hong kong (conclusion)

a unique drink i savoured was coconut milk with sago - had 5 cups in total & the cholesterols must have swarmed my coronaries.


after having gone thru avian flu, SARS & now H1N1 scare, they take personal hygiene seriously. dispensers for hand sanitizer....

were placed prominently at malls & other public places & tourist attractions. & like this cable car we took at Ngong Ping 360 at lantau island..

...this lady cleaned every car that has just been vacated.


there's a light display at harbour front each nite at 8pm....

...touted to be a "must-see" but i'm not convinced.

we stayed at disney hollywood hotel for 2 nites. 2 offers we made use of were (1) we got a 2nd day free entry to the theme park because we stayed at it's hotel for at least 1 nite, & (2) the hotel room was 25% less if booked at least 21 days in advance. check here.

what caught our attention at the entrance was this make-shift tent used to house luggages of incoming as well as outgoing guests....

....because check-in is at 3pm & check-out at 11am, so people early in the morning to leave their luggage before proceeding to the theme park which opens at 10am, while departing guests check-out early & again leave their luggage here to get into the theme park for a 2nd time.

check-in was a breeze & the reception staff were not only very efficient but also trained well to drum up more business for the hotel by offering room upgrades for a special price. however, what she said went in 1 ear & out the other, because even at early-bird offer of HKD1050 a nite, it's the most expensive room i've stayed all my life!! an upgrade to a room on a higher floor & facing the theme park (to view fireworks) costs at least another HKD200 a nite.

a regular shuttle bus service operates between the 2 disney hotels & theme park. also the MTR operates a special stop just outside the theme park. i think this station & line may have been paid for by Disney.

the trademark mickey shapes are everywhere on the train.


a reminder as you enter the Magic Kingdom...



besides the rides....



.....photo shoots....



& interactive games...


the stage shows....



parades........



& fireworks were very well choreographed & performed. you have to go to youtube for a better look at the fireworks because my camera battery ran out just as it started!!



even after the theme park rides were officially closed at 8pm, people still thronged the shops selling merchandise, like it's free.....

despite the huge crowd, i noticed there weren't any CCTVs anywhere.

i wonder if shoplifters, if any, were having a field day!!

life in HK is not much different from ours. take away the high-rise buildings & chinese govt, they also flout traffic rules....


have a sense of humour...

(this is a shop selling ladies' undergarments)

succumb to diseases...


& believe in God.


one TV channel they have which we will never experience here is a christian channel called Daystar - 24/7 of messages, sermons & testimonies.


& they proudly announce who they are to the world...


the world's top economic power in the making??

hong kong (2)

staying in kowloon means you're never far away from a marketplace where cheap stuff can be purchased if you search hard enough.
i've always wonder why HKers are fascinated with jade?
there's usually a crowd where it is sold. food is also cheaper here.

using the Mass Transit Railway was a piece of cake. even the boy knows how to purchase tickets from the self-service booth...
....& unlike in KL, all the lines are integrated & so you'll never have to exit & walk in the open to another station to change lines. also its passenger info system with litted route indicator is slightly more advanced than s'pore's MRT

if you're an avid fan of HK serials, you know this place often chosen for important meetings, eg. lovers, long-lost relatives & feuding parties.
it's the Avenue of Stars where bronze figurines of the local film industry stand, the most famous being that of Bruce Lee..

...& where palm imprints of movie stars are cast in concrete.

....an idea probably taken from hollywood's Walk of Fame. you'd never think those posh shopping malls would offer anything cheap. usually not, but try this for a real bargain - a couple of reeboks for just under HKD200 (RM89) a pair.....

according to my brand-conscious daughter, reeboks rank behind adidas & nike, but it didn't matter to me because you can NEVER get it at that price back home. she chosed a pair of skechers herself...
apparently, these cost RM250 back home while she got them here for HKD250.

i'm certain there's one place your regular tour guide would NEVER bring you to, neither would you consider visiting while in HK. how about the Science Museum?

in fact, we thought we'd just spend a couple of hours there to kill some time but it turned out to be a half-day excursion!! FYI, museum entrance fees are waived on wednesdays (normally, HKD25 for adults) & we were fortunate that on that particular week, the museum showcased the works of Nobel laureate Prof Charles Kao, the pioneer for fibreoptics communications. i was personally fascinated by this as well as the other exhibits, taking up 3 floors of the building....

kids have plenty to keep them occupied with activities...

....& mind games.


one dish that is a must-try is the roast goose.
i'm no food connoisseur but it tasted just like duck, except more fleshy with a thicker layer of fat.... .

also don't forget peking duck with the crispy, roasted skin..

you can't say you've been shopping in HK unless you've been to the ladies' market in mongkok. one thing i noticed the moment we step off the MTR station here was the strong police presence...
there were at least 3 patrol cars like this one in the area alone.
it was still crowded when we got there at 9pm & here you CAN bargain without being told off. besides, just walking off is sometimes enough to get you the stuff you want....

....like these T-shirts at 5 for HKD100 (RM9 each).

next: magic kingdom & why we're all humans

hong kong (1)

(the title suggests this vacation is too long to share in just 1 post)

we had originally wanted to fly AirAsia because it was only 3hours plus flight time, but shockingly, at that time (end-sept), the price of their tickets was almost the same as MAS when the latter had promotonal rates. so we took MAS but i was not impressed with the A320s that were used for the hong kong route. they looked & felt old, & didn't have individual video screens.

i had surfed the net for suitable (read: affordable) accomodation when i chanced upon some serviced apartments - i didn't know they had these in HK, did you? finally settled on Olympic Terrace in kowloon at (a giveaway rate of) HKD600 a nite for a 2 bedroom apartment. it's just 5 mins walk to 2 MTR stations on 2 diffrent lines. is that convenient or what?

the day after we landed, i called up a bosom buddy who has been working there for many years & we met up at a restaurant at Times Square. you know it's a posh place when some etiquette is expected, like these pairs of black & white chopsticks.

the (clean?) black pair is used to take food from the common plates unto your own, while the white pair is used to move food from your own plate into your mouth. classy but tedious, huh? (i wonder how clean are the chopsticks themselves??) later, he took us up to victoria peak for a view of the city at nite....

& then down via the famous tram ala penang hill.


dinner was at his favourite wan tan noodle shop at causeway bay....

....the specialty being the prawn wan tan....
....unfortunately the portions are just too small for us guys & so, we ended with a 2nd bowl each.....

.....this time beef noodles. after that, it dessert time at another shop. we had milk curd...

....something quite similar to soya bean curd except that it's made from fresh milk. the waitress wasn't all that friendly when we took some time to ponder what to order, an attitude that reflected the shop's money-grabbing practice.

(roughly translated to mean every customer will be charged HKD10 whether they made an order or not!!). that was a fitting end to a day of feasting.

the next day, we took a boat ride to Ma Wan island where the world's only life-sized Noah's Ark was located & had opened just this year.
the story even came up in the iconic Wall St Journal (read here).

in addition to the display of life-like pairs of animals,

it also has a museum elaborating the creation story as well as the big bang/evolution story. how odd!! there are also many rooms catering to children's activities. definitely worth a look.

next: shopping at causeway bay & mongkok

back home.

just got back. lots of photos to go thru - 4G plus! will post some in due time. a brief prelude though:

1) food is EXPENSIVE, even compared to KL;

2) you definitely can't do disneyland in ONE day, and;

3) we're NOT that much different from them.

M.I.C.K.E.Y

M...I...C.....see you real soon!

K....E.....Y......why? because we love you!

M....O....U...S....E....

yeah, call us slaves to american commercialism....

or, unpatriotic to our own cuti-cuti malaysia tourism appeal....

but, how can you have children & (if you can afford) not let them experience the Magic Kingdom at least once in their lives??

back in a week!

vacation bible school

the church is particularly ambitious this year. while previous attendance for the VBS has been around 60 children, this year we aimed for about 100 & the final count is 120!!

the theme is "kingdom of the Son" & the church premise has been painstakingly decorated to look like a safari - the animal kingdom, get it?


lions...

...giraffes...

.....cheetahs....

....& tents...we have them all!

kudos to JC & his team for the hard work!!

activities for the participants include games......

.......for kids of different ages......


........story-telling


....& crafts....


currently the kids are practising for their group presentation on saturday.


we all pray that the seeds fall on fertile ground.

51

for me, it just means i have to....

consume less salt...

....less sugar....

.........less fat......

..............exercise more & ........

...................go for that dreaded.............






...colonoscopic examination! (ouch!)