Day 11 in Hong Kong

Got up late today. Cause I stayed up watching TV last night. I love cantonese dramas. I sometimes stay up until 1am to watch the re-run dramas. We went to the restaurant at Ikea to meet Titania for lunch. She and I went to the same school. She's 4 years younger than me. Now she becomes a radiotherapist, reading x-rays, CT Scan and MRI at work. Steve and I ordered Japanese curry rice with deep fried pork chop. Titania ordered Cheesecake. It was a pleasant meal. After lunch, Steve went back to take a nap. I hang out with her in the New Town Plaza until 5pm. Bought some mochi ice-cream and BBQ pork pastry for Steve as snack. Later at night, we took the train to home and ate dinner. Watched another comedy movie. Excited to received a call from my OT (we studied Occupational Therapy together) friends. He arranged a gathering for us. Probably next Monday or Tuesday night. I cannot wait. Besides, I might be able to see Fong Fong, my friend since elementary school, sometime next week. But, it depends on her condition as she's now having flu. She's a nurse and working at a hospital. I hope she'll recover soon. Flu is so crazy here now. All kindergartens and primary schools are closed a few days ago for 2 weeks to stop children from going to schools and exchanging or spreading flu virus!! Fai, my friend who is a doctor, told me that she was so busy lately that she felt like she could never clear the queue in her clinic. Flu is scary here...3 children died of flu the past week.

Day 10 in Hong Kong

We ate seafood congee and soy sauce chow mein (stir-fried noodles) for lunch at Lucky Plaza. Then, we browsed at Seiyu department store and their food court. Wow!! It has been remodelled recently and there are a lot of up-scaled and trendy Japanese fast food booths. We really want to try their food!! We saw 'Japanese saki' ice-cream available there. Steve wants to try it. Yeah, next time when we are not too full. Then we walked back to hotel to rest and read. I went downstairs on my own to buy some street snack (fish meat dumpling 'shiu mai') and a box of take out sushi. Hehehe. Mom called us to go home for dinner. We took a train instead. The train station was farther away than the bus stop. But it took shorter time. It's quite nice actually. We watched another comedy movie. We stayed until 9:15pm when Dad arrived home from work. Said hi to him before we left. Steve and I carried a few bags of stuff back to hotel...Those were the stuff I had when I lived in Hong Kong. Gosh, it took me so many years to bring them to the US. Fortunately, I have learnt to think thoroughly before buying anything now. Haha.

Day 9 in Hong Kong

It's the last day of my dad's annual vacation. We went back to my parents' flat for brunch-Japanese noodles with pork soup base, fish dumplings, beef meat balls, leafy vegetables, steamed chicken. Steve liked the chicken dipped with the garlic pickle sauce very much. He ate a lot. Yes, we watched a movie, too. Then, we left together to go to have afternoon tea with my aunt and my grandma. Wow, my grandma is 86 year old!! We had a good time. Since I ate quite a lot at my parent's place, I couldn't eat much at tea time... We then came back to Shatin. Steve went back to rest while I was walking around at Ikea with my parents. I found a few things on my shop list. I didn't buy anything today as Steve wasn't there to carry it for me. hehehe. We'll go there again. It's about 15 minute walking from our hotel. I bought some imitation shark fin soup, take-out sushi for dinner. Bought dark chocolate, Chinese dessert and spicy beef cup noodles for Steve. He is very relaxed so far. Watching his DVDs or playing online games when he's resting at the hotel. I am happy when he is happy.

Day 8 in Hong Kong - Hong Kong Disneyland

Got up very early in the morning. Joined my parents and we all took the bus at Tai Wai terminal bus station. It took about 5o minutes from Tai Wai to Disneyland. Thank Goodness my brother worked there for a year and knew a co-worker. We got a VERY, VERY good price to enter Disneyland. It was beautiful!! It was composed of four main parts- Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Main street USA and Adventureland. We walked around at MainStreet USA first. It was my honor to be a guest audience to interact with Dr Bensun Honeydew and his assistant Beaker (from the muppet show) I was asked to pretend that I was thinking very, very hard and he used a ''mind reader'' to read my mind. It was very funny!! Then, we browsed the shopping places and waited in line to take pictures with Chips and Dale and Mulan. We rode the space mountain roller coaster. S C A R Y ~ for me!! It was very dark inside...very speedy... Steve said that he enjoyed riding space mountain ride when he was 10 in Florida. He liked it a lot and didn't understand why Tim freaked out. Haha. He's probably talking about me, too!! Because I was scared and screaming the whole time!! I felt like being in a washer. Steve kept laughing at me. Then, we had fast food for lunch. I ordered a Chinese BBQ pork burger with fries, Steve had a double cheese burger with fries. My parents had the same thing. It was an expensive meal. But, well, it's about the same everywhere in Disney... like two other Disneys we went to in the past. $170 HKD. After dinner, we went to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Mad Hatter Tea Cups ( I felt little dizzy afterwards), The Golden Mickeys, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Fafts to Tarzan's Treehouse, Tarzan's Treehouse, Jungle River Cruise. We watched the parade and rode the train before we left. It was very, very fun. I hope someday Steve will take me to Disneyland in Paris and Tokyo. After walking around the whole day, all of us were very hungry and exhausted. We went to Yoshinoya for Japanese beef rice bowl. Yummy!! Then, we went to the betting center to buy local lottery (Easter Jackpot with $33 million HKD) Unfortunately, we didn't win. Steve bought a bottle of Vodka and two big bottles of honey green tea. Alcohol is tax free here due to extra surplus for the previous financial year. I got some delicious sushi and snack take out. Yummy!! Hehehe

Day 7 in Hong Kong

Not having specific plans. Bought some take-out pork ribs and Chinese smoked hams at ''Chinese BBQ pork King'' near our hotel. We went back to my parents flat for lunch. Watched another Chinese comedy movie again! Very funny. I kept eating while watching movie.... It's really easy to overeat when you watch TV...you're distracted and won't pay attention at how much food you eat. Alright, I overate. I didn't feel well immediately. I went for a walk and took the bus back to the hotel to rest. Gosh, I threw up as soon as I got off the bus. -_- Then, I felt better. Took an afternoon nap afterwards. Then, we walked to the New Town Plaza, Steve had a scoop of tiramisu ice-cream at Haagen-Dazs. We bought quite a lot of DVDs and VCDs I've been looking for but couldn't be found in Seattle...such as Japanese animations with Chinese AND English subtitles. That night, we had dinner at a noodle restaurant. I had a bowl of shirmp wanton noodle. Steve had beef flank steak rice noodle. Yummy!! Bought Steve some chocolate muffins and Chinese vegetarian dim sum for myself. As usual, we walked back to the hotel. Yeah!! We walked a lot every day!! It's an excellent exercise. Excited about going to Disnsey on Tuesday.

Day 6 in Hong Kong

We didn't do anything special. Went back to my parents flat to have lunch together. Watched a Chinese comedy movie while having lunch. Very relaxing. Then, we walked to Sunshine city Plaza to pick up my chinese herbal medicine. It was super bitter!! I almost threw up. Anyway, after taking the previous herbal medicine, I felt much better - no longer having runny nose at night. And I slept very well now. I stayed at the music store for a while again. Afterwards, we shopped at the VCDs/DVDs store again. Went back to the hotel to rest until around dinner time. We met Kiki and her boyfriend and walked around. Browsed at the snack store and saw some really strange snacks like individually wrapped teriyaki chicken wing, cooked & seasoned duck kidneys. We won't buy these strange things... However, we are still looking for some strange snacks to bring back to Seattle since Steve's co-workers asked him to bring them strange snacks. That night, we had dinner at Maxim fast food restaurant. Steve had a Korean/Japanese bento box. I had curry beef flank steak with steamed rice. Yummy!!

Day 5 in Hong Kong

We got up very early today as we had an exciting activity. My parents met us at the hotel at 8:45am. We took the bus to Tsim Sha Tsui. We arrived 45min early. We walked around ...browsed things at a convenience store and a bookstore. Since Steve wasn't from here, he was approached by a lot of Indians and Pakinstanians as we walked. They kept asking him if he was interested in copied Rolex watches or copied handbags. Quite annoying! Then, we went back to the location to get together with other people joinning the local sight-seeing tour. There were 60 people and 1 tour guide. We took the tour bus to a hotel for buffet lunch. It was yummy. I ate some sausages, hams, sweet corns, fried rice, stewed ox tails, sweet and sour pork chops, steamed vegetables, deep fried chickens, pumpkin cream soup, mochi (japanese dessert) and puddings. Afterwards, we rode the tour bus to Tung Chung where the Ngong Ping CABLE CAR station located. The 20-25min journey began from Tung Chung skimming over Tung Chung Bay, ascending and descending over the mountains and valleys of Lantau North Country Park. It allowed us to gaze at the 360 degree panorama from high above in our cable car. It was an amazingly breathtaking 5.7 km (about 3.5 miles)!! We could feel the breeze from the sea beneath us. Have a look at this link: http://www.np360.com.hk/

After getting off the cable car, we arrived at the Ngong Ping Village. Its surroundings included interesting spots like Tian Tan Buddha Statue (Yes, the world's biggest giant buddha statue!), Po Lin Monastery, etc. We walked 268 steps of stairs to the top of the hill where the Buddha sat. It's beautiful. We enjoyed the breeze so much. Steve and I went there in 1999. It hasn't changed much except the fact that we saw a LOT more tourists today. Then, we visited Po Lin Monastery. Dad took me there when I was 5. Time flies. I couldn't recall how the monastery looked like. Anyway, it was stunning. Steve was impressed by different statues of Chinese Gods and Goddesses and the detail of the dragon sculpture on the stone pillars. I'll upload the pictures when we get back. Steve liked sitting at the zen garden and enjoying the peace. Me too. We walked through the Ngong Ping Village without browsing many stores. The price of the soveneirs were outrageous. It was SO funny that we saw our chopsticks at home being overpriced 7 times at a store called 'The Chopsticks Gallery'. We laughed. We left around 4pm. So, the sight-seeing tour,including tips for the tour guide, plus the buffet lunch was $25 USD person. It was a really good price since we saw that one round trip cable car ticket costs $20 USD. It was my mom finding a bargain at a local tour sight-seeing company. It was awesome.

At night, we had gourmet Chinese food for dinner: crispy garlic/soy sauce chicken, stir-fried beef with ginger and green onion, spicy eggplant & pork cassorole, and almost 5 pounds of lobsters cooked with chicken stock and cheese sauce. It was soooooooooo tasty. $100USD dinner for four of us. Not bad at all since lobsters are the most expensive seafood here. They were fresh too. Once we ordered the lobsters, the waitress brought my mom to pick the live lobsters from the fish tank. We were sooooo full and walked back to the hotel to aid digestion.

Day 1 to 4 recap...

Day 1:

Flew on the flight for 14 hours from Vancouver to Hong Kong, it was very tiring and boring. Fortunately, we brought books with us to read and our portable DVD player to watch movie. When we arrived, we were exhausted and sleepy. We had to wait for extra 30 minutes to pick up the baggages because of technical problems at the airport. When we arrived at the hotel, it's 9:30pm. I was a bit scared as I heard that someone commited suicide in the hotel we stay at a few months ago. Okay, there're over 800 rooms here. I hope we are lucky- not staying at a haunted room.

Day 2:

Browsing stores and shopping area near the hotel. Then, a nice & relaxing 15-minute walking across the river to the Town Center Plaza. Browsed different groceries and department stores. Had dim sum with my parents for lunch. Reapplied cancelling my retirement account in Hong Kong. Steve and I had mochi ice-cream for dessert. When he took a nap, I went to have a haircut, shopped for batteries for my watch and bought a few pieces of take-out sushi. Around 6:30pm, we met Kiki at her house. Her parents were so nice to us. We sat there and talked for about an hour. Kiki treated us dinner at a noodle restaurant. Yummy. We walked around the center afterwards...stopped by an video arcade place. I saw many young people wasting their time and money there. I guess they don't realize they're wasting their most powerful asset- time.

Day 3:

Took a nice walk to the town center. The weather was perfect, not too dry, not too humid, not too cold or too warm, sunny and breezy. About 68F, feeling like summer in Seattle! I had a bowl of congee for breakfast. Steve had BBQ pork buns and a cup of tea. After browsing a store, my parents joined us and we went to Hollywood Plaza for lunch. Shanghaiese food. Very yummy. We had spicy noodles, eels, cold & spicy chicken, dumplings. After lunch, we went to a music store where I tried out different pianos. Steve was browsing the music sheets. He's being sneaky. He bought something but not let me know what it was. He kept carrying the bag. He had a surprise for me. Anyway, there was a very beautiful buddahist temple near the Plaza. We walked there together. It was so peaceful and refreshing. ZEN GARDEN- that should be the perfect word to describe it. It was my first time seeing different color of lotus flowers in their pond. It was a very nice walk for more than an hour. We had dim sum for afternoon tea. Oh my gosh, we ate too often, too much. Feeling so full all the time. Had no room for dinner.

Day 4:

Had brunch in Ma On Shan Plaza. Yes, DIM SUM again!! Started to feel sick of it...It seems that the amount of food we eat for lunch equals to our usual lunch AND dinner together.. My stomache didn't feel well. ~_~ We left as soon as we felt very full to stop being asked to keep eating by my parents. I went to another music store. Tried out several pianos. I already got used to the sound of my antique piano. I tried the most expensive piano at the floor, but it just didn't sound as nice as mine. Steve wanted to buy me some more sheet music. But I wanted to wait and see. He revealed the surprise for me- Sheet music in a book. They are not ordinary. Those music are from soundtracks of Japanese animations which we both liked. The sheet music came with a CD. That was a very perfect surprise for me. He picked things I really liked. I'm so thankful. We shopped at DVD stores for some Cantonese comedies. Steve went back to take a nap. My mom brought me to see a chinese medical doctor to cure my flu..it's just started and better get it under controlled as it's peak season for flu in Hong Kong now! The doctor told me not to eat any deep-fried food. Bought Steve a slice of Chocolate roll cake at a bakery. We went to my parents' house for dinner. Greet my nice neighbor. Gave her a present I made for her. And she's very happy. We watched one of the VCDs we bought during dinner time. Very funny.

Got a call from Christy and glad to know that they'll arrange a gathering for us.

We are waiting for our flight in Vancouver now

Yeah! Wireless internet rocks! We are waiting for our next flight at the moment. It's rainy here in Vancouver...and COLD!! 37F I believe.... It's quiet at the airport. Well, maybe it's still too early. We almost were not allowed to enter Canada because I forgot to take the confirmation email copy to show the flight numbers and our info. Luckily it was printed on the baggage verfication and the customs let us in without going through different stations here. It's a relief. Our carry-ons are full of granola bars, chips, cheetos and cookies..We also brought ham and egg sandwiches and some grapes. Hopefully time will pass faster this way...it's a LONG flight, more than 14 hours.....

Gotta go now to walk around before sitting for 14 hours. :-D