turns my hand was tired and my game started to deteriorate. Even bowling is much cheaper in HK. One hour of play only cost 40HKD including shoes!

-M

Weekend Festivities

This weekend has been action-packed. Firstly, every Chinese person knows that if you visit Hong Kong, there is always chilling with family time. I do like chilling with the fam, it's always good to stay in touch. Anyways, after the morning where we went to this amazing scrambled egg and buttered toast place, Mandy and I went to visit my uncle Jeremy (who's on my mother's side). We went to Tsing Yi station where we did some light shopping. (Actually, it was more like Mandy and my aunt Stella looking at diamond rings). However, I have learnt a significant amount regarding diamond quality (D diamonds are the clearest), as well as different clarities and cuts. Though, I still can't understand why they're so expensive. Anyways, after that we went to visit my grandpa along with the rest of my mom's side of the fam. Mad food as usual (shrmip, fish, duck, roast pork, veggies, rice, etc). Mahjong afterwards, which I got utterly destroyed in as well.




The Sunday was EVEN MORE filled. Went for early morning dim sum with my dad's side of the family for father's day. Then we went to Hong Kong Park, where I nearly died of heat stroke (not really, but I was really really really struggling with the heat). Anyways, we checked out the teaware museum (kind of boring, but how exciting can tea be?) also checked out Pacific Place. And then MANDY BOUGHT EYE LASH CURLERS FROM SHU UEMURA! OH MY GODDD! Despite our tiredness, we decided to go to check out the Peak through the Peak Tram. I bought mad socks for cheap and Mandy managed to pick up some postcards. So.... some of you should be expecting something in the mail relatively soon. We had dinner and waited until the night to check out the Hong Kong skyline at night. It's actually quite breathtkaing.





Anyway, that's that. Catch you on the flip side.

-N

Causeway + LKF

Friday we went to Causeway Bay and shopped for 5 hours! Causeway Bay is an area with a lot of medium to high end malls. We didn't even bother going to the high end malls since we can't afford anything. But before we went shopping we had to attend a meeting for our Beijing tour and went to lunch at Orchard Cafe. The restaurant was recommended by Norm's cousin's boyfriend and it was pretty good. I had the lunch special which came with a cup of coffee for Norm, a surprisingly delicious eggplant salad, duck angel hair pasta dressed with olive oil, and ice cream waffle - all for 72HKD! Norm had the avocado, chicken, and salmon baked rice with a spinach and cheese wrapped with bacon appetizer.





-M

We then came back to my gu ma's place to eat dinner, consisting of typical chinese dinner of fish, chicken and spinach. After all that food, it is understandable that the itis began to set in; Mandy took a snooze while I chugged a lot of coffee. It was essential that we recharged our batteries as our adventures took us to Lam Kwai Fong, the party central of Hong Kong. All the cool peeps were out tonight (obviously this implies that M.Chan is quite uncool). We started off at Fong for shots and drinks with A.Cheng and some of his work friends. For huk gwais and gwai lois, they spoke decent Cantonese. Non-Chinese people that are able to speak Cantonese is always cool to me for some reason. Anyways, after feeling slightly tipsy, we went to this other club where there was a 1 drink minimum to go to the dance floor and a balcony with a decent view. Needless to say, we had several. Afterwards, we peaced out and headed back.

Good times.

-N

I am a Giant in Asia

Today, Mandy and I went to Mong Kok (again). We went to this AMAZING Hoi Lam Chicken Rice place:



I was BLOWNNNN away with how good it tasted. Hoi Lam Chicken Rice in Canada is so not even close. The bowl of beef brisket Mandy had was only 13HKD and another 10HKD for a lemon honey drink. I realize that this will end up becoming a food blog as the days go by... but part of the epicness of HK is the amazing food.

Also, finally booked our Beijing trip after talking with many many travel agents. One less thing to check off the errand list. Also walked around Mong Kok and Sneaker avenue in search of some Converses, but without success. Will not rest until I find some cool Convo's. Also, being a small in North America translates into being a large in Hong Kong. I haven't felt this fat in a while.

Anyways today will be a rest day. Gotta get over jet lag before we hit up LKF for some adulterated mayhem.

-Normizzle

Sing K in HK

Yesterday we went to Mong Kok to book our trips to Japan and China. We were amazed that there are multiple floors dedicated just for travel agencies and even though there are so many of them there were line ups for every one! As Norm mentioned in our last post we booked our trip to Tokyo for the first week of July so message us if you'll be in the area. Apparently the first week of July is when everything is on sale in Tokyo - Uniqlo here we come!!

We also decided on a tour to Beijing, a trip to Shanghai and Guangzhou. I'm excited to go to China for the first time because HK hasn't been a big culture shock for me; it just feels like I'm in Pacific Mall all the time. I forsee a long long rant of China, lol.

After a family dinner with Norm's family at a Chinese restaurant that was clearly under-staffed during the Dragon Boat Festival we went to Causeway Bay to Sing K with some old friends.



Thanks for coming on such short notice. Especially A.Cheng who had work the next morning at 9am! It was great catching up with them and singing our hearts out to Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls. (Lady Gaga and Wonder Girls for Norm =|) Encore this Friday at LKF!

By the way, for people interested in going to Sing K in HK there is an unusual fee:



That's it for now..

-M

Ni Men Hao Hong Kong!

After a grueling 20 hour journey from Toronto and a stop over in Vancouver we have finally arrived in Hong Kong! It is my (Mandy's) first time in Hong Kong and have only "seen" the city via HK mini series so there is A LOT to take in.

We're living with Norm's aunt and her condo is coveniently connected to a big mall and the MTR - HK's train system. Yesterday we had breakfast at Norm's favourite eatery - Cafe De Coral. My meal was only 20HKD; divide that by 7.5 for Canadian equivalent! For lunch we had Ramen. For a bowl of ramen + side dish + soft drink it was only 53HKD! We had to ask the waitress if that's the right price because we realy couldn't believe it. Here is a picture of the combo:



My first impression of the city is that it's humid, windy, and the roads are way too confusing. However, the cheap food more than makes up for the weather.

-M

After all this food, of course we would need to work it off. I (Norman) had the idea to go to the gym after we ate. However, jet lagged us ended up falling asleep as soon as we got back home. As a result, we woke up early to go to the gym as well as watch the NBA Finals. I'm still ambivalent as to who to cheer for. Also booked the Japan trip! Can't wait to eat some delicious delicious sushi (but Sushi in Hong Kong is quite delicious.) Eating sushi in Hong Kong also reaffirmed that cheese makes all food taste better. There was this one salmon sushi with melted cheese on top that was utterly delectable. Check it out, yo:



That about sums up what we've been up to. Today is a holiday so my family is over to play mah jong and then after dinner we're heading to Causeway Bay with Mandy Chan to sing K!

-N