Hong Kong Diaries - March 2012

I went to Hong Kong a couple of weeks ago for a quick trip with my cousins. I didn't have my kids nor my husband with me and I missed them terribly but I had a much relaxed trip as opposed to our annual family trip last December. We didn't do any touristy activity at all! It was basically three days of eating, shopping and WALKING.

I didn't have any plans to shop but when you're in Hong Kong, you really can't help but do otherwise. And I was so excited when I realized that we were arriving a day before the Marni x H&M launch. I had my eyes on just one item from the collection - these sandals:

Photo from Fashionista.com

We arrived at our hotel around lunch time, left our luggage, went out to have money exchanged before we ate. And Marni x H&M billboards welcomed me to the land of shopping.

Oh, hello, Marni! :)

This was my first meal:

Assorted Roast Meal

And here are some more of what I ate...

Roasted Duck

I had roast and a truck-load of rice (hahaha! I swear they serve too much rice!) 

almost every meal. If I didn't get roast, I had noodles.Yes, it was a carbo-loading trip.

Yoshinoya's Tobiko Salmon Flakes Bowl

This is my sister's favorite. We don't have this in Manila. When she discovered 

it a couple of years ago, I was pregnant and couldn't eat seafood and I was 

really jealous. Since then I always look forward to have this when in Hong Kong. 

I wasn't able to have this last December and since my cousins didn't want to eat at 

Yoshinoya, I went by myself and had my fix. And honestly, I don't really understand 

why I so wanted to have it. It's nothing special, really. Next time, I'm sticking to my 

roasts and noodles!

I totally underestimated the weather. It was just so hot in Manila days before the trip and I packed Manila wear and just added a lightweight jacket/sweater/blazer. It was crazy cold. Colder than last December. The sun didn't even shine during the three days we were there.

Morning view from our hotel

Late afternoon view from Harbour City - FOGGY!!!

It was so cold, my feet cramped up (must be my age, too! hahaha!) - while walking. It was really, really painful. 

What I do as soon as we get to our hotel.

I had to go to Watson's and get Bengay. And while I was at it, I grabbed a bunch of other stuff.

 

I hoarded hair products. I've already tried a lot of products for my curly hair - did the spray, mousse, wax and cream which is the one I like most. But it is just so hard to find a cream-based hair product here in Manila that is not crazy expensive. I use it everyday so I finish a bottle quite fast. The one I'm using right now is the Sifone Hair Beautifying Wavy Milk (second bottle from the right) and I like it a lot. It leaves my curls soft but defined. It's by Kao Corporation from Japan. I haven't tried the one in the green bottle and the Faddy brand yet. I want to finish the Sifone first before I open another one. Yes, I have high EQ (hahaha!). But maybe I could try them soon so I can write a review. Let's see...

Anyhoo, back to Marni x H&M, I did not camp out and fall in line. None of my companions were crazy about the collection. It would be lonely and sad to wait by myself out in the cold. We went to H&M after lunch and I was feeling nervous while I was looking for the collection. They could have sold out by that time. So I asked a staff and told me to proceed to the second floor. And I was surprised to see that the Marni section had a ton of stuff left (except for accessories which have sold out early on). There were racks after racks of clothes and they still had shoes! I quickly asked for my size, tried them on and held on to the box. I was feeling greedy and asked for the silver ones in my size. When I stepped away to try them on, I realized I was given the wrong size. When I went back, there were just about four pairs left and none of them were my size. Oh well, I guess the silver ones were not meant for me.

Good thing I didn't camp out for those sandals. I mean, they started at 8:00am. Eight in the morning!!! I don't think I was even already awake at that time. Here's a photo of the bracelet color guide and shopping hours. They take these collab launches pretty seriously, no?

So what else should you do when in Hong Kong? Visit as much branches of Sasa and Bonjour and make sure you have lots of time to waste. I probably went to three or four Sasa stores each day. There are a lot of items you can find in one branch that the other won't have. And oddly, not all stores offer the same discounted items. I was able to score a Clarins Beauty Flash Balm at 20% off when other Sasa stores sell them at a full price. Evian is cheaper in Hong Kong than here in Manila. For the Manila price, you can already get the jumbo can in Hong Kong! And of course, there are a bunch of makeup tools and whatnot to discover. Sasa is a makeup junkie's wasteland heaven! I love it!

It was a fun trip but really tiring. I think the walking took a huge toll on my feet. I've noticed that when I go to the mall for two to three hours, my feet start to hurt when I usually last way longer. We didn't even leave the Tsim Sha Tsui area. We never even rode the train to other parts of the city. We were just in one area the whole time. There are so many places to visit. Next time, we should stay longer. I just hope we have the money to do so. Hahaha.

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