Flying

Woke up at the unearthly hour of 4.30am and rushed to finish the last bits of packing, before flagging down a taxi and heading to the airport. Thank goodness for Nissan Cedric taxis with larger boots, so that all that luggage could fit in with no problem.

Me and my parents are going to Hong Kong for a holiday! It's a package tour under Chan Brothers which cost no petty sum, but includes quite a number of meals and a comprehensive itinerary. Actually if you were to do your sums and add up the price of the air ticket, the hotel stay, the meals, transport and the admission tickets to the various attractions, the price for such package tours actually sounds bloody good.

It had better be a fun-filled 5 days! I'm going with my parents, so well, there's bound to be quite a lot of conflict in that aspects, being the inflexible control freaks they are.

The parents are fussing about everything: 'Have you got your passport ready?' 'Have you packed in your (whatever)?' 'Let's be paranoid and turn up early for everything.'

The flight was scheduled for 8.30am, which meant checking in at 6.30am. Totally groggy from lack of sleep.

Spent an hour in the arrivals/departures mall, and while the parents lazed around, I went all over taking photos, using the Internet terminals to do some last minute email checking, then going to the bookshop to get a map of Hong Kong (which turned out the be a lifesaver along the way, along with the the two travel books from the library)

Flying from Singapore to Hong Kong, in pictures:


Whoa. Early. It's a Singapore Airlines flight which codeshares with an Air Canada flight. The aeroplane is a Boeing 777-300, a mid-sized 2-engined plane that's really quite new, and features fly-by-wire systems. My parents would get a heart attack each knowing that our lives would depend on a bag of microchips functioning well.


The airport's teeming with Singapore Airlines planes this morning.


That's the plane I'm flying in! A Boeing 777-300 in spanking-clean livery. The thing with planes is, I wonder why airlines are reluctant to paint their planes in more exotic liveries, the way buses and trains come with all sorts of bright adverts.


Take off! Everything went smoothly, except when the plane was ascending and doing a tight U-turn north at the same time, looking out of the window sorta disorientated my vestibular system, and I felt giddy whenever I leaned forwards. Tip: When taking off, lean back in the seat, and have a mint or something to prevent your ears popping.

Was too sleep-deprived and groggy to really enjoy anything on the in-flight entertainment system. Singapore Airlines has the best entertainment around, but gee, what's the point when it's so hard to be relaxed in the noisy aeroplane? Not to mention, the small dim screen didn't help.


Airline food is surprisingly good. The international brunch is a chicken sausage with some quiche thingie and really salty potatoes, with a really tasty dessert of a peach crumble.

Pretty much dazed in the flight. Asked for a Singapore Sling (making full use of this recently-added economy class privilege) and it tasted sorta... weird.


A really scenic landing in Chek Lap Kok airport, Hong Kong, 3 hours later.






Baggage collection! The trick to making it easy to identify your luggage on the belt is to stick some garish, outlandish stickers on it. Power Rangers stickers were the closest thing I had at home, so, well.


Was really thirsty, but didn't manage to get any drink of water ever since mid-flight, as bottled water (or any liquids for that matter) is prohibited in hand-carry luggage. Damn you anti-terrorism laws! Until 7-11 in the airport, just after meeting up with the rest of the tour group. Coke Light tastes just the same in Hong Kong.

==

A bus ride later, it's time to check into Metropark Mongkok hotel. This hotel is situated in the outskirts of the touristy area of Mongkok, though this is all compensated by the fact that it's just next to the Prince Edward MTR (the underground train system) station.

Rooms are surprisingly big for a Hong Kong hotel, or so I've read online and heard from the tour guide.

My family decided on triple sharing, to save on costs, which means lotsa major discomfort and 3 people jostling for a single toilet. Dammit. Given a choice, I'd go for a separate room the next time. At any one time, someone's going to disturb the sleep of the other 2 people in the room, which turned out quite distressing at night. And well, there's the lack of privacy.



How do I describe the view out of the window? 'Humble'? 'Rustic'? 'Realistic'? But looking out of the window to a bunch of authentically Kowloonesque, decaying buildings feels depressing.

Kowloon's the most densely-populated part of the world, and it's no surprise how cramped living conditions are.

Owww. Headache. Not getting my regular fix of caffeine means I'm spiralling into a daze, compounded by my lack of sleep. This sucks. Oh well, I'm going to make sure I enjoy this, no matter what, dammit!

The tour group's pretty small at 15 people. It was supposed to be 17, but the poor kid and his dad are ill and couldn't join us, even though they had flown to Hong Kong already. The people are friendly, but not really the kind I can joke and laugh with.

==

Next, the group headed out to Hui Lu San dessert. This is a chain of stores selling desserts made from mango, coconut milk and sago, and variations based on them.

Tasty, but it makes me wonder. Mango, coconut milk and sago are cheaper and plentiful in the Singapore/Malaysia area, so why aren't there any shops over here that do it better?

==

If you're interested to know the places that I went to, here's a link to some pretty useful online maps from Hong Kong Tourism Board: Discover Hong Kong.


Next was Tung Choi Street, better known as Lady's Street. It's a long line of roadside market stalls, selling souvenirs, handicrafts, pirated clothing and trinkets. Strangely missing is food stalls, as just like in Singapore, Hong Kong's government takes a strict stance against illegal food stalls.


Walking around the place with a full bladder is no fun.


Exotic undies! Augh!


Bought these 2 tees at 50HKD each. Don't sweat the petty things, pet the sweaty things!

==
Hopped onto the coach to Lei Yue Mun Fishing VIllage for seafood dinner.






The food is really really fresh. And I guess seafood's pretty cheap in Hong Kong as they're really generous with the prawns.


Not all that tasty, but you can really taste the freshness in the food!

==

It drizzled a little next, which made me feel a little sad. I mean, I ought to be REALLY enjoying this, but I'm just that experiencing it, not enjoying it. I'd rather be here than lazing at home, but it feels like I ought to be enjoying myself more.

I miss the times when I was a kid where every new experience just felt so magical and wonderful, even if it's just a trip to the supermarket.

Got through the traffic jam, sightseeing from the bus along the way. The tour guide gushed on about the culture in Hong Kong, about how people work really hard over there, about the transport system (they have really cool undersea roads and suspension bridges). And never take a taxi across the tunnels or bridges because the fares are astronomical. Go for the MTR train instead.

The public transport in Hong Kong is so surprisingly similar to Singapore's. An extensive underground train system. Contactless cards for fare payment. Buses often used are the Volvo B9TLs and B10TLs and Leyland Olympians and Dennis Tridents, the exact same ones that Singapore uses, except with different bodywork. Even the taxis, well they are LPG-powered Toyota Crowns, but they're still look like our Toyota Crowns on the outside.

==


Scenery from Victoria Peak. This is where all the rich businessmen in Hong Kong live in, which is a little retarded cause it's such a long drive up there. Took some photos (yay, my Canon A710 IS can take pretty good night shots with the ISO800 setting and image stabilisation on), succumbed to the touts who would take a family photo with the scenery as a background for 20HKD, which is pretty cheap as tourist photos go.

Parents spoke Cantonese to everyone and everything during the whole day which peeved me majorly as I barely get a few words of what they're speaking. I mean, I can do functional Cantonese (I could struggle to buy those 2 tees solely by speaking Cantonese) but anything more complex than that drove me bonkers.


The jostle for photo space.


And lastly, the torch that commemorates the handing over of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997.

Back to the hotel, and tired. Got the nearest bakery to grab some pastries (they taste like UTTER CRAP, AVOID THE BAKERY NEAR METROPARK MONGKOK) and 7-11 for bottled water (don't drink the tap water in Hong Kong. Quick shower, fitful sleep.