New Zealand Day 4.5 Zealandia, Day 5 [end] et Wisdom Tooth Removal

Happy Easter everyone – I’ve taken the liberty of dragging out my laptop and doing this post in the vastness of my empty living room. I just had three of my wisdom teeth taken out yesterday, which I think I should write a little bit about.

When is the best time to remove a wisdom tooth?

This little section may or may not be useful to you depending on whether or not you have had any wisdom teeth out – but if you haven’t, or are planning to get them out, I hope my two cents help.

You know what, I have heard a billion different things from dentists, but the general consensus is “let it grow out until I see it and then we will see how it goes”. But if they say this without doing an X-ray, I suggest you run out of the dentist’s chair quick smart and find another dentist. I suspect it has to do with they don’t want much to do with your wisdom teeth as they are generally tricky to remove and can’t deal with the consequences of an infection (you’d be surprised okay).

Basically I was duped into letting one wisdom tooth grow out – it was impacted, meaning it grew sideways. The problem with these is that it eventually gets “stuck” a la tooth beside it, meaning you have a painful flap of gum getting food in (yes, it sounds and smells gross – and each time you try to floss it, you make it worse and get it infected – it’s sort of like a lurking infection that doesn’t really affect you… and then you kind of bring it up to the surface). This not only damages the tooth next to it, it can affect you as a whole – in my case, I was always paranoid about it, and I would not eat on the side of where the wisdom tooth is.

Well okay fine, one day I was fed up with it, and my dentist did an xray scan and told me he couldn’t remove it because it was sitting on one of the major nerves, and I would need a specialist to get it out for me. That to me is fine – I know it costs more, and I will elaborate more on why a specialist is better than a dentist.

When I visited my specialist, I was pleasantly given the choice to either get my wisdom tooth/ teeth out at his actual office/ surgery, or book myself into hospital. Getting wisdom teeth out is not such a biggie in my opinion, and I opted to get it out in his surgery, which is very convenient and means little to no waiting time (hospitals are a mess and I have tried waiting hours for a scheduled operation). Also, checking in and out of hospital is a real pain in the ass since they need to give you discharge letters, and constantly ask you your name, date of birth and other ridiculous things albeit having a dog collar on your wrist with this information.

Anyway, so last time I got a wisdom tooth out and it wasn’t really comfortable but it was still manageable. I took the prescribed painkillers (which were super strong and knocked me out for 2 days, meaning I couldn’t go to work the next day) – but no real major pain. My stitches probably popped out day 3, and well, I had a lot of swelling because the stitches went from my gum to *drumroll* the inside of my cheek (yes you got that right). There are several problems with this – you can’t open your mouth fully, you have a swollen cheek, and well, yeah – seriously? I think you get my drift.

Now, one of the biggest things I wanted to kick myself for was aside from the option of where to get the teeth out, I was also given the option of how many teeth to get out. He didn’t force me to take out any or all, but I could have specified any number, but I opted to just get one out, since the other three weren’t out yet. I think that was the biggest mistake I made.

So, the other two on the other side popped out (and were way nastier than the first). I thought I could get the top one out (since they are easy) but my dentist wouldn’t touch it – sigh. I had hoped to save a little bit of money, but I guess not. So might as well get all three out at once under sedation, like I did the first time round.

This time I have a bit of bruising (but no damage to my nerve, which I am thankful for x2 since I didn’t have the problem the first time). I was also semi-conscious towards the end, since I could feel the stitches being finished up and mouthpiece taken out. But you know, this time around, I had noticed:

• The tooth that did not pop out is much more comfortable after surgery than the ones that already popped out, since the stitches stay where the gum is, and gum only. No cheek stitches. The other side – well, I have a huge stitch from top wisdom tooth, along cheek and down to bottom wisdom tooth. Yes, I am swollen, and yes, my jaw is also bruised (I had no bruising the first time – but this tooth was closer to the nerve than the previous one).
• You don’t need to take their prescribed medicine/ painkiller if the pain is bearable – I just took regular Panadol and that was enough.
• Use an ice pack in moderation. I didn’t the first time round because I didn’t think it was such a big deal, but it really helps in regaining feeling in your lips and chin (super important after surgery) so you can eat and not drool everywhere.

Specialists are good because they minimise every aspect of impact on you as much as possible. I have minimal swelling, minimal bruising (none last time)

You know what, apart from having a really terrible headache last night either from side effects, throbbing swelling or too much sleep, I feel absolutely fine. I’m only taking a Panadol or two a day for the headache, not even the teeth.

If you want my advice, and you can afford it – get your wisdom teeth taken out before they pop out and you will not experience paranoia of splitting stitches, a quarter of the swelling, and very little chance of getting a sore/ locked jaw. You will feel so much better and find it a lot more convenient. If I had the chance, I would have gotten all four out at once the last time. I know having three out is a lot right now, but the fact that I feel fine and under control is really important.

For those who don’t have any tooth decay or the wisdom teeth don’t really bother you much, or are bothering you slightly but you are weighing the cost of removing them – please just remove them. Wisdom teeth, I suspect, have been a huge factor in screwing my health over. I don’t really know 100% for sure yet, I will only know afterwards, but if my stomach problems clear then there is a direct correlation. I’m so happy to get these out (and I was excited – not stressed at all going in to get them removed) because I knew it was time to get them out! It was great timing.

Although I can’t nibble on chocolates for Easter and all, I’m glad I did myself a favour. While my advice may not apply to everyone as everyone is different, you may want to consider a few things (which I had no idea about since I had nobody to ask) since I’ve been there and done that.

In the end I did have le Monsieur drive us back – and thankfully that was the case, because it would have been such a stressful process without him. So repeat – do not catch public transport after getting your wisdom teeth out, lol. I obviously didn’t read the instructions last time, because the receptionist looked so confused when I mentioned the bus.

Anyway – mushy diet for the next two days and I think I’ll be back in business.

New Zealand Day 4.5: Zealandia

Wow, I am seriously really sorry for how incredibly delayed this post is. This was November 2014 we are talking about – and if it weren’t because of my upcoming trip, who knows how long this would have taken me to finish!

Well, better late than never.

After the Makara Beach stop, I was dropped off at Zealandia for my trek/ path climbing fix. I had this huge thing for walking trails after watching so many episodes of 1 Night 2 Days where they seemed to have so much fun along a walking trail. There are some excellent ones in New Zealand, though a bit far away (I didn’t expect my friend J to borrow a car and take me places – and I was going to base my Wellington trip on solely public transport and walking). Zealandia is one place which is really worth visiting because it is untouched (well, mostly) and well maintained. It has a free shuttle bus to and from the city (near City Square or whatever it was called, I forgot), though you will need to keep an eye on the timetable and all because spots are limited on the bus (don’t miss the last bus, and ensure you line up early to actually get on the bus).

Anyway, there is an entry fee, but I think it is well worth it. The air in there is really fresh and while it was slightly overcast, the sky was still mostly blue to my surprise. You will get a pamphlet with a map of Zealandia and a variety of walking trails for you to choose from. As I got there relatively late (around 2pm) I didn’t want to trek off onto the longest walking trail, which goes down really deep into the forest. I also didn’t want to go alone because I would get freaked out – but I just decided that I will take a popular uphill route to do a bit of exercise, and also figure out if I needed to divert onto another route depending on how much time I had.

They will do a bag check to make sure nothing falls out of your bag and ruin the grounds, so please don’t bring any rubbish with you. They have a motto which I really liked, which was leave only footsteps, and I think this is really important.

Lush green grounds, green mountains and more.

Little did I know, I ended up at the top part where the tall trees are in the top left of the photo above (yes, crazy), and it really high! This is the beginning of the trail, where there are a lot of info plaques and things to do, like read about different types of wildlife, and I even passed a bird feeding platform for you to see their native birds and take photographs. I had a crappy lens (yes, my micro four thirds which I am too cheapo to throw away/ upgrade/ get a better lens for lol) so I just had to make do, The cover image of the post actually was quite interesting – I was walking along the top of the hill and I heard a rustle. When I looked up I saw a bird, and that was such a rare sighting – took me many attempts to get it on photo, but with limited zoom it was the best I could do. But seriously, what a chance!

The river runs along the front part of Zealandia

They have boat tours, but due to algae and all, this was out of bounds. Still a lovely and peaceful sight.

This was really scary but super beautiful.

So after passing the bird feeding house ground and all I took the uphill course to the reservoir – and well, what can I say? This was the best part of the trail by far. I really liked it up here (I have mixed feelings if I should remove the two models in the photo – but then it gives this place a bit of life), but I am massive scared of heights. I walked really fast across the bridge (onto the next path which goes further up the hill towards the left) and it was soooooo windy! I give myself a pat on the back for making it across and braving it up and pretending I wasn’t scared. I think I also got a text message while I was in the middle of the bridge trying to take photos and I was like literally omgggggggg.

Looks like out of a story/ novel setting.

So along my forest/ hill walk there were some amazing sights, like this fallen tree that I assume will never be touched. It was H U G E. But still, so so amazing

So these were the trees we saw in the first photograph of this segment.

I had a good time also looking up to the sky, which is amazing, isn’t it? The forest is kind of dark and damp, but the air is crisp and sky blue in open areas like this. It’s rare to be surrounded by nature to this extent. I’m not sure if I got enough!

Back to the beginning

So after a solid 4 hour walk I got back to the beginning again. I would have done it again, because the ticket allowed me entry the next day (for free) but I was flying back to Sydney – so no go. I gave my ticket away but I don’t think anyone used it.

Ginger & Honey Tea and Fruit Salad

While you’re at Zealandia I recommend you visit the cafe for some good food. The ginger tea was a godsend because I had the worst stomach problems ever (probably intolerance for dairy in retrospect – but whatever). Even if you don’t have any problems, choose the tea, you won’t regret it unless you really hate ginger. It was warm and had heat, but it wasn’t spicy or bitter. There is a great view on the outdoor deck of the cafe, but I chose to sit indoors – so do have a check out.

I did have time before the shuttle bus so I toured the internal exhibition where you could play animal sounds and see stuffed animals of New Zealand’s native birds and animals. Then I took the shuttle bus back to the city.

Civic Square

So now that my memory is back, Civic Square is a large area with some interesting buildings and a view of the water. I’m not sure what these were, but they were really interesting sculptures in this public space.

For dinner I went to J’s house, where he and his family generously prepared a family dinner/ bbq with a group of friends over. It was literally ages I visited any friend’s house to have a meal and it was good fun. Good food, good times – a belated thank you, if I have not already mentioned it!

New Zealand Day 5: Short and sweet

So for breakfast I visited the Capitol Markets or whatever it was opposite my hotel, and had my Pho craving satisfied at a stall called “Where’s Charlie”. I should have gotten the combo with the SJUICE + Pho (SJUICE is the juice stall next to it, and they do some really good juice – that’s where I got the juice for the Makara trip), but I didn’t really give much thought to the menu until after I ordered a simple beef pho.

MMMMMMM

Maybe not as good as the one from Tropical Green (UNSW), but still yummy none the less.

Took the bus from the city to Miramar, since it was just a short walk from there. There was a step in the middle (where the horizontal yellow line is) – I didn’t see it and took a huge step down XD It’s okay, I’m a tourist.

MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSSS ARMPIT HAIR

So yucky Gollum, lol. But yeah, after a milkshake and some wedges while waiting, I bid my goodbyes to J, probably one of the best hosts ever for taking me around and putting up with my complaining and strange antics, climbing up Mount Victoria with me despite bad knees and all. I’m such a terrible friend. But hey I had a good time! Hope you did too.

For those who were curious since it looked like I didn’t spend money at all, I put aside 1 of each NZD currency (eg. 1x $100, 1x$50 etc) and then paid part of my hotel fee with cash and remainder with card and only left about $50NZD cash spending money with me for the airport. At the duty free section I bought a small eye cream for my mum as a souvenir which was made from Manuka honey – and that was about it.

So that was the last part of my trip, and thank you for those who followed it and waited… a year and a half for me to finish writing about it :S

In less than 2 weeks (11 more sleeps!) I will be travelling to Japan. YAY! As long as I don’t get lost in translation and all there, I think we are going to have a BLAST. I’ve got a few days of the week already planned (like actually booked in stuff to do), but I’ve already let my control freak side set out which days to go to set places. It is going to be a jam packed schedule, and I will be travelling with my mum so I’m not sure how it will go down. But hey, I planned New Zealand and I packed it to the max (I think) and it worked out just as I planned, sorta.

I will post so much when I get back – so until then hope you are all enjoying the Easter break (I am enjoying mine, post-wisdom tooth loss and all), but seriously, I am feeling fine. Swollen cheek? Ain’t nobody got time for that. 3000 word blog post in 2 hours – I’m on a roll here.

Laters!

Oops! I did it again.

…and it’s not jaywalking.

Hello, again! I dropped off somewhere (again), hence the title of this post.

For the first time in miketsumuse history, I did not post new years’ resolutions or reflect back upon the year *insert face of absolute horror here*. But what’s even more shocking is that I am actually typing this post, because frankly I have really decided to disappear off the face of the earth.

I’m really not going to kill myself any more for not meeting expectations, or if things aren’t working out the way I planned. I’m just going to let things take its own course and just enjoy it for good or for bad and see how things run. I’m at a stage where I’m a bit tired from struggling for no apparent reason other than putting pressure on myself.

My cover image is me basically running away from the photographer, Monsieur (obviously not the real name) – and yes. George Street has been closed (for those who don’t live in Sydney) so you have the liberty to stop right in the middle and take photos – yay! Just don’t run away like me. You will end up with an awkward photo, like the one above.

Basically in a nutshell for the past two months, here’s what happened:

Took 6 weeks of medication for gastric reflux

It was so bad I couldn’t sleep for a week, and I would wake up mid-sleep etc – but the good thing is that I’m a lot better now, and slowly improving. I probably should go see that specialist and all, but uhhhh I’m not that keen on spending that much money for an endoscopy and I kind of need my remaining wisdom teeth out more.

This problem is not really new to me – it has been pestering me for probably the past 2 years, it only just got dramatically worse in a short span of time. But likewise, I seem better than before and it is manageable. Oh. I realised how confusing that was – I was referring to both the reflux and wisdom teeth, just to make things a little more complicated 😉

People hate my head/ face and decide it’s okay to hit me

I kid, it’s not that serious. Well, sort of. In a span of 2 months I managed to:

• Bust a lip (bus slammed its brakes and I had a glass panel in front of me, and smacked it so hard my lip busted and bled)
• Have a customer drop a 2.5kg metal tripod onto my head, scratching my face in the process (small cut, and yes, it was a cut because the skin was open albeit a shallow one), and then bruising my forearm twice (rebound, bang bang)
• Smash my head really hard into a low and thick tree branch because I was wearing sunglasses and a wide brim hat, so I could not see

Right now, I am typing, sometimes pausing to ice my head, and then typing again. I hope nothing’s gone funny because I really did feel the impact of that hit (ie. the last one) so hard my teeth knocked against each other Well, we shall see.

Had a really last minute trip to Newcastle during the 4 day Christmas break.

For the first time ever I went away for a Christmas getaway. We had some pretty sad weather so most of our days were just cooking, cleaning, prepping, cooking, cleaning (rinse repeat) – I therefore have no photos of the area, but we had a killer balcony and I was happy with the apartment.

Super large balcony at our two bedroom apartment in Newcastle. You may be wondering why I said the weather was sad when it looks so nice in this photo – that’s because in the afternoon it rained… and rained… and the very next day? Hot, muggy, cloudy.

The balcony was one of my favourite parts of the apartment, and probably a close second was the kitchen as there was an 80s style glass brick window which made the whole place airy and bright. Too bad I only enjoyed the balcony for about 2 minutes… I got a cluster of mozzie bites on my ankle from that short period of time and did not dare step out there again :S

We had a day up at Port Stephens, and we did see a few dolphins (though far away – we were on a cruise), and the weather was cloudy and had occasional showers. Overall it was a really quiet and relaxing stay – I would do it again just for the apartment. It felt like home, but only a new kind of home.

Had an increasingly social social life (yes I know I typed that word twice)

I caught up with many friends, went out to many new and strange places, had good food and got plenty of vitamin D. I’m not really a beach person, but this summer has been just beach visits all round. I met up with K and we did a coastal beach walk, and I got my chest completely sunburnt (like it was red lobster and I could not feel it burning at all) – now I have a tan mark/ line/ patch in a shape of a bib on my chest (I was wearing a singlet) and I am not happy/ feeling it 😦

Anyway, lots of great catch ups with friends I haven’t seen for ages. I’m grateful and happy.

Said tan didn’t stop me going to the beach, though I hope I didn’t get tanned. This sweet looking hat is also the culprit which made me (literally) smash my head onto that tree…

Aaaaaand last but not least I’m now in a relationship, so… yeah. I will refer to him as Monsieur for now. For the first time I went and had a Christmas Eve dinner, and I’m starting to understand now what it’s like to be around someone nice. I’m not saying my friends aren’t nice, but in all honesty I’ve had my fair share of really horrid people in my life – sometimes life has its own way; perhaps you need to meet all these horrible people first, before you can learn to appreciate and think to yourself “ah, so this is what people should be like”.

Of course, we’d all rather skip the mean people in life and have it easy, but that’s how it is. Hopefully there will only be better things to come in life, and something to look forward to every day.

Hope everyone had a good new year (it’s late, but not too late because Chinese New Year is around the corner – yes, trying to justify myself), take care until next blog (and beyond).

New Zealand 2014 Part 2

If you all thought I gave up on New Zealand, I didn’t!

For those who haven’t visited in a long time, I hope you’re all liking the new layout and all. I’m still trying to figure out what I want but I’m slowly getting there. I’ve finally ditched the old logo even though I only had it for a year, and opted for something cleaner (my logo design tends to look like some raunchy mid-day drama soap series logo). I will be making more changes soon along the way. I think if I make my blog a place somewhere nice and make it feel “mine” then most likely I will be more inclined to update more often. I’m not finding much inspiration, so I can only hope to inspire myself. Well, here’s the rest of the New Zealand trip… fingers crossed I haven’t forgotten too much.

Day 3

Day 3 was the execution of my crazy ambitious idea to climb to the peak of Mount Victoria. There are buses available FYI and you can drive to the top, but I thought that it would be fun – or rather, an accomplishment – to make it to the top by foot. It was more about the experience and conquering the low mountain (wikipedia calls it a hill and marks it at 196m tall) as well as the views from the top.

Probably the only thing I regret was not being able to see the view from the peak during night (that would have been nice), but there were so many people there during the day it probably would have been packed (and cold) at night. Well, there’s always next time?

Breakfast was at Sweet Mother’s Kitchen which is a pretty busy hotspot for brunch and is apparently famous for their curly fries. We had a bit of a problem as the curly fries menu is only available after 11:30am… so we literally waited for 11:30am to order the fries after finishing our breakfast.

This was my breakfast – a hot blackcurrant tea (read: heated Ribena in a mug) and fried chicken and waffles with maple syrup. Yes, that’s right. I had fried chicken for breakfast. Not the smartest idea in the world, because this (well actually it was probably the fries) completely screwed my stomach over the next few days. I don’t think I will ever have anything deep fried for breakfast ever again – it tasted really good while I had it, but for someone who eats clean, rarely eats fried food let alone sugar, this really messed me up.

The curly fries are a bit of a let down – they were pretty crumbly and well, normal potato fries would be much better. I don’t really recommend these unless it’s for the novelty factor. We had a ton of jokes about the curly fries after trying them, so don’t do it! Unless you enjoy making lots of jokes about curly fries.

So the climb started. There were about 2 steep long streets, and the rest were medium, gentle slopes. We stopped midway at this sign because there were two girls hovering near it, and there was an arrow beckoning us to go up.

I took the wrong path (it was heading back down instead of up) because this was the only thing that looked like a path to me. There was a suspiciously roughed up path up a very steep hill that I passed and well, that was the actual route. A middle aged couple who were coming down suggested we go around and not go up the steep way… and well, we deliberated over it a little but decided we had time and went back to the road and take the gentler route up.

The two girls from before actually went up the super steep route and we saw them at the top… so I guess it wasn’t too terrible. Doesn’t hurt to play it safe, though.

The last stretch was pretty bad and steep D: There were like 2 long flights of stairs after a sharp steep hill, but it felt awesome after getting to the top! Even so this was still not the peak – though I must say I prefer this lookout more than the actual lookout because it was tranquil, had a roof over it, and had little to no people there to block the view. The view from the lookout was used as the cover image of this post (at the top if you missed it).

Here was the walk, broken down to the top. The views along the way were actually better than the views at the actual peak where the deck was and a million of other people were.

First image you see is top view of Oriental Beach which looks absolutely stunning.

We got a lift back down Mount Victoria via an easy drive down which would have otherwise taken us at least 30 minutes to walk down. My original plan was to walk back down and take a walkway down to Oriental Bay, but instead we headed off to Miramar and I was taken on a short drive along Karaka Bay and Massey Road, beach hopping along the eastern coast. It was amazing! The smell of the seaweed, the colour of the sky and the water and how clear the waters were against the dark rocks – and with sailing boats and green mountains in the distance all seemed so peaceful and surreal to me. I’m not a beach person – and most of the beaches we have here have nothing in the distance, which actually scares me a little. These beaches however do have something in the distance which adds that extra bit of layer to the scenery and I put my mind at ease.

We had a milkshake from Scorch-o-Rama at Scorching Bay Beach, and then ended up near the Wowington sign which was interesting as Hollywood has tried hard to get that down!

After that we were dropped off at Oriental Bay Beach to walk along its entire length. It wasn’t as long as I had anticipated, as it is quite a small beach, and a fabricated one at that. Overall though, the sand at Oriental wasn’t as nice as Scorching Bay Beach, and I must say, Oriental looked nice from the top, but not so nice on level.

This is the only panoramic shot I got of Oriental Bay (or any shot, rather, because my camera battery died and all I had was my phone).

The quietest part of Oriental Beach… which was the non-beachy part.

There was this random guy that we saw several times along the way and I genuinely thought they were clones or wearing uniform – you know how you think that while you’re driving there is some guy running next to your car jumping over obstacles to match your pace? It was kind of like that in a weird way. But anyway, Oriental Bay is a must visit… from the top down. It’s not really worth spending too much time at. The only thing nicer about this than Bondi Beach is probably the water and the fact that you can see land in the distance (because I get freaked out if I can’t see anything in the horizon) otherwise Bondi wins hand down for sand, size and just everything else, really.

Dinner was at a New York influenced um, bistro (?) called Five Boroughs. We were lucky to get seats somewhat quickly but there was a long wait on food. I didn’t mention lunch, and that’s because I skipped it, so basically my stomach was dying at this point. Ordered an off the menu chilli dog (which isn’t all that chilli by the way) and a cream spinach which kind of tastes like soggy spinach in warm milk. Kinda weird, but it was alright. For $6 and like 3 mouthfuls though – maybe a salad would have been a bit better.

I would consider myself pretty lucky as Wellington hardly has fireworks, and I managed to strike it lucky with the fireworks/ Sky Show. Unfortunately due to crazy stomach pain (skipped lunch, and dinner was pretty late) I could not make it and spent the rest of my night in my hotel room. The fireworks sounded pretty lively from my room, but I heard it was pretty crowded with people – maybe a good idea for me to not be out there in the open or I would have crumbled over in pain lol.

This is one of the worst things about travelling (for me anyway). I have a pretty weak stomach and my stomach hurts when I am anxious, or if I don’t eat my meals on time. I usually experience problems from a week before I am set to fly, and that is pretty bad. This time I somehow managed a combination of both – same as the Hong Kong case – only this time I actually made an effort to eat meals on time, rather than avoid eating meals. I don’t recall a single trip where I have gone without worrying about my stomach, be it a short or long trip I was never really interested in travelling until now though, so I must figure out a way to overcome this problem and somehow make myself eat meals on time and avoid this problem.

I think another problem I have is that I underestimate the number of calories I need because I forget to weigh in the amount of activity I do in the equation. We did a lot of walking in New Zealand, and I probably did not consume enough calories to make up for the energy used. Sucks.

Day 4

This was my breakfast. From day 2 I realised I walked past heaps of cafes without noticing that they were cafes… so I stopped somewhere closer to where I was. This was a nice cafe that was cozier then the previous morning – I preferred this place much more as it made me feel more at home.

Eggs Benedict (poached). I also confused the girl because it was too early in the morning and I wasn’t functioning properly. I also blame it on the fact that Australian and New Zealand English may have differences in expressing questions and can lead to heaps of awkwardsauce. And my logo disappeared… oh well.

I headed to this place called Capital Markets which is opposite my hotel. There is a place called SJUICE which has a few different juice variations – I ordered 2 juices – oxygenator (beetroot, ginger, apple… or carrot – I forgot) and I forgot the name of the other, which was a blend of apple, celery and orange (possibly carrot). This is nothing like Boost. This is like 100% juice, and more natural than New Zealand Natural (which by the way does not actually exist in New Zealand). The juice was hands down the best juice I have had not produced by the juice machine we have at home. Highly recommended.

We had a very curvy, winding and pretty heart attack inducing drive to Makara Beach (New Zealanders pronounce this “Makra” whilst I clearly said this “Mak-ah-ra” the first time round), which is at the north eastern coast of the Wellington area. It was super curved and basically the road was chiseled out of a mountain edge. I am so lucky that I was not the one driving or else I would be going at like 20km/h. Basically if you sit at Makara and look out you see nothing in the horizon – and you are actually looking in the direction of Tasmania/ Australia.

So well, not the prettiest beach there is and it is a bit gloomy, but we did a lot of thinking.

It was the first time I have seen/ been to a beach made out of just rocks. It was a pretty cold beach – a bit depressing even, but the sides where the hill/ cliffs were are covered in lush green plantation and it just looks so different since the contrast is so big – cold and bare, versus green and happyland. I don’t know why but it is quite comforting and I can understand why it would be a great place to have a campfire or to just sit and think about life. I think we saw an albatross or two, which is crazy because I have never seen albatrosses in person before.

This is a shot worth posting… this was just right next to the beach (literally). I applaud those few households around there… it was so windy and that place is just out of this world. I’m not sure if I would be able to live there but these people – round of applause.

After that we headed for the Wind Turbine, which was another heart attack inducing winding drive. For the first time on my trip I saw sheep! We all keep hearing all these sheep jokes and New Zealand, but I only managed to see a few sheep, and horses too. Then the drive up the mountain to the wind turbine was hectic… it was a narrow road with no line drawn (and no fence/ barrier so you could actually drive off the edge…..) but it was a 2-way. CRA-ZY.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Polymer Clay Artist 🌸 Misa (@misa.mochilavie)

I have never been so close to a turbine before… it wasn’t as windy as I expected – probably because they weren’t spinning at full turbo (yeah my puns are getting lame here). Still mesmerising though *_*

And this is the view from the top. The best part was being able to see the clouds so low and watching it cast the slightest shadows with their movements… and the snowy peaks of the south island in the distance. It was too bad that I couldn’t capture that on camera, but it was awesome. I noticed that there were trails through the distance… now that would be some pretty hardcore trail walking. Not sure if they were actually trails or roads… but crazy anyway. This was probably my favourite view on this trip, but I must say all the views so far have been amazing.

Stopped by at Long Island Bay… and had a quick lunch before I was dropped off at Zealandia Ecosanctuary, which marks my first and only solo activity throughout the trip.

I wanted to sum everything up in one post and then call it quits, but Zealandia will take a bit of space so I better save it for another day. I took so many photos and walked around the long way so I will write about it another time.

Hope everyone is enjoying life right now – Sydney’s coldest weather in 5 years. What weather was 5 years ago anyway? I don’t even remember. I will be back with the next part (eventually) and hopefully squeeze in something interesting – later.

New Zealand 2014 Part 1

Wow – this is going to be long! I haven’t updated in such a long time, and I don’t even know where to start.

I mentioned in my previous post about my November travels and here I am, back from my short trip to New Zealand – Wellington to be exact – for 5 days and 4 nights. All I can say is wow!

I took a lot of photos, and I also did a few videos to capture bits and pieces as mementos. This is my second trip “alone”, but like Hong Kong, I was really fortunate for having at least someone take me around places, show me things and direct me so that I am not lost. I must really thank J and his brother for kindly driving me to places I would have otherwise not have visited! I would not have been able to do so much in a day if it weren’t for you – at the same time I need to also thank you for putting up with my constant paranoia, nagging (?) and for feeding me throughout the trip. Only thing is I wish Australian Customs would let me bring some Arisun spicy fried chicken with cheese on board to NZ

Preparations: Currency

Like I mentioned, I did get some help and this trip was made easy since I have friends who have visited New Zealand before, and I have someone I know over there to look out for me. The first thing that we all think of is currency exchange – and there are many easy solutions.

Go 100% credit card
I didn’t realise this until the last day, but when you select credit you have the option of choosing between New Zealand dollars and Australian dollars if you are using an Australian credit card. This is really handy because the screen will show you the exchange rate and you will know exactly how much you need to pay. In other words, you could probably go completely cashless to New Zealand because pretty much everywhere I have been has an EFTPOS/ card terminal machine which should accept credit cards. Note that New Zealand’s EFTPOS is not the same as Australia’s EFTPOS, so your savings card will not work over there.

I took a 28 degrees Mastercard with me since there are 0 overseas transaction fees – and I must say the rate is pretty damn good. Takes out the stress knowing that I can pay in Australian dollars as well.

Exchange some cash, because cash is always good
Cash is great because you know how much you will spend by limiting yourself to how much cash you have on hand. Only downside to cash is that it is something extra to carry and well, you may exchange more than you actually need.

A friend of mine who visited New Zealand a while back actually told me at the time that ANZ had cash packs that are available for purchase – these cash packs are $600 and have notes inside of different values to make it easy for you. Please note that if you do not have an ANZ account you will need to pay $5 as a service fee, so be sure to get a friend or someone who has an account to waive the $5 fee. The downside of these cash packs is that if $600NZD is not enough you cannot exchange for more… you will just need to purchase another cash pack (potentially an extra $5 fee, which I think sucks bollocks and is a complete rip unless you have an account or your friend has an account etc). In this case maybe going to just any ol’ regular money exchange place may do it better for you.

The cash pack exchange rate isn’t any much better than your standard 3% credit card charge and ANZ’s exchange rates are pretty bad. But rating in terms of convenience, I can’t be bothered let’s just do this – then the cash pack is not a bad option. They are available at all branches (or so they say all branches, but you should ask if they have it in case they don’t).

I was told that for about 5 days, $600 would be a reasonable amount of money to bring along and use. I ended up bringing back home about $100NZD (I had at least 1x $50, 1x $20, 1x $10, 1x $5, 1x $2, 1x $1, 1x 50c 1x 20c, 1x 10c as memorabilia and to use next time I go) so I actually only spent $400NZD – I paid $100NZD towards my hotel bill since it was spare cash on me that I had no use for and could go towards that. I tried my best to empty out as much as I could in duty free on the way back but I didn’t have much left to spare and ended up buying something for $15.50. You all might think it’s silly bringing back $100 in a foreign currency back home, but I did that last time on my Hong Kong trip, because you never ever know what can go wrong and having some extra cash is handy.

Note that I didn’t really come on a shopping trip (I made my purchases beforehand or duty free so I spent a lot of money in that respect) and the concept was really walking and sightseeing nature. Transportation cost pretty much less than $15 for the whole trip (more if I had to hire a car, but I was lucky I didn’t need to) and meals on average were probably $15 or less. If you wanted to come for a luxury trip with lots of shopping and eating at fine dining restaurants, then I suggest you go for that extra cash pack. I’m not saying New Zealand is terribly expensive (because my cheapest meal was like $7.60 or something), but if you’re out to buy a heap of stuff then you will need it.

Souvenirs on average are about $15 each – almost $20-30 if you are going to purchase soft toys or other things that seem nicer. I cheated and bought back souvenirs from a supermarket and are edible *cough* chocolate *cough* which made my trip a really cheap one. There are hand made chocolates (similar to Koko Black) in Wellington, but when I think of a chocolate block going for $15 and compare it to something from a supermarket less than $5 but also made in New Zealand, it kind of doesn’t really matter in the end. I probably would care in the past, but I don’t think I care much now as it’s just the thought that counts. I lugged over 2kg of chocolate in my luggage which makes it the most expensive considering how much $$/ kg luggage – but I think chocolate will make everyone happy regardless of where it is from.

These days it is super easy to know the prices of menus and souvenirs simply by googling and finding places of interest and their official websites on the Internet. For Wellington, the tourism website is an excellent breakdown of what there is to do, visit, see or eat in Wellington: http://www.wellingtonnz.com/australia

Planning the trip, day by day

I was completely lost until a few days prior my departure date since I wasn’t sure of where I wanted to go and how to go about it. For me, opening Google maps and zooming right in really helps because it helped me plan how to walk to travel to places.

Basically for my first day I left it blank since I will be in Wellington in the afternoon at about 3pm. One day I planned to do the western half of the city, and next day the eastern half. I still had a day to either go to Wellington Zoo or Zealandia – or both – but I never fixed myself to go to any particular place depending on weather.

I was extremely lucky that the weather forecast went from 4/5 days being rainy days (rendering my whole trip useless for photos) to 4/5 days being clear or cloudy (huge improvement).

Draw a map, write down how you plan to travel (eg. A to B then to C) so that you don’t waste time wandering the streets figuring out what you need to do next or where to go.

Internet, SIM cards, technology

Again, luckily for me the Vodafone kiosk at Wellington airport was actually extremely helpful and had the answer to everything. They have a SIM card especially for travelers and the girl was really nice and set up everything for me and loaded on my credit so all I needed to do was just wait 3 minutes and then walk away with my phone ready to go. It was super easy and great.

You can choose from $19 (500MB, 100 minutes) or $29 (1GB, 200 minutes) – there must be a price for the SIM itself because I paid $35 (chose the $29 prepaid thing), but for convenience knowing you can be connected online to use your maps or receive messages or call home, I think it is worthwhile.

There were many places with free wifi spots and even my hotel was super kind to give me free wifi for the duration of my stay, which is amazing since it was a bonus and cost $20 a day for the service (I secretly thought to myself, had I known I would have gone for the $19 prepaid SIM- not that it really matters much since I abused the 200 minutes by calling home like 40 minutes each night).

Just make sure your phone is unlocked and everything.

Bring your phone charger, battery charger, hair straightener – whatever. New Zealand and Australia have the same type of power plugs so no problems there. Everything is so easy – problem solved.

Air tickets, accommodation and time differences

New Zealand is 2 hours ahead of Sydney so you will lose out on 2 hours (or so it feels like it – but not for long). I flew via Air New Zealand. The plane was a bit squishy and pretty packed (in my opinion anyway), but overall it was a good airline with reasonable prices. I did look into Emirates but it was like double the price and for a 3 ish hour flight, I don’t think there is much need to pay extra. I went for The Works which included a meal, drinks and access to their movies and the option for 1x 23kg checked in piece of luggage. I only checked in on the way back home, but I still needed to go for The Works because of the meal.

The meal on the way to New Zealand was so so as they didn’t have the option I wanted, and the baked potato that was part of it actually seemed raw. I wasn’t going to risk it so I largely left my meal untouched – so I was pretty hungry by the time I got to my destination. The meal on the way back was actually pretty good, though the chicken was still not as hot as it should be (I am paranoid if things are not heated enough) but I still finished it anyway. They also skipped me for drinks with my meal on the way back and luggage took forever to come out of the carousel. Overall Air New Zealand is not bad, but still not perfect – I guess you get what you pay for? It’s still a nice airline though.

Day 1

After landing in Wellington in the afternoon, the first thing was catching a Valley Flyer bus to the city ($9NZD) and checking into the hotel.

As I mentioned earlier, I was kindly given free wifi access for the duration of my stay. I usually pick hotels that are 4 star or above because I once read this horrible review of a hotel bathroom giving their guest athlete’s foot (OMG YUCK NO). This time round I picked this hotel (a modest 3.5 stars) because it seemed alright and it was pretty cheap – $105NZD/ night which is a bargain considering that I will not be spending much time in my room. I mean if you think about it, you spend more money on a room because of a view… that you can see from somewhere else. You can’t take the view with you anyway, and you’re not going to stay in your room staring at the view.

Overall the hotel was pretty clean and cosy. The walls were a bit thin and the hotel a tad old (it has an 80s, 90s New York boutique hotel feel) – if my neighbours slammed their door the mirror on my wall would rattle and shake. The heater was also a bit old and thermostat would make clicking noises every 10 minutes (yes, this does disturb my sleep). Otherwise, I did sleep quite well and it was in a quiet spot that was well situated in the city. Everything was pretty much maximum 15 minutes away from me, so that was pretty good.

After throwing down my stuff we proceeded to do a speed tour of the city and managed to pretty much cover everything within the city by foot in less than 2 hours. Even so it was pretty exhausting since I was wearing heavy boots and all. The first meal was a bagel from Wholly Bagel and Pizzas, which is a somewhat popular place for bagels in Wellington. The bagel itself was a bit dense because it probably needed reheating, but it wasn’t bad.

Somewhere in between I needed to grab water from the supermarket down the street, and I found to my surprise that there was a Korean supermarket just around the corner from my hotel. I ended up buying some banana milk (actually, its literal translation is banana flavoured milk) which actually was not as yummy as I thought.

We visited a friend’s place for a bit, visited a bar called The Tap Haus and then had dinner at The Oaks which is sort of like an all-Asian cuisine eatery. After that we were planning to watch a movie and ended up watching a bit of “Into the Storm” but didn’t finish the movie and called it a night.

Day 2

My first breakfast was at a place called Pandoro which had a nicely decorated interior with a black sign. I must say the meal was pretty good.

Toasted sandwich with salmon and avocado and a mocha

Day 2 was the first installment of my crazy self composed walking tours where I ambitiously wanted to cover one entire half of the city by foot. The first stop was to the Botanic Gardens of Wellington. There are a few ways to get there, including walking, but to save the trouble we took the cable car ($4NZD one way) and decided to walk down from there.

Basically the tour was like this: Botanic Gardens > Beehive > Museum of City and Sea > Waterfront > Te Papa National Museum.

We ended up skipping the Museum of City and Sea, and we only did the first two levels of Te Papa in greater detail due to dying legs.

Here are some of my favourite shots of the Botanic Gardens. I took over 650 photographs on this trip and I noticed that out of that, only about 150 photos were processed. I can’t post everything, but here are a few:

I am so thankful for the clear weather because I wouldn’t be able to do anything if it rained! The Botanic Gardens were amazing (or at least I think they were) because it was just the right mix of different plants, a trail-type walk, mountains, ponds and gardens.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Polymer Clay Artist 🌸 Misa (@misa.mochilavie)

 

This was the view from the top of the cable car. The view was actually really nice – too bad I could not capture it well on camera. My photographs improved over the next day or so because it has been ages since I took photos in general. I eventually mastered the pano feature on the iPhone – it is a really handy tool and I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to just capture the entire view in one go. I think of work (since I work with camera equipment now) and I think it’s cute that some photographers buy equipment to do panoramic shots manually. I must say, it’s a pretty difficult and tricky task – but I am not so concerned about technique or whatever. Just an old iPhone and a pano shot in medium resolution will do it for me.

The bees there are actually really cute, and really big! This is the size of my top pinky joint! I took so many photos with bees and found it so hard to capture that right moment. Birds too – I really respect those who take insect or bird shots because these things are ninjas and are so hard to get on camera! I’m lucky to have a clear shot.

This was en route the city exit – rose garden/ pavillion. This is one of my favourite spots because I love roses.

No filters or photoshop used (well I had a UV filter over my lens but that is it). The roses were so large, like 15cm in diameter and they were all so beautiful! Smelled wonderful as well.

We passed the Beehive on the way (Parliament building) but I won’t post photos of it. Google if it you wish!

This is the waterfront on the way to Te Papa National Museum.

There are a few diving platforms and I was waiting for this guy to jump in. Luckily I managed to get him hitting the water as I was walking away…

This is actually the Wellington mayor diving into to promote a diving platform – she was in the newspaper the next day or so! I’m glad I managed to witness the dive as it is a part of “history” haha – and please do not get too confused with the photo, I just photoshopped her twice into the same photo to halve the work I needed to do (instead of posting 2 photos).

After 4 floors of Te Papa Museum (which is a really nice and informative museum – it’s kind of like Questicon but without as many puzzles and not about science) we had some rest at a cafe called Cha which sells your typical tea/ bubble tea/ smoothie. I ordered a hot pot of chrysanthemum tea… bland. I suggest going for something else.

Dinner was at a Korean BBQ Buffet called TK something or other which was just a block away from my hotel. Could have ate more, but didn’t. I think I already had quite a bit to eat – the choices and selections are limited compared to what we have in Sydney (about half of what we have here – namely because they had no seafood on offer at all) and it was a small restaurant. Cost was $30 per head – I must say, Shinara is much better value for money with many many more choices available.

That concludes the first two days of my stay in Wellington. I will leave you all with just another 3 photos from the Botanic Gardens (in no particular order) and I will be back sometime (probably soon) about the next two days or so (depending on how long the post it I may split it). This is a super long post already @_@ Hope everyone is jolly (because I am and Christmas is coming soooooon)!

Home Renovations and May wrap-up

Voluntary and involuntary renovations

One of my resolutions was to do at least one home renovation and I guess I have completed this involuntarily.

So I suppose I can write about this because it wiped out a huge chunk of my birthday funds >:\

You know, a leaking hot water tank can be a pain. This happened to us 11 years ago. I think it was about 6am in the morning we heard this huge explosion sound, and then we saw that the bottom of our water tank had blown itself off from the pressure inside. Now that’s one heck of a bang, woke and scared the crap out of us. Long story short, we got it replaced.

A year ago apparently there was some leakage with our tank, but then it stopped, held off for a year and one month, and then the water tank started dripping. No matter how much water and pressure we released from the tank, the leak just got worse. It was time to replace the damn thing.

Metaphorically… and literally.

I was surprised that the top of the tank had water marks and was rusting! I would have only expected problems with the bottom since that’s where the most pressure is. I guess you learn something new every day!

For those who don’t really know much about this, or haven’t lived in an apartment long enough to know, these things happen. Water tanks are supposed to last about 10 years, so we got pretty much its full life expectancy. The funniest thing was that unlike last time, there was no explosion (thankfully), and it happened around the same time again but on a day that I coincidentally didn’t have to go to work. Talk about timing.

Anyway, I called up a place and they were able to give me the price of replacing a tank without any hesitation. Took it as it was, agreed to have someone come over within the next 2 hours, and simply waited about an hour and someone came. He emptied out the tank, removed it, grabbed a new one from his truck or whatever it was, replaced it, and even replaced an old leaking tap for us. Took a bit longer than expected (about 1.5 hours), but he was still professional, quite gentle (some plumbers like to chuck their stuff everywhere and leave scratches on your tiles *cough*previous plumber*cough*) and he was well equipped since it seemed everything was in his car. He didn’t leave a mess behind, so I must say he was very pleasant.

You really need to release the pressure in the tank by lifting up the valve every few months and you will get the full 10 years’ lifespan out of your tank. If you do the math it’s less than $100 a year for a hot water tank, but paying in one go really makes you cringe a lot.

Pre-birthday celebrations

My friend took me to a place which I will call TBD. Not to be decided; just clarifying.

I can’t really comment on the food except that it was quite pricey and the portions were… well… But I appreciated the effort put in to book the place (which had 2 rounds: we were booked in for the 8:30pm session but arrived much earlier – thankfully we were still given a table because we would have starved).

These were pan fried dumplings with sweet chilli sauce or something like that. It was probably the tastiest thing we had there, but it was $3 per dumpling and there were a total of 3. $3 each! You can buy a loaf of bread for $3

I apologise for the photo quality from here on… we were literally eating in the dark and we used the torch on our phones to give a bit of light on our food.

Raw beetroot, almond, sesame and something else salad. This was alright as well. Texture was good and the seasoning was good.

This was my friend’s beef and cheese. There’s actually not a lot here,  but it was a decent sized portion.

This was my fish in a sea of rather fishy seaweed. I know it’s seaweed, but I’ve never tasted such fishy seaweed before… in fact, I never knew seaweed could be fishy. Maybe it was the combination with the peas? I don’t really know. You can probably see that piece of fish in the centre left – there were a grand total of only 3 pieces in this whole dish, and each piece is no bigger than the size of a medium sized thumb. I didn’t want to finish the salad because of the fishiness, but I did it anyway because my friend paid for it.

Needless to say, we finished everything, but still had plenty of room in our stomachs.

Then we stuffed ourselves with 3 scoops of icecream.

Geisha-san

Consumerist at heart

For those who haven’t realised, just tuned in, or have been following me for a while and figured this out, I seem to always have an annual birthday present for myself. Did I ever write why? I don’t ever think so.

As I already made my major purchase this year (next major one I will need to wait until Christmas to justify) this year’s birthday present was broken up into several parts. Instead of having one item I opted to go for smaller items because I find joy in quantity over quality sometimes 😉 I could have afforded something simple but more expensive if it weren’t for that damned water tank. That literally wiped out my cash on hand, so I’ve been going povo for the past week. I’m currently low on funds because I’m now being paid monthly, not weekly. This is something I am not used to, and it is just new to me. I hate to sound like this, but I can’t wait until I get paid (actually everyone looks forward to it). It just feels like without my pay, I can’t do anything.

Anyway, digressions aside, the theme for this year was simply ticking things off the wishlist.

For these images I have tried a different photographic setup rather than taking photos on the floor. I’m not sure if you will enjoy it more this way, but I had fun testing out my options. My new photographic setup consists of a portable tent and a softbox for speedlite.

New Era baseball cap by Kenzo. I hardly buy new season items, but I’ve always wanted a cap for those random moments when you just need one. It’s a bit too big, but I figured with the available sizes, a size or two smaller doesn’t make much difference. Either way, still comfortable.

One of the first things on my list was a pair of Chanel ear studs. I know, I know, I said that I wasn’t going to buy any more, but they are pretty and shiny things are always desirable. Hopefully these won’t have any problems. Like last time, I went for a classic style rather than a seasonal one. I had always originally wanted a pair of Chanel logo studs with crystals in them, but never really got around to finding anything similar. Like what I have previously written, there have been instances where I have heard from others about the crystals falling out and stuff. I hope that these won’t, so fingers crossed! I look after my jewellery so it shouldn’t be the case. If something happens, then there’s something terribly wrong with the quality of Chanel’s fashion jewellery.

I went to the Chanel boutique on a Sunday afternoon and I must say they were so busy. Busy serving heaps of people just enquiring about stuff, but nobody really buying much. The prices lately have gone up, and I think their prices are pretty ridiculous. Even my earrings were more than what I had expected. There were a pair of pretty simple studs with the chain pattern on the logo (so no crystals = less chance of any problems), but they were more expensive than the pair that I ended up buying. I don’t get their pricing sometimes. I don’t get how I have friends who tell me they buy these bargain Chanel earrings. WHERE? HOW? I never encounter anything like that.

After waiting an infinity and a half I finally managed to get served and it took me probably less than 5 minutes to buy. Disappointed because they didn’t ask for my details (which are in the computer) to put on the receipt. They also changed their packaging, and the box is not as sturdy as before, although the interior seems fancier. Overall, I hate shopping at Chanel. 1/3 times I only got really good customer service, the other two times at the same boutique is just utter crap. You wait so long, for nothing. Everything’s expensive, but only worth it because of the brand. I don’t even know why I am complaining, but it just doesn’t go down well.

I finally bought the necklace that I had originally wanted mentioned in this post here. I was pleased to see that the colours on the pendant aren’t as strong or crazy as I imagined it to be, but the only problem I have is the length of the chain. Because it’s a bit short, it makes the orb sit funny so you keep seeing the bottom of the orb rather than the top.

This was a bit random – it wasn’t really for my birthday, but it was perfect timing (ish). I had wanted the Alexander McQueen scarf because it’s just such a classic. The colour I wanted it in was either a beige, soft pink, purple or the black and gold (which I convinced my ex-colleague to purchase because I sincerely thought it was such a killer classic combo), but never really saw the need for it. I have a few scarves, and Sydney isn’t really that cold to the point that you need several to go around (even though I do have several to go around). I try my best to buy accessories that look different and are different colours and sizes (I do that for my bags as well… only I stick with similar colours) so I can mix and match depending on my needs.

Anyway, each time I saw the scarf I kept telling myself that I didn’t need it. I watched it drop from $400 to $300 and now to $240 or so. I don’t understand why it drops in price like that, given it is such a classic, but the final straw was that I could purchase it for a price I thought was super good and would never ever encounter such a price ever again. It’s a bit like buying shares at the critical moment – so I just went for it.

Post-birthday celebrations

I’m thankful because at work they surprised me with a cake. They didn’t have to, since I have only been there for… not long, but they did. Thank you! And this time it’s a bit different, tiramisu!

Self photo for May

These are getting lazier and lazier, but it must be because I am getting uglier and uglier.

Yes, I recycled the cake decoration, because I can’t resist studs! (Interpret that however you like)

Overall, nothing too special for May. Look forward to my next scheduled post. I will be changing my scheduled posts to go live every Friday, so if that suits you, tune in on Fridays. Until next blog!

Canberra 1 Day 2 Nights 2013

Firstly – I HATE THIS NEW WORDPRESS FORMAT THING. The whole interface is small AS and although I know Internet Explorer is a piece of shit, I actually DO USE IT and it is NOT compatible with IE. /rant

So surprise – I am actually in a blogging mood because I had a good Italian dinner with the colleagues tonight and it’s actually early enough for me to blog. I am also bored out of my mind because well, various reasons.

I’ve actually accomplished my “go interstate” resolution – which is actually a lot sooner than I had expected considering I didn’t want to go anywhere at all. I did cheat because Canberra is just so close, boring and unspectacular that it’s probably better off being called New South Wales, but technically whilst driving there, you do end up in bits of Victoria and eventually the Australian Capitol Territories.

For those who aren’t Australian, Canberra is the capitol city of Australia. It was constructed as a city that is equidistant from Sydney and Melbourne (that is, it’s smack bang in the middle, probably give or take a few metres :P) because nobody could make up their minds as to which city would be better or appropriate as the nation’s capitol. It is a highly planned city (in the centre at the very least) so you will see a very neat road plan which is easy to get around.

I think the most important things to note about Canberra is that it is either Government orientated, if not tourist orientated. Everything is quite spread out so you do need to either drive or sit in a tour bus. If you were expecting something spectacular, this is not the place. Well, funnily enough though, I did find something different about Canberra which I wasn’t really expecting.

This is not the first time I’ve been to Canberra – in fact, it’s my third. The two previous times were during school excursions (once in primary, then in high school) and nothing about Canberra was fun except for Questicon in my humble opinion.

I had a day off on Thursday which allowed me to slowly pack my bags during whenever I could be bothered during the day. I probably packed too much because I realised that overnight stays actually don’t require much; for instance, slippers. *shrugs*

Why did I go to Canberra? That’s a pretty good question but the answer was to visit a friend. Sounds like a far stretch to go just to visit a friend, but I’ve done it before and that was to go to Hong Kong. It’s just one of the on-the-way things to do. Probably my strongest motivation was not friend-visiting for the Hong Kong trip, but I suppose it was the strongest factor for this trip. Given that, Canberra has nothing else apart from that which is what triggered the extremely short stay. That and I had work on Sunday.

I took a coach with Murrays on Friday morning . Murrays has pretty reasonable prices, are very frequent as they leave by the hour, and they are extremely punctual and leave on the dot.

To prepare myself fully, I took a Travacalm tablet before boarding since I do get motion sickness. I don’t know why I get it, because usually I’m okay. I guess if the driver is really bad, or if the road is super bumpy and the vehicle is stuffy I have a higher tendency to feel sick. The most recent (serious) precedent was my Melbourne 2010 trip on the way back to Sydney. I felt like I wanted to vomit, I was also dizzy and I could barely keep my eyes open.

To my surprise though as you can see from the photograph above, the coach was actually quite nice. Didn’t have a funky smell, had clean leather seats which were comfortable, and had good air conditioning and ventilation. This was nothing like those crappy smelly old coaches we had during primary or high school.

Basically the tablet knocked me out for a damn good 3 hours and extra 2 after I arrived at Canberra. I was drifting in and out of “sleep” (by this I mean I couldn’t keep my eyes open, but I didn’t sleep either – because I was listening to 3.5 hours of quality Big Bang music) and just couldn’t open my eyes much. I was also super dehydrated because the medicine probably asks you swig down dam [sic] loads of water (lol pun). I didn’t want to use the toilet on board so I kept the water volume to a minimum whilst riding to Canberra. I was also on a very full bus (all seats taken) given that a lot of people were travelling down for the weekend.

I arrived at Canberra at about 1:30pm where my friend picked me up from the Jolimont Tourist Centre. From there we went to the National Art Gallery of Australia which was about a 10-15 minute drive from the city centre.

I did not plan this trip at all. Yes I booked the coach tickets and hotel room, but I did not have a clue where I wanted to go. I figured if I didn’t know where to go, I would just stay in my room.

Thank God I did not walk from my hotel to the art gallery – on Google maps the distance looks walkable, but we were probably driving anywhere from 60-80km/h and it was a 35 degree day with pretty high UV levels (I was wearing a dress and my uncovered knees went red from being scorched under the dashboard – GG).

We had lunch at the cafe which has really good fries. Get those.

Wandered around the gallery for about 40 minutes. There were some really great pieces there. Probably not worth walking all the way from my hotel to there (would have taken me an hour I reckon) under the scorching sun.

We then drove to Cockington Gardens which I had no idea what it was. Actually it was pretty cute because it’s a miniature/ scale garden of some pretty cute things. I didn’t take many photos because I couldn’t see what I was doing (my phone brightness is always low so I have no idea what the heck I’m taking a photo of). The gardens close at 5pm (most things close 5pm) and we arrived at about 3. Paid the entry fee ($17.50/adults) and probably stayed there 40minutes max. At this point I was getting a bit red from the sun, but still, bearable.

If you press the button the train goes!

There were a few more photos (actually I took the most there out of all the places I went) but I shall not bore you all. It’s pretty cute, you could check it out but it doesn’t take too long to complete the whole place. Or rather, we were probably too lazy to check it all out.

After that we drove up to Mount Ainslie, which I presume is the highest point in Canberra. It was pretty spectacular – probably even better at night when you can see the lights. However when I got there, I remarked how much it looked like the perfect place to shoot a crime scene for a movie or something.

SEE WHAT I MEAN?

Anyway I am pretty scared of heights unless there is a balustrade and I’m sure it’s structurally stable to lean on. This was actually pretty scary and I was too chickenshit to go anywhere near the edge. I mean, what if some crazy person decided to push you, or a gust of strong wind were to give you a nudge?! Paranoia at its finest.

This view was pretty cool. You can see Parliament house somewhere along the main axis of the city, which was pretty neat.

I made Mount Ainslie look pretty hardcore, but there are viewing decks and stuff available, so do not fret!

Literally after taking these 3 photos (took a lazyass total of 2 minutes) we decided to leave. Yes. ………..

Yeah.

I don’t have any photos for what happened next. And no, I safely left the mountain in one piece. In a super condensed nutshell, found out/saw the place my friend was staying at and was flabbergasted  met a friend of a friend for the first time, board game building trains and stuff, got the longest route but failed to collect many points and consequently came last, had Spanish tapas and drank ridiculously weak Sangria.

Now for Spanish tapas we went south to a suburb named Manuka (pronounced Maaah-newka, NOT manoooka as in rhyming with bazooka, though the honey Manuka honey is manooka honey) which is a small eating district so to speak. There was just a small centre of restaurants and the tapas we had wasn’t bad.

From then on we went to the city centre for drinks (though I didn’t really drink anything – tried cider for the first time in my life and it just tasted like unsweetened apple juice with a 20% composition of apple cider vinegar, which is a familiar taste to me as I had to take it lots when I came down with food poisoning – so in a nutshell, cider is gross because it brings back food poisoning memories). There are quite a few boutique bars so to speak in the centre. Not many people around, but then again there weren’t many people around to start with.

I finally checked in at about 10:30pm (check in is until 11pm, so it’s NOT 24 hours since it’s Canberra – GG) and dropped my bag into my room. After sitting in the trunk for about 10 hours, everything in my bag was warm. Yes. WARM. My shoes in there were WARM. I actually bothered to pack a pair of spare shoes because I wasn’t sure of where I was going and thought I possibly needed something more formal in case.

We then attempted to go “clubbing” which is actually the term for a bar playing loud music and has an atmosphere somewhat appropriate for some light dancing. Yes, I think that’s a pretty accurate description. The most common name that popped up was “Mooseheads” which is a bar/club whatever you wanted to call it which seemed to be popular with *cough* 18 year old high school kids going into university and trying to be dope and all. We didn’t really want to go, but decided to go just to laugh it off – and I kid you not, I entered laughing and left laughing. That place, no offence, is a joke. The floor was sticky, the “dancing” was like lifting imaginary weights into the air and well yeah, there were just teenagers hanging around trying to chug down alcohol SO HARDCORE but it was just beer.

We couldn’t get into anywhere we thought looked somewhat nice because the guys were wearing joggers so we couldn’t get in. At around 12:30am we walked somewhere behind I was staying but called it quits when we noticed there was a line to get in.

So yeah. Back to the hotel (well technically I booked a one bedroom apartment). Was disappointed because the spa looked grotty so I didn’t use it. Was tired as but still showered, cleaned my face – the works. I REALLY WANTED TO SLEEP BUT I COULDN’T. I was still wide awake at 4am and barely got 2 hours sleep. Got up at 7:30 to pee. Thought to myself, screw this, let’s try sleep a bit more. Couldn’t really and got up at 8:30 to groom myself and have a light breakfast consisting of warm boiled water and 2 grainy muesli bars.

The next day we went to play mini golf called Pitch n Putt which is a form of mini golf where you are on the mini gold course with 2 options – to pitch or to putt. Therefore you are given 2 different types of golf clubs. It’s actually pretty fun because you need to decide when you need to pitch or putt, and well, yeah.

I’ve never played golf before so this was completely new to me. I really wanted to rage/quit after my first few failed hits, but after that I could actually get the ball in after 4 shots (yeah, it’s still crap but hey it’s something!) I was actually having fun. This was the only photo I took because it was SUPER SUNNY and we were constantly on the go.

The UV levels there were so strong my feet were burning. I was wearing flats because I didn’t know we were going to play golf, and I really got quite burnt. I mean, I didn’t have a hat but I left my hair down and applied SPF 50 sunscreen. Admittedly it’s not that bad, but I’m still red now after a good 36 hours.

Somewhere in the middle the sky got cloudy so I stopped burning, but we only made it to 9 holes (paid for 18 but I was burning and it was lunch time – took a while because we had 4 people so yeah). Then we went to Questacon but I was only able to have lunch and then look at about 3 exhibits within an hour and then I had to leave.

I was not expecting to do all the above mentioned. The most I thought I would do was visit the art gallery, probably do window shopping at Canberra Centre (which I didn’t go to at all) and bludge in my apartment room. That’s how anti-social and boring I am. I didn’t expect to be dragged out and have to actually interact with people I did not know but had to meet while I was there. It wasn’t a bad thing because it was actually kind of fun and I was actually making the most out of my time.

Probably the thing that I got out of the Canberra trip was that even in a place which is seemingly boring, you need to make friends to survive. I mean, even here in Sydney with plenty to do, I am not making friends or seeing my friends often enough. No wonder I am going crazy and out of my mind. Everyone in Canberra was really friendly so it was a good change from the pace in Sydney where people are rude, rushed and push/shove you around. There is pretty much no traffic on the roads. Traffic is like, having 8 cars in front of you at a red traffic light. Driving to places is a stretch so it felt like it was in the bushes even though it’s technically a city.

Of course, nothing is perfect and my trip wasn’t amazeballs and perfect; I did have some gripes with this trip.

My favourite lipgloss by Etude House was leaking in my bag. I was wondering why my earphones were sticky and glittery and thought that I didn’t screw the cap on properly. In the morning at the hotel I noticed the lid cracked!! It was such a pity but I just had to throw it out… it was either the lip gloss or the bag, and I definitely would choose to save my bag instead.

At approximately the third hole at pitch n putt I managed to make a deep gash on the joint of my thumb (the most useful part) whilst taking a shot because the bracelet I was wearing on my right wrist decided to be cute and rip open the flesh on my left thumb. It was bleeding a bit and I was kindly sponsored an antiseptic handwipe one of the guys had, and I managed to dig out a tiny bandaid from my bag. I lost the bandaid about 3 holes later and had to play without. It wasn’t too bad because I was more distracted by say, the UV levels and getting my golf ball where I wanted it, but at Questacon when I was trying to clean my hands with Dettol hand sanitiser it stung like a bitch. Now, it still hurts and it’s annoying because I can’t bend my thumb. SUCKS.

Probably the biggest problem I have with the Canberra trip is that it was actually another self reflective journey. There were actually a few questions I wanted answered, which is why I made the trip in the first place. I left feeling more confused and probably more depressed than I was to begin with. It’s a complicated thing and it’s probably nothing worth thinking/brooding/worrying over, but I can’t help it because it is genuinely bothering me in some way.

I didn’t take a motion sickness pill on the way back and I had no troubles at all. I continued to listen to my music and I enjoyed the scenery all the way back to Sydney.

I used to think that Sydney’s bush areas were pretty creepy because I get weirded out by secluded areas since I so used to the city. But in a way, the Australian scenery is so unique it is beautiful in its own way. I can understand why people paint these landscapes or write about them so often. It was a type of beauty I never thought I’d learn to appreciate. There are more beautiful places in Australia so hopefully I will be able to explore them – I used to think “psh forget the other places cbb” but now I genuinely am interested in seeing them.

Either way, it was good to be back in Sydney. As for my troubles, I’ll let them iron out over time. For now I should be less depressed and try to live my life to the fullest because I get too old to do so. Everyone I met in Canberra was so young (younger than me, pretty much – most people anyway). After just going for 2 days it felt like I went somewhere super far and came back. I’m a bit out of step because the pace was so chill there.

Well, hopefully I will be back soon with a post. Hope you enjoyed this post and I genuinely encourage you to visit Canberra anyway if you have the chance to. You do need to travel by car or tour bus as mentioned previously, but it’s probably best explored with friends – I guess that’s what made my trip, and unexpectedly so.

Hong Kong 2012 Part 3

Sorry it took so long. It has been so long since my trip or since I updated about Hong Kong, I actually can’t remember what I actually did there LOL. Well, more or less I remember, but the reason why it took me so long to write this apart from bring lazy was because I didn’t really want to bore you guys.

Part 1 of Hong Kong for me was the most extravagant and craziest I’ve lived whilst during on a holiday. I felt like Kang Kyung Joon (drama: BIG) walking into the bank in a fricken suit and sunglasses wherever I went because for some stupid reason I felt that I had plenty of money to spend and didn’t care how I spent it because I wriggled myself into the mindset that everything was cheap. That very weekend I arrived I spent all my money LOL. Part 2 was just weird because Macau was so not what I was expecting… maybe because I was there during the day and didn’t really experience the whole “casino-ness” that I stereotyped it as. Part 3 is mostly about me being povo and scraping up whatever loose ends I have. But that’s okay, because I’m just here to share the experience.

Luckily for me, I didn’t have zero dollars on me, I did have Australian dollars to exchange, which I did at a HSBC branch I vaguely remembered located on Nathan Road, thanks to Google map’s streetview. Exchange on a Tuesday, because the rate tends to be a big higher. They charged me $100HKD in bank fees (to do the exchange and stuff) and you NEED I.D to process the money exchange. So on Tuesday, I was suddenly “rich” again, well, for a brief while anyway. TIP: Avoid exchange booths, they have really low exchange rates, less bang for your buck.

As a recap, I stopped updating after Sunday which was my Macau trip.

I might have gotten my days mixed up by the way, because I no longer remember the order in which I did stuff. The only hint I have is from my photographs – but either way, if I can’t remember which day it was, I won’t say which day it was.

Monday- Wednesday. Yes, in a clump.

On Monday-Wednesday I tried to do things that cost little to no money. After spending most of my money on stuff I didn’t expect to buy whilst outlet shopping, and having an extremely frugal experience in Macau spending literally under $500HKD all up for the day, it was time to continue to save. At this point in time, I felt guilty for spending my money like it was crap (it took me that fast to forget how long I saved up trololol), and did some pretty stupid things to save money. I really wanted to go home even though I’ve just arrived for like 4 days, and there was still another 5-6 days to go. I really didn’t want to exchange money and if I could, I would survive off the remaining money I had. I mean, it was possible, but it meant cooking my own meals or something (I forgot but I worked out the sum and it totally wasn’t worth it considering I’m on holidays and not on boot camp).

Most of my days during the week were the same – stayed at the hotel, watched TV and abused my $28HKD/day unlimited wifi usage. Got out of the hotel to eat lunch so that my room could be cleaned, arrived back at around 4pm or so – and mostly skipped dinner – which was a very very bad decision to make. Some nights I would make a trip to the supermarket to top up my Evian mineral water. Some nights I decided to go have McDonald’s (which is super cheap – a meal costs only $20HKD over there – the equivalent of less than $3AUD – I know however they did put up their prices so it should be $21HKD now). If I chose to skip dinner I tried to eat snacks that I had in my room, though very few. My worst night (which I forgot which day) was skipping dinner because I was feeling super depressed and it consisted of a children’s sized tetra pack of Vitasoy milk and 4 wheat biscuits with one side covered in chocolate. Yes. That was my dinner. I was counting how many calories would suffice for a dinner… but I think I did the calculations wrong. All I remember was having this miserable “dinner”, forcing myself to sleep quite early at around 11pm and having trouble sleeping. Then I got a phone call from my friend which lifted my mood… and then after that, back to square one.

Vitasoy milk. 125ml or something ridiculously tiny from memory. Cute, but not enough to feed an adult as a meal substitute.

At this point of time I was questioning why I bothered to stay in Hong Kong for a long and weird period of 9 nights, because I was bored out of my mind. I honestly played my entire trip way too safe and didn’t go out and do anything crazy enough to make my stay worthwhile. If you planned on going to Hong Kong and hoped that you’d meet some random attractive stranger and have a few drinks all night long, or miraculously be friends with a clique of people you find amazingly compatible, snap out of it. Yes, we all daydream, but at the end of the day it’s not going to happen (I mean okay, it might, but hey, the probability is low). Out of the 9 nights I was there in Hong Kong, only 5 nights or days did I see friends and have dinner with someone else. I mean, how easy it is to be discouraged from going out at all for the remaining 4 nights? It sounds like a short period of time, but when you take into account that 4 nights actually probably is 4 nights and 6 days (since you don’t need to see someone during the day to have dinner at night), then you’ll understand why I felt so lonely and bored.

Either way, next time I go to Hong Kong, I’m only staying there max 7 nights – most likely 6, because I will go crazy. I knew that going solo was going to be tough, but I didn’t know that it was going to be that mentally challenging. Unless I’m going with a friend or someone else – that’s a different story.

On that note of saving money, I did do my part in buying cup noodles which I would have for breakfast (what, they only sell for $7HKD there… which is less than a dollar D:…).

I didn’t even bother buying a pair of chopsticks to use. I just simply used the two spoons provided in my room to eat, whilst folding the lid of the ramen bowl into quarters and using it as a big spoon. This was an average breakfast that I had – not all days, but probably 6 days I was there.

Went to Avenue of the Stars, Tsim Sha Tsui

My hotel is very very close to Victoria Harbour, which is a surprise because I probably mentioned before – the hotel is a lot more affordable than I had expected (one factor is that I don’t have a nice view at all, but that doesn’t matter because I care more about its location more than anything else). It is within walking distance to this popular tourist destination, which is where Running Man played the Cantonese singing game by the water in their Hong Kong special. To get the the Avenue of Stars, you actually need to walk in a subway to get there, which is pretty self explanatory. If you think you can skip doing so, forget it, because there’s nowhere for you to cross the road, you must take the underground route.

This is a strip along Victoria Harbour with awesome views and lots of open space where you can just walk and relax. There’s a Starbucks at the endish of the trail (with free wifi may I also add) but with disgusting public toilets (for the reasons I listed in my previous Hong Kong for noobs post – a result of attempting to flush excessive amounts of toilet paper simultaneously down a toilet which is not designed to take more than say, a square of toilet paper).

I sat at their Starbucks with a drink, chilling in their aircon in the 30 degree weather and leeched their free wi-fi.

The Starbucks is probably one of the highlights of this place, the rest is just walking and chillaxing.

You will find the trail interesting because there are handprints and signatures of some of the top stars from Hong Kong and other Asian countries, and there are little carts along the way which sell stuff like snacks though I can’t pinpoint what (I remember it being “Korean styled dried squid” but that’s a really bad translation lol).

A prime example of a famous Hong Kong movie star – Jackie Chan.

And I shall reiterate, the view is stunning. But that’s because I’ve always been fascinated with Hong Kong’s view – it’s just so different to what I’ve grown up with.

Victoria Harbour

Worth a visit, but not for long. It’s only somewhere you can hang around for about 2 hours max. Really, MAX.

K12 was boring, and you must visit an agnés b cafe

There are a lot of shopping centres around Tsim Sha Tsui, one called K12. It’s a super boring shopping centre with nothing attractive other than the mass of jewellery stores around it, and a super big agnés b clothing store as well as an agnés b cafe.

Boring.

I guess the best part about the shopping complex is that there is a large outdoor area (which is where the photo was taken) with plenty of seating so you can wait for friends. There’s wi-fi, and the whole place is actually undercover as you’re under a large glass roof. It looks cool and relaxing, but it was actually pretty hot sitting there

For those who don’t know agnés b (I didn’t know what it was and still don’t really know LOL), it is a “high end” designer label that sells bags, clothing, accessories and also has a cafe under the same label. It’s more popular in Asia (though it’s a French based label), such as Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore – otherwise I don’t really know much about the brand, nor do I care much for it either. I should have ideally had all my Starbucks meals at the agnés b cafes instead (it is only slightly more dearer than Starbucks maybe by about $10HKD) but they only seem to do cakes, they don’t really do bread. I say “high end” in inverted commas because in my opinion, it’s not really on the level I consider it to be called high end.

This was an ice cappuccino and cake by the name of “jasmine”. It’s actually a really yummy and moist cake which was surprisingly good. They had a lot of other cakes, pink, purple – all colours you could imagine. I should have tried more. The cappuccino was only so-so though. This “meal” cost me about $80-$90HKD. I can’t remember.

And on the note about recharge cards, SmarTone are a bitch to find. I had to sit at K12, leech wi-fi and google search where the hell they are sold because SmarTone recharge cards are ONLY sold at SmarTone stores. There’s only ONE in the whole of Tsim Sha Tsui, which thankfully was only about a 7 minute walk away.

iSQUARE

iSQUARE on the other hand is a shopping centre that is much closer to my hotel and can be reached just by crossing one street (okay maybe two depending on which way I walk around the block) or via the underground subway MTR tunnels. I usually went underground because NO UV RAYS. You feel like burning under the sun.

And yes, wi-fi available.

I came across this place called Hey yo! which does frozen yoghurt which you pay depending on the weight of your froyo tub. Their flavours are pretty limited (original, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate) and their toppings were so-so. I chose an original and vanilla froyo base (you just need to self serve and get it out of the yoghurt dispenser), strawberries, mango, dragonfuit, and various jellies you find in milk tea.

This cost about $70HKD and it was about 70g or so. (I think it’s $100HKD for 100g) Wasn’t really worth it LOL. Should have got more toppings than yoghurt so it would have been lighter, but I wanted to have a more filling experience. Let’s say – after I finished eating this, I WAS FREEZING. It was COLD.

I felt like a slow eater because everyone eats so damn fast. But oh well.

We’ve all seen this photo because I posted it up before, but iSQUARE is home to a lot of brands that may otherwise be hard to find, one of which is SKINFOOD. They also have The Saem (another Korean brand) which is surprising. I wasn’t expecting to buy from Skinfood, but it’s really hard to buy those nail essences as I can’t find them anywhere online anymore. They were only $30HKD each (bought all three that were in stock) and I got a skin exfoliator which was about $155HKD. The Apple line is brand new and it smells pretty good. A good alternative to Missha’s Detoxifying Peeling Gel at a fraction of the price, and smells like heaven compared to the wreck that is Etude House’s moistfull peeling gel which smells like a dead animal made from plastic. Prices in Skinfood are pricey considering they would be slightly cheaper in Korea, but probably only by $3 max (for example, if a product is $23, it could be $21 in Korea…? Or at least that’s the feeling I got). Stock is limited and the store is quite small. If you spend $600HKD you get VIP membership which means you get discounts and extra freebies – but I didn’t go for it because I was short on cash.

Harbour City

Probably the largest shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui which is also walking distance from where I stayed. This is where all the big brands are, and the complex is HUGE you actually need to rely on a map or else you will never find what you are after.

Looks shabby from this entry, but damn this place is amazing. If you’re after all the big labels, they’re all here, if not within walking distance from here. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Salvatore Ferragamo, Fendi, Dior, Miu Miu, Prada, Celine, Marc by Marc Jacobs (even) – it’s all in or near here. Although it’s called Harbour City, it’s actually divided into several different sections and they all have different names. I just will refer to the whole complex as Harbour City as I can’t tell which is what anyway. You will know when you’re inside because the colour scheme and materials change when you’re in a different section.

If the big names are intimidating, they have a lot of other stuff like UNIQLO, Muji, Zara and there’s a H&M across the road. Probably one of the coolest places which I didn’t explore fully enough was Citi Super – that place is freaking huge – goes on for about 20 stores long and they have a section for everything – magazine and books, cosmetics, fresh food/ groceries – holy crap, I didn’t go in because I was scared I’d go nuts with my spending.

Make sure you plan where you want to go first and second etc and map it out, because I walked back and forth a lot trying to find what I wanted.

And at times you are greeted with a beautiful view like this.

If I remember correctly this was just outside of Muji.

Go nuts and get lost in Harbour City, you will have a good night’s sleep. The place is huge.

Other stuff you can do which you need to do, that doesn’t cost money

Wash your clothes. I mentioned this before, but it’s best to wash all your clothes. Don’t worry if they’re not 100% spanking clean, just do it because if you go to Hong Kong during its warmer seasons like I did, you will end up with a load of pretty smelly clothes. Just wash them again when you get back home – but don’t put them into a stuffy plastic bag, it is super gross since you’ll be sweating all the time.

Clean your room and pack regularly. I was going to put up a photo of my messy room and then I realised that there was something on the chair I forgot to blur out -_-

I wanted to talk about these two items I got from SaSa when I discovered my bb cream was running out. I used the sunscreen mostly for my arms and the Dr Jart BB cream is horrible. I’ve never had bb cream melt off my face before, but this sure did. Completely wrecked my skin and I’m too scared to use it again. Maybe it’s more suitable for the Sydney weather than it is for Hong Kong, but it made my face blotchy and bumpy. I was so scared and depressed about the state of my skin I had to go to SaSa again to buy something to calm my skin down. Luckily for me the sales did a skin test for me, recommended me a product (tried to sell me a whole set, but I refused since it was over $1000HKD and I only had like 3 days left in HK) and gave me a bunch of samples to take back. I did buy the moisturiser she recommended and it’s been working so well for me I’ve now stocked about 5 jars at home at this moment.

Hopefully that will give you a few ideas of where you can go and what you can do without actually really spending money. Great places to hang, leech wi-fi or window shop. Or spend money if you still have lots to blow 😛

Thursday and Friday

Causeway Bay

On Thursday I went to Causeway Bay.

Again, Causeway Bay is something completely different to me. Apparently I was there when I was younger, but I have absolutely no memory of it. You basically get around the place via a lot of overhead pedestrian bridges/ walkways which is very common in the Hong Kong Island area.

Wire sculpture(s) outside Times Square – this was only one of them.

I got out the wrong entrance and walked all the way to Times Square, which was alright – I picked up a pair of earrings from Lane Crawford since the earrings I wore to Hong Kong tarnished in the humid weather and got exposed to hair dye and stuff lolol. I was that particular I just had to get a pair of earrings that I felt I could actually wear out without feeling they looked gross.

I followed my self drawn map and ended up at SOGO where I bought 2 Juicy Couture hair ties… pretty expensive… they were like $30AUD for a set of 3 (times that by 2 that’s $60…). Don’t know what I was thinking… but they do make good presents.

I visited the new Forever 21 store, which made me really happy, though most of their stuff wasn’t really my style. Most of the items were more affordable than H&M in my opinion, it was less packed and there wasn’t much of a waiting line for the change rooms. I loved how there were like 4 floors or so of just stuff you could buy. Everything was well organised with different sections for different things, like the casual stuff being on the first two floors, a section for clubbing dresses and another section for lingerie. The top floor was really fun as it was full of jewellery and gifts – the jewellery was so cheap – like $21HKD for a necklace (about $3) which actually looked pretty nice. There was a lot of stuff and I picked up a bunch of hairties for just $10HKD. And by a bunch I mean like, 15 LOL. Forever 21 is a super fun place – I should have originally stuck to my original plan to visit the store as soon as I got to  Hong Kong, as they close their doors at 1am in the morning. 1am!!

Either way, I picked up 2 dresses, an umbrella, phone case, hair ties and hair clips.

THE PEAK, Victoria’s Peak

On Friday I visited THE PEAK, which is the highest point in Hong Kong where you can see all of Hong Kong (sort of).

The Peak is located at Victoria’s Peak, which is a ride away from Admiralty.

To get to The Peak you either catch a tram or a bus from Admiralty. To my luck, there were a lot of signs (and tourists who seemed to know where they were going) and using common sense you just need to take the overhead pedestrian bridges to cross the roads. I decided to take the Peak Tram as that’s what they took in Running Man’s Hong Kong special. You can buy a single way or a return ticket, and you can also choose to pay extra to allow entry to the Sky Terrace. I bought a return ticket ($65HKD return) which included entry to the Sky Terrace, which is the top floor of the Peak building where you can take photos and stuff.

Sorry for the blurry photo.

As you can see the tram station is actually quite some walk from the train station (entrances are in the boxes as drawn above) – I actually ended up taking the purple dotted line because I couldn’t find the J2 exit. The tram was  pretty cool and it goes up really steep!

Take my advice, sit on the right of the tram (right as in the side you enter the tram as it is in the photo above). You’ll take better pictures than me.

I sat on the wrong side of the tram and there were no more seats on the right!!!!

There’s a mini balcony that’s free entry before you reach the Sky Terrace – I went there too. To be honest I am kind of scared of heights, and going alone going up so many escalators and standing on the rooftop without a friend or someone I could temporarily embrace was actually kinda freaky. I’m not sure if I should be calling myself brave or chicken shit… but I did make it up there, even though I was weak at the knees.

When I got to the top I was slightly disappointed because it was a cloudy day so it was super hard to take photos and see what I was doing. I tried to take self shots of myself but I could barely keep my eyes open since it was so bright even though it was overcast. Everything was also a whitish fog.

You can see the tram tracks… that’s how far up I was! But then again, I was 428m above sea level, the highest point in Hong Kong :O

See the criss crossed building in the middle? (It’s either the HSBC or Bank of China but I keep forgetting which one it is LOL) That was the building several photos up of the view I got when I got off Admiralty 😀 Such a long way away, felt like I hiked this far. The body of water is Victoria Harbour, and my hotel is on the other side.

This is a view that people usually neglect – this is facing south/westish. This was so different as it was lush and green without any buildings.

There was an attraction there which most people would have heard of – Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I wasn’t really going to go to it, but when I stumbled across it by accident, I decided to pay the (very expensive) entry fee and go through it since I was there. It was pretty cool, and they looked really close to the real people! Probably wouldn’t do it again though 😛

The entry was like $130HKD or something like that and I had no idea what was inside. I don’t want to post up my photos as such, but there are like 3 major sections and about 50-70 celebrities/ famous people inside. I lined up forever to take a photo of Louis Koo and Leon Lai – FOREVER. But as you enter you get greeted by Yong-sama 😀 (Bae Yong Joon) – the only Korean celebrity in the whole exhibit.

This is what The Peak looks like from outside. This is a building we actually came across during uni days because the architect whose firm that did this building came to our university to scout students to work for them after graduation. Well, it’s an interesting building, but the inside is actually pretty small and there’s not much to do in there. There are a lot of souvenir stores and a few restaurants, but nothing spectacular. The best attraction really is the Sky Terrace and that’s about it really.

Friday night dinner and drinks

Met up with my friend and we had dinner at a ramen place in Central. I think it was called Ippudou or something like that. Food was so-so. We ended up sitting across a super awkward couple who weren’t talking. I felt super bad because we were speaking in English about them (so they probably didn’t understand us) the entire time and he was giving them weird looks and typed messages on his phone to show me what he was thinking.

We then aimlessly wandered around and he took me to the famous(?) LKF, Lan Kwai Fong – the clubbing heart of Hong Kong. My disappointment though – it was empty, but it was about 9pm then. Apparently the partying starts at like 2am – I’ll go there next time I visit Hong Kong. Too bad I had a plane to catch the next day.

After that he called out another of our uni classmates to come out for a drink. We went to Landmark Hotel’s Zuma Bar which is located on level 7.

I forgot what this cocktail was called but it was gross. The orange juice in it was foul. This wasn’t a cheap cocktail either and just omg yuck.

The bar’s cocktail menu largely features oriental fusions so you get a lot of orange, lychee and weird things. Well, this wasn’t nice. I ordered it for the “peach” that was supposed to be in it, but all I could taste was orange. Eurgh.

The boys had a great time there, they were just checking out girls the entire night and saying how “the standard here is higher than other places”. I don’t know, because I’m not a guy, but to me they were all so-so. I thought this way because the way they dressed screamed out that they came after work, which I kind of think is sloppy – I think there’s a way to wear something work and drink friendly. But anyway who cares, I hated the place and didn’t like it. Barely got to talk to my friends and I basically had my face in my palms for the majority of the time because the cocktails were strong.

I finished the night with 3 drinks, the last being a cocktail I remember because its name was Bishounen (now that one was okay, though I spilled it because the alcohol was really getting to me -_- I suck). Friend asked if I was okay and told me 3 drinks was enough. Then I was like “did you know my second drink was a non-alcoholic one??” – he didn’t. So I cheated. I tricked them all. I have zero alcohol tolerance. Daaaaammmnnn.

The interior of Zuma was really nice though. The toilets were great, though the ladie’s toilets are located far far away from the men’s toilets. I almost walked in to the men’s toilets because I naturally assumed the women’s toilets would be opposite those… then a staff member was like “I’ll take you to the women’s toilets”. How embarassing.

I’ll probably go again, but I just didn’t like the super mature atmosphere of the bar (and by mature I don’t mean classy either, which makes it super awkward). All you see is people picking up random people, if not sticking to their own groups. Boring. The highlight of my night was accidentally blowing out the candle that was on our table. I thought that if I blew it, the flame wouldn’t go out. Lol, wut.

Then I went home. And couldn’t sleep much.

Saturday, and it’s time to leave.

Had brunch at a Japanese ramen place in another shopping centre named Mirador which is errr opposite Park Lane Boulevard (photo below) and in the direction of K12.

Browsed Harbour City for the last time. Under the recommendation of my friend’s friend we trekked to catch a bus to the airport. Probably a bad decision because my bag was freaking heavy and I wasn’t wearing any makeup since I didn’t want to bother with it on the plane – hence that’s how I got all my freckles (rageee). Basically I got fried under the sun, and we walked super far to find a bus stop which was for the NIGHT bus only. We had to walk all the way back omfg. Well, it was okay though, but probably next time I’ll take the MTR. The bus is really cheap (like $20 something HKD) but there was traffic along the way and I didn’t have much time left over at the airport. By the time I got to my terminal, I literally had to rush to go to the toilet for a last minute toilet break and then I was already lining up to get on the plane. I had no time to do any last minute airport shopping Except for a pen, because I needed one to fill out customs forms on the plane.

My “heavy” bags only weighed a total of 15kg when my allowance was like what, 25kg. -_-

It’s really hard to guess how heavy your bags are, especially since I have to really pay for the excess weight if I had any. My friend was super nice and came with me all the way to the airport! So if I did have anything extra she could mail it to me… but in this case it was not necessary.

On the way back I also had a lady lean towards me the entire trip even though the seat on her other side was empty. WTF. And she snored. WTF. LOUDLY. WTF.

I have enough points to upgrade myself to business class so next time I fly, I’ll DEFINITELY fly business class on the way back – more space, privacy, and also 40kg baggage allowance. Economy is good enough to get there, but the way back was pretty much hell. Lots of people, packed plane, and I got literally no sleep. I LIED. I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH POINTS, INSERT MEGASADFACE HERE. I need many many more points 😦 Wasted my entire hotel stay, I COULD HAVE EARNED POINTS THERE BUT I DIDN’T KNOW.

So after 4 months I have FINALLY completed my entries about Hong Kong. Took me forever to do it and this post was really rushed (literally 80% was done today), but I got distracted along the way. I am feeling a lot better now, I can eat toast now (omfg yay) but I literally have no strength in my arms – I’ve weakened a lot

Now that I have nothing to blog about I’ll have to seriously plan what to blog about next time. I have no idea because I don’t really have anything to write about. Meh, I’ll find something… later.

So, I kinda tuned out of it for a while.

My last update was a very long time ago, and I kind of just fell into a slump. I’m forever tired (still am), blood test results came back (nothing major, but I’m on vitamins now) and I’m just looking forward to lots and lots of rest. A lot has happened since… May basically, which is where I left off with my Hong Kong part 2 trip. I will post up part 3 in the weeks to come, but to stop myself from delaying posting anything at all from then until now, here is just basically what I called a rapidfire vomit list of stuff I did/ that happened in the past few months which I never bothered to talk about. I’ve been in an eternally bad mood lately because I have so many things to worry about (which I shouldn’t). It’s starting to even reflect in my sleep because I dream of things that infuriate me so much. Can’t wait til my annual leave.

If it’s rushed and basic, I apologise. I actually need to get ready to go out… and I haven’t moved an inch, which is pretty typical of me these days. I’m trying to type as fast as I can already D:

My friend graduated.

Not too sure which abbreviation/ initial to refer you as 😛 But you know who you are 😉 Girl got a USYD medallion too, which is really cool considering that where I went (UNSW) didn’t do anything like that at all. Belated congratulations! (Though I think I did say it on the day – but then again, I don’t remember…)

FREE FOOD.

We went to a place called Sunflower and ordered these green tea lattes which were more latte than green tea.

I ordered a crepe, which was super super cheesy on the inside. Not bad, though it really reminds me of “The Ultimate” pancake from Pancakes on the Rocks.

We then went to an art gallery named White Rabbit. This is le Nokia 3210 that we spotted.

This was my favourite work. It’s on the top floor and it’s just pretty. All the chairs are numbered though, in case if you really couldn’t figure how to put everything back.

Thanks for inviting me! I had fun that day just unwinding myself and taking a breath of fresh air 🙂

My male colleague is more of a housewife than I am.

Tom Yum Gung soup courtesy of workmate who made this by himself from scratch (yes, using lemongrass, limes and what not – whatever a Tom Yum Gung is made of) and brought it to work for us to share. All I can say was several hours down the track, my stomach was still burning and I was sweating. Yes, it’s spicy, but it was good for the winter.

I owned a Christian Louboutin for 1.5 weeks.

I know it sounds so weird saying that I had it for such a short period of time, but the story was kind of long, complicated and frustrating.

I snapped up this baby because it was… well impulsive. I generally buy myself a bag every 6 months, but considering I had nothing on mind and I’m not considering anything for Christmas, I decided to get this in advance as a work bag. It was such a beautiful bag, I really loved the red interior and the magnetic studded bow clasp. It was okay made (not super well made considering it was made in Italy), but the thing was it wasn’t particularly cheap and it wasn’t even majority leather. Whoever sent out my order screwed up by not giving me the long strap it was supposed to come with, and I wasn’t going to let them get away with it, because it wasn’t what I paid for.

I returned the bag and got a refund. It’s the first time I’ve ever done that – even if I receive something and it has a small manufacturer’s fault, I’m still okay with it as long as it’s resolved properly. I couldn’t stand it this time round and just asked for a refund. The main reason being that without its strap it looks like a briefcase/ laptop case. I’m still fine if I had to resort to using it as a laptop bag, but it’s not even designed to fit my laptop! I’m going to be cautious because I don’t want to buy anything from there again even though I’ve bought loads of stuff from them before.

So instead I went and spent a tiny fraction of the refund on Juicy Couture instead. Loads happier even though they’re of a different calibre.

Why thank you, too, Juicy Couture.

Went and saw Batman in Gold Class. Alone. And was underwhelmed.

I have never gone and seen a movie by myself, but this time round I had to because I kind of rage/quitted on a friend of mine who I usually go see movies with. I was pretty underwhelmed with the movie, and kind of walked out thinking “da hell did I just watch?” – I even forgot to pull out the foot rest on my chair so I kind of wasted my gold class ticket without really sitting as comfortably as I could have.

I ordered a spicy ham pizetta as well ($19) which was surprisingly pretty yummy. That was my lunch though, so yeah.

Went to the Biennale with the Lovigans.

I can’t believe it has been 2 years already. I went to the Biennale 2 years ago… and here I am again. Time surely flies.

I won’t bore everyone with photos of the art works… I’m sure you’ve all seen them so I’ll skip those.

Green tea cake roll from Azuma Lumiere.

This was dessert after Pepper Lunch… and this the best green tea flavoured bread/ cake/ pastry thing I’ve tried to date. Super yummy.

My work place celebrated its 7th year anniversary.

This was a portion of the food that we had in celebration at Encasa. Food these as usual was good and although we were so hungry going in, we were soon full because the food was so quick at coming out!

A banana milk chocolate shake (?) from Max Brenner, Broadway. I can’t remember the exact name of this LOL. It wasn’t bad, it was only slightly banana flavoured but you can tell there are actual bananas in it. This was dessert after the anniversary dinner. It was enjoyable because it’s been such a long time going for a late night snack thing… reminded me of uni days.

Rediscovered Nutella.

How many of you know how to actually eat this correctly?

If you answered “spreading it on bread” you get a massive thumbs down.

I found these at the supermarket after talking to my colleagues about eating Nutella with a plastic spatula (that’s how we all did it in Primary School) – and voila, here it is. And I’ve been eating these via the spatula. And with ice cream.

My former work colleague came back to visit from Hong Kong

My friend J who I saw in Hong Kong and went to Macau with came back to Sydney for a few days since she had a graduation ceremony on. On my day off work, we all went to have lunch at this place near King St wharf named Vessel Italian. Food was okay, but the service – UGH. Let’s replace the word service with “attitude” – not going back ever again. Not recommended, unprofessional.

We then went to browse Westfield and then had tea at the Tea Salon thingy on the 3rd floor.

Started my second Pandora bracelet – err filled it.

The new collection is really stunning. I’m not trying to sell it or anything but I haven’t been this excited about Pandora in a long time. I filled up my bracelet a long time ago, but I was actually not satisfied with several charms I had (for instance, I had a three tier cake on my bracelet, which I thought was pretty cute, until I discovered it was actually more of a wedding cake – obviously, I am not married, so I felt that it wasn’t right for me to have it on my bracelet – though it sells if I wear it, but still…).

I renovated my bracelet by firstly buying a shorter one (my bracelet stretched and is too big), and put all the ones I liked on the one bracelet. I still had some left over for my old one and so bang, I have 1.5 bracelets  now. I’m going to probably start my third bracelet next week because this time I want one that’s not so full and it will have a different colour scheme. We shall see.

And the 25/8/12 wasn’t important lol. It just happened to be there on my diary page when I took the photo D:

After all that crap, hello spring!

If you look harder, I’ve got stuff actually written on my September page of my calendar. I’ve got days off, stuff to do. I’m actually kind of excited for September, because I finally get a  break from everything. My annual leave is due to be the first two weeks of October, so REST HERE I COME.

I’m currently watching “Answer 1997” which is flawless. Drama of the year. It really reminded me of my high school days, which is why I enjoy it so much. It also sometimes makes me wonder why I didn’t have friends like that when I was in high school – it’s so hard to have close knit friends (both guys and girls) who just live a street away from you. I never mananged to experience that. The other night however, I bumped into a uni friend on the bus, and after chatting and needing to get off the bus I realised that we both lived in the same complex for the past 6 months! He’s going to move out though (probably) soon, but that was super weird/cool because I never knew anyone who lived in my complex after living here for like 12 years.

I’m also watching “To the beautiful you” (which my mum is hooked on -_-) – not bad. We’ll wait for the rest of the episodes to see.

I still watch Running Man, Chubal! Dream Team Season 2 and I’m going to get into Kangyoon couple on We Got Married (which they’re going to call We Got Married Village since they are going to live with each other *gasp*). Currently waiting for GDragon’s album to drop.

So writing this post took longer than expected – took me an hour, consists of almost 2000 words and I have less than an hour to get ready and eat lunch before I take a 30 min ride to the city (it’s the weekend). Eurgh, I manage my time so poorly these days.

Will be back – next time will be Hong Kong part 3… then I can get that over and done with – geeeeeez how long does it take for me to do things D: LATERS.

Hong Kong Part 2: Macau and laziness

Brief update on my life.

Well yeah. I’ve been tardy with my posts – no excuse really. Just been lazy, not in the mood, and just feeling pissed off. Seriously, sometimes the smallest things can really annoy me – and they shouldn’t. But I’m only annoyed because I want at least one person to stand on my side and agree – and then that’s it. It sounds immature, but I just want that bit of reassurance that yes, being angry or irritated at stuff that shouldn’t usually be a problem is normal and that it can be right. Even just for a few minutes.

Macau!

I’ve never been to Macau, but I have seen photos of it. My impression of Macau is really bustling and busy, and the first thing that comes to mind is “casino”. So the image that came to mind was a really tourist based city that looked and felt like Las Vegas – only in Asia.

Macau is a SAR which is just a boat’s ride away from Hong Kong. It has a fairly rich history as it was ruled by the Portugese so there is a mix of both Eastern and Western architectural influences which makes it a fairly interesting place.

Find it confusing as it’s not the same as Hong Kong? No worries, they accept Hong Kong dollars, so you don’t need to exchange money. Most of the time you will get your change in Hong Kong dollars as well, with the exception of taxi drivers – they are super sneaky and will give you Macau dollars (well, to be fully correct, they are called Macanese pataca) instead as it is cheaper than Hong Kong dollars in terms of exchange rates. That’s not too bad, provided you just spend those dollars buying food, or whatever it is you need to buy.

Sunday: Macau one day trip

We travelled to Sheung Wan where the Hong Kong Macau ferry terminal is. There’s another terminal you can choose, which is Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal at Tsim Sha Tsui. You’d think we’d choose HKCN since I’m staying at Tsim Sha Tsui – but we didn’t. I don’t know why either. But oh well.

My friend bought a book about Macau which included maps and a bunch of places you need to visit (for example, go to this place to eat that) at a newsagency when we got there. I ideally should have researched the place beforehand, because we were both completely lost when we got there. Macau was not what I was expecting – I thought that Macau was just a city with a few streets hustling and bustling with people, but actually that wasn’t the case. Yes, Macau is small, but I had no idea that Macau was actually an island plus a chunk of mainland connected by a bridge. Everything is closely located and within walking distance, so if you go food hopping most likely your next eating destination is only 2 minutes away – barely enough time for you to digest what you just ate.

And no, no Las Vegas vibes 😦

I thought that there would also be heaps of people in Macau, but there weren’t all that many people, possibly because it was a Sunday and many places were closed, and most people were inside “shopping centres” which are all in the vicinity of casinos, which are tucked in major hotels. The weather in Macau is mostly dusty, humid (but not as humid as Hong Kong) with probably very high UV levels. I really felt stupid for not having sunglasses… my skin now is a wreck

Macau is a 1 hour ferry ride from Hong Kong and you are required to pass customs, so bring your travel documents with you. You do not need a visa to go to Macau unless you are staying longer than 90 days.

As soon as you get off the ferry you will find a bus terminal full of free hotel shuttle buses which will take you to your hotel – or *cough* desired casino location. They are all free anyway, and they will most likely take you across the bridge… unless you choose a casino that’s on the same island. Excuse my confusing directions – we got off at Taipa, which is the little island part. The rest is just mainland Macau (which is confusingly called Macau Island).

We chose the MGM bus, which is orange in colour. This was the view going across the bridge… as you can tell… dusty. Really dusty. I didn’t expect Macau to be like that!

If you were struggling to choose between normal class tickets or first class tickets for the ferry to go to Macau, let me give you a precious piece of advice – go for the ordinary cabin tickets. It’s not worth paying an extra 50% for the first class cabin… there’s not a lot to look at from Hong Kong to Macau to be honest.

When we arrived we went through customs (really annoying, I had to fill out an immigration slip because the people on the ferry did NOT give me a slip… so I didn’t know I had to fill one in until I got to the customs officer wtf) and then hopped onto a bus which took us to MGM, which is a hotel/ casino/ shopping centre complex on Macau Island. MGM stands for Mei Go Mei which roughly translates to “beautiful tall plum blossom”.

What I really liked about MGM was their tourist attraction which was their butterfly simulation ball – this was the first thing I saw when I entered the MGM lobby and it was breathtakingly beautiful. It feels like a wonderland in there with the glass roof and beautiful architecture. This was not photoshopped! Defiintely my favourite photo from Macau… I’m using it as my phone screensaver. They had little foil pinwheels on the trees that spun and glittered under the sunlight too… too bad I couldn’t capture that.

The butterfly simulation globe has little butterflies flying around… to this day I’m still not sure if they were real or not… but it looked so real. Either way, it was a really memorable sight to see first thing visiting Macau.

This is generally what the buildings in Macau look like. Everything is reflective glass (it’s really bad for people on the street though because it means concentrated levels of light and heat reflected onto uhhh YOU) and mostly golden in colour since it’s a casino district. MONEY.

As you can also probably gather, it’s quite difficult to cross the road. It takes more skill in Macau to cross the road than it does in Hong Kong. True story.

We trekked super far to get to a small cafe named Margaret’s Cafe e Nata. Apparently they have the best Portugese tarts and milk tea – it’s tucked in a wide alley just off a main street. It doesn’t look like much as it’s a pretty old err shop which is really small and has a few seats and tables outside. The most notable thing is that it has a super long line.

Once you get closer to the cash register you will see the prices of the stuff they have. Milk Teas are $12, tarts are $8 each. The cash register is super good at like, a zillion languages (heard her speaking Thai!) so it shouldn’t be a problem ordering. She will collect your money, give you a receipt, and then you tell one of the girls in the white aprons and stuff what you paid for (the receipt only says the price and quantity but doesn’t say what the item is as their cash register is still the old type). She will gather your order.

I had no idea what a Portugese tart was – actually, it’s just an egg tart that appears to be scorched. It didn’t taste any different to an egg tart to me, but after a long walk, it tasted pretty damn good. The milk tea was probably the highlight – hands down the best milk tea I’ve had (of course it’s an ice milk tea – for the weather I trekked in, lawd I can’t imagine what it’s like drinking a hot one). I pretty much drank it in one go.

After this “snack” we decided to walk it off and find a restaurant recommended in our guide book named “Solmar”. To our disappointment, it was only about a 5 minute walk away… it looked further on the map so when we arrived, we were still stuffed and half unwilling to eat.

Solmar has Portugese foods and is in the style of a Western cafe. You get the glass of water, warm bun and butter before your meal even starts so it felt kinda weird. At the same time the interior of the restaurant is really interesting, so you can really feel the distinct East-meets-West feeling Macau has to offer.

We ended up ordering half a Portugese chicken and these deep fried fish crochets.

The Portugese chicken was actually curry chicken in a stone pot LOL. I don’t know what to really say. It was pretty yummy though, and the fish crochets were pretty nice too. They were really crispy on the outside and really soft on the inside.

The cafe is slightly pricier than what we originally thought – the bill came to about $230 MP (or in our case, HKD since we were going to pay in Hong Kong dollars anyway) – a step up from the normal meal I was used to in Hong Kong, but it was worth it for the experience. When you convert it back to AUD or USD, it was like $20 each, so that’s not too bad.

By the way, the toilets at Solmar are amazing. To be precise, the doors. They are beautiful. I didn’t take a photo though.

This was taken outside Solmar after our meal as I waiting for my friend to resurface from the toilet. A very common form of transport in Macau seems to be via scooters. A lot of the streets are also pebbled and quite reminiscent of a European, laid back city.

Close up of the footpath which I thought was pretty cool. I mean, apart from being bothered to mozaic the floor, they even had a colour variation and pattern (!!). Super weird colour combo I wore on the day. These watermelon red jeans were from H&M for $249HKD. Comfy, but I was super bright and probably stood out for a mile. Nobody was quite as bright as I was… and usually I’m not someone who goes for bright colours, which is kind of funny.

We decided to walk to “Fook Long Street” which is a pretty famous street for its cheap sharks’ fin soup, and various other things like souvenirs (food, obvs) to bring back.

On the way we passed by Senado Square.

We didn’t hang around Senado Square for long, because as you can see apart from the buildings there’s nothing else to really look at or do there.

Opposite Senado Square there is a taxi stop which is regulated with the help of Macau’s helpful police. They basically regulate it so that whoever is in the queue next actually gets a taxi. The thing that happens so commonly happens in Macau too – yes, people steal your taxi and jump the queue. We saw a Madam being super fierce and told a tourist to get out of the taxi even after he closed the door! She opened the door and ordered him to get out. They are so amazing.

This is Fook Long Street. This queue is a queue to have sharks’ fin soup. The sign above reads “Tim Fat Sharks’ Fin Soup in a bowl”. I did a dodgy translation because what they really mean is I mean, duh of course it comes in a bowl… but it’s a small bowl and well yeah. Apparently it’s like just $25 MP for a small bowl. We saw the queue and decided to forget about it. After all the news about how painfully sharks die because of sharks’ fin soup, I kind of felt turned off by it. But if you want cheap sharks’ fin soup, this is the most famous place to get it.

We got some food to bring back… mostly phoenix egg rolls (boxed) and sweets. I personally bought mango nougats (they were pretty good). I also got a box of plain phoenix egg rolls… but I kind of abandoned at my hotel room because I ran out of room in my luggage space. They sell them at Thai Kee supermarket in Market City anyway OTL Made in Macau too… I totally shouldn’t have bothered. But anyway, the places that sell these foods let you try before you buy, so you can actually stuff your face stupid with samples without buying a single thing. If you think you’ve stayed in the one place for too long, you can just hop a few stores down and let the process repeat. You can never go hungry in Macau, even if you have no money – food is virtually free and we were starting to think that we were stupid for eating lunch.

After that we headed back to Senado Square where we lined up for a taxi, which we rode all the way back to Taipa.

Our return ticket was scheduled for 6pm, and it was around 3pm already, so it was about time we headed back.

The taxi from Macau Island to Taipa was $49 MP, which is pretty cheap considering it was a pretty long ride away.

Once we got to Taipa we headed for the eatery strip… I got $51MP change from the taxi driver and I just wanted to spend it all and not keep any of their currency. I didn’t realise that the $1 was also MP though… I thought it was a HKD… if not I would have spent it. It was so dumb of me =.=

We decided to go for a light dessert and there was a stall selling small desserts in plastic bowls/ cups. The prices were generally around $10-25 MP each. We ended up choosing 3 (because I wanted to spend my $50).

This was dessert 1, Swallow’s Nest Ice Cream. We ate this first as we were worried it’d melt… we were assuming they melted some swallow’s nest into it… but we couldn’t taste any. It just tasted like vanilla ice cream that was iced in durian air. Pretty disappointing – but then we realised it was because they put this next to the durian ice cream, which is what gave it its weird smell and taste. This was the most expensive dessert (I think it was $28) – totally not worth it. We should have had the durian ice cream instead then… but then again I don’t eat durian so IDK.

This is dessert 2 – I don’t know what to call it except for a tricolor glutinous jelly. I’m sure you’ve all seen this at an Asian grocery just as you’re going to enter. And yes, it is okay yummy. It’s pretty watery though, and it tastes like the jelly I’ve made at home (though we can never get the consistency right). This is a watermelon flavour and it was just perfect for us since we were pretty thirsty.

I don’t know what to call this either… it’s just a pudding but with some shavings on top. This was highly recommended by my workmates but I’m not sure what the hype was. Then again I’m really not a desserts’ kind of person… so yeah. I don’t know LOL.

On the same street you can get your pork chop buns… which are a famous thing to eat in Macau. We could have shared one between us (but we never thought of it that way until I got back to Sydney and my colleagues were like “you could have shared!” – then I was like “…. OH YEAH…. didn’t think of that.”), but we were pretty full anyway. 3 desserts K-O’d in one go.

This park was at the end of the street. Shows how colourful and how laid back Macau is. I honestly didn’t see people really working or stressing out. I kept thinking that it was a weekday… kept forgetting it was a Sunday so everyone pretty much had free time to relax and do whatever they wanted.

We went down the other way along another main street as my friend wanted to try out this other type of food… but when she tried the sample she said she didn’t like it.

It was about 4pm by then and we had nothing to do so we decided to sit at a nearby “park” and just chat.

This place was pretty cool (and super sunny – wear a hat or sunglasses – totally regretting not doing it now) – it’s a temple, but there’s also a place to rent bicycles so all the neighbourhood kids rent a bike and pedal around in circles. It’s also good for tourists – you can rent a bike and ride around Taipa. Useless for me, I don’t know how to ride a bike :S

Sitting there and seeing how relaxing it was really put my mind at ease. These kids are still pretty fresh to the world and find plenty of fun and joy in a bicycle, which I feel somewhat comforted by. Kids these days can be such brats and  take everything for granted, but these kids were really content and had fun in simpler things.

We took a taxi back to Taipa Ferry Terminal and we arrived just before 5:30pm. Ferries are at 30minute intervals, and we weren’t sure where to queue. There’s one queue where you queue for your 6pm ferry (ie. us), OR you can choose to line up in the other line as a wild card and if there are free spaces on an earlier ferry, they will let you on.

This is the case for all ferries from Macau to Hong Kong – you can’t MISS your ferry ride, but you can choose to ride on an earlier one. Had we known, we wouldn’t have sat there aimlessly for about an hour before deciding to leave!

We DID get on the ferry (it was pretty empty and it was a larger ferry than the one we got on the way to Macau). It took me ages to get through customs though… my friend walked through with her ePass (HK citizen), but I took forever as I was a “visitor”. I was stuck at customs for about 40-50minutes. It was crazy, there were just so many people.

Note that in Macau, I didn’t say much about drinks apart from water and ice milk tea. There were no real shops selling drinks only – they didn’t have anything remotely similar to EasyWay or ChaTime. We were pretty dehydrated… I mean… the best you could get to getting drinks was going into a cafe/ restaurant and they will probably expect you to also eat something (and eating was something we couldn’t do since we were never hungry that day).

That night we ate dinner at “Chi Kee” on Lock Street, Tsim Sha Tsui. I was craving for noodles so we went for it. The thing I like about Chi Kee is that they are fast, clean, and you can add things to your meal – a main and a dessert, soup or green (as in boiled vegies – Chinese style) was for a set price. You can also add $3HKD for a drink I can’t translate into English because I don’t know what it’s called. But it’s good for you because it gets rid of water retention. My meal came to $48HKD.

Went back to hotel and just slept. What a tiring long day.

So that concludes my trip to Macau. Part 3 will be about my super boring remainder of the trip (it’s boring, seriously). If you were wondering why it took so long for this post, I can only say I sped up the process by forcing myself to finish writing this one… it could have taken longer, but I have nothing to do LOL. Off to work tomorrow =_= I might do an interlude post. Guh – whatevs. Until next post!

Hong Kong 2012 Part 1

Me, recently.

It took me a while to figure out how to put this post together because I had to jump straight back into work first thing I got back to Sydney. I originally decided to go to Hong Kong because I wanted to do a bit of soul searching – I wanted some time to myself to figure out exactly what I was doing, what I wanted to be, or do, and just iron out little issues in my life which I thought were bothering me. I guess the upside was that I managed to do most of what I wanted to do, but instead I just returned with more questions than answers I had originally hoped for – and answers for the questions I had, with more questions entailing.

A major factor which persuaded me to go was to visit some (some is an exaggeration, more like, two) friends. Whilst there is no such thing (really) as a goodbye which will last forever since we have communication in various forms, air tickets are actually somewhat affordable, and you’re never too far away if you’re willing to make the journey – I felt that for me it really was a final farewell kind of thing. I am a person who likes closure, but I didn’t really get the satisfaction or closure I was hoping for. In a way, it was a bit like an attempt to fulfill my curiosities – but instead I left feeling more the empty.

Hong Kong is undoubtedly one of the busiest cities in the world; I see my friends working really hard – in fact, everyone is working hard. Time is so precious, and everyone has matured and grown up in a way I feel like a baby whilst hanging out with them. I don’t handle time well – I haven’t handled time well, ever. When I look  at myself, I see little self-improvement. In fact, despite having a job I enjoy, earning my own money and actually doing alright with my finances and so-so with my health, that’s it. Have I become more responsible? Do I treasure things more in life? Yeah, kind of. Am I grown up? Certainly not, I lack experience in a lot of areas and I have lots to learn. The biggest catch is that I’ve wasted the youthful years of my life, and before I know it, I’m just growing old. What exactly have I achieved? Apart from a polished educational history, a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree, and reaching my work position at my age – I have little to be proud of.

The way I turned 24 was not the way I had expected. Yes, another birthday spent working. No celebrations (though the lovely people at work came even on their day off to work to throw a mini party – so I would like to describe). I had my close friends still wish me a happy birthday – even if they live in another country, have never met me before – 7 years now, every year. Some people I thought would wish me a happy birthday didn’t. I don’t know if it’s because they forgot, or if it’s because they don’t care – nor do I care. It’s no big deal. It’s just another average birthday – bland, lonely and sucky like the other 23 years.

I guess this trip made me realise how many things I’ve been taking for granted here. Just thinking back on Hong Kong’s night view that never fails to captivate me, I can’t help but think sometimes it’s just too beautiful. I wish I could grasp it, but I can’t. I guess in a way I hope to grasp other beautiful things in life, granted I can grasp them now.

Me, even more recently –

I’ve been delaying this post because I’ve been sick. In fact I’ve just been busy with work. The economy is super bad at the moment and nothing is really improving my mood. I’m currently saving up even though there are sales out there (I really want to go to them but the weather makes me say no). I’m also in the process of considering another holiday for this year – so that might actually happen.

Night lights, too much speed

Apologies if I repeat pics… I only relied on Instagram for my entire trip and so I don’t have all that many photos.

I arrived at Hong Kong, May 3rd 2012 around 7pm in the evening. Despite the air conditioning, it felt like an oven inside the airport. I was taken back by how stupidly humid hot it was there.

I took a hotel shuttle bus which took about 45 minutes to arrive (not worth the wait in my opinion, but I get a night view – which you can’t get in the MTR).

It cost me $130HKD, but I know some hotels only charge $100HKD.

This was a construction site that was lit up during the night – although we don’t normally associate construction sites with the word “beautiful”, there was no other way to describe it. To me, the night view is a dazzling thing – takes your breath away and reminds you where you are, but at the same time makes you feel like you’re dreaming. In reality though, all those distant lights in the background is probably just an indication of the location of loneliness and every day life.

I checked into my hotel, with my friend and her friend waiting for me at the hotel lobby. We then all promptly went to have dinner, which we did at an udon place. I wasn’t feeling well for the past few days, be it nervousness or whatever it was, so I chose something bland. The menu consisted of stuff like tomato based soups, cheese based soups and a variety of fried foods – I’m generally a careful person when it comes to ordering food, so I skipped anything that seemed capable of causing an upset stomach or any form of sickness. The udon I got was actually pretty gross to be honest. The udon at Menya is probably better – at least when I go to Menya, it doesn’t taste like drinking sea water.

Three bowls of udon and two entrees later with a crapload of free tea refills (which don’t taste watered down by the way), my first meal back in Hong Kong only set me back $70HKD, which is less than $10 here.

After that, we hopped into a nearby Bonjour cosmetics store where I bought some essential stuff which I posted about in my previous post. I bought 7 items and my bill racked up to $600 something HKD. In a way I thought it was cheap, but it then sounded kind of expensive because I wasn’t buying anything fancy – I mean, just look at the brands I purchased. Nothing special. I was also charged a 50c “environmental tax” fee for a plastic bag, but that can’t be helped, I had too much stuff on me to say no to a plastic bag.

I’ve already said something about the Dolly Wink pencil liner, eyelash curler and the Majolica Majorca mascara – I’ve been using the Hadalabo Tamagohada cleanser long enough to make a verdict about it – and it’s just damn good. I originally knew about the product about 5 years ago from CanCam magazine, and later I youtubed a lot and found out that AHA and BHA was good for your skin as it gives your skin back its acidity so your skin doesn’t get dried out and stuff. The cleanser in this pump version comes out as a foam already (so you don’t even need to add water, just apply to face and then rinse off). It comes in a cheaper version where you add water, but it’s the same thing I suppose. So far, results are pretty good. Skin feels really smooth and clean after using this, and the best part is that it doesn’t make your skin feel tight. I’ve already ordered another one from sasa because I thought it was so great.

Skipping all the unnecessary details, I strolled into UNIQLO at Harbour City close to 10pm because I realised that I had no clothes to change into the next day. It’s really not necessary to bring a change of clothes unless if you plan to not go shopping or spend money in Hong Kong – it’s just shopping paradise. You can do all your shopping once you get there.

At UNIQLO I just chose something to sleep in (although I brought something anyway) and a tshirt to change into. The tshirt I bought cost $139HKD and was part of the Hello Kitty x UNIQLO range. To this day I am still not sure if it’s meant to be a tshirt or to be worn as pyjamas.

We all split up at around 10:30pm and that’s when I lugged myself back to my hotel. I was pretty tired, but I couldn’t sleep until 1am Hong Kong time (that’s like 3am Sydney time). Then I got woken up early by the cleaners having a loud conversation in the corridor around 6am. RIGHT IN THE BEAUTY SLEEP.

Too little time to waste

I woke up relatively early to give myself time to groom myself and travel to my relative’s place. From Tsim Sha Tsui to my destination I needed to take an MTR, change at Mongkok or Prince Edward, and then catch a bus. I lost my way at the station because I couldn’t find the bus terminal – so I ended up having to take a taxi.

Taxis are from $20HKD and that is up to like 3km or however far (it says on the inside of the taxi but I can’t remember). My trip was really close so it was only $20.

Wasted time catching the wrong bus, and then I had to MTR and then bus it. The types of buses I’m talking about are the green mini buses which are really really hard to ride. You need to know the route, and you need to TELL the bus driver where you want to stop. This is done by shouting to the front of the bus – I’m lucky because I rode from interchange to interchange, so I didn’t need to stop anywhere in between. If you can, ride the KMBs (double decker buses) instead of GMBs because GMBs are really hard to ride.

I ended up getting my hair done – I straightened it first, then I had lunch at Cafe de Coral which by the way has a Chinese name which actually roughly translates to “Everyone’s happy” =_= I do not know where the name Cafe de Coral came about lol. Well, it’s fairly simple ordering there, they have meals which are numbered with numbers or letters. The strange part is taking your receipt to the kitchen where you see them (very roughly) put together your set meal on a tray. My meal was $20HKD (cheap), but it was a bit depressing eating at a fast food place alone. It’s quite popular with the elderly too. Apparently they are famous for their pork chop rice, but I was silly enough to just go for rice noodles.

I then went back to get my hair coloured to a light red (I actually wanted a really really light red but I guess the colour doesn’t really exist so I went for whatever the guy recommended me – and by the way I dislike BRIGHT red, but he assured me it was going to fade blah blah) – and started to panic because I was running late. Halfway through the process it was about 5pm at the time and I needed to be back at the other interchange at 5:30 (ideally) where I could do some speed shopping – because again, if I didn’t buy any clothes, I wouldn’t have anything to change into – again.

Luckily I did grab a few items at H&M – super affordable, and lots to choose from. It’s kind of funny, but everything I bought from H&M (except maybe one item) is from their DIVIDED label range, which is a line that uses environmentally sustainable sources of cotton and stuff like that. DIVIDED in my opinion is just better quality than the other cottons or fabrics I touched in store. It sounds funny, but when I go shopping for clothes, I touch them – if it’s a colour I’d wear, I’d then look at the style. If I like the style, then I might try or buy it – if not, I continue touching everything lol. But yes, the fabrics DIVIDED uses are superior to the other items.

H&M is also famous for their $199HKD jeans, which is no doubt cheap ($24.88ish). I would actually recommend NOT buying them because they are so rough to the touch I don’t see the point in getting them. I ended up getting two pairs of jeans for $249HKD each (only $50HKD more), but the fabric is superior as it is soft, comfortable and stretchy.

Well, silly me. I bought 3 pairs of pants and only one top – so that totally made no sense. Still, it was better than buying nothing, but as you can tell, it’s hardly enough to actually change into.

I made a short trip to a supermarket (very thirsty by then – and I realised that they didn’t sell water – wtf) and then went to catch the MTR back to my hotel where I would drop off my stuff.

I stood at the MTR station at 6:30pm. I was due to meet up with my friend at 7:15pm. Plenty of time right? Think again, the MTR was packed.

I missed about 3 trains (they come at 2minute intervals) and then finally couldn’t stand it and squeezed into one with all my shopping bags. Switched trains – wasn’t too bad, still squishy though – got off at Tsim Sha Tsui, dropped my stuff at my hotel room and it was already 7pm.

The whole day I felt really gross because it was super humid, and I wore a blazer all day which was the worst idea ever. My hair at least was clean since I did so much stuff to it at the salon, but I was dying for a shower. Too bad, I was running late, so I just left as is.

Caught an MTR to Central, and then arrived there at 7:12 – took me 3 minutes to walk to the exit we agreed to meet at. Making it on time like a boss!

But – it was pissing down rain. Neither of us had umbrellas, AND it was still hot humid gross yuck. We were walking uphill to some random Mexican restaurant (where, we did not know either), bought umbrellas at a 7/11 ($62HKD) and then found out that the restaurant was just a few doors down LOL.

Here I was, at Central with newly done hair – now soaked like I came out of a shower – wearing a fricking UNIQLO Hello Kitty tshirt, and purple converses. In a restaurant that served western food. Classy. I was so embarassed.

My friend works an office job so he rocked up in his button up shirt, trousers and leather shoes. I would have GLADLY swapped to wear what he was wearing (despite the male attire, not suiting me, whatever, DUN CARE) instead of what I was wearing.

The restaurant’s name is icaramba! and we ordered a burrito and a taco. It came naturally with rice, beans and other stuff, and it was a LOT. Doesn’t look like a lot,  but it was. I couldn’t finish. Also ordered a sangria, which was really really strong. It’s not the watered down stuff we get here, which is actually kind of family friendly. The sangria I had was so strong that I drank about a third and could not stop giggling uncontrollably, a really really bad sign that I was getting tipsy. A glass of water saved my life.

So I abandoned the sangria eventually. And then we decided to go “bar hopping” (yes, in my stupid Hello Kitty tee), but that didn’t go too well because all the bars were kind of full and it was still pissing down rain.

I was kind of amused by all the overpasses there were in Central (which are conveniently covered so you don’t get soaked too terribly) and I think we just ended up going to a bar at the top of IFC called Armani Aqua. Yes, the same Armani as Georgio Armani, Armani Exchange, Emporio Armani, and the other one I can’t spell. They also have a restaurant, but we went to the bar.

I actually quite liked it. The prices were reasonable (like $78HKD for a very generous glass of red wine), but you had to pay a compulsory $10HKD per person for a bunch of chips and peanuts they give you as soon as you sit down. Well, no alcohol for me – still getting over how bad I am with alcohol.

Atmosphere wasn’t bad but the music started getting louder at 11pm, so it means you have to lean in very close to hear anything.

We wanted to sit at the tables as pictured in the photograph, but as you can see the empty tables all had little “reserved” signs on them. We ended up sitting at a random table next to each other, which actually worked out better than I had expected. Did plenty of talking and random musings – then we left 11:30pm ish? Didn’t want to go back too late in case if there were a lack of trains (yes, they do stop running after a certain time).

Outlet Shopping

The next day my friend and I went to yumcha and buy ferry tickets to Macau as CotaiJet (a ferry company) has a birthday promo where you can go to Macau for just $199HKD return, and also bring a friend for also $199 return. Usually tickets are about $400HKD return, so essentially it’s like buy one get one free, or half price. It’s a REALLY good deal. My friend and I both were born in May (the deal is that if you’re born in May and you go to Macau in May, then the offer is valid) – you just need to show a form of ID with your date of birth to prove it.

And the top I got at H&M was too short!! It showed my belly… so before I met up with my friend I somehow managed to find my way to H&M on Canton Road… went in just minutes after they opened and got stuff to layer my top with… argh. At that moment of time though, I had a Chinese visitor chase after me and ask where I got my bag from… I’m starting to believe that I’m choosing all the right things to spend my money on these days.

We bought our tickets in advance on Saturday for Sunday and then we went to yumcha in Tsim Sha Tsui along Canton Road.

It’s fairly easy to order – they give you a slip and a pencil and all you need to do is write down the number of the item you’re after, the quantity, and then submit it to a waiter. Then the food will come. The bad thing is that you don’t know how much food you actually ordered, and if you need to order more it’ll be a pain in the ass. I recommend their sticky rice mango thingy – it actually has mango fruit… not some artificial mango flavoured jelly. ZOMGYUM.

We ordered too much by the way – we ordered 7 items between the 2 of us (possibly 8 because we ordered 2 bowls of “tofu soup” – sweet soup) and we didn’t finish our tofu OR plate of rice noodles.

We then went outlet shopping (which was recommended by my manager – well, not recommended, but she told me if I wanted to go it’s probably a good idea to go early) which is in a very far away place called South Horizons. I won’t write about what’s there or how to get there because you can find that out from googling it. Relatively easy to get there, just takes forever to do so. Treat it as an hour long scenic bus ride. On the way back though, I don’t know how to get back… we actually ended up catching a taxi to get back to Admiralty… it was funny because a pregnant French lady also joined our taxi since we were heading in the same direction.

The damage: a bag, two shirts (only one pictured) and a pair of shoes. I also paid for my friend’s earrings, because she paid for my ferry ticket to Macau and shouted me yum cha – worked out same same.

Two pairs of shoes from Lane Crawford – I’ve been dying to have Lanvin shoes (or Lanvin figurines even) because I’ve fallen in love with their baby blue boxes… totally worth it because they sell Lanvin shoes here (well Lanvin anything really) at rip off prices. Bargains.

My prized purchases of the day. Annnnnnnd I spent all my money in one go.

I didn’t realise that things in Hong Kong were much more expensive than I had originally expected. I mean, I got massive bargains for the items I posted above (less than half price for everything on average), but it just wasn’t cheap enough. I pretty much blew all my cash in one go and I hadn’t even finished buying stuff! I still was short of a pair of sunglasses (which I regrettably didn’t get for Macau or the rest of my trip… now I have sun freckles from it) and I completely forgot that I would totally buy a Prada teddy bear. I really want one! And I didn’t get one which was so stupid of me. It was so stupid that I didn’t even ask the price because I forgot about it. We went shopping way too late, and by the time we got there everything was about to close – argh.

We then had dinner back at Tsim Sha Tsui at a Hong Kong themed cafe restaurant with walls packed with Alan Tam’s pics and autographs. I ordered a oven baked pork chop rice… and it came with a free bowl of chicken feet soup (which by the way is really good for you) and a glass of lemon tea. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat much… the pork chops just had cheese as well… I just picked at it and then that was it really. I didn’t even finish the soup which was pretty bad.

I’m cutting this post short because the next post will be about my trip to MACAU, which will actually take quite a lot of writing. And wordpress is acting up on me sooooo yeah.

I didn’t really enjoy Macau or the rest of my Hong Kong trip because I spent most of my money LOL. I could totally lie and say it was a spiritual journey which didn’t require money to be happy, but I’ll be honest and say that I felt like crap. I was guilty for spending so much money so quickly (despite them of being very good value) and I felt that I should curl into a ball and starve myself because I didn’t deserve to spend any more money. I went to Macau on a shoestring budget because I didn’t want to spend any money even though I still had like a week left in Hong Kong. To solve my monetary problems, I actually just stopped buying random crap I didn’t need (I stopped going out altogether and I started to calculate every damn cent I had) and I had to exchange my Australian dollars at the bank to make my lifestyle a bit more fabulous lol.

I don’t like calculating money to see how long it will last you because it’s a really bad habit, which doesn’t give you any left over money. Somehow I just cheapened out towards the end and I ended up bringing about the equivalent of $100AUD back, which if you think about it, really isn’t much. I left enough for a taxi ride (in the event of an emergency) and just spare change like a meal or whatever I really needed to get.

Anyway, the next post will be about Macau (OMG PHOTOS YOU WILL HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE) and other stuff. I’m trying to iron out what’s wrong with wordpress because the images aren’t appearing when I insert them into the post >_>

Sorry about the delay by the way – I know I am really behind blogging. I still haven’t finished writing about Hong Kong, and my friend’s graduation back in mid May still isn’t even under way. I haven’t even fished out the photos from my camera yet (so, if you were wondering what I did with your photos, you know what happened… I iz lazy :() – and it’s like mid-June now. I’m terrible. I’m contemplating on going overseas again in early September too – I wonder if that’s going to work out Well, darn all of this, I’ll be back with Macau very very soon provided the images start miraculously appearing again.