School Starting~ New Blog

Summer is over and now...School! I will be retiring this blog and moving on to my new blog about my exchange experience in City University of Hong Kong.

To keep up, please go to...
http://wahwahdays.blogspot.hk

The End of My Summer...Being a Tour Guide!

From 8/11-8/14 my friends (Darin and Courtney) came over to Hong Kong for vacation.

8/11: Tsim Sha Tsui & Mong Kok

  We met up at the Macau Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui and then went to their hostel to check-in. Afterwards, our first stop: Avenue of Stars

View Off Harbor

Then we went to Chuen Cheung Kui for dinner. This restaurant in Mong Kok is very good with its Hakka Chinese-style dishes.

To finish off our 1st day, we went to watch the Symphony of Lights in Victoria Harbor. This show starts at 8pm everyday and lasts for 15-20 minutes.

8/12: Wong Tai Sin Temple, Stanley Market, Victoria Peak, and Ozone Bar
  We had dim sum for brunch and went to Wong Tai Sin Temple (a well-known shrine). We spent about 20 minutes walking around taking pictures.

  From here, we went to Central to take a bus up to Stanley Market for souvenirs. Afterwards, we went to Victoria Peak to take pictures of Hong Kong's amazing night view!

For dinner, we went to Mak's Noodle Restaurant for cheap and tasty won ton noodles. This restaurant is Michelin-starred and located at the ground floor of the Peak Galleria. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to clean up and get ready to go to Ozone Bar. This was my first time to this bar and it was a really cool experience knowing that you are on the 118th floor (Hong Kong's highest bar)! The minimum spending for three of us total had to be 1,000 HKD, but it was worth it!

8/13-8/14
  For the last day the typhoon towards China was nearing Hong Kong and it was raining a lot. During the day, a typhoon warning signal 3 was issued, so we mainly stayed indoors. It was forecasted that it may reach signal 8, where all shops close and everyone tries to go home or stay indoors. During these times, all transportations stop except for taxis but taxi drivers are able to charge customers a lot more because insurance is not covered for them working during a signal 8 typhoon warning. To be safe, we headed to the airport as soon as possible after dinner and spent the night at the airport. Turned out that the signal 8 warning was issued at 1am. It was my first time experiencing a typhoon warning signal 8, and also spending a night at the airport!

Overall, I learned that being a tour guide was not an easy task when I was still trying to learn where to go. I am so thankful my cousins were able to help me out. Through those few days, we were able to go to most of the tourist attractions that even I, myself, have never gone to and also check out Ozone bar!

The End of My Summer...Cheung Chau!

Hi, sorry I have not updated in a long time. Over my last few weeks of summer, this is what I did...

Visit my relatives in Cheung Chau!

  Cheung Chau is an outer island of Hong Kong and also where my dad grew up. I really like coming to this island because it reminds me a little of Hawaii. The atmosphere is not as fast-paced and rushed like how Hong Kong is, so if you ever want to get out of that type of surrounding Cheung Chau is a good place to check out.

  To go there, you have 2 options: Ordinary ferry (1 hour) or Fast ferry (30 minutes) depending on your preference and time for departure. I personally like the ordinary ferry because I get a little sea sick from the fast ferry.

  

  There are no skyscrapers here and practically no cars. The only cars in this island are the firetrucks, ambulances, and a select few government vehicles. Aside from those, most people ride bicycles here or just walk. I love the atmosphere here because it is very laid back like an old chinese village.

  

It was nice having dinner with family! Afterwards, we went to my favorite dessert place to eat...

Mango Cheong Funn! The original is white, but I ordered two different flavors: Green Tea (left) and Black Sesame (right). Basically, this is a mango dessert wrapped with like a noodle texture called cheong funn. When you eat it, it practically slips into your mouth!

  Cheung Chau has always been more of an outdoors activity type of place.

Things to do:

• Play Soccer/ Basketball
• Ride Bicycles Around the Island
• Play Badminton or Ping Pong in the Sports Center
• Go Swimming!

Ngong Ping & Tai O

7/29: To Lantau Island!

I went to Ngong Ping with Karen (another Freeman Scholar from UH) to see the Big Buddha. That day was VERY HOT! To start off our journey, we met up at 10am and caught the MTR to Tung Chung. From there, we took a cable car to Lantau Island.

It was a Monday, but the line for the Cable Car was so long we waited for almost an hour before it was our turn to get on. Each cable car fit up to 8 people.

After the cable car, we reached Ngong Ping Village, where you can find places to eat and buy souvenirs.

So first stop was to eat lunch! We ate at Zen Noodle Cafe. It was...okay la...
We then started on our long walk towards the Big Buddha.

Ngong Ping Entrance Gate

Small Souvenir Boutiques

Finally, we make it...now to go up these stairs (shown below)!

After this, we went back to Ngong Ping Village to find the bus to take us to Tai O. Tai O is a small town on Lantau Island.

Boat to see white dolphins

This small fishing town reminded me a little bit of Cheung Chau Island, where my dad grew up. I will show more of that on my next post. Anyways...

For eating, this town is known for its fishing culture and sun-dried seafood (shrimp paste).

They are also known for the stilt-houses built over the river. We were able to go on a boat excursion that circled around Tai O and brought us out to see Chinese white dolphins. I couldn't get it on camera, but we did see one white dolphin!
That day was very fun, but very tiring having to walk under the immense heat for an entire day. The highlight was being able to go on the boat ride and seeing the stilt-houses!

Week of Rest

Hey, so sorry I have not updated in almost 2 weeks? I've been feeling tired...and lazy...and was sick for the past week. I am so thankful to be staying with my aunty. I get to eat home-cooked meals, which make me miss home so much, and hangout with my cousins.

Home-cooked meal 1 

Home-cooked meal 2

Also, I cut my hair last week...Good?

Before

After

Don't worry! It has grown out a bit, so it is more acceptable now haha.

I will post up 2 more posts after this on my visit to Cheung Chau and Ngong Ping real soon, so stay tuned!

Disneyland in Hong Kong!

Yesterday I was finally able to go to Disneyland in Hong Kong! The place was not extremely big, but I would say it would take about two days to go through every ride and exhibit here. The Disneyland here is broken up into 7 parts:

• Main Street
• Tomorrow Land
• Fantasy Land
• Adventure Land
• Grizzly Gulch
• Mystic Point
• Toy Story Land

To get to Disneyland, we had to take the MTR and transfer onto the Disneyland Resort Line, which was very cute with the Mickey Mouse - shaped windows.

After we got off this train, we had to walk about 5 minutes to finally get to the entrance gates.

Once we got in, my two cousins (Calvin and Brian) and I HAD to get ourselves one of these!

I felt like a little boy again! I was Pluto, Calvin (middle) was Goofy, and Brian (right) was Donald.

Once you walk in, the first area is Main Street, which follows an American town design. They even added a Monsters University Diner. As you can see below, this main strip is full of souvenir stores and restaurants.

At the end of Main Street, it breaks into 3 routes: Tomorrow Land, Fantasy Land, and Adventure Land. So we went to Tomorrow Land first because we wanted to ride Space Mountain! The ride was fun; I was yelling the entire team! Tomorrow Land followed a Buzz Lightyear theme, so we also played Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. For this ride, you sit on a cart and shoot as many targets possible to see who gets the most points. Not that you get any prize at the end...but uhh...ya, no prize at the end.

Buzz Lightyear Shooting Ride

Maybe I'm getting old for these roller coasters, but we had to take a break haha, so we went to eat!

The food here was expensive! It was 60 HKD (~$8) for just a burger, and another 26 HKD (~$3) for a drink.
Next, we went to Adventure Land! This part followed a Tarzan and jungle theme.

Tarzan's treehouse

We even went on their Jungle River Cruise that circled around Tarzan's treehouse. The boat ride was broken up into 2 lines: Chinese speakers or English Speakers. Waiting in line was ridiculous; for the Chinese one the wait time was 30 minutes. As for the english speakers line, the wait time was only 5 minutes.

After the boat ride, we walked into Grizzly Gulch. The wait for the Runaway Mine Cars ride was too long, so we walked through this area taking pictures.

Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars

Wait time was 30 minutes! Ridiculous!

From Grizzly Gulch, it leads into Mystic Point. There are two main exhibits here: Mystic Manor and Garden of Wonders. The wait for these were almost 1 hour per! So we just walked through and took pictures.

Next after Mystic Point is Toy Story Land! We did not have enough time to try the RC Racers which is a halfpipe coaster ride, but I did try the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop. This was like a jumpin' Jellyfish ride...not as scary as I thought.

RC Racer (Straight ahead in orange)

Parachute Drop

And our last destination...Fantasy Land!

Here we went to watch Mickey's PhilharMagic (a 4D experience). I thought this was going to be very childish...I actually enjoyed it a lot! They blow air and splash water at you.

Ya...pretty dangerous if you fall... 

To finish off our day, we wanted to go on one last ride...Space Mountain one more time! But then, it started to pour like the Manoa Showers at UH. So...

The Cinderella Carousal was the closest ride we could get to without getting drenched.

Best ride ever!