Hiatus in Hong Kong

Day 1 (23 December 2009). The long awaited break.



Been mind-drafting a lot on how to start this blog, not that easy it seems as this is not the normal trip whereby I either travel with Anna, Andrea, Grace or darling sis. This time around is with 9 other folks; basically my relatives and dearest sis ofcos (mana boleh tinggal dia kan). Yup! All 10 of us, it felt strange as the last time I traveled with relatives this big (Kak Za) with kids (me babysitter to them) was about 10 years ago and I was a mere follower, NOW; am arranging it... so to speak. A tiring task as there’s expectation to be met (macam keje kat office pulak, hehehehe....); a tough one as I was trying to enjoy my own holiday too, oh well… you can’t win them all lor hor I suppose.

Basically I have my cousins; Uni Sham with her 2 kids - Amira & Bang Cik, Uni Armi with her son - Danny, Tina with her 2 darling girls - Maira & Misha, then there’s Fatin (my sis) and MOI. Am quite thankful that all my cousins are independent, understanding AND a traveler thus making it easy peasy to coordinate… PHEW! Thanks guys!

We met up in LCCT at 4:30am in the morning, ate breakfast at McDonald (pancake yeay!), surfed and chatted - it is our first far away trip together gether (by plane pulak tuh and oversea!). We board the flight and 4 hours later we arrived in HONG KONG! First thing first - cold weather, KIDS LIKE! Adults also like very much! Hehhehe…. Felt very Mat Salleh minus the snow and asap keluar dari mulut. Secondly, HOW TO GET TO hotel? Hem…. Searched and tertanya tanya… a lady at a transport counter asked us whether we needed help, we enquired and she offered, and mini bus from airport to Embassy Hostel (guesthouse like) at HKD800 - 45mins ride. We figure it’s reasonable since we have HUGE luggage and there’s 10 of us, not that wise to take cab. All settled and we followed (obediently) to the bus station. We got a bus alright! A HUGE 30 SEATER BUS! Crazy shit! We were like 20 pax short! Hahhaha…. Told the kids we have to turn back home as I finished our “funding allocation” to charter this HUGE bus… YUP! Got the BAMBI eye look form them, hahahah….. Uni acah aje lar guys, hehheheh…..

Our (or more precisely 8 pax) hotel was located on Nathan Road (YEAY!), 2 shop lots to Jordan MTR Station (perfect!), 7-11 everywhere (even better!). Checking-in was tough and DRAMA, the lady that oversees it doesn’t speak a word of English, luckily I can converse well in Mandarin (studied them from Kindie to Form 5) and they don’t accept credit card or more like she don’t accept credit card. We managed to help, the machine not that hard to use as Fatin uses it often while working with Tix Access as a temp. Agreed to meet up 1 hour after (as I need to check in at “our hostel” pulak) to plan our journey to THE PEAK!

Timing perfecto mundo, reached Central MTR Station between 3-4pm, took plenty of pics along the way (macam tak penah tengok bangunan and buses), went up via The Peak Tram (very steep I must say); queued for 30 mins at least before getting the first taste of The Peak air.

WAX! WAX! WAX! Madame Tussaud! Took funny pics of us, weird, wacky, silly yadda yadda yadda… ehheheh…. We had a BLAST there!

Next - Viewing Terrace. Ahh…… As most people know, am GAYAT = SCARED OF HEIGHT; and the there escalator DOESN’T HELP. At 3rd last floor I chickened out (almost in tears), Fatin was nice enough to offer to walk down with me and give it a miss, but that wouldn’t be fair right. RIGHT! I asked her to proceed and I'll wait for her at the tiny platform WHERE all the passerby looked at me weirdly as I was half bending and REFUSE to look down or stand close to the railing. After about 15mins, I gather enough courage to take the escalator down (waited for large crowd to ease the fear) but not without half squatting on it. REALLY! That scared I was, kid you not! Now that I think about it, I must have looked SILLY!

I waited for a while downstairs and was bored like hell before I decided to go shop at Hard Rock Café Merchandise Shop (they closed the one in Kow Loon). Hello new HRC shirt - bye-bye old HRC shirt. The rest came down soon after, more snappy snap time. Took some of Hong Kong night shots…. BEAUTIFUL - to me at least.
:D

Took the tram down, MTR-ed back to Embassy Hostel. Sis and me continued our journey to Ladies Market in Mongkok to get her a new pair of sneakers (she’s been complaining and wanting a new pair since FOREVER!) Took 1 hour to find one she liked, well…. She originally wanted a high-cut Reebok but the colours are not available in her size (sob sob), after much contemplating, she settled for Adidas black with colorful stripe. You’ll get to see in the next entry - DEFINITELY as it is ALL ABOUT her SHOE! I got me-self a Nike cross-training shoe, needed one for my brisk-walking activity.

Conclusion….

Hong Kong = ecstatic
The Tram = great experience
Madame Tussaud = real
The Peak = fantastic view
Weather = cool
Shoes = perfect fit
Company = LOVE

Need we say more?

Tomorrow…. Disneyland!!!

Credits : Wikipedia, Adidas, Nike, Reebook, Lonely Planet, The Peak, Madame Tussauds