Old School Onsen Town

The township of Jiaoxi in Yilan County (宜蘭礁溪) reminded me of those old-school onsen town in rural Japan, like Kusatsu or Arima or Dogo. The moment we stepped out of the train station, all we saw was a big sign with the list of hotels and B&Bs located in the neighborhood, and along the street were all the restaurants and souvenir shops, all geared towards tourists and visitors in this town better known for the hotspring facilities. 

Finale "Matine" Brunch

We finished our summer Macau trip with brunch at Mesa at Grand Lisboa Palace in Cotai. I didn’t have a chance to visit the restaurant when I stayed at the hotel earlier this year, but this time I couldn’t resist checking out their Sunday “Matine” menu with generous spread of classic Portuguese brunch dishes. 

Guangzhou: High Speed Rail, Concert, MO, Michelin Cantonese and More

Worth the $100 billion in construction cost or not, the High Speed Rail did minimize much hassle for travelling from Hong Kong to nearby Chinese cities. Recently we spent a weekend in Guangzhou recently with our train ride taking slightly less than 2 hours from the city center of Hong Kong to the city center of Guangzhou (in the past a similar trip would have been twice as long with more stops in between)

Early Dinner

We opted for an early dinner at Imperial Court just as we concluded our visit at MGM Macau with the restaurant conveniently located next to the hotel VIP lobby. The modern and luxury decor of the restaurant gave a little hint of the style of the restaurant, which specializes in traditional Cantonese with a contemporary twist curated by Chef Homan and his team. I love the private room which was tastefully done with ample space for the group of us.

Second Getaway

I went on a second trip to Macau in as many weeks this time courtesy of the PR team of MGM Resorts. While the main purpose of the trip was to attend a special lunch reception on the next day at MGM Cotai (details to be posted later), I did spend some time touring around the hotel and its sister property MGM Macau and had a very relaxing 2-day journey. 

Sai Kung Staycation

It’s probably not the best time to open a new hotel, but at least in Hong Kong with people thirsting for anything just to get away from home, hoteliers can count on staycation goers filling the rooms for the time being. And plenty of them, as we found out a few weeks ago when we checked in to the new WM Hotel in Sai Kung for a quick weekend getaway. 

My Perfect Kind of Resort

After a summer of turmoil in our city, we were desperate to get out for a little break where we can switch off and relax. Earlier we received a kind invitation from The Hiramatsu Hotel & Resorts group for hosting us a couple of nights at their property in Sengokuhara near Hakone, so we thought the timing was just perfect and it’s perhaps a blessing in disguise.

Vacation in Central

With weather forecast suggesting there’s going to be severe thunderstorm and rain throughout the weekend, we seriously thought about postponing our staycation plan til some other time, but at the end we went on with our original plan, and proved that weather forecast cannot be more wrong this time (much to our delight). Last year at the hotel media party, I was lucky to win the lucky draw prize of a 2-night weekend stay at the Four Seasons Hong Kong, and so we thought we should take advantage of that and have a little staycation at the end of August to spend some time lying by the pool and chill or something.

Okinawa Short Trip: Initial Impression

“You are going to love it as long as you don’t think of it as Japan”… my friend JP gave me this piece of advice on Okinawa. To be honest, we never thought of this remote Japanese prefecture in the Pacific as an interesting destination worth visiting, thinking the place is more suited for parents with kids rather than serious travellers, but JP assured me that’s just a common misconception and there were plenty of nice places to go. So one day when we saw the air ticket promotion to Okinawa, we took advantage of it and made a short trip there.

Hot spring getaway in the summer

Seems like it’s a silly idea to go on a hot spring holiday in the middle of summer when it’s 30-degree plus out there in Taiwan, but it is what it is - let's just say it's not exactly my idea. The hot spring resort town of Beitou turned out to be much closer to the city than I thought – in fact technically it’s still within Taipei city limit and is easily reachable by MRT, their metro train system. While many opted for a day trip to Beitou from Taipei, we decided to stay there on our first night of our vacation at one of the newer resort hotels built in the mountains, with a car arranged as we landed in late morning which took us into Beitou right on time for check-in at the resort.

Bangkok Bits and Pieces

I felt like I hardly know Bangkok anymore after a hiatus of more than 6 years since our last visit. The unbearable city traffic and inefficient airport immigration has been the major turn-off for me for coming back more often, but with a few "new" restaurants now gaining worldwide fame we thought we should pop by for a quick long weekend to check some of them out. Gaggan is obviously top of our list, being named Asia's Best 3 years in a row and clock is clicking for its eventual closure in 3 years' time, but there are a few others we would like to try too.

Extended Breakfast

In between patches of rain, we managed to conduct a Sunday morning food crawl in old town Macau as our extended breakfast on our last day of vacation. When I look beyond the dazzling casinos and shopping malls that came as a dime a dozen in the newer part of town, I actually found the old town more charming, with traditional shops inside relatively well-maintained building in mixed Chinese and European style - thanks to the Portuguese colonial influence.

Morning in Old Town Macau

When our friend J (of Chicken Scrawlings) offered to organize a mini Macau food crawl for the group including lunch at her husband's restaurant which has just been awarded with a second Michelin star, it's something hard to pass up. And I figure we may as well turn that into an overnight stay in Macau to make it a "stay-cation" so we can try out more new places at a more leisurely pace.

Meal in the City - Lunch at Club Gascon

With jetlag still lingering in our first couple of days in London, we decided to take it easy with our schedule and had lunch at Club Gascon, a small French restaurant close to where we stayed and after a morning when we split ways - me cycling by the river whilst C spent time at her London office (hey, c'est la vie)

Disappointment at Porte 12

For the 20 days I was away, I am blessed with many good meals in 2 continents, except a couple that I felt were a bit of a letdown. One of them was Porte 12, a relatively new restaurant in Paris' 10th arrondissement. I was a bit disappointed after having dinner there on the only night that we went for something fancier.

Kaiseki Lunch at Gion Maruyama

We concluded our brief stay in Kyoto with lunch at a kaiseki restaurant called Gion Maruyama (祇園丸山), which came highly recommended by a few food loving friends of ours.

As we had a train to catch shortly after lunch, we did the unthinkable of dragging our suitcases cross the classy Hamamikoji-dori (花見小路通), a popular sightseeing street near Gion known for the common sight of geisha strolling past. There are actually two Maruyama restaurants, both owned by Chef Yoshio Maruyama and both awarded 2 Michelin stars, and the one we went was the honten, or the original branch, located just a couple blocks off Hamamikoji-dori inside an old traditional Japanese house.

A Popular Choice for Tempura

We were caught into a bit of an awkward situation with the heavy rain pouring down as we got out of the taxi just outside Tempura Yasaka Endo (天ぷら八坂圓堂) in Kyoto on a Sunday evening. We slowly regained our composure as we were led through a narrow stone path into the tempura bar area housed in a traditional building, where two seats have already been reserved for us at the corner of the L-shaped counter.

Summertime Chicken Hotpot in Kyoto

With our flight schedule to touch down only in early morning at Osaka airport, we didn't make any specific plan for lunch in Kyoto on our first day, for fear of the possibility of a flight delay. Nonetheless, I did have a specific restaurant in mind - I just figure we would just try my luck walking in if all things went well.

Toriyasa (鳥彌三) is a 227-year-old Kyoto restaurant specialized in Tori no Mizudaki, or essentially chicken hotpot, now already in its 8th generation owner at the beautiful street of Kiyamachi by the Kamo river. We arrived at Kyoto right on schedule so after quickly settling in at our hotel near Sanjo, we made a leisurely stroll towards the riverside area where the restaurant is located.

The heavenly St Regis Bali

Recently we were down at Bali for a long weekend. As we were planning for the trip, we thought long and hard to decide whether it's worth paying a bit more for a better hotel, after realizing how inhibitively expensive Bali travel package could get. At the end we figured since this is only our first vacation this year, we may as well splurge a bit more for some luxurious comfort, something we felt like we desperate need. Looking back, I think it's the money well spent as we had a great time at St Regis Bali.