Spa at Peninsula - updated post

Realized I forgot to include an important component of the spa treat.  So here's the updated version:

It’s my birthday and Ho treated me with a half day spa at Peninsula Hotel.  I was surprised to know the price was so reasonable.  Only about Cdn$100 more than a regular spa here in Toronto.  Yes, it's still expensive but you're getting a half day at the world class 6-star hotel including a pool side lunch!  What a deal.

It started with a small cup of ginger tea.  Their staff will never let you look up to them.  They will always squat when they need to talk to you.  After checking in, I was brought to the changing room to change into their robe.  Then the girl took me to the steam room and sauna.  In between there was a shower which had 3 settings: Tropical Rain, Cool Mist, and Body Jet.  Each sprayed water in different speed with different scent.  Loved it!  I thought the cool mist would be cold but it was just right.  The sauna room had a window facing the harbour.  After that I went to the harbour view relaxation room with adjustable beds, magazines and a fridge filled with complementary water, mango yogurt drink and berry smoothies.  Finally the masseur first greeted me with "Happy Birthday" when she came to take me to a private room for massage and facial.  Again, she squatted when explaining the products to me.  As expected, I fell asleep even before the facial started!  It was so relaxing!  The masseur wrote me a birThen I went back to the check in counter and the girl asked me if I wanted to have lunch in the robe or get changed first.  I thought, probably many people will be in swimming suit or robe, so I decided to change after lunch.  What a nice pool they have, covered with a panaramic view of the harbour.  It's a 3-course meal with fresh juice and tea or coffee.  I chose pan seared scallop on bed of greens, steamed chicken breast with mushroom sauce, and whole wheat strawberry shortcake with blood orange sorbet.  When the dessert came, a lit candle was on the sorbet and the waiter greeted me happy birthday again.  I could only finish half of the entree and dessert.  Even though they tried to provide a healthy light menu, but the smoothie from the relaxation room was quite filling already.  Wow, what a full half day.  Thank you daddy!  Too bad only hotel and spa guests are allowed so he couldn't join me for lunch.

Ho came to pick me up after the spa and we went to Heritage 1881 to take some pictures.   Then we met up with Jenn and Francis to look for Tony Wong’s patisserie and Tse Ling’s cookies in Kowloon City.  Luckily Jenn remembered the street name.  Even though we went the wrong way, but once we asked someone at a store on the street, he easily pointed out the direction to us, probably lots of people asked him before.

We went to Tse Ling’s Cookies Quartet first, wow, there was a line up to outside of the store.  Then we thought it might be a good idea to check out Tony Wong first.  Same thing!  Another long line up to outside.  So we decided to separate into 2 groups to do line up.  Tse Ling’s cookies got so very interesting flavours.  Quite light too.  Best thing is they let you try every single flavour before buying.  That’s good and you can tell they have confidence in their products.  Then we went to Tony Wong’s Patisserie.  The cakes exceeded my expectation.  They’re so good and not too sweet at all.  I bought his cookbooks at the store and asked if Tony’s in the store.  To my surprise he was there and even signed autograph on both books for me!  Yeah!

At night we had dinner at Ho’s uncle’s place.  His domestic helpers are good cooks!  The food was so yummy and they even made their own shredded pork with lean pork from soup.  I didn’t count the number of people there but it was one big birthday party for me.

What a special birthday it was this year!