foreword

More over at the flickr set!

Here I come again. The third time within a year! The street food, the desserts, the bars, the buildings, the windows, the personality, the modernity mashed with culture, the food, the food, the food!

Kuala Lumpur! We leave today. I’m looking forward to it – I don’t really think we’ll get to see any koala bears, but the company’s great so no complaints there! We’re gonna stuff ourselves with the food and drinks and anything else edible. Who needs koala bears to have fun? Not us!

One word: Wow.

China’s 60th Anniversary National Day from Dan Chung.

So there I was again, in the land that resembled Singapore but a little less sterile. It welcomed me in with open arms, and almost didn’t want me to go.

I wasn’t able to take the Airport Express this time, unfortunately. The landscapes you pass through in the almost-vacuum silence of the cabin is breathtaking, but when travelling with my Mom and her friends the taxi is usually our best friend, unless there’s a horrid jam and taking the train is a load faster.

Somehow it was only this time that I realized how they wrote the word ‘Taxi’ in Chinese. Oddly simpler than the supposedly simplified Chinese that I was used to. Coming to Hong Kong always makes me wish I could speak at least a little bit of Cantonese but alas, I grew up listening to my Mom gossiping (loudly) in Hokkien most of the time. We stayed in a very out-of-the-way hotel that had the view of the harbour, but we were given rooms that greeted us with this:

I kid you not.

I had to leave in the wee hours of the morning because I had a test to catch that afternoon, and I almost didn’t make it back. It was typhoon season, and it stayed at the scale of 8 from the night before. In lieu of the weather the taxi-man quoted me his own price to take me to the airport, which was almost half the money I’d converted to HKD at the start (as a disclaimer, I don’t change much currency when I travel). Nothing like waking up in the early morning to feel the wind wrap itself around the vehicle as it sped along towards the airport; this would be added to the list of why Hong Kong is so much livelier than Singapore, though the streets were practically deserted during the strong winds.

Reaching the airport with barely enough money for a morning coffee I settled down in a chair that looked more comfortable than it actually was, and made a friend who refused to pose for a picture – I managed to capture a few though, thank the brightness of the day. She liked staring, and continued with that even when she passed me on the plane.

The winds continued on, and the flight was delayed by more than an hour (the air crew was later than the passengers and the departure time – for SIA that is really not what I’d expected. I’m sticking to budget next time, they’re friendlier.) I had to run over to school to take the test immediately after I landed – talk about reality hitting you in the face.

I still love Hong Kong, with its fried noodles, baked rice, desserts, pastries and awesome wanton soup, and for those who mentioned going there next year count me in!

I’m going back to Hong Kong again! On a cheap A380 flight and dirt cheap 5-star hotel to boot! Whoohooo! And free shopping guides (i.e. my mom’s friends)!

This is why I never go ‘fml’, because I love it.

So one of the three places that I went to on my traveling spree last month was Hong Kong. The last time I went there was more than a decade ago – a territory in my mind that has been sealed and flung overboard, existing only under the deep waters it’s been submerged in.

Coming back again with my conscious mind at hand was fantastic, to say the least. When we landed we decided to take the Airport Express train out to the main train lines, so our Hong Kong trip started off in a very quiet cabin running through a tunnel. The moment sunlight penetrated the windows of the express I was in awe. The sea, the buildings, urban and suburban fused together in one landscape.

I won’t go into detail about trip, since I think if one were to visit a country for the first time it’s best to be pleasantly surprised than to find things that you’ve already read about in books and on the net. Also, I’m lazy. In a nutshell though, I’m definitely going back sometime soon. And I’m going to make sure I eat more this time.

(…not forgetting partners in crime Yanni and Jerrie (and wei!))

If you think the world has been cruel to you,

think again.

It was very, very painful to watch it on the news.

So I did bake. Stones.

And today I woke up with a bubble breakout on my palms and three fingers. And they itch. Oh man, haven’t had them in a while.

And I’m very much in the mood for a beach getaway. :( I’m quite thankful for going the other time (which is far too long ago) with Choonie and Yanni, otherwise I’d still be thinking trips like these were kinda not worth the money. Beach, beach!

I should go study.

Nothing like almond cookies and green tea in the early afternoon that feels like morning. It’s a holiday. Soon I’ll have to go back to my Economics notes.

I’d like to go on a real holiday. It’s quite hard, now. We’ve got pressures, man, we’ve got things to do. Not what we want to do, but what we have to. But whatever, it’s 9 more months before it’s part over. 9 more months. Dammit.

I’d like to go to a beach. The Maldives, if I ever strike 4D. Back to Bintan, with its waves and cloudy sunny days? I won’t mind one bit.

Then there’re the faraway places, Greece. India. Venice. And I’d better stop before I get too carried away and steal my mom’s credit card and kidnap a certain someone and fly off to somewhere nice.

…You know, it actually sounds like a very good idea.