Sulo journei

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Airports

I remember when I was a kid and the airport has always been an exciting place... It always means adventure is about to begin as someone is coming to visit us or it means that I get to go to KL to visit my grandmother.

As I grow older, the airport became a gateway to go beyond the laid back lifestyle of KK to another more exciting place away from parent supervision (hehe). Then it became a symbol of freedom and adventure in the Uni years.

As a working adult it was a place where r&r starts and work ends (unless of course if I was traveling for work which is so unlikely, that the perception of the airport is still positive)

However, lately the airport has become a place where I can feel happy anticipation or sad resignation. Happy because Louis is coming back from Spore for the weekend or sad because it's time for me to say goodbye to him again as he travels back to work... So it will be a sad memory of the airport for me until his next trip back to KL :)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Hong Kong - Wong Tai Sin Temple and Food

Finally the day of our friend's wedding arrived, so we decided to take the day easier so that we can be ready for the wedding dinner on time. So we decided to go to the Wong Tai Sin Temple with our friends who are going there especially to pray and seek guidance.

We had breakfast in a roast meat shop somewhere in Wan Chai where our hotel: The Empire Hotel is situated. This hotel cost USD100 per night and is definitely one of the more luxurious hotels (by our standard) that we have stayed in. The breakfast in itself is uneventful, but we did witness a fight and cops chasing the perpetrator of the fight... exciting... just like in the movie Young and Dangerous. Of course our Hong Kong friends thought it was hilarious that we should have witnessed such incidents as they themselves have never seen any such action even though they have been staying in Hong Kong all their lives... So I guess Hong Kong is not like the movies after all ... hehehe...

Wong Tai Sin Temple

Outside of the Wong Tai Sin train station

Stalls outside of the temple selling all manners of praying paraphernalia for the religious. Little old ladies will also harass passengers coming out of the Wong Tai Sin train station to purchase joss sticks and praying papers.

The main entrance to the Temple. At the time we went there were some renovation going on in the temple.

It is easily one of the most crowded temple that I have ever been to... not that I have been to many... There are however, many temple workers guiding patrons to the various different parts of the temple giving some semblance of order to a place of religious chaos. There is also a loudspeaker booming every now and then to remind patrons to hold their joss sticks high and pointed upwards to avoid injuring other patrons.

The temple is so crowded that the joss sticks will be cleared immediately upon placement on the urns by the efficient temple workers.Any delay in the clearance process will result in people not having a place to dispose off their joss sticks.

This pavilion seems to be closed for renovation

A close up shot of the decorations on the roof of the temple

Food

Our friend's sister invited us to have lunch with them at a famous Dim Sum place. We were finally going to try the famous Hong Kong dim sum.

This is the restaurant that we went to. Not too sure what is the name as I can't read chinese... hahahahah...But as you can see, there are a lot of people waiting outside to get a table, so its a good sign.

This is the family of our hostess. Apparently, this restaurant has been recently renovated and the decor is quite westernized with crystal chandeliers hanging off plaster ceilings. Very elegant...

So we get right down to the food: The Seafood Fried Udon. The interesting ingredient here is the conch meat shown in the picture on the right. I thought it tasted rather Japanese :)

This is some kind of a dumpling with very expensive exotic filings.

The Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun, famous for its filings of either Char Siew (Roasted meat) or Prawns. The one in the picture has prawn filings.

The fried rice dish is traditional, its main ingredients being the chinese sausage and dried or smoked meat.

This strange looking dish is a combination of 2 types of cooking and presented in the traditional symbol of Yin and Yang. The white part is egg white sauce, I think, and the red part is ketchup. Very fusion. But for the life of me, I can't remember what this dish was all about... it could be noodles...

This dish is something that I have been looking forward to. Its steamed beef tripe and to me any kind of beef tripe is always welcomed... Yum Yum

The transparent looking dumpling at the back is the Prawn dumpling, the round bun is sweet and of course the Char Siew Pau. So that is the end of our Dim Sum journey.

Here are some pictures of other food and also the wedding festivities:

The dried food shop with its variety of sausages, dried scallops and dried/smoked meat

The Wan Chai Market

The fish market at Wan Chai

All fishes are alive and kept in shallow water... super fresh

Strange looking clams...

Crabs tied with seaweed? and even conch...

Next post: Victoria Peak and Madame Tussard's Wax Museum

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Hong Kong - A Day in Disneyland

Yay!!! Disneyland!!! I was as excited as any kid about going to Disneyland despite being more than 3 decades old. It was a lucky break that a Disneyland happened to be reachable by Air Asia as going to any other Disneyland is definitely going to happen only if I win the lottery (assuming that I am in the habit of buying the lottery!)

So, it was nice of my boyfriend to suggest that we spend one whole day in Disneyland and offered to be my private tour guide since he has been to at least 2 Disneyland (LA & Japan) Hong Kong being his third. Early in the morning, we grabbed a hurried breakfast near the MRT station and hopped on to the train that has its own line to Disneyland. The whole train was decorated for the benefit of spotting hidden Mickeys.

At the time we were there, there is only 3 lands available: Adventure Land, Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land and of course the Main Street. Not very big according to my private tour guide.

First stop, taking a train in the Main Street to get an overview of how big Disneyland Hong Kong is. There are interesting events and sights to behold as well whilst traveling on the train. After one round, you can take it again to stop at the lands that you intend to visit.

Adventure Land

We went to the nearest which is Adventure Land. Here is what we did there:
1) We went on a river cruise - it was really fun, I only wished that the whole adventure was real instead of being man made. But then we are in Disneyland and not on Safari hehehe. Interesting point to note: The names of the River Cruisers are quite interesting :)
2) Visit Tarzan's House -If you don't know the story of Tarzan, never mind, his house also tells his story. For me, it was more of an opportunity to take creative pictures as I happen to know the story of Tarzan by heart.
3) Watch the Lion King Performance - This one is truly great, lots of singing and dancing, reminded me of the time when I watched Beauty and the Beast on ice back in KL. Spectacular performance, although it was a bit odd to hear the cantonese translations off and on ...hahahah...

Fantasy Land

Next stop: Fantasy Land. This is where the famous Disney Landmark: Sleeping Beauty's castle is located. It looks pretty in daylight but more impressive at night. What we did in Fantasy Land:

1) Take pictures with Disney Characters - There are many booths where people are lining up to take pictures with their favourite Disney Character. We took with Pluto and my tour guide insisted on that 40 minute wait for Mickey as he said that no tour of Disneyland is complete without taking a picture with Mickey. The Main Street is also a good place for picture taking with Disney Characters. We had ours taken with Goofy and Daisy there.
2) Watch the Fantasia 3D Show - This one is fun, you can even get splashed by water. Not to be missed.
3) Go on Tea Cup and Merry Go Round ride and Dumbo ride - We din do these coz we were in a hurry to go back to the main street to watch the parade.
4) Go on the Small Small World Ride - Its fun to see the moving and singing models of children around the world in their respective famous landmarks all the while being serenaded by the song: Its a small world.

Tomorrow Land

The last stop: Tomorrow Land. To me it looks like a space ship oriented land and if I had to be typical and remark that its more of a boy's thing than for me. I liked Fantasy Land, and Adventure Land and the Main Street better, but then there is Buzz Light Year in this Tomorrow Land. So here is the list:

1) Space Mountain ride - The only thing that seems to capture the imagination of the men that I spoke to in this Hong Kong trip, is their uncanny recollection of the Space Mountain Ride - and make no mistake, the waiting time is looonnnng indeed for this ride. Its seems that it is the most exciting ride here in Disneyland, so we cannot miss it, although Mr. Tour Guide has some misgivings as to whether I can take the excitement of this ride. The result: I thought it was a cool ride. Similar to the Runaway Train of Sunway Lagoon in KL, but a little less scary.
2) Play some shooting game - Sorry, for the life of me I can't remember what the name of the Buzz Light Year game was called. You get to shoot at targets left and right all the while whilst trying to move your space ship to the left, right and centre to get a better shooting aim. Thanks to some practice I got in Everland Korea, I scored high points on this adventure to the amazement of Mr. Tour Guide as I am definitely not as coordinated as him who did not have such high scores... hahaha..
3) DO NOT play the game with the 3 eyed aliens unless you are 4 years old. - Thank fully I didn't play this game.

Main Street

Although it seems like I am writing about visiting the various lands chronologically, we still had to get back to the Main Street on and off because there are time specific events happening there. Some important events in Main Street:
1) The Parade - this is a must not miss, coz all characters and their floats will pass by with song and dance. So photo shooting opportunity is abundant and of course there is the man made snowing as well in conjunction with Christmas (eventhough it is already past New Year at the time)
2) The lights on ceremony - this is when they light up the main street and Sleeping Beauty Castle and you get to see it through your paper cardboard eye glasses that they gave to you when you got your tickets. It gives the illusion of lights looking like snowflakes and its extremely pretty. I kept the glasses and used it during our Chinese New Year celebrations back in KL to watch all the fireworks on the 9th day. Very effective.
3) The closing fireworks - Although all human beings present in the whole of Disneyland will be in the main street during this event, go a bit earlier to the Main Street and get a good spot because this is really one of the reason why you are in Disneyland. So stay till the end and there will still be plenty of trains to take you home to your hotel, no rush. For us , it rained that night when the fireworks went off... so no chance to take any pictures but on the bright side, we savoured every minute of the fireworks. I feel that it was one of the more romantic moments for me and Mr. Tour Guide.

Other things:
1) Shopping - most shops are located at the main street but we din buy anything other than a fridge magnet as a souvenir as its quite expensive. There are also little stalls available in the different lands and sometimes even shops.
2) Food - there are restaurants scattered everywhere along the main street and the lands. But we just snacked from food stalls and bakery as there is not much time for sit down meals.. haha.. super kiasu ...
3) Photos - you can use your own camera to take pictures with the characters, but Disneyland will also take your pictures as well. You can opt to view the pics at the Kodak centre with no obligations to purchase and add additional money to get the character's autograph if you do purchase. We didn't buy any pics coz it was quite expensive and we thought the ones in our own camera was already sufficient. You can be the judge (The Disney Characters look cute and flawless, but I can't say the same for the humans hehehe)

Here are some more pictures: