How quick Hong Kong goes by

Time isn’t the only thing that goes by quickly in Hong Kong. Money too. Im nearing my limit and have no idea as to how Im going to make it through two more weeks of Singapore. Food there is cheap but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to survive on the money I have left.

Anyway, right now we’re nearing the end of our time in Hong Kong and for Betty and Linda it sadly already has and right now they’re on their flight back home to Melbourne. If you two happen to be reading this, it means you had a safe flight and are back at home with your family. Hope you both had a good time with us and weren’t too traumatised by our antics lol. And thank you both for all the efforts you put in to make it a great trip and do all the planning on where to go and what to do. If it weren’t for what you did, we’d probably just be sitting around Pete’s place or in the hotel room surfing the net and not doing anything at all. Going to miss you both heaps while I go back for Round 3 of Singapore, which Im not complaining but got to admit I am missing home a lot now. Gabriel said for the whole time in Hong Kong I’ve looked sad and tired and kept on screaming at me “Janson wake up!!!” which I guess was true, though I just saying I was tired, which was also true. Didnt realise I looked that tired and sad, though didnt feel that sad. Just missed stuff from home, like my family, Elmo, the feel of my carpet on my socks, stumbling out through the pitch black hall way at 3 in the morning to throw stuff out, miss using my own computer with all of my songs and files with fast and stable internet, miss sleeping in my own bed with my mountain of blankets which make it so comfortably warm in winter and which I chuck off the bed when its super hot in summer, miss using my own shower and toilet. Miss just going into the fridge and just pulling whatever out and just eating it. I miss home.

Anyway, enough reminiscing about home. Onto all the stuff that we have done in Hong Kong, assuming I can remember properly. First day Pete, Gabriel and I arrived and we were greeted at the airport by Pete’s Aunties and Uncles who took us by bus from the airport, which I fell asleep during the ride so wasn’t able to absorb the amazing views. Luckily when we came down from the second storey from where we were sitting, I didnt fall asleep and roll down the stairs, as was what happened the last time I fell asleep on a double decker bus in Hong Kong.

After that, we took a taxi back to Pete’s apartment where we had to walk up a flight of stairs with all our luggage because the elevator to the 8^th floor was dead and had to take the other one to the seventh floor and walk the rest of the way. Gabriel fell asleep while Pete and I “borrowed” internet from wherever we could. Had to “borrow” internet as the internet router and modem were old as death and we had no idea if or how we could connect our laptops to it.

We also met Pete’s grandfather who took us to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant that was packed as hell and gave us some advice about Soon it was time to pick up Betty and Linda from the airport, and since Gabriel was still dead asleep, we decided not to wake him up and just let him snore. So Pete and I head down to Central MTR, walk to Hong Station where Betty and Linda’s airport express was set to arrive. They come out and I think we took a taxi back up to Pete’s place because it would have been impossible to lug their heavy ass luggage up that damn hill. After we all get back to the apartment, we still find Gabriel sleeping and tucked in lol. Dont remember much else from that time but remember that I fell asleep on a black chair in the apartment and Pete’s auntie tucked me in lol. Later that night, we (Minus Pete) went out to meet up with Belinda to have dinner and just spend the night out going through shops in Causeway Bay. There was this complex that we went through that seemed to only sell girl stuff which was a tad awkward for us guys. We also went through this arcade place that was cool because it had this huge Gundam torso and head that you see as soon as you step out of the elevators. Soon after, Betty went off to meet her relatives and Belinda went home and that left Linda, Gabriel and I to just get home ourselves, which was fun. As we got home, we found that Pete’s brother Paul had come to join us for the duration of the trip. Think that night we headed out to explore a bit and went to 7-11, got some drinks and some takeaway supper from a place that apparently had a cat in it, though I didnt see it. I had like a curry chicken with rice, which everyone said it smelt funny, though it tasted alright.

The next day we went to Tsim Shar Sui (pronounced Jeem as in sharp, sar as in sand, and joe as in mouth) and did some shopping. Well the girls did, and Gabriel bought a green adidas top, and after he said he wanted a small one, a woman just sprints off and comes back with one lol. Gabriel was a tad worried about that. The girls bought heaps of things, like a warm jacket and other stuff which I cant remember. After shopping we went to the space museum because it was free but it was also pretty cool. Learnt some pretty interesting stuff there, like a got to see how the cockpit of a space shuttle looked and there was a gyroscope or something which Gabriel went on and it was this propulsion system thing that I don’t remember how it worked. Paul and Pete also went on this hang glider simulator which was cool and they (and betty) also tried this laser thing that simulates working in space or something, which Paul did really well in and Betty couldn’t do lol. There was also a spacewalk thing, where you’re strapped to a harness that simulates walking on the moon but we couldn’t go on it because it closed just as we got there.

Afterwards we went to the harbour place to watch the light display show, A Symphony of Lights which was just amazing. It looks soo cool, and has music to go with it which makes it even cooler lol. My English has gone to crap. All the buildings just light up and flash in a synchronised fashion. It was a bit difficult to watch because it was like all around so we didnt know where to look at first and its so wide that its hard to absorb it all in. We arrived there like an hour early and were starving so Linda, Gabriel and Paul went on a food run to Maccas and took ages to get back for some reason, but got back in time for the show which was good.

Then we took the star ferry home to Central because it was close, fast and cheaper than the MTR. The ride was alright, but I remember after we boarded and were waiting for other people to board, the gangplank was up in the air so no one could get on because of the wind, which meant the boat was pretty much on an angle. We get home and Paul and I was bored and Betty was hungry so we head out to get her a late night supper of roast pork and egg rice from the place with the cat, which she said tasted really good. I think.

The next day we went shopping at Mong Kok and damn did we spend. I pretty much spent all my money in that one place. Bought so many clothes, like a hoodie, a couple of tops and other stuff which I cant remember. Also bought a pair of jeans from Baleno because they were cheap but it wasn’t from the market place, think it was called Far Yuen Gai (not sure about this, Betty would probably need to correct me). We also ran into Kathy while there and we had lunch together at this place called Century Plaza or something and afterwards went to this shopping complex thing that was full of girls. It all sold like girl stuff. Gabriel said the ratio was 1 guy to every 20 girls there. It was weird because the girls ditched us and left me and Gabriel to fend for ourselves. Some girl pushed me. After that, we did more shopping in the market area and then heading to real shops like Bossini and Baleno and then Kathy went on home and we went back to the apartment to drop off the day’s loot and head upto the Peak and Madam Tuassad’s Wax Museum. At first we had some trouble finding the peak and had to ask like a security guard of some building but we eventually got there and got our tickets to go up the tram. Damn that tram is scary. Its sooo bloody steep, like the buildings around you are at like a 60 degree angle, its scary. Once we got up there, we decided to have a Starbucks coffee before we met up with Pete and his friend Michele and go to the Wax Museum where we had our photo taken with Jacky Chan. Its soo cool in there, see all these famous and important people, like Benazir Bhutto, Saddam Hussein, John Howard, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and all these others but most important of all Ayumi Hamasaki was there!!!!!!! And I had my photo taken with her. Betty wanted a photo of me kissing Ayumi but I thought it was a bit gross since I don’t know how many other people’s lips have been there and the idea of kissing a wax figurine seemed a tad gross. She’s so small and skinny, she’s like a fricken stick. We also saw Mel Gibson, who is oddly short lol. And damn Pierce Brosnan is tall. We also did this scary walk thing where you walk through like a dark hallway with scary wax figures and real people jump out and scare you. It was really scary. Betty was screaming like mad and was about to tear Pete’s shoulders off.

After that we went to the sky terrace on the peak because the museum was about to close. Betty also got a wax figure of her hand, which I felt was pretty cool. Dont remember how she made the pose though, think it was the V sign. She should upload a photo of it, assuming she still uses this page. Its so scary up there at the sky terrace because its so damn high. There was a point where it felt like I was having a panic attack but it wasn’t too bad. Not like a fell onto the ground and crawled into the foetal position. But the views up there are so nice. See like the entire city with all its lights. Probably be the best place for new years. Pity we’re not there for it.

From there, the order gets a bit blurry but we did a tonne of fun stuff which is why we have not blogged at all the whole time we were in Hong Kong. At the moment, we are flying back from Hong Kong to Singapore, which just goes to show how long these blogs (mine anyway) take to be made lol. Anyway I havbe a bout two hours of battery life and a 4 hour flight so should be plenty of time to fill you in on the stuff that’s been happening here in Hong Kong. Or should I say there.

We’ve done so much that its hard to remember it all. One of the things we did was Disneyland which was pretty fun, though many of the rides weren’t that exciting, but the lines weren’t that long either so that was good. One ride though was long as hell, which was the new miniworld or something and the boat ride through it. My favourite ride there was probably the boat ride through Tarzan world or something which was pretty cool, especially the bit where there was a fire that was actual fire. One bad thing about the ride was that the narrator was not all that enthusiastic and kinda narrated things half-assedly lol. There was also this ride called space-mountain which was an indoor rollercoaster that was pretty scary for me because a) I hate rollercoasters b)it as in the dark so you cant see a damn thing and c) it felt as though my head was going to be cut off because it was so close to the bars and stuff. It was fun and exciting, but damn it was scary.

We also stayed behind for the fireworks which was amazing. They had projections of Fantasia onto the castle which was was so cool and if you watch the fireworks using the glasses they give you when you come in, it looks even cooler because they look like little angels and birds. The fireworks were all synchronised so well. Only bad thing I can say about it is that we had to wait like an hour just standing there because we thought it started at 8:30 but instead started at 9:30 but Im glad we went early because we got such a good view. Cant rememeber what else we did at Disneyland, but Im sure we did heaps, and took heaps and heaps of photos. Its not a bad place. Has a really nice atmosphere.

After that we took the MTR back which was packed like hell because a train was delayed or cancelled or something and everyone was leaving Disneyland because it was closing or everything fun was already done. It was so packed that at station, people couldn’t even get down the stairs. Thats how many people there were.

We also went to Ocean Park which was really fun. Along with our group was also Shaun and Jacylin and her cousin and Kai, a person who goes to Fungus. We went on pretty much all the rides. Got soaked in Raging River where at the end of it, after a huge drop, a huge puddle just landed on my lap. Also went on this spinning thing called space something that was pretty scary because your spinning vertically to the ground but it was pretty fun because it gives you such a rush everytime you’re going down. Most scary ride there was probably the Mine because it goes superfast over this track thats hanging over the edge of cliff and over the water and has these really steep drops that makes it feel as though the carriage is going to fly off the tracks. My favourite ride would probably have to be the abyss, this huge ass drop that gives you such a rush when you go down. It forces your legs up when you go down. It was really scary going up because your so high and you know how I feel about heights. After doing all the rides, we had lunch at maccas and then went to an aquarium which was so cool because it had all these sharks and manta rays which you could see up close. The sharks and rays were damn huge. After that we took one last scary ride, which was the cable car which was so much scarier than the one at Sentosa because the one at Ocean Park goes for ages, and goes over really high cliffs which scared the crap out of me, and betty didnt make it much betty by trying to shake it and screaming out that it stopped and saying “look how steep those cliffs are”.

After the cable car ride we didnt do all that much and just looked at dolphins and seals and bought souvenirs. I got the cutest panda toy. Its so soft and cuddly. We left after a bit and just skipped the panda exhibit because the line was too long and figured we wouldn’t be seeing much.

After leaving Ocean Park, we met up with Phui Mun and Ian at MK. Havent seen them in ages and we just split up, with the guys going to the street market to shop and the girls went wherever. I bought a pair of levis shoes there simply because the ones that I had were pretty much unbearable and needed new shoes. Gabriel also bought a pair of converse shoes. We also went back to this place that like sold porn so that Paul could get his earphones, the same one that Gabriel had bought the last time he was there and I bought a naruto phone string for my phone which looks awesome. We’ve come to notice that we’re all starting to copy how each other speak, like Im beginning to talk like Gabriel, using words like awesome and putting “damn” in front of other words, like “damn awesome” After shopping we met up with the girls again, and were also joined by Kelly and Tang and we went to have dinner at this place, think it was called cafe de coral or something. I ordered a roast pork with rice but since Paul didnt like what Pete ordered for him since he already had it before, I did a trade with him because I only ordered what I ordered because I didnt know what to get; so I had his baked tomato with rice and pork chop or something

After that, we all went upto our place to bum around for a bit before meeting up with James and Marcus to have a late night supper down stairs and then just bum around for a bit more before they went back home.

During our time in Hong Kong, we also took a day out and went to Macau and had Betty’s Uncle take us around which was so nice of him to give up his time for us. Macau was really really really fun. All the casinos there are so damn cool, especially the Venetian, which is the one with the canal and the painted sky and hte gondolas. Its so pretty in there. I remember stepping into the food court, where and looking at the roof which was a sky and we were all like “woooow” and our jaws literally dropped. It was so beautiful inside. At the food court, Gabriel and I ordered goose from this place and it was our first time trying it and damn it was, as Gabriel would put it, SHIOK. It was that good it had to be in capitals. Goose is the best thing ever cooked. It tastes soooo good. Its like duck but a million times better. The meat tastes so sweet and skin is...I don’t know how to describe it but its amazing. After that, following the canals and going to the casino area for free water, we left and decided to go to another casino, which was Sands, and it was also really nice in there, but annoying because it was really smoky there. That and the woman at the entrance asked me for my year of birth which was gay.

All the casinos were soooo nice, especially the Histories one that had all these historical replicas like the Coliseum and other stuff which I cant remember. Think they had a great wall of china and also a replica of Black Hawk Down for some reason lol. After going to the casinos, we took a look at some historical sites, such as the Church of St Paul or something like that and this old fortress that was used during World War 2 and had some old canons that were used during colonial times or something, which we took pictures of. There was also this dog there, which we assumed was

we decided to explore the night markets for anything we liked and to look for a place that sold Abercrombie and Fitch stuff but sadly we couldn’t find it. Afterwards Betty’s uncle took us to lunch where we didnt have goose but had something else instead, cant remember what I had. Think it was something fried pork, something that Gabriel wanted. After that we just went back and caught the ferry back home to Hong Kong, which I slept through, as I did on the ferry to Macau in the morning.

But we didnt just do the touristy stuff. We also met up with friends to just hang out and stuff. One such time was when Linda and I met up with Anthony, a friend of ours (well mine anyway) from Primary school and Kelly, and met up at Tsim Shar Sui where went to harbour City, had starbucks and just reminisced about our days in Primary School and Anthony and I were checking out “leng luis” lol. He started it, not me. After discovering that nothing in and just explore there for a bit. We went to this place called Langham Place which smelled sooo good as soon as you walk through the doors from the MTR. Smells like cookies and cakes. From there we just did a bunch of random things, like play this coin game where you toss coins onto this table thing and can win prizes, depending on where the coin lands. It was soo fun. We won like so many things, cant remember them all but I remember we won some chews, a panda sharpener and a watermelon cow, oh and Anthony won a tape measure, which we used to clothesline Kelly because we were bored. We also helped Anthony pick out a pair of Levis Jeans and discovered that he has no ass lol. He got so frustrated from deciding which pair fir and looked better that he just decided to get whatever he had in his hand. He looked mighty pissed at the end of it all lol. First time I ever seen him look like that lol.

On Christmas Eve, we tried to have a party at our place but Betty couldn’t make it because she had to go to her high class dinner with her family, though she didnt have to dress that high class for it. I was kinda expecting that she’d have to go in some LV dress or something. We (meaning Gab) was going to cook but instead we just ordered in from KFC and Pizza Hut. The chicken was soo nice. Its so spicy lol. Makes me drool just thinking about it. Tang showed up and later so did Shaun, Jacilyn and her cousin, and we just ate and tried to finish it. Shaun was so excited that Christmas was coming, he even had a little countdown going. Afterwards, Betty arrived and we all just talked about how crowded it was downstairs in Lan Kwai Fong. Seriously it was packed. When I came up, it wasn’t that crowded but I saw like a couple of cop vans pull up and a bunch of cops erecting barricades. Betty said it was so packed that she barely made it up and couldn’t even drive through. The next day we also went to Ocean Park with them which was fun.

We also got a chance to visit relatives, with Betty and I seeing relatives of ours, which is good because on this trip, everyone managed to see family: Gabriel had his whole extended family in Singapore, Linda met up with Andy, her future brother in law, and Betty and I saw our uncles and aunties in Hong Kong. On the day of when Betty had her high class dinner at the racecourse, I met up with my Auntie and Uncle whom I haven’t seen in I don’t know how long. Apparently the last time they saw me was when I still lived in Bendigo...=.=. At first I was dreading seeing them because I hadn’t seen them in so long and didnt really know them and wouldn’t have anything to say to them. But it wasn’t too bad. Talked about school and my time in Hong Kong and the weather. Also met up with another Auntie and Uncle I didnt know I had but upon seeing them, bought back some memories I had of him and kinda recognised him a little. We had Yum Cha and afterwards my cousin, whom I didnt know I had took me DVD shopping, where I splurged and went a tad overboard, spending more than I should have lol. But I reckon it was worth it. They’re good movies. After that, my Auntie and Uncle took me around Harbour City, the part that I hadn’t been to and went to the harbour side and looked at the Star Cruise that was docked there and looked at the cityscape before they left and I went around Tsim Shar Sui to explore on my own which was fun, and went into the crammed MTR station where everyone was arriving for Christmas Eve Celebrations.

Our last days in Hong Kong was really fun, with many of us being immature, as it was Betty and Linda’s last chance to do so before they head back home and have to act like proper adults. Dot remember much of that night, but I remember Betty was trying to cram all her loot into her luggage and Gabriel and Paul lasering people from the apartment with laser pointers from BB guns that Pete and Paul bought, and later Pete and Paul going to the roof to do it, in disguise with Pete wearing his Bleach hollow mask, and Paul wearing Pete’s beanie over his whole head and sunnies over it. They looked so funny. Later that night, we all headed up to the roof to take a last look at Hong Kong’s beautiful skyline. We went up to the upper section of the roof, which we got up by a ladder. For it me it was pretty scary up there but it wasn’t that bad and was able to enjoy the view. Soon we went down and just tried to stay up as late as we could to see Betty and Linda off when Betty’s Auntie picks her up at 6 something but we couldn’t and just fell asleep. Luckily, they woke us up when they left so we were able to say good bye when they left.

The guy’s last day was just meeting up with other people who were in Hong Kong one last time and had lunch together, afterwards just stumbled around, not knowing what to do before Marcus and James went back to our place to help the Auntie clean up the place and play with BB guns by shooting it into an unopened bowl of instant noodles lol. We also discovered a pair of BB guns which Pete and Paul had bought the last time they were in Hong Kong which were powerful as lol. We shot them at the wall of the building next to ours and saw the BBs actually break up when they hit the wall lol. Soon we took a taxi to the airport, had dinner and caught our flight back to Singapore, which I fell asleep, and according to Gabriel, onto the woman sitting next to me lol, though I don’t remember that. After we got back to Singapore, we met up with Gabriel’s dad and his sister Arella and we just had supper at this place, where we had Murtabak and Roti Prata and kopi beng (Im going to miss using those words lol. Be weird if I go to a coffee shop in Australia and ask for Kopi c lol). After that, we went back and spent our first night in Singapore. Again lol. Well not again for Pete.

And that’s pretty much our entire experience in Hong Kong. Yes yes, Im aware this post is a tad long (think tad is a bit of an understatement) but I am compressing almost 2 weeks of Hong Kong into this one small post, and we did do a lot. I have to say, the time in Hong Kong would have to be my favourite in this trip, not that the other places weren’t good either. Just that Hong Kong felt particularly special. Not sure why. Might have been the amazing shopping (MK is awesome lol) and great weather, weather in which you can wear long sleeve clothes in, but got to admit, Hong Kong falls far behind Singapore in terms of food. Hopefully I covered everything we did. If not, Betty or Linda can just fill it in lol.

Well thats one more essay done, and a few more to come as Gabriel, Pete and I enjoy the last leg of our amazing journey together in Singapore. As much as I enjoy being here in Singapore with its cheap and delicious food, I am looking forward to being on that flight back home, back to my own house, my own bed, my own bathroom, my own toilet lol.