Hong Kong Day 1 - 07 Oct 2009

This is probably the most significant boarding pass in my entire 23 years of life. Its just a normal boarding pass, but it signifies my very last free ticket from S IA, the very first time on the A 380 and the venture to find my love.

i seriously love the service, food and entertainment facilities from the airline company. its good to make people feel well-served and at home.

i noticed something of some sociological insights again. a guy seated beside me was super eager to fill up the immigration form but he had no pen. he pressed the service bell, the stewardess came and drew out a pen which was tucked behind her uniform, from in between her cleavage! OMG! and there are alot of "traps" that victimize the poor girl into compromising and promiscuous image. its seriously amazing how they reinforce their image as sex objects and get all those harassment on board.

from the window of the aircraft... i've reached HK!!!

the airport is seriously... zai! i have to travel pretty far and take sky train all the way to some other place before i actually reach the immigration and baggage collection hall. for somebody who hasnt been there for a long long time, or being there alone, it can feel quite strange and uncertain. but its definitely a good experience to go alone.

finally got all the admin stuff settled and out into the arrival hall. the sense of excitment set in when i was queueing at the immigration. felt anxious when i was collecting my luggage because i was afraid he get angry that i took too long and it was way passed the time that we arranged to meet. by the time i met him at the gate, i was quite surprised that i wasnt as happy and excited as i thought i would have.

took a bus from the airport to his hostel, which i will be staying at for the first few days. along the way, the scenery is really amazing. almost similar to what we see in SG... but some sense of soci-ness and some hk drama frenzy do give you the great sense of curiosity and excitment to whats going to come next.

and look.. omg! this is the legendary hk police car that we only get to see on TV! (ok, i'm sua ku kid)

checked into his hostel, checked out how his room looked like... unpacked some stuff... and out we went! first stop: repulse bay!

the original plan was only to go to the peak because there wouldnt be much time since qh only ends lesson at 6. however, he had decided to skip his lesson to bring me around. and since he also wanted to go to repulse bay... here we go!

took bus to our first destination. their bus system is really not bad. similar to those we have here, just tat instead of tapping our card twice (boarding and alinghting), we only have to tap once (boarding) in hk. the down side of such a system is that you pay a std flag down rate regardless of how many stops you ae taking, but that of cuz depends on where you board the bus. the good part about it is that you dont have to worry about forgetting to tap when you alight from the bus. i really enjoy all the bus trips :)

we reached after ~1 hr!

so pretty! we managed to catch the sun set! the sun in the photo looks abit strange though.. its squarish!

the scene is so beautiful.. he couldnt help it but want to take a photo of me..

and a photo of us!!! it took us quite a long time and some pain staking efforts to get this photo taken...
we spent quite a long time strolling along the beach.. smelling the fresh air of the sea... its super refreshing and relaxing. its just a pity we cant enjoy ourselves like this back in SG. 二人世界真好！

more photos of the beautiful beach...

how i wish i live by the sea... it'll definitely feel good to be home. one of the expensive housing estates in hk..

and of cuz... even scenic places need to cater to the religion needs of people...

look like we're taking the photo from the sea? how cool is that... look at the pathway in the waters...

we saw some people trying to throw coins into the mouth of the koi. was supposed to symbolise some good luck or something like that... its not easy... we saw some almost successful attempts when the managed to throw it in but the money just bounced off ..

we saw the "mountain" of longevity peaces on the top of the pillar, and there's a little porcelain boy in the midst of the peace!

we decided that the sky is getting dark and its time to get our stomach filled before we go on to the next destination.

witness some commotion while waiting for the bus to go back to central. hk people are quite particular about sequence and manners. some guys got pretty frustrated and began to lose their temper when some other people started to jump queue while boarding the bus. it is of cuz, a concern for them who are rushing to go home, and it so doesnt help because there are plenty of people who wants to board the bus and the bus is almost packed. things got abit ugly when the frustrated people were just shouting at others to queue up. fortunately or not, people do know how to follow instructions, unlike sgreans as a whole. its quite a sight on the first day!

ate kfc for dinner. haha.. wat a choice for the first meal in a foreign land famous for good food. i had craving... so... haha. prof ho and jarman mentioned something about sense of expectations and standard when they were teaching about internationalization of brands. that was what i had in mind when i made my orders. the menu has a wider range of variety, and flexibility in terms of matching the combos. good for satisfying different cravings, but spoilt for choice. its just a pity they dun extend such flexibility and variety to food ordering in sg. the food taste different from those in sg, which made me think about std and expectations mentioned in lecture. put that aside for those not interested in theories.

proceeded to the next stop: the peak! there's gifts shops and restaurants around, and the famous madam tussaud wax museum! bought tickets up to the peak for the tram, museum and the gallery to see the night scene from great heights! dont really remember the cost, but its definitely worth the trip up!

ancient tram...

its a good idea to take the tram up because the journey up was really... an experience! it goes along the hill, and the tram is going up at a super steep angle of at least 45 degrees gradient. omg! we tried very very hard to take pictures to show the extreme gradient, but twilight mode requires such high level of stability and still-ness that its impossible to take picture successfully. thats a great pity and waste!

when we're up there... welcome to the wax musuem!

look at the andy imitation...

and look at the jay model that doesnt really look like jay.... i think he looks more like jaycee... haha

he was very insistent that there should be an edison wax model beside her...

i like this photo... the andy taking the andy!

featuring the 2 birthday boys of 20 april...

the world famous 男高音...

he looks damn friendly... so cute!

i dunno what is he trying to do.. but thats picasso!

identify the communist man...

and of cuz, the great man himself who just got himself awarded some great prize from all the way in US...

trust me.. even the figurine itself elicit some great 'power'... i feel intimidated by the wax figure!

and the smartest inventor of the last century...

and the boy who made it to the movies recently! i want to watch!!!!

omg! the handsome-est asian man! charismatic and handsome! even his wax figure is so handsome! omg! my 偶像！

and the one from the western world...

twins... strangely, he is only damn famous in hk.... why is he not as famous elsewhere? wat a waste...

king of POP!

we were done with the museum after a long long time. it was quite big, with plenty of wax figures inside. 3 storeys or more i think... nice!

time to go up to the gallery of the peak to view the most breath-taking night view of hk. omg! i almost didnt want to leave the place if not because i was feeling super tired...

photos really dont do justice to the scenery... have to be there yourself to experience the greatness of the night!

took the topless bus back to central... wow! another cool experience!

im really loving the place on day 1!!!! walked super alot, see alot too! great place, great experience!