Less than one week left...><

hmmmm....so whats happened since i last updated...

we're all getting quite exhausted, being out everyday for nearly a month is starting to take its toll...but we are still holding up, enjoying this last week we have before heading back to perth. i heard it was like 44degrees ??? i'm soo glad i'm here after hearing that!

anyway...

thursday...

we took it easy today...just went shopping near the harbour. ben bought a phone and contemplated buying an idog, but decided against it. hmmm, apart from that, feeling the disney spirit, ben bought a disney cd, and keegan, instead of memorising pharmacy notes, now knows the words to the little mermaid...

friday

went to macau today. if you thought hong kong was polluted...wait till you get to macau. the smog here is a lot worse, but i think its cause the wind blows it over from hong kong and china. but macau is of course only famous for its casinos...but they're nothing compared to burswood...lol...the venetian that just opened is awesome...indoor canal and the casino floor is MASSIVE. but the immigration at macau took like 2 hours to get through, so we only got to hit the venetian and sands casino =(

saturday...

for some reason we all slept till 12pm and only headed out at 2. and again, headed out to do some shopping. sorta bummed around for the afternoon before meeting ming's relatives for another expensive classy meal. after dinner, went to the arcade. gaming here is phenominally cheap...

i'm really tired...

starting to get brain dead...

that's all for now...sorry!

The Halfway Mark in HK

1 week gone, 1 week to go. We've got 10GB of pictures but unfortunately we cannot upload any more than this sweet one.




Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2008 Year!

Keegan

at ocean park

ian and anthony

peak

peak

peak

before light show

ocean park cable car

ditto

aquarium

buddha @ lantau island

ditto

ditto

hong kong park

from the star ferry

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

From the four of us on holiday, let us extend our christmas greetings from Hong Kong!

so what has happened since i last updated this? 

well...let's start with saturday...

i think on saturday we headed to lantau island to see the giant buddha. getting there we took the mtr to tung chung and then took a bus to the top of the mountain/hill where the road up to the mountain i might add looked exactly like a track from initial D. i wouldn't say that the buddha was breath-taking, but it was a pleasant and peaceful change from the hectic pace in the city. anyone thats been to hong kong knows what i mean, there are a LOT of people here...you step out of the tsim sha shui or mongkok mtr and all you see is a sea of heads. anyway, up where the buddha place is there is a temple and whilst we were there the monks were chanting, so i suppose we were quite lucky. this place is definately worth a visit, but you really have to take a step back and appreciate the serenity of the place. 

that night we decided to head to the hotel bar. it wasn't as expensive as we expected, around 60HKD and cause we went to happy hour, drinks were 1 for 1.

arghhhhhhhh...dodgy internet connection has meant that what i meant to upload yesterday has been deleted...and i had written sooo much...sigh...so because i've had a long day, i can't really be bothered doing it all over again...

so in brief, this is what has happened in the last couple of days..

sunday...

went out to lunch with mings relatives then headed to hong kong park before heading to the free zoo to see jaguars. it wasn't soo bad, just the weather was a little gloomy.  after that we took the star ferry to the other side of the harbour to watch the sky show. the sky show is pretty awesome, they've built this platform to view it from and there's music, so really cool.

monday...

ocean park with Ian Lam today. he's in hong kong for the whole uni break so he spared some time to come out with us. ocean park is this theme park on hong kong island. despite its name, most of the rides are land based, but there is an aquarium and dolphin show. both are really good.

tuesday...xmas!

woke up late as usual, and went to canton road to shop. canton road leads off from the harbour and has a lot of shopping. from what i saw, it was mainly up market with LV and gucci lining the streets. shopped for most of the day and had a christmas dinner at pizza hut. pizza hut is a full blown restaurant here...pastas, salads and of course pizza. after dinner, went to the peak, and the peak is absolutely awesome. great views and the air is a little cleaner and easier to breathe  up there. if you're ever planning to go, take the tram, it goes up at like 45 degrees or sumfing?

wednesday...

DISNEYLAND...is the place of happiness. we headed out early and thought we'd try to beat the crowds. in  a city of 7million, that doesn't happen, sigh! hk disney is smaller than the others, it only has 3 worlds and the castle is a little dissapointing. but the fireworks display is awesome and our enjoyment throughout the day wasnt' affected by the smaller size of the theme park itself. if you're going, go and watch all the shows (live performances, animations) cause they make the day soo much better. the 3d show rocks!

photos will follow...

HONG KONG!!!

we are FINALLY here in HONG KONG!

this is truely a small world...

at changi airport while we were waiting for our plane...we came across none other than our rossmoyne school mate...KAVINDA! of all people eh! he had a fantastic 24 hour transit on his way to sri lanka...

anyway, we departed singapore flying jetstar...more pleasant than any of us expected, and 3.5 hours later...we were in HONG KONG!

once we got to hong kong airport, we had a free shuttle service to the hotel (cause we're staying here for two weeks) and the bus trip from the airport to the hotel was around an hour. The first thing you notice about hong kong is the population...there are a lot of poeple. There are a sea of apartment blocks here to match it as well.

so fast forward...we got to the hotel where we met ming's aunt, after putting our stuff in the rooms, which by the way is SOOO much better than robertson quay (singapore hotel) she took us out to eat. While we were in the room, the bag boy brought up our luggage, he put it in the room and just sorta stood there...only after about 30 seconds of ben and i looking at each other in confusion, we realised we had to tip him, yet we had no hong kong dollars, so we had to go to ming to get some money =P

so we went out to eat a local nearby restaurant. awesome food and pretty cheap as well, just got to get used to everything being in larger denominations, 1AUD = 6.6 HKD at the moment. 

we called it a fairly early night and today we just sorta bummed around. ben and i went to the harbour while keegan and ming went to sort out mings identification card. the success of hong kong has been at the expense of the environment, the air here is not as clean and crisp as perth, and you'll see the pollution in the photos below, but it is an awesome city with an awesome night life. 

after that met up back at the hotel around 5 before heading out to dinner with mings family. 

only after we were on the way to the dinner did ming bother to tell us it was his grandmother's birthday, needless to say that keegan, ben and i were a bit under dressed >< july ="_="'

dinner was awesome, there was so much to eat that they took the left overs home. it was at this middle eastern place, but the majority of customers appeared to be chinese, i suppose we are in hong kong after all...

after dinner we walked back to the harbour to see the city skyline by night...BEAUTIFUL, it feels surreal to be here looking at what you see in postcards actually in person. 

oh and in singapore we saw the A380 (the double decker plane =)

Singapore in Short

Hey guys,

I know complaints have been rolling in about our lack of updates...but its not our fault that Singapore is so captivating. The nightlife, the bars, the girls, the food, the technology, the shopping...you just can't blame us =P

Singapore is pretty much the same as Malaysia, only MUCH cleaner, more orderly and is also easier to breathe. Now i really know why any regular passerby in Perth would know where Singapore is but not Malaysia. :( I shouldn't be dissing my mother country though haha...

Anyway, the four of us visited the Durian building, Merlion Park, the Zoo for 30 seconds (travelled all the way only to realise that rain would spoil the fun), the hustle and bustles of Orchard Road, Ming visiting the Bird Park for his bird shots, Anthony, Ben and Ming (and a former Rossy mate Jeremy) drinking to their hearts content at Zouk...

It was everything packed into ONE week. Yet within this 1 week we've felt like we've done what felt like a months worth of funness and greatness and everything sweet and nice :D:D:D. If there's anywhere in Asia that I'll visit again, it'll be Singapore.

I wish I could put up pictures, but I'm at a LAN centre @ Cineleisure Complex typing this post up just for the record, EXTREMELY eager to get into a game of Counter-Strike with my Singapore enthusiasts :)

Will promise to update some more whenever we can.

Toodles, and we'll see ya guys next in Hong Kong!

Ciaoz,
Keegan

i know this is late...

hey guys!

right, so now we're in singapore! FINALLY!

we got here on wednesday and since then we've basically been shopping Every-Single-Day...its exhausting, but its fun...

right now we're at a place called e-max in a shopping centre called cineleisure, basically a place for youths. this place is pretty awesome, it has a cinema, lan centre, pool lounge etc.

the net here is fairly expensive, around $3.80 an hour, compared to what we paid in malaysia (5 rm for 2 hours, lol) but to their credit, this place is really nice.

so keegan arrived last night, after picking up some notes from his parents. we thought he would arrive early this morning, so it was a surprise for him to rock up.

hmmm, we've been to all the major shopping centres now, its sooo much better than perth. i was thinking of buying a phone, but may put that on hold so i can spend on other things =D

hmmm...what else to add...

the weather's been alright, humid as you might expect, but i suppose cool by singapore standards...

argh, i dont have any photos with me atm, and we havnt' really taken any photos since we got to singapore. i dont know what else to add...haha...sorry!

i saw a maybach the other day...soooooo nice...

anyway....thats all for now, again my apologies

anthony

Malaysia in Summary

One word that would probably describe Malaysia at this point in time; hecticism.

Wait... is that even a word?

Well whatever it is, if you ever come to visit Malaysia you can surely bet your last dollar that you'll probably use the same descriptive "noun" anyway...haha.

Anyway, from the last time we blogged (which was a while back), our trip had in fact parted ways between us. Anthony had to leave for Alor Setar, which is a 6 hour drive from KL, to visit his relatives and to attend a wedding at his dad's hometown. He was away for three nights, so the rest of us had to keep ourselves busy back here in KL.

So we (i.e. Ben, Ming and myself) went to 1Utama. I'd say of all the shopping places in Malaysia, 1 Utama had to be at the top 3 amongst Times Square, Low Yat Plaza and Petaling Street (yes, haggling qualifies as high quality shopping hehe).

Anyway, Ben the childish way he is, was overenthusiastic to see young girls and boys dancing on stage while some childish Disney Princess song....haha. Nah but quote and unquote Ben says "you don't see this normally in Perth anyways" so I guess he's got a point there lol.

No we're not perverts.

We went to buy bubble tea (Ben craved) and then Burger King. At around 5pm came the main attraction of the night; visiting my grandparents.

Oddly enough though, Ben and Ming fitted in really well with my family. Don't ask me why, but Ben had no trouble with the durian, Ming spat it out after one nibble and I gloriously finished it for him. Later that night, I stayed over but the others went back to the hotel.

The next day, Ben and Ming went to see a very heavily edited version of The Heartbreak Kid at the cinemas in Times Square...pissed off they were. Later that night we went to Petaling Street, which got raided by the Police anyway (which I think is just a show) so shopping didn't go for long.

Mext trip was Genting Highlands. We missed the morning bus but, so we hopped into a taxi which overcharged us. We didn't bother going on those Theme Parks because it was way to foggy and the rides weren't too flash either. But I'll let the pics do the talking at this stage:



During the night, it was time for Ben and I to check our Pharmacy results. Ben did fantastic, I got a supplementary examination for Pharmaceutics. This was painful news. I have to tell you this so in future I'll remember. This hiccup means that I need to stay in Malaysia for a while until my parents come back to bring my notes over.

Anthony came back from his 4 day holiday too. I guess you could say that we can now continue our trip to the next destination in mind - Singapore.

Signing off,
Keegan

hey guys...

so i'm lazy and dont want to write too much, so i figured i'll just upload a bunch of photos and a small description =D

right, so what you're seeing are some pictures from the last couple days. last couple of day's we've been to KLCC patronas towers (walked back to the hotel in the rain mind you, cause we were too stingy to pay for a cab =P. 

today we went to sunway lagoon, it was raining, but in the end it turned out alright. but we've been shopping every.single.day! all our legs kill. starbucks is around every corner, i think there were three in sunway pyramid =_='. the new shoppign centre pavilion is HUGE, soo grand and over the top. 

i know my narration is kinda boring sorry!

quote of the day...from keegan (who else) "isn't foreplay foulplay?"

END OF DAY ONE...

sorry guys, i know this is like 24 hours late, but we've, but all you need to know is that we are all safe and well in kuala lumpur now, like

  FINALLY! 

so here's how the first day went...

our flight was at 10.30 and because the plane was apparently early, boarding time was 9.30. AS IF! the plane took off at 10.30 anyway and boarding was more like they check your ticket and you get to go to the other side of the rope (cause the door to the plane hadn't been opened yet =_=') . anyway, for those of you who intend to fly tiger, please dont, fly singapore airlines. the chairs LOOK uncomfortable, and they are even worse to sit on! 5 hours on in that seat was enough to know they guy sitting next to me, who happen to go to rossy, what a coincidence eh! his names jeremy and he graduated in the year below us, he's doing NS so he was going back to singapore after spending a week holiday in perth. anyway, he was really cool, and so once we landed in singapore at the budget terminal (which is crap and not worth visiting, its like open air, you'll know what i mean if you go there). 

anyway, after arriving at 3am, we took the free shuttle service (too stingy to pay for a cab) to terminal 2. once there we had maccas and ben, being white already got ripped off. hahah! he ordered a sausage with egg muffin, coffee and hash brown for 5.60 SGD, but jeremy being local, knew you could get a sausage muffin and coffee for only 2SGD!! soo unproportionate. 

right, so after mcdonalds being too stingy pay for a cab, we decided to take the FIRST mrt to harbourside, where the bus to KL was. that was at 5.30, so we basically killed 2 hours at mcdonalds. exciting i know ><

soo took the mrt to harbourside and nothign was open at 6am, except mcdonalds. we sat outside a closed starbucks and to kill time walked around to find where the bus would pick us up from. turned out we had to 'check in' to the bus at the shop that happened to be near starbucks, but ming and i were smart enough to walk to ther other side of the road OUTSIDE the shopping center before being directed BACK to the shopping centre. so pissed, cause it was so gawd damn humid. 

so caught the bus at around 8.30, and keegan was feeling a bit of motion sickness, which he claims was made worse by the bus ride. on the other hand, ben and i were quite happy with the bus ride as there was soo much more room, you could recline your seat all the way back and our bus was nearly completely empty. 

so after 17 hours in travelling we FINALLY  arrived in KL at around 3pm and took two cabs at a cost of rm 20 each (according to my  cousin we were ripped off, possibly due to ben) to the hotel. the hotel is sorta decent, it was a rather pleasant surprise (i think mainly cause we were talking it down so much, so our expectations were really low). anyway, after resting a bit (i personally had been up since 8.30 monday morning and had no more than 3 hours sleep since then till we checked in to the hotel. 

maybe an hour later we headed out, it was HOT AND HUMID, it wasnt' soo bad i suppose, but none of us were quite used to it. headed first to buy simcards to call our families (and my girlfriend =D. it is sooooooo cheapp! we called internationally and spoke for a couple of minutes each and it cost us less than 5 ringgit! whoaa! anyway, happens our hotel is in the middle of bukit bintang, near all the shopping centres, so we made our way to sungei wang. 

so i realise this is getting kinda long, and maybe you want some photos...hahah

so quickly...

finished shopping, i called out my cousin and after we headed back to the hotel, she came to pick us up and we went for dinner. after dinner we went to china town (petaling street i think) and it was really packed out (for a tuesday night). after going around china town, my cousin took us to some pubs where we had two jugs of beer (alcohol is expensive here, sigh, paid rm90 for those two jugs). after that, we went to have roti canai and roti tissue at this 24hr place. soo cheap! by then it was around midnight, and we decided to head back to the hotel cause we'd had a big day...

anyway, some photos...

sssoooo cramped ehh

so tell me whats wrong with the picture of our room...look...think...two guys...8 nights...

ITS A DOUBLE BED!!! and guess who booked our accomodation...keegan, ahahah. well, i'm sharing with ben and we got two singles put together...keegan and ming on the other hand got a double bed..ahah!

The Introduction...

Anthony, Ben, Keegan and Ming go to Asia...Uh Oh!

So here's the plan...

4 high school friends

34 nights

5 cities

4 flights

3 hotels

2 bus trips

1 unforgettable holiday...the ultimate holiday (yes i know the name is kinda lame)

And this is how it goes...

Monday 3 December 2008, we depart Perth International Airport at 10:35pm flying with Tiger Airways (yes i would've preferred singapore airlines, but we'll see how this goes). I'm really looking forward to flying with tiger after reading reviews like...

"I have to give this airline two stars. The flight Perth to Singapore to Perth was horrible...it is impossible to recline and use the head rest...worst seating experience i have encountered...incredibly cramped conditions"

oh...my...gawd...

anyway, so once we reach singapore, we have SEVEN hours to kill to wait for our bus to KL. Ever seen The Terminal with tom hanks? we'll be just like that =D

on december 12 we head back to singapore staying at the LOWEST ranked hotel on hotels.com, mind you i think its also the cheapest one listed, and guess who booked it? haha...up side i suppose i can spend more; downside, i just wont sleep comfortably...and did i mention the confirmation email we got?

Reservation Details

Standard Room with Double bed

Say WHAT? DOUBLE bed? as ben put it "looks like we're gonna know each other really well" 

so 8 days later (the plan anyway) we take Jetstar to HONG KONG on december 20. 3 hours on a no frills airline, and again i dont think we prebooked our seats =P i think we're cutting too many corners on this trip, oh well. 

The awesome thing i reckon is that we're spending christmas and new years in HK, woot! It'd be shameful if ben didn't get with at least one chinese girl, =D joking! (don't worry, i'll make all you guys proud, hehe)

so jan 3 we head back to singapore, and you know what, we havn't booked a hotel yet! arrrgggghhhhh. hopefully we'll just check into the shangri la and keegan will be none the wiser (i can imagine..."sorry keegan, left out a zero when we told you the price was $50 a night, LOL)

and jan 6 marks the end of a remarkable journey, where 4 friends became enemies =P we fly back to the reality of a serverely depleted bank balance (if any) and the hot summer weather, sigh! 

i hope to keep this as updated as i can guys...but forgive us for having a better time than you are (cause you're at home reading this and well...we're probably out at the peak, or atop patronas, or at sentosa =P

i've never done a blog before, so excuse me please if its lame ><

Take Care, 

Anthony