Monday, December 28, 2015

Hong Kongcrete

So I had my Hong Kong trip finally happen and I am quite happy that I went there.
It's definitely a great place to go, for the beers and the foods and the delights that it offers.

I will just transcribe my personal journey in Hong Kong,

I started with my journey on 23rd April and took a Cathay Pacific Flight till Hong Kong. I and Cheenu, had a couple of draught Kingfisher beers at the bar at Terminal 3. Refreshingly good and costed only 500 bucks for a beer.
Next on the flight the white wine was one of the most bitter wines, I have ever drank. But I still managed to finish it. In non-vegetarian, a lamb curry was being served which was quite good.
I also ended up watching Kick and just began watching Mary Kom. No other Hindi movies unfortunately, but the overall entertainment collection was quite fair in the flight. Also got a bit of sleep in the overnight flight which arrived at 7 AM Hong Kong time, the next morning.


24th April 2015
We reached Hong Kong early next morning. My tummy was usual upset and I went to the washroom once at the airport and once later near the hotel. The visa process is relatively simple to do and there is no visa stamp or any fees, so you can easily pass through the immigration.

Thereafter we decided to take the airport metro to reach Hong Kong station. The most benefical thing that one can buy within Hong Kong is the Octopus card. With a price of $150 which includes $50 as despoit. It is something that is useful to commute in buses, MTR, McDonalds, common convenience stores such as Seven Eleven. A definite must buy if you plan to stay for couple of days or more.

The Metro Journey was only 24 minutes till Hong Kong Central station and quite a breeze. Next we changed the metro to get off at Sheung Wan, which was near our hote. We walked for around ten minutes to get to Hollywood Road from the Sheung Wan station. Unfortunately, we had already reached at 10 AM, when the earliest check-in was at 1 PM. Hence we decided to wait it out for a bit and take a walk around. By the way, our hotel was called Butterfly on Hollywood.

We went to have coffee at Pacific Coffee which was quite good. I tried the hot chocolate and Cheenu had capuccino. Well made and we got free wifi access there, so we killed a few minutes there. After that, we had a short walk around the area and we dined at Green Lounge which was at a corner shop and had reasonable rates. We ate a scrambled egg and ham sandwich there. A decent sandwich.
It was already 12:30 by the time we got and thankfully we got the room.

We crashed soon after checking in and woke up at around 4:30 PM in the evening. This is when we decided to go Tsim Sha Tsui or TST, as it is better called. We decided to go to TST by taking the Star Ferry,
The Central Pier 7 from where we had to board the ferry was quite a walk away from the place. And it took us around 20 mins walk to get there finally to the boarding point. The octopus card helped and we were off to TST. We reached there in barely 5 minutes.

Next, we headed to this place called King Ludwig which had excellent draught beers. Next we ordered the sausages on Cheen's request, who didn't want to have anything 'healthy', and salads were the usual appetizers there. Overall a good meal at this place. Unfortunately, we were not able to eat anything next door at The Mask of Sichuan whose food items were quite popular.

Next we headed to LKF or Lan Kwai Fong. I had to take a quick loo break at McDonald's at Central, thanks to the three beers I had at King Ludwig and just managed it at the right time, as a huge crowd had formed by the time I came out.
We went to LKF and had a couple of beers from seven eleven and thereafter called it a night.
Thereafter we ate at Cafe Siam which was the Thai place and had their salmon and chicken curry with egg noodles and steamed rice. It was quite decent but I have had better.



25th April
Next day was one of the most fun days of the trip. We had decided to cycle next to the sea and we took the metro till Sha Tin. Thereafter we were looking for the bike kiosk and found it after close to 30 mins of looking around. Then for a small amount of 30 HKD we rented the bike and took it around for 10K till Tai Po and it was a fun journey. I think I rode a bike close to after 13 years and it was quite fun. We just had one gatorade break and we were good thereafter. Finally we had a Pochari Sweat which concluded our cycling journey.
Thankfully no accidents, and just one small skirmish, where a guy suddenly stopped and turned his bike out of the blue.
Thereafter we ate at Butao at Sha Tin. This was the Ramen Nagi of Philippines which I loved. And the Black King that I had, was very much worth it. Hope to come back here again soon.

Next we came back to the hotel, unfortunately, we got separated by the Metro doors and both of us had to come back individually. But we did get back to the hotel and after changing, we headed to Wan Chai, which was the area having most of the pubs as well as the red-light area of Hong Kong.

So once we got here, we went to three pubs, one was a small pub, then we went to Queen Victoria and thereafter, we went to an Irish pub. And we had a few beers and fish and chips, which was good. Next we went to From Dusk till Dawn, which had some good live music and lots of dancing especially from the Westerners. We also tried our luck for a Bollywood Night, which sadly did not happen that night at the club. Finally we went to the Wanch and grabbed a couple of beers there, I had Carlsberg over there. In between all this, we also had three jager bombs and one irish car bomb each. This was enough to get us quite drunk. And we arrived in LKF, in style, haha !! We just went around the street and had a nice little walk and finally got a couple of Budweisers which made Cheenu cry and he did not finish. But by that time I was quite drunk and literally ran back to the hote; wanting to pee.
Finally slept at 5AM on this day. After talking to Sabu on the phone.


26th April
AS expected woke up quite late the next day and our plan to go to Macau was pushed by a day. We walked towards LKF and finally ended at Tipping Point Brewery and had their All Day Breakfast with a pale ale. Good breakfast overall.
After that we went back and had a nap for couple of hours.
Thereafter we headed for the Peak. WE reached the Peak Tram Station and there was a bit of a queue there. But it was a good journey, although it would have been so much better during the daytime.
We went to the top of the peak and the view was definitely breath taking. You can see and admire the entire HK Skyline. We dined at Bubba Gump and had a Corronita and a Sangria and it was good. The fried shrimps were quite amazing and overall liked the place.

We also headed to Inn Side Out, a pub in Causeway Bay and watched the Arsenal v/s Chelsea match and had a couple more beers. They were also serving their free peanuts in Indian style, complete with the covering. Next, we went back to the hotel and slept off.

27th April
Finally the Macau day was here, we left our hotel by 12 PM and on reaching the terminal at around 12:30 PM, caught their 1:15 PM Ferry to Macau. The ride to Macau was smooth and no issues with the passport and immigration as well. Most of the casinos provide free pick up service from the Ferry point. We had caught a bus till the A Monde temple to grab a bite at A Lorcha but we missed it as we arrived at 3 PM and the lunch time was already over.

WE took a walk around the temple and thereafter caught a bus back to the Casinos Area.
We went to Grand Lisboa first, where I gambled HKD 100 and won HKD 200, But no more playing here, is what I had decided. Next we went to Casino Lisboa, where I lost HKD 100 on the same game I played. Finally we went to MGM, where again I lost HKD 100. Hence an overall loss of HKD 100, which was not too bad.

Finally we ended up having dinner, after a lot of searching for a Portugese Restaurant at Clube Militar de Macau, this was like a 10 minute walk from the Casino and we had their set menu along with a sparkling wine and all of it was quite good.

Finally we came back and had a quite drink at one of the pubs nearby.

28th April

This was the last day and we went to Blue Butcher after checking out and had their lunch buffet which included cold cuts, a burger and fries. The burger was the black angus burger. And the cold cuts included a nice variety of salads. And it was quite a good meal.

And we finally said adieu to Hong Kong.
Original Date of writing: 4th May 2015

Sunday, April 5, 2015

My Bangkok Trip - Jan' 15

I just wanted to write down over here about my own Bangkok trip. It definitely is a great place to be at.
In fact all in all my trip for five days only cost me 50K INR all inclusive. Out of which around 28k were the flight tickets and 22K included food, travel shopping and living expenses.

Although the trip did not itself, start on a great note, as first of all, it took forever to get that visa on arrival thing done. I arrived at 7 AM and was only done by around 9:45 AM. Too add to that my baggage was also delayed which had all my clothes and stuff. For which I had to wait, for over a day without any clothes to wear then.

Some of the main highlights of the trip.
First of all the MRT was a great help, and it connects you right from the airport to all the other locations within the city, so that is something great. The more you are versed with the MRT, the easier your jouney will be within Bangkok.

For us, we were staying at Sukhumvit 85, at this hotel called At Mind Suites which was a very comfortable place to stay. Although the language itself is a big bother over there as people are not that comfortable conversing in English so we had a hard time locating this place. But the place is just a 5 minute walk from On Nut BTS Station. And I would strongly recommend the place, not just for the proximity to the BTS stations, but also for the amazing street food, just next to the station.

The must tries in terms of the street food would be the fresh fruits, the fresh coconut juice (have the juice along with the inner flesh of the coconut) and the fruit juices and stuff.

Also in terms of the must tries should be the som tam (papaya salad), their flat noodles, sticky rice and all of their peanut based curries. Their cashewnut based chicken items are also pretty good.

Now for the places to visit, Lumphini Park would be a good place to visit during the evenings with a nice boating experience present. Also there tends to be a lot of fitness programs happening in the park which is also great. A good place to feed the fishes, birds and turtles. You should get off at the Silom station to make it here.

Another great place to check would be the night markets near silom, good variety of T shirts and small knick-knacks. This one is at Patpong which is also one of the the red light areas.

The Chatuchak weekend market is another definite place to go to. This is located adjacent to the Mo Chit station and is in full flow on Saturday and Sunday. Amazing variety of things to shop and even more amazing is the foot massage and the amazing toasted bread, waffles and other items that you can devour.

One definite place not to miss would be at the Asok Station, this is a mall called Terminal 21. This place has an amazing food court called Pier 21, this is a definite must visit as I have not seen a wider variety of food at such affordable prices. So a definite must visit place especially for all the foodies. Amazing mango with sticky rice was definitely one of them.

Okay, about the much hyped ping pong show at Patpong, it is something that you can watch, but it is just a one time experience to see and we were kind of fooled into the experience as we were told to pay only 100 bahts per person for the show which turned out to be around 3000 bahts per person at the end of it. It is mandatory to buy a drink and thereafter you pay for the other shows (it is 100 per show and there are around 10 shows) and you also pay the performer fee and the performer's drinks in addition to that. So guys, just be careful around this.

One thing that I was not able to do during the trip was have enough beer or really visit the various Buddha temples. I was just able to visit one of them which was the gold buddha temple (I think).

The trip was a lot memorable due to the excellent company I had! Thanks to the looney tunes.