2011 April Hong Kong (Day 1)

21 April 2011 Thursday


I'm really excited today as we are heading to HongKong. We left Macau and catch the First Ferry to Kowloon Hong Kong. Bad move. It's a slow bumpy ride. Should have gone with Turbojet instead because they are much quicker. The ferry ride made me giddy and sick. I'm so glad to get off after 1hr and about 15mins.

Waiting Hall for First Ferry

Inside First Ferry. 

Getting off!!

Taxi ride to the beautiful Intercontinental cost $25HKD. The check in experience is the 1st I had. The staff brought us up to the room to check in and showed us all the features in the room. It was really personal yet bizarre. I wonder if they only do this when it's quiet.
I discovered the room has no kettle or coffee and tea. You have to asked for a kettle and instant coffee if you want any. They do brew you (well, just stick a teabag in a pot of hot water) a choice of 5 different teas(Jasmine, Oolong, Green Tea, Peppermint and Chamomile). Problem is each time you wanted some tea, you got to ring Instant Service and request for it. Free mineral water is provided each day which is really handy as you are not advised to drink water from the tap in Hong  Kong.

 Hallway and seriously large bathroom

Big spacious bed!

Great desk but i find it rather crampy

Sofa is very comfortable

After settling down, we headed out to look for lunch. There are just so many Indians hassling you to make a suit, buy fake watches and bags up and down Nathan Road. First we get harassed by mainland Chinese, now Indians. We had lunch at this franchise cafe called Spaghetti Place on Peking Road. Service wasn't that great, Craig ordered a chocolate milk shake which was left out of the order, then it takes another 15mins to arrive after Craig pointed out it was missed out. Food isn't that great either. Think it's an overkill for a so claim fresh Italian place.

We decided to head to Temple Street Market since it's the nearest one to us but we are too early for it (at 5pm stalls are still being setup). Halfway through, Craig went for a haircut. it cost $57 HKD (7AUD) for a men's cut, which is really cheap. The nice barber even offered a hair wash without extra charges.

One stretch of Shanghai street has many stalls that sells sex toys. It's kinda odd the government would allow sex toys to be sold so openly in public. I would thought because it's an Asian country they would be more discrete about it but nope, sellers are both man and woman, young and old.

Having SOGO so near the hotel is an advantage, they have some cheap bread for sale after a certain time that is out breakfast for tomorrow morning.

2011 April Guangzhou, Macau (Day 2)

20 April 2011 Wednesday

Breakfast buffet at the Cafe Deco was really disappointing. The food has quite poor quality and most of them just doesn't taste nice. I would expect more from the Venetian even though this is a mass production food service.


Next we walk to the City of dreams to have a look at their Casino. Hard rock shop is truly small and disappointing. I usually will get a t-shirt but I didn't get anything this time.

We then catch a shuttle bus and to Sands and walk to the holiday inn Macau. On the way, Craig spotted a massage place which is rather cheap. MOP 110 for 1hr (but it says on the board 1h=45mins) and 100MOP thereafter.

Holiday Inn Macau is tiny and sad after coming from the Venetian but it's in a good location. We took a bus (No 32) that only cost us MOP 3.20 to the Macau Tower, which is rather plain and simple compare to the towers I had been to (not as bad as the Kyoto tower though). Entrance fee is 120MOP. Bus 32 from the same bus stop we alight at earlier will bring us to the Red Market. From there you can walk to the 3 Lamps, which is really nothing but a lamp in a roundabout circle. From there you can catch bus No 5 to the St Paul Ruins, which is always busy with tourist. We took a short hike up to see the old canons guns left behind. you get a good view of the city as well.

Craig in public bus

inside the Macau TowerSendo Sq

This is a flat pancake shop and there's a line queuing for it. We bought some to try as well, when it's cool down, it taste like biscuits. The old man in the picture handmade every flat pancake using charcoals.

Tourist Street signs











The famous St Paul's Ruins

  Remaining guns at the Fortress

Tingy's been to the Ruins and a photo with the famous Hotel Lisboa

We decided to walk back to the holiday inn, which is not that far away, probably about 15-20mins walk. The Tree Spa in the hotel has very expensive rates and the area recommended by the concierge seems rather far away. So we decide to go to the massage place Craig spotted this morning. It's has a purple signboard and its called something like "Sincere massage". It's "clean" and the boss claims they do not provided "happy ending" . We wanted 2hr of body massage but I think the boss did not inform her staff and neither we or the masseur bothered to clarify the duration as well. They placed us together in a small room. The lady who did me was smaller but she has massive strength. There is a pole where they hand on to on the ceiling when they stepped on our backs. I had to asked her to go lighter several times. After 1hr, they realise we wanted longer and the 2nd hour was just get over and done with kind of service. I've asked for a foot massage instead but i still get charged the same price(Foot massage is 80MOP). The fat lady who did Craig was whining and whinging about how big he is and how she need to exert a lot of force. She made his whole arm red and sore in the end. I think we should just stick to one hour.

At the end of the 2hrs, I was caught off guard by the lady who did Craig, she was standing by the door and demanding for tips. She said hurry up, the other girl is coming (the one who massage me). She demanded for 100MOP which I don't have enough at that time. I explained to her I will be short to pay the bill if I gave her 100MOP. I offered her 20MOP instead and at this time the other lady came in with warm water. I explained to her and she just took the money with a grumpy face. The other fat lady was bitching and going on and on about she wanted 100MOP. it's starting to annoy me a lot and i actually had to give her the 20MOP tip. We paid and ran out of that dodgy place.

Craig didn't have a good experience in Macau. I think the attitude and mentality of the people puts him off.

Coffee/Tea and mugs hanging off the wall.

Bathroom is very small

Room size is small as well

2011 April Guangzhou, Macau (Day 1)

19 April 2011 Tuesday


After breakfast at McDonald (yeah....we needed something quick and there are everywhere!), we headed off to Landmark hotel to catch a bus to Macau Gong Bei Port Customs. They are 2 bus companies at the hotel and we took CTS (because that's the one the hotel portal boy pointed us to). The bus fare cost 70RMB and it departs every 30mins. They don't take reservations and the assigned seat doesn't mean anything. People just take whatever seat they want on the bus(if you are quick and 1st of cos). Aircon bus and there's 2 TV screen (where they just played some HongKong movies), one at the front and the other in the middle. I guess for 70RMB you can't really expect a luxury bus. The journey is about 2.5hrs. After Landmark hotel, the bus makes another stop at another hotel and it's highway to Macau. No toilets on the bus so it will be wise to visit the bathroom in Landmark hotel before departure.

It was really bad luck that my Canon EOS camera is stolen right between my feet during the journey. The professional thief/thieves had managed to take the camera and it's twin zoom lens out of the camera bag while it's still being sandwiched between my legs. They had cleverly put in 3 bottles of water so that the weight is the same. I only realise this when I wanted to take some pictures during the journey, about 15mins before we reach the bus station. In the end we had to spend 2 hours in the police station making a statement, which they never give it to me. I only received a report that says I have logged a report. We rang the travel insurance company right away to check if this is sufficient to make a claim. Accordingly to the customer service, so long as we have the receipt and the report, it should be sufficient. Let's hope so as it's bloody expensive camera!

By the time we reach the Venetian, it's already after 6pm. The entire hotel and shopping mall stinks of cigarette smoke, even the rooms hallway and lifts there are guest smoking. There's a huge flood of mainland china tourist everywhere as well. I was told it's close to labour week holiday. Most of the eating places are expensive, unless you happy to settle for McDonald. We tried Fat Burgers (Grill burgers, onion rings and chocolate milkshake). Craig said the milkshakes is yummy. We didn't had much time to walk around as the ZAIA show start at 8pm.

I'm quite impressed with the whole ZAIA setup, music and songs. However most of the performance isn't the best we had seen. Still it's a good performance and definitely worth the time.

The venetian room is huge with 2 TV and a big bathroom! The check in customer service was very nice, the entire place is huge however, unless they improve the air quality I'm not sure if i would return.

Thank goodness I took a spare camera with me so I am still able to take continue taking pictures for the rest of our trip. Definitely a good lesson learnt and I will continue to bring 2 cameras for future holidays now.

 Venetian on the outside

Royal Suite

Royal Suite

Tea and Coffee

Working Desk with printer??

Room Hallway

ZAIA Polar Bear with Tingy

Royal Suite Bed

TV

Royal Suite Bedroom

Powder table in the bathroom

Huge Bathroom

Inside the shopping mall

Inside the shopping mall

Famous Venetian deco

2011 April Guangzhou, China (Day 3)

18 April 2011 Monday



This morning we headed off to the Lian Xiang Lou restaurant for brunch. The restaurant is another one of the famous locations along the ShiangXia Jiu Street. Dim sum is one of its popular must have.

We've ordered BBQ pork buns, pork dumplings (Siew Mai), Prawn dumplings (Har Gao), Prawn Rice noodle (Chee cheong fun) and my favourite turnip cake. We've asked the service staff to have the food out ASAP (as we are hungry plus the previous night experience tells us we need to inform them in advance). However the service staff said these food are made to order, so it may take as long as up to 20mins!!! Luckily for us, we didn't have to wait too long (maybe 10mins). The entire restaurant has a sleepy atmosphere. It seems like the local comes in for morning tea and take their time to enjoy their food and Kung Fu tea. Having dim sum is more like a social event where they catch up. The brunch totals to 68RMB. As famous as it claims to be, I'm not rather impressed with the pork dumplings, its quite plain and oily. The BBQ pork in the buns look less and the buns are rather small. (Craig said it's not the best he had before).The only tasty one is the prawn dumplings. The prawn is rather big. I'm pretty sure they uses MSG or some similar form as I'm left thirsty for 3-4hrs after the meal.

Next we headed to the Pacific Digital Plaza via the train (Chang Shou Lu station to Gang Ding cost 4RMB). There are several shopping complex that sells mainly computer and IT stuff around this area. Street side shops sell laptop bags, mobile phones, printer cartridges. There's a 2storey high building that sells all the old company stuff as well, as though they live in the 90s. Craig wanted to have a look at electronic shops but we couldn't see any around this area. Most of the shops here are pretty similar, unless you have something in mind to purchase, you'll get bored after 10mins.

We decided to head back to the hotel and go for a massage instead. There is a spa or health club opposite the Holiday Inn hotel on the ground floor. For 298RMB you can get a 90mins Chinese massage, which we are told by the reception it will only be a back massage. We decided to go with the Thai massage which will be the whole body, which cost 328 for 90mins. The hotel gives out a 15% discount card for hotel guest. Be careful if you are going to be using this discount. There is a serious translation problem for the terms and condition. In English it says 15% will be given for each transaction. However in Mandarin, it says one card per person is required. So we have to go back to the hotel front desk to ask for another card as the spa reception insist we must have one discount card per person per use. The tourist pay upfront but the locals pay after their service is finish. (not sure why). We are both given a tracking hand-wrist that opens up our assigned locker. This is where the females part from the males. I didn't enjoy it as much as Craig did. My masseur said she had a relaxing 90mins since I was really "easy" to massage. Well I'm glad one of us enjoy it. Craig enjoyed his massage. He had a slightly bigger lady who had more muscle and strength. She even ordered him a massage on his manhood! She told Craig a lot of local guys asked for sex as well.

Dinner was at Saiberya, a western/Italian fast food place. It wasn't very tasty but definitely cheap. I've ordered grilled chicken, egg and spinach rice and Craig had a chicken pizza and a drink (it was a drink buffet but it's very low quality powder mixed drinks). All up 58RMB. Final shopping for the Guangzhou trip.

The things sold here are really cheap but the fashion is just not fantastic to me. If you are a sparkle lover, you could buy the entire street. Everything is sparkly and shiny here, shoes, belts, especially clothes.

That's it for Guangzhou for us. I think 2days 3 nights is just nice for us. We didn't do any tourist stuff. My greatest joy for the last 3 days is that we did not get mugged. (I wrote this a bit too early and I think I had self-cursed myself, for my camera is stolen the next day on the bus)

2011 April Guangzhou, China (Day 2)

17 April 2011 Sunday



Today we head off to High Sun String and Cloth Market (Taxi from hotel 20RMB). It is more posh than I expected, it's quite clean and has aircon as well. Only downside is despite the "No smoking" sign you will find there are still inconsiderate people who smoke (you get that a lot everywhere, even in train underpass). There are plenty of shops selling materials but only a few shops doing tailoring. They do not tailor it in one day time(as i was informed on web), minimum is 10days! Craig thinks they will it to elsewhere to tailor the clothes. There are also a lot of tailor made curtains too. It wasn't a fruitful trip for us so we left pretty soon.

Next stop Beijing road(via taxi). It was actually raining intermittently the whole day and we had to duck in and out of the side lanes. Beijing Road has more hawkers and Craig was hassled by men asking him to buy watches, luggages, bags and wallets. He gets that almost every 5mins. It's a very long road and there's side streets as well. I think the hassling from the illegal hawkers puts me off and I can't be bothered looking at the shops. We went into this mall where the basement is the preservation of the Water Gate in the olden days. Towards the end of Beijing Road you can see the preservation of old streets in Tang and Song dynasty. However the glass is so slowly you can hardly see much or take pictures. Lunch at a sushi train restaurant.

It didn't take us long to have enough of Beijing Road and our final stop is the Wholesale markets near the Railway station. We took the subway from Gong Yuan Qian to Railway station (2RMB). BaiMa is obviously the more popular one and there are like 8 floors of shops. We went to Level 4 and couldn't go on anymore. Unless you have a lot of patience to go through every single shop and walk through the maze(and remember which aisle you had been down before), it's much better to just shop in a normal shopping mall. The prices are not that cheap either if you are just buying one piece. Level 1 and 2 you get hassel by the sales people and the further level you go up the less they bother you. We didn't get anything from here at all. There is a side street market that sells shoes, bags and belts. It's a tiny walking space between the shops on the left and right and you can hardly walk. The crowd is huge and there's people trying on things on both side of the street. I just walk one lane and I had enough. We then walk to MeiBo Sports Center from the railway station (about 10mins walk but caution, you got to dash across the street as there's no lights and zebra crossing is useless to pedestrians in Guang Zhou. Again, I was informed (from travel forums) Meibo Center sells wholesale sports wear. correction! only wholesale jersey(mostly football/soccer)!!! Some shops are empty and some shops are just blank t shirts where you can purchase to print something on. That's enough disappointment for the day. We decided to head back to the hotel

The street in front of the hotel sells pets in cages such as kittens, puppies, birds, mice, rabbits, tortoise and even squirrel!!. Poor animals are crying for their life and I don't think they look very healthy, probably not vaccinated too.

We didn't really had a proper dinner tonight, just couldn't find something that Craig fancy (end up in KFC in the end). Shangxia Ju road just seems like a warmer shopping place, there isn't anyone hassling you to look or buy watches. There is enough space to walk around and look at shops. There are plenty of sales people screaming and shouting out sales to catch your attention, which I guess it's just contribute to the vibrant feeling of the streets. Definitely wouldn't mind coming back again.Good that the rain stopped too.

(no pictures again as camera was stolen)

2011 April Guangzhou, China (Day 1)

16April 2011 Saturday
Today we start out 21hrs travel marathon. we depart home at 9.30pm for a 0005hrs flight with Jetstar. Only description I can give is bad. We landed in Singapore T1 at 0530hrs. Because it is not a connecting flight, we have to exit immigrations and travel to T3 to check in for our flight to Hong Kong. After landing in Hong Kong at 1220hrs, this is the start of a on road marathon to final destination Guang Zhou. My original plan was to take a 3hr coach from the Airport to GuangZhou Landmark Hotel. However Craig suggested another option(from someone from work) that is to take the train instead.  I did a quick search at Perth Airport (thank goodness for free internet) and found out you can take a train from the airport to Shenzhen, cross the border and take another train to Guang Zhou. Because there are more frequencies for the train departing at Shen zhen than the train departing at Hong Kong Hung Hom, we decide to take the train instead, thinking it will be a quicker (more costly) option.

Upon our arrival at HKIA, the ladies at the Tourism Board counter informed us it will be quicker to take the bus instead. So we hop on AirBus number 43 and it was quite a pleasant ride for about 45mins. We got off at the Sheung Shui stop (2nd stop in the journey) and took the MTR to the next stop at Lo Hu. It was a very expensive one stop costing at 20.50HKD (19.50HKD if you use the Octopus Card). It was a mad crowd rushing from the Lo Hu MTR station to the Hong Kong customs, then crossing the border (by foot) to the Shen Zhen customs. I'm not sure the massive crowd is due to because it is a Saturday or because it's the 2nd day of the Canton Fair in Guang Zhou. The madness (of tons of people) continue on to the purchase of the railway ticket from ShenZhen to GuangZhou. There's at least 5-6times of seriously long queue of people. I am really unfortunate to be in queue where a argument breakout with the next queue(long story short, the queue was never open but mainland Chinese decided to queue there for some reason and when they realise there isn't anyone going to sell tickets at that counter, they turn nasty and merge into my queue). Poor ticketing lady had to fend them off and got verbal abuse from very nasty and rude men instead. It is definitely a ugly 1st experience in Shen Zhen for us.

The train ride took 1.5hrs to reach Guang Zhou station. If you want to get off at Guang Zhou East Station there's more frequencies (about every 10-15mins). Do not hesitate to purchase the 1st class seat!! it's absolutely worth every single cent as the next lower class does not have guarantee seats. You will see alot of people standing at the gate waiting to do a sprint to the train as soon as they are allowed. Some cheeky fellows decide to come into 1st class while the ticket inspector is not around but they got busted in the end. (Don't worry, they still put up an argument to try to win their rights). The absolute madness continue when we arrive in Guang zhou railway station, there's hawkers everywhere trying to "help" you get a taxi. Ignore them unless you are game for it. There's people everywhere!!! We later found out from the taxi driver that it is due to the Canton Fair. The taxi queue (walk towards the bus terminal and you will see it) is the most organized queue I had experience today since we stepped into Shueng Shui MTR. There is a guard distributing traffic so you can rest assured there's some sort of order. While queueing for our taxi, a little girl pee (squatting down) in front of us with the encouragement from her mum.

Next more dramas with the hotel check in when we arrived but it was soon sorted. Dinner at Tao Tao Ju was another semi disaster. I was told by the service staff that this couple is settling their bill and will leave soon and we are asked to sit with them. We ordered only 2 dishes (Fried rice and BBQ pork). The pork came almost 5mins later . After 30mins it doesn't seem like the couple at our table is going anywhere. We later realised that they have also ordered fried rice and it just rocked up. We waited almost 1hr for the fried rice and decided not to wait anymore. I've told the service staff to cancel the order as we had been waiting for a very long time. She then reply it will come in 2 mins time. After 15mins, the dish hasn't arrived yet. I've told the service staff another time to cancel the order and this time the dish came straightaway. The local couple sitting in the same table later then informed us this is very normal in Guangzhou. For large numbered tables they will keep their service up and for tables like ours (only 2 pax) they will not bothered about us until you informed them you want to cancel your order. I was shocked to hear that as I would expect they will want us to have our meal and get our so they can turn over the tables quickly. The couple said they had waited for their fried rice for more than 1hr too.

Shang Xia Ju shopping street is massively long and extremely busy, not to mentioned noisy too!! I would suggest someone spend at least 1/2 day here if you are serious about buying some good bargains!! Note you will need to forgo quality. I bought a belt for 5AUD and it was wearing out after a few wears.

Day 1 finally come to an end with me resting my feet up. The impression I get today from mainland Chinese are they don't really care about their country cleanliness. We witness a bus driver threw paper out of the bus, a few spitting cases including our tax driver, peeing in public area. Looking forward to what Day 2 brings us.

(I have no photos to upload as my camera was stolen on the way from Guangzhou to Macau)

Hidden Valley Eco Lodge, WA, Australia

Hidden Valley Eco Lodge is about 20-30mins drive from the Perth Domestic airport (depending on traffic). I got this accommodation on special (usually for weekend it's about $495) and the only time I can get on a Saturday is this weekend. So off we go for our little weekend getaway.

The place is rested on the Perth Hills, which surroundings are quite peaceful and quiet. Check in time is 3pm but we rocked up slightly later at 4pm.

                                                                  Reception and Spa

Craig wondered off for this 50mins massage (yes they have massage services as well) while I wonder off into the environment.

  Spa enterance

A day bed outside the spa....looks rather worn out

There are many trees around....and i spotted 2 lamas.....other than that....there's really nothing much.. It's a place purely for retreat.About 300m away from where our lodge is, there seems to be another 3 more lodges.

And this is our lodge, good location as it's tucked away at the back.

 Inside the lodge, there's a king size bed (the bed is very hard and the pillows are rather high. We end up not having a good sleep)

Notice how close the cupboard is next to the bed? Not practical as you can't fully open the cupboard's door. Craig bang his knee while walking towards the bed in the dark at night.

Hall table with CD player and mini food counter for your paid consumption.

TV channels are free local channels. There is also a DVD player but we did not use it. (I'm guessing it's those that you slide into the side of the TV)

Bathrobes are handy!

Kitchen and dinning area. 

Our Breakfast! (Bread, Cerals, Eggs, Mushrooms, Bacon, Tomato, Milk, Juice, Jams) Yes!! you have to cook breakfast yourself! Sort of defects the purpose of being relax.

Coffee and Tea

Kitchen/Stove

Toilets are simple and presentable.

 Toiletries (shampoo,conditioner and soap)

Gas BBQ - real handy! 

Outdoor dining table.

Bird cages with no birds.

Outdoor spa

Notes for spa users

View from veranda 

view of lodge from the other side

Outdoor hammock- Very dirty with all sort of stains. We didn't use this. 

Spa turned on. It's great!

Craig's back from his massage

Not a bad settings

Something to keep away the mozzies. 

Ready to have our cooked breakfast!

 It's not a bad place for a quick weekend getaway, however, I wouldn't return again as there's nothing very special about it. In additional the prices are very high for the quality you get. If you want a relaxing quiet weekend, I believe there are cheaper options elsewhere.