Last night in Hong Kong

so tomorrow we're going back to singapore. hong kong overall has been fantastic, we've done a lot of things here from sightseeing to shopping. although polluted, hong kong is well worth a visit, it's such a contrast to the laid back lifestyle of perth :D

sunday...

today we just sorta split up and ben and myself met up with kevin (uwa) in causeway bay. that killed time till around 6 and at night keegan and i went to find an arcade to play maximum tune 3 :D

how boring...yes i know ><

monday...(new years eve)

met up with ian lam and craig pang! its awesome, i reckon, how close we all still manage to be even though 2 years has passed since high school especially considering we weren't all part of the same close group...if you get what i mean. we all met up for lunch, also meeting vincent and cheng (keegans friends). after lunch we again went to the arcade for a while before heading back to the hotel. 

we decided that we were all pretty sick of being surrounded by people so we chose to stay for the hotel bar's "all you can drink" for 200hkd (around 30aud) and thus countdown at the hotel as well. it was fantastic. keegan and ming were verry drunk. but this is a story for them to tell in person =D

tuesday...new year!

thought we'd start off the year without eating mcdonalds, so went to the local cafe two shops away from the hotel. after that we headed again to the arcade while keegan went to study. time passed and at night we went to watch the light show for the last time. for some reason, the whole of hong kong seemed less crowded, maybe cause everyone was still recovering from the night before =P

wednesday...last day

we thought we'd make hong kong memorable and so today while keegan studied, ming, ben and myself went to the arcade again before watching national treasure. it was alright, what you'd expect from a disney movie. sorta bummed around mong kok for the last time before heading back to the hotel that we've called home for the last two weeks. 

again, i apologise for my bland blog...everyone here is quite exhausted, i really am looking forward to going back to perth, i think i speak for the others as well. 

all the best

HAPPY NEW YEAR

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