Hong Kong Day 2

Day two in Hong Kong (15th June 2008) Sorry for taking ages! I've been so busy, I think I'll just upload the photos and caption them. =p

Breakfast was AWESOME!!!! A whole week of buffet breakfasts at Marco Polo. =D I have never eaten so many breakfasts in one stretch. lol

This is the only photo I took of breakfast that day. Pretib and I. LOL didn't take the food. Was there for a WHOLE WEEK and I forgot to take photos of the buffet breakfast spread. It was so so so so so so so so GOOD!

The Malaysian Contingent.
Ron, Dom, Pretib, Eric, Me, Boey, Ee Loo, Zhen Han, Elizabeth
Refreshed with a good night's sleep in the comfy comfy beds and ready to conquer Hong Kong!

We had a half day City Tour, and went to Mai Po Temple, Stanley Market and Victoria's Peak.

The view taken from inside the bus
Mai Po Temple :Elizabeth, me and Eric

With the Vietnamese team


Andrew, Me, Pretib, Ron and Dom in the bus


The tour guide was so entertaining!! We were all the way at the back of the bus where his voice was barely audible. But I strained to listen to his stories which were extremely interesting. I remember one about a man having a few wives, and since they fight all the time he built a house with the same number of floors as his number of wives, each for one wife, and different entrances. It was also pretty cool how he told us about the structure of a building where there is a hole in the middle and the reason for it. Damn, its been too long I forgot what the reason was, but it was a pretty cool feng shui explanation. Something about the building blocking something and thus they build a hole so that the good luck can come flowing in. Some people will brush it off as mere superstition, but I really find stories like this interesting. At least a part of me remains highly interested about my chinese culture and heritage. :P I think it's a good thing. Even if its about strange holes in buildings.


Heading toward's Victoria's peak and we bumped into........


JACKIE CHAN!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA okay so it's just a statue.. but STILL

Eric and I posing with Jackie Chan!!! ok ok statue statue. I know its JUST a statue! lol Let me syok sendiri a bit lah XD

I even pulled Bruce Lee's ear!

Winson Pretib Me

That's how we got up the steep slope to Victoria's peak


It was unfortunate that the day was rainy, so everything was covered in mist when we went up to Victoria's peak. nevertheless, since we were up there I took a photo =)

Hong Kong city (not it's best shot)

Up at Victoria's Peak

There were so many pedigree dogs around. Someone made a comment "Hong Kong people are very busy, so instead of having children they have dogs." LOL

I had some free time to wander around Victoria Peak's shops.Should have gotten those tshirts. I really did like them.

The Vietnamese girls :) We were rushing to get to the bus in time, and STILL could capture a photo.

What I like MOST about Hong Kong is......

TONG SHUI!
TONG SHUI!
TONG SHUI!

I think I became very well known for having constant cravings for tong shui. My cravings for this chinese desserts are just insatiable.

Hong Kong's food is so GOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD

Hong Kong Streets all look like this. Exactly out of those Hong Kong drama series. What struck me as super typical Hong Kong was the policemen in light blue uniforms. When I saw them I just thought of the Jackie Chan movie with the baby. Don't ask me why haha.

That night the bronze team wanted to STUDY. The gold team had to practise for the next day's competition. And Eric says he wants to sleep! OMG. Like I will let him. Haha I did, for a short while, but after that I insisted that we go out, so we went to Mong Kok Street. It's this long stretch of street stalls. Which looked very impressive till we actually saw that the shops' contents are repeated every three or four stores. So much for variety. Eric was scolded by the vendor because he broke the most fundamental rule. Bargain and don't want to buy. Never ever do that in Mong Kok Street.

Mong Kok Street

After the incidence with the very aggressive auntie at the store, we decided it was time to find comfort food. We chanced upon a noodle shop, and we both ordered beef noodles.

This is the BEST EVER beef noodles. Yummy!!!! They were so generous with the beef, it was so tasty and tender and so absolutely perfectly deliciously awesomely good! It was comfort food to the max. Eric was pretty happy after the meal. Hehe the auntie probably didn't sneeze as much because he wasn't talking about her behind her back already. haha

We headed back to the hotel after walking around a short while more. End of day 2 in Hong Kong.

Overload

Saturation of brain juice. So much to handle. I've been very unstable lately. Extremely unstable. There's too many things on my mind, and I still need to input more within this short span of time. Have begun eating compulsively. Must STOP. Need to do some running around for certifying documents again. I'm crossing my fingers. Did I ever tell you that I am terrified of interviews? Well I am. It makes me even more nervous when I really want it so much. Hope all goes well. Sorry people for being so unstable. Just bear with me for awhile, thanks for understanding. =)

Too much of one thing, too little of another

Thinking that you feel liberated is one of the best feelings in the world, until you snap out of it and realise that you made a fool of yourself.

I will not screw up. I will not.

I promise myself I will not.

It's time to pull everything together. If I want to be serious about achieving the things that I want to in this year, I have to put in more effort in what I am doing. Anything that deviates from the responsibility unsaid but expected, it's time to put aside. I cannot let my impulsiveness lead to regret. There is no excuse to run away with my emotions and neglect what is most important. Enough of CH3CH2OH. I am staying away from all inhibitors of rational thought for the time being.

Ice cold water

I close my eyes and I can almost feel the waves crash upon the shores in my head. Spinning in my mind are torrential cascades of thoughts that can't seem to find an orderly manner to fit into. When you don't know, you guess. But when you can't guess, you are lost. I am lost.

I don't know where I stand. I don't know what I am. All I know is that I'm tired. When all of a sudden you find that you want something, and yet you probably can't have it, you wish you never came across it in the first place. But since it's too late for that, even walking back in the heavy downpour because I forgot to bring my umbrella was a welcome event.

Sometimes I wonder, things could be so much simpler. If only I didn't do things the way I always do. Impulsive. Emotional. Stupid. There is always another path to take. But stubbornness declines that road, and takes this rocky road. I am swimming with sharks. And my heart might just decide to go into hibernation mode, where everything just freezes in icy cold flames.

Why do I let myself into water when I know I can barely swim? Is it just me that imagines a connection? I am too afraid to hope. I am too haunted by the past to dare believe in the present.

Hope~ by emily dickinson. One of my favourite poems, I'm typing it out from memory, as the lines start running itself in my head.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
That sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all

And sweetest in the gale is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea
Yet never in extremity
It asked a crumb of me.

But hope, hope is just a fragment of imagination. Of denial when hard core evidence is yet to be placed right in front of us. Hope is just something we hold on to when there is nothing concrete to believe in.

The song More Than That has been playing itself over and over again in my head today. Over and over and over again.

I should do my tutorial =(

Hong Kong Entrepreneur's Tour - Day 1

Hong Kong was a blast! I was there on the 14th to the 21st June, and it was indeed one of the more enjoyable times of my life thus far. The hotel was awesome, the food was awesome, the company was awesome and it was just awesome :) But after a whole week there, even in all awesomeness, I guess I should be proud to say, that it felt good to be back in Malaysia. Really. After all there's no place like home. I was hesitating to document day by day about Hong Kong like I did with the London trip because it would take forever and unlike the previous trip, I'm not on holiday now. But I think I shall, because, well I like wasting time typing everything out. Haha so be patient with my lengthy detailed entries, or you can just look at the photos =)

14th June 2008

My day started off at 5am. Freaking early in the morning, but tar college is far from the airport. Thomas was so kind to offer to accompany me to sentral in the taxi even though I didn't ask (thanks!), just in case I get some weirdo taxi driver who might rape me and kill me in the process. Yeah I know its paranoia, but after that encounter with the rude and reckless taxi driver, one can't be too careful. After all, it wasn't even dawn yet, the streets are quiet and the skies still dark. We went out to the hostel gate, and there was NO taxi. I thought it hadn't arrived so we just waited patiently, but after 15 minutes it seemed like no taxi was going to come. I then called the taxi company I booked the taxi with and she told me the taxi had gone away. I was like @#$%^&*!! I'm only a few minutes late!! And they called me to confirm before that and I confirmed with them. Yet the taxi went away before I could get to it!!! The taxi company arranged to get another one there, so we waited. It was still early thank goodness, so we just sat down outside the front gate and talked. I was so glad to have company really, a wait on my own with that kind of start of the day would have gotten me cursing otherwise. haha but it was all good. We got a very amicable taxi driver who was damn funny, and full of randomness to the point where I would just roll my eyes, look over at Thomas who was as blur as I was, raise my eyebrows and stifle laughter because the both of us had no idea what in the world the taxi driver was talking incessantly and so enthusiastically about. I thought I was talkative, you should have heard this man talk. Told me to buy sunglasses and SPONGEBOB of all things from HK. The only downside was that he didn't want the air conditioning on coz he said it was too early in the morning and wound down the windows instead.

I met Eric at sentral, and we took the express train to the airport. We were the first to arrive, so we waited for the rest who came soon after. It was amazing how we've only met during the workshop and final competition, but these people already know how to tease me! LOL. damn ke lian lah innocent me. hahaha. But it was also amazing how easily we could talk to each other. It felt like a nice start to a nice one week holiday. =) After checking in, we went to Mc Donald's to have breakfast. I had an apple pie, while most of them had proper meals. The gold team (I forgot which one of them) put their docile WORMS that were covered in shit right in front of me!!! on the table!!! eek! Not exactly an appetizing sight. The flight took around 4 hours, and we met the Vietnamese team at the airport before getting into the bus that took us to the hotel.

Hong Kong Airport

Mah Tsing Bridge, taken as we were in the bus

Once we reached the hotel, we checked in and was given two lift cards per room but only one key. Which indeed proved to be quite a hassle, even when we were able to leave it at the front desk. My room number was auspiciously 1025, which was exactly my birth date. Oct 25th. lol coincidences of coincidences! Once we checked in, relaxed and freshened up, it was time for the first event, the welcome dinner. The food was really good, and it was the beginning of a week full of spoiling ourselves with great food. Goodness knows how much weight I put on in that one week. I felt a little sick around three quarters through the dinner, unfortunately, and had to retreat to my room to take some medicine that i brought along just in case. When I came back down to the dining room, they were giving speeches and briefing us about the week's programmes. It took awhile for the medicine to work, and by the time I felt okay, the dinner was over. Which was, in a way a good thing, I was ready to explore Hong Kong. Only thing was, the gold team had to practice, the bronze team wanted to study, and Eric says he is SLEEPY coz he missed his afternoon nap.

The welcome dinner

Nevertheless, Eric agreed to accompany me to just walk around nearby. We were in Tsim Tsa Tsui, an apparently high class area where we might be able to spot celebrities. Unfortunately, I didn't see any, but like a friend pointed out "even if you did see one, you probably wouldn't recognise him/her". It was a really nice place, the area where we were staying, with lots of touristy spots. We took a couple of photos, but my camera couldn't adjust to night mode, and even though we tried all sorts of modes with eric's cam, the lights of the city beyond the harbour just couldn't be captured on camera that night. I did manage to get a nice shot of it in the later days though, which was a good thing. Hong Kong is a nice place to be in, but seriously, its not photogenic. It's really hard to capture a good picture of the place, or maybe I'm just too amateurish a photographer.

At the harbour, just in front of where the ferry stops

That's the huge shopping mall, harbour city just behind me, which is connected to the hotel. It would be an awesome place to shop, provided u have the money lol

This was one of the cool things I saw on the first day in HK. The steps were lighted up and moving pictures/video/advertisements were run right on the staircase! It might have looked silly for us both to be taking photos of a staircase, and there were people giving us weird looks, but hey, you don't see things like that back home. I'm a tourist so I have every right to take photos of staircases! lol

There's this huge chandelier in the hotel, so I wanted to take a photo with it =) It was right next to the room we had a seminar a few days later, which seemed to be almost fully booked on most nights with high school graduation ceremonies. I'm guessing it's a popular spot for occasions such as those.

Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel!!! Our accommodation for the week. It is an absolutely fantastic place. The rooms are big, the blankets so soft and cozy, we have fruits served on a platter everyday, and you can even order different kinds of pillows if you want! I know Eric tried almost all the different pillows. LOL. I was satisfied with the original feather ones.

We were walking around the vicinity and came across this vendor who was demonstrating the use of this really cool wallet where it operates by a few strings and all you need to do is place the note on it, then flip it close and open it from the other end and ta dah, the note will be well secured. It was really cool, so Eric and I decided to split and buy 3, 3 each, as they sold it in "buy 5 free 1". We thought of going back and getting more after that, in the days that followed, but unfortunately never got around to doing so. It would have been a pretty cool gift to give to people.

After awhile, we decided that it was time to go back into the hotel. I went to the front desk and they told me that the key wasn't there. I guessed that Elizabeth was probably still out and she forgot to leave the key at the front desk so I just hung out with Eric and Pretib for awhile. It was awfully nice just talking.

A little past midnight and I went down and asked the hotel receptionist to send someone to open the door for me and I went back to my room to sleep. That was the end of day one in Hong Kong.

I'm back from hong kong!!

Internet connection has been horrible since I got back. Today's the first time since saturday I could actually open this blog page to type a new post. Loads to catch up on, seeing that I've been slacking for the past month. Had great fun pricking my fingers a couple of times to test my blood type for immunology practical. My blood doesn't flow out very well, I had to poke and repoke and then squeeze the blood out. Then after one round of testing, and after the blood on my finger has clotted and is no longer flowing, I decided I would like to redo the test again just to make sure. So I poked another finger. This time it was the fourth finger. Its supposedly less painful (yeah right), but also I think the skin is slightly thicker so one or two pricks weren't enough. I then twisted the knife/pin/whatever you call it I don't really know till there was enough blood for me to do the test. Ouch. Apparently my blood type is B. I always thought it was O.

Hong Kong was amazingly awesome! I'll blog about it in detail with pics as soon as I have the time. Mwahahaha we were such posers, I have tons of photographs. Still some more in other cams. I'm in such a great mood today because my article was published in the star in stuff@school. I thought it was only for sec sch student subscribers, but its in our newspapers too! yay! =) Nevertheless have loads of things to finish today, will update as soon as I find the time to do so. Cheerio for now. I promise I WILL post up the hk pics =)

When can you let go of insecurities?

"You are what you are.. be proud of it. When you start thinking like that, you'll be a better person. A person who doesn't always compare." These words are repeating themselves in my mind. Yeah I know, the same friend who told me for a different situation under different circumstances that "Who cares? What matters is who you are. Who you are. Remember that."

I recall one of dad's favourite phrases in chinese "ren bu ke yi gen ren bi". Translated it means you cannot compare one person to another. There is a second part to that saying, which I forgot. I guess I would have to ask and edit this entry soon. Anyway, everyone is different, and we all have our strengths and weaknesses. So don't compare yourself with someone else, or compare two different people. I do acknowledge this, but as confident as I might seem to people who don't know me, the truth is, I am the exact opposite sometimes. Looks can be deceiving so never judge a book by its cover. In my head, my alter ego still screams "I don't think you are good enough."

I wonder if I can somehow draw the confidence from within myself. I admit, I am hesitant. Not because I don't know what I want, but because I really don't wanna screw things up this time around. I am afraid because I can't read minds. A science student is meticulous about evidence and less so with intuition. Pseudoscience, that is what is is scoffed as being. Feelings, intuition, reading minds. They are all so uncertain, so unfamiliar. I am tentatively going to test the waters. I hope I don't get eaten by a shark.