hong kong december 2007 - day 4

day 4 (21st) - Sheung Wan, Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay
an extremely stressful day on the knees – walked for 11 hours from Sheung Wan to Causeway Bay! Had a rather expensive dimsum breakfast at London Restaurant at HKD200. But it's nice, especially their siu mai and har gao.

London Restaurant - Dao Hiang

MTR shuttled us down. Sheung Wan is somewhat like the stretch between Chinatown and Tanjong Pagar. We browsed Wing Lok Street. Lots of shops selling birds nest, dried scallops, etc. Somewhat like our local dried goods market near Raffles Hospital. At Western Market, I unexpectedly found the shop selling bus models, the 80M Bus Model Shop! Too bad there were only HK bus models available. Next was Possession Street (the place where Britain colonizes HK), Hollywood St (Antiques), Cat and Ladder Streets. Finally took a rest at SoHo where we settled for doughnuts from KrispyKreme.

Sheung Wan MTR


Wing Lok


80M Bus Model Shop

KrispyKreme

after loading ourselves with doughnuts, we went a little backward to look at Goods of Desire. Bought a souvenir, although they said it would be odd to give people that =x I'm still thinking of buying a cushion with a cover full of metallic studs as well. Hmm... took a walk towards Raffles Place-like Central, with skyscrapers such as Standard Chartered, HSBC, ICBC/Citibank Towers, Bank of China Tower, etc. Wanted to go up the Peak, but the queue was simply too long due to the large amount of visitors. So went on and headed for Wan Chai on foot.

Getting lost is common now...even for a 2nd time visitor

Hennessy Road along Wan Chai – lots of trolley buses. Went to browse 2 computer centers – Wanchai Computer Center and 298 Computer Center. Found my long-lost Thermalright HR05 chipset cooler for HKD180, bought it without much hesitation =x

Asus EEE PC - notice the price

then we continued on to Causeway Bay. Wanted to try Itamae Sushi, but couldn’t find it at Excelsior Plaza (there were 2 Excelsiors buildings). Got irritated by the huge Christmas crowd thronging the streets, gave up and settled for a simple meal. But had excellent desserts at Xu Liu Shan (Hui Lau Shan) and Yee Shun Milk; mango and milk based puddings and stuff.

Simple meal; Itamae Sushi couldn't be found :(

Mango ecstasy at Xu Liu Shan


Yes!!!


Yee Shun Milk - Milk pudding. Hmm...

before leaving Tung Lo Wan, picked up fresh supplies of the HK map from HKTB, then went to Wan Chai again via MTR, went to Tsim Sha Tsui by Star Ferry, then back to Mongkok to slack and rest.

hong kong december 2007 - day 3

day 3 (20th) - Fort Monte, Macau --> HK, Causeway Bay
promised to wake up at 7.30am, but got up at 8.30am instead. Had a mee/ham breakfast before going to Fort Monte, then Ruins of St. Pauls. Did last minute shopping at Koi Kei and Choi Heung Yuen for almond cake pasteries before returning to hotel and check-out. Then bid goodbye to Macau as we left via the Macau Ferry Terminal on the 2.00pm flight. Note – even if you have big luggage you’re not required to use the luggage check-in service, which is separately handled by another company for an extra HKD20! No wonder the lady kept asking me to try.

Fort Monte


The famous Ruins of St. Paul

Angela's Cafe at New Yaohan -
DELICIOUS sandwiches, miles ahead of Delifrance


Filling meal

Tri Cat? Flying Cat? Jetfoil? Chim

arrived at HK-Macau Ferry Terminal, next to Shun Tak Building in Sheung Wan. My Octopus card from the last trip still had value, so I just hopped onto the MTR to Mongkok, to check-in to Ah Shan Hostel. The difference between a hotel and hostel lies between the size, room services and facilities, and location. Ah Shan Hostel is in Sincere House, which is only a street across Ladies Street. I got the upper deck bed L There’s only the space between the double decker and single decker, plus the passageway to the toilet. The toilet is really simple, no bathtub or superior flower-head water spray. But there’s broadband internet and self service to bottled water. Dinner and a brief walk at Causeway Bay and Wan Chai before heading back to sleep.

Hostel room

hong kong december 2007 - day 2

day 2 (19th) - Coloane Island, Macau Tower, Ruins of St. Paul
we woke up late, at around 10.30am! I was busy peeling my dead layer of skin from my face last night =x and the Nivea after-sun cooling spray didn’t really help; my upper arms started to flake this morning. Had porridge near Senado Square, then quickly hailed a cab to Coloane Island.

i have been wanting to go Coloane Island since I watched Goong (Princess Hours) early this year – filming for the last episode took place there. Using my MOP120 internet access to re-watch the episode, the scenes came from Coloane Village. The taxi fare was MOP72, really expensive! But I got what I wanted; the coast where Shin and Chae Kyeung met, and the church where they got married. Plus, we spent sometime having high tea at Lord Stow’s Café, tasting their famous eggtarts. I ordered a smoked salmon plate, which looked kinda odd. Taxi back to Macau was a big problem – Coloane Village is rather remote, thus no taxis were nearby. Luckily someone was coming in via a taxi in the 30 minutes we waited. Went back to Taipa, then Macau via the Sai Van Bridge.

St. Xavier's Church

Lord Stow's Cafe

next stop was Macau Tower. Wanted to do the Skywalk X, where the walker gets to walk round the outermost rim of the Tower @ 200+ meters, in the open! But the weather was foggy, we decided against spending MOP248 for that. Took the chance to buy Chinese character chops from a nice auntie, whom told us about the next amazing discovery – Macau Tower is linked to Grand Lisboa, a hotel-cum-casino in town via a free shuttle. This isn’t shocking, but actually all casinos provide free shuttles from the ferry terminal =x so we wasted much money last night to Venetian, when we can just hop onto a shuttle from Emperor Hotel (opposite my hotel) to the ferry terminal, then to Venetian. We did just that for New Yaohan later.

Macau Tower

took another taxi to Ah-Ma temple, which is at Barra Hill. Nothing much there, except that a pretty girl asked HK to take a picture for her. Lolz.. then walked a great distance along Rua do Almirante Sergio and Rua da Praia do Manduco. Got lost in the midst of many tall housing estates, tried to bash through and got to Avenida da Praia Grande, which was close to our hotel. Upon popular request, took a nap in the hotel, before going to the Ruins of St. Pauls via Senado Square. I was the last visitor up the wall for the day, at 6pm (the sky is already dark). Dinner was a so-so drunken chicken rice set, then walked over to Lisboa Casino to look around. Got the transportation trick earlier, so we took the free shuttle to Ferry Terminal and walked over to New Yaohan.

Ah-Ma Temple

Casino Lisboa


Koi Kei pasteries

New Yaohan

booked our tickets back to Hong Kong too, just in case we can’t get the exact timing tomorrow. Shuttled back to Emperor and went for their casino (zzz), then hung around at mac, snacked a bit in the room, bathed and it’s now 1.30am.

hong kong december 2007 - day 1

actually i should be offline for today, cos the hotel i'm staying charges MOP120 (SGD24) for every day of internet usage. But i plugged in the network cable happily, to my horror an IP address was obtained and i could surf (MOP120 flew away instantly)...

day 1 (18th) - Changi Airport --> HK International Airport --> Macau (SkyPier transfer)
arrived at T2 row 7 for checking in of my baggage. Do note those potential online check-in peeps, you still have to join a queue at row 9 to "fast" check-in your stuff. The queue is the same as row 7 or 8, no difference. Went for mac's breakfast meals after dumping our bags (mine was 12.5kg, the heaviest =x).

the flight was delayed by 30 mins due to problems with the inflight entertainment system. The system was the older version in SQ860, so the look-and-feel is IMO same, or even worse compared to Cathay Pacific's one. The clarity is bad, navigation so-so. Only the gourmet menu saved the day; with a printed menu with a list of available drinks and meals. Taking SQ is not always the best decision after all...

Boarding pass

Looked like my Micro Genius joystick

upon landing we looked for the ferry transfer signages, so that we can skip town and transfer to Macau via SkyPier. It's indeed seamless - we skipped immigration clearance, bought the tickets for 2.00pm and the luggages were handled by the sea transporter, TurboJET Sea Express service. We didn't see our luggages at all at HKIA. Then we proceeded to Gate 10, which is somewhat like a bus berth. A bus took us out of HKIA, towards World Expo and finally SkyPier. After 45 minutes of napping on the fastcraft, we reached Macau's Ferry Terminal.

we walked out of the arrival gates without claiming our luggage =x kinda shakened by the flight and searide. Then, the confusion at the ferry terminal - wanted to take a bus to our hotel, but the signs are all in Chinese and messy. Settled for a taxi.

the evening was spent on walking around Senado Square and The Venetian casino. As the Venetian is in Taipa's Cotai Strip, we went to/fro via the Friendship Bridge/Macau-Taipa Bridge. It's my first time going to a casino, and really amazing to see people ploughing HKD1000 bills like drinking water. After suppering i'm back here trying to maximise my MOP120 internet... lolz.

One unnamed church opposite Senado Square

Senado Square in the evening

A river channel specially created by Venetian


The same goes for the interior too

Gents of the Venetian casino

It's really big - betting tables like these all over the place

kayak course II

today was a longer day compared to yesterday, because there wasn't any rain!

shelter no more; we went further out from our "playground" (the hand mark on the map) to mid-promenade towards Sheares Bridge. The currents are much stronger, but we managed to get there anyway. Did some amount of paddling, drawing of water and did a TX rescue technique, by capsizing.

after the lunch break we went out too, however towards Oasis/Look-out tower. Man, the current was darn strong! There was the climax - Mary gave an apple to everyone (to eat la), then we did a mass capsize, then attempted to perform rescue with another person, etc until everyone was rescued. Capsized twice cos' my kayak was 30% waterlogged after the 1st rescue, then went back much later than the rest.... now i'm so familiar with capsizing myself =x

during the debrief everyone was awarded the 1-star certificate, and encouraged to go for further certification. Hope i can perfect my basics, then consider taking the 2-star course.

there are 2 regrets from this course:
- should have taken it earlier, it's so fun!
- should have protected myself with a sunblock. Now my skin is... cooked. Red and PAINFUL. That even with a shirt on i feel the pain. Ouch...

I'm badly burnt.

kayak course (1-star)

woke up damn early, around 6.30am. Then chugged on 960 to Bugis, then transferred a station down to Lavender.

fast forward to the actual introduction; the friendly instructor Mary attempted some ice breakers. Many participants are secondary schoolers, followed by a small portion of college students, finally 5 university students from the big 3. Then she went on to brief us on the types, parts of a kayak and paddle plus safety considerations.

didn't know there are so many considerations in handling the kayak - lifting and carrying it, embarking and disembarking. Our first task? swim 50m! Luckily with our lifevests, cos i haven't stepped into a swimming pool since BMT. With the lifevest it wasn't a big problem =x

today was the basic techniques (from the booklet) - forward/reverse paddling, stopping, rotating 360 degrees, moving sideways and capsizing! The capsize drill meant we had to purposely flip the kayak over, then come out from it underwater together with some funny action - knocking on the hull 3 times before coming out, after coming up lifting up the paddle and shouting help, then swim back with the capsized kayak in tow. Sam did a demo for us, however some had a bad scare when he dislocated his shoulder during the demo... lol.

tomorrow will be to test us further on the capsizing, however further out sea. And we have to try the TX rescue technique. It's fun! But my arms and legs are aching.... really painful. And the kayak itself is HARD to manoeuvre; found myself spinning in the water so many times.

It rained so heavily towards the last hour. argh..

Nice number - SBS 8888.

3 more days plus interesting statistics

to Hong Kong! Anybody wants to send me off? Flight's timing is 8.05am, T2 on SQ860! It's so early though, doubt anyone will do it. zz.

have been very lethargic because of night shifts. It's always the case - sleep late, wake up late, the day is gone and next step is to work. Then the vicious cycle repeats.

during the course of closing the whole block, i'd have to push in all chairs and turn off all monitors (the standby LED is not allowed). Of course, all doors have to be secured via locks or the card reader. So let's talk statistics for these nights - i've worked 8 continuous night shifts, which means i would have pushed in 8x550 chairs, which means 4400 chairs plus 4400 flips of the monitor switch. And secured 8x80 = 640 doors, including those in the lecture theatres.

no wonder my right wrist is feeling so "lemony".

but night shifts no more! Swapped with V my shift on monday, thus i'll work the day instead. Then more time for me to pack my luggage and sleep early.


travel
sad to say i'm only planning the Macau and Shenzhen leg of the tour now. Macau is getting very confusing because of the street names - my hotel (Sintra) is along this road called Avenida S. Joao IV. Omg... need some time to learn the names. Shenzhen? It's a half day trip via KCR rail, so i'll just cover 3 places nearby the Luohu border.


weekend
wish me luck; i'm going for kayaking training course @ PA kallang. It's 10am-5pm, across sat and sun. And here i'm, still typing away.

cheers friends!

kopi, donuts and TAXI.

sunday was really lazy. Stayed at home wanting to do my tank, which i really went to do it. But i did the cleaning from 9pm to 10.30pm. The rest of the day? Spent on sleeeping.

i neglected the tank for about a month, and it had quite a serious hair/beard algae attack. The tank walls had beard algae, like some skin with fur. And my hairgrass too. The tank wall was easy; the beards came off with a phone card as scrapper. But the plants had to be trimmed. The smell coming from the water was smelly too. Eeeek... now it's alright =)

then had kopi and supper with friends. Have to kill off the suppering habit. But my study and work schedules seem to encourage suppers.

Eze took this. Hmm...

Newcomer to our kopi session - AL

My chin... really.... double chin!?

then monday came; to mini-celebrate jac's birthday. Time kinda flies. She's 1 year older in a snap of the finger. Hope she will treasure the company of great friends around her.

19 donuts!

shall leave the rest of the pics for Vicky.

read CNA just now. Yes, the taxi fares are set to rise. But the shocking raise of all: the $2 peak surcharge is gone, to be replaced with 35% surcharge on meter!

there's no change in the peak timing:
Mon-Fri, 7:00am-9:30am
Mon-Sat, 5:00pm-8:00pm
(not applicable on Public Holidays)

it's really crazy - assume i go to NUS Kent Ridge from my home, which is normally around $12.80. With this single (not counting in new flag down and distance-meter charges) peak surcharge, my bill will come to $17.30!

wow. And CDG brings in their rhetoric - "peak-hour cab fares are about the same as Hong Kong, but still only half of Sydney's". How about their subsidiaries in China? Why were they so selective in comparing their figures? And did they consider the differences in economic indicators such as GDP, demand/supply situation, the size of market, the strength and availability of substitutes? Finally, CDG is linked to our big brother, although appearing to be professionally managed.

is the Government listening to its citizens? Train and bus services are already very bad with SMRT. What's the formula to improve the situation? It's always raise this raise that, or raise this drop that.

did i mention this and that belongs to the same owner? Think - ComfortDelgro and SMRT. StarHub and Singtel. More examples if you look around. No matter what is raised, the owner benefits. Where's the competition?

come the next GE, the vote is definitely going somewhere else if the ruling party remains deaf to demands of the lower classes. Even if the economy is dead low then, i won't even give MIW a chance, as we seen in the 2001 elections. WP's words are so true - i give you a drumstick (all the grants and carrots) and i take a chicken from you (all the tax, fare, public good increases in price after GE).

it's time to teach the incumbent a lesson - take away 1x GRC, a minister loses his portfolio to the opposition. AMK and Aljunied were close to being taken away by WP a year ago. It's all about human nature - you don't know it until you're hit hard.