The Way, The Art & The Beauty…

Verdict: Indeed it had been a most exciting, humorous, wonderous and fabulous holiday!

From a disastrous start to 2007, this trip, 9 months in the making, was THE key point of change in my life! Tiring it was, but most definitely worth every damn cent, ringgit, & Hong Kong dollars spent! Without further ado, Welcome to Jee Onn’s guide to a 5D/4N trip to Hong Kong & Macau!!!

Items: Cash (Hong Kong dollars & some Ringgit for food mainly). For all other items, please ensure you have sufficient credit on your credit card. Will come in handy as you will swipe aplenty!

Let us begin…

9 months ago, our colleague approached us to ask if we were interested in going for a holiday 9 months later to Hong Kong & Macau. As it involved a commitment and cash in advanced, we planned, thought and finally agreed! Man was it a bargain, (return flight + accomodation for 4 nights = approx RM1000 per person only). So we planned, and just waited patiently. Finally, 24th of Januaryt 2007, we took off. Took the Skybus from KL Sentral to LCCT. As usual, the crowd at the LCCT was great, waited quite a long time at the terminal gate, whilst having a bunch of tourists from mainland China who uttered words loudly, words even more alienated to myself! haha! As Air Asia is a budget airline, it would cost too much to fly into Hong Kong, therefore, we could fly as far as Macau only, WITH the 29 of these mainland tourists on the same flight…*cries*…They kept talking from the check-in counter all the way till we reached Macau as if it is re-living a scene from ‘Old Town PJ Wet Market’! wtf!

Anyway, we departed at about 3.45pm, half hour delay. flight took bout 3 & a half hours! We were lucky enough to have a beautiful sunset scenery view from the window of the Airbus.

A few hours later we began to decsent into Macau International Airport, with the view of Casino’s lighted up in view. As the plane came to a halt, the announcer said, "the temperature is now 14 degress celcius". I was like what?!?! Cause I have never experienced any weather colder than of ours in Camerons or Genting. So as I walked out of the plane, the wind hit me strong! I was like, "WAHLAU!!!" Walked into the terminal building and instantly out on my jacket! Customs was a breeze so we headed straight for a taxi to the Ferry terminal. Quickly bought the tickets and boarded the ‘First Ferry’ to Hong Kong, a ferry that can carry over 400 passengers. The trip would take an hour. Boy was it a tough hour to pass by! after half an hour, I started feeling a little uncomfortable. The ferry was hitting large waves due to the strong winds, I held on and held on and finally we reached Tsim Tsa Tsui ferry terminal. I was desperate for flat & stable land, one that would not move! sigh…what an experience. So, we got onto a taxi and headed for Mongkok, the most densed populated city in the world! We were going to a street called, "Jalan Kicap" or "Soy Street". I had and still have a hard time to pronounce it properly in Cantonese as when I say it, it literally means, "Soy Sauce Prostitute"!!!

T’was 10pm when we finally checked-in and I had to lie down for 5 minutes……..5 minutes later, I was all up and ready for food! So we strolled down Mongkok. With so many food stalls, one will find it hard to resist as everytime you pass a shop, your nose can strongly taste the aroma of the noodles, meat etc! We were looking for wanton mee. We found our shop, went in and sat down. It was cramped and small as most are in Hong Kong due to space constraints. So we ordered 4 small bowls of Wanton Noodles. It looked small and harmless but it was extremely filling! They had 4 large Wantons that were filled with pork and prawn! It was damn delicious!

We then proceeded to stroll around Mongkok, seeing how night life is over there. It’s like the night never ends. One more food was in my mind. That was the "Curry Fish Ball". We found a good stall as my friends are like experts of this country, they know best! One stick had 6 balls, costing HK6.00. A fantastic savoury especially in winter when it was so cold! The perfect food to heat things up though my dear had a little problem handling the spice! hehehe. As we walked more, we found none other than McDonald’s. Only diff is they have what I term the "Babi Burger"! We took a look inside and they even have a McCafe! This is like a Coffee Bean for McDonald’s, serving Lattes, Long Blacks etc.

25th January - Day 2

This was going to be a long day as we would be going to Disneyland Hong Kong!!!
Before that, of course we had to have breakfast. Went to a normal coffee shop and ordered a set. I have to say, Hong Kong serves FANTASTIC COFFEE!!! I ordered my favourite, "Chai Feh" or "Kopi O Kosong". Absolutely strong, aromatic, bold and delicious!!!

There was a special designed MTR train that went only to Disneyland itself, the theme for this train was a good one! It even had statues of the famous characters in the train as well.

Though it is the smallest Disneyland in the world, one whole day just wasn’t enough for us! We only got to ride each ride once only. Anyway, the park was divided into 4: Main Street USA, Adventure Land, Fantasy Land & Tomorrow Land. It was a thrilling experience for my very first Disneyland!!! The entrance itself was good enough to lure anyone in!

These guys were making great music with Rubbish! haha…

I stopped a while to take a pee, too much coffee…

They had a variety of statues and castles to parades, stage shows and 3D performances, it certainly lives up to its name!

They even had magnificent nature, extremely Beautiful crystal & porcelain figures & the MUST SEE Fireworks at 7pm!

This is my personal favourite gift I bought from Disneyland:

To tell the story would be too long, therefore I can only say one thing, experience it yourself and you WILL know how great it will be…

At night we walked down the aisle of the Avenue of Stars, and my two favourite were Jet-Li’s start and a Bronze statue of the Legendary "Little Dragon" Bruce Lee.

26th January - Day 3

The 3rd Day was what I call the day of the mountains & peaks. Our first agenda was to take a train to Lantau Island, to the last station where we got off and onto the Ngong Ping Skyrail, the longest Cable Car in Asia if I’m not mistakened! It connects the station that goes over the ocean between 2 islands, and through the top of a few mountains as we go higher and higher and right up to the top of Nong Ping Village. There even is a track for Mountain Climbing enthusiasts to take the very challenging task of climbing up instead. Believe it or not, for Feng Shui fanatics, some even buried their ancestors on the top of the mountains as we saw while going up in the cable car. Though it is a wonder how they got it up there, it was just marvelous.

So, the next task was to have the famous vegetarian lunch at the Po Lin Monastery at the foot of the world’s largest Buddha.

The view from the bottom of the steps that are more than our very own Batu Caves. It has over 300 steps to climb. So what I did was climb, then rest and shoot some pics, then continue, till we reached the top! haha. The view from the top was simply majestic! Inside the Buddha is a museum AND a resting place for the loved ones who were cremated, especially those into Feng Shui as this was the Best place for it. And on the Best part of this location laid the remains of the late Anita Mui and flowers + msgs from her adoring fans. We had a monute of silence then as she was indeed a GREAT actor!

We had not much choice but to hug each other tightly to capture this picture as the temperature up there was at 9 degress celcius!!!

Right after descending, we went straight to the last spot, the Wisdom Path…
Along the way there were Tea Trees planted that gave us an aroma of tea itself as we passed that particular track. We then reached the Wisdom Path after a 15 minute walk. This place was the 2nd highest peak in Hong Kong! The wooden huge sticks have words of wisdom in it, hence the name, "Wisdom Path". A lovely place, even lovelier for those into cameras, a haven to snap here, there & everywhere.

It was getting late then, had to rush back before the last cable car descends.
It was THAT COLD!!!

Made it naturally, and headed back to Hong Kong Island for our final trip for the day, another peak to reach, one that we both missed dearly when we first came to Hong Kong in 2005, it is none other than Victoria’s Peak.

Here’s a look at the bottom of the Peak Tram. This is one tram that had been operating since the 19th century!!! and is pulled by a single cable since! Magnificent.  It practically just goes up all the way…

Well, Victoria’s Peak is simply heaven for the romantic ones. It is quiet, windy, has an absolutely beautiful scenery of Hong Kong itself and you gotta be there to feel it all riding up that high feeling!!! One thing though, the temperature was about 7 degress!

We couldn’t wait till we got down hill, so we had dinner up there, at McDonald’s! At alst, I could get myself the taste of "Babi Burger"!!! It was the "Grilled Curry Pork Burger" that came with Wedges (a lot of them) and a soft drink. However, I opted to change my soft drink to a hot one! Tak tahan liao!!! The burger was just fabulous! My first McD’s pork burger!!!

Well, I believe the 4 of us were very happy with our achievement for the day. How many would be able to be at 2 mountains in the same day! Yeah man!!!

27th January - 4th Day

(to be continued, 2.30am already…sleepy…)

From start till end,
No frills, no grills,
Time used as we wish,
Ensuring we have all of it including the Portugese fish,
Not even the intense movements my stomach it occured,
During the Ferry trip to & fro HK & Macau I so nearly blurtted,
Nevertheless, a picture is worth a thousand words they say,
My camera’s memory ran out with 626 pictures taken in all ways,
No regret, No fret,
Money used like a waterfall we met,
More so did I swap my credit card,
One too many times I am afraid it could be barred,
I am so tired, I slept throughout the day after returning,
So glad I took leave if not I will be fainting,
All fresh and geared up,
For a new year ahead, "What’s Up!!!"

I am older by a year…a quarter of a century to be exact! years ago, from age 15, right up till after passing the golden age of 21 till 23, i resented every year somewhat when it came to my burfday. It was nice having good wishes etc from my family, relatives and friends, but something was missing, a missing link in my life at that time. 8 years down the road since 1997, and that link was filled, the puzzle complete, and real life began…

There were no more turning back since…and happy AND Prosperous i have become! haha. I celebrated by birthday with my darling and my parents. my bro was in australia, left earlier in the month. We had a buffet, at the Shogun restaurant at 1 Utama. An excellent and increased variety of choices were displayed for all our hungry stomachs, and more for those lining up in a never-ending queue outside.

The interesting part that caught my eyes was the moment Persis and I were waiting for my parents outside the entrance of Shogun and they have not opened the doors yet. I work for a Japanese company, this restaurant is a Japanese restaurant. Of all things I do not want to see on my birthday, I saw it, the waiters, chefs and other staff were lining up at the entrance for a BRIEFING!!! WTF!!! I did see the same thing  a few weeks ago also at 1 Utama when i passed by the  OSIM shop, they were in a circle. anyway, the thing is, i do not favour this thing as after going through almost 2 years of it, more than 80% is crap! a waste of my time and others too. NO WONDER we stay back late!!! khai wan siao!

So, that’s number 1. number 2 happened right after. My parents arrived, and they opened the doors and when we went in, they bowed and welcomed us, yet another very familiar sight that I am practicing at work! Y can’t I have my birthday without work in the way, not even the slightest one would I want to see, hear or feel! But unfortunately, it gets worse…(somewhere later in this blog)

Well, the food was great! a new addition to the Teppanyaki was Ostrich meat! expensive and tastes good. Lunch was over, and felt very full after that. It was another 2 hours till our movie would start so we just walked around, walk off lunch, after some walking, tired we become, naturally. So thristy as well. Next stop, San Fran of course! we had juice, read the papers, and Mr Paul Moss, the mat-salleh judge of Malaysian Idol came, ordered his cappucino and sandwhich and sat next to our table, indulging himself to the intense aroma of the coffee with his eyes stuck to his book. I have seen him many times at 1 Utama. guess its his fav. mall.

Movie up next, at GSC. There were no comedies so we picked a movie entitled, "Pathfinder". Seemed interesting, though Bernice had said it was kinda violent. NOW, have you ever seen a movie, where from the start till the end, it is just Killing, Killing & Killing??? If you do favour it, I strongly recommend the "Pathfinder"! My goodness, the amount of killing just continues, and continues, and goes on and on and on and ………………………………….on and on and on…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… "and they lived happily ever after" -=The End=-

Persis kept hiding her face in my arms, HAHA!!! sorry dear that you had to go through this violence.

Anyway, sent her home after that, had a chat with her and she enlightened me on the final ‘unfortunate’ thing that I wouldn’t want to hear on my birthday. Yet, I needed to know, so dear, not your fault okie? haha. Guess what, after such a long time, and things were going fine, work was good etc, she was approached once again. that hit me, cause I wondered what could go wrong now? sounded so weird. Then she spilled the beans.

There were 3 main issues:
Number 1 - no sitting together during morning briefing.
Number 2 - during conferences, if possible, do not sit together even during lunch.
Number 3 - at the recent Annual Dinner, during the Kumon Idol finale, I was singing, she came up and gave me a flower, and we shouldn’t have held hands, as it was not appropriate.

MOTHER FUC***!!!!!!!! I wasn’t pissed actually, I laughed instead! reason is because this issues are just plain CRAP! so if by adhering to the "UNwritten rules" of the company, we would both perofrm our jobs together? we would benefit the customers and clients better? we would be happier? and the answer is a clear NO! I thought this issue was over. And from this chat with Persis, we finally realised what was affecting our jobs, and it is not because of too much side work, rather the main reason was all this NONSENSE! this unnecessary bullshit that she gets and i come to know of after that as i was never informed. So, come Monday that is tomorrow, I think I will have a little chat with my superior. I said it before, I am a Rebel, therefore, with more crap i become more rebelious! After all, what is the nature of our jobs? for whom do we do our jobs for? this approach is clearly bullshit and an unnecessary stress to ALL the couples in my company! Continue this and they will lose a lot of good, capable and dedicated staff!!! "search your feelings, you know it to be true…"

So, with that, I gladly say that i had a wonderful birthday, juts a simple relaxing day that I spent with my loved one, and that is all I want, that is the most important, and that is simply fabulous! Thank you my dear for a lovely day!!!