Pre-Honeymoon - Day 3: Brief 旺角 (Mong Kok) excursion

With roommate feeling a little bit better, today we went out to town.

First stop was eating the classic HK lite breakfast - instant noodle with egg and spam!.. Delicious!

Then we headed into the city for some dim sum.  After dim sum, we went to 旺角 to walk around. There was lots of food around, but didn't eat much (any in fact).  The place smelled like sewage everywhere, so didn't really have an appetite as a result.  In general, it was a bit too crowded for my taste, just seemed like street after street of flea market goods, but unlike Taiwanese night market, there wasn't enough food stalls in between - mostly they were selling phone cases, or bags, or shoes.. etc etc... guess I am not a true HK lite afterall :(.  However, there was a mall (The One) and in it a dessert place - that was super yummy.

Crashed a friend's place for a boxing day dinner.  Played a bunch of random games like keeping balloons up, popping balloons, beer pong... It was fun!

Tomorrow I return to where I came from!

Food Tally:

Breakfast @ 太興: (185 HKD) - Instant Noodle with Egg and Spam ... Classic hk lite breakfast

Lunch: More dim sum @ a resturant next to a Cub Scout HQ

Snack: Dessert (63 HKD) - 楊支甘露 and 芝麻糊配豆腐花

Dinner: (480 HKD) - First attempt at eating some fatty crab!  Had two crab heads... Yummy!

Total Spent on Food for the Day: 185 + 63 + 480 = 728 HKD = ~$94 USD

Pre-Honeymoon - Day 2: Scouting around 馬鞍山 (Ma On Shan)

With the AC having been turned on, my roommate seemed to have gotten sick.  So today after going to Peking restaurant for dim sum, we went back to Ma On Shan and stayed around there.

While roommate was passed out, I went to the supermarket downstairs and loaded up on chips and lemon tea.  Bought soooo much lemon tea for so little money - especially since they were like 50% off.

At night, went on a secret mission and brought over a cake to Uncle 6 to celebrate his bday!

Food Tally:
Dim Sum (北京樓):  Various Dim Sum (?? HKD)
Snack: Lemon Tea and Chips (55 HKD)
Dinner (太興): Noodle and Take Out ($140 HKD)
Dessert: Mango Cake (108 HKD)

Total Spent on Food for the Day: 55 + 108 + 140 = 303 HKD = ~$40 USD

Pre-Honeymoon - Day 1: First Day in HK

Landed and cleared immigration - with less than 1 hour of sleep in 24 hr+, you'd think I'd be sleepy.  But not really.  First thing's first... EAT!

First meal (at the airport!) and snack in HK 

After a quick breakfast, we headed to Ma On Shan (where I would be staying for a week).  Took a quick power nap, then off for more food!

En route to dim sum, saw a stand selling curry fish balls.  So of course I had to buy it and eat it.

Oh - and also got a MTR card and filled it up with 150 HKD.  Now I feel like a true HK-lite!!

First Lunch (Dim Sum)

This was a fancy dim sum place, and there were a few stand out dim sum.  One was the buns below served in a 'qi' stone bowl, and the other (our favorite), was the pork in the second picture.  These little cubes of goodness was just delicious, forcing us to order a couple plates of it.

Couple's Foot Massage!

Up next after lunch, a foot massage.  Both of use did it side by side :).  Below is a picture of my feet soaking in some hot water that is suppose to relax and warm up my feet.

After the foot massage, we would also get some 'old fire' soup.  Mmmmmm....

First Dinner in HK (Taiwanese Cafe - TeaWood)

In additional to the dish below, had a fruit tea as well as some noodles (not shown).  It was pretty good.  Very nice place.

First Post Dinner in HK
After the dinner, we dropped by a friend's place, where there were some Taylor shellfish oysters, and a fancy massage chair, AND Vitasoy lemon tea.   I was hesitant to eat the oysters though (since it was my first day) - so I only ate about half a dozen.  But I took full use of the massage chair - what a nice piece of furniture to have at home...

With a double massage day, and having slept ~2 hours in the last 48 hours, we went back home, took a shower, turned on the AC.. 

Soldier Mson - passing out.

Food Tally:
Breakfast - Lemon barley tea and little dragon dumplings (121 HKD)
Snack: Curry fishball on a stick (15 HKD)
Lunch: Dim sum (990 HKD - for 4.5 adults, 1 child)
Dinner: Taiwan Tea Wood (292 HKD) 
Post Dinner: Oysters and Lemon Tea

Total Spent on Food for the Day: 121 + 15 + 990 + 292 = 1418 HKD = ~$183 USD
*990 HKD was really split between 5 people.

Pre-Honeymoon - Day 0: The Asia Trip begins!

Flying out at 1:00 am, I was headed towards the future!

The plane ride was long, and even though it was 1 am when the flight took off, I did not really get much sleep.  As much as I tried to sleep, my band said that I had less than 1 hour of restful sleep.  The movies weren't that great, but luckily, chatted with a doctor next to me who had some good stories, keeping both of us entertained for a few hours, thereby saving me from staring at the back of the seat in front of me when I was not tossing and turning in my seat.

The airplane meals were pretty bad.  Didn't really eat much of it.  But they kept serving us food - heck, they even served breakfast at 2am!!!

I would arrive in the future (aka Taiwan) 30 minutes late.  The folks were nice though as they waited for the bunch of us connecting before taking off.  Eva Air - what good service!

And with that I have arrived - first time back in 23 years!

Contributed to Team.. Success!

Officially shipped my first feature to production on the new team.

Good way to wrap up to get ready for the holidays!

Injury in soccer.... again :(

Had my rib elbowed again... But we did win by 2.. We won because of the two goals I scored I would like to think.. Wuhahaha

Uni Galore in Vancouver

Uni galore in Vancouver!!!  Mmmmmm….

Feel like my cholesterol probably just shot off the roof :)

Return of Salad Day?

Been a while since I've had a salad...

-Healthy Mson

Whistler Thanksgiving

We stayed at the Whistler Cascade Lodge.  Not too clean, but it was close to the slopes and pretty well priced.

It was a great day for skiing.  Not too cold, nice visibility.  Not all the runs were open, but I had lots of fun.  Didn't really burn till the end of each run - guess all that exercising is paying off!

Recaulking kitchen backsplash

Handyman Mson strikes again!.. This time learning how to caulk a kitchen backsplash.