To be honest though, it is quite nice to be home, away from the humidity, mosquitoes, suffocating crowds, and random drippy signs. The thing that bothered me most was that as much as I shower or attempt to stay hygienic, I was never able to feel totally clean. I’m also really enjoying the awesome weather we’ve had this summer so far. Last week’s heat wave would’ve been unbearable in HK. Hallelujah for air conditioning!

So to compensate for lack of any real content, I’ll turn this into a gimmicky music post! Again, I’m gonna try to put up songs that aren’t rampant everywhere. Not indie though, I’m probably still not “cultured” enough to appreciate it. New-ness of music is not guaranteed :P

Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars

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Snow Patrol is underrated!

Agnes – On & On

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Alphabeat – DJ

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Pixie Lott – Turn It Up

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Bruno Mars ft. Cee Lo & B.o.B – The Other Side

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Yes it’s a song about vampires. Don’t hate.

Rick Ross ft. Ne-Yo – Super High

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Epik High – 바보 (Fool)

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My other favourite off their album, epilogue, is Coffee. So chill and relaxing.

Hyori Lee ft. Daesung – How Did We Get

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You may know Daesung from Big Bang. He gives me the creeps, but I can’t deny he has a really nice voice.

SNSD Girls Generation – 별별별 (☆★☆) (Acoustic R&B Version)

[View post to listen to audio]

Image credit to Janice

Shimmering waters along the harbour
Reflect dazzling lights
Eponymous fragrance fills the air
Of a breezy Hong Kong night

I knew it was then
Didn’t have to be told
I fell in love with the city
Heartbeats unfold

Cadences of colour
Weigh down on the streets
Where the crowds blend
Where beauty and chaos meet

Tall and proud structures
Marvelous sights
Tastes inspiring your senses
Let passion ignite

Navigating the streets
On that first night with Karen
Looking for a quick bite to grab
But Sassoon is inexplicably barren

In nightfall ritual at HKU
Student halls run amuck
Hollering resounds from pride and spirit
Or a mahjong player out of luck

Restless nights go on forever
But swiftly birds bring in the day
I begin to grasp the city and its people
Its stride, beat, and sway

Guys and girls alike
Purchasing all that is cute
Check for stray hairs on any reflective surface
Glass, iPhones, Danny’s shiny suit

Christian’s abs are hungry
John steers us to excellent food
After savouring every morsel
We are in the karaoke mood

Pushing and squeezing on the MTR
Can’t help it, random bodies collide
Greasy dude in the corner steals a glance
Of Swee Lee’s scandalous backside

Life explodes everywhere
Hop on a double-decked bus
Taxis after-hours in abundance
LKF’s got nothing on us

Loitering in Causeway with Connie
Amidst a sea of price tags
It’s 4am at the library
Janice is still on 9GAG

Regal estates sprinkled in Repulse Bay
Show off their meticulous design
But glaring disparity looms above
Mong Kok’s blinding neon signs

In search of breathtaking vistas
Drag your feet past that hundredth step
Jacqueline exclaims “nice, eh!”
Upon reward of the uphill trek

Picturesque fishing villages frozen in time
Charming for a quiet stroll somewhere
Rolling viridian misty mountains
Provide a breath of fresh air

Back in the bustling, tireless city
Gleaming Lambos roar down the tunnel
Among aunties enrobed in LV
White collar elites spill out of Central

There once was a girl
Exhausted from boredom
Traveled halfway around the globe
To breath life into the forlorn

Took a plunge head-first
Look what I found
Companions, adventures, memories
Mosquito bites I can’t even count

Five months flew past
Time to part ways
I’ve learned so much from every experience
Grateful for every single day

It’s not really goodbye
Because we will meet again
No need for final adieus
Between us, my friend

Take these joy-filled moments
In ink, pour unto the sturdiest vellum
All that you have gained
Everything you wish to tell them

There’s something about this city
That makes you never forget
An excitable kind of warmth
Fills you like a touch so secret

Of this half year thus lived
I cherish the mundane
Vibrant and romantic
Hong Kong, my heart remains

What I wasn’t prepared for was the stampede of Hongers who were thinking the exact same thing. The crowd at the Shenzhen train station was absolutely insane. Probably not as bad as Lunar New Year’s, but I would peg it as a close second. I arrived at around 3:30 and despite having trains leaving every 10-20 minutes, they were all full until around 6:30. Then I had a lovely time with the pushing, yelling, and rushing.

The first attraction I visited in Guangzhou was an area that was built in the style of Lingnan. The whole place was one of those tourist traps where they get you to buy food and pay for cultural ‘experiences’.

A Lingnan-style street

The best food was 双皮乃 (direct translation: double-skinned milk). It’s almost like eating cream with the texture of tofu. I had a cold one and it was really good.

Refreshing!

Another thing that was pretty cool was how they made ‘popcorn’ with rice (poprice?). A guy was tending the fire for about 10 minutes, then you pour grains of rice into this large cloth tunnel with a metal bit at the end. Once you apply the heat to it, there’s one gigantic POP and it’s done.

Fire...

...tunnel...

...BLAM!

In the afternoon I visited the Whampoa Military Academy (黄埔军校). It’s pretty cool to walk through the exact buildings that churned out the figures who changed China as a nation.

The dorms and rooms

I will never again complain about small bedrooms or hard beds

We visited a small Sun Yat-sen memorial then hopped on a boat to head back home. I swear I’ve been on a zillion boats in Asia. Everywhere I go, they use boats to get around and I love it. You’d think that was inefficient, but it’s not and it’s very integrated into people’s daily lives.

The next day was pretty packed. In the morning we had 早茶 (morning tea), which was a very Guangzhou retiree thing to do. Generally people will go really early, have 1 or 2 dishes, and sit around drinking tea and chatting till noon. Since we weren’t grandmas, we had an actual meal there. My cousin’s son (13 years old) apparently loves chicken feet. His currently record is devouring 6 bamboo baskets of them by himself. So we stuffed him with all the excess food that we ordered. What a trooper.

My cousin's son's middle school. It's soooo pretty!

After the meal, I paid a visit to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. It’s not nearly as grand as the one in Taipei, but was still a nice place to chill out for the locals.

I never get tired of Chinese parks

We took a scenic walk past more public parks to 北京路 (Beijing Street), a popular shopping area. But what was interesting about the place was the display in the middle of the street. When they were digging to build the Guangzhou subway infrastructure, they came across layers of road underneath the pavement – paths that were paved from a long time ago. As they dug deeper, more and older layers were revealed.

Song dynasty and Ming dynasty roads

We then went to 上下九广场 (Shang Xia Jiu plaza) and OMGWTFBBQ the amount of people there was insane. I hadn’t even seen anything like that in Mong Kok.

GO HOME, PEOPLE.

There were some food stalls and we grabbed some street food. It wasn’t that large of an area but they had everything from noodles to seafood.

Clockwise from top left: shrimp skewer in batter, BBQ oysters, shaved ice, BBQ squid skewers

I was pretty exhausted by the time we finished walking around the plaza, so we headed back home. My relatives currently have a temporary place within 中山大学 (Sun Yat-sen University). In China it’s very common for professors and school employees to live on or around campus with their entire families.

Sun Yat-sen University

The University has the prettiest campus I’ve ever seen. SERIOUSLY it’s amazingly well-kept.

You don't see this kind of stuff at Waterloo :(

At night, there are ferry cruises along the Pearl River so we went to the dock which was directly in front of the University’s front gate.

This front gate is BOSS.

What’s interesting is that the area between the front gate and the river is probably more busy than it is during the day. All kinds of people, from kids to grandparents, show up and join in various activities. I saw dancing lessons (all free and taught by volunteers), kickball, and even catwalk practice for little girls. The whole atmosphere was very social and vibrant.

Had to join in and show the aunties how it's done.

The ferry cruise shows off Guangzhou’s night views and city lights. It takes you half an hour down the Pearl River Delta, then turns around and comes back. The night lights aren’t nearly as glamorous as Hong Kong’s, but it does go on for quite a while, whereas most of HK’s are crowded around Victoria Harbour.

A little gaudy but hey, whatever floats their boat (pun intended).

We passed like five bridges.

Baller homes

Most of the next day was dedicated to climbing 白云山 (Baiyun Mountain) with the entire family in tow. In total it might have taken us 3-4 hours to get to the top, with ample wandering and photo-taking stops in between.

I kind of have a thing for lilyponds

For the last 1/3 leg, we took stairs. KILLER.

The mountaintop supposedly grants the best city view of Guangzhou, but it was too foggy that day :(

Tea eggs and tofu dessert made with fresh mountain water!

I found the way down more scenic than the ascend. There were a lot of historical carvings, and inscriptures with famous literature.

The pillars each have 9 dragons carved into it

Bad-ass-est carving ever. EVER. (It also has a total of 9 dragons.)

Pineapple? Acorn? Pinecorn? Cornapple? Apine?

We took cable car for the last stretch downhill. Yes that school does have 6 basketball courts.

What I can conclude is that I love visiting relatives! They take such good care of you, and it’s nice to forget about school, social obligations, and errands for a while. Guangzhou is no less than a world-class city, and that was definitely not my last time there!

We met up with our friend from Shenzhen and she took us to dim sum, shopping, then dropped us off at Window of the World (she is too nice!). Dim sum was really good and relatively cheap, except certain starving kids got carried away with ordering food, and we had way too much leftovers.

This is like maybe 1/3 of what we had

The Shenzhen Metro is a lot like the ones in many other large metropolitan areas. Declining-balance card, or single journey tickets. Only stupid TTC runs on prehistoric non-electronic ticketing/tokens. I realize I bash on Canada/Toronto a lot, so I will say that the one thing TTC does right is having the ‘next stop’ announcements on their buses. Buses in HK all have crazy windy routes, so knowing when it’s your stop without knowing the area is extremely difficult and non-intuitive. I’ve under/overshot my stop countless times.

Shenzhen shopping was super cheap. I got a couple items including A&F (probably fake but look pretty legit) flipflops for around CAD 2 and they are the most comfortable flipflops ever! I need to go back and buy more pairs in other colours.

Shenzhen's oldest McDonald's

Window of the World is a theme park-type-ish attraction that has miniature replicas of famous worldwide structures. I found it rather gimmicky overall, but a few models were quite opulent.

Window of the World subway entrance: Mini-Louvre

We started off in Asia (Azn pride, yo) and worked our way through Oceania, Africa, the Americas, Dinosaurs (wtf?), and Europe. Europe not really because we arrived pretty late and a lot of the buildings were closed off already. LAME! A lot of the models look pretty good from afar, but when you go up close, you can tell they are really dirty, and not very well maintained.

Grand Palace in Thailand!

Taj Mahal in India

Sydney Opera House in Australia

Italy, and Eiffel Tower in background

Egyptian desert

Notice the WTC. You know they haven't even bothered within the last 9 years.

Dinosaurs! I dunno why

At around 7:30 we went to the main stage area to watch a dance show. They re-created some classical stories such as Cinderella and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The costumes, choreography and sets were all very impressive but by then we were all so tired, we didn’t stay for the entire thing. In fact my other two companions were asleep for the majority of the performance.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Ajisen Ramen (in Toronto they would be considered ‘pretty good’ but it’s just a waste of money to have it in Asia) because we really couldn’t find anywhere else that was decent to dine, then tried out the egg tarts at KFC. They had these egg tarts with some kind of mochi filling, and it was SO GOOD.

YUM

After that, we really needed to head back to Hong Kong, else the MTR would shut down. Instead of Lok Ma Chau, we went through the other border crossing, Luohu Port, because we were closer. Sketchiest border I’ve ever crossed in my life.

To HK? Or to the fiery mouths of doom?

On the way back, we called up a few other friends to see what they were up to, and decided we could all meet up in Central to chill at an LKF bar for a while. Little did we realize there was a huge celebration going on at LKF for the Rugby Sevens. It was crazy, jammed with people dressed up, drunk, high, cheering, yelling, and just all-around merry. In the middle of a street, between several bars, there was a group of Canadians warbling our national anthem, so Karen and I joined in for a round of O Canada.

Rugby Sevens madness at LKF. This is just one small area. Many ex-pats!

We hit up a couple bars (the first one had crappy music), ran into a few other exchange students, and despite being exhausted from Shenzhen, somehow managed to trek to 3am dimsum and back home.

Disclaimer: Photos from this post are courtesy of Mr. La.

• Pizza Hut with some of my girlies. Pizza Hut here is no joke. It’s high class and the restaurants are very classy and have an extensive menu selection. I had escargot as part of my meal.
• Meeting up with Redford for dinner at Crystal Jade. Best xiao long bao and ramen noodles ever. EVER.
• Meeting up with Wesley for dessert at Tong Pak Fu & shopping at Causeway. Mango shaved ice with marshmallows & fruit. Mmmm…
• Meeting up with Red again for dinner at Modern Toilet and drinks in Langham Place. The very top floor has these really nice bars. We went to one that advertised ‘buy one, get one martinis’ so we were really smart and ordered 2 different martinis. Turns out it was buy one, get the same one, so we were rather amused when the waitress brought us 4 drinks.
• …I don’t even remember what else I did for reading week. I guess the rest was relatively low-key.

Famed xiao long bao at Crystal Jade. You can also see part of the ramen

Shaved iceeeeee

After that I had a hella crazy week of school. Two assignments and two midterms burnt me out a little, so I thought it’d be a good idea to go to Taiwan for a weekend trip. Also, it was dirt cheap. Unfortunately the trip didn’t really turn out how I’d hoped.

The good:

• Flight exceeded my expectations; I highly recommend Thai Airways.
• Hostel was nice and clean. The staff were really helpful with any questions we had, and it was in a prime location, with the train station and subway (MRT) right outside our building.
• Taipei is a nice city. Not as crazy and fast-paced as Hong Kong, and the locals are soooo nice when we ask for directions/favours.
• Foodgasms everywhere. I think the best thing I had was on the first night at Raohe Night Market. It was a whole squid, fried in some kind of batter, and drizzled with various sauces.
• I felt like we hit most of the places I really wanted to see, and made good coverage for essentially 3 days: Taipei 101, Raohe Night Market, Babe18 (nightclub affiliated with Room18), LUXY, Wulai, Shida Night Market, Shilin Night Market, Yangminshan, and Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Wulai and Yangminshan would theoretically take you entire days to fully explore.
• LUXY has the most stunning interior of any club I’ve ever been to. Also I enjoyed the atmosphere at both clubs.
• Everyone can speak putonghua, so we were able to get around quite easily.
• The areas surrounding the city are naturally very beautiful.
• We met a really really nice cab driver who took us all the way from Yangminshan to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall for TWD 200.

The bad:

• I lost my camera. Yes, the very camera I said I just purchased in my last post. Yes, it also means I lost my memory card, not to mention all the photos from the first day. Yes, it was completely my own fault for leaving it in the back of a taxi. Yes, I am still hating myself.
• After I lost my camera, I was so depressed, I didn’t want to spend money. So I didn’t buy/eat much.
• On the third day, we went to Wulai. It was a positively gorgeous place, but not even halfway through the day, my friend’s camera battery ran out so we have no photos of some of the best parts.
• The exchange rate we got was horrible.
• I got no sleep the night before we flew there. Damn java sockets project.
• We went up Taipei 101 about an hour before it closed, and didn’t realize there was an outdoor observatory until they were ushering people out. We begged the security guy to let us go up for 2 minutes, and he gave us exactly 2 minutes.
• We were late in leaving for the airport on our way back, and had to taxi it for a ridiculous TWD 1000. Though if you think about it, it’s actually only about CAD 18 per person. But still. If we left earlier, we could’ve taken an airport shuttle for 1/5 of the price.
• After this trip, I would definitely not ever go on a multi-day trip with only one other person whom I don’t know very well. We did have a lot of fun, but constantly had conflicting opinions of what to do.
• I thought I got about 13 mosquito bites. Turns out I missed some small ones and I have around 20. I’m pretty sure I got all of them during the night. Must’ve been a few bugs hiding in our room.
• Yangminshan was a big letdown. We MRT’ed, bussed, bussed more, and walked a lot to get to the “flower sea” which was supposed to be really pretty. It was just a bunch of calla-lilies, half of which were dead/wilting, in a small area that wasn’t even nice to look at. On the other hand, the area we went to was maybe 10% of the entire park. It’s gigantic.

To summarize, Taiwan as a place was amazing, but due to some unfortunate circumstances and events, I felt like I wasn’t able to enjoy it fully. I will definitely be going back there to explore and eat more (and hopefully take some photos!), but probably not anytime soon.

We met up with one of our tour guides at the airport, and set off for Bangkok International Airport. The flight was very enjoyable, and I highly recommend China Airlines. For a two-hour flight, we were provided with all the food and amenities you would expect on an overseas trip.

Bliss

Once we landed, we met up with our other tour guide, who is actually Thai and speaks fluent Chinese. Our tour guides were very nice and always translated everything in Mandarin for us, since most of us couldn’t understand Cantonese. We then shuffled onto our coach bus and were whisked to Pattaya, a beach town about an hour drive from Bangkok.

It was hot as all hell, but thankfully we had some mild air conditioning on our bus. We were a group of 12, and probably annoyed the other people on our tour by being loud, obnoxious, and late many times.

Our first destination was a Zoo (?). It didn’t have many animals, and I thought the exhibitions were rather gimmicky. The one thing we learned off the bat was that if you wanted to take photos, you need to pay up. The highlight of the day was definitely the tranny show. It was quite the feast for your eyes. However, the elaborate costumes and sets didn’t make up for the lack of showmanship by the performers. Most of the scenes consisted of people coming on stage to poorly lip-synch, wave their arms around, give a few twirls, and then exit.

Some of them were really pretty. Others were just manly.

Little did we know, that night as we ate our first dinner in Thailand, it would probably be our best meal over the next few days. We did a little street shopping before retiring to our hotel for the night. Shopping in Thailand is relatively a lot cheaper than even Hong Kong, and some people even swear the quality is better. I ended up not buying much, but that was mostly due to my guilt from dropping nearly HK$2000 on the camera.

Day 2 was what I was looking forward to the most – hitting the beach! We rode a speedboat to this sketchy-looking platform thingy floating in the middle of the ocean. It was the place where you could go parasailing. The concept’s a bit scary but it’s actually really cool and you feel safe. This was definitely my favourite part of the trip.

Parachute + cord + speedboat = parasailing

We then continued on the speedboat to an island that had a beach with beautiful waters, and participated in some water activities. We rode a banana boat (inflatable pillar that’s dragged by a jetski), shopped at the markets, and just chilled in the water/on the sand.

This is what a beach should look like. Woodbine will never be the same.

In the afternoon we went for a 1-hour Thai massage. For a “western” massage, you get kneaded and pressed. A Thai massage is almost like visiting your chiropractor. They stretch, crack, and flex you. I didn’t feel much different afterwards, but the people who paid for the full 2-hour massage claim it was positively orgasmic.

On Day 3, we were on the road back to Bangkok. Along the way we visited a lot of shops – honey, snacks, leather, jewelry. We felt they were a huge waste of time, and nobody really bought anything. We stopped by a place to see a monkey show (it was rather sad to see how they treated the monkeys), ride a horse-drawn carriage, and ride an elephant.

He's named after Andy Lau. Must be the striking resemblance.

First-person view. All you have to do is imagine the eau de horse shit.

Not irrelephant

For dinner, we were each issued a 200 baht voucher (1 Canadian dollar equals approximately 30 Thai baht), and released into the food court at CentralWorld mall. I used exactly 200 baht to get a pad thai, gyoza, beef ball skewers, Thai iced tea, dessert, and a fruit shake. Unfortunately we were rushed, and I probably only finished about 80% of my food.

Any Asian mall >>>>> Eaton Centre

If you ever get a chance, MAKE SURE you try a Mister Donut donut. Or two.

We visited the Suan Lum night bazaar where I bought a few trinkets, and then checked into our hotel. Our tour didn’t include the Grand Palace or any temples in Bangkok, which was ridiculous, so the next day, we broke off from our tour group and explored Bangkok ourselves. Transportation was rather tricky, but thanks to good planning, nothing ill befell us. First, we hopped on a ferry to get to the Grand Palace. Many people were commuting to work on the boat, so it was jammed full by the time it reached us. We somehow managed to cram all 12 of us in, and I hypothetically questioned how something like this would fly in Canada.

The guy in the blue shirt walks along the edge of the boat (while it's in motion) and collects your fare

We made our way to the Grand Palace by asking random locals for directions, and made it just in time before the ticket booth closed.

The large statues are demons

The Mansion

The weather finally fatigued us, so we went to the city centre, where there were malls with air conditioning. After grabbing food at a local market, we took the ferry and BTS (Thailand’s subway system) to MBK mall. The mall wasn’t that impressive… it was catered to young people, so it was squished like P-Mall and didn’t have all the lavish shops. The highlight was probably getting free Thai iced tea from the food court, for being a foreigner.

Bangkok traffic, with MBK Centre to the right. The taxis are very colourful.

We reunited with our tour group at the Siam Paragon (a very nice mall; shame we didn’t have time to wander around). That night, we went out for dinner at this mall called… The Mall. Seriously. For dessert, we decided to try some roti. We gathered to watch the guy make them at the counter, and he did all these crazy spinning/throwing/catching tricks with the dough. He did mess up a few times. Mine was naihua + banana + egg + chocolate. OH EMM GEEEEE it was so good.

*Salivating*

The next day was mostly spent packing up and saying goodbye to Thailand. We were at the airport by noon, had very expensive lunches, and arrived back in Hong Kong around 6pm (Thailand is one hour behind HK). My point of stupidness was when I forgot to pack my aerosol sunscreen in my check-in luggage, and so they confiscated it at security. RIP, pricey sunscreen :(

The trip was a lot of fun, but at times I did feel myself missing the comforts of Hong Kong (ie. English, MTR…). I’m looking forward to more adventures in South-East Asia in April/May when a handful of Waterloo people are coming to visit!

Lamb chops with baked penne @ Red Ant

Dude. I love lamb meat. I think I only recently became conscious of this fact. It’s just so good however you prepare it. So far in HK I’ve had lamb chops, lamb in hot pot, lamb in KBBQ, lamb dumplings, lamb skewers, lamb in stew… I am instantly drawn to anything on any menu if it has lamb in it. SO GOOD.

That is all I have to say. Yes, this entry is a scheduled post because I currently do not have Internet access in Thailand, and I know that my lack of online presence has left a void in your life. In the meanwhile, feel free to drool over and discuss the glory that is lamb meat. Back on Tuesday!

I nearly got stabbed by an umbrella at least five times.

We managed to wedge ourselves in a spot in the middle area behind 2-3 rows of other people. What I found most annoying were people who were determined to keep their umbrellas open. Not only does it block the view for EVERYONE, I had to keep a lookout to make sure I didn’t randomly get whacked in the head.

Once the show started, though, most people were nice enough to stow away their umbrellas (it wasn’t that rainy anyways). This only left the jerks who raised their tripods so high, their chunky SLRs kept making cameos in the corner of our own shots.

Other than these minor annoyances, the show was enjoyable.

I think that you may actually prefer seeing some fireworks photos, instead of reading a thousand-word paragraph of me describing them for you. Just a warning that the following is going to be very graphics- and exclamation mark-intensive.

The firecrackers are set off from 3 boats floating in the harbour.

Fish!

Tiger faces!

Golden nuggets!

There was background music but it was really tinny from where we were.

Looks like they are floating stars!

Reminds me of aurora borealis.

Flowers!

Sakura!

Lotus flowers!

Firework fountains!

The red part should be Chinese characters but I couldn't make out what they were.

HK Island makes an amazing backdrop.

Smileys!! :)

Retinas burning yet?

Random exclamation marks!!!!!

Pink fluffs!

Wrapping things up... HK style.

In total the show lasted around 20 minutes. The photos don’t do it justice; you’d need to see it live and it will leave you gaping.

Exiting the premises was next to impossible; we tried to go one way, and a security guard informed us it would actually take about an hour for the crowd to clear out. By then we were really cold and hungry, so we turned around and tried to get out from the other side. It wasn’t much better.

Shovefest 2010

At times the crowd was literally at a standstill. It took us a good 15 minutes or so, but we made it out, and headed to Mong Kok for a belated dinner. We ate at this corner restaurant that was known for their fried dumplings/potstickers. I had 2 orders of these, and I could see (taste?) why it’s so popular. But of course, being generous restaurant owners, they welcomed the New Year and patrons by tacking on an extra $2 to every food order.

Eventually we wandered to an arcade underneath a shopping centre, and spent a few hours in there. They didn’t allow photo-taking inside, so I can’t post some of the weird and wonderful stuff it had. I had never seen an arcade so sprawling (2-3 times larger than the one in P-Mall), and it was open 24 hours. Similar to clubs, smoking is prohibited but people do it anyways. So I ended up smelling like cigarettes by the time we left.

Anyways, hope I didn’t kill all of your bandwidth with this post. I would’ve posted a video too but it’s 3AM right now and I’m just lazy. Also, my reading week unofficially begins now, as I will be leaving for Thailand in mere hours. Bedtime!

That-a-way

HOLY CRAP.

Epically battled through the crowd...

... just to arrive at more crowds.

Begin mass tiger merchandise. Most things were being sold by students, many from HKU.

Inside is a McNugget-shaped cushion (you can see part of it at the bottom)

Fake Cadbury and "Coco-Cola"

Fruit kebab dipped in sugar water and frozen. We thought it was strawberries. 'Twas not.

Gigantic Chupa-chups! Good for hammering people.

Tiger Surprise. I think it's a cushion?

Frosted Flakes are called 'Frosties' here, but the dollar-signed eyes kind of sends a bad message to kids.

The tigers ate the koalas.

Making sugar cane drinks. I had one, never tasted anything so fresh!

Of course, there is the ‘flower’ part of ‘Flower Market’. These booths took up about half the venue, and I think were just family-run.

Beautiful orchids

Carnations? Chrysanthemums? Not sure... I shall call them Poofies.

Daffodils cuz it's SPRING!

I don't even know...

Mahjong cushions!

This is so-called 'American-style fried coke'. I'm positive they have this all over America.

Chang fen with peanut sauce and other sauces...YUMMMM

Gigantic bubble-wrap-esque egg waffles!! Notice 'buy 2 get 1 free'. Because two of these gigantic things just ain't enough.

I used to love those tiny cookies with the colourful icing as a kid. Haven't seen them in years.

Coca-Cola people serving street food. Weird.

Next up, CNY Fireworks!

GOOD, not great.

They had about 5-6 dishes that were very very popular. We decided to split 3 of them: the Hainanese Chicken, assorted satay meat skewers, and the fried turnip cake.

Hainanese chicken (top), assorted meat skewers with satay sauce (bottom)

The chicken and skewers were both pretty good. The chicken was tender, and the satay sauce was flavourful. However, I was rather disappointed in the serving sizes – I thought one dish could eat like a meal for one person, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough.

Fried turnip cake

The fried turnip cake was good at first bite. After you eat about 2 chunks, it became kind of disgusting and feels akin to shoving over-seasoned glue in your mouth. Ironically, this dish was rather large, and can really fill you up. So basically the restaurant’s name is a fairly accurate description of their food: good but not great. After dinner we just wandered around TST for some shopping.

The Charlie Brown Café. Need to check it out some time.

I don't know what this was (hotel? club?) but it was pretty. And had reindeer decorations.

Hong Kong: Keepin' it classy

The next day we were off to Macau for a Gary Cao concert at the Venetian. If you don’t know who Gary Cao is, don’t feel bad, because 80% of people here didn’t know who he was either. But then they usually have an ‘OOOHHHHHH THAT GUY’ moment when you hum this song. Or this one. The concert and return ferry tickets were only HKD368 so I think we got a pretty good deal, considering ferry alone is around HKD300. After finding the terminal, which was a feat on its own, we hopped on the CotaiJet ferry and arrived in exactly one hour.

Off to Macau!

Ferry was impressive; had airplane-like seating

All of the Macau ferry terminals have complimentary shuttle buses run by the casinos, to their respective venues. The local economy is supported very heavily by the Cotai Strip, and features many of the same hotel/casino chains as the Las Vegas Strip. We took a shuttle bus to the Sands, and started our journey from there. First we explored the Fisherman’s Wharf, which had mini-replicas of recognizable international locations. It was strangely deserted, but it was nice that way.

The Sands casino is situated right next to Fisherman's Wharf

Mini Roman Colesium

Mini Potala Palace - the Dalai Lama's residence

And a bit of Beijing. They had a lot of colourful koi in the moat.

We then taxied to Senate Square and apparently that’s where all the people were. It was insanely crowded, even more so than I had ever seen Hong Kong (until the Flower Market, but more on that later).

Senate Square, decorated for the Lunar New Year, and PEOPLE!!

Pork chop bun for lunch - popular Macanese fare

We made our way to the remains of St. Paul’s church – the famous Jesuit church that burnt down, leaving only its front frame.

St. Paul's church

You can explore a bit behind the church, where you’ll find a mini museum, and I kid you not, a crypt. They actually call it a crypt. Beside the attraction, there was also a park we walked around. Of course, you can’t go to Macau without having one of their famous Portuguese egg tarts. It’s important to note that you should only buy them fresh from Kui Kee bakery. We bought one elsewhere and it tasted like the dry, powdery ones we have back home.

*Cue angel chorus*

After that we went around to more casinos. First stop, the Lisboa.

It looks like a gigantic shiny pomegranate

Lisboa Hotel lobby. This is what my future house will look like, thanks for asking.

Next up, the Wynn

It had a weak, cheesy fountain show, as a tribute to the one at Bellagio Las Vegas

There was a sweeeeeet outdoor pool area which we weren't baller enough to access. (The ceiling lights are a reflection from inside.)

After the Wynn, it was almost concert time, so we headed to the Venetian.

Picked up tickets for GARRRYYYYY!

Grabbing a quick dinner at the Venetian food court. The ceiling/'sky' is synthetic.

Pork chop & spaghetti in broth or something? It was YUMMY.

Anticipating GARRRYYYYY

Pumped up GARRRYYYYY

Subdued GARRRYYYYY

Gary’s concert was really just “meh” for me. He didn’t really do many memorable things, but then again I didn’t really pay much for the concert ticket. He sang all his hits, fake-cried during emotional parts, invited the most random chick as a guest performer whose name I don’t remember, had a sexy dance where two girls made out for a ballad which made no sense, did some impersonations of Andy Lau, and talked in Cantonese most of the time so I couldn’t really understand what he was saying.

Some bar in the Venetian casino area. Curved escalators on the sides!! WHEEE!!!

The Venetian's canal with gondolas, much like the one in Vegas. The juxtaposition of an Italian theme with Chinese shops all decorated for the Lunar New Year kind of throws you off.

After exploring the Venetian thoroughly, we came across this dude who was stacking cards. He’s apparently made many famous structures with cards, and was currently working on one of the Venetian. He was in a glass display that couldn’t have been more than 15′ x 10′, which I thought was rather inhumane.

Bryan Berg's work-in-process

We had about another hour to burn before catching our ferry back, so we swung by an Irish pub to grab some snacks and drinks, then headed back to Hong Kong. It was then that I noticed how much HK smells. You get used to it, but when you come from Macau (which doesn’t smell at all), the odour is rather noticeable. Pooped from a fulfilling day, we cabbed back from the terminal because it was 2am and no buses were running.

Finally, I’d like to wish everyone a (somewhat belated) Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Chinese New Year, and GO TEAM CANADA!

Update (3/12/10): Dude finished the card structure!