Saturday, July 21, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007
HK Day 3(8th Jan 2007-Monday)
Edmund said that in the neighbourhood, there is a residence flat named after me. I couldn't believe it till I saw it(picture on the left)! Haha, and the English name was also spelt exactly the same as my name!~~The flat looked rather run down though. I would be meeting up with my friend Candice for lunch at somewhere in North Point(nearer to Fotress Hill MTR(炮台山) rather than the North Point MTR) so first I took a mini van to the Tai Po Market(大埔墟) KCR station, and then changed train at Kowloon Tong (九龍塘)KCR to the Tsuen Wan Line(荃灣綫) at Prince Edward MTR(太子) and then change again at Central (中環)MTR to Island(港島綫)Line in order to get to Fotress Hill! I wished I knew how to take a bus which could have been a more direct and convenient way to get there. Lunch was at Golden Pond Seafood Restaurant(金凱鮮庭) and what I ordered was the following.......(象拔蚌面 I think..=p) Quite deliciously cooked and it tasted smooth while placing the noodles into the mouth and the clams tasted fresh! Candice was my exchange friend's buddy's friend and also used to be my hall mate when I was staying in Wei Lun Hall. After the lunch, I'd requested to have dessert elsewhere so she brought me to a nearby dessert shop where we ordered banana pancakes(very fragrant!) and some glutinous rice pastries. She sounded quite mushy while talking on the phone with her bf~~Haha..her intonation was quite distinctly different. ^^ She's taking a teaching course in HKU and will be teaching Mathematics in secondary school. Based on statistics, close to 25% of the total number of my HK friends are teachers-to-be or is already teaching. And since there are prevalently university graduates everywhere in HK(there are a total of 8 unversities), it has been made a pre-requisite that to become a teacher, one has to have a degree and take the education course. The publicly announced starting salary for such teachers is HKD16,000(~SGD3,200). It's considered a lot in Singapore but the living cost and standard of living in HK is higher, yet that kind of pay is considered as moderately high over there for a starting pay of an inexperienced teacher.
After all that, she went back home and then I had to figure out where to go next and Edmund also won't be free the entire day. So at that moment, I thought for a while and I had an idea. Yeah, Cheung Chau(長州)! So from Fortress Hill MTR, I took the train to Central(中環) MTR and walked over to the Central Ferry Pier that goes to outlying islands. There are a total of about 6-8 piers in a row for which each pier will have ferry services that go to a specific island. I've forgotten which pier no was it to take to Cheung Chau, but I remember that I can use the Octopus Card to pay for the ferry ticket(First Ferry high speed ferries) and it was about HKD20+ something. The ferry trip took about half an hour to reach Cheung Chau. It is a small island 10 km southwest of Hong Kong Island. It is quite a tranquil resort area for people who want to take a break from the hustle and bustle of city life occasionally and I think in fact it seems to have served its purpose well. There's some fishing village along the coastlines, some stalls were selling seafood products which I managed to buy some to bring back home. Cheung Chau was the birthplace of Lee Lai Shan (born 1970), a windsurfer who won the first Olympic gold for Hong Kong in 1996. After 2000, a number of cases of suicide (most of them by "burning charcoal" or 燒炭) have taken place on the island. For some time holiday resorts were not rented to individuals. Stories concerning apparition have resulted from the news of suicides. Some photos I took randomly.....
~~~~~~~To be continued~~~~~~~~~~~
Monday, January 29, 2007
Nice Dinner last Friday and Saturday!
On Saturday, Mich and I went for Western buffet dinner at Melting Pot Cafe which is in Holiday Inn Atrium Hotel, we got one for one deal so it was quite a good deal since we were just paying for one person's price($28+++). There were mussels, prawns, lamb kurma, fried rice, satay, rojak, pan-fried fish and chicken, cakes, minestrone soup and pork rib in bitter gourd soup, roasted beef, beef patties, mini sausages, fruit salads and etc, nice buffet dinner, and then we spent about 2 and a half hours there eating and resting and eating and resting again~~haha..we left the place at about a quarter to 10 and by that time I was totally replete!~
Backlogging about my Day 3-8 in HK will be done soon, please be patient yeah!I hope I w0n't forget some of the details though~~=p
Sunday, January 21, 2007
HK Trip Day 2(7th Jan 2007) Sunday
I had the one on the left while Edmund ordered the one on the right. Deliciously fragrant and yummy!~Haha..feeling so nice after the dessert. Cateline called me to ask if I was interested to go to her friend's(Aida) house for steamboat dinner with her family, which I said yes! So after we were done walking around in Causeway Bay, we took a bus to Aberdeen(香港仔) and then sat at a bench overseeing the river area of Aberdeen while waiting for the girls to come meet us up since they were doing their hair at saloon for the evening. Had a good time chatting with Edmund as we shared our little secrets and some recent happenings that we came across. Waited for an hour plus till the girls came and Cateline's friend's house was located at Ap Lei Chau so we could take mini van to reach there. Before going to her house, we went to the market to buy some more food for the steamboat.Upon entering Aida's house, there were already a lot of food on the table prepared by Aida's mom. The flat was not quite spacious but I could already sense that the house was filled with family warmth. Hehe. Didn't really eat much, probably due to my extreme state of fatigue. Didn't really talk much too, probably was feeling quite shy having dinner with so many people I didn't know. Haha. The food was quite nice and I found myself kept on cooking the 肥牛. Haha..it was quick to be cooked and tasty, so I liked it alot. Edmund was really a big-eater!No wonder he could grow so tall! Hmm..Good to ask him to buffet meals then. After dinner, we watched a new TVB gameshow and by then I was totally exhausted,due to the cold weather I suppposed. We thanked Aida and her mom for the nice dinner and then I also thanked Cateline for bring me to that dinner so that I could get the warm experience of having a steamboat dinner in a HK family. Reached Edmund's house 11 plus and then his mom had boiled shark bone soup for us!~Wah...I was feeling so warm again, soup was delicious and it was my first time trying the soup. Hit the sack at about 2am after catching up with some friends on msn to inform them about my mishap over here. Haha.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
HK trip(6th-13th Jan 2007)
The number lock of my big luggage was suddenly spoilt! Had to use plier to wrench the zippers off the lock and then just simply using the manual padlock. Haha. Shouldn't have bought a rather cheap luggage. Anyway, rather than taking MRT to Changi Airport(which will take an hour an a half), I took airport bus no 858 from Woodlands Regional Interchange and it took about an hour and I arrived at the airport at about 2pm. My flight was Jetstar Asia 3K695 at 3:45pm,flying from Changi Airport Terminal 1,Gate C33.Bought a pack of chocolates to be given to Edmund's parents as souvenir. Checked in one piece of luggage and it was about 13kg of weight(20 kg was the maximum).This was my first time trying budget airlines, I think for short journeys, it's still acceptable though I found that leg space was not really ample(certainly not for tall people with long legs~). And when the food/drinks trolley are pushed in by the cabin crews, you can get quite a hard time to get to the toilet which is situated at the back of the plane. I had a nice window seat which I always like, except that going to the toilet means making your neighbours stand up and go out to the alley to allow you to leave your seat. I got myself an iced Milo(for SGD2) since I didn't feel hungry. Smooth journey except a minor turbulence for shortwhile during the flight. Touched down Hong Kong Chep Lap Kok International Airport at about 7:35pm(10 minutes later than the scheduled time!).Transferred to a airport shuttle bus from the plane to the airport. Went to get my luggage and then trolley, pushing it to the arrival hall, and then Hong Kong Custom. Welcome to Hong Kong~~~Cold~~~~~Temperature was about 13 degree Celsius!! Received Edmund's phonecall that he was already waiting for me outside at the arrival hall~Soon, finally saw him and waved at him. Haha. He had bought me the Octopus Card I'd asked him to buy beforehand. Thanks! Haha, and then we went to 7-11 at the airport because I wanted to get a prepaid card. Got myself a New World SIM card(HKD60). Bought ham and egg sandwich too since I was feeling quite hungry that time. Then he helped me pull my big luggage and we headed to the airport city bus stop and waited for the bus to his house at Tai Po. We took Long Win Bus no E41 to Tai Po(HKD13.50) and it took about an hour to reach Kwong Fuk Road. We had Indian food there, where I ordered Curry Beef Brisket with Rice. It was suprisingly quite tasty! Yummy! After we were done with the dinner, from there, we took the green cab(HKD12.50) to go back to his house since we had luggage with us. His house is a condominium in Tai Po, by the name "Classical Gardens Phase II", accessible by green mini van and also the condominium's shuttle bus itself. Arrived at his house about 11 something and then greeted his parents. They are both retirees by the way. Settled down and unpack some of my stuffs and I'd be sleeping in the study room on a foldable airchair-bed! Quite comfy actually.And then it came as a great shock to me after my shower, as I suddenly couldn't find my wallet that contained my Malaysia ID, the Octopus Card and my HKD2000 cash~~~~Could not sleep well that night and had to hope that somebody kind enough to pick up the wallet and return to me.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
It's just 3 days from now!
Hmmmm..Soooooooo excited to be going to HK again, many memories suddenly keep on flashing in my mind!!!!
Got a lunch treat by one of the Research Director(RD) in my company for my entire department at Ling Zhi Vegetarian Restaurant(Tung Lok Group) @ Far East Square.
Lunch (Daily 11:00am - 3:00pm)
Dim Sum & Mushrooms Hot Pot
Adult @ S$20.80++
That was the first time of me having a try on vegetarian steamboat, gastronomically speaking, the eating experience was rather distasteful to me. The soup could not be blander considering that the ingredients for the base did not include any meat nor prawn to supposedly enhance the taste of the soup. Vegetarian Dim Sum was not nice at all. Oh gosh, I will never want to spend so much money on such kind of meal! Rating for the restaurant is 3/10.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Details of Batam Trip
Dec 29 06(Friday):
After that very sumptuous meal, we went back to Nagoya Hill on the same cab to do the remaining shopping. Paid the driver tips(IDR10,000-about SGD2) for telling us stories about Batam. But thinking about it, we should have gone to DC Mall or BCS Mall to shop since they might offer different shopping experience!
Countdown for New Year was Noname cafe and Ktv pub at the hotel I stayed at, paid admission fee of IDR90,000(SGD15) which was inclusive of a bottle of Mix Max Vodka Cranberry Grapefruit 4.8%. There was a belly dance performance for which the performers flew all the way from Jakarta. Quite cool actually. Received some happy new year sms from friends in Singapore and it was actually still 11pm (Batam Time). After the countdown, I went to McD to buy fries and a big ice cream cone for supper. And then killed my Heineken beer. Haha.
Jan 1 2007(Monday):
Woke up at 9am, was actually planning to wake up earlier to have more time for the buffet breakfast(6-10am) but couldn't get up. Haha. Dressed up and went down to the Borobodur Cafe where we had the buffet breakfast. The food was not that nice so didn't really enjoy the breakfast. After breakfast, we went back to hotel to rest while watching the classic "Star Trek:First Contact" on HBO. Forgot that the official check out was 12pm and we only realised
at quarter past 12, so we hurriedly packed up our luggage and then went down to do our check-out, no surcharge was imposed, fortunately. Haha, got back my $50 deposit too. A travel agent from the same company came to pick us up with the bus, and then we made our way to Batam Centre to catch the ferry at 2pm. The agent seemed not to be quite organised in assigning the ferry tickets, rather inefficient. After paying him the ferry tax of $3, we headed to the custom counters and boarded the Ocean Raider Ferry. It was also free seating style, so initially we tried looking for seats in the lower and middle deck but it was futile until when we were at the middle deck, one of the sailors opened up the business class deck and then offered us entry. Waaa..The seats were in couch style and looked high class enough. Pretty lucky ha! The ferry started moving and we bid farewell to Batam, thinking that we will go there again just for the seafood! And maybe shopping at DC Mall and BCS Mall. Other that those, it remains not much a reason to be visited. A good rugged travel experience, making sure we don't take for granted the things we have back in our hometown, despite having to pay more for tax for the extra-added convenience which makes our life more comfortable to live.