first day back at work….
boss decides to have tequila tasting party….
would have been much better if i wasn’t still jet lagged….barely awake….

oh well…you gotta do what you gotta do

my last two days in hk, i stayed at the conrad hotel, in the pacific place mall (admiralty station).
it was the highest end hotel i stayed at this whole trip, which i got for a real bargain on priceline, since there was no way i was gonna stay at that shit hole of a room at cheung king.




yep…rubber ducky came with the tub =)

view from my room



 
night view from room

i also decided to go out to cheung chau because i was told they had lots of seafood.  i took the ferry out of central station, 45 minutes on a boat, and i was off on this quaint little island town.


so i went wandering around the island, from one side to the other…..

then the two beers i had on the fairy starts catching up with me…..and of course, when you need to find a public restroom, there are never any!  i finally come across a cafe, and not wanting to be “that guy” who goes in just to use the restroom, i took a seat outside, ordered a beer, and then proceeded to use their restroom…hey, what a great excuse for another beer? =P  well, i got to talking to one of the gal’s (ming) at the cafe, who commented on me wearing shorts and a t-shirt, while other people were bundled up with their northface parkas…  i told her i was from sf, and that this is a beautiful summer day for me.  i told her i was here for seafood.  she offered to take me to the seafood market, buy a little bit of a lot of different things, and cook it up for me.  she was just gonna charge me for the cooking labor…i told her i’ll come back later, as i wasn’t hungry yet.  so off i went to wander around the rest of the town, and ended up eating a bunch of street bbq skewer items, wandered some more and around 5:00, i got hungry. off i went to look for dinner.  i found the restaurant i was recommended that had all this seafood in tanks (similar to “if it swims we have it” in thailand, but the plates looked too big, and there was no way i was going to be eating 3 or 4 plates of this stuff, so i decided to take ming back up on her offer. i went to the cafe, found her having a beer with her homies, and off to the seafood market we went.  here’s what we got:

2 giant scallops $10 hkd

1 plate of clams $10 hkd

1 plate of these other clams, which i haven’t had in over 20 years, $30 hkd

ming offered to decide on how to cook everything, which was fine by me, and i added a plate of greens, a bowl of rice, and another beer.  total cost, $196 hkd, or $25 usd.  one of the best meals i had on this trip.  if you’re ever in hk, and want some ass kicking seafood at a great price, go to cheung chau, take a right after you get off the pier, and either eat at the seafood market restaurant, or go another block and a half and look for “ming” at the “hoi sing” restaurant.  tell her mike from sf sent you, and she’ll hook you up.  and she speaks english! hehe

after eating, i went home and decided to go to causeway bay to catch the 8 oclock light show

during my last afternoon in hk, before i left for the airport, i decided to take a stroll around the convention  center, where, 9 years ago during my first adult visit to hk, i used to like to sit and enjoy the view

now i’m back in the bay area, and i’m jetlagged, and cold…. sigh….

back to hong kong and after 1 night at a “guest house” hostel, i couldn’t stand it, and checked myself into the conrad hilton (thanks to some priceline help….i learned a sneaky new secret to pricelining by accident, ask me if you are a priceliner).

today i went ballistic, and ordered a ridiculously expensive australian crab and 4 mantis shrimp, which then got down graded to 3 when the owner urged me to not eat so much…

australian crab

mantis shrimp

also went to THE ORIGINAL Mak’s noodle house….man was it hard to find!  didn’t take any pictures, had to share a table with several strangers….

but here’s some pics i took at some skywalk heading to Discovery Bay

its the last day of my trip, and i thought i would take some time to recap.

first, my hotel.  the hilton singapore is awesome.  the service staff are so friendly, two big thumbs up.

my room

view from my room
 

the cars parked in front of the hotel

souped up f430 spyder

stock f430 spyder

lamborghini gallardo coupe and gallardo spyder

lamborghini murcielago (behind the m3)

blood orange aston martin

and a pinkish white pagani zonda s spyder

so my friend chris said i should have mcdonald’s when i’m traveling.  to humor her, i did.  here’s proof.

i didn’t get to take pictures of everything i had, because i either forgot or was simply too lazy, but here’s some of it

some crazy espresso shot with cognac and irish cream

yakitori

ramen
 
chicken rice (i swear you would never think chicken and rice could be this good)

sliced fish & rice noodles (been hoo)

singapore’s signature dish, chili crab

and the mother of all crabs canton’s mitten crab

singapore is quite beautiful.  it’s really an outstanding city…if you like city life….the public transit is great, you can walk just about anywhere, theres lots of green and trees, its ludicrously clean.  there’s practically no insects…i mean, open food stalls, and no flies! how does that happen?

there’s rivers that run through


great architecture

malls everywhere for shopping….

fatlace, what you got on fatface? lol

i saw this guy walking with this sign i wanted to pull out my deluxe $2 Hugs sign and compete with him =)

the national museum had some funky stuff, most of the exhibits did not allow photos, but this one did.

i love fattys! lol

so i leave singapore tomorrow, back to hk to see some old friends and might give retail therapy a try 

using my hilton points for my stay in singpore was nice.  there was a line just for members, so i got to cut in front of a bunch of people.  my room had 3 plums waiting for me, and they were quite tasty.  i haven’t had much fruit on this trip, so it was a pleasant bonus.

i was quite tired, so i grabbed a quick bite at a japanese restaurant.  i had a bento box that i was very skeptical on how tasty it was, but it was in fact quite good.

woke up the next morning and went out to starbucks to grab a cup of coffee, and to people watch for a bit.  it must have been 80 degrees out there with humidity, and i was SWEATING.  damn.  of course, there was this dark fella that was wearing a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck! i can understand some people are a little more cold than others, but a scarf??? in the sun??  to each their own.

so next i ventured out to chinatown, and wow, was it clean!

i had one goal, and that was to eat some “chicken rice” from the tian tian stand at the maxwell road hawker center.  chicken rice is a singaporean specialty, and tian tian is considered the best.  at the stand you will see tons of awards and accolades. it was rated one of the “places to try before you die.”  so the chicken rice is just a boiled oil chicken that they slap on top of rice.  they bone it for you so you don’t have to get your hands dirty.  the rice is cooked in the chicken broth that the chicken was boiled in.  then there’s the condiments that you put on it.  tian tian has this chili, garlic and lime juice concoction that you put on and it was sooo good.  to understand how popular this one stand was, they open at 11am, i got there at 10:55, and there was a line up for it.  it continued to have a line the rest of the afternoon, and it was the only stand that had a line.  oh, btw, the dish cost me less than $3 dollars.  i’ll take this over a foot long any day!  sorry no pictures.  i had to sit with a bunch of strangers and didn’t want to look any goofier than i already did.

this is a covered walkway in a “national park” within a small block of the city.  it was quite pretty.

i went back to my hotel and went for a swim on the rooftop pool, quite refreshing.  then i took a power nap.  after that i decided to head off to find this one stand that sold crab and shark’s head.  yup, shark’s head.

i had to cross a river to get there, and wow was this part of town beautiful.  if i was to live in singapore for a while, this is where i would want to live…however, i probably couldn’t afford it.  there were bently’s and lambo’s all over the place. 

so i finally get to tian jin hai seafood stand at the zion road hawker center.  i ordered a crab and a sharks head. 
they asked me, “for 1?” 
i said, “YUP!” 
they said, “too much food for you!”
i wanted to reply with my favorite “w” phrase: “don’t misunderestimate me”, but instead i just said “don’t worry about it”

so the pepper crab was excellent.  it was so tasty.  wow, and they aren’t even known to be the best in town for this.  my many years of crab eating experience allowed me to eat this with dirtying only my left hand while using chopsticks with my right hand, so that when my 2nd dish came, i could take a picture.

the shark’s head.  steamed with soysauce, ginger, green onions and other spices. this dish has no meat on it.  it’s all cartilage i think.  if you like tendon, then you will like this dish.  if that slightly gelatinous texture is not your thing, then you will not like this.  well, for those of you who know, i’ve been in a bit of a funk for the last couple of months, and with the exception of reconnecting with a few dear friends from the past, i haven’t had much to smile about.  well, when i had my first bite of sharks head, i had a smile from ear to ear.  it was so tasty and so different than anything i’ve had before, i couldn’t help but smile like an idiot while sitting there pigging out by myself. 
 

i was so stuffed and just wanted to go home.  15 minute walk, or $5 cab ride….well i wanted to cab it, but couldn’t catch one.  felt like i was in new york. =P  went back to my hotel room and called it a night =)

what a gorgeous day in hong kong.  i am SO glad to be out of the frigid bay area and in shorts and t-shirt weather.

last night i had mantis shrimp (lai neel ha) and steamed clams =D  i didn’t take any pictures because there was a sign at the door that said “no photos” so you’ll have to use your imagination.  then i had a few skewers of random stuff from a street stand.  this morning i had beef brisket and wonton noodle soup at some grungy shop, it was so tasty! i hope i don’t get a stomache ache! 

i went out to happy hour with a couple of coworkers.  after a few beers we decided to head back to one of the guy’s apartment to knock back a few more.  then came the guy’s roommate.  she was clearly intoxicated.  i think it was just alcohol, but i can’t be certain.  she sits down with us and starts yapping about everything and anything.  then she starts cursing and bitching about things.  i was too inebriated to remember about what (or care).  at this point my two coworkers go out for a smoke leaving me alone with the unstable woman.  i don’t know why i didn’t follow them outside, maybe it was too cold, maybe i was just too lazy.  so she starts going off on me. bla bla bla bla bla.  i start thinking “uh, what am i going to do??” in the past, i might have tried to shut her up with either backhanded comments or some smartass remarks, but no, not this time. out of nowhere, i look at her, smiled, and said:  “you need a hug.”  i got up, walked over and gave her a big hug.  after that, she behaved for the rest of the duration that i was there.  i’m not sure what made me do it, maybe i needed a hug too?  anyways, i woke up this morning thinking, man, that chick was way out there, and i could have just as easily gotten kicked between the legs when i reached out to hug her.  glad it worked out the way it did.

28 days until this awful year is over.  this week alone i had my car battery go out on me when i tried to move the car because of street cleaning.  yesterday i drop my ipod in water and is dead now….yes i was going to buy a new music player when i got overseas, but i first need to get there!!  i feel more crap coming….  son of a bitch!