Been busy preparing for the Shanghai trip, so not much time to update liaoz. But will try to remove the back log as much as I can. After which, I'd like to say a few words before I disappear into the unknown over the weekend. It's been quite eventful weeks, or 2 weeks for me. Shanghai too me is like a SEP, but even more unknowns waiting out there for me.

It's like cramming for the last minute exam, like the last 48hrs of RAG and you can't sleep. It has shown me that if you really want something so bad, you have work like hell for it. Desire can bring you places, and I finally know what desire is.

Hey peeps! I'll be updating the 2 recent posts. No new posts for this week. Everything will be in these 2 posts. So just keep reloading can liao.

27th Sept update
Going for psycho tutorial soon. Feeling kinda sian. Dunno y. Maybe it's just the huge amount of stuff piling up and I have to clear it before I leave. Kinda like the same feeling I got when I was about to come here. Maybe I'll head down to Mong Kok for dinner and do bit shopping. Now I realise how girls call it retail therapy.

Sorry for delay in the updates. Spent most of the weekend going out, so it was quite tiring when I got back. Had full of activities, even more coming up the next couple of days. Will update whenever I can. So watch this entry...

Wednesday 20/9 update
Just had a fire drill. Standard stuff. Gotta get some nagging stuff outta the way first before I get to this.

Ok, yeah, about the fire drill. It was the usual, evac thru the stairs, blah, blah... Before this, I was like planning how to avoid the whole thing. I had ideas about hiding in my room, going to the library, or hopping down to Mong Kok or Temple Street to shop. But today, I just didn't feel like going out all and decided to stay and wait till the alarm sounded. It was like waiting for something to happen. But after the fire drill got outta the way, it was back to settling some emails here n there and also preparing my trip to Shanghai.

Oh earlier in the day I went for my faculty reception. It was super boring, it was mainly introducing the new staff and giving out awards to the students who did well in their areas. Those who went were mainly freshmen and exchange students. Kinda felt cheated into this.
Same goes for the fire drill. When I went to the MPSH, where we had to gather for a briefing, I was surprised that there were exchange students there. I was like, " Guess these angmohs were equally stupid as me to come for this."

Homework is starting to pile up liao. As I started to write my test dates n datelines on my calender, I realise how little I have left to enjoy. It's gonna be really tight now. That's when my "crazy idea" began to take root...

Monday 25/9 update
Now as I was saying, Lantau Island was the next stop. That's 16th Sept.

Met up with Gaik Chin and crashed her Uni organized tour. So I was a HKUST student for the day. Met my friend's friend, whom we've been on Astrobash together before. It's such a small world. Anyway, first stop was the Ngong Ping, and the giant Buddha. It's really impressive. Took tons of shots of it. The vegetarian that followed was quite good also. One of the best vege meals I've eaten to date. Next stop was Tai O, an old fishing village. It's quite something like Kukup. And we could take a boat ride out to watch dolphins. Manage to catch a few. Quite interesting it was.

We were quite tired by the time we went back to Tung Chung MTR station. What perked us up was the shopping mall next to it. It had factory outlet stores there. Not just one, but a bunch. It was seeing outlet heaven. It was tempting to buy something back, but we hadn't enough money.

17th Sept Sunday
The plan today was to go eat tim sum at Serenade restaurant, but it was too crowded and we had a change of plans. So we tried Spaghetti House. It was really good, they're not called that for nothing. Today was fine weather, and I was feeling trigger happy. So took a lot of landscape shots which I'll join them together soon. It's a long project which I'm working on.

So Gaik Chin had to leave to prepare for her BBQ in the evening, so I went Nam Sham to check out the wellcome supermarket my friends have been talking about. One thing let to another and I started exploring until I ended up in Sham Shui Po. That's like 2 MTR stops away from Kowloon Tong, and I travelled by foot. I'll elaborate more on this part of my travels soon.

Another saga is unfolding in the process.

18th Sept Monday
Another day at school as usual. Was looking forward to getting a PDA and my Hall's 'O' night tomorrow.

19th Sept Tuesday
Had to loan the one day PDA. Tried asking later only to realise that I can have a PDA for the whole sem even though I'm an exchange student. Nevermind, next week I'll get my hands on it.
My hall 'O' night was a quick orientation event. Mainly the year 1s n exchange students attended. I guess the rest aren't even bothered about it. My hall's quite new, so can't blame them if they don't have a sense of belonging to it.

Anyway, we played a few station games, simple but fun. Then met the Hall master, spoke a few words before we had the food. Everyone went for it man. It was very messy. I only manage to get a bit, gotta settle for snacks later. Then there was this lucky draw, and the first number drawn was actually mine! Guess what, I won 30 packets of instant noodles. Guess it's enough to share with the whole floor. Really funny.

That's all for this. Bare facts first before thoughts.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

In the midst of my experiment. If successful, I'll be able to watch Pirates 2 all over again. How fitting to kick things off.

Spent most of the day testing it. Skipped lunch and took a short nap. Rushed to INSO before 5pm to submit a form. Today was the last day. Still no email from NUS side.

So evening came, the clouds were coming in, again. There was a bit of gd weather today, until I was just about to leave. My roommate was going to the library to study. So I borrowed his umbrella and just I doubled checked my stuff, I heard rain. I looked out the window and saw the gloomy drizzle. My roommate, sianz already, decided not to go after all. I still had to leave though, meeting Gaik Chin at 5pm. We met at Wan Chai, went to Tai Yuen Street before heading to the HKCEC, the building that looked like a tortoise.
Tai Yuen Street is know for its wide variety of toys. Seriously, it's like toys r'us for kids there. There's also kinda like a wet market just the street next to it. Had a cheap dinner of wanton noodles. Noodles wasn't that great, but the wanton just as gd. All for HK10.
At HKCEC, we wanted to catch the light show, but the wait was too long. Took a few photos and caught the city skyline, of both HK island and Kowloon, and then headed for IFC mall. The light show can wait for another day.
So we walked and talked to IFC mall. The one with the tall building and has kinda like spikes on the top. It was quite a high end shopping mall. It was also a train station that went straight to the airport. Apparently, you could just check in your luggage n stuff right here in the middle of town. Quite interesting.
We went to Mong Kok next, had dessert had Xu Liu Shan. Didn't really taste that nice the one I chose (it was sea coconut combo). Better stick to their mango fetish or the bird's nest ones.
Another long day ahead tomorrow, so turning in soon. Going Lantau Island, the place I was suppose to go.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Testing other means of setting my ship to sail. Looks like the winds are sorta favourable today. Still testing waters phase. We're almost ready to set soon.

More to come in the evening.

Today was quite a rush for me. Started with a morning tutorial. Received an email yesterday which I could reply to in time before office hour ends. Then today the 'air strike' came. Wanted to go back hall n take a short nap before heading out again for a long lab n then my Korean lesson. But then the airstrike came and I was bombarded with email. I took the rest of the morning trying to figure out how to reply back. It was SEP admin stuff by the way.
Before I knew it, it was lunch, met up with my classmates at City Express and the crowd was super huge today. The queues were like 10m long everywhere. Decided to takeaway and went to the multi purpose rooms to eat. These rooms are like our societies area in YIH, where u can have meetings and gatherings to play board games on loan. By right, shouldn't be eating there, but everybody does it also. Kinda relaxing though.
After lunch, went to my bio lab. The labs are situated all in one place and boy was it like a maze. Almost got lost for a moment. Their lab rules are slightly different, where you can't have bags in the labs. So they have like lockers outside the lab area to temporary keep ur stuff.
On to the lab session. It was kinda dumb seriously. We had to go through this procedure, which in the end the TAs had already prepared the end product. Imagine a cooking show, they prepare this and that, then they pull a plate out and say 'I have prepared this earlier to save us the time'. I kinda felt I was in that cooking show. Then again, easy for a first lab session here in HK.
Had a quick dinner before revising my Korean before the lesson started. We finished learning the alphabets today, but it was really tough. Gotta do revision and practice. In theory, I can now pronounce any Korean word liao. Oh btw, I couldn't get this course approve, so it's like my fun module which NUS doesn't recognise. Bleah.
By now, it's late, took a slow walk back to hall and caught up with the news, especially on soccer. Then I heard there was a 3.5 earthquake in HK. Never felt anything at all. Sian, would have been cool to experience one tho, although I dun wish for one.
To end off, today's title is in Korean. It means Hello, how are you?

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

More photos updated on webshots. Check it out

It was raining the whole day. Stopped for while here n there but the rest of the day it was raining non-stop. Sometimes heavy, sometimes light, sometimes with the gusts of wind, sometimes the rain just falls. The clouds had moved in on Fri night, and the rain started on Saturday and didn't stop ever since. Except for Sunday when we went to Stanley, it was cloudy. Basically the clouds didn't go away. Today, we were one level away from not going for classes. Today's code was amber. Anyway, that day is still quite far away. It'll be cool to sit through a tyhoon though.

Anyway, i woke up at 2pm today. Slept at 5am after the champions league. Slowly got up and check my email. Had planned to blog n post more photos, but some admin stuff on SEP got in the way and had to do damage control. Expecting more to come. By the time I went down to blogging, it was almost 5pm, and I had to get to brave the storm n head to the library to get some books, then meet up Ching Man for dinner. Manage to start on my new blog design though. Looks promising, everything is almost as I had planned.

My first lab starts tomorrow, then it's my Korean lesson. Still not sure if I wanna drop it or not. See how it goes.

More on my thought to come as the days mellow out.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Ok ok, it's half a week already, i wanna quickly blog my past week before I start on this one. Was just about to begin, when I realise the East India Company and Davy Jones are after Jack Sparrow, and hot on his heels now. Had to do a bit of damage control before I could even begin.

Ok first things first, Liverpool drew statisfyingly to PSV. Wasted my whole night, and I felt we could have bagged all 3 points.

So let's begin. Now where did I stop....ah it was Monday.

Tuesday 5 Sept
Had a morning one hour tutorial and then the rest of the lessons at 1.30pm onwards. In NUS, it would be hop down for class, then come back n sleep then out again. I tried it, the walk back was a killer and I slept for about an hour b4 leaving for lunch. It was a bad idea, gotta find a better solution. At my physics lecture, I found out they would be issuing PDAs for our module. Cool man. Looking forward for that. Funny thing is that this lect is 3 hours long. Amazing what you can do in 3 hours. I doodled stuff on A4. Quite impressed with my artistic skill. Maybe be designer next year, hehe. Dinner at the canteen again. Been trying to eat the different kinds of food.
Spent most of the rest of the night getting used to the system and clearing all the email. Checked that I had no lesson the next day. Woot!


Wednesday 6 Sept
Decided to go down to Mong Kok and settle my bank account and do a bit of groceries. Realise that they would still charge me money for drawing money outta my S'pore acct. Went back to consolidate. Called back Singapore to enquire, call until my prepaid card ran outta money. Super sian. Then used internet to sms my Dad. It seem things weren't going so smooth. Laze around the rest of day, thinking how how....

Thursday 7 Sept
It's day 11. Tired of all the day thingy. Go by date better. Had another early lesson. Bio here is quite simple, for now tho. Rested most of the afternoon. I guess I brought my hall bioclock over here liao. Had Korean lesson in the evening. Quite fun, learning a language always is. Still having probs with mapping it tho. Came back quite late, but felt fresh. Must be the afternoon nap. Caught a movie, Click. Was so touching, esp when I'm overseas away from my family. Made it a point to call back home once I settle my prepaid card.

Friday 8 Sept
Realise that I got no lesson again. Cos today is labs day, but first week no lab. Now, what did I do. I only remembered that in the evening was the welcome reception for exchange students. The president of the Uni welcomed us, had a bit of wushu demonstration, then mixed around loh. Met up with the SMU ppl. Had met one of them earlier a day back. People were rushing for food like they never see it before. So they decided to eat out, I tagged along. A few Korean exchange students also came along. We went to Nam Sham, the neighbourhood behind my Uni. Went there once. Realise that I'm going to the same restaurant my buddy took me last time. The food was nice. When we came back, we played a few rounds of indian poker before calling it day. Got to know most of them.

Saturday 9 Sept
Took most of the day figuring out the streaming tv on my laptop. Had to prepare for the big evening. Liverpool vs Everton and the Monza F1 qualifying. In the morning, had to go for this lab briefing thing. It was super boring lah. Took the time to take snap shots of ppl.

Sunday 10 Sept
Went to Stanley. Quite a relaxing place, away from the crowded streets of HK. We explored Central over the evening. Funny thing was that it was Philippines independence day or something, and there were a lot of Filipinos everywhere in Central. The sight was amazing.

Monday 11 Sept
Lessons as usual. Only thing interesting was that during psycho lect we had to count the colour of MnMs. To see if the stats matched up. Then of course, we could eat it. Hehe.
Met up with my group mates for lunch. Another restaurant in Nam Sham. Equally crowded. Had to discuss which topic to do for project. Dinner as usual at the City Express. It was Sept 11, tried to log on msn but had probs.

Tuesday 12 Sept
Same old lessons again. Slept in the library in between lessons. Wore the jacket the whole day, a first for me. By the time my lessons ended, quite shack. Took a short rest before we went for a birthday party. Small one but met new friends. Then it was CL night.

Until I went thru my pics, that's all I remember.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

It's been a week of school. Many thoughts yet to pen down really. Been trying to upload photos the past few days till fotopic ran outta space. So I moved everything to webshots, the link is up on the side so check it out. It seems that the space is unlimited, so I'm gonna push it to the limit and upload everything. My trips, my sheares photos, my astro photos, my outings, everything all crammed into one site. I guess some of these photos have been lying in my harddisk for a while and forgot to share with people. So this is your chance to get that photo you always wanted to get from me. Dun miss it cos I think webshots will just shut me down for grabbing all their traffic.

Anyway, I haven't really broken the sad news yet to anyone cept for a few. It's like the only disappointing thing I felt when I reach HK. You might think it's nothing, but it's kinda like asking a smoker to kick his habit overnight. Over here in HK, you apparently can't use Bitcomet. For someone who had depended on it for over a year and downloaded like over 200gb of it, it really is quite troubling. Ok, maybe I'm over-reacting here, but the thing is I've seen ppl's lan points in my very own hall get blocked by the Uni for using BT. And that's when I check it on the first day. It's like how Jack Sparrow saw the hanging skeletons off the coast when he entered port. So anyway, I gotta test out the waters soon. So far, streaming tv isn't an issue apparently. Time to push the envelope.

A friend of mine had called me Jack, after Jack Sparrow, since I'm a sorta a pirate myself. And it's kinda amazing how he linked everything together. So if I'm Jack Sparrow, Liang2 will be like Bootstrap Turner, my predecessor. Then of course my Black Pearl would be my black external harddisk, always casting it's sails high out on the internet. Ah... then for all my CD collection, it's the Aztec Gold. Lose a cd and the curse of the black pearl will be on you.

So now, in Hong Kong, it's like the sequel continues. Davy Jones is looking for me and I'm like stuck on Pelegosto Island (the one with cannibals). My ship has ran aground and can't set sail for now. I'm still alive, just waiting for them to eat me while I hope Bill Turner can come and save me. Truthfully, I haven't even dared to start up the bitcomet program. But after today, since I tried streaming tv, I think I can test the waters a bit more. Maybe give it a few more days. I wanna still print my notes first before I get cut out from the world (if it happens). If all is good. The Black Pearl will set sail again, but there's still Davy Jones out there. And I owe him my soul. Hence, I need the Dead Man's Chest. I dunno what is it, or where is it. But I sure need that compass to find it. Speaking of which, I have a compass which was spoilt on the way here. Maybe it can be of use now. What's left is to find out how it'll all end.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Day 7 (Welcome to the PRC)

The day started off at 8am. The sun wasn’t shining as brightly as usual. Looks like a cloudy day. After washing up, I looked out the window and saw how bad it was. The clouds were low and it looked like it was gonna rain. Weird thing in HK is that when it’s cloudy, a kinda haze hangs over the whole region. Anyway, it didn’t rain in the end.

I met up with my room-mate’s friends, a total of 5 of us headed for Shenzhen. A train ride there costs HK31.50. Same price back. It took only about 40mins max. Customs was quite a drag. The whole place reminded me of how ppl go back n forth from JB over the weekend. Shenzhen, like JB has cheap stuff n many ppl from there go back home over the weekend. The whole crowd in the morning was like an exodus from HK. Similar but opposite happened the same night when we came back.

Entering Shenzhen, it was really like entering China. HK was so much diff. It you though HK was crowded, Shenzhen is a mess. It’s not as clean as HK is and the ppl n traffic really go about their own way. In hokkien, it’s “no government”. In HK, ppl are moving from one place to another, you don’t really see anyone standing still for a moment. In Shenzhen, there are like so many ppl just loitering around that they look like they are just waiting for the right moment to pick you pocket. Ok, maybe I’m just prejudiced, but they really gave me vibe. So through customs, we took a taxi to Dong Men, or direct translation is East Gate. It’s gotta be one of the shopping districts, cos there’s like a million ppl there.

We found the restaurant we wanted to go. It had steamboat and served goat’s meat. The food was nice and ate our fill. Their spicy was really spicy, which I underestimated them. Had thought the Chinese weren’t into hot stuff. Next headed to the KTV. We couldn’t really find our way at first, but after a while, we manage to get a taxi who knew how to go. All this time, I didn’t really understood what was said and just followed them around. Half the time I was really trying to figure out what they were saying. Over lunch, one of them discussed about having gals along. Bad idea…

So we reached the KTV and spent around 4 hours there. I didn’t really sing much, just one or two songs. They weren’t really embarrassed about their singing n just sang their lungs out. Their choice of songs was predominantly sung by males. Anyway, I figured the game of dice played in Pirates 2. They had dice there and we tried round after round. Kinda fun and like a game of bluff. Anyway, listening to some of the songs really jolted my memory. I come back to that later.

After that, we headed to down to shopping centre district and had KFC. My room mate mentioned that KFC was more popular with the ppl than Mac in China. Interesting fact. Had a simple meal before heading to Park n Shop. The supermarket there was like Carrefour here. They had everything, literally, and they were freaking cheap. Hey was in RMB and they even sell 1.5 litre (about there) bottles of shampoo. I swear you can use it for a year. The stuff there was amazing, stuff I hadn’t seen before. They even had live frogs waiting on death row, dried starfish and many types of fish. And so my room mate n friends bought some of the groceries here. I realized it was stuff which I had already bought. Kinda felt cheated, but then again, IKEA was already cheap, this place was just cheaper.

Anyway, at the end of the day, we took a train back home. Almost had a problem at customs entering back into HK, but it was nothing in the end. Learnt that in HK, ppl walk on the left, but in China, it on the right. So does the driving, it’s opposite. While we were walking to the train platform, it was like an exodus from Shenzhen into HK. There were hordes n hordes of ppl. We decided to take the next train while the train waiting was filling up. As we waited for the gate to the platform to open, a horde had gathered behind us. These ppl are more kiasu than Singaporeans loh. Once the gate opened, everyone rushed to reach the platform n be the first in the queue. The train hasn’t even arrived yet. When the train arrived, the doors opposite opened first to let all the passengers alight first, closing it before opening on our side. All of us were like F1 cars just waiting on the grid for the door to open. When the opposite doors closed, everyone just inched closer to ready themselves to get into the train. It was really funny, as I don’t think such kiasuism can be seen in Singapore. So we rushed for the seats and slept through the journey.

A similar incident happened a few days back. I was at Yau Ma Tei MTR and it was the last stop for the green line. Gaik Chin n I was going back and we took the green line. On the way down to the platform, we saw ppl gathering on one side of the platform. No train was visible, so I assumed that was the usual side. We slowly walked to a door and waited when the announcement said that the train would arrive on the other side of the platform. Immediately, everyone rushed to the other side, even though no train had arrived yet. Some were even running across. Both of us were stunned as we slowly moved across the platform. It took us a moment before laughing at the whole matter. Again, I’ve seen ppl run across City Hall to catch the next train when the train is over the other side, but never when the train is not even here yet. Amazing. Will try to record this one day.

Felt I learnt a lot today. Tomorrow, the ball will start rolling.

Day 8 (First Day of School)

It’s always a rush on the first day of school. People running everywhere, catching up with classmates and chatting about what they did over the holidays, etc. My first lesson was at 1.30pm. But I got up early to enroll into the Uni. Couldn’t do so until I entered HK as a student, before this I was just a tourist visitor.

Long story short, I did my visa late and couldn’t collect it until I got here in HK. When I got here, they told me that I had to leave HK n re-enter using the visa. I tried asking if I could just go to the immigration office but it seemed that everyone was telling to go Shenzhen or Macau. So I tried Shenzhen. It was nervous re-entering back to HK. For a moment the customs officer looked suspiciously at me, but in the end, everything went well.

So anyway, that was why I couldn’t get internet or do anything in school for the whole week. Now finally with my student ID, it could allow you to go anyway in the Uni. It’s like a universal card.

Back to the first day, so I explored the Uni, figured out the printing stuff and checked out what texts to buy. I still got my NUS stuff to settle. Then also registered my network card. So everything slowly fell into place. As I went for my first lesson, funny thing was that the lecture was held in a classroom, but it had a small cohort, like 30 or so, as compared to the 300+ life science students in NUS. Lessons are basically similar to those in NUS, so I won’t bore you with what was done.

I met up the my NUS counterpart for dinner. Haven't seen her yet though but it was nice to finally see the person you've been talking to for the past few days. She's called Ching Man, or Jing4 wen1. Anyway, we just had a normal dinner at City Express (the Uni canteen). We caught up with what has happened so far and learnt a few Canto stuff from her. Was suppose to go to some orientation prog, but she said it's no point, so didn't go in the end and we talked for quite a while.

Just after dinner, I met up with some of her friends. They're from China and are yr 1. She knew them from the hall's orientation. Quite a cute and friendly bunch of ppl. We walked around festival walk for a while, then headed back to hall. She stays in Hall 4, which is like just next to the gate, while mine is Hall 7, all the way in. She walked me back, which I think now I should have done something about it. I'll do something for another day.

It's been quite an eventful first day of school.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

PS: Photos will be up soon for this one. New site coming up cos Fotopic ran outta space.

Day 5(Out of e heat n into e cold)

Woke up this morning with my room mate complaining that it was too hot, so he switched on the air-con n went back to sleep. A moment later, he woke up n off the air-con, saying it was too cold. I had to agree, but was to sleepy to bother about the temperature. Watching him complaining about the temperature was quite amusing. He’s been doing this for the past few days. Then again, he’s right, the air-con’s quite powerful, and it can get very hot in the late morning when the sun shines into our window. That’s y I tend to leave the room by noon and go explore town. But for today, I almost had enough of sleeping on a makeshift pillow. The aches are getting to me and the heat is quite bad. Thus I went to the shop Angie recommended last night. It was designer furniture shop, the pillows aren’t that cheap. I almost wanted to buy it, but held back until I see the price in IKEA. Next I went down to Page One. The bookstore was very much like Kino, down to the interior design. Sadly, there isn’t any stationery. It was around 3pm by now, and I headed to the food court to try out the food. Food was alright, but I’ll stick to my canteen food. The KFC across the mall was much more tempting. Another time I guess. Then after exploring the other side of the mall, I found this cool shop called Log-on. It had like cool stuff, from stationery, to bags, to office stuff. Even gardening stuff for small plants. It also had beauty products n electronics. But the prices there are like designer prices. Cool n nice, but ex. Will get something nice before I leave HK from there (cos Singapore won’t have one).

As I walked a bit more, I bumped into Gaik Chin. She was also doing her own shopping in Festival Walk and would have called me later. Guess we met earlier than expected. We went down to Yau Ma Tei after that and explored the streets. There was this street which sold vegetables and raw meat, very much like a wet market. But it wasn’t highlighted in the map. We went on to see Jade Street, but it was closed already. Temple Street was just starting for the night ahead. Not many shops were open yet. Gaik Chin managed to find a convenient store with what she wanted. After walking a bit more, we finally gave up finding this roadside food store which she remembered had very nice food. Much of the streets around here were quite familiar, as I had stay at Evergreen Hotel nearby. Some of the road signs hadn’t changed, but many did.

We decided to drop by the Porridge restaurant (Ocean Empire) to have dinner. As we ordered, the lady forgot to mark my order on the bill. My porridge came late, and in the end, when I went to pay for the bill, the cashier just charged us for one bowl instead of two. I quietly paid the bill n left. Gaik Chin questioned my conscience. I was like I knew but didn’t say. She asked if it was I didn’t know how to say it or I was trying to get away with it. It was a bit of both actually. But hey, this doesn’t happen that often you know. So we ate 2 bowls for the price of 1.

Next we went to Kowloon Bay for IKEA. Telford Plaza was huge, much bigger than I had expected. In fact, it had 3 plazas. IKEA was in Plaza 2. We shopped for a while in there and I finally bought my pillow for HK100. Bought a foldable laundry basket, magnets n Tupperware as well. The prices are quite affordable, some much lesser than that in Singapore or in the streets of HK. There was a mug going for only HK3, when we got ours for HK10 at Mong Kok.

After that, we headed on home. I dropped by Pacific Coffee again to surf the net. I think the boss already knows me. I left without buying something, so I owe one to them.

Started watching CSI last night. I think I brought enough entertainment to last me thru the whole sem. But then again, I gotta make time to learn Cantonese as well. Gotta catch those TVB shows soon n pick up something.

Shenzhen, here I come.

Day 6 (Indoors)

Just my morning usual routine, waking up grabbing a bite, reading my book (The Sword Of Shannara), dozing back into dreamland till about 1pm. My room mate went for a run around 9am, caught another episode of CSI. The Shenzhen trip had been postponed to Sunday. So today was kinda like my free day. Thought for a while what to do.

By 1pm, I decided to hop down to my Uni canteen to grab lunch. There’s only one canteen, but a huge one. I realised that if you choose wisely, your meals can turn out to be quite cheap. So for today I went for beef n ham with rice, was only HK18. Tasted kinda nice too, but not the type you’d stick to eating day in day out. Still trying to find that elusive dish to stick to. Then I went out to Page One to see what magazines they had. They had the usual magazines, but not on Astro. Either they don’t offer or are sold out. Realise that Singapore has better variety. As for porn, they’re mainly exported from Europe. Local ones gotta get them off the street. Anyway, that wasn’t really my primary point. I managed to find a Cantonese handbook to work on my Canto. Hope it helps. Now just need to find the drive. I then went over to Pacific Coffee to check on updates. Only a few reply emails. The rest are like lost in space. Talked to a few ppl, but not for long. Looks like nothing much has happened. Kids were hogging the place and I kinda felt pressed for time over there. Took a few quick glances at a few websites n left. I wanted to try to find my bank today but realized that it was a Saturday and it was half day for banks. So I went down to Taste n bought more food and headed back to hall. Caught a few more episodes of CSI and then watched Silent Hill. Quite a gd movie I must say. In between, I experimented on the laundry n dryer. Laundry costs HK5 and it’s only 45min, as compared to our super long washers in Sheares. For the washer here, it works roughly the same. Funny thing was, as I started it, I realized the water was clearing the compartment next to the one I had put my washing powder in. In panic, I transferred the powder over and poured some water to flush it in. Cool thing was I could pause the washing machine. The whole compartment drawer thing got kind messy. I wanted to clean it up but decided to do it after my washing was done. When I went back, I realized that the whole compartment was clean, as in some where along the process there was another round of washing and it cleared the compartment of washing powder. Relieved, I went on to figure out the dryer. It costs HK5 for 20mins, that’s HK1 for 4min. I tried 20mins for starters and it was half dry. I added 20mins more and it was just fine. So all in all, I round of laundry can cost you HK15. I noticed that a lot of ppl dry their clothes out in the rooftop. Maybe I’ll do that one day. Forgot to mentioned that the view from the roof is amazing. It overlooks Kowloon and some of the Hong Kong Island’s skyline. It’s like you could just sit out there n watch the world go by. I try to mosaic the view one day.

Today’s been quite slow, but after today, the pace will pick up again.

I’ll be leaving for Shenzhen at 9am. Dunno when I’ll be back. Monday starts school at 1.30pm. I’ll be trying to enrol in the morning and then register n shift some of my classes. Then also get my connection online as well. From then on, the flood gates will open and I’ll be back in business.

The 2nd part of the first few days in HK. Wahz, ever since I got online, forgot to blog again. Dun worry, will keep posting every 12 hours until it is up to date. Will be keeping this Day thingy till today, so from now on, it's according to date (ie Thur, 7 sept).

Day 3, Wednesday (The pace slows down)

Two days of shopping and hustling with the HK crowd can really take the wind outta you. Both of us were kinda tired but a trip to the temple might ease and slow the pace down. Today was a super hot day. Sweated non-stop.

Our first stop was Wong Tai Sin temple. Before that, I left my hall earlier to hop on down the Coffee Bean to catch up on the net. Guess nothing much has happened. Or that things back home are just going on smoothly. Met my roommate in the morning, and I arranged with him to go up to Shenzhen over the weekend with his friends. This came just in time when I needed to go Shenzhen. Anyway, Gaik Chin couldn’t go yet cos her visa wasn’t done, so it’s also good that I went first and check it out.

Back to the main topic, Wong Tai Sin temple is just like those temples you see in Singapore. Kinda reminded me like the one Bugis. I was kinda reluctant to pray as I didn’t know which god was which, but said my prayers at the main altar. The pics would fill the rest of what I wanna say. It was a hot day, and Gaik Chin wasn’t feeling so gd, so we took our time.

It was already mid-afternoon when we left Wong Tai Sin. We headed down to Diamond Hill and checked out Chi Lin Nunnery. It was one of those places where tourists rarely visit. The place was really tranquil and when you step in, a sense of peace was in the air. A very nice place to take gd photos. I couldn’t take the statues though as they weren’t allowed. But the whole place was a Buddhist temple with huge statues. We spent some time there and rested a while. I think at this point, it was a good time to come here, away from all the rushing pace and overcrowded places in the downtown Kowloon. To take a deep breath and admire a side of HK that most people tend to oversee.

After that, we took a bus outside the nunnery back to her Uni. In between all this, we exchanged what happened the night before. About her adventure back home last night, her conversation with her roommate and of her buddy. For me, it can’t be compared to that. I caught a movie, half of it though. Tested sleeping without the aircon, read up more on HK. Then there was this encounter at lunch at Wong Tai Sin. We sat next to an old lady and she needed another glass of hot water. Gaik Chin offered to refill for her. Then she started talking to me. I couldn’t really make out what she said, but I caught the drift that she was saying how fortunate I am. When Gaik Chin came back, she told her some stuff as well, but she had to clarify things to the old lady. What a funny moment it was.

Back in HKUST, we took a short nap in her lounge before taking a walk by the seaside and exploring the sports facilities. By now, it was around 6.30pm. I had my dinner at the Uni’s canteen before leaving for my hall. Reaching Kowloon Tong, I walked around Festival Walk looking for a hair saloon but to no avail. I found the ice-skating ring at 60HK per entry. Should try it one day. Popped by Coffee Bean again to check it there’s new email, then went Taste to buy groceries. Bought bread, cereal, milk, soya milk(to try) and 2L of Pepsi twist for the late night sugar rush.

Soon, my room-mate will be getting his stuff and moving in. Guess tonight will be the night we’ll be finally sleeping in the same room. Never experience this before, so see how it goes.

Thinking back, I should have seen her home yesterday. Had I done that, things would have been different. Guess I gotta always be on my toes.

On a side note, this morning I dreamt about Rag and our float. Guess I’m starting to miss people already.

Day 4 (The Heat Is On)

Another hot day today. Wore the wrong shirt out. Should have gone for t-shirt, shorts and sandals instead of a polo and jeans. Oh well, I thought I was going downtown to IKEA today and get my pillow, but then took a change of plans when I was already good to go. So the IKEA plan was postponed. I went for a haircut instead then met up with Gaik Chin and checked out Kowloon Walled City Park. I asked around where to cut hair and most people just me anywhere will do. So I called up my buddy to ask. First she apologized for not returning my msg as her handphone was dead, and then her friend couldn’t help much either. Anyway, so I told her I’ll be going Shenzhen on Sat. Then I asked about the haircut. She referred me to a place just next to the restaurant we had lunch the other day. It was quite an old shop. So I tried. Communicating wasn’t much of a problem. With a few hand gestures and speaking a bit of Chinese, I got my msg across. They first washed my hair, then cut, rinse n gel. After all that, as I was paying the cashier, who was an old man, I tried talking to him and asking what’s what in Cantonese. He was quite helpful, and his Chinese wasn’t that bad. He assured me that in a month’s time I should get the hang of the language.

At the Walled City Park, there’s a bit of history in it, from the British to the Japs and till now. Much of the place has been reconstructed, except the main building which they have preserved. The place is quite peaceful, very much like a conservation park. A lot of elderly hang out there. It just took us about an hour or so and off we went to Diamond Hill’s Plaza Hollywood. Just a short trip from Lok Fu, Diamond Hill was where we stopped the last time we went to Chi Lin Nunnery. We shopped around for a while till Angie came and met up with us. It wasn’t until I went to the main atrium that I realized that came here before. We went to a Jap restaurant which was much westernized. Went for baked rice in the end. The food was not bad, and came in large servings as usual. As for lunch, I just had a small bun while waiting for Gaik Chin at Lok Fu Station. Before that, breakfast was 2 slices of bread and soya bean milk. Somehow, the bread here was more filling that back home. We walked a bit more before heading home. Saw Gaik Chin to the bus stop and waited till the bus came.

Back at Festival Walk, I went to find the shop Angie suggested where I could get a pillow. It was closed by the time I got there. Most shops here close at 10pm, at least the departmental ones. Guess one more night of sleeping with a towel.

After today, I realize I should spend some time trying all the weird food in the supermarket. There’s like Vanilla Coke Light, Mango ice-cream sticks, honey dew flavour ice cream, the different brands of instant noodles and snacks. There’s also Milo here, but they cost like abalone. Ok, I exaggerated a lot, but I’ll still buy it, then again, drink it like it’s a luxuary.

That’s all for today. Still gotta work hard to get around. Looking forward to the trip to Shenzhen. There was this funny thing someone once mentioned to me here. ‘It’s faster to go to Macau than to Shenzhen.’ Then another person told me this, ‘You might be robbed in Shenzhen, but you might get killed in Macau.’ ‘So in Hong Kong, you’ll only get picked-pocketed.’

First nights r always e toughest

The flight was pleasant, so much so I could sleep through a movie (Thank You For Smoking) and the stewardess had to wake me up for lunch. What do I have to say, it’s SQ866. A few friends sent me off at Changi, but those that I really want to meet aren’t around.

At arrival, everything went smoothly. Had to claim back my jack knife at baggage claim after they confiscated it at Changi. Had left it my Outdoor red bag. The security guard really took an effort to dig out amongst all my stuff. That’s gd security. Now, it was the 2 hour wait for Gaik Chin. Found the Macs that we’re suppose to meet, but it was full, so settle and the seats next to the arrival hall. Took a nap as usual. When she arrived, we met up with her buddy and took a cab all the way to her Uni. The fare was like 346HK. Ex like fuck. But it saved the trouble. Cos the next day when I traveled to my Uni, my luggage gave her quite a lot of problems.

Her Uni was huge and it faced to sea. Scenary was wonderful in the morning. I’ll leave the comments of her room to her. She’s staying with a Canadian btw. And I slept in the lounge, which they call a Common Room. Kinda reminded me of the last few days in hall.

The next day, we woke up early to settle her admin stuff and pay her bills. Then it was off to my Uni. Met up wif my buddy. She’s the quiet typed, but she really helped show me around the place. Took a short shuttle to the hostel and check in. As for my room, I’ll let the pics do the talking for now. There’s no fan, only air-con, still calculating the rate tho (last count was like 6hr for 10HK). Just met my room-mate. He’s from Xian, yr 2 studying in this Uni. Hope he can be of great help. Btw, I also have an attached bathroom, sharing with the other room ppl, ie, I stay in 505B, 505A ppl n me share one common bathroom. So it’s 4 ppl to a bathroom.

As for the rest of the day. We explored Mong Kok and tried to get some essentials but to no avail. However, I came across a cool shirt. You’ll understand from the pic I took of it. And it was only 39HK. We then met up with Gaik Chin’s buddy again and he helped us around n finally settle buying some of our stuff. He’s William btw. Haven’t got his Chinese name tho. We went to a food court for lunch then had porridge for dinner. On the first night, after left our stuff in Gaik Chin’s rm, we went out and had Macs. Quick n easy cos we’re tired and it was getting late.

Now, after dinner today, I made my own way back to City U. Was quite easy. But it was a long walk. Really good training on the legs. I thought the walk up thru Sci to our hall was like mount doom, but this one made that look like just bukit timah. This was the real mount doom, with the hostels over-towering and looking down on you like the ‘seeing-eye’.

Took a gd bath and now blogging. The night’s still young though, gotta explore a bit n meet the rest of the folks. BRB.

Day 2, Tuesday (Lost in Translation)
Woke up in the morning, the air-con had switched off halfway thru the night. My roommate was missing, but he came in soon after. Talk to him a bit. He had slept over his friend’s place. We washed up and left for the Uni, tho he left earlier. I was still lazing around. Better to go later when all the offices are open. Anyway, I finally got my visa but encountered some problems. Called up my buddy n she tried to help me. But she could only do so much. She said she’ll get her friend to help, but till now, I haven’t got the contact from her yet. Maybe just remind her tomorrow bah.

So we went for lunch, which was behind the Uni. Not bad the food, and she treated. She’s really nice. Since we couldn’t do much for the rest of the afternoon, she left while I explored a bit of the supermarket at festival walk. The prices are something like NTUC. So it was quite ok. Then went back hall to ‘nua’.

Met up with the roommates from the other room. They were cleaning up their room and we met in the bathroom. We talked for a while in the bathroom. They’re from HK and are yr 2. Their English n Chinese aren’t that good, but their Canto was of course gd lah. So I’m like vice versa. They knew that too once I told them I was from Singapore. Guess we can learn a lot from each other. My room mate came back too after getting some groceries, but left shortly. I took a short nap before shutting the air con down. The rate is about HK$1/hr I guess.

Then it was off to meet Gaik Chin at 5pm. We were going to meet up with Angie for dinner. So we walk much of harbour city before resting at Macs(again) n waited for her till she came at about 7.45pm. A short walk later, I rediscovered the Espirit outlet and it was shopping till like about 9pm. Bought 3 t-shirts. Will be back when I take more orders. The story of it shifting was alas untrue.

Next it was off to eat dinner at this restaurant called ‘Biao Ge’. The photos speak for themselves. Food was alright, tho I agree with Gaik Chin that it was more salty than that in Singapore, but I like it. Then we walked around Grandville road n vicinity, which mainly was ladies apparel. Gaik Chin got her Birkenstock n Espirit bag. So she was quite happy about it. Then we went to a dessert stall in Hau Fook Street. The dessert was great, especially the ice shavings are fine n smooth, unlike those in Singapore. By now it’s almost 11.30pm. Time to head on home. Next day’s itenary – Wong Tai Sin temple. All in all, the major prob I face now would be the language. Gotta learn it fast, but steadily.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Felt quite gd at the of the day today, after all the stress and module probs yesterday. Caught up with a few people over the past few days, some over skype. It's great to hear your voices, really make me miss everything back there.
Anyway, sorry for the lack of updates still, but the pics are up liao. Been busy catching with people and meeting new people, and also connecting with the world, since I finally got my internet. So no time to blog. Anyway, there's still another hour to the first lvl mtg. That's like the only activity the hall has done so far (that's what I think). Didn't see any orientation camp tho. I knew other halls had, so did the student clubs.
But that's not the point today, on with the show. I'll be posting 2 days of post in one blog at a time, no point spilling all the beans in one long post. It'll just bore everyone. Anyway, too many beans on the floor also very messy.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

I finally got my internet set up in my room. It's a long story for another day. It's 2am and I got a 9.30am class, so I'm turning in soon. Solved a bit of coding probs I noticed my blog had on IE. Will have more tweaking soon. Anyway, it's been a long day catching up with everyone and meeting new people. My first HK post will be up shortly. I've been sleeping early without the net. But today, once I got the net up, I've been at it non-stop. Guess that's how much I'm connected to the net and how much I depend on it. Ok, GTG for now.

In the mean time, take care everyone!

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

I should be getting my internet soon, gotta register n stuff one. Am using the internet at Pacific Coffee at Festival Walk, a shopping mall just next to my Uni. Can't hog it for so long. That's all for now.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE