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.

A Semester of Excitement

Sept 2007~Dec 2007
School starts up again... we get this new teacher who transferred from Emily Carr and... he's hard D:! Then the usual other teachers...

So we have this printing class where we get field trips (!) to the actual printers to get some real experience. The printer places ranged from someone's backyard to a multi-building company. So unfortunately I don't remember all the places... but let me try and think! PacBlu - digital printing near 4th.. shared the building with some radio stations like TheBeat, has a Starbucks across the street, has a hidden second building... we went to Granville Island afterwards and sat at the park; Hazzard Screen Printing - screen printing in Burnaby near Metro... building looks skinny and small at first, but alas, the looks tricked us once again as they had a hidden second building as well... They did a lot of N64 game floor stickies, Iris banners; SomeGuy'sHouse (I forgot the name of his business... orz), but it was literally someone's house all the way out by New Westminister... he did the old school offset printing and gave us all a little memento letter block... he also did his own old school book blindings and did the printing all by hand.. impressive, and sadly it's going extinct; _____ in Richmond by Bridgeport... they do flexo meaning lots of plastic and the related packaging; Norampac also in Richmond by Viking Way = moar flexo.. this company that the one before this one work together often it seems; Hemlock Printers...; Blanchette Press on River Road, Richmond.. giant printing place.. lady from there also gave us the 411 on paper. On top of that, she let us dig through their garbage bin for misprinted paper and etc... we also got a pretty poster to bring home; Gryphon Graphics on Viking Way in Richmond did foil stamping and all the pretty shiny, metallic, sticker, embossing stuff; Lastly Pacific Bindery by Marine Drive right beside Coast Paper, did all the nifty binding.. which was literally everything imaginable. There we also had a guest speaker from R&M Laminating who did, duh, laminations come and talk about the different types of laminations on top of mmm samples~ We also had a rep from Coast Paper come by and talk... we also left with handful armsful of samples.

In our societies class, we ended the semester with a group project (as usual) and our topic was Asian Stereotypes (mainly the ones we are most familiar with - Chinese, Japanese, etc.) just cuz the topic's so broad. We had fun EXCEPT, we presented from my laptop and my "entertainment" remote aka. not suitable for presentations, didn't work so well lol. We also didn't bother rechecking the clips we inserted so some were not even properly cut =_=... それと、ある仲間はスゲーうるさくて、なまけものくさすぎたっ Never again, I hope.

Onto the gaming side again.. yes. Finished Gurumin, Tales of Eternia and Final Fantasy X (omg, finally? XD)...

Gurumin
Gameplay 4/5 - Pretty fun action adventure rpg... 'cept aiming where to jump and ending up missing... multiple times can get pretty annoying. And then landing into annoying lava-like gaps on the floor make it that much better.
Music 4/5 - Fun music, I liked.
Character 4/5 - The voice acting wasn't bad! Some were quite cute.. might be because of the character designs themselves.
Overall 4/5 - Ending battle was a bit confusing... But all in all good! Underrated.

Tales of Eternia
Gameplay 3.5/5 - It's old school style so I can't say too much about it. It's the original Tales game after all.
Music 3/5 - Good Sakuraba stuff. I hate the underwater music.
Character 2.5/5 - Voice acting is so bad...characters weren't all that exciting except maybe Meryl. However, I watched the anime 12-ep version before playing this too so... well, doesn't look like it changed my opinion of the characters :b
Overall 3/5 - Decent.

Final Fantasy X
Gameplay 4/5 - No complaints. I hate blitzball. Sorry that was a complaint.
Music 3/5 - Not THAT memorable. Perhaps I wasn't a fan of the rock pieces...
Character 5/5 - Great characters... good voice acting... can't stand Yuna tho... I think that's the reason why I'm not going to touch X-2 anytime soon.
Overall - Overrated. Ending was probably overrated... I expected something more! But the last boss was sad. :b A beam comes out of his EYE OMG, someone, shoot me now. With that eye beam and paralyze me while you're at it.

And other gaming... in the world of FFXI, there once was a Salvage ls. Lasted a dozen or so runs. Then people began to go their separate ways.... then now it's on hold. I got a lv15 headpiece if anything... not that I would wear it for anything, considering all three of those jobs that can wear it don't need it anymore. Most amusing run was probably the first Madame Poroggo run, most rewarding was the Rampart bee run, and the most crappy run... apparently I didn't show up for those lol.

AU. I swear I attempted 44 at least 10 times! I was so sick of the damn mission until I picked up a party a few months later to finally finish it. Wish I grabbed the +acc ring instead. Hurry SE, give me an option to change it soon!

This Dynamis LS also tried doing Valkurm and failed pretty badly. Sigh. Everytime I think about it and the fact that this ls can't do it, makes me wish I followed Fortune <_<;; And with this ls for 4 months, I only got RNG head. Wow... what a waste of 4 months x 4 hours of my Sunday life! Then they ended up having this whole drama series, when the leader retired, co-leader took over, leader returned, co-leader did not give back rights, fightfightfightfight. Now.. it makes me wonder if I should've just stayed with the messed up ls instead of jumping ship... since right after the holidays, the leader gets hacked and there everything went poof. RIP. *head to desk*

COP. Finished. With a bit of awesome effort. Didn't plan on finishing it ever... until a Salvage member who's static ditched him asked to static with him so yeah :D So Sea is wonderful... with their UFOs... coming out of nowhere... I get to watch my teammate get eaten right in front of me... then we mad run any other way possible lol...

Also Nyzul. Only lasted one run before things came up and it had to cancel. Wot the fuk.

Oh yeah, expansion. It's.... fun I guess. Campaign only lasts so long before it gets boring. I'm only able to get full points on BST so far tho hm -_-

More recently, out of boredom, I went and joined a Bahamut "Storm of Fates" pick up pt. It has made me come to realize how much I miss doing big group endgame events.. ;_;

There was also a wedding on Nov 29. I somehow made myself cameraman... I need to finish that video already.

Mission: make money. Yeah I need moar gilz.