Original Taste Workshop @ MTR Central Station, Hong Kong

We're in Original Taste Workshop (原味作家）at MTR Central station for our lunch. 

It was cold so I decided to find a dining outlet that offered hot soup to warm our body. Among the dining outlets in MTR Central Station, only Original Taste Workshop provided wide varieties of hot soups. 

 Seeing a lot of working adults dropped by to buy their lunch. 

 If offered instant meals and soup  

 Instant snacks and drinks 

 These instant drinks good for our health 

 No dining chairs, thus we forced to stand for indulging our meals. 

 carrot soups. It had intensive carrot smells which was not liking my taste 

 sweet and sour vegetables 

Sir fry pork neck. It was tender and juicy. The red and green pepper added the natural sweetness to the pork neck. Overall, it was very aromatic and flavorful.  

What I like:

1. Eye opening for me to stand up for having lunch

2. So convenient and save times 

Original Taste Workshop

Address: Shop HOK 42, Hong Kong MTR Station, Central 

Tel: 28683227 

Day 6 Discover Hong Kong: Discovery Bay (don't miss it)

Visiting Discovery Bay (愉景湾）considered as our spontaneous travel. It was the residential areas and surrounded by Tiger Head Mountains and natural beaches (i.e Tai Pak (大白湾） & Yi Pak  （二白湾）Bays). We searched how to go there and what to do there when we're at Disneyland. 

I was so proud of ourselves finally did it as we were planner by nature. I used to plan and consider the attractions, transportation to reach the attractions and overall expenses before traveling to ensure successful trip. Sometimes, I wished to avoid doing such solid planning because spontaneity inspired me to out from comfort zone, don't over reply on the itineraries and create my own story. It reminded a quote like below. 

"To break free from your bucket list, set loose milestones and follow your instinct"---Harleen Kalsi 

Rosamond (2nd sister) motivated me to go there actually. Few months ago, I heard from Rosamond about Discovery Bay that wasn't in the Hong Kong tourists guidebooks. She loved Discovery Bay so much when watching TVB drama featured it. She didn't had the opportunity to visit there yet. Thus, I insist to go there to make Rosamond envy or jealous me. I admitted I was so immature and childish. Nevertheless, our sisterhood was very close.  

Enough talking, let's checked it out. 

How to Go There?

Ferry

• Option 1- Taking 25 minutes ferry to Discovery Bay from Central Pier 3 
• Option 2- Taking 15 minutes ferry to Discovery Bay Kai Tou Pier  from Peng Chau
• Option 3- Taking 20 minutes ferry to Discovery Bay Kai Tou Pier from Mui Wo 

Bus

• Option 1- Taking 20 minutes bus DB01R to Discovery Bay bus terminal from Tung Chung Citygate bus terminal
• Option 2-Taking 30 minutes bus DB02R (i.e reach Discovery Bay bus terminal) & DB02A (i.e reach Discovery Bay North Plaza) from Hong Kong International Airport
• Option 3- Taking 15 minutes bus DB03R (i.e reach Discovery Bay bus terminal) & DB03P (i.e reach Discovery Bay North Plaza) from Sunny Bay Bus Interchange (outside MTR station) 

Taxi

• Taxi stand was located opposite Auberge Discovery Bay Hong Kong 

Read more about schedules of ferry and bus, please click H.E.R.E

We choose to take ferry from Central Pier 3

 The view along the way 

 From far away,we could see the Discovery Bay signboard 

Before entering the pier, you could find this 

Discovery Bay Attractions 

1) Discovery Bay Pier

After that, we hopped for C4 bus to Discovery Bay North Plaza (whereby few attractions were based at at there) 

Besides C4, C9 bus run between Discovery Bay Pier and Discovery Bay North Plaza. However, Auberge Discovery Bay Hotel also provided free shuttle bus (every 30 minutes) from Discovery Bay Pier to Discovery Bay North Plaza everyday started from 11.00 am

2) Discovery Bay North Plaza

It consisted of bakery, bookstores and restaurants. It was adjacent to Auberge Discovery Bay Hotel. 

 Further walking down,we found this peaceful space. 

3) White Chapel 

It must be very beautiful in night when lighting up 

 Everything was in white. It created the solemn feel 

4) Discovery Bay Love Lock Promenade 

Not much love locks compared what I had been seen in Malaysia and Korea 

5) Tai Pak Beach

What I regret most was I missed the horse carriage ride due to the early times. Hopefully, next time I can ride the horse carriage. I never expected I will gained lots of satisfaction and happiness at there. I loved it's peaceful and relaxing environment. I loved everything at there faced the sea that enhanced my mood. I loved the magnificent sea views without salty sea smells. I loved the clean air because golf carts and public buses replaced the private cars. I loved less crowd over there and hardly saw any tourists at there. 

If you're like me that love the small town or away from the hustle city, it's the best place. Even writing now, I missed Discovery Bay so much. Probably you might think the Discovery Bay seemed like ordinary place, perhaps my photography skills was very poor,thus can't capture the beauty and the peacefulness of the Discovery Bay.  Anyway, Discovery Bay is worth to recommend. 

Fong Mei Yuen @ Mongkok

We randomly picked Fong Mei Yuen as our breakfast 

 Fong Mei Yuan near to my guesthouse 

 Very narrow. So the table sharing culture (i.e sharing the restaurant tables with strangers) widely practice in Hong Kong cha chan teng. 

 Most of the menus were in Mandarin. Thus, I hardly saw the Caucasians im the cha chan teng 

 Egg tart. The curts were not overly sweet that liking my taste. The edge of the egg tarts were crispy and crunchy.  

 Polo bun （菠萝包）, means pineapple bun. The polo paste was not in the right amount. Almost half of the bun I bite for the filling. Further, lack of fresh from the oven polo bun fragrance when the bun was served. 

 Cocktail bun （鸡尾包）. No chicken tail in the bun actually. Instead, it filled with coconut. The coconut filling was in the middle of the bun. I didn't like it as I preferred the right amount of filling. 

 Luo song tong (罗宋汤）with macaroni. Luo song tong was the tomatoes based vegetables soup. I'm quite fancy with the intense flavor of luo song tong that perhaps cooked with pork/beef stew and the vegetables such as carrots, onion and potatoes. Not only that, sour based of luo song tong enhance the flavor and it went very well with macaroni 

 The Luo Song Tong macaroni came with ham and toast breads. Nothing to shout about the ham and toast bread as both of them could be found at other cha chan teng 

The milk tea was quite good. It was so creamy, smooth and fragrance

Fong Mei Yuen had bad customer service. The reasons were like below:

• I would like to study about Fong Mei Yuen's menu after ordering. One of the waitress said rudely "don't touch the menu anymore as I arranged the menu accordingly. Eat your foods".
• The waitress looked impatient and unpleasant when seeing the coming customers. No smiles at all on their faces. They always took the order very fast and clean the utensils quickly although the customers not left cha chan teng. It sounded like the waitress was going to chase the customers away. 

Day 5 Discover Hong Kong: Disneyland

Like other travelers, we also included Disneyland as part of our itinerary.

How to Go to Hong Kong Disneyland?

We utilized Hong Kong MTR to go to Disneyland. 

The trains was from Tung Chung station to Sunny Bay station followed by Hong Kong Disneyland Resort line. The trains run every few minutes daily from early morning until late night  

The train to Disneyland was Mickey Mouse themed 

The handler bars were also in Mickey Mouse heads

Finally we arrived

A clean shot as not much visitors in 9 am 

Since we arrived there early, we managed to see the opening ceremony of Disneyland. 

colorful Mickey Mouse head of flowers 

1) Main Street, U.S.A

The first attractions we visited was main street U.S.A. 

All the shops in the U.S.A. street made me felt I was not in Hong Kong anymore 

The closer looks of the shops. Most of the souvenirs outlets were at main street U.S.A.

2) Fantasyland

 Here's sleeping beauty's castle. It's the icon for the Fantasyland  

Cinderella Carousel looked very grand 

It's a 4D Mickey Mouse show

3) Tomorrow Land

Naruto became driver and I was the passengers. To Naruto, driving this children car was easy as ABC. 

4) Toy Story Land

Picture was downloaded from Google images. Giant Woody said hi with us 

Also grabbed from Google images. Parachute drop appeared in TVB Hong Kong frequently. The male character hold female character's hands tightly in case she was freaking out. This time I went with Naruto, she can't like the male character hold my hands and assured me.

  I'm not physically and mentally prepared in enjoying such speedy ride. I was getting older and not going to take risk anymore

Toilets in Toy Story land were made from huge scrabbles tiles. 

Naruto so daring to imitate "army guy" 

5) Disneyland Parade

All the Disney characters perfomed in the parade. I admitted I was not recognized all the Disney characters. 

Which one was your favorite Disney character? Mine was Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse

I wished to hug Minnie Mouse but didn't had such opportunities 

Winnie the Pooh 

Simba and friends

Cinderella. 

6) Adventureland: Tarzan's Tree House

Tarzan tree houses was part of the adventureland.

We took jungle river cruise to reach Tarzan's tree house

Looked like real trees and lushes 

It depicted the story of Tarzan 

7) Grizzly Gulch 

The kids was so cute in playing the water shooting . 

Oh my god, Naruto was on jail.Who's going to save her???

8) It's a Small World

It's a boat ride across the  joyful singing children around the world 

Although it’s my first time went to Disneyland, I lost it’s magical feeling. I felt “that’s it” for Hong Kong Disneyland. Perhaps it was due to:

• The rides and attractions were few. We can completed all rides and attractions in the afternoon when we went there in the early morning.
• The queues for cartoons characters for photographing extreme long. Further, these cartoons characters were not available for all day long for photo taking. 
•   Lack of food options. Mostly were fast foods and Indian foods.
• Dislike the promotion strategies in selling the Disneyland T-shirts. For example, the selling tags mentioned that all the long sleeves Disneyland T-shirts had discount. Meanwhile, the short sleeves T-shirt no discount. The time we went to Disneyland was autumn but still sunny and hot day. Obviously, everyone grabbed for short sleeves T-shirts.  Disneyland definitely earned much for that reason.

Despite above shortcomings, it’s priceless to see the kids’ reactions as they experienced the rides, show and parks for their first times. They were so overjoyed when taking pictures with the Disneyland characters. In the same way, Disneyland characters hugged and kissed them.  Besides that, the kids demanded the parents to buy Disneyland souvenirs and the parents always restricted the kids to buy more. Some parents even monitor and control the kids’ naughty behavior from times to times. All these kids’ reactions and their interactions with parents can’t describe by words. It did connected my own childhood memory. Although my parents didn’t bring me to Disneyland, I’m always grateful to what they gave me until today.