HK shopping trip for wedding preparation (6th - 12th May) part 3

the last part of the HK trip post will be just on random shopping & food that i had in HK....

so after shopping for all the expensive stuff for the first 2 days, the next few days will be more on normal shopping & meeting some of the relatives.... as usual, my favourite shopping place is at prince edward =  花园街

 花园街

streets at  花园街

my rainboot look... cause hongkong was raining so heavily

look at the amount of stuff we bought... crazy... haha

happened to spot animate along the street at prince edward

the clothes at  花园街 is pretty cheap but compared to my beloved taobao.com.... the prices had jet up ALOT since these couples of years.... but i feel if you are looking for relatively cheap stuff, i think  花园街 is still a good place...

along the road along prince edward, i stumbled across a shoe shop which sell alot bling bling shoes & lucky me, managed to find a suitable shoe to match my gowns....

the shop name....

my shoe....

front view

the shop was having some closing down or moving sales... so the shoe was having 20% off then still have additional 15% off so the final price was 344hkd = about S$56... i think in SG will cost at least S$70 but the main problem is the heel so OMG high... at least a 3inch kind... & luckily mine is about 1.5inch = i can run in it... yeah!!!

subsequent posts will be on the food i ate in HK, yummy.... =)

my favourite beef stew at  池记 (郎豪坊)

salmon + ebiko rice @ yoshinoya... pretty unique but slightly salty

favourite steak at Boston seafood

quite famous cream puff shop in HK

triple chocolate... hmm ok lo

ordered green tea + azuki for mama... not too bad

cocomo restaurant at shatin

the menu

the bread + soup + salad, i like the bread.. soft & nice

stew rice with scallop + truffle... nah... not nice

kimchi udon... nah... average

side track.... i quite like the shatin shopping center.... my favourite is YATA at 新城市廣場第三期... is a japanese departmental store & the good thing is that the stuff there are not the super expensive kind.... pretty affordable.... there is also citysuper = something like fancy version of market place... pretty cool place to walk around too....

bread @ tiffany at prince edward area

nice borche

baked pork chop rice... NOT nice...

sushi platter from market place... quite fresh wor

roast meat platter from 翠华.. not too bad but slightly on the fatty side

my favourite porridge store at prince edward area

炸两 which means the 油条wrapped in 猪肠粉, is a common dish in HK & i quite like it

the porridge... not as nice as last time but still not too bad

so yup, with that i ended my 7D6N trip in HK... was a really intensive shopping trip.... i spent like S$1K on food + shopping... thankfully we can stayed at my aunty's place so we saved alot on the hotel.... once again... i urge everyone to go HK buy jewellery or expensive as there is no tax there... but have to compensate by paying for expensive hotels.... well... have to give & take =)

HK shopping trip for wedding preparation (6th - 12th May) part 2

second part of hk trip is still on shopping for dowry stuff.... so the second objective for this hk trip is to rent kua cause mama cant find suitable ones in SG.... & my cousins seem to manage to get some good deals during her wedding so it sparks the idea of renting kua from HK....

the place most well-known for kua rental is actually 金都商场... you get off at prince edward mtr station & come out from the 联和广场 exit & the building is just opposite 联和广场...side track abit, TSL is also another famous jewellery store in HK

金都商场

this building is amazing, to me it's like the whole tanjong pagar street has condensed into this building.... all the shops deal with wedding stuff... like rental of gowns for both brides & family, wedding shoes, kua, wedding goodies, pre-wedding+actual day photography/videography & etc.... so inside this amazing building, we managed to find afew stores that rent kua but most of them are pretty expensive... just when we about to give up, we saw this  tiny stores selling wedding goodies but also have afew kua on display... we ask the staff how much for the rental, to our surprise, the price is pretty reasonable.... again, there are 3 categories of kua.. the cheapest kind is about 888hkd for 3D2N, middle is 1188HKD for 3D2N, cant remember how much the most expensive one cost but i would dare say is still cheaper than SG.... but since we need to bring the kua over to SG & back to HK, we need to rent at least 7days... & the price we were offered was 2288HKD, which is about S$370... hey man, that's much cheaper than what we can find in SG for similar kua....

the kua store pamphlet

forgot to take picture of the store, only took a copy of their pamphlet... the staff there was quite knowledgeable about the wedding customary stuff... & when she help me try on the kua, she wore gloves... wooow... so pro wor....

the kua i rented

 didnt take a picture while i try on the kua... this design is pretty nice, not the super fancy but still look formal... the best thing is that the kua look new... those that you can find in SG tend to look dirty & old but well... you cant complain much since not many stores do renting of kua... have to make do with what you can find... but of cause, if you dont have relatives/friends in HK who can help you bring over the kua then of cause renting one in HK is out of the option..... another thing i learn from the staff was that, we supposed to wear a red pyjama beneath the kua... one thing is precaution purposes since the kua is like OMFG expensive, more importantly is supposed to be something auspicious... so i will wear the same pyjama for 上头 on the night before wedding.... the staff also suggest us NOT to wash the pyjama since you want it to be like NEW...

red pyjama for bf (left) & me (right)

so after settling 2 important things, we went on to get other stuff for my 行头(jewellery/show-off stuff) to match the wedding + evening gowns... i actually intended to get those cheapo jewellery from chromel or kenji those kind of brands cause seriously, who will go up close & check whether your necklace is real anot.... but mama say should have something real... so fine... lets see what we can find in HK.... we took a brief look at those pearl/ diamond necklaces... like my god!!! prices are insane!!! a simple necklace cost like 6digits hkd... that's totally rubbish for me.... so the next best alternative is getting from swaroski.... i actually took a look at SG store before... i do like the pearl necklace that mirandar wore on the HUGE poster.... we also check out the price in DFS in changi airport... only less 7% GST, like not much discount... so we went to check out swaroski in HK... like woah.... really cheaper wor.... we went to the langham place outlet... after looking around the store, we narrow down to top 5 choices of which 2 of them are really stunning....

selma all-round necklace

fidelity collar... this 1 is not bad but the necklace may roll around

hot necklace

i think all these 3 necklaces are not too bad but when tried on, they dont look that stunning compared to the other 2....

nude all-round necklace ... really like this

azalea collar ... this necklace is amazingly nice when you tried on

azalea bracelet

so in the end i bought the pearl & azalea collar + bracelet.... that's my wedding present from my jiejie & bro-in-law =) the pearl necklace cost 2140hkd = S$348, SG cost S$400 for that necklace... then the azalea collar cost S$880 but in hk is 4300hkd = S$699.. you saved almost S$200!!! my god.... that's ALOT of difference.... so again... this prove my point to buy jewellery in HK is more worth it =)

the most famous kua rental shop in HK

to end off this post.... 冠南华 is like THE kua rental shop in HK but the prices are way too expensive so that's out of our option... the nearest mtr station is jordon... mama asked & the simple kua which wore for more than 10x, the rental still cost like 3000+hkd for 3D2N..... but you guys are interested, can always take a look at the site =)

HK shopping trip for wedding preparation (6th - 12th May) part 1

yup.... as mentioned in previous post, i went back to hk to do some shopping for my wedding stuff.... it was a very sudden decision & luckily we managed to get a cheap air ticket for $286.20 flying cathay pacific with all tax included... this is like the cheapest cathay ticket i have purchased.....

we took the 1am+ flight so we reached hk abt 5+.... after collecting our luggage & freshen up abit, we went to have breakfast at mac...

there is this macaroni thing at mac...

its call twisty pasta or something... doesnt really taste nice...

i also purchased this sim card on board... i think is quite a good deal since is HKD90 for 8days unlimited local call & 5Gb data plan... is mainly for tourists so i not sure if can be purchased in hk stores

after that we went to my aunty's place to put down our luggage, went to have lunch before meeting my another aunty to buy stuff...

yoshinoya beef bowl.... not really nice... the sauce wasnt that good... japan still still the best

since the main purpose of this trip is to buy jewellery/dowry.... we went to nathan road since there has the most number of gold shops.... the popular brands are 周生生，周大福 and 六福 but we prefer to get from the two 周 family.... in nathan road, the jewellery shops are really one after another... i forgot to take picture but there are at least like 10shops of each brand along both side of nathan road... scary.... & most of them are always packed with people... seriously... where all these people find the $ to buy......

i would say if you guys really want to buy gold jewellery... the best place to buy is really hk... first of all, there isnt GST in hk, so you save on at least the 7%... next the workmanship is also cheaper in hk, especially those jewellery we see in SG are mostly imported from hk.... in addition, you can have quite a bit of discount on workmanship in hk... you can easily get 40% off but in SG... getting 10% discount is already like god-sent...but in order to get discount for the workmanship, you have to some sort bargain... if you have relatives in hk will be good then can start saying you have bought like a tonnes of jewellery from them but just dont want to join member those kind of rubbish... then like aiya... i bought so much things... give me more discount, something along that line to get more discount.... so for me... with my parents + aunty bargaining skill, we managed to get 50% off the workmanship price... for gold price + 2% commission is standard so there wont be discount for that....

bangle from 周大福

necklace from  周生生

so for the time we went back, the gold price is hkd14050 for 1 両 (37.7994g)... so is about S$60.5/g for 999.9 gold.... i think is cheaper than the SG price probably due to the exchange rate.... the bangle is pretty standard design... they have more fancy styles but for me i think bangle should go for traditional style since it going to match with kua... the bangle weight about 32g or so and after discount the workmanship is about 550hkd... like excuse me... for bangle you find in SG, the workmanship easily cost S$200 which is like 1200+hkd lo.... then for the necklace, i like the unique design... the phoenix tail really look like a feather & the scale of the dragon look pretty 3D.... personally i do think the workmanship for this necklace is stunning.... again... after discount, the workmanship was something like 600hkd.... we asked before in SG, necklace workmanship easily cost S$500... so that's like 6x the price of what you can find in HK.... not to forget, the workmanship+commission+gold price all subject to GST in SG.... can you imagined how much you can saved if you buy the same piece of jewellery in HK compared to SG!!?!??!?! so... i strongly urge you guys to buy jewellery in HK IF you happen to go HK for holiday!!!!