Hong Kong 3D2N Free and Easy

Sin-HK 0640am Changi Airport Terminal 3

Our 1st time taking such an early flight. An exciting experience that we both looked forward to. We woke up at 3am, brushed our teeth, changed, and after patting the dogs and explaining to them that we would be away for 3 days, we left the house at 4am. (Actually I didn't sleep the whole night. Partly because while doing the final research on Hong Kong, I got so excited I couldn't sleep. The other reason was because I had just received a pressie from hubby that made me unable to sleep too. )

The Present without a Reason

Actually Andy Quek wanted to get his babe Pearlyn a Gucci for her birthday. So we went along with them to the Gucci boutique in Taka after church on Sunday. Me and hubby acted as their bags carrier and gave our two cents worth to Ms Pea for her choice of her Gucci. Itchy me went to try this bag and that bag and took a liking to this one. Hubby noticed how much I liked this sling bag so he got one for me a few days later as a surprise gift. Thank you hubby!!!

Sunrise

Reminds me of our Geography textbook

Another photo on the Sunrise



Sea of clouds

Finally we arrived in Hong Kong at around 1030am. But we waited till 12plus before the travel agent sent us to the hotel cos we had to wait for another family that wasn't out yet. It was a long wait that dampened our spirits abit cos we didn't come to Hong Kong to sit around the airport and do nothing for almost 2 hours and the inital euphoria of starting our holiday early in the morning was dissipating. (Next time we will book our own tix, book our own hotel and take the MTR from the airport to the hotel ourselves.)

Finally on the road

I love the hills, mountains and the vast ocean (or sea?) in Hong Kong. It's something we'll never see in Singapore except maybe Bukit Gombak, which falls far behind in comparison.

In the coach

While taking this photo, we were very curious as to what the temperature in Hong Kong was like. For almost 3 hours, we had been sitting in air-conditioned places and had not felt what the outdoor temperature was like, though I had read that it's actually the hot and humid season now.

After we reached our hotel (Largos, former Mayfair Garden), the first stop was of course, food! My book from Lonely Planet wrote alot about Korean food, Jap, food etc but did not write on the coffee houses in Hong Kong or the every day food that Hong Kongers ate so we didn't really know what to eat or where to go. Oh yes back to the weather. God is good! Though we're supposed to be in the "bad months", our first though as we walked on the streets was, "Is that the air-cond blowing from inside the electronic shop?" It was like having an air conditioner everywhere we went but it wasn't shivering cold. Excellent!

A common cafe along the rows of shophouses

Looks so Hong Kong right? The boss muttered a long string of phrase to us in Cantonese and we gave him a blur look. My grasp of Hong Kong is limited to karaoke songs while hubby's understanding is better but you just got to speak slooowly. So we replied in Chinese and asked him for recommendations. Hubby had Hainanese chicken rice while I had Suan La Mian (Sour and Spicy noodles) both of which was good but forgettable. However, we discovered our first favourite drink there, iced coffee. It tastes very different from the ones we have in Singapore, slightly caramelish and very fragrant.

A street in Kowloon

There's so many of everything in Hong Kong. Including people. This was a Wednesday afternoon along a common street yet there's still so many people walking around. The buzz makes one feel excited but it's also a high stress place. Everything's done very quickly, people walk pretty quickly. They even fall quickly and climb up quickly. During our 3 day stay, we had already seen 3 people falling down, one of which was knocked down by a cab.

Goldfish street, Flower Street and Bird Street clockwise from top left: goldfish street, bags of grasshoppers for birds, flower street and bird street

After food, the next stop is shopping! The first day's itinerary was to conquer all the street markets starting from Tung Choi St. I read about the flower markets and bird markets and since it was nearby, we went to take a look at those streets. Hong Kong really has alot of everything. At flower street, there was bouquets of flowers shop after shop followed by potted flowers and then potted plants. Each bouquet of flowers had around 12 stalks flowers with all the other fillers and it only cost around S$10. A pity we didn't take photos of those bouquets. We'll definitely go there again the next time we visit Hong Kong and I'm determined to endure the hostile faces of the shopkeepers and snap a photo of those bouquets.

A quick snap as we passed by the sunflowers

Shy Macaw along Bird Street

The itinerary for our first night was to visit the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade for the view along Victoria Harbour, catch the Symphony of Lights and on the way take a look at the Avenue of Stars. (The Symphony of Lights is a daily light show from 8 - 820pm involving some 20 buildings on the Hong Kong skyline.) Along the way, we asked a hotel recept for directions and was told that there might not be a Symphony of Lights as it was supposedly suspended for 3 days in lieu of the Sichuan Earthquake. Nevertheless, we said our prayers and charged (walked) all the way from Jordan to Tsim Sha Tsui. God didn't disappoint us. The night we were there, the light show was resumed!

The view didn't disappoint but it could have been better if not for the fog.

A Short Segment of the Show

We met a group of cyclists just outside the viewing platform at the Promenade. Maybe it was a campaign for the Sichuan Earthquake?

Exhilarated after catching the show and taking in the mesmerising view Avenue of Stars

Actually there wasn't anything much there. Just statues and tributes of the celebrities in Hong Kong. Throughout our stay, we kept dreaming of seeing our favourite stars in person, Andy Lau for us, Michelle Reis...but no. We only saw a couple busy kissing among hundreds of people along the Promenade. They were smooching away like some scene in a NC-16 movie. Ewwww...

After Tsim Sha Tsui, I was too tired to walk back to Yau Ma Tei so we took the MTR. It's super convenient in Hong Kong. Everywhere you go, just catch the MTR, (our version of MRT) and even if you get lost, just hop onto the MTR to go to where ever you want to go.

Xu Liu Shan

The mango dessert at this famous dessert shop is pretty expensive. We shared a bowl first to 'test waters' and never came back here again. Not that it wasn't good. It just wasn't good enough to stop us from trying the desserts at other dessert shops. Next was Ladies' Market and Temple St Market. We were too busy shopping and the streets were so chock full of people I didn't bother to take anymore photos. Didn't buy alot of stuff too. Designs were so-so and prices weren't that low. Just wanted to make wise purchases and not waste money on things that I wouldn't wear or use for long.

After that we ate again! We had supper along Temple St after shopping and that was around 12 plus. My lack of sleep was making me woozy by then.

Had a very good night's sleep after watching a Cantonese drama serial in our hotel room and woke up to a morning of Dim Sum. We asked the hotel staff for recommendations and when we said," Is there any good Tim Sum restaurants around?" He looked at us with a blur look. After a few more attempts by us, he then said, "Oh you mean Dim Sum!" What's the diff between Tim Sum and DDDDDim Sum???

Initially I was disappointed that this restaurant didn't have waitresses pushing carts of bamboo baskets of dim sum around. Instead, the waitresses just take your orders and serve you wjatever you order. But when I tasted the porridge and Shrimp Rice Roll, I was transformed to Crystal Jade in Singapore. Not that I ever tried the Dim Sum there but I guess it would have tasted something like this. And the whole meal cost us less than S$20 for 2 of us. Few hours later I was already thinking of my dim sum breakfast the next morning.

The main itinerary for Day 2 was Ocean Park. I wanted to take the cable car ride and see the Pandas. The tix were quite expensive but it already includes all the rides and shows there so we can't complain much. When we reached Ocean Park, it was raining quite heavily. Hubby didn't want me to be disappointed and bout an expensive Ocean Park umbrella for S$16 but the rain stopped shortly. Thank God. But we didn't regret buying the brolly. It's a souvenir that helps bring back memories of Ocean Park for us and how God just answered every prayer in our holiday.

Escalators in Ocean Park

Ocean Park is built on a hilly plot of land so there are lots of steep slopes which translates to loooong escalators. Even the escalator ride for us was fun.

Stingray Pool

I had my first touch of these batlike water creatures. Their skin feels very slimy, soft and firm but I had fun doing that after screaming a few times initally. I asked hubby not to kill the stingrays next time he goes fishing. I've sort of developed a liking for these animals after the encounter with them.

hubby, me and an eagle in the background

Me with the ferris wheel and other rides in the background


Aquarium, Hong Kong's equivalent to Singapore's Underwater World

Jellyfish World

The long awaited cable car ride!

Ying Ying n Lele

Can you spot the different characteristics of the 2 pandas? The first one prefers to pull the stalks through his mouth and collects a bunch of shoots before he starts to munch on them while the 2nd one just chomps down the shoots one by one.


After that we had roasted goose for lunch. Like what Stacia described in her blog, it was as though the goose had bee marinated for a year. Ooooh I'm so glad we tried this dish here. It just tastes so heavenly and the best duck stall here can't beat that.

Outside an electronics store in Kowloon

This pretty dog caught the attention of many passers-by cos he just sat near the entrance of the store like an ornament with a Samsung lanyard around his neck. So cute!

Our one and only western meal

We had dinner at a western restaurant on Day 2 cos we were so tired and wanted to enjoy dinner with a nice ambience. The food was good, but nothing compared to the roasted goose and dim sum. We had borsch soup, a gigantic pork knuckle and sirloin steak that tasted a bit like beef satay. The soup, bread and prok knuckle was good and it only set us back S$26 so 2 thumbs up to this restaurant!

Day 1 night and day 2's shopping was much more fruitful. We even bought a big oil painting for S$73 to hang in our tv room.

Day 3 was spent in a frenzy of shopping and revisiting some shops. We ended the holiday with our last serving of half a goose and our last cup of iced coffee.

While checking in for our flight back to Singapore, I was feelings super exhausted from lack of sleep accumulated over 3 nights, including the night I didn't sleep after receiving my present so I didn't really bother to ask for a window seat. I regretted it after I took my seat in the plane but was comforted by the thought that at least I've had the experience of NOT having a window seat for the first time.

While flipping through the United Airlines mag, hubby pointed out to me a pair of earrings that I wanted to buy at the Temple Street Market. I jokingly told him, "Ya lo...very nice right, but my hubby say that one is imitation cannot buy." It didn't occur to me hubby would take that remark seriously until later on when I came back to my seat from the ladies, I saw hubby speaking to an air stewardess. I asked him what he was asking her for and he said nothing. That caught my attention cos usually hubby will just tell me exactly what he had said. I mean he can't have said nothing to the air stewardess right?

Hubby then said he wanted to go to the Gents and stayed there for quite a while. I then saw an air stewardess running along the aisle on the other side of the plane with a S$10 note in her hand. Now that was really perculiar and I thought, "Oh no. Is he going to buy me the real thing and pay a few hundred for sterling silver???" I quickly flipped through the mag to check out the price of the earrings which I forgot later on cos when hubby returned to his seat, he told me the queue was very long and after a long while, he didn't pass me any surprise present or anything. I thought it must have been me thinking too much into things and told hubby everything and he laughed at me so I thought it MUST really have been my imagination.

At home while I was in our room doing my own things, hubby suddenly came to me with a green box wrapped with a chocolate ribbon. Tears rolled down my eyes as he told me how his heart fell when I commented that the raindrop earrings was very nice but I didn't get it. He apologised for his negligence regarding a matter years ago and how he's making an effort to be extra nice to me not because he wants to make up for it but just because he wants to be extra nice to me.

Though this was an extravagant gift, it's a reflection of the love my God has for me and the love He has passed on to hubby for me. I know it wasn't natural for hubby to be romantic and how much embarassment he had to go through to whisper to the air stewardess and involve the whole crew in his secret (he didn't have the exact amount and the online mall doesn't give you change for your purchases . The air stewardesses, knowing that it was a surprise a man had for his wife wanted to help him so they went all out to change money for him. That's why there was an air stewardess running down the aisle with a S$10 note in her hand.)

Dorfman Sterling Raindrop Earrings

Though this pair of earrings are not made of precious metal, they will always be my most precious pair of earrings. Thank you God. Thank you hubby!

23 March 2008 - Our Baptism

23 March 2008 marks a very special event in our lives. It's Easter Day, the day Jesus resurrected 3 days after His death and crucifixion, and it's also the day that my parents, sister me and hubby were all baptised together!


I thank God so much for the salvation of all 5 of us. We did not come from Christian families, and all of us had our own history of worshipping idols, yet God by His grace opened our eyes to recognise Him as our Creator and our God. With God, life has become an exciting journey of being molded by Him, an exhilarating trip of taking little steps of faith and obedience and seeing the results that provides blessings money can't buy. Thru' these 5 years of my journey with God, I've gotten to see more and more of his love and grace, of how He's always right, even when the things He say at times seem downright weird. At the end of the day I can't help but marvel at how deep His wisdom is in knowing that things would turn out a certain way. Yes many times I forget that He was the one who created the magnificent canyons, the beautiful sunset, the breathtaking views atop a mountain...many times these are just head knowledge and I take it for granted...

I also thank Him for how much He has changed me....though i'm far from being perfect, I know I am so much happier because He has changed my attitude, not because He has changed my circumstances. I thank God for how I no longer need to struggle and strive, but I can rely on my Father to take care and provide for me. I don't need to defend myself, because He is my Defender. All I have to do is to enjoy the work He has given me, to constantly be thankful of all that He has given me, and to continue to let His words come alive in me.

Few days ago, hubby said this to me, "It's no use setting an agenda and reading your bible everyday faithfully if the words doesn't change you. His words are supposed to be life, but if you just read them and forget about them, they are just words." I realise that yes, I've been reading faithfully but I have not allowed His words to change my heart. Alot of times I change my actions or my words but I insist on thinking the same way I used to think about certain things that I'm opinionated about. Hubby went on further to say that when we try to change by our human efforts, we'll end up very tired and results would be minimal. We should take more time to meditate on God's Word and to reflect on ourselves. It's very tiring and at times difficult to admit that alot of times, the reasons behind our unhappiness is actually ourselves. So must really take time to pray and reflect and dig deep within ourselves what is really wrong. Is it a fear, a selfishness or disbelief that causes us to think a certain way, act a certain way and end up feeling a certain way. After identifying the root, then it's time to meditate on God's Word and keep on praying. Then He will answers ALL our questions by the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit and we will find the answer. For He says, Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. The key is will, not might. Ahhh our God is an awesome God!!!!

During our Hong Kong trip, i had a personal encounter with God when my hubby fellout with me. I thank God that this time my hubby's heart was hardened against me and he didn't relent and give in to me. That was when I was desperate and ran to God. That was when I heard God's voice and understood what was best for me. These days I feel much lighter and happier. Even the way I play my piano has changed.

Though God is still far from being done with me, I just want to publicly thank Him and give Him all the glory. When I blamed Him and turned away from Him, Jesus was saddened but He never turned away from me. When I gave up trying to change, He never gave up trying to talk sense into me. Theres's still alot more exciting things from God that I've yet to understand and receive from Him. But i'm excited and looking forward to what is to come!

Happy 'Birthday' to us all!

Thank you everyone who was there to witness our baptism. Thank you for your love, your prayers, the flowers and other gifts that you have blessed us with!

Update 3

1) Hubby bought me a new toy. A Canon Ixus 75. Now i can take pictures with my beautiful camera!

2) Hubby bought me another new toy. A portable photo printer. Now I can print photos while on holiday, in any size I want, and even print photos in collage or with text and edits in it. Hee!

These are some photos we took with my new toy.

Haha i feel so blessed.... =)

3) I bought hubby a new toy, the O2 Zinc pda phone. I dropped hubby's Palm Treo and the LCD screen cracked. Hubby dropped it so many times and nothing happened. Don't know why I had to spoil the most expensive component when I dropped it. We still prefer the Palm but it cost almost the same to repair it and to buy a new phone.

4) While shopping for a new phone for hubby, I fell for pda phones. I was never a fan of handheld organizers and had always preferred the traditional pen and paper but somehow the pda thingy rubbed off me and I fell for the Palm Centro. I had to squash the urge to buy the phone without contract. It's one thing to receive pressies and another to ask for things. And it's a big waste of money to buy phones at retail prices. So yes, I just have to admire hubby's O2 zinc for now. Wo ren!!!!! Hubby if you're reading this, pls don't buy the Palm Centro for me hoh. It's really a waste of money. Besides, a better phone may come up when your contract expires =)

Update 2

We had our Canon Camera repaired before we went Bintan and I found some old photos in it. Today I happened to take a picture of Ah Boy and noticed that he was in the same adorable position he favored as a puppy, except now he has grown from cute to charming.

Ah boy at 3 months old

Look at all the puffy baby hair he has.

Ah boy now at 5 years old

Ugly Teenager boy and puppy Mei

Ah mei's 1st batch of babies

Puppy Ger


An older Ger but still with a puppy look

This is me and my boyfriend-turned-hubby taken 3 years ago

Abba Father, I thank you for all the beautiful memories, my adoring husband, and the 2 beautiful doggies we have now. Thank U for everything!!!!

Updates 1

I've thought about it. One way to come round the problem is to speed up the process by NOT trying to chronologicalise everything. Esp when there's just too many updates to fill in. I shall just randomly update anything that comes to my mind.

1) Hubby passed his driving last Tuesday! It was really by grace and a confirmation from God that we can buy car cos

A) Hubby didn't go for many driving lessons after the first time he failed. He basically just went for 2 the week before and another one on the day of his exam.
B) This is the 2nd time hubby took the driving exam.
C) The 1st time hubby failed, we knew that everything is by grace. Before the exam, you're supposed to draw lots to 'pick' ur tester. Hubby kena the Mr. Strictest of the Strictest. Meaning he's reputed for not passing anyone. Since drawing lots was something that people did in the bible, we know in our hearts that God was the one who gave hubby Mr Strictest of the Strictest.
D) This time round hubby din pick Mr Strictest of the Strictest. FIY, another girl picked him and yes, he failed her too. This was her 3rd attempt, and it so happened that her 1st attempt she picked him too. Which means he has failed her twice. Hai...
E) During the exam, the tester was very blunt with my hubby. Kept criticising his driving, passing many negative comments. At one point, he asked hubby why was he driving so slowly?! But hubby drove slowly cos Mr. Strictest of the Strictest criticised him for driving too fast. At another point, he even criticised hubby so badly and said that the student taking the driving lessons down the road was driving better than him (my hubby). This made hubby so demoralised that he turned into the wrong lane. Which spurred on another slew of criticism from the tester again.
F) When the tester sat down to calculate the demerit points hubby got, hubby could see that he was actually striking off some of the things that he wanted to penalise hubby for.
G) Finally hubby got 18 points. The passing point is 20 points. Anything above that means you fail.
H) Mr. Tester then handed hubby his 'report card'. Hubby saw a tick at the pass box and a cross at the fail box. He was so stunned he asked Mr. Tester," Does this mean I passed?" It was truly favor from God that resulted in favor from men. Mr. Tester turned out to be a daddy figure in the disguise of a fierce policeman. He scolded hubby somemore, then smiled at him before saying," Drive carefully yah!"
God is so awesome when He works in our lives!

2) So with this confirmation from God, we booked our Subaru Impreza last Friday =) We should be getting it sometime next week. Ah I can't wait!

3) I have been extremely busy and overworked these past few weeks due to my students' mid year exams. Next week is my official one week break. I won't even have piano lessons next week. Yeah!

4) During my one week break, we're going Hongkong for 3 days! I wanted 4 but we couldn't bear to leave the dogs alone for too long and anyway, we're flying off early in the morning and coming back late in the evening so ok, not so bad.

5) I'm now busy with my piano lessons, which is getting harder and harder =( and trying to finish up my lonely planet on Hongkong to get the best out of our trip. I realised the zoo in Hongkong is free. So different from Singapore. And it's not a substandard zoo according to Lonely Planet. It has erm dunno how many varieties of bla bla bla and bla bla bla. Forgive me I have never been good at remembering terms and stats. I just highlight and remember briefly that if possible we can visit the zoo.

Ok these are the top 5 things I can remember now. Photo updates coming up!

"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 7: 37-38

Arghhh

Half an hour after connecting my Sony Ercisson to my pc, my pc turned its back on me and hung. I couldn't even stay connected to blog. Hai...I think I should get used to blogging without photos now and then.

I'm back!

Hehe so paiseh. I've been missing in action MIA for more than a month. I just realised that my last posting was 3 April, 1 month 11 days as of today. So many things to update. I realise one problem is that i have this almost obssesive instinct to upload photos to accompany every post and sometimes my pc hangs when i transfer photos from my camera or hp to it so everything becomes very leh che..ok not at excuse. i must still find a way to come round it!

Ai Xin nails by hubbyDark red base with beige flowers on the thumbs and dotted patterns on the fingers