547. Hong Kong | Repulse Bay Beach

This cold weather in Toronto has me dreaming about the warmer weather back in Hong Kong..where we were just a few weeks ago. Here is Repulse Bay Beach. It's one of my mom's favourite beaches in Hong Kong that she used to always come when she was younger. Next time I visit Hong Kong I want to spend more time at the beaches. Whenever we visit Hong Kong we never had a day to just lay around and relax. Since there's so much to see and do there never seemed to be enough time. But next time for sure, and I think it would be fun to have a BBQ on the beach (we saw many people doing it).

This area has a lot of luxury real estate and flashy cars. Hong Kong real estate is the most expensive I've seen so far. I haven't really looked into London or NYC real estate but I assume it is comparable...I just know that in comparison to Toronto, Hong Kong is ridiculously expensive for the size you get. I started looking at homes in this area/Repulse Bay then at some others closer to the city.

**If you are not interested in real estate you can skip reading this part below**
There is one 2000 square foot condo here (2 bedrooms, 2 baths), selling for $78 million HKD which is about $13.50 million CDN. For that price in Toronto the house can probably make the list of top 20 most expensive houses in the city. A 4-bedroom Repulse Bay house is $41.20 million CDN. In Toronto, the most expensive house at the moment is only $29 million CDN & 10 bedrooms/24,000 square feet!!
So that is just a rough idea. For the condos in more central areas of the city, you can rent one that is tiny (for Toronto standards) at 260 square feet for $17,500 HKD a month which is about $3000 CDN a month. Here you can get more than double the size for about half the cost..or a little more than half the cost depending on location. & if you want to buy a decent sized apartment (say ~700 square feet), it would be literally millions (I am looking at one located in Wan Chai for example..$2.2 million CDN for 684 square feet). Also keep in mind that most of these places are really old and not nicely furnished inside. For that same cost in Toronto you can get a 3000+ square foot house in the suburbs.

I like real estate so I find it interesting to find out costs of places around the world. It made me realize how inexpensive Canada is in comparison. Someone I knew from London who lived here in Toronto for a couple years had said that Toronto real estate prices is like peanuts lol which I guess is quite true.







Trying to capture an artistic photo of my footprints in the sand. The water here is really shallow (like its Cantonese name) so we walked out a bit into the water. It was so nice to walk in the water on such a hot day.













I love the open style restaurants




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546. China | Snapshots Part 1

I've finally finished organizing all my photos from the Asia trip and now I can get to regular posting! I took over 2500 photos on my trip and I've managed to narrow it down to ~900 to post lol (if I get to them all before my next trip). I'm going to make all the posts in a random order. Here is a random snapshots post of China..during that part of the trip, we went to a few different parts of the country (within a 6-7 hour drive to Shanghai) so this is a roundup of the different places. If you want to read more about my days there, you can go back on my previous travel diary posts, starting here! ;)


The toilet situation in China. This is actually a nicer one because they give you the option to squat or sit! A lot of people I know actually have no interest in visiting China because they don't like the toilets there (amongst a few other reasons) and they think it's really dirty..which I feel is kind of unfortunate because I think China has some of the most amazing scenery and places to visit in the world. It's really not as bad as people think. After a few visits here I've gotten used to the toilets..& you know I usually love luxury places/things lol. I don't mind the squatting ones, because you don't have to touch the toilet seat...I just hate how most of them don't have toilet paper.

I had a couple bowls of these noodles at our hotel the first morning for breakfast. They were probably the best noodles I've ever had!! I don't know what the type is called but they hand cut each piece of noodle.


These types of acrobatic/martial arts/cultural shows are VERY popular in China. We watched one like every other night, on all our previous trips to China as well. They're all quite interesting and pretty dramatic at times. Here is a short clip I took of this one.





I know the economy in China is slowing down but it still looks like they are rapidly expanding. At least in terms of infrastructure. There's a lot of these residential blocks, with several apartments close together and they all look completely identical. A lot of them are currently being constructed (along with commercial buildings), and I noticed there they all get built at the same time. Like entire areas/communities, with 10+ buildings, all being built at the same time..and a few dozen cranes everywhere you look. It was pretty crazy to me because we never see that here. Our buildings get constructed one at a time and take years to complete even one.





My favourite day was visiting Huangshan. I will dedicate a full post for this though!






Funny translations, translated literally word for word lol





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545. Macau | Iridium Spa

One evening during our stay at St. Regis in Macau, we had a spa treatment at the hotel's Iridium Spa. The spa provides bespoke experiences tailored to each guest's personal needs.

It was the perfect and most relaxing end to the night. The "Nourishing Gemstone Journey" is their signature massage. It includes a 15-minute foot bath/massage then a 75-minute gemstone hot oils massage. When we arrived, we were provided some tea and a tablet to do a quick survey on. The survey was to determine which gemstone oil was best suited for our current state of mind and mood. I had the Aquamarine (the teal blue) for balancing and calming purposes.

This was my first ever full body massage. I felt so relaxed and rejuvenated afterwards. The worst part from the massage was when she told me it was completed! After it was over, we were provided some tea and biscuits to enjoy while overlooking the city. The spa is located on the 38th floor, so the view from there was really nice. Now, back in Toronto, I've been searching for a good spa to go for regular massages.




Our appointment was in the evening. I took these photos during the day so that's why there is sunlight!





Other St. Regis Posts:

The Manor - Restaurant Review
St. Regis - Hotel Review

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