Hong Kong Shanghai Trip Part 8

Today we're going back to Hong Kong! Took an early flight so had to take some breakfast before flying. Im so sick of China food, so I ordered a burger instead.



They have these hot water dispensers at the airport after check in, as many Chinese need hot water for their tea. So for once I can pre-prepare Jolie's milk before getting on board. Which was fantastic as I can whip it out just before take off. Sweet.

Well the flight was ok, except that she choked on some food just before landing, so she threw up all over herself. Thankfully, there wasn't much puke on the seats nor me, and also thankfully she was wearing her long-johns underneath. So once again, she came out of the airport looking quite funny in only her long-johns. Luckily Hong Kong wasn't too cold!

It was good to be back, that night we all washed, unpacked and did the laundry and relaxed.



After dinner we even wanted to play some Mahjong! But we couldn't even complete one round before me having to end the game to put Jolie to sleep. Blah~



The next day we headed out to Yuen Long for Cobby's favourite beef noodles! Jolie wanted to go elsewhere though... See where she's pointing?



On the train, it wasn't too crowded, so Jolie had a great time.



It was still early when we got there, so we just walked around the area. I wanted to buy some old Cantonese comedy DVDs, but couldn't find the ones that I wanted. Stopped by to nibble on some traditional egg cakes.



After walking some more we finally settled down to some yummy beef noodles! Bro digging into his bowl. SLURP~!



We all love beef noodles!



I couldn't finish mine, but Cobby gobbled down the whole bowl! Not even a single drop of soup left!



I took a photo of the view from Sis's balcony. Some of the buildings have started to put up the Christmas decoration lights! So fast, another year is ending.



That night, Cobby, Bro, Dad and I decided to catch a late movie. So I put Jolie to sleep and we walked to the nearby shopping centre. We watched the Russel Crowe movie, The Next Three Days, about a husband who tried to help his wife escape from prison. It's pretty good! It's been awhile since I watched a good Russel Crowe film, so it was quite surprising.

The next morning we woke up early and packed up all our clothes, stuff and toys. Finally we're going home! Luckily I asked Cobby to bring his big luggage bag, or else there wouldn't be enough space! In fact, we had to use one of my parent's 大陆袋 to store the clothes so that we can use the suitcase to keep all the fragile stuff.



Abit biang but it's the best way! Finally, an end to our family vacation. It has been great fun spending time with my family, but I can't deny that I'm really looking forward to go back to our home sweet home.

Hong Kong Shanghai Trip Part 7

Check out our hotel room view. The famous Nanjing Street is just outside our hotel. :)



After breakfast at good old Macdonald's, we had a little free and easy time to buy some souvenir before meeting up at the hotel lobby. It's Saturday, so there's a group of aunties doing some dancing exercises, led by a very faggotty old uncle, who can really twist and shake his butt! Jolie was mesmerized by their dancing. :)



Doing a little camwhoring at the hotel lobby. My hat cute? :)



Today we're leaving the hustle and bustle of the big city and heading to old Shanghai! We don't want to join those tour group, so we booked a mini van to drive us to Zhou Zhuang, also known as the ancient water town of Shanghai.



Almost everybody fell asleep as we sped off on the highway, but I woke up only after 5 minutes and just watched the scenery change from urban city landscape to beautiful flat farmlands and trees with gorgeous yellow autumn leaves. The ride was about an hour plus, which was pretty quick. I love it as it's so different from the dusty, noisy and grey city. So quiet and beautiful! And since it's further inland, it's not as cold too! Well, it's already pass lunch time, so we settled down for lunch before going into the village.



Zhou Zhuang was famous for their braised pork trotters, so that was definitely on the menu. Glad that Jolie's food scissors came in handy...



The trotter was delicious! Full of flavour, and the meat was so tender! Bro 不客气了. Use hand ah!



Father and daughter at the entrance. Jolie didn't even need her coat anymore.



This is the inside of the village. Quite alot of tourists. We decided to hire a tour guide so that we know what we were looking at. But once in awhile you get some other free loader tourists who would hang around and follow us so that they can hear what our tour guide was saying and enjoy a free tour. Ggggrrrr.. felt like asking them to BEAT IT and get their own tour guide! Or if they wanted to listen, PAY UP or something. Oh well, the place was so squeezy, nothing you can do. They'll usually leave after awhile.



But I must admit, this place was so beautiful...







An ancient tree that was struck by lightning so bad, the top part wouldn't grow leaves anymore. But isn't it beautiful? I love the colour of the leaves.



This is some famous dude who likes to make thoughtful poems with your name. Apparently, he did it for the Chinese President Jiang ZeMin and our dear MM Lee Kwan Yew when he visited the place many years ago. So now his "office" is in Zhou Zhuang where it's always peaceful and quiet. And for a fee, visitors pay him to make poems from their names too. We thought it would be a great gift for Jolie when she grows up!



Our little tour guide...



Check out the number of koi fishes in the temple pond!



By the time we were finished with the poem, it was already late afternoon. Isn't the view great?



After a little unpleasant encounter with some money-faced monks in the temple, (shame!) We ended our tour with a boat ride around the village. You can even pay a little extra and the nice boat lady would sing while she row the boat along the narrow canals. Chinese version of Venice. Nice.









We walked a little more by ourselves in the village looking for a place to have our dinner. Along the way, parents stopped by at one of the shops to look at some toys, not knowing that we had went ahead into one of the restaurants for dinner. Sis and I thought that Bro went back to inform them, but it turned out that he just went to another stall to buy something for himself.

So there was a moment of panic where we lost track of my parents in the narrow maze of shops in the village. They didn't bring their mobile phones, so I was so worried that we've lost them as it was getting darker by the minute in that place where they have no street lights. Thankfully Bro found them further down the street and we were reunited again for yet another not so fantastic dinner.

The light was so disorienting! It was only 7pm plus, but it was so dark, you would think that it's already 10pm or something. So we stopped by a convenience store to buy some snacks, water and some milk powder before heading back to the hotel.

Jolie was already asleep when we got back, but we wanted to go buy some stuff before we leave tomorrow, so Mom helped me watch over an already snoozing Jolie while my siblings, Cobby and I went out. There's this store that sells all sorts of 招财猫, so we bought loads of it as souvenirs. If the sales girls worked on commission, it would have been a great night for them. :)

With that our Shanghai trip has ended. Tomorrow we'll be going back to Hong Kong!

Hong Kong Shanghai Trip Part 6

I planned to wake up real early to get the day going, but everybody wanted to take it easy, so we decided to meet at the lobby at 8.30am instead. Thankfully, because in the end we turned up the latest. :P Somehow having a child just throws your time keeping skills out of the window!

Anyway, Jolie was wearing the cutest bunny sweater I bought at a Market in Hong Kong along with her new boots! (also bought at a market - cheap and good!) Cute right...



I've got my new FOX jacket and my new boots too! :)



Anyway, we're headed to Cheng Huang Miao (城隍庙) today, which was supposed to be a must visit place for tourists. Even if you are not the religious type, there are plenty of shops surrounding the place, so it's a good place to wander.

There's a famous restaurant there that sells xiao long bao that's not so xiao. See how big it was!



Yeah we were quite sick of xiao long bao after that, and we all plan to swear off xiao long bao for at least a few weeks. After breakfast, we realised that you can actually queue downstairs to buy their bao. It's actually cheaper because you get more pieces for the same price, but you can only have it on a paper plate and you have to eat it outside the restaurant premise. Interesting...

There were lots of shops around the area, so it's kind of old architecture meets modern shops like Starbucks. But hey, Cobby and I were really excited to see our beloved Starbucks. We got our Starbucks mug there, but my coffee got screwed up as the idiot added Cinnamon into my cappuccino.



Like I said, there were lots of stores there, so we were munching as we walked along... Sweet soup dumplings or tang yuan...



My favourite, deep fried stinky toufu...



Mom looked like she's posing with the crab, but actually she's just warming herself up under the sun...



Jolie here with the mascot for Shanghai Expo 2010. She look so hip-hop with her parka.



Sis and I caught a traditional Chinese "movie", which four people sit on a long bench, look through a hole into a box and watch a "movie" made of paintings while the narrator tells us the stories and does "magic" using lighting to make the paintings change. Super interesting! Sis and I were giggling as the narrator was so funny.



This was the actual temple itself. It looked simple but you can actually walk all the way inside.



We continued to venture to the older streets around the area, which was more interesting as it was less tourist-sy and you get a better sense of the real Shanghai.



In one of the little alley, we found a tiny noodle shop where a young man was busy "pulling" noodles and cooking them on the spot for hungry local customers. We weren't really hungry, but how can we resist? It was kind of embarrassing, as the six of us, plus Jolie, all cramped up in the tiny store, sharing only two bowls of noodles. Haha... niao...



We walked further and hit the jackpot! We found this street called 上海老街 (old shanghai street) and it was lined with local eateries! There were stores selling all sorts of biscuits, noodles, toufu, everything! OK the street may not look very clean, so maybe it's not for the faint-hearted, but everything is cooked on the spot, so it's quite fresh, warm and delicious!

Crispy, flaky egg rolls made on the spot...



Pan fried spicy stinky toufu...



Roasted sweet potatoes bought from a friendly old man...



Vegetable pan fried dumplings...



We were so busy eating we didn't take much photos. But we did eat till our stomach was nice and round! Heehee... Check this out, you can find everything in China. Even FAKE GATORADE...



We decided to go back to the hotel to rest awhile before going for a boat ride in the evening. Sis and Dad headed out to check out some book stores. I would love to go too, but I had to stay at the hotel and get Jolie to take her nap. Halfway through even Cobby and I took a nap too.

We left quite late in the afternoon and walked like FOREVER along the riverside to the ticketing booth.



It was freaking cold that evening, and the timing didn't allow us to have dinner, so we quickly ta-pao some food onto the boat. ;) Jolie's cheeks were all pink from the cold after the long walk.



Our boat!



The boat has indoor seating as well as a open air upper deck for night scene viewing. Everybody flocked to the upper deck, so it was easy finding good indoor seats. Cobby bought Burger King, so it was quite shiok to be munching on a Whopper and fries while enjoying the view from the warm and toasty indoor seating.



Of course we didn't waste the trip on just seating indoors! After our burger we put on our coat and went upstairs. Beautiful view!



After the boat ride, parents were a little tired, but we were still a little hungry from the lack of dinner. So Sis suggested that the rest of us go hunt for a good and proper restaurant and pig out!

Turns out to be more difficult that we expected! It was only 8pm plus, but most of the store were either not too appetising, or closing for the night! Besides, we had to find non-spicy, non fast food too. :P

In the end we found this Korean BBQ restaurant on top of a huge shopping centre. The shopping centre's already closed, but thankfully the restaurant was still opened. So we ordered this set meal that was obviously for 8 instead of 4! The Chinese have huge appetites! We ate and drank Shoju till we could not drink anymore! It was quite fun as we walked back to the hotel, stomach full and warm from drinking the alcohol.

Sis bought a toy that people were selling on the streets. It's like a lighted thing you shoot into the sky and it would slowly spin down back to you. It's kind of fun, except that I keep shooting my own hand. :P



That night Sis told us how funny our dear bro was. High from the alcohol, he chatted non-stop about how funny it would be if the ribbon the dancers (they were watching TV) were dancing with were snakes! We laughed and laughed the next morning while he just denied everything. :)