…………is finally here!! I spent three good years struggling with this part time master course and I have had enough!~~  :P Felt so relieved right now and at the same time very contented to accomplish my thesis! YAY!

My hard work……

 Spine of my thesis cover

I am really glad it’s finally over! Cross my fingers and wait for graduation day to come now! *hehe

 

I have  finally completed my thesis. Woooooohooo!! What a relief!!  :D Been procrastinating on the minor corrections since June! For the past few months, I was really tied up with work,  and been busy preparing for my big day! Hence, i  seldom blog  Well, putting that aside, I would like to wish everyone Happy 2010! May this new year brings new hopes and wonderful time to you and your love ones!

Yeah, this shows how long I have not been blogging. Crap, I keyed in so many times with different passwords, only managed to log in after the 4th time. *tsk tsk tsk*. New post template looks so odd to me, basically everything….and the last time I blogged was like what? 7 months ago!! Oh my…my blog is going into semi-retirement mode, wake up wake up!!

Lately, lots of people commented that I will not be able to finish writing about my HK trip this year..(looking at how often i update my blog).  >___________< .  HMPF! Well,  it just depends how many photos and words I wanted to put in..I can simply taruh and finish them in one day k! But, I prefer not….

Ok, let’s get back to the trip……after visiting the Golden Bauhinia Square, we took a cab to The Victoria Peak. Taking taxi in Hong Kong is reliable  and cheap. The tram ticket cost us HKD33 for return trip each.

Waiting at the Peak Tram Entrance….

And the queue was so long………..

The whole journey to the top of  The Peak was rather short….but we managed to enjoy some sight seeing. There were sooo many expensive condo and bungalows sitting on the hills and these make me wonder, why are the rich people getting richer, while poor people remain poor?

Upon reaching, there were many shops and restaurants welcoming us. And there was a huge arcade centre inside the Peak tower!!

We made our move to Madame Tussaud, as it was only 3pm. We planned to enter the Sky Terrace around 5 o’clk  so that we can enjoy the sunset view.

Outside of the Peak Tower. Photo taken from the escalator…

Madame Tussauds Hong Kong is part of the renowned chain of wax museums founded by Marie Tussaud of France. Been to one in London, but I think the Madame Tussauds  in HK will have some interesting Asian wax figures. The wax figures are featured in a range of themed settings such as Hong Kong Glamour, Music Icons, Historical and National Heroes, The Champions and World Premiere….

Here, i will put some of my favourite wax figures…

Consolation prize went to…Leo Ku!!!

Second Runner up went to Bond, James Bond. Pierce Brosnan and Dory…

First Runner up was Leon Lai ….Tian Mi Mi…Ni Siao De Tian Mi Mi….

Haha, and the real winner was, the hot Andy Lau from Infernal Affairs!

YES, I am biased! >__< . All winners are good looking guys, leng chai only.

To be fair, here are some female wax figures…

Twins…no more…

Well, I fancy Miriam Yeung too!

Little did we know that it was getting hazy outside while we were happily snapping photos inside the wax musuem. We decided not to enter the Sky Terrace in the end due to the poor weather. *sob* *s0b*

Dory posing outside the Peak Tower

Since we did not stay at the Peak for dinner, we left around six and headed to Tsim Sha Tsui immediately. WE NEED FOOD!! Seriously, my thighs and calves were aching badly….hmmmm, and it was only the second day…*gasp*. More walking in the next few days!!

We had a simple dinner at a random mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. We were sooooo  exhausted until we lost our appetite. Browsing the food court, dim sum was the immediate choice.

Scallops with pork dim sum…yum yum

The standard siew mai. It was good! We did not try the “har kau” though

Big portion of pork ribs, “pai kuat”

Fu Juk Tong Kau…something special and the soup was very sweet…

We did not eat much, as we planned to have desserts at  Hui Lau Shan! Not to miss!!

The menu…

Da Dah!!. And this is the famous “Yeung Chi Kam Lou” dessert! It was  served with super sweet mango, sago and pamelo!! Love it to bits! But bear in mind, this cost HKD 28!!

Next, we headed to the Avenue of Stars for the Symphony of Lights show. Remember the FOC show that I mentioned earlier? kakakakka, well, this laser light show never fail to gather large crowd every night at 8pm…

hehe…Dory swimming and gliding here and there…*waiting* Waiting*….*Waiiiiittttinggggg*

Show starting!!

I managed to capture this photo without a tripod ler…not bad right?

Happy 2009 everyone!! Ermm, well, it’s still 2009 ma!! Who cares!

Stay tuned for Day 3 k!!

Well, what were you thinking? kekekeke….This is my new phone!! Taa..da!!!

My new baby!! *muax muax muax*  Nice? Nice? Say nice la! This model is Nokia 5800 Xpress Music and I got myself a black tube, which is the latest colour. There were red and blue tubes as well. After considering weeks , i decided to get a new phone, ahem,to boost the economy ma.  My old phone, motorola T680 had been very loyal for these 5 years, and served me pretty well. It was a pretty good phone, back then….with 64k colour TFT, triband, MMS, support MPEG4, MP3, USB1.1, VGA camera…and touch screen. But since I lost my stylus, I had been suffering whenever I need to text sms to my friends…Another major reason was because the phone’s response was extremely slow! Imagine someone is calling me, and I quickly pressed the answer key, but it failed to respond in time…and the ring tone keeps ringing and ringing…*super frustrated*.

My dear old phone…..without the stylus

First of all, I was aiming N96/N95 because of their 5Megapixel camera, excellent video recording at 30fps and GPS…but they are too pricey (rm1899). C510 Sony ericsson (rm999) came second, with special smile shutter feature and a modest 3.2Megapixelscamera. I never consider the Xpress music series at all, until Fernando pointed out the features…they are exactly what I want!!! *excited* 1) GPS (check), 2) 3.2 Megapixel camera and video recording at 30fps (check), 3) 3G  (check), 4) WIFI (Check), 5) Touch screen (BONUS!!) 6) Reasonable price range…..what can I ask for more? I managed to check out a real unit from Soo Sean (thanks alot!!) and I was pretty satisfied with the phone….but was slightly disappointed by the camera quality though….well, nothing is perfect i guess. SS gave me valuable advices on what to take note when purchasing this phone…and even offer me some  software if I am really buy this model.

Price varies with locations. QB quotes me rm1399, gila. Sunshine, rm1300 but they only have red and blue, worst still, I went there during friday afternoon and they have no more stock! I was told to wait until 7pm! WHAT?!! Selling like hot cakes, ….well, I am not surprised as this model was voted to be #1 favourite model by mobile88.  Next, I headed to BJC and they quoted me rm1330….hmmm, luckily SS told me earlier that she managed to reduce to rm1280. 

And here they are, Motorola vs Nokia!! 

My new phone is far lighter, slimmer and a full screen QWERTY keyboard!  Love my new phone to bits!!!

Day2 was packed with activities and we managed to cover a lot of places! The weather was rather chilly, (around 16 C) and it was drizzling in the morning. In my previous post, I forgot to mention one crucial thing that one needs in Hong Kong. It’s the Octopus Card! The  Octopus card is a rechargeable  stored value smart card used for payment when taking the public transports or  the mass transit system. It can also be used for payment at convenience stores, restaurants, supermarkets, and etc.etc..etc.. And thanks to redsponge! She passed two Octopus cards to me and Fernando before we departed and saved us the hassle.

With that, we took  MRT from Prince Edward Station to Tsim Sha Tsui Station.  Once we came out from the station, (well, you can’t expect Dory to remember the exact exit gate..), we spotted this Char Chan Teng (Chinese tea restaurant),  “Tsui Wah” Restaurant and this is where we had our first breakfast in HK.  For those who are not aware, Tsui Wah restaurants operate in chains and they are one of the favourite local eat houses in Hong Kong.

Dory, posing  in front of Tsui Wah Restaurant

We ordered and shared a cup of Hong Kong style milk tea (Lai Char) just for the sake of trying. You see, both of us do not fancy coffee……but well, the Lai Char  turned out to be pretty good though. Very smooth and the sweetness was just right.

I ordered the classic pineapple bun (Poh Loh pau) but it was rather disappointing. The crispy topping of the Poh Lou pau was soft as they reheated it before they served to the customers. >__<

As for Fernando, he made the right choice by  ordering the pork bun (Zhu Par Pau). *slurp* The pork was soooooo juicy and tender…and it blended very well with the lettuce and the CRUSTY bun. Yum!

After the hearty breakfast, we walked towards Victoria Harbour Waterfront and The Avenue of Stars (星光大道),!

To pay tribute to outstanding professionals of Hong Kong’s film industry and  to promote tourism industry, the Avenue of Stars is modelled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,  located along the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade. This is a very famous tourist attraction and everynight, people will gather here at 8pm to watch the “Symphony of Lights” (laser light show).  It’s FOC! kakakakka, cheapo me.

The Avenue of  Stars

Martial artist and movie star Bruce Lee’s sculpture

Posing with hand prints and autograph of actor, Andy Lau. *Awwwwwww* So close yet so far….

Another view of the Avenue of Stars

The stunning panoramic view across Victoria Harbour

There are a number of attractions around this area, including the Museum of Art, Space Museum, Cultural Centre and the Clock Tower. We skipped the Museum of Art and the Cultural Centre since we were not interested… and luck was not with us the other day as the Space Museum was CLOSED! Or maybe I did not do proper research. It closes every Tuesday (Except Public Holiday) .  Darn! What happened to the Clock Tower then? The area was closed, seemed to be in the midst of constructing something. So,  NO PHOTOS! >_____________<

Next, lunch time!!!! To avoid large crowd of people during lunch hours, we arrived to the famous Yung Kee restaurant around 11-ish and there were still many tables available.

Yung Kee Restaurant and their  famous roast goose hanging by the window, at Wellington Street in Central

We quickly grabbed a table, had our seats and browsed through the menu. And these were what we ordered. Can’t expect much since there were only two of us.

The steamy Kai Lan. Simple and nice.

The  Roast Goose. *drools*  The juicy flesh and the crispy skin was simply superb! It was very tasty… but I have to admit that the drum stick was slightly too fat and oily. “Sinful” food and this 1/4 goose costed us HKD 140!! It was freaking expensive!!

The springy noodles,  (Sang min) to go with the goose.  It was more like “wan ton mee” but slightly better. They had this  QQ texture and definitely beats those from Dragon-i.

Next, we took a stroll around the central business district area.

A place not to miss ,  Lan Kwai Fong @ D’Aguilar Street

Lan Kwai Fong is perhaps Hong Kong’s well known area for a night out. There are so many bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants along this an L-shaped, cobble-stoned lane.

Some Christmas Decorations on the tree.

My next mission was to hunt for the MOST DELICIOUS egg tart in Hong Kong!!Even the last British Governor of HK,  Chris Patten  loves these egg tarts from Tai Cheong Bakery@Lyndhurst Terrace, Central.

And I FOUND!!  Yeah!!

p/s : To those non chinese educated out there,  one must recognize the chinese words 泰昌 in order to locate this bakery shop

The lovely egg tarts….

We also bought a piece of wife’s biscuit (Lou Poh Bang) to try….erm, well, the egg tarts were definitely the real winner.

The photo below might be a bit deceiving. The egg tart looked plain, typical and just like any ordinary egg tart…so, how could it be so delicious? YES, it was just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo delicious and trust me!!

The egg custard was extremely smooth and it melted immediately in the mouth!! OMG! I MISSED those egg tarts!!

We even went back to Tai Cheong bakery AGAIN, just the day before we left HK, just to savour the egg tarts!! Crazy!!! So, remember to try this lovely egg tart if you are in HK!!

On our way to the MRT station,  I spotted the Queen’s Road Central and captured this photo. If I am not mistaken, the name of this road is featured in a famous canto song back in the 90′s.

Our next stop was Wan Chai, Central.

Hong Kong Convention Center, one of the major convention and exhibition venues in HK. Photo snapping only.

If I am not mistaken, this is the place where Tavia Yeung bite Tek Tek Tei’s arm in the Hong Kong Series “Heart of Greed ( 溏心風暴)” !!!

And to my surprise, there were people fishing here…..hmmmmmmmmmmm

And they really managed to catch fish…..more HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…

Golden Bauhinia Square (Just right next to the HK Convention Centre)

For the last picture, can someone please help to read and tell me what’s that for..:P

Next, I will cover Part 2 in the next post. It’s too lengthy to continue with…… The Peak, Madame Tussauds, dim sum dinner, Hui Lau Shan desserts, shopping at Esprit outlet and watching the Symphony of Lights performance……………..

The very last time I went to Hong Kong was way back ago, when I was in form 3. If I am not mistaken, it was around christmas and my mum decided to reward me and my sister a decent trip after my PMR, nice. . I vaguely remember about that trip…..somehow i remember eating very expensive “gui lin gou”, delicious wan ton mee and polo bun, metting a male HK artist (who acted as the monkey, “shu mm hong” in the HK series, can someone remind me his name? ) and I only spent 2 hours in ocean park! *grumbles* Blame it on tour packages! So for this time, I had clearly decided to visit the Oriental Pearl, Hong Kong on my own. Ahemmm…, of course ,not really by myself or alone..:P What I meant was, free and easy trip and forget about those tour packages! Well, this surely comes with a lot of hard work and planning.

Basically, I did most of my research online. Bahhh, one can find ANYTHING online nowadays! And I love google maps to bits! They are extremely clear and descriptive. You can just dump a restaurant name and Google map will help to locate it! Well, kind of true for all the venues I wanted to visit.
There are three major items that I need the most. And how I got started doing the planning…..
1) Hong Kong map (simplified version)
2) HK MRT system map
3) Google maps (Detailed version)
And one can never go wrong with that!!

Well, Hong Kong is made up of four parts: Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula, the New Territories and the Outlying Islands. For me, I was only interested to visit HK island, Kowloon Peninsula and Lantau Island. New Territories was a big NO NO, as I was very worried about bird flu and New Territories is not transport friendly….*woot* I was so excited back then, and I am still excited blogging about it now. And why not?? Hong Kong Island is the center of economy, politics, entertainment and shopping!!! Everything!! Some people might have very bad experience during their visits in HK, but not for my case. Hongkies turned out to be quite friendly and helpful. But I did encounter some rude macaunese…tsk tsk tsk..bad bad macaunese…

Go google yourself for a clearer one.

Google map example

We flew from Penang(8.10am) and reached LCCT around 9.00am. AND I BUFFERED my next flight to Macau at 1.30pm!!OMG! Luckily I brought PSP to ease the 4++ hours of waiting. It took us 3 hours and 45 minutes to reach Macau, and it was 5.15pm to be exact. Reaching the airport, there was a very funny incident happened. Amusing yet cannot disclosed. After getting our luggages, we took a taxi to Macau Ferry and purchased a one way ticket to Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry for MOP175. Not a cheap ride though. It was raining and I was having sea sickness and feeling nausea throughout the ride.

First Ferry ticket – to help reminding me the price ..kakakka

One good thing about the ride was, the seats were spacious!!

And finally, we reached our metropark hotel around 8+. Phew, we were exhausted! One day gone with true “travelling”. And lately, I just found out that AirAsia launched direct flight from Penang to Macau!!! $#%#^@#^ *grumbles* $%#%#$^#$%^ *grumbles*

Our hotel

We had a quick shower and stormed out for dinner directly. Extremely tired and hungry by then. Just right opposite our hotel, there was a stall selling wan ton mee. Not bother to take pictures of the shop as I was very hungry, but I did capture the wan ton. Wow, those big wan tons were blended with minced meat and fresh, succulent prawns!! *slurp* Give me a bowl now!!! Honestly, I think the noodles there were way better than those in Canton-i.

To end the day, we took a quick stroll around that area and I found some nicely lit decorations……

Though the night was still young, we headed back to our hotel to get a good rest.
End of Day 1

1) Completed my master’s modules. No more exams and assignments! Phew…and attended the work completion seminar in MMU, Cyberjaya..So looking forward to submit my thesis and claim $$$$$ from my company asap.

2) Been staying at the new apartment for a year now and I’m still enjoying every moment of it.

3) Purchased something really really expensive…….and still struggling ..:P

4) *smirk* Received an expensive gift from Fernando.

5) Abandoned my curls and cut my hair short. Pimples problem on and off through out 2008. Thank god it’s more stable now.

6) Work as per usual but due to the weakening economic environment, my company prudently manages its business and implemented workforce reduction, freezed the increment, and forced shutdown. Sigh…..such uncertain conditions….. However, good new is, I have new and fun lunchmates!

7) Took up qi gong classes as I found myself not as healthy as i thought. Great to found myself discovering “qi”

8) I have 3 nieces now and I love them very very much..qing qing, mun mun and tian tian! *hugs*

9) My very good friend just got married in Dec and I am still very happy for her.

10) Went to Hong Kong and Macau for vacation around NYE. Slurge alot, had lots of fun, ate a lot….and now it is high time to settle the credit card payment.

Farewell, 2008~

” Gong Xi Fatt Cai!! “. Wishing you and your family a Prosperous New Year. This year, I have three wonderful nieces celebrating the ox year together. They are very 10000xxxx adorable and cute! First, the eldest niece, Qing Qing, followed by the chubby Mun Mun and my sister’s daughter, Tian Tian! Wow, so many baby girls. They can form a group, say QMT!

Hey, I know the wishes come pretty late >__<, but I was away for a long vacation and just came back from Hong Kong yesterday. Been MIA for a while huh?

I celebrated my NYE at Disneyland, HK and the fireworks were awesome!!!!!!!  Will blog about it more in coming posts. But before that, I would like to blog about my good friend’s wedding, my work completion seminar at MMU (Yeah!!), and christmas celebrations! Oppps, I had been procastinating all these posts for so long…hehehehe

Ok, just to share a photo with you guys before I ciao!

Happy New Year, Everyone!