RIP Dynamis

After 4 years, I think I'm finally truly done with Dynamis.

Soon returning from my HK trip, I find out the latest dynamis ls I was with decided to call it quits. At least the last one I was with was pretty silly... so it was a nice way to end it off. Although there are still a few pieces I was looking forward to getting, but they came too late in my FFXI career anyways. Dynamis-Tavnazia would've been nice to beat too (lol christmas music?).

RIP Dynamis.

Don't come back and haunt me, ok?

Hong Kong Trip - Day 19

It was the last day, I don't quite remember what we did. In the morning, we had dimsum at Pioneer again (that place is indeed good) and we ended up walking around shopping for last minute things in the afternoon. Me, especially, found some GREAT places to buy cheaper than major store (e.g Broadway) priced electronics but I was already low on money at the time, so I was only able to bring that knowledge with me for when I return the next time. I was able to find myself a better, smaller gaming headset (a la Creative) for my (rather rare) online gaming needs.

When dinner approached, we were invited to eat at a Malaysian restaurant by my Auntie Maime and Uncle Jackie. We didn't know the way, so we gave directions to the taxi driver to send us to the right direction. The restaurant was part of a giant driving range which was awesomely cool and had outside patio seating. Hey it was HK, so of course the weather was perfect for outdoor dining. They ordered us nothing but good food (I expect nothing less from our Dining Expert Family). They had this secret "tab" with the head waiter, so we weren't able to pay for the dinner. After food, we headed back to our hotel to grab our luggages and got the ride from Dickson's friend. As his kind of "service" was illegal, he dropped us off at a safe place in the parking lot and we walked the rest of the way. When we got there, my brother had already arrived, waiting for us. Auntie Maime walked with us up to the departures entrance before we said our goodbyes. I used up the last of my phone card money on sending text messages to my friends as we sat around for our flight to be announced.

On the fun 14 hour flight back, I watched Jay Chou in Kung Fu Dunk. Jay Chou is so adorable! I also watched the Golden Compass and some random shows... and then tried to sleep a bit. When I got back, I forced myself to stay awake the whole day to fix up our schedule. The whole trip felt somewhat surreal after coming back to Vancouver. But bringing back so much stuff is evidence enough that we WERE indeed there...

Now that the new changes to luggage limitations and stricter weight rules, it's going to be more complicated to travel.

HK is a great place to live, if you have the money to sustain yourself and without a crazy job that overworks you until you probably suicide. Good luck trying to find that kind of lifestyle though... Now I just gotta save up the money for the next trip back!

Hong Kong Trip - Day 18

The trip was nearing its end. And what's a better way to end it off with a bit of partying? That morning/afternoon, we did some shopping and then I headed to where my brother was staying so I could reserve our seats on the plane for our trip back. I then met up with Jenny and Amy (in which I was the last to arrive, being late as ever!) at Times Square and we wandered about the mall for dinner. We ended up picking this place called 798 Unit (not very restaurant-like, now is it?) in the Food forum, and we all had some form of pasta. I treated the meal (side note: I was a total noob with the credit card and signing as it was all so different) and then we went on our way to Lan Gwai Fongz.

Most of the places on the main streets were already packed by the time we got there, so we headed to the upper street and lounged there. We couldn't stay for long cuz Jenny wanted to train home so we only had a drink or two. K so it didn't turn out to be an insane of a party as we'd hoped, but we did have some private girl talk time. We vowed to return with a better knowledge of the area and a longer curfew by the next time I returned!

Hong Kong Trip - Day 17

Gambling? HORSE-RACING?

We dressed semi-formally (to the best of what we had available) for the annual GOME-sponsored (GOME's equivalent to our Future Shop but from Mainland CHINA) horse racing event called "GOME SPIRIT", and we were invited to sit in the Clubhouse with the other rich, civilized folks. One of my mom's old best friends was married to a rich business man (and the whole story about she fell in love with a handsome airplane driver but he wasn't rich, and this other guy who was ugly but was rich loved her too so then she decided to take the si lai rich life), and she invited us to join her. We first got picked up in a comfortable leather-seated family CAR with AIR CON (my first time sitting in an actual CAR in HK!) nearby our place and got driven straight to Sha Tin's race track where the gathering has already begun. He drove into his exclusive parking spot in the "horse owners" section and then gave us each a badge to get in. We headed inside, flashing our shiny badges and took the elevator to the clubhouse level. We were greeted by friendly employees (star treatment a bit?) and were lead to our table where we were fed with dim sum and the such. Then came the main purpose of our visit... BETTING ON HORSE RACING!

We weren't crazy gamblers so we basically took a good [random] swing at every round, betting 10 or so bucks (which was the minimum) and tried out a variety of betting styles (Win, Place, Quinella, Quinella Place, Trio, First 4, Double Trio, Double, Treble, Six Up...). We also referred to the cheat sheets which were provided by their acquaintances who were good at "predicting" the wins. SUPPOSEDLY, anyway. Each race was also sponsored by an technology company (e.g. Sony Ericsson, LG, etc) so they were named after them. The runs ran at about half our intervals and lasted until a bit after 6. Most of the time, me and my brother picked silly horse names like "KING PRAWN" and other times, we'd pick based on their racing history. All in all, it was a great experience, and at the end, we ended up breaking even.

After all the small change gambling excitement, we returned back to our place, rested a bit, and then headed to dinner. It was a giant family dinner with all my grandpa's children and relatives (however without grandpa himself and the failure as a son uncle the rest of the family despises). We ate at this restaurant I recall going to years ago when I first visited HK, and it was with the same people too! I had pissing prawns (lol direct translation.. for real) for the first time and it was GREAT. I also met some uncles for the first time as well. I also met Uncle Dick, who had a son, and they didn't have an English name so we called him "Dick" and "Dickson" - it was great lol. We ate and talked into the night... so late that the DOOR closed on us (wtf). We were locked out until the late night guy came to free us.

It was never too late for some drinking, especially in HK, so some of us walked to Uncle Jackie's studio which was in the area to chill. It was located on the highest level (penthouse-like) which was actually an extension for that extra level. I was lured into his recording area to do KARAOKE and my OWN SONG (gasp!) but my problem was finding the right song to sing! Another problem was finding the karaoke track for it... the actual songs I wanted to sing aren't all that readily available on the internet so I ended up picking an anime track, ahem, Bouken Desho Desho from a la Haruhi no Yuutsu. Call me a stereotype or whatever but it's a fun song so I went with that! I had to sing through the song a dozen times to get the parts right... I was also given a few tips to sing and was assured I don't sing as bad as Cecilia Cheung (ahem :b). If we had more time, I would've kept singing it even more but my vocals were getting tired, being untrained and all... so we left it as that.

He DID send me a glorified version of the song sung by me in mp3. I don't think I can hear myself sing so I'll probably never open it...

Though, I did felt like quite a star after doing that.

Hong Kong Trip - Day 16

My dad was cranky for food early in the morning, so we suggested to eat somewhere different. We made our way to Admirality station's Pacific Place since my mom mentioned briefly that she worked in that area when she was younger. Pacific Place was a high-end mall, so we expected high-end food to go with it. However, forgetting about my dad and how he dislikes high-end food, he got all grumpy and refused to try anything there after merely looking at the prices.

Me and my mom got so fed up, we went towards Causeway to find something cheaper instead. We then met up with my brother, who was lead to Admirality and stayed in the MTR to wait for us. We ended up calling Auntie Maime for suggestions of what to eat in the area. She had the time so she joined us to bring us to Malaymama's, which was an awesome Malaysian noodle house in the back street. She already ate so we talked a bit and she went on her way, suggesting us to go stroll down a wholesale street which sold mainly jewelry and accessories (around Jordan station?... I don't remember).

So all the stores basically sold the same things... It was safe to assume they all imported from the same places (similar to Shenzhen), and since there were so many to begin with, it was a bit overwhelming. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything that interested me anyways, but my mom was able to find a few cute things. Besides jewelry, we found quite a few clothing stores as well. To our treat, we picked up a few things.

We were invited to my mom's big brother's place for some good old homemade dinner, so we set out early to head to his place. We found our bus stop in the area that went straight to Tuen Mun and started lining up around 5. When ours finally came (after a few same ones that went the same way), we hopped in and took the upstairs seating. It was nice and A/C'd so it was a wonderful hour+ bus trip across HK, plus wunderful sight seeing opportunities out the window.

When we got there, my mom constantly harassed by cousin Angel via cellphone for directions of where to go. We finally arrive at a peaceful community of "Lun Houses", tall apartments huddled closely together - basically your typical HK housing district. All the houses were named ______ Lun House and me and my bro got a crack out of it. We even took a picture of their little directory (which may give you a good enough idea how much we enjoyed it hahaha). My mom's brother cut his chess game short to come and greet us, while his wife came back with the rest of the ingredients required for dinner.

A funny thing about HK elevators, apartments especially: They may have more than one elevator but each elevator goes to different floors. One may take the odd numbers, one may take evens, another may not stop at the first 10 floors, another may not stop at a chunk of floors in the middle. It was a strange concept to understand but I guess it kinda makes sense as it relieves waiting time, in a sense.

So we were on around the 30th? 50th? 60th? floor, and boy was it high up. Due to my non-SLR camera and super shaky hands, the night scenery pictures didn't turn out all that well. As for the main event, the actual dinner part, it was great! Good ol' hearty home food and fat choy (aka. HAIR). After food, we sat around and talked... talked a lot about grandma and her funny antics, what she left behind... it was a very warm, fuzzy family gathering. It was a rare moment but alas, time flew as usual, and we needed to get going before we couldn't transit our way back. My mom's brother's daughters and sons came to walk us to the bus stop where we disbanded and went our separate ways.

Just gotta remember how to make my way there again the next time...

Hong Kong Trip - Day 15

We headed to Macau to meet up with our grandpa and uncle. We were all ready to go until my brother forgot his passport (!) so we had to wait on him. I also didn't feel that well that morning either.

Our grandpa was furious when we got there late. Soon later we also met up with our unliked Uncle Fong. The guy who's over on the Asian front, sucking up all our grandpa's money on his useless business that has yet to complete a single project since he started in the last 5+ years. Useless dick.

ANYWAYS. Macau! I've never been to Las Vegas, but I can imagine it would be something like this. However, Macau did still feel somewhat less sophisticated, even though some of their newer buildings were grand and wonderfully built.

We had dim sum at one of the restaurants in one of the casino hotels. EIGHT was the name. The entrance was dark and mysterious... you were lead through this dark corridor surrounded the sound of falling water... and the floor glowed fishies. Into the actual eating area, it was very gold and black. Very nice. The food was good too.

The washroom had automated everything. Ah, it was nice to be back to civilization.

After the nice refresher, we hunted for a 7-seater taxi van to fit all of us in. When we finally got our hands on one, we went to buy some flowers and then headed to visit the graves of my grandpa's father's wives.

They were located all over Macau, so we trekked to two different locations. We had some difficulty at the second one. The second one was located at one of those insane mountain graves, where they are a billion of others on this super steep mountain. We had to call some other relatives to get the coords, and even then, we weren't sure. The cleaning trio followed us to where ever we went and cleaned up the grave as soon as we finally pin-pointed it. There were also a lot of dogs, a side note.

After that, we decided to visit the famous Venetian and wow was it big. My grandpa and bro went on their separate ways after we arrived. According to my parents who've been to the Las Vegas one before, it was about the same. The built the Italy setting right inside the hotel and made stores into them. Then there were these people dressed in white who would stand there and not move and then suddenly move and freak people out. My mom snuck in a slot machine (worth $20HKD!) when we got to the casino portion of the visit. She just randomly pressed buttons and soon enough, the money was already all gone.

Next, we got busy and did some serious souvenir shopping. My goal here was to buy Macau's famous pasteries for my friend! And myself if there's anything good. After we got that over with, we headed down the food street to pick up some grub. We had some trouble figuring out what to eat exactly, so we ended up eating what that particular restaurant was known for and moving onto the next restaurant after that.

There was nothing else left to do after that, so we made our way back to HK by taking one of the hotel's personal buses, equipped with tv and changing neon coloured lights.

Hong Kong Trip - Day 14

Monday ...And we're back in HK!

Me and my brother agreed to dedicate the first day we return from TW to pure shopping.

In the morning, we decided to have lunch with our parents since the stores open late in HK anyways. We ended up in Times Square just because there were the biggest selection of food concentrated in those floors of the building. When we got there, we called up Auntie Irene for some suggestions but she was in the area so she joined us instead. We headed up the floors of restaurants of Times Square and somehow ended up picking Tony Roma's. The place was quiet and was run by Filipinos. We had their lunch specials and chatted until 3ish. It was then, my brother and I decided to set off to do our much needed shopping and burn up all our cash!

First stop was to our beloved building - Oriental 188. This time, it was well into the afternoon so everything was open. We sped through the first floor and doodled down prices. He picked up a few games and things on the way. We reached the third floor... which is now my holy grounds. We made an unexpected turn and encountered the greatest figurine store. We decided to leave that place for last and went on looking first. We found a particular store that overflowed with limited edition goodness and it was then I spotted my longed limited edition Star Ocean PSP! It was the only store in the whole building that sold it! My bro, who was looking around for the best deal for his limited edition Monster Hunter Portable 2G PSP set, also got it there to try and get a deal out of it. Their awesome Monster Hunter geek shirts also caught our eye, so we nabbed some of those too. I left with Kotobukiya's Kureha, a figma of Haruhi (it was either a figma or the heat-sensitive Haruhi bunny suit... not fond of being a perv so no thanks on the latter), and a Gainax puchi set. My brother got some FF play arts sets, One Piece sets, and a rare MGS figure. I totally regret not getting more! I only saw one other store with the Haruhi Pinky: st, so I bargained less a few HKD and nabbed that as well.

After our successful battle in 188, we headed to Causeway Bay to visit the small stores we visited the last time (and others we didn't have time for). I was totally sold on the giant Keroro head cushion even though I knew it would take up so much damn space in my luggage.

I started to get tired from all the walking, so it was safe to say we were done for this trip. We headed to my brother's place to rest (and I checked up on local - Canadian - prices on some electronics). I watched him try and stuff all our loot into his empty luggage bags (which wasn't so empty after all the stuffing).

Amy soon gives me a call after she was done work so we can meet up. We decided to go to Festival Walk and ate at EXP (EXPERIENCE POINTS) by the food court and ice rink. We each had one of their special fruity mix drinks and shared some interesting meals she recommended. After some good food, we did a stroll around the mall. I visited LOG-ON again to grab some more souvenirs. Before the mall closed, I tried out the Haagen Dazs store and their Bailey's Ice Cream with customized kiwi toppings and marshmallows! It was exciting! But actually too sweet for me... Now I can say I tried the Haagen Dazs' ice cream chain tho! X3

While enjoying my ice cream, we walked to Amy's place which was a few blocks away from the mall. We walked up this crazy narrow hill, and this rather not so popular university and made it. I didn't want to raid the actual inside of her apartment, so we toured around the building. She had an amazing view of Hong Kong (perfect for those fireworks!) and other facilities like an outdoor swimming pool and whatnot.

It was a shame it was already so late as most of the lights outside were already turned off. She had work the next day so I let her go before midnight rolled around, also so I could catch the metro back as well. Taxi would be rather frightening for me.

Taiwan - 5 Day Trip

Ok, honestly, I didn't have a clue where we were and at what time. The names were all in Chinese (wasn't very English friendly you see) but our general direction was south end to the north end.

DAY 1
We had to wake up hellishly early to meet up with the rest of our tour group. Did the meeting at the airport at 7:30am, however, the flight wasn't until 9:30pm. The plane ride was a short 1 1/2 hour trip. I watched Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares on our way there. XD We landed in Kaohsiung and wooow it was getting kinda hot! We all hopped into this cheesy, orange frilly draped windowed bus that screamed nammer. However, not a nammer in sight, mind you.

In Taiwan, instead of cars, you see MAD SCOOTERS. Scooters are EVERYWHERE. They're SO everywhere, it's actually kind of annoying to walk around with them.

Our first tour spot was a temple (go figure :D) beside a University (direct translation is: Country stand middle mountain university), which the bus driver did a U turn inside and came out. So this temple... made us walk up these super steep, slippery steps (in which all the old geezers either had trouble going up or were too scared to even try - incase they break neck) that zig-zagged back and forth. And for some reason, we were by the water but there was no WIND and no CLOUDS so it was HOT. When we reached the top, we all bought water (good money). Ok so this temple was actually a battle fort when it was under Dutch rule... there just so happens to be a mini temple beside it. And a modern cafe.

Oh yeah, there was this taxi advertising this URL when we were heading back to the bus: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibo5544.

Next we had our first Hakka meal mid afternoon and witnessed the biggest, most longest melons ever... outside of their restaurant. They also tried to sell us peanuts. Some people bought it.

Next stop was a temple-ish place. There were these two towers, one entrance had the mouth of a dragon and the other was the mouth of a tiger. The story was you had to walk in through the dragon's mouth and walk out of the tiger's mouth for good luck. Me and my mom took our pictures at our respective animals. ;) The area was actually under heavy renovation so the water surrounding it was extremely dried out (much like a desert). Since there was time, we also visited another temple-ish place a bit farther with the same idea, plus a few goddesses and what not.

Then there was this wonderful temple:

The next stop was at yet another historical location. Zeelandia was the name. Which means we were in Tainan. The timing was so good, we had a giant swarm of kids on a field trip there as well. They had a number of displays of real weapons behind glass which was cool.

The first day's hotel was decent of course. For the entire Taiwan trip, I shared a room with my brother so we each got our own bed! Oh, there was a phone by the toilet (for those who like to cook phone congee). After settling down, we visited the nearby 7-11 and also visited the riverside walk. It was insanely windy outside, so we decided to retreat early. They had anime on at least three channels at a time AND they had an MTV channel. We mainly watched the MTV channel though. :D

DAY 2
Weather was a bit poopy and cloudy. We continued on our bus traveling fun, passing by signs which said that violators will be clamped down if you're a peddler. Our first stop was a temple (woohoo). However, it was not your average temple. This temple was ginormous. The detailing of not only the sculptures, but the decorations (basically everything) was so intricate and detailed. It was awe-inspiring more than anything.

Next stop was the Taiwanese aboriginals (who would've thunk it?). A side note, they had this cute feather coming out of their headpiece~ They tried to sell us that expensive mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) and royal jelly.

Because of the crappy weather, the peacock farm didn't release any of their birds out that day. However, there was one particular peacock who decided to show off a few things or two and I was able to take some good shots of him. Then I took a lot of pictures of chickens. Cuz that was the rest they had at their farm.

After some more driving, we arrive back into the city and we get to experience our very first Taiwanese night market!!! I tried out this strange lemon and aloe vera drink mixed in with grass jelly, white (coconut?) jelly/tofu, and black cored white fuzzy seed stuff! That sounds great doesn't it! :B

The night market was as we imagined but MORE. More food, more shops, more sales - it's just BIGGER and starts so much earlier in the day... AND it happens EVERY. DAY. And the worse thing was, they didn't give us enough time to shop and look and everything! We soon had to leave to get to our hotel. :/

K so the second night's hotel was crappier as expected. There were even less tv channels (no mtv!), that already tells you enough. We took a walk around the area and bumped into this random guy selling designer bags on the street. Fishy you'd think, but the designer bags were LOCAL designer bags and the dude marked them down like mad. So there was nothing to lose (except a bit of pocket change ;)) so me and my mom dug a bit and found something nice (for me~). The guy basically just pulled them out of this giant bag and just threw them all on the floor (covered in cardboard, cough, but still). On the way back, we also got some 7-11 oden (!) munchies.

DAY 3
We visited this "DIY" recreational farm which were famous for their rather insane (20 some odd different) collection of TOMATOES. Now, I love tomatoes... but when they tried to make it into a vege drink (20+ types into one), it was really kinda ick. They also sold little cacti plants, and other types of fruit.

Next stop was Neiwan's street market. We first had the traditional Hakka food once again which featured this cartoony lady with bun hair, who's actually featured everywhere on this street (trademark of some sort perhaps...). After food, we walked halfway across the bridge that lead to (I think) a temple on the other side. We also tried out this ice cream made from real fresh milk - which actually didn't taste that great... but everyone bought it anyways, just because of the hype. There was also this traditional restaurant that had the theatre built-in to watch while you eat.

We get to a mini night market. This time they gave us way too much time, too early in the day, but too close to dinner. There was nothing good at this night market, so we ended up wandering in the area. Due to our awesome wandering skills, we find ourselves at FE21 Mega Mall on Ximen Street, for our a/c leeching pleasure.

188 "Just For Fun" Hot Pot. THE BEST HOT POT RESTAURANT EVER. It's all you can eat, you get your own hot pot pot, pick your own soup base, all you can drink pop AND Mcdonalds chicken mcnuggets! What more could you ask for?? The place was great... the name was questionable though.

That night was the best luxury hotel @ Lakeshore, Taiwan. They had fancy building names like Windsor Castle and Leith Castle. We each had our own Queen-sized beds, movable tv, own kitchen built with hot water boiler, giant closet, and giant bathroom. Of course, we used the place to our full advantage. Me and my mom headed down to the health club and enjoyed dry/wet sauna-ing, turbo jet jacuzzi's and massage chairs. That was the life.

DAY 4
We bid the wonderful hotel goodbye and made our way to the day's first destination. Freedom... something gate. At the front were towering entrances that lead you to an open concrete area. On the two sides were temples of some sort. On the other side was a giant shrine to Dr. Sun Yat Sen. To get there, you had to traverse under the deadly rays of the sun... which was quite painful actually. On the two sides, there were people rehearsing their singing, and on the other, they were rehearsing their dancing (huh?).

When you make it to the other side and climb up the stairs to the actual shrine, you can head down to the ground floor to visit the built-in museum.

Next step was Taipei 101. The famous building with 101 levels. Basically we visited Taipei 101 up to floor 4 and headed straight out again. My mom had been dying to visit the bookstore, as you know, Taiwan is known for their cheap and plentiful collection of books. We walked right past New York New York and went straight to the 4-level Eslite bookstore. Unfortunately for me, they didn't have any Japanese comics I was interested in. However, the building was nicely made. It was roomy, and the escalators were customer friendly (as in the in-out flow was nicely organized).After the short visit, it was already time for us to return to the meeting point.

Taipei 101 has a visitor counter that tells you how many people are in the building at the time. The most ever was 24481 and when we were there, there were about 4000.

After the hefty book shopping, we headed to food. This time, we were brought to this restaurant called Din Tai Fung which was famous for their steamed food. The place was insanely packed and even us tour people had to wait outside under the blazing heat for a quite a while for a seat. And when we did get seats, we were forced to sit separately to accommodate all of us. All in all, it was pretty good but I feel the food we have back home is just as good, if not better. The waitresses knew Japanese here (on top of Taiwanese).

It wasn't particularly filling but this tour has never failed to fill us, knowing that we knew there will be chances later. After food, we had some time so we walked a bit and bought ourselves some good old bubble tea, which we actually had to wait a bit to get due to the lineups. Next the tour brought us to a teahouse (Royal Teahouse) where we were introduced with the different types of teas they had, were famous, for and what Taiwan themselves were famous for. We ended up getting green tea powder which tastes rather interesting with a common Chinese kid's boost vitamin drink "Yut lick doh" (roughly translates to one strength more).

After washing our hands in dried tea leaves, our next stop was the National Palace Museum (NPM). After researching museums and doing a final project on museums last semester, going to a well established one was rather exciting. The entrance was made of glass and was an automatic slide open door. The lobby was big and welcoming. Really roomy for multiple tours and groups, which was what it was filled with. As a visitor, you get an audio headset which was totally what our museum project had as well! If you were in a group, you all had your own exclusive audio tour in your own radio frequency where you are your own tour guide. If you weren't part of a giant group, they were audio tours where you'd use a similar headset but you got to punch codes into the gadget of the exhibit you wish to know more about.

Ok so the actual museum wasn't that exciting, as everything was just presented you in facts and behind the glass. The closest thing to interactive was their "touch the drawing to have it projected in a cartoon on screen in front of you!" However, as for eye candy, the museum was packed full of it. Intricate sculptures, equipment - basically everything of Taiwan history. Each era was divided in their sections and you got to go to each area to put a stamp on your map to show that you've been there. The place was jam packed in three levels, and they were presented in English, Chinese and Japanese. Unfortunately the museum did not allow photography, so I was unable to take any pictures of the place. Except in the beginning when I didn't know I wasn't allowed to <_<. The main thing I remember of it was their famous jade lettuce which apparently holds great significance. To the point that my mom had to buy something related to the jade lettuce in the gift shop.

Speaking of the gift shop, the jade lettuce merchandise was cheesy and lame. They made the jade lettuce and the little "bug" in the cabbage cartoon characters, so it ended up hard for my mom to buy the jade lettuce as a normal jade lettuce. Oh and their gift shop was HUGE.

Also, listening to the tour guide drone on about each exhibit piece for an hour plus was extremely tedious. To divert our attention elsewhere, me and my brother played around with the radio frequencies on the headset and picked up neighbour tours speaking other languages.

Finally, after touring for about two hours in that museum, we headed off to another marketing scheme - Asian Feng Shui. They lectured briefly about placement of certain guard lions and then focused on the significance of Chinese names. They brought multiple examples of famous people who's fate was somehow intertwined with their names. So depending on the number of strokes there are in your name determines your future (last names don't count cuz it's predetermined). IIRC, lucky numbers were 4, 9, 13. And unlucky are 16 and 0 (if double digit, the 2nd number is a 0). So mine are 10 and 9. Good and bad apparently.

I was surprised no one stayed to buy their merch after their lecture. I would've expected at least one or two feng shui believers.

Night comes... and that's when the best stuff happens. NIGHT MARKET.
They drop us off at this super packed night market area where we bought a GIANT piece of fried CHICKEN MEAT (breast) for 50 gils Taiwanese money (divide that by 4 then by 7.5 to get CND)! The lines literally looped around and around for these giant slabs of cheap meat. Once again the tour guide people gave us way too little time to check out the place fully. They allocate the time spent in the wrong places! So our family ended up being the last one to get to the bus because we basically got stuck in the traffic of people. Traffic that should be going one way, have stupid people cutting in from the opposite end. I ended up getting really frustrated and ended up pushing some of the opposite traffic people into the middle stands.

After the unfortunate short visit, we made out way to the hotel. Not the greatest, nor the worst of the hotels. It had this really cool (and scary) balcony and for some strange reason, a partially tinted giant window looking into the washroom where you take a dump (aka. the toilet). WHY?

Ok so our night market days were not over yet, fortunately. There was another night market in the area so, of course, we headed there as soon as we dropped our stuff.

DAY 5
We were prompt to leave the hotel in the morning to catch the "march". So at this official military station, the guards stationed at their posts will change after standing there without moving (same ones in England) for an hour or so. And when they do, they put on a whole show. I filmed the whole thing (it's a whopping 20 minutes long!) and then there's lots of stupid, stupid people getting in the way of the camera, in the way of the soldiers, in the way of everything. The soldiers' movements were so precise and look so simple, yet not. It was truly interesting but weird how we'd have to follow them (in a giant crowd of people) to watch the whole performance.

After chasing them for the good 20 minutes, we headed to "The World of Pearl" (it's what they wrote on their sign!). So this marketing scheme was to try and sell us real pearls, depending on the type, you can eat, "cure" certain aliments, or wear them like you know pearls best. Nobody bought it. Unfortunately for them. Everyone walked straight out after they were done talking.

Then it was time for souvenirs and sweets time. We stopped at this bakery called "vigor kobo" famous for their baked goods. They also had testers for you try out. Not my cup of tea.

Ok food time. Our last food place was an insane looking building that looked like it came out of Zelda... for real. It had the feel of Rainforest Cafe, minus the annoying, random thunderstorms and animal noises. They used clay, metal, and lots of brown, nature colours. They also had decoration pieces which was also made by the designer of the restaurant, which looked like they were influenced by Native culture.

So the story. This crazy designer lady one day saw a floating wooden 5-edged plank with a coin in it and bam! She was inspired by that piece of floating wood and made this restaurant! True story! It's even called the 5-edged wooden plank restaurant. For serious! I am not the one crazy!

Either way, she's hella rich and famous now.

After that enjoyable meal, we headed to our last street market. Apparently this place was extremely popular, as they'd have a park and ride stationed at the bottom of the mountain. Now, about the ride part... the bus drivers were extremely aggressive going both up and down the steep mountain. There wasn't much road room to share two lanes (one going up, one going down) but there was a lot of traffic. So there was more food and cheap shopping galore, but we were running out of Taiwanese money, so we spent cautiously to finish it up. When going back down the mountain, I had to endure some nasty BO in the stuffy bus while the crazy bus driver drove down like a mad man.

There was also a special order for duck tongue, apparently Taiwan was famous for their fresh duck tongue that even included part of the esophagus. We got a few orders for ourselves and as gifts.

Everything must come to an end. We headed to the airport to finish up the tour by rearranging our goodies into our luggages. My dad, as usual, stressed out like mad trying to fit everything in. But that's another story.

While we waited for our plane back, my mom spotted an ad on the Hello Kitty decorated gate! Immediately, she had us follow her. Luckily our gate was only a few away from the Hello Kitty one. Besides the gate, they had a nursery room, which just gave a small taste of the Hello Kitty goodness that was to come. Pink and cute as hell.

At the gate, indeed, it was pink and cute as hell. Their gift shop was jam packed with Hello Kitty goods. There was also a play area... and did I mention pink benches with Hello Kitty's head on them?

On the plane ride back, I watched the Spice Girls documentary. lol.

In conclusion! I'm glad we went to Taiwan over Korea! I really like how Taiwan has the Japanese culture built into their own now. I never knew Taiwan has such close ties with Japan even now.

In HK, everyone has their hands full with shopping bags.

In Taiwan, everyone has their hands full with FOOD.

Hong Kong Trip - Day 8

We had dim sum planned with another chunk of my dad's side of the family for 11:30am but we get woken up at 9am by a call from our grandpa saying he's on his way. Wut. So we scrambled to get ready and had him come up to our room when he arrived. We spoke a bit before we taxi'd our way to Grand Century Place.

HK malls are funny. They have an insane number of escalators. Those escalators like to jump levels. Grand Century has a pair that goes straight to the 8th or so floor from the ground floor. There's another pair that skips the 4th floor. The one to the 4th just disappears.

11:30 rolls around, the planned meeting time, and we take our seats at the Chinese restaurant for dim sum on the double digit floor (12?). We sat for a bit before the rest of the relatives arrived. This time, in addition to my grandpa, Auntie Irene the 3rd, Auntie Maime and Auntie the 1st, we got to meet my grandpa's two sisters. They still had so much spirit! They smacked my grandpa around (literally, without much hesitation) just like your typical sibling relationship. Did I mention they look adorable? :D

After food, most of them had work and other arrangements so we disbanded. We stuck around the mall for a bit and basically window shopped. Our grandpa came all the way from Shenzhen just for the meal, so we decided to spend a bit more time with him. All the window shopping was soo insanely tempting for me, however! I held back! :{

We find a photo development store and my brother and my grandpa take a group shot together (for his omimai purposes =_=). We then get a call from the optometrist we glasses shopped at, informing us they were ready for pick up. I also get a call from Jenny telling me she was ready to hang out too!

We say our farewells (as we were heading to Taiwan the next day) and made our way back to Mongkok. We got our glasses picked up and adjusted. I then headed to another Mongkok exit via subway to meet up with Jenny. We first visited a shopping building (yes!) out yet another Mongkok exit and did some good ol' shopping. There was this insanely cute goth store that had their own little mascot line with garments which had attached animal-like features (ears, tail, etc) on them! I got a piece that featured their cute critter. I also got some super cheap play earrings - 3 for $10!

After satisfying shopping, we headed to Kowloon Tong Station's Festival Walk mall, originally to meet up with her sister for dinner but she ended up ditching us. We debated on what to eat, and ended up eating food court rice bowls of Yoshinoya (mainly because Jenny didn't want to spend too much...). After eating, we window shopped the area and I ended up buying a chicken leg screen cleaner at LOG-ON. As the stores were beginning to close on us, we sat and talked for the rest of the night.

The next day's Taiwan! Gogogogo!

Hong Kong Trip - Day 6 & 7

Sundays are swarmed with housekeepers and maids alike as it is their only day off. It's actually rather frightening to be out on a Sunday. But anyway, started the day in Central looking for Yung Kee, a restaurant famous for their BBQ duck. We found the place but they didn't open until 11 so we walked around the area in the meanwhile and did some shopping. The BBQ duck wasn't as good as it claims to be but it wasn't bad either. The rest of the food there was overpriced due to their reputation but at least we can say that we've tried it. On a side note, they had two dragon statues inside that had eyes that kept glowing red... creepiest thing.

At noon we headed to our Auntie Mamie's workplace for our appointment with her for haircuts (as she is a professional hairstylist after all).. :D My bro went first as he had plans (watching a UFC match live on tv) and then I went. She touched up my roots and then replenished the rest of my hair with some more colour! Then snip snip snip... I didn't get a particularly different haircut, in comparison to what my brother, mom or dad got...

After my transformation, I headed out and called up Amy and met up with her at a Causeway exit. She said she had a K place her friends suggested her to go to... and as I expected, they suggested her to go to the expensive one on the corner of where my brother lived. Nonetheless, we were eager to try it anyways, considering the both of us haven't been to this one before. The place had a grand entranceway with high ceilings. The lobby was lead to the second floor by a grand stairway that curved upwards. When we got to our room, it was big enough for a 6+ people... not to mention, we had our own private washroom in our room too. Indeed it was expensive: the base rate was cheap, HOWEVER, you were forced to buy a box of processed peanut cookie-like snack from them for the base rate price on top. However it was all you can sing until 8, so we had quite a few hours. Their system was also very nifty too: for duet songs, you can chose whether you want to sing with one of the other artists. The Japanese selection was lacking ;b ... but hey, I've yet to find a good enough K place that supports a good J selection anyway... maybe except Japan itself but that's a completely different story <_<!

Time flew by quickly, and it hit 7, so we decided to go get some food. We traveled to SOHO where I was able to experience the longest escalator in the world (during its early years). We ended up deciding on having Italian at Fat Angelio's and had one of their combo meals for two where we were able to had a bit all courses. After the filling meal, we decided to walk Lang Kwai Fong and scout out the area. Apparently HK is really obedient on Sunday nights: everything's already closed by 11, and even Lang Kwai Fong is dead quiet by then.

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Monday. Shenzhen: Round 2 with the family and two of mom best friends from way back when (Banikie [pronounced Ban-kee] and Virpo [pronounced Ree-bow <_<]). We started the day with dim sum at probably the only few good food places in Shenzhen that isn't dirty and suspicious of poisoning. The dim sum restaurant was part of the train station building, so after food, we did some serious shopping. Me being obsessed with accessories, got myself a handful of fun stuff for insanely cheap prices. The two ladies sure know how to bargain... to the point that it's quite frightening. There was also some scarf and shoe buying action as well.

When it was about time, we walked to the massage parlor. Compared to the last one, this one was more run down, and was more professional as it strictly focused on massaging; no personal tvs or eating while we get strangled. However, Bankie (still don't know how to spell her name...) is a beauty consultant and is close to the workers there so she had all of us use her products. For this one, all us females got facials -while- we got massaged (which was the strangest thing XD;;) and even the guys got treated!

After the 3 hour pampering, it was time to feed the stomaches. Two of the employees there joined in on our dinner, as they were close friends with Banky. We made our way to Mixc mall in two taxis. On the way, I noticed just how much Shenzhen is trying to develop, seeing all the buildings being built and all the new modern looking ones as well. Quite a contrast to how Shenzhen used to be seen as... but anyway, Shenzhen's exit signs are on the floor. Side note.

It seems popular that malls have indoor ice rinks nowadays. Mixc had one. So we had some fusion Shanghainese food... the dishes were almost tapas sizes and they weren't all that great either. Not to mention, the food was expensive and they were going to charge us if we used their wet tissues (which were the only things they provided to begin with)... I recall the dessert being good though, whatever it was.

Hong Kong Trip - Day 5

Saturday. Had dim sum with my mom's big bro, wife and son at the Pioneer restaurant we had the other day. Ah yes, we experienced the "bill payment" magic trick HK people do and not until after a few experiences did we find it "normal." What happens is... when you ask for the bill, for example, the total comes to $420 and they show you that total. If you present them $500, they will flip the bill book and immediately reveal your change of $80. Or, for the advanced restaurants, they may have two possibilities: present them $450, they will reveal a second layer with $30 change. However, if what you present them is not what they predicted, then you force them to return to the bill counter to get the proper change, or documentation if you're using card. However, this totally speeds up the billing progress, resulting in more turnovers and happy customers, as we all know, HK people must hastehastehaste.

Anyway, after good food, we took the MTR to Shenzhen to get ready for some good ol' pampering. We had to go through HK customs then China customs before we made it to the other side. Quite a bit of work... and just through one way, I get a whole bunch of new stamps in my passport :O! When we arrived on the other side, the malls were packed full of people but the atmosphere was completely different. The stores were small, all looked the same, and all had people standing outside of them luring you in by talking endlessly to your face, trying to get your attention. Here, we keep our bags in front of us at all times, in case of pick pockets. Here, smokers sit on the walking stairs and smoke out in the open public. Here, all the clothing look the same. Here, everything is fake.

We went on our way, walked down this creepy back alley, with dark corners and pathways. Then someone suddenly in the middle of the road, chopping pineapples and selling them on sticks for people walking by. After a bit of walking, we arrive at this prettier building. We were first brought down to the basement to change and shower if you wished, then back up to the upper levels for the initial step -- a foot massage. While you were being massaged, you got to watch (Chinese) TV and order food/drinks if you wished. Just for old times' sake, and because there was nothing else on, I watched a Mandarinized version of Card Captor Sakura... episode 12ish, when Syaoran captures the Time card and the following episode when Sakura captures the Power card. lol. Good times. After the foot massage, we were brought to another level for some body massaging! After all that relaxation, we returned to the basement to shower and change back.

When we came back into the lobby, it was pouring buckets of water. Even just one step outside would leave you drenched. Our dinner plans to eat awesome seafood were ruined. Fortunately, there was a restaurant right next door so we decided to eat there instead. It was decent, 'cept the waiter and waitress were whispering about us... Not that I knew what they were whispering about...

Anyway, after the meal, we took a taxi-like service back to the station and MTR'd back. There was an Indian pervert that snuck a picture of me wtf. He sucked at hiding it. Good thing he left after the first station.

Finally we got back to the hotel, drenched to the core. Not much of a shower at the massage place after all... -_-

Hong Kong Trip - Day 4

We headed to Wan Chai at 11 to make it to the Taiwan pre-trip meeting. Moments before the meeting started, we temporarily filled our stomaches with their snacky food like boring breads and drinks. Oh yeah, Schwepp's Grapefruit soft drink is one of the common drinks around there! Jealous. D:

The speaker was a great guy. Unfortunately he was not our actual tour guide on the trip because he came back late from his previous trip and couldn't make it. More on that later. After the meeting, we got some complimentary travel bags and made our way out. Apparently there was a Beijing Olympics flame trial run that came by during our meeting, which explained the noise.

For lunch, we met up with my cousin Angel in the Causeway Bay area, where she brought us to a "Sportful" restaurant for dim sum. Yes, you heard me, Sportful it was called. The food was great except the soup tasted burnt, and we complained about it. After food, we walked the area's malls. My mom met up with one of her old best friends (Bankie? I don't remember how to spell it...) for her dinner break (which was actually early 4pm) from work at Lane Crawford. She brought us to a small noodle place where she ordered herself and us food. So out of courteously, we had some ourselves. At the end she made us eat most of the stuff she couldn't finish. Soon another aunt, Aileen, came to join us after work at the noodle place. We sat around until Bankie had to return to work.

Finally we taxi'd to the ferry at Central to get to Tsim Sha Tsui. I saw the IFC building... never did I get to step into that building this time around. We took the ferry and unfortunately couldn't enjoy the scenery much as it was foggy, gloomy, and cloudy. When we got to the other side, there still was time for us to burn so they sat around at Starbucks and had another drink (amg more consumables)... As they sat around, I instead decided to go exploring. I headed outside in a random direction and ended up finding the Harbour City building which apparently one of the biggest malls in Asia. So yeah.. good/bad idea, I'm not sure... but I got lost. I had to retrace my footsteps to make it back the way I came and I didn't even get to see most of it... all I did was walk some and then it was time.

We met up with another chunk of my dad's side. Ate some insanely expensive but good food at this high-class restaurant. All the foreigners ordered the "begger's chicken" which is based on how beggers used to cook their chicken: cover the chicken in soil to protect it and then cook it. Apparently it doesn't taste good and it's just a gimmick that only foreigners order because you get to use a hammer and actually smack it open yourself. There was also a noodle pulling demonstration where foreigners went and got themselves some noodle dough as souvenirs. Sure, get some dough and then have to either eat it or throw it away eventually.

After the swell food, I was suddenly pulled from the table by my Auntie Maime outside and told me to bring my camera. A typhoon no.3 was already blowing pretty insanely but she hinted that this was the moment. The moment to see ANDY LAU! I semi-joked about it during dinner the other night, and he took it seriously for me so :D! We had to walk across the street to where it was safer to drop off my uncle and then steal a picture with Andy. I was getting super nervous now.. even though I'm not a great fan of the guy, he's still a celebrity and everything. When we got there, we saw our Uncle Jacky standing there grinning at me. As we approached, the van he stood beside was obviously enough HIS. Luck has it, a random guy just walks by, the sidewalk was clear, he pops out and excuses the random guy for walking by... I was speechless, got the picture taken, nodding in thanks and then he cooly walked back into his van. On our way back, I couldn't stop laughing... and my Auntie Maime couldn't stop laughing with me. It was hilarious XD

We returned to the dinner table, smirking. Of course, I had to show it off the picture cuz it was demanded of me. ONLY because it was demanded of me. ;)

Hong Kong Trip - Day 2 & 3

We woke up bright and early and headed straight to the government building to hand in our applications, knowing it'll take them a while to respond. We got it over and done with and made our way back towards our hotel. We walked around our area and found Pioneer Mall where we stopped to have dim sum at a "fancy" restaurant. They had three floors to themselves, where each floor had a different interior design. After satisfying our hunger, we went on a search for travel agencies. We ended up at the Bank Center which was nearby where there were two floors dedicated to just travel agencies, which is insane. Seems like quite the common thing for HK though.. grouping like companies together into one building. Really makes me wonder how all of them can stay alive together like that. But anyway, after a few hours of frustration, we finally found a suitable tour for us to take to Taiwan for the 5 days we scheduled not to stay at our hotel. We then went to explore the rest of the mall. I then acquired my second bag and did a few rounds of gashapons.

Finally deciding to leave, we went to check out where we were to have our Taiwan pre-trip meeting. After finding the place in Wan Chai, we did some extensive walking and browsing in the area, and then we (mainly my dad) wanted to rest somewhere and snack. We ended up trying this HK-style cafe that was located underground o_o. Screamed shady and dangerous.

However, looks being deceiving once again, it was good cheap food. We learnt later that night that that HK-style cafe was popular for it's good and cheap food and that it has been around for ages. After some good cheap food, we headed back to our hotels for some proper rest for our feet. The start of so-called legendary HK feet, I swear.

Later that night we taxi'd to Hung Hom and met up with Auntie Maime and Uncle Jacky again, but this time with Auntie Irene as well. I don't recall the meal, tho it was probably decent. After dinner, we walked down "Miu Guy" = Miu Street (which was a bit of Flower Street with stands and such). The actual stores were about to close, so we only quickly browsed through and called it a day.

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Next morning for breakfast/lunch we tried out the dim sum in the restaurant in our own hotel. After we walked to Mongkok to get some glasses prescribed with an acquaintance of our grandfather's. My dad, brother and I got a pair of new glasses that had the same frame style, except different colours. Blue, green, and pink respectively. Mine was the cheapest considering it required no prescription. Yay some more fun glasses. :b

After we got our glasses ordered, me and my bro went off to do our own [serious] shopping. First we picked up his baggage and then MTR'd to Causeway to his friend's place, where he was going to stay for the rest of our stay. His friend's apartment was nice and cozy, two rooms, mini kitchen, built-in washer/dryer and washroom. And not to mention INTERNET! After dropping off his stuff, we went to Wan Chai to find the famous 188 building full of juicy gaming, figures, and everything of the geeky-like on 3 wonderful floors. My brother couldn't quite remember the way, so we ended up going around in a circle until finding the actual place. Our goal was not to buy that day, but to only look and come back on the last week and blow it all, all at once! :b Even at 2pm, some of the stores weren't even open yet, so it was only destiny for us to come again, at a later time!

After browsing, we traveled back to Causeway and walked to Sogo and headed straight to the Sogo Club level (@11) where the juicy Japanese bookstore was. The way up was pretty tempting too... every floor had something worth looking at. When we reached the heavenly floor, the atmosphere was completely different than the other floors -- it was dimmed, quiet, much like a library.

Grabbed Vampire Knight 7 cuz I needed my sexy vampire fix, limited editions of Air Gear, special editions of Erementar Gerad Red and Blue... then I spotted the recently released Code Geass illustration book and quickly snatched myself a copy. The comics section was decent as they had most of the recently released stuff, but not as big as an actual Japanese bookstore of course. We used the remaining time to look around the other malls in the area - we swore to return.

We also took a walk around the malls in the area. There was this jewelry store that had a crazy sale so I joined in on the fun and grabbed some fun earrings. Evening rolls around and we head back to the hotel to meet up with our parents to make our way to a family gathering of my mom's side. We taxi to a restaurant in Jordan and have a great feast, as usual. At the end, me and my bro was bored so we split the last can of beer and scarfed down the last two dessert balls in one go just so we didn't have to waste anything. ;b

Later that night, the whole hotel room was mine. The only night I'd have the whole room myself tho, however. Hell begins after a brief moment of peace as I soon discovered that even earplugs cannot save me from the hell of snoring.

Hong Kong Trip - Day 1

So I'm finally reviving my blog after a year's worth of hiatus and starting it fresh with the regurgitation of my 3-week HK trip.

It has been 10+ years since I last returned, and things have sure changed. However, the first thing I recognized is the distinct smell. It was 6am when we landed... we took a one-stop subway (built into the airport...!) to the main arrivals area where we picked up our baggage and went through customs. Customs offered fruity gummy candy on the counter, in which I gladly picked one up for the trip. When we got out, the first thing I noticed was an Ajisen! So that's where our local Ajisen comes from! We grabbed ourselves some newly loaded Octopus cards for the MTR and then grabbed a car service provided by our travel agency to our hotel at Prince Edward.

After we dropped off our stuff, the first order of business was visiting the Immigration Office for our citizenship applications (for me and my bro). We first arrived at what we thought was the right building to realize that we had to head to the main office instead. When we arrived at the main office, we climbed up a few dozen levels, grabbed some apps, saw a vending machine that sold applications, and then decided we needed some grub. It was around ~10ish, so we decided that dim sum was appropriate. We headed to Times Square at Causeway, and looked over the list of restaurants. At that time, only one restaurant (Chung's) just opened so we didn't exactly have a choice. However, it wasn't a bad choice at all. We got to see their open kitchen and enjoy some good food. It was also the beginning of the tissueless journey in Asia.

None of the stores were open yet so we returned to our hotel and got our rooms. Took a break and then headed out again and started wandering in the area. We checked out a building that sold computer and electronics at pretty good prices. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find that building ever again the next time I tried looking for it. After about a dozen blocks, we somehow wandered our way to a mall called Langham Place. We shopped at the Snoopy (!) store, and I got my first (out of the many that are to come) bag there. We took a break at the food court and enjoyed some afternoon dessert at Honeymoon Dessert which is a popular dessert place that has opened up many franchises. After going up 8ish floors, we took the express elevator that brought you straight down to the first floor. We left Langham and made our way into Ladies' Street and Flower Street where the cheap bargaining happens, which was our original destination. My mom attacked the video stand here.

Later that night, we met up with my aunt Maime and uncle Jacky and had bloody clams at this shady back alley restaurant. Clams that were not fully cooked and were gushing out blood. There was also this disgusting-looking bowl of chicken that tasted really good. Don't let barf-worthy-looking food deceive you. It may indeed be barf-inducing, and if it really is then it's not my fault.

After the surprisingly great dinner my bro left us to tend his own matters while the rest of us taxi'd to the back street of Stanford Hotel where it was filled with foreign gourmet cuisine. It was crowded by foreigners and the like, and didn't feel a bit cheap at all. Thus, the dessert meal that went with a nice girly drink was mighty pricey but good nonetheless.

It was around this time, I started taking up 2nd hand smoking.