Hong Kong Summer Spectacular with HKTB – Day 1 of 6

On my first day in Hong Kong (HK), upon arriving at the Hong Kong International Airport, we were quickly ferried to our hotel by coach.

The hotel we stayed at is called The Mira Hotel. The Mira is very centrally located in Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀), the heart of HK’s commercial, shopping, dining and entertainment district. There are railway stations and a ferry terminal, all located within walking distance from the hotel.

If you are frequent reader of my blog, you will know that I am mostly a budget traveler in order to stretch and maximise my dollars to visiting more places, rather than spend on luxury. The Mira hotel was really a vast change for me. Newly refurbished, the rooms all come with handpicked fabrics and materials, giving a modern, fun, yet classy feel. You can read more about the hotel via Sze Ping (Chinese) and Darren (English)‘s respective blog entries.

What really impressed a super geek like me – all the hotel rooms come equipped with a 40-inch LCD TV, 500GB Sony Personal Computer/Entertainment Centre, Bose in-room soundscapes and “My Mobile” Nokia phone service (allows you to route your room phone to the mobile phone and bring it anywhere). To top it all, complimentary high-speed WiFi and wired Internet are available for all guests. Cool right?

After marveling at the hotel room and taking a quick shower, I headed to the lobby for a light snack at the in-hotel restaurant with the bloggers, Vivien from the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), my colleagues, Siew Kian and Ming Choy.

I had the Asian fusion set. Yummy, though the food took quite a while to come. Nonetheless, we all had a great time chatting, excited about the programs ahead.

After lunch, we headed to the Hong Kong Summer Spectacular – Dragon Boat Carnival Opening ceremony. We managed to catch a parade and some concert performances. There were also booths selling food stuff and operating funfair type games.

Drums performance:

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/v/Ah7sr6pSZmo?fs=1&hl=en_US”]

Sherman Chung Shu-man (鍾舒曼) singing:

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/v/xl321SUtxCM?fs=1&hl=en_US]

The highlight of the event was the singing performance by a “Dream Team” group from South Korea. Let’s Go! Dream Team is a popular Korean television program and stars middle-aged comedians and boy band idols. When the latter group hit the stage one by one – the fans gathered all started screaming their lungs out. The fans must be green with envy at the bunch of us seated in the VIP area, near to the stage.

After the carnival, it was dinner time. We promptly made our way to Busy Suzie, an upmarket Japanese robatayaki restaurant and bar. We were very privileged to have Chef Iwagami Yoshiaki serving us. He is a jovial chap who made effort to interact with us too, making our dining experience a really memorable one. For a review of the restaurant, you can read the expert food blogger in our group, Catherine’s detailed blog entry.

Chef Iwagami’s nifty knife work on video as he cuts up two fishes:

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/v/xyzKsuNllNM?fs=1&hl=en_US”]

BUSY SUZIE
Shop 209, 2/F, 1881 Heritage,
2A Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2369-0077
Open daily
Lunch: noon to 3pm (2.30pm last order)
Dinner: 6pm to 1am (10.30pm last order)

After dinner, we hang around the scenic 1881 Heritage building area where Busy Suzie was located to take a few more shots.

I then headed back to my hotel to wait for Rachel’s arrival. She flew by Tiger Airways and her flight was delayed by over an hour. By the time we met, it was almost midnight. I joined her for a quick supper at a Cha Chaan Teng (茶餐厅) near The Mira.

That ended my first day. Stay tuned for my next post. If you cannot get enough of Hong Kong, you can visit this joint blog by Camemberu, Aussie Pete, Lawrence Huang, Sze Ping, Ang Geck Geck, Elaine Chua, Shinnpark, Darren Ng, Jerome Limand Violet Lim to read more first. 🙂

Read my previous Hong Kong trip blog entries:

Hong Kong Summer Spectacular with HKTB – A Prelude

Flying Off to Hong Kong in a Few Hours

Technorati Tags: Camemberu, Aussie Pete, Lawrence Huang, Sze Ping, Ang Geck Geck, Elaine Chua, Shinnpark, Darren Ng, Jerome Lim, violet lim, catherine ling, huang kee hong, low sze ping, write on white, gin oh, the long and winding road, hktb, hong kong tourism board, singapore blog awards 2010, hong kong travel, hong kong travel blog, hong kong blog, hong kong itinerary, hong kong tourism, hong kong summer spectacular, hong kong international airport, the mira hotel, 尖沙咀, tsim sha tsui, the mira, mira hotel, dragon boat carnival opening ceremony, hong kong dragon boat carnvial 2010, hong kong dragon boat carnvial 2010 opening ceremony, korea dream team, let’s go! dream team, u-kiss, alexander, u-kiss alexander, 2pm korea, 2am korea, dream team south korean, dream team in hong kong, korea dream team in hong kong, 吴浩康, deep ng, deep ng singing, 鍾舒曼, sherman chung, sherman chung shu-man, mighty mouse, korea mighty mouse, Chef Iwagami Yoshiaki, busy suzie, japanese robatayaki restaurant, busy suzie robatayaki restaurant, 1881 heritage, 1881 heritage hong kong, gyu-tan, beef tongue, grilled salmon, grilled rice, yuzu jelly, hong kong busy suzie, hong kong shopping