At Nightfall

At nightfall, you will be presented with a view that had became synonymous with the city of Hong Kong herself, the night skyline of Hong Kong island from Arena of the Stars. The stretch of iconic buildings, including the Bank of China Tower, HSBC Building, International Financial Centre, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, lined up the north shore of Hong Kong island. Every night, theses buildings including numerous rest on the same shore and on the opposite shore of Tsim Sha Tsui, participate in the Symphony of Lights, the biggest permanent light and musical display.

This must be their way of saying, "See you soon, Hong Kong awaits with an open heart!"

p/s : Click on the link for full screen HD.
Beware and proceed with care, those with bandwidth limitations ^.^


Link to Uploaded Video (HD).
Link to Uploaded Video.

Click here to get the still panorama instead.

Sin City: Macau

The day trip to Macau was a transit nightmare. First was the MTR. There were three interchange stations, which brought us on 4 different lines on the MTR. The trip took nearly 1 hour to reach the ferry terminal in Sheung Wan. Boarding the speed jet/ catamaran took us half an hour including border checks, while the trip on water took us another one hour. Arrival and border checks took another one hour. Conclusion is, if you're not prepared to do 6 hours of return journey travelling, get a hotel in Macau and spend the night there.

Our first stop was the Venetian Macao Resort-Hotel. If you look on the world map you can see how small Macau is, consisting of its peninsular and an island. However, this small SAR (Special administrative region of China) does pack a punch, with 16 casinos located throughout!

The Venetian refers to the amazing shopping complex which is modeled referring to Venetian architecture, complete with canals and gondolas between the shops. Mind you, this whole structure is housed inside this complex. The so-called sky that is seen in the photo is actually the ceiling of the complex.

A walk of Tai Ma Lou (Main Street) in the city centre reminded us of the streets in European cities, complete with cobblestoned road. The street leading to the Ruins of St Paul was lined up with shops similar to this one shown, selling cookies, bakkwa (sweet dried meat) and pastries as souvenirs.

Our Wonderful Hosts

We had wonderful hosts while we were in Hong Kong. Most of our problems, queries and quests for HK delicacies/ gifts were answered by them during our short stay there. She's none other than my cousin who was married to a great guy in Hong Kong.

Her husband, Dhillon, more affectionately known as Ah Don to the rest of the gang. Lots of bows and arrows in his house, so don't step on his tail, else... *gulp

Due to work reasons, I had not met them for a really long time. It's really nice to see them again and that we spent such great time catching up. Thanks for everything during our trip!

Hong Kong City

There were some features that I kept seeing in many locations throughout the city. Among those, old flats/shop flats with the window type air conditioning units protruding from almost every unit.

Modern and traditional buildings exist side by side.

The red cabs that we are familiar of from dramas and movies from Hong Kong were among the most seen automobiles on the road. Signboards with neon lightings extending out to the center of the roads as well were seen in abundance. Looking at these few characteristics, coupled with the modern flats that contrasted with the older shop houses, one can make an educated guess that this was shot in Hong Kong.

The crowds here could seriously turn off your mood for a leisurely walk in the city or the shopping complexes.

Hong Kong is a very hilly place, with mountains and skyscrapers being seen side by side throughout the island and the mainland.

The Golden Mickey Awards (Updated)

Link to YouTube Video used.Use arrow keys for volume control.

There are many performances in Disneyland, however due to the intermittent drizzles, we missed out some of them. One not to be missed, regardless of the weather condition, is the Golden Mickey performance. (Anyway, it was held indoor, just need to brace the elements to get to the venue entrance^.^ )It was themed as an award show. Many of our favourite characters made an appearance in this musical award show.

I find Stitch not being in proportion and not as mischievous as in the cartoon. Notice the small head and the big feet? Now he looked like just an alien, not the 'ohana Stitch that we came to love. Maybe if they were to make him in scale, the head might be too big for the person behind the costume?

Woody from Toy Story, almost as if he just jumped out from the TV screen and onto the stage!

The various songs performed were Disney classics, each bringing back memories of the past, back when we first saw them.

The host for the show did a wonderful job with her singing and her dancing. She made a few appearances with different clothings; beach wear in the song 'Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride' and this dress at the 'award presentation'.

See if you can name the character line up prior to the finale of the show!

Nothing better to end our visit to the magical kingdom, than a spectacular display of fireworks with Sleeping Beauty Castle in the foreground! The trip to Disneyland was one not to be missed, for those who would like to rekindle your inner child, and to think back of the times, when you really believed in fairies, happily-ever-after and a talking mouse.

Magical World of Disney

Hop on to Disneyland MTR with its one-of-a-kind coaches, complete with TriCircle Mickey windows, comfortable couches and various Disney themed display figures, and within minutes, you hear over the announcement system, "You are leaving the modern metropolitan of Hong Kong and are now entering the magical world of Disney!"





Disneyland was split into four parts, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland and Main Street. One ticket is all you need for all the attraction across the four distinctly themed parts of the park.

I thought that once you grew older, the magic would fade off. Little did I knew how untrue it was. Knowing well that there was another person behind the costume didn't stop us from beaming from ear to ear. This world famous mouse really knew how to make a curve on our faces. The familiar face of Mickey, is something that you can't resist but smile ^.^

Sleeping beauty castle is in the middle of the park, where the four worlds meet, a fitting entrance to Fantasyland. It looked like it was painted out from a book. The colours, designs were just all too familiar to the Disney castles that we came to love in our childhood.

Ocean Park, as seen in TVB dramas...

Trip to Hong Kong is not complete without visiting the ever famous park, always mentioned by kids in TVB dramas.

Ocean Park is separated into two parts, the Headlands and the Lowlands, connected via cable car. Lowlands rides are mostly kiddie attractions, while Headlands attractions are those which gets your adrenaline pumping and your guts churning. We spent one whole day in Ocean Park. Getting there was simple, just get out of Central MTR (Zhong Wan) and take a shuttle bus and it will bring you to the entrance, no sweat.

Flying Dragon, this was the first triple loop roller coaster that I took. The ride was exhilarating, especially when you reached the top of the loop, white knuckles on the handle, feet pressing hard against the front of the carriage, eyes wide open! We went on for a second time, but the fun worn off slightly since there were no more surprises.

The Abyss might be the inspiration to Genting Highland's Space Shot. The difference was that Abyss slowly brings you to the top, and drops you down and bounces a few rounds before settling down at the bottom. I did not try this ride though, still couldn't get over the fear of such rides...

Dolphins which were resident to the park perform to cheers of crowds in the Ocean theater. There were a total of three dolphins and one sea lion in the performance. Adults and children were equally captivated by the performance.

Sea Jelly Spectacular is a must visit. It's an aquarium dedicated to nothing but jelly fishes. The way they moved gently, floating idly in the water, hid well the fact that some were extremely poisonous and deadly.
Such coincidence; that the jelly fish on the top resembled 3 circles arranged in such a way, giving hint to the next attraction that we went to the next day.

PVD

Post Vacation Depression is kicking in !!!

Imagine 2 days of relaxing, rejuvenating weekend and on Monday when you get back to work, you get Monday blues. Multiply it by a factor of nearly 10, and that's what I am experiencing now...

First the shock from the amount of unanswered mails and jobs that need urgent attention...

Then comes homesick, thinking of family members, relatives, friends...

Endless thinking of the wonderful events that happened during the holidays, and to make matters worse, I do not know when is my next holidays...

I need the weekends to come fast, for a nice rest and to regain my footing, else...

Emoticons from http://blog.roodo.com/onion_club

Sneak Preview

Guess where...



All I need now is time to organize the photos and get a footing on work after this long break...