The Travel Diaries: Afternoon at Harvey Nicks, The Butchers Club and The Golden Leaf at Conrad Hong Kong

Our return from Beijing to Hong Kong marked the nearing of the end of my trip around South East Asia. Therefore, we decided to celebrate in style!

First up, afternoon tea at Harvey Nichols.

I have to say after our slightly disappointing experience with the Chloé afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental, I was slightly resigned to the idea that nowhere does afternoon tea as well as well as the English. After all, it is a traditionally English concept.

However, I was more than pleasantly surprised! We sat down in the colourful restaurant and not long later, our cakes, scones and savouries descended. The food was all beautifully presented, each little morsel a work of art.

I also loved the variety in the savouries and the range of cakes offered, especially the stilton and mushroom filo tart and the lobster flavoured creme brûlée.

We very happily munched our way through while chatting and gossiping away. Harvey Nicks was a hit!

One evening, Jossi took me to a fab little burger bar. This brave little restaurant only served one type of burger (unless you ordered from their 'secret' menu, accessed by QR codes dotted around the establishment) and one type of side, duck fat fries. And they were finger lickingly delicious. As in, good enough that we were shamelessly picking up every last crumb. Yum. Apparently this tastiness stems from the fact that each burger is hand made on site, freshly ground from Australian angus beef, making them super juicy and super fresh, but really who cares. What mattered was just how good they tasted! Paired with a coke float, I was in heaven!

I also loved how the most was made of such a small space. We perched on an open bar overlooking the street and before long got chatting to the people opposite us. The friendly and relaxed atmosphere, enhanced by the chatty staff, made for a great, quick watering hole which Joss and I felt rather enamoured by. We were so glad we visited!

On my last night in Hong Kong, Jossi's family generously took us out to dinner at The Golden Leaf restaurant in the Conrad Hotel. I was incredibly excited as The Golden Leaf has a very good reputation and a Michelin Star to boot.

We tucked in to a variety of Cantonese dishes (I have to admit I didn't know what a lot of them were since Jossi's dad did the ordering, but they were all delicious!).  The presentation was beautiful with each dish having an accompanying mini flower arrangement on the side. I especially liked how instead of the usual sharing plates I'd become accustomed to in Hong Kong, the food was individually plated.

The dinner was lovely and just a little sad as it dawned on me that I'd be leaving Joss and her wonderful family just the next day. It had been such an incredible trip and we'd seen so many beautiful and amazing things. Walking back home through the centre on the city gave me a last chance to soak up the of the city before packing the last of my things and getting ready for my departure. Leaving was definitely traumatic, but don't worry Jossi, I'll be back soon!

The Travel Diaries: The Forbidden City, The Great Wall of China and Da Dong Restaurant, Beijing

In the early hours of the morning, Jossi, her family and I jumped in a taxi and whooshed down the side of the Peak and to the airport. We were about to catch a short flight to Beijing!

Jossi's dad had visited the city on many occasions and so we had a well seasoned tour guide in our midsts as we went to explore China's capital. Jossi and I couldn't wait- it was both of our first times in the city and my first visit to mainland China! We only had the weekend, but were determined to see all the main sights so, armed with our water bottles and sensible shoes, we went exploring!

First stop, The Great Wall.

Just wow.

Nothing quite prepares you for how huge the wall really is. It stretches as far as the eye can see in front of you and behind, dominating the ridge line of the surrounding mountains. Looking over the top, you can see the terrifyingly sheer drop, and the ground far far below.

The wall itself is quite tricky to walk as the smooth stone waves up and down under your feet as it follows the shape of the mountain peeks. You can see notches in the stone where horses' hooves had worn in footholds as they patrolled the wall. You can imagine marching up and down the battlements, looking out for the ferocious huns and other invaders below!

The wall is simply spectacular and surprisingly fun to visit. You can see why it's seen as one of the wonders of the world!

After a walk around Tiananmen Square (The home of the National Assembly), we entered the Forbidden City which was another great place to explore. As the home of the Emperor of China and his household for nearly 500 years, and named the Forbidden City after the fact that no one used to be able to enter or leave without the Emperor's permission, it was steeped in history.

We walked through the expansive grounds, peering into rooms and around the gardens. The palace was very busy with people from all over China coming to visit the historic home of their emperors.

Our little watery friend came with us to see the sites!

I especially loved the gardens with it's ancient trees and beautiful pagodas.

All of our exploring was hungry work and so we visited some brilliant restaurants although not without making some rather large friends first....

The first was called Da Dong and was magnificent. Located in Peking, it promised some of the best Peking duck around and it did not disappoint! After being roasted, the duck was brought to our table while a chef prepared it in front of us. We were then presented with dishes of mellon, cucumber, spring onions and pickles, along with pancakes and sesame buns. Being the only westerner at the table, the chef then helpfully showed me the proper way to assemble my duck (much more elegantly than I possibly could!). We also tucked in to a fabulous (yet to me, rather mysterious) set of other dishes, all which tasted and looked amazing. Jossi's dad ordered a fish dish which arrived, complete with head and teeth!

Da Dong itself was also a beautiful restaurant. We ate around a flat, still pool where, on a centre island, chefs in tall white hats roasted the ducks in what looked like giant pizza ovens. The walls were decorated with shadowy silhouette projected onto the walls and interesting partitions broke up the dining space. It was very modern without being cold and I loved it!

The second place we ate was a Mongolian restaurant with a name I unfortunately can't type or say. This was my first experience of Mongolian food and I have to say I really enjoyed it! The restaurant's speciality were 'hollow noodles' which you can watch the chefs prepare in the restaurant.

Mongolian may not be the most photogenic cuisine (one dish was literally a giant lamb bone which you picked the meat off of) but it was definitely delicious and also rather spicy! Definitely something I'd like to eat again!

One evening we stopped at the Beijing branch of the American Club for dinner. Although the food perhaps wasn't some of the most interesting we ate in Beijing, it was definitely beautifully presented and I really enjoyed seeing how they made each dish look special!

The one food we didn't dare sample however was the deep fried insects, a local delicacy. Stalls in the street were selling scorpions on sticks, which were then plunged into vats of batter and fried in front of you. However, as hard as the store vendors tried, they couldn't convince us to munch on a creepy crawly! We did however try some bubble tea and toffee strawberries on a stick.

Beijing was fabulous and not at all what I was expecting. It was vibrant and lively and didn't at all fit the kind of 'repressed' view I'd previously had of mainland China. There was so much to see and do and I'm incredibly grateful I was given the chance to see it (thank you so much Jossi's fam!). Hopefully one day, I will get a chance to return!

The Travel Diaries: Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Despite Hong Kong being made up of many islands, Jossi and I had spent no time at all in the sea. This wasn't about to change, but we did decide to re-live a little of Jossi's childhood and so instead decided  to get a little more intimate with some of the sea's more exciting creatures. Therefore, early one morning, we hopped on a busy bus and went to visit Ocean Park.

Ocean Park feels a little like Disney's watery cousin. Everywhere we looked, there were colourful buildings, exciting rides and brightly painted mascots. However, there was one brilliant extra. Ocean Park had an aquarium... and a zoo... and an aviary!

Now anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for fish. Live ones that is. In an aquarium I become as excitable as a two year old, running around pressing my face up against the glass. I'm in fishy heaven! Luckily for me, Ocean Park had thousands of fish and a whole lot more I hadn't expected!

The park also put on shows, featuring everything from friendly seals to a whole pod of performing dolphins. We could even go and meet the parrots!

At one point, we pulled our jumpers from our backpacks and huddled down into them as we went to visit the penguins in their icy enclosure!

Now quickly, I have to say one thing that struck me strongly about Ocean Park was the animal enclosures. They were so well designed and seemed to have a huge amount of space. For example, the penguin enclosure was one massive room in which you walked through, with different areas on all sides of you, linked by a big watery pool. This meant that you had penguins swimming under your feet and popping up on all sides as you walked through the room. It made you feel very involved with the animals but also allowed them much more space than I've seen in previous zoos. Even the fish had very large tanks, the main on containing hammerhead sharks and the biggest rays I've ever seen was just ginormous. As you walked around it, different nooks and crannies in the aquarium wall opened up to give you a different view. It was just fantastic! More than this though, it helped the park push home their message of 'be environmentally friendly' as you suddenly felt so much more interconnected with the animals.

One rather special area of the park held some VIP guests. The pandas. These were given to Hong Kong by Beijing and represent the friendship between the two provinces. Apparently, Beijing will take back these pandas at some point, and Hong Kong will be allowed to keep any panda cubs produced during their stay. It took us a little time to hunt down these giant bears but eventually we spotted them, both napping in separate parts of their specially climate controlled enclosure, showing no interest in each other whatsoever...

One exhibit really made Joss and I giggle and that was the space dedicated to different breeds of goldfish. Not only was this in itself funny, but the fish were downright hilarious. Some were incredibly fat or bulbous, where as others had little weird wobbly bits adorning their heads! Saying that, there were some incredibly pretty ones too!

My favourite area however had to be that devoted to the jellyfish. The huge tanks full of floating translucent tentacled masses were simply mesmerising, as we saw how the jellies were carried around with the currents in the tanks. Each tank lit up with different colours made the display all the more beautiful!

All in all, Joss and I had an absolutely fabulous day and even made some fishy friends of our own...