Traveller’s Guide to Beijing – Capital M

It was my second day in Beijing where i was awoken by the sun shining brightly into the room and I could hear the distant small chit chats between my 2 BFFs as we all lazed around in her comfy king size bed.  It’s not everyday that i get to wake up to such a warm and loving morning with 2 of my closes friends in the world and though i was tempted to snooze for a bit longer,  i knew the big city was calling our names. And with that, we all got up and dressed up to go out and explore Beijing.

We had booked a table at the prestigious Capital M for lunch and i could barely hide my excitement after my friend told me that they served our home made Danish food, Smørrebrød. For those that are not familar, Smørrebrød is buttered rye bread, a very dark brown colored bread with different toppings added to give it flavor, such as meat, fish, egg, cheese, cucumbers, herbs, and etc.

We got seated by the window seats with a breathtaking view of the city center of Beijing, where it leads up to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  The western design influence of the black and white patterned floor and mirror ceilings against the Asian infused detailing of red cushioned chairs and flowers, was an excellent way to mix and match.

The restaurant was surrounded by vibrant paintings which reminded me of Van Gough’s art work,  and it bought all the pieces together in the restaurant just perfectly along with a relaxing ambiance.

As expected, i ordered my good old home town Danish Smørrebrød and it did not disappoint. My fave was the fish fillet (fiskefillet in Danish) with a squeeze of lemon juice on top, and the crispiness was just right. The salmon, shrimp, beef, and cheese were typically like what it would taste like so nothing too exciting there.  The egg was excellent along with the dill herbs and for some reason, the flavor of dill reminds me of Denmark. Strange, i know. I suppose the only disappointing thing was that the bread served was not the normal Danish dark brown rye bread you find for Smørrebrød.

What better way to end our meal then enjoying a cuppa latte whilst indulging the complimentary chocolates, biscuits, and jelly candy. The honey comb chocolate was my favorite and its sweetness blended in just right with my latte. The freshly made beetroot juice that my friend had was also delicious and it was beyond fresh, as if i was eating right out of a beetroot!

And if the weather permits, why not enjoy a lovely weekend lunch outside their terrace whilst admiring the scenic view that will not fail to amaze you.  I am sure i will be back to Capital M and just like that, it was time to say good bye and we made our way to the next destination on our “to go” list, Forbidden City.

What fun adventures would you love to try if you were in Beijing?

Keep the good times rolling…

So i hope everyone had a lovely October and more so, a fabulous and wicked Halloween!!!! I’m glad that you all liked my previous Halloween themed “Photo Sunday” post. I actually love that LV pumpkin too!!! Anyhow, i know i’ve been absent from blogging for quite a while and i guess things just happen or life just happens!

But seriously, it was crazy how busy October was for me and don’t get me wrong, i loved every moment of it! I was bombarded with birthday celebrations (one of my friend’s big 30!!!), Halloween celebration at Ocean Park, my BFF from New York coming over to visit, and then sadly, i ended up in the hospital for 3 days last week due to a stomach flu and a terrible high fever. I normally don’t get a fever so i had no idea what was going on when i woke up one morning and my entire body was sore and aching, which apparently, can be one of the symptoms for fever. The doctor told me that i wasn’t full recovered from my cold and sore throat, and that going out almost everyday and night didn’t help one bit. Oh well, lesson learned – no going out when sick!!! It’s just that i’ve been having this bloody sore throat for almost 1.5 months that i got so sick and tired of resting, lol.

Anyway, i’m feeling a bit better now so i just need to rest up, and i better make  a speedy recovery as my sister is arriving to HK on Thursday. Yup,  my sister is coming back for a 2 weeks holiday and we’ll be celebrating dad’s 68th birthday that night!!!! I’m sooo excited!!!!! I can’t wait to see my sis and of course to get my pressies from the UK, hehe. I already told her to stock up on some fashion mags for me as they’re so darn expensive in HK.

That’s a quick recap on what’s been happening with me lately and i’ve included some photos to share with you guys. Hope you’ll enjoy them!!!!

Here are some photos of my one day trip to Macau with my friend who was on visit. She said she’s never been to Macau and so i decided to go with her. We arrived at 3:30pm and we ended up getting home at 1am. We covered mostly everything that a tourist would cover and considering the amount of time we had, i think we did pretty well. Yes, it was a freaking long day man but it was definitely worth it, despite that fact that i got a fever the very next day!

1. The Ruins of Saint Paul’s – the ruins of a 16th century complex, which was one of the largest Catholic Church in Asia at the time, with only the stone facade remaining today.
2. Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) Library – The IACM Building was built in the 16th century and was used for senatorial meetings of the Macau local authority at the time. The construction of the IACM library started in the early 20th century.
3. Tourist  attraction area selling local goods, food, and souvenirs – selling some local preserved dried pork and beef meat in yummy flavors
4. On the busy streets leading to the Senado Square – one of the main attractions with beautiful patterned mosaic of black and white stones on the ground, which were created by Portuguese experts.
5. Visiting a very well known famous dessert shop, “Yee Shun” – they serve yummy steamed milk pudding and steamed egg pudding and if you fancy a savory dish, you can try their pork chop buns.

Ruins of St. Paul's by night time

Saint Dominic Church

Local residental area

We also managed to visit 2 hotel/casinos and that included the relatively newly opened Galaxy, which was opened to the public in May. I have to say, i was kind of disappointed with what it had to offer. The interior design was plain and not much to see in the hotel or shopping area either. But to be fair, we only took a quick glimpse and left as we were in a hurry to see the Venetian before catching our ferry home. I have been to the Venetian 3 times already but my friend wanted to go so badly that i just gave in. That’s what friends are for right?;) But i have to say, the Venetian never fails to amaze me. I can always take photos in that hotel and never get bored of its architectural designs and decor. It kinda reminds me of the Renaissance era.

The Galaxy

The Venetian

As for Halloween, I celebrated it with 2 friends at one of HK’s famous theme parks, Ocean Park, and it was a great spooky night. Basically they set up 8 haunted houses and there are staffs dressed up going around the theme park to scare you when you least expect it. As always, i always get freaked out because I’m an easy target, i scream at the smallest sudden movement, lol. The only crap thing is the long queue for the haunted houses and i waited 1.5 hours for the first one named “Fear Factory”, it was pure torture! I guess next time i will buy VIP tickets at a higher price to avoid waiting forever in queues.

We stayed until almost midnight and i was sooo damn tired by the end of the night. But it was great fun and i dressed up as a cat and my 2 other friends dressed up as a nurse and a leopard. I just wore all black and put on the cat hair band and tail, and then drew some whiskers on my face with an eye liner. Easy Peasy outfit, and cost effective, lol.

I also took my friend to high tea at The Parlour as she kept saying she wanted to try the high teas in  Hong Kong. I’ve been to the Parlour before and i think their high tea is ok but not the best. In fact, i think it was better when i went last time, which was a few months ago. But it’s still a nice place to chill with your friends and just chat and enjoy the lovely weather outside. I would definitely recommend you sit outside the balcony area during the warmer seasons because the view is pretty chillaxing:)

Chase my Saturday blues away…

I’ve come down with a cold over the week and now i’m left with all the suffer from coughing, sneezing, and feeling blah for the weekend! Booooooo, what a bummer for me man. But BF is coming over later to come chill with me so maybe we can just enjoy a light movie or something.

Since i’m feeling the blues on Saturday (just wonderin can blues apply to any day or Monday only?lol), i decided to share some happy moments with you all so i won’t feel as bad and grumpy, haha. You will notice that most of the photos are on food because food makes me happy whem i’m in a bad mood, hehe.  If you’re interested, i’ve also written past posts about food and enjoyments in my life with some mood up lifting photos here and here🙂 

What about you? What lovely things put you in a good mood when you are feeling those blah days???

Enjoy and hope you are all having a fabulous and healthy weekend!!!!

Bf took the trouble and ordered these lovely roses and lilies to be delivered to my work, while he was still living in Ireland at the time:)

My BFFs celebrating a fab bday for me in this Italian restaurant and gave me my first ever Tiffany necklace, awwww, love you girls!!!

I love strawberries – when they’re sweet and dipped in chocolate!!! lol

Sangria – one of my fave drinks whilst chilling with my girls:)

High tea at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon and you can see all the fab food as mentioned here. 

Yummy Chocolate Mousse Dome dessert at the JW Marriott Hotel, Hong Kong

Chinese style dessert – Sesame flavored rolls with fresh mango and glutinous red rice

Easter decoration at my nearby shopping mall

Tiffany & Co. Christmas tree in Taipei, Taiwan – my 2009 new year trip! You can see more amazing photos of the trip here.

Strawberry cupcake from SIFT, the frosting is delish!

I saw this Sweet Potatoe Pie flavored ice cream from Haagen – dazs and knew i had to try it! It’s Japan edition too!!!:D

Fauchon – my fave places to go when i’m in Paris. As you can see from the date, this was way back in 2004!!! This defo calls for a trip back to Paris very soon:)

Max Brenner: Chocolat by the Bald Man – this is a must try place in NYC for choco lovers, its dessert paradise! The waffle was soft and warm and the banana in the toffee sauce was yummers!

Fire works at the Victoria Harbour on China National Day (Oct 1st, 2010)

Company Annual Dinner at the Disney Hotel, Hong Kong

BF took me to Powerscourt House & Gardens –  a beautiful country estate located in Wicklow, Ireland. You can read up on my Ireland trip here too. There are loads of photos and adventures explored so do check it out if you have time:)

My sister gave me these fab Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku ♥ Lovers perfumes (Baby and Music) for Christmas last year. I’m still thinking if i should buy the entire collection but it seems abit insane to do so! lol

First time to the Venetian Hotel/Casino in Macau with BF:)

Cute Tiffany & Co. Shop at the Heritage 1881 shopping area, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Coffee break with BF in Cafe Nero back in Aug for my Euro trip, gosh i miss London!!!

Lunch at the pub, Old Thameside Inn, London – my yummy boar sausage, pork sausage, and apple parsnips on mash potatoe with gravy sauce!

(All photos accredited to me)

Next stop – sunny Dublin!

The weather was all bright and shiny in the early morning of arriving to Dublin, Ireland. I couldn’t have asked for more as the weather forecast, which i last checked, was a promise of rain and thunder. We only had one day of rain so it wasn’t too shabby. As we only had 4 days in Dublin with half a day almost taken up, we headed straight off to do the touristy stuff, hehe. This time BF did all the hard work of showing me around and all i did was relax and enjoy my time:)

BF was being super secretive about where we were going and that got me extra excited. Whilst he drove  us to the so called “secret” location, i was in total awe by the beauty of the nature that was infront of me. I’ve never seen anything this pure, green, and mind calming. This was the view i saw while we were on the high way. Breath taking, isn’t it?

Finally we arrived to our destination at Powerscourt House & Gardens, which is a beautiful country estate located in Wicklow, Ireland. The estate is surrounded by numerous beautiful gardens and historical castles, and it almost felt like i entered a fairytale in the Medieval period. Does that sound romantic or what? lol. 

A visits to the local city center and shopping district was a must do on my list. With the given time we had on our hands, i actually think we covered quite a fair bit. We went to one of the main shopping districts, Grafton Street, which consisted of local shops, cafes, boutiques, shopping malls, and etc. If you’re looking for your designer goodies then head to the department store Brown Thomas or you can pay a visit to the Saint Stephens Green shopping mall, which was one of the first largest malls in Dublin. To be honest, there isn’t much to see there if you’re looking for stylish and fashionable items, but i still think it deserves to have it’s photo taken due to the historical value, hehe. BF also took me to his local shopping mall, Dumdrum, which is a great place to go shop if you can’t be asked to drive into the city and get stuck in traffic. It’s got most of the big names like Urban Outfitters, Karen Millen, Sisley, Harvey Nichols, House of Fraser, H&M, and etc. I saw this Harvey Nichols display in the mall and i just had to take a photo of it. It was a dinosaur made up entirely of hangers, pretty cool eh? They were probably Harvey Nichols hangers too, lol.

Dundrum Town Centre

Grafton Street

If you want an easy way of seeing the city with restricted time, then i would recommend going on the Dublin sight seeing tour buses as it’s cost effective, efficient, and convenient. Our ticket was a 2 day pass so that was excellent! I’ve only posted a few sight seeing photos as the rest were not blog post worthy or jutst down right blurry. We saw many sceneries and i can’t even recall what was what, lol. The basic stuff was covered such as the Saint Patricks Cathedral, Trinity College, Dublin Castle, Guinness Powerhouse, Phoenix Park, which is one of the largest parks in Europe, and etc.  I think the tour guide said the Phoenix park was seven times the size of Central Park in New York. I thought that was quite an impressive fact.

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral

Trinity College

Later on that night, BF said we had to go out for a posh dinner outing to meet one of his best mate and his wife. We went to Café en Seine and it was a cosy and chic looking place. Unfortunately, we only stayed there briefly for pre dinner drinks and headed straight to the restaurant Fire, as we had made reservations already. BF used to work in the hotel industry and he said it was a recommended restaurant to try and so we did. The food was okay and the dessert cocktails were totally orgasmically divine, lol. I cant remember exactly what mine was called but it had toffee and caramel in it, my uttermost fave dessert flavors in this universe!  The night ended with a fair bit too much cocktails but i had a great time and met some wonderful people.

And i shall continue my Irish explorations with you all nex time.  Have a great weekend peeps!

Oh and yes, it’s BF’s birthday today and so i want to wish you  a super duper HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKAT!!! I really wish i was there for your special day but i’m sure you’ll have a great one. I can’t wait to see you in Nov:)

Summer Look Book 2010

I’m off to London in exactly two weeks and yet, i feel like i’m totally not ready for it, fashion wise anyway. I guess this calls for a wardrobe revivial. Of course, i’ve got tons of clothes but its just those moments where i feel like nothing looks right on me.  As always, i rely on In Style because they never fail to provide great fashion tips and advices. Here are just a few picks that i think are great essentials for that summery holiday look.

Jean shorts are great for cooling off during hot summers like this. It’s casual and chic, and you can wear them in flats or heels. Versatile indeed.

The loose fit style for these khaki pants makes it a perfect option when you’re travelling abroad to explore the city. Comfort is the key. 

Maxi dresses are the hype for this summer. It’s casual and stylish, and can be worn  both day and night time.

By adding beaded textures to your outfit, it becomes more alive and gives an instant spark to your look.

I love love love leopard prints (i don’t know how many times i have to stress over that fact,lol) and to give a touch of leopard-ness to my summer look, i say yes please! It’s a print that will work all year around.

Bright shades of colors are always the way to go for those summer nights. It’s a look that calls for style without looking too casual while you’re enjoying  a night out in town.

On the other hand, for more glamorous evening outings, you can option for a sparkly outfit to bring out the fun in you. They key is to not over do it by adding solid colors, such as a black jacket or black pants. 

Summer is the perfect time to bring out the braids look, especiall those cutsey side braids. It’s easy to do, hassle free, and it still looks ooohhh so pretty.

It can be quite high maintenance to have smokey or sparkly eye make up in the summer heat. Go for an easier option, with the hot red lips that gives you a glam look in no time.

Last but not least, here is a glimpse into what i’m feeling for this summer. This is my summer mood board, it’s so inviting isn’t it?!? I can’t get enough of bright colors, such as the bright yellow dress and turquoise accessories. Red hot lipgloss is definitely on my list so i can look freshened up in no time! Then there will be my caffeine fix at London’s local Costa coffee shop while i grab a British copy of the In Style magazine, lol. Gosh, i’m getting all excited about my trip already!!! 🙂

Summer mood board 

 Do you have any summer style inspirations for this year? If so, please give any comments or advices because i would love to know. Sharing is caring right? hehe

 

Sunday Photo – Paradise dreaming

Photo Source: Fashionising

First Easter night out

The Easter Break suddenly hit me hard last night when i went out drinking with my girls in Soho, Central. The long ally ways leading up to hidden bars and clubs that are normally  filled with dressy people, drunks, businessmen, and super hypered gays, was suddenly disserted and quiet. Now im sure not the entire population of Hong Kong went off to enjoy a great vacay but somehow it was just not the typical Friday night i would normally see. Or maybe its just that all the party animals  migrated  off to other exotic islands to party some more?? lol….

Whatever the cause for this temporary migration, i soon realized that this was not such a bad thing after all. You see, we went to our usual bar “Sahara”, and managed to get the sofa seats which we as regulars never ever had the chance to do so in the past! It was always mega packed when we went there for some reason. Anyways, we enjoyed the comfy seats and had the entire view of the bar and saw quite some exciting things that unfolded as the night went on. First event of the night, not long after i sat down, a woman opposite our table  was annoucing out loud and proud that the dude she was with was super drunk and i just immediately thought, gosh you’re just so out of it that you dont even know who is drunk and that poor dude just sat there smiling at her.  Moments later, i saw this Chinese guy coming in speaking fluent English who had a friend by his side that looked some what like Mike Myers!!!  I swear i could not stop starring at him and thank god they were playing their own little poker game and couldnt care the world about my stares, not that he noticed. The night just went abit more steamy when i noticed this couple who could not get their hands off each other. The guy was literally going down her throat and as she went to the ladies room, he kept starring at her back  until she vanished in the background. Not long after they left and were smiling and gazing into each others eyes deeply, i somehow found it sweet in a way. Of course i was enjoying my night away too with the girls sipping on Morrocan tea,white wine, and had somy delicious nann bread with hummus and eggplant dip!!! I guess girls are good at multitasking wont you say? 

The party lasted til about 4am for me and i woke up at 1pm today!!! Well, its a holiday so i say its by law that we can sleep in til whenever we want. Its the best opportunity to just chill and rejuvenate our bodies through resting,eating, and being a couch potatoe while watching Ugly Betty:) ohhh…..I suddenly started thinking about my Europe trip today and i got soooo excited!!! So there’s still 6 weeks to go but who cares, i like to start my planning early. This equals to good management skills, hehe. This is what my itinerary looks like so far:

HK – London, UK

London, UK – Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark – Dublin, Ireland

Dublin,Ireland – London, UK

London, UK – HK  –> HOME SWEET HOME!!!!

Man that is one hellah packed holiday im diving into!! Well, i shouldnt complain cuz im blessed to even be having a 2 weeks break away from work!!! I just really need some time away from my daily routines. And I absolutely miss all the shopping, galleries, markets,musical theaters, and local foods in London and Copenhagen!!! This is gonna be my first time going to Dublin though so im quite looking forward in exploring this historical city, and of course it’s my skat’s home town so more the reason to see it with my own eyes:) 

  

House of Parliment – London

Nyhavn – Copenhagen

 Hope you all are having a fab Easter Break and didnt get any pranks on April’s Fool Day:P

 Photo Source:  http://fashionising.com and http://www.visit4info.com