Pardon my ignorance but I thought Red Ribbon was only limited to cakes, pastries and some pastas. I know my older brother always ordered their Palabok platter whenever a special occasion arises. Little did I know that they also have rice meals available to whet the appetite of the Filipino eater.
Red Ribbon menu at Cocomall branch
Cakes and rolls display at Red Ribbon
September 06, 2010
Hong Kong Trip Day 5: Ocean Park
This was our second to the last day in Hong Kong and we planned on going to Ocean Park for it. We already bought tickets ahead through Ate Yolly the other day. It was convenient for us because we didn’t have to wait in line or scout through other booths in order to get an entrance pass. What’s also nice is that we got a discount since we purchased it from her.
clownfishes
Woke up and then headed to the Marketplace by Jasons in iSQUARE (a mall near our hostel) in order to buy some snacks which already served as our breakfast for the day. I bought a sandwich and some cranberry juice and ate along the way.
juice and sandwich (13 HKD)
We took the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui to Admiralty and rode a bus (629 route) that went directly to Ocean Park. It took us some time to locate the bus since we didn’t know which side we had to take. After a couple of questions from the people nearby, we were able to settle in. I think the ride took about 45 minutes so I still had some time to rest and take a nap. I was tired from the activities we did the previous day in Hong Kong Disneyland.
bus terminal and 629 bus
We arrived at Ocean Park and one of their staff took my camera and told us to pose. I was surprised by how intrusive the staff was of our space but he said that he only wanted to take our picture using my camera. He also took a picture using his camera and gave us tickets to claim it at the booth near the entrance.
When we got to the booth, another staff offered us key chains with our pictures on it. We were amazed at how fast the processing of the key chain and pictures were. But we didn’t bother asking for the price because we knew how theme parks are when it comes to prices of their souvenir items.
Ocean Park!
Just arrived in Cebu after a 6-day leave. Actually it’s just 4 days, the rest of the two were spent waiting for our flights in Clark, Pampanga from Cebu and Malaysia. It was a tiring vacation because of all the waiting and I’m happy that I brought my laptop with me to burn some time.
For now it’s back to the office work. I will be reporting again and it’s another normal daily grind. I don’t have any other travel commitments anytime soon except for Iloilo this November for the Blogging Summit. I’m just relieved so I can focus on other things such as going back to doing some freelance work.
at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Clark, Pampanga
Ahh, an update. I’m taking a break from blogging and from my office work. Pending posts are really piling up – I’m not yet done with my posts for Hong Kong and here I am in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for another trip. I’m not even sure if I can still keep up but we’ll see. … Read more
September 5, 2010
Hong Kong Trip Day 4: City Gate Outlets and Disney Land
We woke up late because of our trip yesterday in Macau. We covered a lot of areas and despite having to walk for four days straight already, we still had a couple more tourist spots in Hong Kong to check out.
Mickeys – not hidden
Disneyland in Hong Kong
The weather was way better now so it was good to go to a theme park. We already purchased our tickets from Ate Yolly (of the Tai San Guesthouse) so we planned on dropping by Hong Kong Disneyland. However by this time, we already needed to shop as we didn’t have any extra clothes left and I was reusing my shirt. We decided to head first to City Gate Outlets first.
Had breakfast at Maxim’s (not the male mag) Restaurant as it was one of the recommended places to eat in Hong Kong according to PinoyExchange.com. I ate a sandwich because I didn’t want to spend on food knowing that I can always eat in hordes back in the Philippines.
inside Maxims restaurant in Hong Kong
Had a bit of a difficulty locating the food shop because we were looking for the word ‘Maxim’ around town, only then did we realize that Maxim’s restaurant is displayed with the initials MX on their store.
12 HKD – Ham & Egg Sandwich for me
24 HKD – Fish Fillet Sausage Breakfast with drinks for Logan
24 HKD – Bacon & Egg Breakfast with drinks for Cindy
We rode the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central Station; and then Central to Tung Chung which led us directly to the Citygate Outlet mall.
Places Mentioned:
Maxim’s Restaurant
Citygate Outlets Shopping Center
Food Republic
Disneyland Resort
Modern Toilet
If you’re in Cebu and you’re craving for some roasted liempo, I suggest you check out Zugboi Roasted Liempo and Roasted Chicken.
Zugboi Roasted Liempo and Roasted Chicken is owned and managed by Chef Alvin Kwan who earned his Culinary Arts diploma in Singapore. I arrived early and while I was waiting for my friends, Alvin, discussed about why he set up this business and his plans on expanding in the near future.
Zugboi Cebu at Capitol
chop chop.
September 4, 2010
Macau Side Trip: Bungy Jump at Macau Tower and Fisherman’s Wharf
This is the last part of our side trip to Macau when we traveled to Hong Kong for a vacation. Definitely this was the highlight of the whole event because of the opportunity to bungy jump from the world’s highest bungee! We also dropped by the Fisherman’s Wharf which was a scenic view, reminiscent of Rome.
Macau Fisherman’s Wharf
dome
After watching the free shows at the Wynn Hotel, we rode a taxi proceeding to the Macau Tower. We didn’t wait for a shuttle bus ride because we would have to stop over another hotel in order to get to the tower which would take more time. I didn’t want to miss out on the tower because there might have been a long queue due to the number of tourists around.
Macau Tower
Fisherman’s Wharf
Sands Hotel
After the Senado Square and Ruins of Saint Paul, we proceeded to the Wynn Hotel to catch the Prosperity Tree and the Dragon Show. My feet were actually itching to go to the Macau Tower already because of w anting to check out the activities they offered such as the Bungy Jump adventure. However, Ate Eva said that we should check out the shows first as they’re all free.
September 4, 2010
Macau Side Trip: Prosperity Tree and Dragon Show at Wynn Hotel
Prosperity Tree Changes to green, Wynn Hotel Dragon Show
police car, stoplight, Star World Hotel employee
vehicles and pedestrians
Prosperity Tree Show
Dragon Show
This is part 2 of our day trip to Macau. I decided to divide this side trip into four parts because of so many places we explored. I already have a number of travel posts that my site is clogging up on my server’s bandwidth and I have to work on the backend in order … Read more
September 04, 2010
Macau Side Trip: Venetian Hotel, City of Dreams, Grand Lisboa
A tour around Macau’s Hotel Casinos.
I’m having a hard time separating this entry as there’s just so many places in Macau that we visited even if we spent it only for a day. That’s why I’m probably going to have to break the Macau Trip into other blog entries to cover the places we’ve gone to.
The Venetian Macau
Woke up early in order to prepare for our trip to Macau. We decided to push through with our plan as we needed to cover as many destinations and tourist spots in Hongkong while we’re still there. Although it rained the previous day, we were bent on at least getting to a good place in order to scratch of one of the locations in our itinerary.
The weather was humid but we proceeded to taking the ferry from Hong Kong to Macau. We ate breakfast first in order to fill ourselves for the day. We visited a Burger King store near the Tai San Guesthouse. Cindy and Logan ordered a bagel meal while I ordered a sandwich at half the price – really had to cut down on my costs – hehe.
Burger King breakfast in Hongkong
Places we visited in Macau:
The Venetian Hotel
City of Dreams
Grand Lisboa
September 3, 2010
Hong Kong Trip Day 2: World Trade Center and Times Square in Causeway Bay, Wan Chai
It rained on our second day in Hong Kong and it was declared as Storm Signal Number 1 which was such a bummer since we were raring to go out.
Designer Tram at Causeway Bay
Although we slept late in the morning, I woke up early to find some food for breakfast. From our hostel at the Tai San Guesthouse, I went to iSQUARE which is just a couple of blocks away. Initially, I thought iSQUARE was an office owned by Apple; later did I found that it is one of Hongkong’s skyrise malls.
I went there because I was looking for a supermarket to buy some grocery items: water bottles and chips; as well as some hair gel because we realized we weren’t in our best look when we saw our pictures the previous day. hehe.
Marketplace by Jasons at iSquare mall
Places we visited:
iSquare Mall
World Trade Center and Times Square in Causeway Bay
Wan Chai Computer Center
The Spaghetti House
September 2, 2010
Hongkong Trip Day 1: Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok Computer Center
It was a good thing Cindy, the ever-reliable researcher, read through a lot of information online especially on PinoyExchange.com (PEX). She told me that all the necessary details on what to do, where to go and how to get there is already laid out so there was no need for us to hire a travel agency to create an Itinerary for us.
shops and streets at 10pm!
I woke up and saw my friends, Cindy and Logan, still surfing the net with their laptops. I slept for a couple of hours at the Hong Kong International Airport which was a good thing as I had more energy to stroll around the place when we got to our hostel.
Train Tickets to purchase Octopus cards
6am, at the airport; we went to the center where we could buy some Octopus cards for our MTR (Mass Transit Railway) fares. This proved to be a wise choice as it’s a very convenient way to travel and pay for your fare when going to different towns.
Octopus cards – check out wikipedia for more information about it: Wikipedia – Octopus Card
Places we visited:
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tai San Guesthouse
Avenue of the Stars
1881 Heritage
Mongkok Computer Center
This will be a series of blog entries on how we got to Hong Kong from Cebu. Because of the information we got online was so helpful, this is my way of giving back to the community in sharing my experience for those people who might also need the information.
Hongkong Trip: Going From Cebu to Hong Kong
September 1-2, 2010
This was my first time to go abroad so I was apprehensive because I didn’t know how many issues we would be facing that would prevent us from setting foot onto foreign soil.
There were three of us (Cindy, Logan and I) and we were all first-timers so this was something we’ve looked forward to ever since we booked tickets about a year ago. We paid only 1200 Php each for the round-trip ticket from Cebu to Hong Kong using Cebu Pacific’s Piso Fare.
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
September 11-13, 2010
Two days after my birthday, I had the privilege of joining a group of bloggers to spend three days and two nights in Boracay. I was chosen as one of the winners of Seair and Microtel’s Boracay Blogger’s Tour. I published an entry on why I deserved to be part of the eight people who should go to this ultimate destination and I was very lucky enough to be chosen by Seair and Microtel judges.
Here’s my write-up about it: I’ve been to Different Places, but I’ve Never Been to Boracay
Seair and Microtel Bloggers Tour winners (Mica, Brenna, Gervic, Gael, Gracee, Van, Darwin) with the Seair and Microtel heads (thanks to mica for the pic)
soloflightEd finally lands in Boracay!
I also wondered if I could take part of the event since I’m from Cebu and the rest of the winners were from Manila. After a few emails, I was booked a ticket from Cebu to Caticlan. It’s great that Seair has more options now in offering a ride from the Queen City of the South to this island paradise.