Hong Kong Trip Dec 2007

Hong Kong Trip - Dec 24-26

Upon arriving in Hong Kong, it was around 7am-ish...I was totally wiped out from the 10 hour plus flight and was knocked out by the time the bus took us to our hotel.

The view from the Regal Kowloon, where we stayed.
They really should clean the windows sometime soon

After 20 mins to freshen up, it was time to hit the shopping malls. And shop we did. The sales people were like: "You mean you just flew in??? and now you're shopping?"

Heck, we only had 3 days in HK, I was intent on buying everything in sight :P
After being deprived of liberal spending for a year in Auckland, this was indeed
RETAIL THERAPY

When we FINALLY emerged from the shops, it was night and dark:


The billboards in Hong Kong City


Christmas lights and Decorations at The Peninsula

Stopping for a night time pic in the streets of HK

As it was CHRISTMAS EVE, there was obviously the mandatory countdown to CHRISTMAS. Cool, if you like crowds, but coming from Auckland, where big crowds are a rarity, it was nerve wracking O.o

Look at the amount of people behind!!!


The next day, we made our way up to The Peak

More Christmas decorations (snow globes were real cute)

The view from The Peak

I love how the skyline is made up by mostly tall buildings and everything being clustered together, definitely a change from what I'm used to and similar to what I grew up with, i.e. KL

What can I say? Will always be a KL girl at heart...

Posing with my sis

Was really funny, because, whilst we took this pic, this guy was standing there advertising his photography skills, he insisted that everyone should have a pic taken professionally.

LOL his ultimate selling phrase:

1. "I take picture, you no like, never mind, no need pay"
2. (whilst waiting to take the picture) "ex-a-cuse me, sir, fi-a-ve minutes" *he was attempting to shoo away a tourist who obliviously ignored him and continued shooting pics of the view*
3. (whilst taking the picture) *singing voice* "see my lens, oh, see my lens (high pitched voice)"

We did cave in and spent HK$100 on a photo... lol a FAMILY POTRAIT as my sis puts it...
AND you could even photoshop it so the background was of the city at night and only for an additional HK$50! (we didn't do that, heck I realised that I could have just stood at the studio and still have the same pic of us at the Peak...)

ANYWAYS...

ON TO THE WAX MUSEUM :p
ALOT, ALOT of cam-whoring with wax figures...

Leon Lai

"and when I'm president..."

This is probably the closest I will ever get to Jay in this lifetime, sadly enough...

"Her ROYAL Highness"

Nelson Mandela

Mahatma Gandhi :O

cool potrait

Winter Sonata dude...*cant seem to rotate the photo* but he's def real, he looks sooo real :P

Playing some golf with Tiger Woods

Hanging out with the Jolie-Pitts... lol I felt so short, surprised that the museum would have jolie and pitt AND put them together... wow... now that's keeping up with the news!

Now.... I REALLY felt short... no no.. wait, I mean FUN SIZED...

After mucking around the museum, we got really hungry, soo...

High tea at Haagen Daz, the ice cream was sooo good, eventhough we had to line up and wait for an hour

FINALLY,

a ferry ride, it cost like less than NZ$2!!!! AND it was 'first class' too... now that's public transport! Freaking ferry in NZ costs $7 ONE WAY...

I almost FORGOT

God Forbid that I was too wrapped up in my work. I totally and utterly forgot that Chinese New Year was just like, get this, 2 DAYS away. Yes. not months or weeks, but DAYS. I cannot believe it.

Now, this is the first year ever that I totally was not prepared for Chinese New Year. I was just all, yay, Waitangi Day, which is, just about, THE most important day in NZ history. EVERYTHING revolves around it. Well, I think it's the 2nd most revolved around thing, after RUGBY... Which doesn't say alot. But still. My point is: PUBLIC HOLIDAY, duh.

Now, on to the greater, better news, Waitangi Day is on the 6th... yes, Chinese New Year starts on the 7th :O I totally neglected to acknowledge this fact >< I know now and I am still dazed. I can't believe it came so fast. I am so not prepared. I am so not ready for a new year... WTH...

oK. so I got a bit.. ok ALOT immersed in my new venture, which I am still freaking out over. Deadline is looming ><... ok, stop. breathe. Focus.

Chinese New Year is so important. It's tradition. It's ingrained. It has always been a BIG DEAL. and I mean BIG DEAL in our family. Thing is, this is also the FIRST EVER Chinese New Year where both my paternal grandparents will not be around to celebrate it with us. Because they are no longer here. I can't deal with that. Maybe that's why I totally blocked out the fact that this festival was coming. When they died, I guess the part of me that associated with family reunions and celebrations just died too. Because, the inclination to celebrate this year, is well, zero. Because now to me, it just seems like another year. One more year of our lives. Nothing new there. Years come and go all the time. Depressing much? Truth is, my grandparents seemed to hold the family together. All 15 cousins, and Aunts and uncles. now that the constant is gone, where is our common ground? We all took it too much for granted. It's safe to say that there will be no reunion dinner this time around.

I suppose that is how life is like, most of the time. We take it for granted, the people, the years, the whole 'assuming that every year, it'll be the same', taking comfort in routine, then suddenly, when something happens to throw it out of sync, we just can't deal. And then it truly becomes nothing more, because we took it too much for granted, up until the point of indifference. And it never again becomes truly important enough to go back to find it. We have, well and truly lost it.

Hiding Part II

So I said that I liked hiding, then when I'm done hiding and I come out and see what has happened whilst I was hiding, I feel such a sense of regret and remorse. Why? Because I could have been there. I could have been part of what was happening. If only I didn't choose to avoid and hide. I would have been in that picture. I would have spent time with that person. It was always that thing I just missed. That 'I so should have been there' moment.

It's more of a 'I knew I should have met up with them when I was in that country' kind of remorse. I guess I'm still not used to the whole globe trotting thing and bumping into friends randomly, (which I did :D) I guess I am still a firm believer in serendipity, and in some respects, fate. If we were all meant to meet up at some point, we would have. I suppose now, I will learn to plan better.

I guess it's a tradeoff at some point, either I spend time with my family OR my friends. But I guess I would like to try something new now. This has to be one of my resolutions for 2008.

Having said that, I hope my next trip, I get to meet up with all of my friends, finally do something crazy for New Year's, take more crazy, random photos. And create even more memories :D