4

pre-Taiwan-flight on 11th May

A quick look at the calendar reminds me that I have 4 more days in Hong Kong. 

The past few days have been spent trying to get things sorted out; e.g. getting my luggage packed so that I won't fumble like mad on my second last day (on a side note, I think I need a new wardrobe when I get back), visiting Kowloon and HK Island quite a bit to buy stuff that friends've requested me to and some last-minute shopping, arranging for last-minute meet-ups and dealing with rejection (because you know, last-minute events don't usually work out too well), talking to the hall's security guards and our level's cleaner lady and wishing them well, re-packing my luggage so that I can better deal with excess baggage at the check-in counter, etc etc.

Basically, quite a bit of tying up loose ends. 

not tissue paper lah Uncle David!

Met KH at Ah Fatt's one last time today, and Elaine joined us slightly later. KH noted that I used the term 回来 (i.e. return) to describe my future trips to Hong Kong, and thought it was quite funny that I already feel a sense of belonging here. I'm not too sure about a complete sense of belonging but, I'll definitely come back to visit some of my HK friends soon!

with Elaine, we met at a party of KH's friend on New Year's Eve last December.

I tried to think of some HK specialties that I've yet to try over beer but my mind was a blank. Apart from THE KIMBERLY PIG, there's really not much else that I'm dying to eat (i.e. I've sort of satisfied most of my food cravings here in HK). 

We bought one lottery slip each, just for fun, and mine's right up here. There will be a draw tomorrow night so... let's keep fingers crossed! :p

ps. meeting Audrey at 8am to yum cha at 蓮香樓 later and it's already 3am now. I hope both of us will make it out of bed later... 

#28 Someone that changed your life

I'm starting to feel that I've been meeting far too many people these days. 

In all honesty, I can't pin-point any one person in particular who changed my life significantly. But, the people who've left their marks in my life one way or another (good and bad) changed me in a million different ways. Some of these changes may be really subtle and not too obvious, but please be assured that they're in place.

Anyhow, I'm not too sure what changes we're talking about here since there's simply too many to finish listing, so, in order not to mislead or throw anyone into further confusion, I just want to say that I am thankful for everyone who's played a part in changing my life, one way or other.

Sorry for the ambiguity!

Paris, je t'aime

Paris' most famous icon.

Paris can be considered as the last leg of Europe for us even though that wasn't supposed to be the initial plan; if you remember, we winded up in Basel, Switzerland, instead of Brussels, Belgium, due to a big phonetic misunderstanding between F, I and the train ticketing lady who sold us our train tickets. We didn't see too much of Brussels apart from the railway station, our hostel and the airport and I sometimes forget that we've actually been to Belgium.

F and the Arc de Triomphe.

If my memory doesn't fail me, we spent a grand total of 3 days in Paris. And most of it was great. I probably spent the most money here (in the whole of our UK/Europe journey) on shopping at Champs-Elysee (for the Guccis and Miu Mius that Mumsy's colleagues got me to buy on their behalf), Mumsy gave me the go-ahead for my first Gucci over the phone and I visited Disney for the first time.

Laduree's pretty (delicious) macarons. We finally tried PH's in Paris too.

Here are some pictures (and descriptions) of the places that we've been to in our really short stay in Paris:

on our way to Disneyland

There are many ways to get to Paris' Disneyland and the metro (i.e. subway) was one of them. It was really empty when we boarded so we weren't really expecting (such) a big crowd when we arrived.

pretty castle... from Sleeping Beauty maybe?

must take picture with pretty castle.

stained windows depicting the story of Sleeping Beauty.

I realize as I'm typing this that I've never watched this Disney cartoon in its entirety before - only bits and pieces when I was in kindergarten back then.

love these hanging lamps that can be found at the entrance of the Arabian streets (Aladdin!)

It was like the start of the summer holidays in Europe when we were there so every corner in Disneyland was packed to the brim; quite a pain to move about but then again, I've never been too fond of massive crowds.

Woody greeting his fans

Lilo makes an appearance

We tried to catch the parade show on the main street but due to some technical errors (faulty speakers or something like that), the characters only came out for 5 minutes before the cancellation announcement was made. Meh. Bummer.

I've always thought that Minnie and Donald have something going on behind Mickey and Daisy's backs :p

That's about it for my Disney adventure; I kind of regret not taking more pictures and getting put off by the sweaty crowds (so I shall snap more pictures in future travels!).

We didn't visit too many places due to time constraints, but we did visit the Notre Dame Cathedral as well as the Louvre. More pictures!

didn't have a clue what the cathedral looked like before arriving; slightly under-exposed in this picture.

Notre Dame Cathedral with much better lighting.

lone pigeon taking a lovely sun bath outside the cathedral

and a boy who kept very still to feed the little birds found at the cathedral's courtyard. 

Outside, there were quite a number of gypsies roaming the cathedral grounds and most of them held cards that said something like "Do you speak English?" and "I need your help urgently with (something) please. Please help me." and they seemed to mainly only talk to tourists (or people who looked like tourists). It can be a little disorienting at first, all the flurry of activity going on around you but things get much better once you get inside.

interior of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Once you've managed to shake off the crowd at the entrance, the inside of the cathedral is in comparison, much more cooling and peaceful due to the dim lights and you'll manage to reorientate quickly.

tea lights put up by the some of the believers.

The next few pictures will be the last for Paris, and they've all got the pyramids of Musée du Louvre in them some way. I strongly feel that Dan Brown did a pretty damned good job at making people become interested in the museum.

the inverted glass pyramid.

F (candied) and the big glass pyramid

my noob attempt at a symmetrical shot; see the number of people at the bottom of the pyramid?!

enlarged so now you'll see them.

I can't remember now what was my fascination with the triangles (hence the numerous pictures of the pyramids) back then! 

It's been close to to a year (probably just 1-2 weeks away) since we've completed this UK/Europe journey and while I am amazed by my own inefficiency in posting this entry, I am really glad that I'm finally done with it and it's now up! Looking back, I really do miss the times the two of F and I had back there - not too much trouble but lots of funny episodes and great memories.

Now that F's younger brother is in Tokyo (and will be for the next 4 years), I'm really looking forward to doing some travelling with her again, to Japan sometime in the near future!

ps. all pictures taken by my trusty (close-to-2-years-old) G10.

:D

Another customer who is very satisfied with her new purchase!

時間快到了 - Bidding HK Goodbye

I've been thinking about this entry for sometime now; in fact, I first started having thoughts about it in the second week after I arrived. Maybe I was just too happy to be soaking up all the novelty that Hong Kong's got to offer, or maybe I was just really glad to be away from all the hustle and bustle in Singapore; whatever the case was though, I guess I started missing Hong Kong way before it was time for me to leave.

When I first announced my decision to come to HK for exchange, many of you guys raised your brows and asked: Why Hong Kong instead of Europe/America/Japan/Australia/etc? I can't say the same for all but I daresay some of you were thinking that HK is not a location far-off or exotic enough for an exchange programme, or that it's going to be a boring destination because your friends and family going on holidays to HK usually only come here for a week; tops, and it's just like Singapore. To the people who felt that way (instead of being happy for me that I'm going to have such an awesome experience), sorry for my curt and adamant replies of "Why not?". I thought that the location didn't matter at all since all I want is to experience living somewhere else for an extended period of time; I really didn't think that I would have more fun just because I am in the US of A or UK/Europe where everyone else was. Now that the exchange programme's finally coming to a close (soon), I still stick by my initial thoughts and to supplement, it's really your attitude towards your destination that determines how amazingly good or how god-awful a place is; and of course, the people that you meet along the way and the types of memories you guys create.

I have way too many fond memories from the past few months and all of them bring a smile my face each time I try to recall how things happened; it's impossible to share them all so I'm just going to share a few here:

• The first night of our arrival, after 'getting lost on campusw' and lugging twenty-odd kilograms worth of baggage (each) down this crazy flight of stairs:

I'm quite sure this stairway looked much narrower and steeper on our first night here. 

... only to find out later that the taxi driver dropped us at the back of building where there was no lift-access nor entrance to the the building.

• My first New Year's Eve overseas - KH was kind enough to have brought me to his friend's NYE party so that I didn't have to squeeze my way through the throngs of people waiting for the twenty-freaking-five minutes long fireworks' display at Tsim Sha Tsui.

• Meeting Henna and Audrey to go for my first-ever swim in an indoor pool; I almost backed out the last minute when I realized it was winter here and the water could be too cold for (my) comfort. But I'm glad I took the plunge eventually, becuase I discovered the most shiok shower place on campus after.

• Trying to speak in Cantonese and ending up in all sorts of hilarious situations.

• Visiting Medan, Indonesia with Yvonne, Doris and Mr Musti and having an awesome, awesome time; swimming in the frigid waters of Lake Toba, cycling around the island of Samosir, trekking through the rainforests of Bukit Lawang to catch sight of Orang Utans in the wild, sighting of my first fireflies, camping in the wilderness for a night, just being thankful for hot tea served in little colourful plastic cups on a rainy afternoon in the rainforest, and not forgetting... listening to the improvised versions of many popular songs by the friendly folks from Nora's Homestay.

• Spending Chinese New Year overseas for the first time! I came back from Medan on chu xi; visited my first (and maybe last) Hong Kong night market with KH and called Ah Hong at 12 on the dot to wish her gong hei fatt choy and the best of health. *dear bruddy, don't think I've forgotten how you told my mum I'm a pig lor kns*

• Having the great fortune of being invited to a family feast (thinking of the glutinous balls in ginger soup now *slurps*) by Audrey, Uncle Wayne and his family on chor yat, and not having to bring two mandarin oranges to bai nian because that's not part of the tradition here. Oh, and the lao sai that lasted for quite a number of days after hurrr.

• Having my first taste of roast pigeon with Cherry, her roomie, Doris and Sharri at Fo Tan; and chuckling to myself while looking at Doris cringe when the pigeon's head was pointed towards her. Not forgetting, having a good laugh together when Doris and Sharri learnt to say lemon chicken in Cantonese for the very first time.

• The great cook-outs with Audrey, Henna, Stella, Doris, Yvonne where they totally rocked the electric stove and I, the kitchen sink. I had a taste of the most authentic Swiss and Liechtenstein rosti even though it didn't quite come out the way we had expected, and... I also had the great fortune of tasting a delicious home-cooked Hokkien dish coked by Stella.

• Sighting of white dolphins near Tai O (in the wilderness of HK, no less. Who would've thunk?!) and spending a wonderful afternoon at Tai O where Audrey's tutor was kind enough to extend an invitation for a few exchange students to come along for her module's excursion.

 

• Doing the trail at Victoria Peak (that few tourists venture) one windy midnight and learning much about some of Hong Kong's (to be more specific, Hong Kong Island) most famous landmarks, and looking at the gates of the homes belonging to the awfully rich folks in HK; after a night of great dancing at a salsa club.

• Attending tango lessons at The Pemberton with Audrey and Doris; it was supposed to be just me at first but I'm so glad they decided to sign up for the classes in the end because the sessions were so much more fun with them around. I still remember how one shit-head of a dance partner pissed me off so bad that I started scolding knnbccb, but after explaining to Doris what it means and seeing the look of disapproval on her face (I can't remember if I made her say it), I started to crack up instead.

• Receiving yet another invitation to a great feast cooked by Audrey's host-dad and spending a lovely evening at her host-family's place in Sai Kung where we drank whiskey and talked in a very manly fashion about many topics; amongst which included: differences between guys in Singapore and Hong Kong, the sky-high housing prices in Hong Kong, rising living costs, and how every opportunity presented to you to make a speech should be greatly valued.

• Watching movies alone for the first time just because I needed to take a break from working on my assignments. And while we're on the topic of movies, I also watched Category III films (i.e. adults only) for the first time in cinemas - and it was the world's first 3D pornographic film, no less. What a funny experience that was!

• Receiving the tremendous amount of support and incredible encouragement from some of our tutors here; I've heard from some of the other exchange students that they've gotten some really blah tutors so I'm really appreciative of all the tutors that I've had the chance be taught by.

• Learning to be even happier on my own; not bragging of course, but since I am already quite good (not yet an expert though) at being happy on my own, this exchange programme merely served to reinforce that idea. 

I can go on and on about all my experiences, but really, I'm sure you wouldn't be interested to read them all so I'll just stop here with my descriptions of the happy times. It may seem like all was fine and dandy, judging from what you've just read, but I can safely assure you otherwise. This exchange programme was not without its lows; but so not as to dampen anybody's spirits, it's better for me to just remember the good and forget the bad. At least for now anyway.

Looking at the desktop's calendar, it's close to 5 months since I left our sunny little island for a slightly bigger one last Christmas. It's a little hard to believe that the past few months have gone past in just a blink, and this blog entry is finally materializing. I can't remember if I've said this before (I probably did), but 5 months is really an awkward duration - I definitely can't say that I am an insider now or that I have been completely 'hongkongized', but surely, I know more (however slightly) about Hong Kong than the average tourist.

As we're coming to the end of my very long-winded (I know, I know) entry, I just want to express how grateful I am for the opportunity to be here. I am thankful to have met all the people whom I've met - for showing me how one event can be carried out in vastly different manners in two similar places; I am thankful for the local friends who've been offering me glimpses into the way of life of Hong Kongers and at the same time, I am also thankful for my new friends from everywhere else for telling me more about their home countries, sharing of their travelling experiences with the noob traveller that is me, and giving me so many new perspectives in life. All of you/them, I am thankful that you guys came into my life and left your footprints. I am (so) looking forward to meeting some of you guys again soon halfway round the globe in the near/far future.

Almost the end now!

I can't help but say this to people whose tails I've stepped (on way or other) on unknowingly along the way, I'm really sorry because I never had the intentions to; and I know it's usually the words that people are not serious about when they say them that sting the most.

 It has been nothing short of an incredible journey here in Hong Kong; I learnt a great deal about not just myself, but also about different people I am likely to meet in the future. Much time was spent on thinking and re-thinking about what I wanted for myself in the near future and although I've yet to arrive at a very definite conclusion, the lines are slightly less of a blur now. I am glad that I made the decision to come here and I'm sure that I will be happy to tell people that I've spent a little part of my life in Hong Kong once upon a time.

Thank you for all the wonderful memories, dear Hong Kong.

ps: I'm actually heading to Mainland in two days' time and will be coming back to HK for my flight back home but I guess it's a good time to post this up now. Oh, and look forward to a ginormous backlog of photos on either facebook or here!

Taiwan, baby!

It's close to 5 a.m. now; I'm typing away safely on my (friend's) lappy on my bed and listening to the snores of my uncle room-mate - I've only just met his silhouette when he decided to take a pee half an hour ago.

This, my friends, has got to be one of the worst-planned trips that I've ever embarked on. 

My luggage was packed only 3 hours before I arrived at the airport, I did no trip planning prior to boarding the plane because I was too busy rushing to meet the deadline for my final assignment for exchange (no excuses for my lousy prioritization, I really suck) and I didn't even remember to take down the address of the hostel where I'm supposed to stay at for the next two nights. And I was so tired from the lack of sleep last night that I came back to the hostel at 6 p.m. to take a short nap (that lasted for more than 5 hours -_-) when I should have been out exploring some exciting night markets.

And yet, despite my ill-preparedness for the trip, I've got to say that all's well so far, all thanks to the people I've met so far in Taipei. The people here are sooooooo nice that I think you can actually get away with murder - heh, bad analogy but you get my drift. I actually felt guilty when I thought about how I should have taken a more active approach in the trip planning. But holidays are not for moping, and I'm sure the friendly folks will understand and not hold that against me. Besides, I did plenty of reading up earlier so it must have made up for my lack of preparedness.

Time to sleep so that I can get on with my exploring later! :)

On a side note, I really like to hear the people speaking here; they all sound so down to earth and it makes me really happy to be here in Taiwan!