Trip: Hong Kong (1) - Tian Tan Buddha

Went to Lantau Island to see the Tian Tan Buddha (天坛大佛), a large seated bronze statue of Buddha, located on the Ngong Ping Plateau. To get there, we took the MTR to Tung Chung station & rode the Ngong Ping Cable Car up the mountains. The price for an adult round trip ticket is HK$96.



This is the special 360° cable car - the base of the cabin is glass-panelled which means you not only can look out sideways from the cabin but also downwards, thus offering a 360° view of the outside scenery. Perhaps this is not so suitable for the faint-hearted.


It was a cloudy day, windy & drizzling, so the ride up was rather rocky. The cable car we rode in was like swaying left & right and my worried niece was asking if we would actually hit against this tower as we passed by it. Er, no one dared to answer her question :)




Ngong Ping Village - there are many restaurants & gift shops along this street.


Of course, we could not resist stopping by at "Honeymoon Dessert" for their yummy desserts. I had the mango-beancurd dessert - very nice, the beancurd's very tender & smooth. Great stuff!



After desserts, we continued on our walk towards the Tian Tan Buddha statue. Here, you can see the Buddha statue in a distance, buried in the clouds.


We gotta climb this long flight of stairs to have a closer look at the Buddha statue. Huff puff...


As it was a cloudy day, this is the only clear photo I took of the statue just when the clouds happened to disperse for a minute. Immediately after taking this photo, the statue was once again clouded over...




Next, we proceeded to have our vegetarian lunch at the Po Lin Monastery, which surprisingly turned out to be quite delicious. Price: HK$100 per person.

Psst...Those interested in shopping may want to visit the mall located just next to the Tung Chung MTR station. They have many branded goods factory outlets there & you can find some nice stuff at discounted prices. :)

Home Sweet Home

I'm back from my trip! Well, even though there's nothing wrong with me, I decided to 'quarantine' myself for a few days just to be safe, given the current H1N1 flu outbreak situation (as at now there are already 599 cases here). In HK, all the airport immigration staff & hotel staff wore masks. When I was checking-in to the hotel, I even had my temperature taken by the masked front desk staff and for a moment I really had this sense of déjà vu - like I was at a clinic! :)

About the trip...I didn't really do much (this was my 3rd time there) except to shop & eat. Did quite a bit of walking everyday which was fine with me as I had to burn off the extra calories I gained from all the eating. :) I love the food in Hong Kong; I think they make very delicious Dim Sums, congees, soups & roast meat/geese/pigeons. Yummmm! The only gripe I have is the lack of chilli. They do serve chilli oil but I didn't like it & it's just not the same (I'm sure chilli fans will understand what I mean). Their version of 'dry noodles' is just plain noodles tossed in soy sauce with no chilli. :( As such, I had to eat soup noodles instead, which is really not my favourite. But the congees are really good, very smooth & tasty. Not forgetting the delicious Dim Sums, especially my favourite 'Har Gao' (prawn dumpling) - the prawns are big & succulent. I also love the roast meat, geese & pigeons - the skin is crispy but the meat's tender & juicy, simply excellent! Hmm, so after 8 days of gorging, I came home 1kg heavier. Not much? Well, thanks to all the walking I did everyday, or else I would definitely have put on more weight than that.

Oh yes, I did go to Macau! My brother #2 flew in from Shanghai to join us for a day trip there. Macau is a really small place. I like it's Portuguese-inspired architecture, cobblestone paths & of course, the Portuguese egg tarts. As you know, there are also many casinos there and I visited one of them just to take a look around as I'm not a gambler. We also caught a glimpse of a HK starlet, Fiona Sit Hoi-Kei, who was there for a photo shoot, much to the delight of my niece who is very much into HK artistes.

The weather was generally great for most part of the trip. Some days were sunny but not as hot as Singapore, while some days were cloudy with drizzles except for the last 2 days which was rainy due to a passing typhoon (signal level 3). As a result, take-off for our return flight home was also delayed by about 25 minutes due to the bad weather but yet, we somehow managed to touch down Singapore as per the original schedule!! Wow, I guess the pilot must be speeding up in the sky to make up for lost time?? If yes, he's lucky that there's no traffic police up there to book him for speeding. Heehee... :P

Just to side-track a little, you know I seem to attract typhoons when I travel! I remember visiting Hang Zhou (China) some time back & was also greeted with typhoon Code Black (the highest level!). Yikes! In the end, though I had visited Hang Zhou, I have absolutely no idea what the beautiful West Lake looks like. Sigh. Shoo-shoo, stop following me, typhoons!

Well, sorry folks, for the lengthy text & lack of photos as Blogger is not being co-operative today. Despite repeated tries, it just refused to upload any photos for me. Sigh. Guess I just have to try again later.

I'm On Vacation!

Yippie! I'm flying off to Hong Kong soon for my vacation. Will be away from 20~27 June 09. Hope to go to Macau too, i.e. if I can manage to find my way there. This is a free & easy trip...Sounds good?...Er, the only problem is, I'm not a very independent traveller! I'm more of a packaged tour kind of person. This time, I'm going there armed with only a little guide book. :) Heehee, hope I can find my way around.

Guess I'll be doing nothing for the next 7 days or so except to - Eat, shop, eat, shop, eat, shop....

See you next week!

Craft Book - "Cute Dolls" by Aranzi Aronzo

This is a craft book, "Let's Make Cute Stuff - Cute Dolls", by Aranzi Aronzo. I actually stumbled upon it in the library, when I was walking past the craft books section while on my way to 'check-out' some other books that I wanted to borrow. I'm very happy to find this book cos it featured some very cute dolls that I just have to make! The book comes with ready patterns that you can use, it's so convenient! By the way, if you look at the 2nd photo on the top right, it says this book is 'Manufactured in Singapore'! Well, not that it matters but I just have to highlight it cos the book was printed here! Haha... :)







In case you're wondering - don't be fooled, Aranzi & Aronzo are not guys but actually 2 Japanese ladies! If you have time, you may want to check out their online website - very kawaii!! Also, don't forget to hop over to Lyn's Belle And Rose blog, she has an interesting post on them too.

I love all those dolls featured in the book (don't you?). If only I could make them all but there're just too many! Hmm...which one shall I make first?

Hedgehog

I love hedgehogs. I think they look very cute!

This yellow hedgie I made is now 'adopted' by my friend, Carol. Hope she likes it as much as I do! :)


If you are interested, I found this lovely hedgie pattern here while I was blog-hopping one day. Try making one!

Salmon Sushi Flavoured Chips

Look what I found - Salmon sushi flavoured potato chips!

The packaging looks so nice but I'm more curious about the taste, that's why I bought a packet to try. It costs S$1.50 (52.5g). Each pack comes with a wasabi powder sachet - you are supposed to pour this powder into the packet of chips (the pack is resealable) & shake it up before eating them.

Verdict: You MUST add the wasabi powder cos without it, the chips tasted ordinary, can't even tell its sushi flavoured! Sigh, sometimes I wonder why did they even bother to R&D anything when all you have to do is to re-package existing stuff in a nice wrapper, slap on a fanciful name & you'll get silly people like me (aka suckers) buying them (even if it's only just once). And I always get conned by nice packagings...

Old Cantonese Movie - 如来神掌

You gotta watch these clips - the original series of "如来神掌" movies. Watch out for the special effects too (thought it's cool considering these are movies from the 60's)!


1st Clip:
Starring 檸檬 (Lemon!) as the 'Sifu' & 曹達華 as his disciple.
Note: Initially there were only 8 stages in the 如来神掌 Kung Fu.



2nd clip:
Here you can see 如来神掌 Kung Fu upgraded to Stage 9 - 萬佛朝宗. So, Kung Fu also must upgrade, not only HDB flats! Haha...

The male lead is 曹達華 (the chubby swordsman) & the female lead is 于素秋 . The 2nd female lead is 林鳳 (died very young - suicide). Can you recognise the 2nd male lead?...


...That's 關海山! Wow, so young then!


The Music 萬佛朝宗 ~ 純音樂 - 闖將令. Once you hear this piece of music, you'll know it's a 如来神掌 movie:



I love old Cantonese movies!

Happy Birthday, Brother #1!

OK, birthday boy, please grab your cyber fork & enjoy the cake!!!

Happy Birthday to you!

The Toy Society

I first read about The Toy Society from a blog that I came across some weeks back. I think this society originally started in Australia with volunteers pledging handmade toys for the children affected by the bushfires. It has since spread around the world & now they have volunteers who make little handmade toys & then secretly drop them somewhere in their own home countries, hoping some children will find them & give the toys new homes. The toy maker is supposed to attach to the toy, a tag with a message like "Take Me Home, I'm Yours" + a request for the finder to send an email to The Toy Society informing that the toy has been safely 'rescued'!

I thought the idea is quite neat & wondered whether I should participate in this 'secret' society but I'm not sure if it'll work here, in this country...You see, when we travel in MRTs, don't we often hear messages alerting passengers to report suspicious looking person(s) or package(s) found on trains? Well, even though I'm not leaving the toy package in the train, I guess people must be quite sceptical about picking up a package that's left unattended, right? Do you think people would dare to pick up a toy that is left in the open? Most of all, would anyone here treasure a handmade toy these days? I certainly don't want my poor doll to get thrown away nor myself hauled to the police station for depositing a 'suspicious-looking package'!

What do you think? Would you pick up the toy if you see one?