Day 4- Macau Part 1

Yes. Finally. The post on Macau. One of the most brilliant experiences I have been through. Travelling around on unfamiliar territory with a bunch of similiarly clueless friends is the best thing ever. SO much happened in so little time. E.g. We bussed through half the island in less than 5 minutes. Goodness me. Oh, and a terrifying run in with immigration authorities. Who could forget that. Keep reading for some handy hints that should be read by travelling ABCs.

DAY FOUR

SO, we were supposed to depart Hong Kong early, except Bosco had an appointment with the HK immigration department in the morning to get his adult HKID. [In HK, everyone holds an ID card- folks under the age of 18 hold a child ID, and adults obviously get the adult ID card.  Once a child ID card holder turns 18 he/she must make an appointment with a govt dept to upgrade their ID card. Pretty much all of our BBQSKAMS had to meet with the people from the govt.]  Then he met the rest of us at the terminal where we ran to buy tickets for the next ferry.  The lady at the counter told us we had roughly 15 minutes (I'm not sure if that's right anymore) before the gates closed for the next ferry, so of course we all sprinted through the terminal to find Immigration.

Ah, Immigration.  Before I go on with this, allow me to jump back a few days to when I had just received my temporary adult ID (a sheet of paper that you use while your card takes about 14 days to print/arrive). D and I had this conversation.

B: I'm going to keep this sheet.
D: No you're not. What if you lose it?
B: ... I won't.
D: No. You can hold on to your passport. It means the same anyway.
B: T_T Fine.

I had my passport in my bag for the rest of the trip, however, I had entered HK using my ID card instead of my passport.

Now skip to the moment at customs- the lady/man (lol crap, too long ago, I've forgotten already) was asking for my ID.

X: Can I please have your ID
B: Err, I don't have it. I have my passport.  *hands*
X: *flicks through all the pages*  How did you get into HK?
B: With my ID.
X: Where's your ID?
B: I haven't got it yet =-=;
X: Where's your temporary ID?
B: With my dad.
X: Why?
B: *currently thinking of ways to kill D* He was scared I'd lose it.
X: Oh. What's your ID number.
B: Er, I have NO idea. (Honestly, NO idea.)
X: ...

AND THEN HE/SHE WALKED TO ANOTHER COUNTER TO TALK TO HIS/HER SUPERIOR ABOUT ME.

Perhaps for 10 or so minutes, they thought I was a teenage drug trafficker or something nasty like that, which would taint my perfect immigration record. :(  I was getting dirties from other people behind me who wanted to get through immigration, but then I realised I wasn't the only one on the receiving end. WOO, at the counter on the other side, Bosco was also in the same damn position as me. AHAHA!

But yeah. Minutes later, we were both granted 3 month Visas into Macau (Whee stamps in Passport!) and a lecture from Immigration staff about keeping temporary IDs with us at all time.  (Naturally D got a grilling from me when I got back to the hostel.. >:)

Tickets to and from Macau

We boarded the ferry looking like people who had sprinted for their lives from immigration to the right gate.

The ferry was far from what I imagined.  It had nice seats, reminded me of an aeroplane without the entertainment system. Not having an entertainment system was okay though. Some people spent most of the time snoozing. :P

At last we arrived at Macau's ferry terminal, where we were swamped with tour guides badgering us to follow their tours which was very annoying. Found our way to the bus stop and got on the first 31 we saw I think.

I don't remember much anymore (should have blogged about this earlier) so hopefully Bosco, Mawson or Quentin will fill in some gaps.  But I remember we got off the bus in hope of finding the famous food street- but apparently we had travelled too far and ended up here.

Doesn't this look like old HK?

Man. I am trying hard to remember what happened afterwards, but it's so HARD. Everything seems like a blur.  All I remember is a lady on the bus telling us to get off asap and cross the road to take the same route but back to our intended stop. Gah.  Macau's too small.  It takes about 5 mins for me to get to Carlingford Court by bus,  but 5 minutes in Macau equates to travelling to the other half of the island. Yeesh.

So we got off at the right place 8) and started walking towards food street, when we see this sign. 

We didn't eat there of course.  We ate HERE. Quentin and Sharon was separated from us XD and they had to sit with some strangers, while the rest of us had a little booth.

What we ordered:

Beef bible stir noodles (don't think this was ours)

Was this Char siu stir noodle?

Beef with noodle soup

Beef stomach stir noodles (mine)

Wontons in Fat Rice Noodles

Unfortunately of the 7 or so odd hours we spent in Macau, we didn't get a chance to eat real portuguese food. :(

But I end this post here. Getting super hungry from looking at these photos ;D time for migoreng!

Photos: Mascot, Shatin, The Peak, Shopping and Karaoke @ Neway

HI. They changed the router out in the public-ish hallway, so I have internet in my room now. :D YAY.

DAY ONE-

We arrived at the airport just around 5.30am I think. Twas all dark and yeah. Chilly.

SKIP 9 HOURS- I didn't take my hand carry luggage out of the top rack cabinet until 10 mins before landing because I was wedged between an arm rest and a fat lady and couldn't move.

GENIE!

Skip a few more hours- didn't think the photos before were too important.

Dinner with family. K+B+Bel (yeah. T_T Belle and Bel. How confusing)

CHRISTMAS EDITION!

Cute. We noticed a christmas tree shaped barcode was on the back of the can.

That's it for day one. Sydney -> Campbelltown -> Mascot -> Hong Kong (Mong Kok for dinner)

DAY TWO

Grandma is old, Great Aunt in hospital- so we were going to visit them that day. Got a call in the morning from Borbitch informing me that our Ruse09 HK crew were going to Shatin for yumcha + New Town Plaza (♥)- I rejected politely.  Then M got a call from relos, and then she told us not to go (no idea why), so I called Bosco back to make them wait for us.

Met up with Ruse09 at Kowloon Tong Station so we could take the former KCR to City One for Yumcha.

Failed pose D:

K + B + S

How much we ate...

Afterwards, we took a bus to Shatin Station= New Town Plaza- a ginormous shopping centre with super brand-y shops (ie, Chanel, Dior, etc) but also affordable brand-y shops like Baleno, Bonjour, Esprit, etc.  Many levels high- but the only interesting ones were near ground level. Frolicked around with the group before parting ways, and meeting up again to buy socks. :)

Then we spent about an hour in Uniqlo and everyone bought something? Freaking Bosco is changing his style. ;D He bought a HAT and a STOLE. But not just any normal hat or stole. The stole is hilarious (hat is even more so). You have to see it to believe it. Pictorial evidence is located below.

With our Uniqlo receipts, we could take 3 other people on a Snoopy boat ride in Snoopy Town which was next door.

What is Snoopy Town? A very small patch of make-your-own-fun land + a pool of water and a couple of boats circling around in it. D:  Despite it being quite a barren place, it was quite fun with Sam, Drew, Mawson, Bosco and Quentin. Hilarious actually.

I am good at taking photos.

Whoever held the camera for this one is not.

Q, D, B, S, M, B

B, D, M, Q, B, S

S, B, Q, D, M, B

LOTSA SHOPPING

Then MTR-ed to East Tsim Sha Tsui, walked to Tsim Sha Tsui Station and headed out to the ferry to go to HK island. 

It took ages trying to find a bus that went to The Peak (mountainy place that lets you see the light show at seven every night).

Sat in the front seats of the top deck and got mini heartattacks everything the bus halted 20 cm or so behind the bus infront D: Bosco video logged- so hopefully it will be up on youtube soon. It was really frustrating on HK island during peak hour. The bus didn't move much at all and I remember my neck felt really sore after the trip because there was so much jolting T_T;  After finally arriving at The Peak, we all realised we wouldn't be seeing the light show anyway because the fog is atrocious (infact- it still hasn't exactly gone away ngggggh).  Instead we walk around in the fog on the deserted rooftop scaring ourselves by talking about ghosts and supernatural beings. How fun. Then we decided to be more productive, and headed INSIDE the centre and took this photo + hunted for food.

More than a couple of our crew members decided that the restaurants at The Peak were no where near "reasonably priced" range, so we dinnered at Maccas.  Like always, I discovered something new I really love.

Chocolate pastry- chocolate filling. MMmmm

Ooze.

What happened afterwards was a bit blurry now. But we sped down the mountain on one of HK's notoriously fast minibuses and got down in a fraction of the time it took to go up.  headed our separate ways? I forgot. :S

Should I type up what happened on day 3 too?

Perhaps.

On day 3 of my trip (day 5 of theirs I think?) we were supposed to go to Macau. Why didn't we go? Bosco and Mawson can answer that. :)  Quentin, Sharon, Sam and I waited at the ferry terminal for AGES and decided it would be more time efficient to go the next day and just go with the next day's activities.

Miffys at Harbour City

Flamingos at Kowloon Park.

SO. We walked from Tsim Sha Tsui back to Mong Kok.  Passed by many shops and entered many/ just had a really nice shopping day. Boys bought heaps.

I've always wanted to do this. :D

Nice Christmas display that changes every year

We stopped by at the Shamrock Hotel in Jordan for a buffet lunch.

REALLY FUNNY DAY. The bickering between Q + B during math class continued at the dining table. Pepper wars were very interesting and quite self explanatory. Here I discovered Q's big love for mango icecream and learned of his disappointment when it was never available for consumption because the Taro icecream wasn't finished.

I would add a quote- but no one would get it T_T; Quentin is hilarious. Really. We discovered how funny he was in Macau- but I'll talk about that another day.

After lunch, we kept walking towards Mong Kok, and decided to go Karaoke at New Town Mall (lol) which is a handy block away from where I'm staying. NEWAY was the place we went to- and we K-ed for ages. For a very cheap price too (incl food and drinks).  [days later, I ended up going with our larger family to celebrate M's birthday and had a buffet dinner!!]

DOESN'T SHARON LOOK LIKE QUENTIN! DOESN'T SHE?!

TIME FOR ME TO SHUT UP AND SLEEP. It's 5.25am Aus time. And I need to be up early tomorrow to get my eyes checked AGAIN FREAKING HELL- but to get new glasses.

Dootdidoot. This took ages to type up D:  Hope you're all having fun !

PS. WHY IS HOTCHA RANKING 1 RIGHT NOW D: EEUUUGGHH

Brief Summary :D

This will be really brief- it's almost 1.30 in the morning- HK TIME = Aus 4.30am

D:

Today I fell asleep on my grandmother's floor and slept for like 2 hours- missed out on 120 minutes worth of really valuable/hilarious conversation.

Luckily I've had a large share of hilarity hanging around BBQSAMS (formerly known as BBQSCAM- before Chris bailed). Key initial Q. QQQ. :D HILARIOUS. Model photoshoot will one day reach the world via youtube. :)

Where I left off-

Day 1.

M and I didn't sleep- stayed up; everyone was up at 3.30am and we left the house pronto. Got to Campbelltown after ages in the car which was travelling at a three digit number.  Mohammed got in, and we headed to the airport. Arrived at the airport and tried to settle in and eavesdropped on a conversation between two uni guys. Conversation went like this.

X: Oh- are you an ABC?
Y: Yeah, are you?
X: Nah, I was born o/s, can't you tell by my accent?
Y: Mmm, sorta.
X: OH, I gotta call my girlfriend. I miss her already.
Y: Um. Okay sure.
< insert disgusting soppy phonecall conversation >
< insert crappily said saranghae (or however you spell that) >
< insert disgusting wet kiss into the phone >
X: Did you hear me say saranghae?
Y: Er. Yeah.
X: My girlfriend's korean
Y: Oh. Okay.
X: She's really hot, etc

Yeah, I can't continue typing this all out. We were standing infront of them while boarding the plane and I was just dying with silent laughter.

On the plane, my mother nabbed my much beloved seat I haven't been in since 1999. The Window Seat.

Our plane had 2 seats by the window and 4 seats between the aisles. Our family managed to nab 2 window seats and 2 seats between the aisles. I had to sit with a stranger and it was freaking terrible.  Why?

She was :

• Odourous
• More than a bit overweight
• Staring at me for most of the trip
• MORE THAN ODOUROUS I WANTED TO BREATHE FRESHER AIR
• making me so depressed and cranky

So once the plane landed, I was more than happy to get off asap and hop onto the A21 bus to our hostel.

What. A. Freaky. Place.

The lift is old and smelly and creaky.

The hall way is dark and creepy and has drippy noises.

The people hanging around look so.. weird. :|

Luckily we have alot of English speaking backpackers :)

Also, the inside of our room isnt too bad/ I have access to free mineral water !

Photos will come later.

At night we had dinner with our aunt + cousin and went to sleeeeeeep.

Alot happened on day two- including meeting up with BBQSAM(s) and travelling heaps - City One for Yumcha, Shatin for Shopping and Central for The Peak.

THIS WILL ALL COME LATER. I feel tired after remembering my horrid plane trip. ;D

HAVEFUNTAKECAREYALL

Still Alive

I finally got enough of a signal to access a real site.  Back at the hostel, I could only log onto google and do nothing else. NOTHING ELSE!

Slept over at my cousin's place last night, and I think my parents are on their way to pick me up/we're on our way to meet them, so I don't have enough time to write about my entire week here in HK/Macau.

People I have seen in the past seven days. Samantha, Bosco (going away today to Singapore/Malaysia, etc), Quentin, Drew, Mawson (in Shanghai right now), Sharon (QUENTIN'S LOOKALIKE SISTER :O!) and my family.

:)

This is it for now, I don't think I should put my photos on my cousin's computer D:  HOPEFULLY THERE WILL BE WIRELESS IN THE HOSTEL LOBBY!!!

TAKE CARE ALL :) Slip slop slap

SNOOPYTOWN

HELLO EVERYONE.

I am updating again because I feel the need to make up for that silly/borderlinefangirl post about chucknblair (teehee).

Anyway. I was surfing a couple of blogs before and then I suddenly realised I've never been to freaking SNOOPY TOWN BEFORE- like EVUR even though I've lived there for over an entire year!!  PLUS There is a Uniqlo in Hk. O_O WUT. LIKE WUT.

I want to go to Snoopytown. It's in Shatin I think, and my cousin (who lives in Shatin) once told me that it's SMALL as and probably not worth going- but seriously, sif not go and take lots of photos with everyone's favourite beagle. :D I would also like to go to uniqlo as I've only ever been once- and that was a freaking fantastic time- raining in Tokyo.  I dove into the shop, bought 3 pairs of leggings and a pair of jeans- went to cafe next door and changed into it. It was raining TORRENTIALLY in japan, and my pants had completely soaked through. My goodness. So fun.  Uniqlo rocks.   NEW TOWN PLAZA Belle Must Go :D

TRIP INFO UPDATE:

So. We have an apartment in HK waiting for us now.
Kwun Tong.
OH
MY
GOD
Kwun Tong is like =) freaking awesome. The aptmt is so close to APM :D:D:D 7 storey shopping centre with LOTS of food. LOTS  LOTS AND LOTS. And they close late. :D  EXPECT TO SEE A VERY WIDE ME IN JANUARY WHEN I RETURN ♥
Wow. :) My dad knows some pretty rich people from my pov, because wth, they bought out 3 flats in their building and don't invest in it?!?!?! They leave it EMPTY!? Unfortunately these nice people are old and don't use computers, hence don't have internet I can leech off them. I was planning to upload photos taken at night everyday- nggh. Not sure I want prepaid net if I'm uploading all the time. XDXD

After my exam, I'm going hunting for some quick cash for some extra fun o/s ;) Prolly returning to old employer to beggggg. Not. She said I could come back if I wanted. Yippee

Goodbye Skrzynecki

After taking an entire lesson or so learning to pronounce his name, and another day or so learning how to spell it correctly- and an AGE learning to write it in cursive without adding an extra "y" or "z" or "i", I can finally stop caring about his name.  Whoever the hell thought of putting six consonants together should really learn to spell/read.  By proper English err pronunciation, this work cannot be annunciated properly.

Anywho. My dad has been worried about me for the past week. He thought it was strange I was so relaxed.  Honestly, after writing over 10 different AoS essays, I was pretty sure I had most of the points in my mind today.  I've been a cool as a cucumber :) alot of people have!  Not memorising an essay paid off. I've never been good at memorising- I don't recommend it either, and today, not memorising an essay but writing off the top of my head paid off.

The fact that we had to write about ONE related texts did put me off a bit (I'm sure it put everyone off), because I felt like I could have outshined the rest of the state - I had prepared well for this new AoS, and I guess I'm just disappointed all that effort wasn't required.  This is why I really hate english sometimes.  It's like biology. You learn an entire section in the greatest detail hoping to nail it in the exam- and it doesn't appear in the paper.

But yeah, disappointment aside- just be glad they didn't ask for three (I KNOW- 100% unlikely), but I prepared one just incase?  I was also super glad that the Section I was NOTHING like the Knox (?) paper. The one with the bald man... Haaa. Yeah.

I wish I had a better night of sleep though. I went to bed at around 12- was hoping to go to bed earlier, but I just wanted to read over everything twice before bed. Couldn't sleep. It wasn't nerves- it was just.. eugh hard to fall asleep in this weather. Too hot to be in the blankets and too cool to go without. I didn't dare open my eyes to look at the time at all- so I'm pretty sure I'm exaggerating when I say I couldn't sleep for hours.  But I did in the end- and at 4.54am I was suddenly WIDE AWAKE. Why?! Normally I'd be in deep sleep at this hour. WHY?!  Bathroom? No. Thirsty? No. Too warm? Nope. It had cooled down alot.

Then I heard it.

My dad left his bedroom door open, and I could hear his snoring. My door was shut and it was LOUD AS. So I creeped out into the hallway and closed his door- and went back to sleep.  Slept like a baby until 6.45am when I am awoken by a text message.

I get out of bed and read it.

Don't know whether to scream or laugh.

Sorry Cabbage- I really, really, REALLY love my sleep in the morning and sometimes I'm unsure as to whether I'd choose my morning sleep over friends.  :D Thanks for the gluck text.

Luckily enough- I was sleepy enough to fall right back into my slumber and slept until 7.30am.

WHT-

Got to school- waved. Half ambushed James (Z) - we were both unaware- I think we scared each other. lol. He was just lurking in the bushes and I happened to be walking past to greet the ex-birthday girl Lis. Handed her the equivalent to a box of roses, 3 easter bunnies, some Pepero, and some Lindt chocolate PLUS a hungry hungry hippo called Alice- exchanged hugs, complained about waking up, and boasted about being calm, etc you get my drift. Pre-exam hyping up time.

Skip Exam. Some BORING things happened- supervisors are kinda weird.  I wish the school were more organised and would dish out a bit more money for extra supervisors...

After the exam, there was a complication in our column and sim and I were one of the last few people to leave the hall. It was already something like 11.47ish. Atrocious. We sat there for AGES waiting for the supervisor and she just NEVUR came- except .. before we left of course.

Exam buddies (Sim, Rex and Xining.. ooh Cat I guess) who are basically people who sit around me during the exams and while we're waiting for the supervisor to come, we sort of have some silent discussion about the exam question.  Hot topic- one related text, etc. And the essay question- which made me think a lot more than usual. It wasn't as straightforward as I'd hoped, but at least it was just one related text? I sound like a hypocrite, but I mean that in two different ways- but now I'm just confusing myself....

When I was finally free, I think I had a stupid grin plastered on my face which somehow gave my dad (and probably Richard's M) the impression I super aced the exam.  Super aced is not exactly it- but I was happy I was no longer stuck in that miserable JC Hoskin Auditorium. Exams in the hall suck.  Richard's nose blowing echoes.  Thank goodness we didn't have people eating M&Ms (lol Janet! Our convo this morning!).

Wow, I'm feeling quite verbose today.  When I saw my friends, I just couldn't shut up today. Really. I had this urge to butt into people's conversation (stopped myself-luckily. lol) and to just jabber on about something unrelated.

AFTERWARDS, M, D and I went to Ewood for yumcha.  Samantha.... you should have joined your mum, because she & some other R09 mothers ended up sitting on the table next to us... I stretched out my ear and heard some juicy gossip- not. I wish I could stretch my ears. Gad. I watched fantastic 4 recently- and its hilarious. My cousin thinks I have really bad taste in movies. He's probably right. eehh.

Then I see Michelle (L) while we're grocery shopping and she tells me GAZILLIONS (3 other people) of R09 folk went to Cafe de Macau to have lunch. :(   At that point I was screaming "I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT" in my mind. Earlier that day, my dad and I were talking about where we were going to have lunch- and I was thinking of suggesting Cafe de Macau- but I didn't and let my M choose.  Even boring places seem extremely enjoyable with friends. ♥ you guys. Not seeing you lot 5 days a week makes me an utterly stupid talker/babbler when I do see you. D:

Go home- have a serious talk with my parents about booking my freaking airplane tickets because they're being sold like hot potatoes and all the GOOD FLIGHTS WILL BE GONE. Called up a couple of places ( I thought I was fluent in cantonese- but freaking asian travel agents use freaking hard words I've never heard of before ) and found out ALL THE GOOD FLIGHTS ARE GONE.  My dad is also very against M and I leaving on 21st Nov stopping at TP.

I'm annoyed. I don't see what's so bad about Taipei seeing as I'VE NEVER BEEN THERE. Forgive me for sounding retarded, but for once I want to experience something bad MYSELF. (and he sucks. when we were in tokyo, he said 100 yen shops were a waste of time, so we didn't even get to enter ONE STORE)

He doesn't trust asian airlines (except cathay & singapore) either, so he cancelled M's temporary booking- and booked for an expensive ticket that will take us to HK -> Shanghai. I'm annoyed. I didn't even want to go to SH.  Going overseas with D is usually all about visiting relatives. We spent 3 weeks in SH once, and freaking hell- had dinner at home like 6 out of 7 days. MAJORLY PISSED OFF. There are plenty of good eats in China- WHY, OH WHY DO WE HAVE TO HOT POT EVERY NIGHT.  I don't even speak minimal SH. Infact, I only know Xwords. lol. How do you do, thanks, telephone, toilet, SH, the address for our flat in SH, don't drink alcohol and don't smoke. THAT'S IT.

It is also cold, smelly and people on the roads drive like they are in some kind of super speedy race (don't keep up with racing. V8? ISNT THAT A JUICE- forgive my ignorance).. When the taxi drivers are turning a corner, they swerve.  When they are changing lanes, they swerve.  When they are driving in a straight line they freaking swerve.  My life is always under constant threat in Shang-hai. I am afraid of crossing the road (heck, I'm paranoid in safe SYDNEY).

Gosh. Not only are the taxi's scary.  Fights on buses... Swerving minibuses *cry*, cyclists who endanger the lives of motorists and pedestrians... The list is endless.

In China, I can't even buy a freaking tram ticket without being looked at funny. In HK I can haggle and pretend to be a local. (not really- haha apparently I dress really differently. weird trendy people in Asia)

But going back to what I was talking about before (lol... derailed...), I'm spending 2 wks in HK, 1 wk in SH (thank god) and maybe a week in Beijing. WOO my first time. However I'm leaving Syd 5/12/09 which means I'll miss the first proper item on the itinerary. boo. Coming back 10 Jan 10 I think. Just in time to suffer in the heat and kill my sun-deprived skin. (the sun does not shine in China... You can see it, but you can NEVER feel it- and it looks orange.. instead of like.. like. like looking into a lightbulb.  Thanks ozone. Thanks.

Should stop now. I've written enough for 2 essays (wild guess).  Today was fun, minus suffering the PMS rage of a certain female in the house. It was terrible. During dinner I was burned with a particular someone's eye-zap. ZZZ. Damn you MENSTRUAL CYCLE (I hope some of you shuddered reading that. I chortled imagining the shuddering. *creepy smile*)

ZZZ HAVE FUN WITH MOD A B AND C. ♥ mod C. :) LOVE IT