Sunday, October 04, 2015

151004 Flight Delay

so here i am... still waiting for my flight status to be updated since it went missing in the morning. due to the bad weather, so many flights today has been cancelled and i feel so helpless and depressed now. we woke up at past 730am, and got ready to head to the airport. the day began with an ominous heavy downpour, though we only need to cross 2 short unsheltered roads to get to the station. today is such a long and tiring day. i had been having diarrhea for the whole night, and only slept for probably 2hrs going in and out the toilet. and it chose to start acting up while i was on the mtr!!! here's that super expensive mtr... zzz


i had to put up with it all the way to the airport, and managed to find a toilet to release all the shit after a torturous 45mins. but i still could take selfies of the expensive train. selfies are still important no matter how shitty i felt.


pwahhh. during our breakfast, i made another run for the toilet. still managed to eat some stuff though.



it was a little past 10am when i prepared to check in. i wanted to wait till 1030 so that i could see mr kong check in, and we could go in together. it seems that my anticipation was short-lived. i did go in at 1015am, but when i finally got to my gate at 1040am, i was told that my 1050am flight was delayed by 30mins. at first i was pretty happy, because it meant that i could probably see mr kong after he checks in. his flight was at 135pm, so it was a gonna be a long wait for him. i think i might have prayed wrongly to actually want a delay. i realised that my flight shifted to another check-in counter after 30mins, and eventually the information of my flight disappeared from the gate. the flight was trapped in the air as it couldn't descend due to the rain. my status indicated that it was delayed to 230pm. mr kong came to join me and we were thrilled.we had dimsum for lunch - a meal to wrap up the trip?? since we didn't have dimsum at all in hk so far.


it was ridiculously expensive for 4 dishes though - at $30++ or 150+hkd. zzz.

it seems his flight was also delayed unfortuntely to 320pm, so we had a good 2-3hrs to shop. we decided to move to the other terminal since the one we were at had nothing much to look at. we shopped all the branded stuff there and wanted to eat some food but look at all the queues... jeez.


some interesting stuff at the terminals anyway... tuna cans of buddha statue.


hk-style trick eye...


and it seems that our flight gates were not updated at all! eventually my flight at 230pm had no updates, and mr kong's got delayed to 420pm. his was updated with a gate shortly after, at the gate my flight was supposed to be at. all the red words are flights delayed due to typhoon. it was so bad.



we had starbucks while waiting for his flight, and suddenly his status turned to Final Call at 340pm! so lucky T_T i had to send him off while i crouched at a corner wondering what i would do with myself... my flight is still unknown as of now (8pm) and so i'm trying to fill my time writing blog entries. thankfully there's pc terminals around for me to do so.. but i'd rather much be in singapore right now. i'm thankful that i have insurance to cover the delays, but it's definitely not enough to pay for my lack of sleep, waste of sunday, and very likely, my loss of senses tomorrow. i'm even wondering if i'll be able to turn up for work. if not, i'll have to take a day off and that is a very expensive unpaid day for me T_T and with these calculations, i'm thinking... it's actually not worth it in the end to take a budget airline and suffer all these stress. i looked at the whole day of flight schedules for today and it seems that only budget airlines are having such a long delays. flights such as SQ have a maximum of only 1hr delay or on time. i think i will never put myself in such a situation again. either plan early, or not go overseas w budget airlines again. i'm so upset at this situation and the stress is really not worth it.

i actually tried to fake entries to the other 2 flights departing at 10-11pm, but was unsuccessful. DAMMIT.
in the end my flight only took off at 3.50am. that's 17hrs of delay. JUST GREAT. the only comfort was that i was so tired i layed across all 3 seats and slept till i arrived. there was so little people left since 50% of them took the other 2 flights, that almost all of us got 3 seats each.

TIGER AIRWAYS i will never ever take you again. and i will also never visit HONG KONG again unless it's free. in a summary, this country is expensive, small, dirty, squeezy, full of rude chinese, poor service and bad/expensive shopping. it's worse off than being in singapore, in every single way.

or maybe, i was just there at the wrong time. hur............. T_T

Saturday, October 03, 2015

151003 Macau

since i've never been to macau, i decided to take a day trip there w 00. we woke up around 9am and headed out straight to sheung wan to board our ferry. found a nice breakfast spot here too!


the ferry seats are actually better than expected, but the tickets are not cheap either. it was about 360hkd for 1 person, for a return trip on turbojet. the ride was an hour long and we slept through it, reaching at 12pm.

when we reached, we took the shuttle bus just opposite the road outside to get to Venetian hotel. it's actually the only thing i wanted to visit in Macau, but Kami sent me a day trip itinerary the day before so i would know where to visit too.


saw a place selling lots of pretty venetian masks and couldn't help but snapped a photo sneakily...


we had the salted caramel latte and salted caramel macaron from mac. drink was just like a normal latte, but the macaron was good.


the famous thing at venetian hotel, aside from the pretty interiors was the portugese egg tart. it wasn't a very long queue thankfully. the egg tarts were worth it! so crispy and tasty!!


there's boat rides inside, but it's pretty costly... we roamed a few shops here and there and actually if you weren't visiting the casinos there's really nothing much to do except shopping.


well, don't think you'd wanna visit the casinos when it looks like this...


around 2+pm, we decided to head back to the terminal to explore the things around there instead.it was raining SO HEAVILY then. i'm glad we're indoors. the bus queue was crazy long, as usual and there don't seem to be taxis running due to the Golden Week. the bus frequency came every 5-10mins though so we managed to get on after about 30mins of waiting. phew.

back at the ferry, we took a bus to town (after we went through the shopping mall to get change for bus rides). it costs only 3.2hkd per person, and we took about 5-6 stops to the san antorio square. there were flood of people trying to get on the bus and people weren't moving in. there were loud arguments again, which was not surprising anymore.


usually, this would have been a pretty lovely spanish-like place with european ambience, but they seemed to think putting a Forbidden Castle float in the middle would lift the whole celebration ambience, so it looked like any other parts of china that day TwT

caught some sailormoon merchandise selling at sasa! make-up!


we squeezed through the crowd all the way to st paul ruins, but didn't give up. i think it's only a broken gate up there, and i didn't want to waste my energy in the heat.


tried the pork chop bun listed in the itinerary too, but i think it's not really my style. the bun is crispy and the meat is nice, but the pairing is just a little too plain for my liking.


finally caught a space without anyone.

it's called the lover street or something.

also tried the bakwa in the various shops. bee cheng hiang, is still the best.

visited the government provincial building to find a toilet, but it was pretty nice inside, and was actually a tourist spot by itself. there was wifi there too!


mr kong managed to find a good portugese restaurant nearby which only opens at 6pm. we joined the queue since it was supposedly good, to reward ourselves for a fruitful day. mr kong found this via a naver blog recommendation. we realised it seems that lots of koreans came here too, probably due to the blog. they might have been cheated though...


ordered 2 dishes, white wine and pudding. the dishes are nice, but the cream curry was a little too much for 1 person to eat (it's the kind of creaminess which is nice, but you get sick of it easily).


the pudding the nice!!!! mr kong got a little dizzy from the white wine though.


we paid almost 500hkd for the dinner. however nice it is, i find that it is way too pricey and i wouldn't actually visit this again. actually, i might never even come to macau again, since i've visited all the places i want to. i think macau is just a more expensive extension of hongkong, really.


took the ferry back and we boarded the one at 730pm instead of 8pm. yay! i like this level of flexibility.

unfortunately we still reached at 9pm. the sea was a little rocky and there were sudden bumps on the way back which woke us up. woah.. i thought the boat was going to flip.

we reached mongkok at 930+pm and started to look for places to shop, since mr kong wanted to get my birthday present. but the jewelry shops around like show sang sang and chow luk fu and all the chows.... are just too 'retro' for my liking. it's a wonder how they can have like 5 LARGE shops in every single area. wanted to watch a midnight movie (shingeki at 1245am) too but i was feeling lazy and wanted to roll around in hotel instead. it was raining so heavily, and i didn't feel like being in a cold theatre with other people.

ended up watching despicable me with mr kong back in our hotel. it was a good thing we didn't go out for shingeki movie, because my diarrhea started to act up. i made several trips over the night and couldn't sleep well at all. TwT what a horrible night. and i spent my last few hours in hongkong, in the toilet. haiz.

oh my bedsheet is finally changed. i can tell because there's now a hole on the edge. good job aunty. the towels are all changed and folded too since i messed the towels to indicate i didn't want to use it. but the toilet was still not cleaned... toothpaste on the floor from the morning remained... can't expect too much i guess...!!

Friday, October 02, 2015

151002 Disneyland HK

we woke up around 9am for Disney, and had breakfast at mac before we went over. i like the breakfast item here. the crazy woman from yesterday was still around. it was quite creepy...


anyway since we decided there wouldn't be any worthy rides and we'll just take a look around and snap pictures for memories sake at disney, so there's actually not much need to be there early. and of course, Disney, on a Friday of a Golden Week (and the second day of Halloween at that) would be FILLED with people. thank goodness we managed to skip the ticket queue since my sister gave me 2 free tickets to enter.


first stop - tomorrow land~



 saw some cute balloons there!! see baymax~


come to think of it, the queues to the attractions were not as bad as i thought. ew took at most 30mins to wait, and our first ride on Tomorrowland only took 5mins since we went for the Single rider queue. couldn't really see anything inside since it was pitch black but you're supposed to feel like you're floating around the universe. not a bad ride!


daytime in front of the castle!


the second roller coaster we took in the park is in the mines area. selfie while waiting! took only 30mins, was pretty fast.




wahhahah tried to snap a selfie while on the ride. wheeee. it's not very fast but there's a nice fallback along the tracks when you think you almost reach the end. pretty neat~


there's a 'volcano' that erupts water in the middle, just behind us. if you're not careful you'll get super splashed! really like this pic that we took using the portable sony selfcam. hehe.


and he says... the criminal always have to look this cheeky.


we have a booth here? well, it was actually just an escape from the heat. there's strong fans in all the selling cart areas. hoho.

roaming around the water areas while waiting for lion king. the water is supposed to erupt whenever a boat comes near. this is also the only attraction that changed for halloween.


found a waterfall area that had no one here! no one! unfortunately this is the last photo we took before our cute sony cam ran out of batt T_T


the only thing that was worthy of queuing in the whole place was probably Lion King musical. we roamed around till it was 1.25pm (the show was supposed to start at 2pm, and they only allowed people to enter half an hour before), then went over to join the queue. the moment the door entered for people to go in, everyone RAN. the announcer had already warned the people not to run, and to stay a suitable distance away so we wouldn't be suffocated in the heat, but well, we still ran... because apparently it was better to watch the show from the front seats. and being blended in with so many chinese, this sentence rung true - if you can't beat them, join them. if not we'll just get shoved outta the way and our efforts would come to naught...


we managed to get the first 4 rows and it was already good enough i guess. the show was really good! it started with a bang - very strong singing by the witch, and huge gigantic mobile floats.




there was a moving stage in the middle, fire acts, acrobatics and synchronised dancing and convincing singing/acting.

the part for simba and nalan was really nice. love the song and that acrobatic flying dancer!!!








i really really like the whole set up and whatever pictures i took they just all look awesome.


it was just a pity the whole show was SO FAST. the whole plot was done in 30mins, it was as if they were rushing to complete within the time frame. it was still entertaining!



the next show we queued for was frozen. we wanted to catch the 2.45 show just right after lion king, but it seems that you had to get a reservation pass to go in, or queue 2 hrs for the next show. we roamed around a bit before coming back for the 4+pm show - and it started raining super heavily. in actual fact, the rain was sort of in and out every 2 hrs or so. every time it rained, the crowd will clear, which was good. however, my poor sandals could not take it and gave way. the left strap fell off, and i had to borrow scotch tape from a random cart employee. then the right strap gave way, and the backstrap. so in the end, my namchin's creativity came into use and we turned the sandal into just 1 front strap, which kinda lasted me the rest of the day. it was so awkward to be stepping around with the left and right shoe showing differently - but what gives!!

since we had some time to spare, we looked around and managed to catch the float parade



the disney princesses cosplayers are so lovely...!!


anyway, back to the frozen show. when we reached the queue, we were told that it was full, and we had to queue for the 6pm show.since there was pretty much nothing left for us to explore further, we joined the queue in the end.it turns our that the theatre was very small - probably could accomodate only 300 or lesser, that's why the seats were filling up so fast. it was also partly because of the frozen craze of course - every other kid seemed to be wearing an elsa costume every where we go...but it was definitely not because the show was good.


you cannot believe how sneaky the china fellows are... they were behind us but once the door opens to this indoor waiting areas, they squeezed past everyone and eventually went to the first in the queue!!! i had tried to block the auntie whenever she looked like she was about to cut my queue, but the space inside was too big for me to block and her whole family just barged all the way through. it started off a huge argument with a local family who was already waiting at the front, but the employees didn't manage to get the group to stand back where they were. so they became second in line. since we were closely following them, we were actually somewhere 4-5th in line. lol. join them if you can't win them, like i said. 


anyway the 2hrs was definitely not worth it. 2 random mcs came out for a recap of the whole story and we were shown scenes from the animation, with singalong lyrics. they were on stage 95% of the time and seemed more like the main characters than the cast of frozen...


i'm not sure what's the point. the anna cosplayer and the guy really looked like they stepped out of the show though. elsa, on the other hand, paled in comparison with the 2.




there was of cos the souvenir shops to visit too... there's a place in the middle where you can go in to slide and take pictures but all the people were trying to get in so we thought we'll avoid the place entirely.


it was POURING when we got out the area. jeez. walked right over to mystic point, hoping that halloween has already started.

i guess we had too high an expectation since USS. all disney did was to darken the whole mystic point area and switched on some eerie green lights. there was supposed to be a grizzly bear on the loose or people scaring passerbys, but i supposed it couldn't work out due to the rain. we took the mystic manor ride, which was actually pretty interesting. you get taken through all the collectibles in the house.


our next station was the toy storyland.

took the loop car, which was SO FAST - like, it ended in 5 swings. not even enough to get us in the mood. took some pictures, and headed to fantasy land. managed to take the pooh ride there, for we've heard that it was supposed to be a good ride, since there was fast pass issued. turns out that i might have loved it if i was 20years younger. the ride basically takes you through the land of pooh via a slow car ride... thank goodness i didn't wait 60mins for this in the noon! in the night it was only 20mins.

there was supposed to be fireworks at 9pm, and we camped in front of the disney castle like everyone else. took some night scene before we started to camp.

wanted to head back actually to avoid the post-fireworks crowd, but decided to stay anyway. we entertained ourselves for 45mins w hercules movie before it start but i've already watched it and was bored. we bought orange juice from a nearby cart stall which cost 30hkd... and it tasted like rubber. ughhh. but anyway staying for the fireworks was a good decision. although the fireworks at everland is still the best, it'is still a show that brings memories of our childhood, with all the synchronization of the fireworks and the disney songs. i really like all my picsssss so prettyyyyy~





we managed to still take the train normally after a final picture of dumbo near the entrance.


back at mongkok, we looked around for dinner places. mr kong was starved since we basically survived on only 1 pack of squid + 1 matcha castella, and water for the whole day. and found a good ramen shop just at lady's street. only ordered 1 as we didn't know the standard, but i'm craving it again! the soup is not too salty, just nice for our liking.


we continued to have sushi at the place next to it. i was actually attracted to the onsen egg pictures they had... they were having a 40% sale off side orders after 10pm. neat!



our bill still went over 150hkd in the end, despite the few dishes. oh well...

in the hotel, i realised that the aunty actually came in to clean the room. but she did a terrible job. the urine stains on the toilet was not removed at all. the towels were still the same, and the bedsheet not changed. i can so easily tell with all the hairs still stuck on it. i can only conclude that she swept the floor and arranged our bed, for this room cleaning service. would rather she don't do it and let us have a peace of mind by not allowing people into our rooms...