Hong Kong 2016 trip (Arrival day)

Our flight was delayed due to the late arrival of the plane fron HK. I remembered that was the opening day for Hello Kitty cafe at changi airport. So we went there to see the crowd and it was so crowded. Haha... Of course we didn't join the queue. Instead we went to kopitiam to have our lunch. 

The flight took off at around 3:30 pm, and we arrived at HK international airport at around 7 pm. After clearing the immigration and took our luggage, we went to bus stop to take bus to our hotel. We took bus no. A21 to tsim sha tsui there, then walked about 10 mins to the hotel. The bus journey was only about 30-40 mins. Our first two days was at Harbour Bay hotel. It's a budget and new hotel in tsim sha tsui area.

                                            (Orchid Garden at Terminal 3 Changi Airport)

                                       

Harbour Bay hotel is really small, with a small lobby as well. The room is very unique. Especially the design of the toilet. Shower and toilet shared one slide door. So, if two persons are staying in one room, and one person is taking shower, the other person won't be able to use the toilet unless you don't mind using the toilet with an open door. 😅 I forgot to take picture of the hotel room. 

Anyway, after put down our belongings we decided to walk around the area to look for some snack or dessert. We found Hui Lau Shan and ordered one dessert to share. This dessert is very interesting. It is jelly but it's like noodle, then underneath the noodle jelly, they put nitrogen Ice. The noodle was topped with mango slices. There are few more toppings at the side, such as, red beans, mochi, ginger brown sugar sauce, and a bowl of coconut sauce with ice cream. It is very interesting and surprisingly it taste so good. 

After dessert, we went back to the hotel and have rest, because the next day we need to get up early for Macau adventure!:D

Malacca (Last day)

We had a very good sleep and woke up early again on that day. Checked out from the homestay at around 7:45 am and looked for a dimsum breakfast. Dr. Wong's student suggested Chuan Man Siang Dim Sum. It is quite near to the Seck Kia Eenh temple. We ordered quite a lot of food: fried radish, char siew pao, porridge, siew mai, har kow, etc... You can see everything from the picture below.  

                         (Picture of food that we have ordered)

Everybody said the fried radish was really good. I didn't want to try at first, since I thought it was a little oily. But, everybody said that I should try. Hahaha. I did try eventually. And, yessss it was good. I think they must have used a big fire (high heat) to cook that radish to be able to get such a nice fragrance of it. It is tasty!

I tried the fish ball too, but I think it was only so so. The porridge and glutinous rice was also very yummy... I ate quite a lot that morning. The total price for this meal was about RM65.  

(Picture of the moving cart with varieties of dim sum)

We attended the sunday puja at the temple at 9:30 am and planned to say good bye to people there before we went back to Singapore. We left the temple at around 10:30 am, and arrived at Yong Peng for lunch at around 12 pm. Yuan Yean Fishball Eating House was our option.

We ordered few dishes to share. FuZhou fishball is the interesting one because there is minced meat inside the fishball. The fishball was indeed good! I think the meal costs about RM45. 

                                      (Picture of food that we had in Yong Peng)

                           (Four of us at Yuan Yuen Fishball Eating House)

Not only that, the shop also sells a lot of snacks. We bought the white curry instant noodle and Hong Peah. Jeni even bought few pieces of otah and 1 kg of fish balls home. It's 70-80 fish balls for 1 kg, and she has to finish it in 3 days because the fish balls can't be stored in the freezer. LOL Fish balls party for her and family! 

Surprisingly, we shopped quite a lot! Three of us (the girls) have at least one extra carrier while returning back. Dr. Wong sent us to the taxi station in JB. That was around 3 pm, but unfortunately there were not much taxi and quite a number of people were waiting for one. We waited for more than an hour and eventually took a big cab back to singapore. It cost RM 100 for the whole taxi. It's still good price for three of us. The regular taxi costs RM 20 per person, and they usually take 4 persons (shared) in one taxi. 

We reached Queen street at bugis around 5:30 pm. The whole trip and experience was really fun and awesome. Besides our shopping, we hardly spend anything for this trip. Thank you Dr. Wong!!!  

Malacca (Second Day)

I didn't sleep well the night before. I guess too much food and tea. 😂 Anyway we have to get up early that morning. We all were ready at 7:30am and went out to find breakfast before attending the workshop. 

After driving one round nearby the temple, we found one foodcourt kopitiam. We ordered quite a lot of things, haha. There are Mee goreng, prata kosong, egg prata, tuna prata, and wholemeal bread with kaya, 2 cups of kopi, 3 cups of milo kosong. But, after so much food the day before, plus my very poor digestion, I didn't dare to eat too much that morning. I only had the kaya bread and two cups of milo.:D But, they all said the food are nice. By the way, We only spent about RM 20 for all these food. Super cheap...   

After breakfast, we headed to the workshop venue. It was a great workshop, attended by youths (from secondary school up to university and some adults) from Malaysia with all very awesome and entertaining speakers (including Dr. Wong of course). I am glad to be there!

Our lunch was a simple vegetarian food at the temple. We left the workshop after Dr. Wong's session. And..., our food trip continues. One of Dr. Wong's student picked us up for our food hunting that day. Our next stop was Satay Celup. This is one of the authentic Malacca's food. It's like a steamboat, but instead of soup base, they use satay sauce base. So, you cook your meat or veggie in peanut sauce. Yummy....  

Luckily we went there early and got a table, otherwise we would have to join the queue. Haha... Total cost was only about RM70 for five of us! I do suggest you to be there early.:D

From there, we moved to another point, which is Jonker Street! It was super crowded there on saturday evening. Oh dear..., it was so difficult to walk on that one street which is full with human beings. LOL. And after so much effort, we finally arrived at the durian puff's shop. Hahahaha, yup again... We haven't gotten over it yet. You can see the happy faces of my two dearly friends from the picture below. 

We also bought the mini pineapples again. However, this time it costs us more, 3 pineapples for RM10. Some of them have even turned bad. Our mistake for not paying attention at it more carefully. 

After that, we decided to go back to the temple for a talk by Ayya Santini. The talk was over at around 9:30 pm. Guess what? Jonker street wasn't our last meal for the day. Hahaha... Another Dr. Wong's classmate wants to meet him. 

It was about 10 pm when we left the temple for a dessert at Ice Town. Three of us shared one bowl of green tea ice shaved with red bean. It was delicious! That was eventually our last meal for the day. LOL...

We returned back to the homestay close to 11 pm. The interesting part was, we got lost with the GPS while returning back to the homestay. Luckily, eventually we found the right way, haha...

Super fun and exhausted day....    

Malacca (First day)

Two friends (Ratna and Jeni) and I decided to join Dr. Wong to Malacca for Buddhist youth leadership workshop from 3-5 th June. I guess, this will be the last year for me to join youth conference, since my age is not that young anymore 😂. 

Anyway, three of us met up at woodland train checkpoint at 7:55 am to catch 8:05 am train. We were the last to enter the station door. I know, we were almost late... Luckily the train waited for all passengers to clear two immigration, else i am sure we will miss it. Eventually, the train took off at 8:20 am, and the journey was only 5 minutes to reach JB central. Dr. Wong has been waiting for us since 8:05 am. We met him at about 8:35 am. Apologize, Dr. Wong! Then, one of us need to settle something at JB, so we left JB for Malacca at around 10 am. 

Our fun trip started then! First stop was Ayer Hitam. We stopped at one old dim sum restaurant. The restaurant is called Kedai Kopi Tang Chuan,

763 Jalan Batu Pahat, 

Ayer Hitam, Johor. 

(Say cheese)

The restaurant seems to be a family owned restaurant. They are famous with "Da bao". It is bao with pork inside. We could see them making the "bao" while having our food there. The texture of the bao is soft with the slightly sweet, savoury taste and tenderness of the pork inside simply make it so perfect. It is yummy. When I bite it, oil was dripping out. Yes, it's pork's oil. I know that I have to leave behind my health conscious for that moment.

Unfortunately they are out of BBQ pork bun for that morning, so we didn't have chance to try it. Dr. Wong said it was good. Maybe next time.:D 

Below are all that we ordered. All taste good. But, one that you really have to try is of course their bao. Guess how much we paid for this meal? It's only RM 25.xx in total.    

Our next destination was Muar. Dr. Wong wants to meet up his ex students there. We reached there at about 12:30 pm, and it is lunch time. 

               (Four of us in the car)

The famous Muar Otah? Yes, we got one big box from the students' family. The taste was slightly spicy, and very good. 

The students then brought us to one seafood restaurant for lunch. They ordered spinach with egg yolk, claypot tofu, assam fish, oyster omelette. The food is so delicious. The egg yolks spinach was one that I love the most. The color of the spinach is fresh and nice, not overcooked or undercooked. It was topped with "Pi Dan" and egg yolk sauce. Yummyyy... Slurp.... 

We left Muar at around 2:30 pm. After about an hour journey, we were in Malacca town! Since it was still early, we decided to explore Jonker Street. It is the famous street in Malacca, where you can find a lot of local food and also souvenirs. Surprisingly it wasn't that crowded on Friday. I believe people are still working and tourists haven't reached there yet. 

The first thing that we were looking for is Durian Puff. It is one bite size. Yes, you have to put everything in your mouth otherwise it will be very messy. It costs RM 10.6 for 6 pieces. It's a steal. I heard we can find it in Singapore too. It's at Taste Better. But the price is a lot more, it's 2 for SGD3.90. They have 2 branches, one is at Vivocity, and another one is at Waterway Point Punggol. This is indeed very special. The filling is more like melted durian Ice cream. That is the reason why you have to put the whole piece inside your mouth.

When we were about to leave the shop, we saw a group of known people passed by. They are friends from Malaysia and Indonesia who also came to attend the same workshop. It's so coincidentally that we all met at Jonker Street. We quickly chased after them. Guess what? We went back to the durian puff shop, and ordered another 2 boxes. Some of them ordered their yogurt ice cream. 

   (Picture taken with Bro Irvyn's camera)

From there, we continue our adventure, walk along Jonker Street, and we saw a shop that sells mini pineapple. RM 10 for 4 mini pineapples. We forgot to take any pictures of the pineapple. Everybody enjoyed it. I have been wanted to try this pineapple, but haven't got chance. It is very crunchy and sweet.

That's not all for our tea time. We found Cendol at Jonker 88. That's the popular one along Jonker Street. The queue wasn't that bad, but, we couldn't find any seats. So, we stand while having the Chendol. I like it very much. The fragrance of their gula melaka is strong and tasty. We were quite full at that time, so, we shared 2 bowls for 4 persons. If I am not mistaken, I paid RM8.5 for 2 bowls of Chendol.

It was close to 6 by the time we finished our Chendol. It's time to register at the workshop venue! And, oh dear... Jonker street wasn't our last meal for the day. Dr. Wong's classmates invited him for a dinner, and we all went together. Hahahaha The dinner is at "Bei Zhan" restaurant. We heard that it's one of the best restaurant in Malacca.

The signature dish is Pork Trotter with bun. I am not so keen on the fat, otherwise the lean meat tastes really good. They also ordered egg yolk fried chicken. It's quite interesting. You really can taste the egg yolk. Yummy. We all were quite full actually. And also we need to rush back to the workshop place for the opening ceremony! Haha, so that's all for the day. So much food in a day! Stay tune for our next day adventure in Malacca...

        (Pictures from Ratna) 

   (Our room at one homestay in Malacca, check it out at airbnb if you are interested) - two thumbs up for the room. 

P.S. Some of the pictures were taken by Ratna.