hm……browsing my photo file and found this dinner at the Union American Bar and Grill at the IFC Mall , HongKong as 2 weeks ago.

Actually this was my 2nd  time trying this restaurant, the first time was more than a year ago, and was sitting at the bar area, and was soo imporessed with the Molten Chocolate cake a.k.a the Chocolate Lava cake. whcih served warm and with lots of  hot fudge by  the time you the cake….yummy

It’s actually a member of the Dan Ryan’s group in HongKong, serving American style finer Diner food i.e. Big piece of Steak, Ribs, with a touch of Italian/French cusine…etc while I hv found both the Food quality and service have gone downhill at Dan Ryan’s this Union thng maintains a very hig standard with both basic elements…..

Smokehouse BBQ U.S.A Baby Back Ribs                 Grilled Chicken Luau Salad

Wild Mushroom and Black Truffle Risotto                   Molten Chocolate Cake

Should have taken a pic of the cake flooding with the hot fudge…….!!!

 On the xmas eve went to a friend’s gathering in YVR and finally had a taste of this Dark Chocolate Ferrero Rocher….been seeing this new flavour all around in YVR but in the gift box with different flavour together with  the original one, and the one with the Mon Cheri rather than being sold on it’s own…and I think it’s just for testing the North American market during this festive season….cos during my layover in HKG on 26/27DEC the Dark flavour couldn’t be found….in the local supermarket chain…..

While the origianl tastes more creamy, the Dark version tastes more cocoa in a way the whole experience is tend to be drier…..don’t know if this one will be success cos If my memory is right a couple of years ago they also had the cappucino flavour and one with the silver wraping which you can’t find it anymore…….

Usually in Vancouver there are not much 24 hrs service stores other than  the most common 7 eleven…but this Christmas some of my friends told me that the 2 big store Zellers and Walmart operating 24 hrs a day throughout the last week b4 Christmas, therefore on 23DEC  I did go and visit these 2 stores after the normal business hours i.e. after 2100 ….just for fun…

At around 2300 I drove all the way from Richmond to this Wal-Mart store near to New Westminster and surprised to see that there were quite a lot of people doing their xmas shopping……and I bought nothing….

Went home afterwards and at around 0200 I drove to the Zellers in Richmond cos I just thought of getting drinks for the xmas eve gathering at a friends place…..  not as busy as Walmart, including me there were around 10 people shopping, though there were more staff than customers…….hahahaha

It not bad to shop in the odd hour since it’s easy to park, no qeueing up at the cashier, and no need to fight for the stuff with other people…….too bad it just happen once in a long while…….

When I was a kid we usually say and write  ’Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year’ or sometimes in writing  ’Season Greetings’……And ‘Happy Holidays’ I think the first time I heard of it  was from the US TV programmes when I was a teenager …..not until my first US Trip in Dec 1995 friends living in the US  told me that it is the political correct greetings being used in North America including the US and Canada……cos only a minimal in the church will use the old way….Anyway for those who always come and visit my blog, do enjoy everything this Festive Season brings you!…..Best Wishes

Visited the HK Disneyland the 2nd time 2 weeks ago…all becos of their Christmas 2007 advertisments on TV and magazines….

Arrived Disneyland around 1430 took the train and the ride last only abut 10 minutes , once back to the main staion…..went down to the main street wait for the xmas parade which started at 1500.  Actually the parade was not much different with the one I saw 1 1/2 year ago, but of course with a little touch of the xmas details and the tunes……but still a nice one…The highlights were the Sparkling Castle Lights at 1830 and the Fireworks at 2000.

Disneyland MTR                                                          the Park’s train

the Xmas parade                                                        you really hv to steer!

Merr-go-round                                                             The Jumbo

Sparkling Castle

Surprisingly I didn’t manage to revisit the Adventurelnad I guess mostly due to the darker evening in winter time…whilie the 2 boat rides are out door which will be better during the day time….

In the FantasyLand unless you have a mindset of being a kid, you will not enjoy to those rides like Junbo, Winnie’s Adventure or even the  Cinderalla Merry-go-round……

Frankly been to Macau twice before the very last time was in 1999.  If there were no huge developemnt of the Las Vegas type of Casino/Resort being done over the past 2 years……I really can’t find a good reason to visit this place again, therefore I decided to spend a night at the most talked about the Venetian Macau.

Arrived  Macau by ferry last Friday around 1000am and took the hotel free shuttle, the queue for checking was not that long as I have expected and mostly people from HKG, Taiwan, a couple of westerners..etc, the waiting time was marginally accepted…..20 minutes with 6 satffs working…The girl who chekced me in bet is from China becos she greeted me in Putonghua and her name, with my poor putong I replied in English and for the following 4 mins I hardly understood what she said cos her voice suddenly turned to be toooooooo softly…..

Anyway the Casino/Resort is really big……….it took me nearly 10 min to walk from the reception  area to the elevator/lift hall, but you can see how nicely the place being made….and the high light of course is the room it self…there are only 2 type of room available, the one bed or 2 beds suites, and once you open the door you can see a suite with a size much bigger than a normal residential apartment in HKG which accomodates a family of 3-4, No wonder it costs me HKD2100/rm/night. After photo taking, went down to the shopping level  for a walk, they have reproduced the  city of Venice nicely and put it indoor….in this Grand Canal shoppes

And you can see lots and lots of Toursits from the Biggest Land of the East Asia, from my observation, they are on different tour groups spending times to tour, shop, eat(at the food court) and of course Gambling!!

In the afternoon  walking around Macau and shop,  had a light dinner then back to the hotel and took more pic…even tried the indoor Gondola….

A famous treat Macau  Portugeese egg-tart

The next day went to the Fisherman Wharf and supposed to have  brunch there. Though the place is also very big and with some attractions, surprised to know that the restaurant there will not serve food till mid-day, even tthey are open they just serves drinks and by the time it’s pass 1200nm the server won’t even offer the lunch menu…..sooo strange…and this time the server can speaking english…and mostly from the place where famous for mangoes…since there’s really not much to do except gambling in Macau therefore left early and went back to Central HKG and had a late lunch…. and it wrapped by one night stay in Macau…

oh another famous treats Macau Prok Chop Bun(fried pork chop with onion on a  mini Ciabatta bun)

Well  from this trip I  hv found that  Macau has all the good hard products specially with the casinos/ resorts business, but the soft products such as the services there are still  a lot for them to improve, I wonder if it is becos of the quality of their current  customer’s profile cos I did hv bad experience with them., Every place you go you are surronded by tons and tons of the tourists from the Biggest Land….. and it’s sooo difficult to take pic when they are around…cos they won’t give u space and time, they just walk by without saying anything, they smoke everywhere even the no smoking sign  is  VERY visible, when you are queing up to pay at the shop cashier…don’t expect they will also queing up, they will just do whatever to jump into you , you ask them to go back to the line they will just ignore…(hm…..this also happen in HKG or in Vancouver).

And one more thing, when I was in a hotel shuttle bus, there’s a guy from the same place….kept on clearing his throat…….and eventually…….spit onto the carpet floor……do they have any sense of hygiene? I used to think they need 2-3 generation to be more civilized, but from this current experience I bet till 10 generation you will see some progress…..and they keep on complaining not being respected while touring overseas including in Macau and HKG, can someone please tell them…..wearing all European Labels, spending money like non-sense will not earn any respects…….

Tmes flies so fst my 2 weeks leaves just came to the end…..been a number of places during this holiday though most of them are my 2nd visit…..

My holiday started on my on a wed 2 weeks ago flying on a miles redemption tickets from YVR to HKG, spent one over night then flew on my favourite airlines SQ HKG/SIN/PEN though I had to make a transit in Sin, I eventaully arrived  Penang earlier than the direct fights from HKG…..and the fare I paid is the same as a HKG/TPE/HKG, Alwin acted as my tour guy  Stayed at a hip hotel  G Hotel which been opend for only over a year. After a quick freshen up ,went to have dinner with Alwin and his parents at a Restaurant which is special in  Nyonya Food .

The ‘G’ Hotel

Nyonya food

The 2nd day started out with some local tour around the Georgetown area the Burmese Buddist Temple, Thai Buddist Temple, and the Geo-park where you can see different kinds of momeky running aound.. Lunch at Alwins’s home with the homemade Hokkian Noodle. In the afternoon continue touring at the Chinese temple. Dinner at the Bukit Genting Hill Restaurant which located at the top and the hillside..

The temples visit in the city

The Park

the Kek Lok Si Temple

the hill top restaurant

The 3rd day we started early in the morning to get on a ferry trip to Langkawi Island though it’s famous for luxury Resorts, sea and diving, we did have a good time to take the cable car to the top of the heap…..since the one way  ferry trip takes 2 1/2 hrs I’ll suggest to at least stay over night to explore the island. At night once we’re back to PEN we had dinner a one of the Hawker food stall…..

Langkawi one day excursion

Hawker food back in PEN

The 4th day we had breakfast at the hotel  and eventually turned out to be a eating day! Did a bit of window shopping around the town  and I bought the sarong as my future stage customes…..in the afternoon I had a taste  of the Malaysian KFC, more local food before having a very good foot massage at the Batu Feringgi Beach. At night having a seafood dinner at the Butterworth area….

More hawker food at different stall and the beach area..

The alien seafood

The 5th also the last day, just had myself flying back to HKG. Over the past few days did explore more of PEN then 18 years ago specailly the food as the places I went are the locals usually go meeting new friends as well as seeing the old ones…..

bye bye PEN