A peek into Fion & Frankie's life

Japan trip - Kyoto Part 3 (Ginkaku-ji, Path of Philosophy, Kiyomizu-dera and Gion)

2009-05-31T18:55:00.000+01:00

Ginkaku-ji

It is not surprise that Kyoto has a Kinkaju-ji (Golden Pavilion) and that it also has a Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion), though at different location.

The entrance tickets also mimic those of the Ginkaku-ji's.

To our disappointment, the Ginkaku-ji was covered up for refurbishment.

Path of Philosophy

It is also known as Philosopher's Walk or Tetsugaku no Michi in Japanese, a route along a canal lined with cherry trees in Kyoto between Ginkaku-ji and Nyakuoji-jinja. The name was given because a Kyoto University philosophy professor Nishida Kitaro is thought to have used it for daily meditation.

I can imagine when it is Spring season the cherries blossom will make the whole path very beautiful.

Kiyomizu- dera

Many pupils came to visit this temple.. they all seemed modern and trendy even in school uniforms! It must be because of their hair!

Gion

Gion is a must go place when come to Kyoto. Tourists often come here to see maiko (dancing girl and apprentice geisha).

Gion Corner (traditional musical theatre.

It was cold and dark. However we were determined to stay a bit longer with the hope to see maiko walking between appointments, if we were lucky.

Within minutes of waiting people started to be a bit excited, and only then realised that they were chasing a pair of maiko. We immediately got our camera ready and joined the crowd and followed them. Couldn't believe they walk that fast.

They were waiting for the greenman to cross the road, so we took the opportunity to snap and snap and snap...

Feeling very happy we went back to Gion and waited for another one to come.

In order to take these photos of maiko, it took us an hour long of effort but it was well worth the waiting.

Here they come...

The customers arrived in big car, with two more maiko followed in.

Apparently this is the entertaining place.

More...

This is entertaining too...arh....

Japan trip - Kyoto Part 2 (All about foods)

2009-05-25T18:34:00.000+01:00

Food... food... and food!!

Kyoto Station underground shopping

All kind of food displays. They look really real!

Our first meal (dinner) in Japan - the buffet.

Desserts

Firts breakfast

Local ramen cafe near Nijo Castle.

Frankie was looking at the English menu with pictures

Pork again

Entrance to the Nikishi Market

Cute models of sushi made from fabric/

Preserved vege... aubergines?

Three difference flavour of 'balls' - not so nice.

Hot chocolate... they were hot really and very nice!

We had the green tea ice-cream

and a walnut cake

Not bad... some kind of dough with green tea custard-like of filling. It was not cheap... 300 Yen each, which is £2.15!

Sashimi meal

Lightly grilled scallops

Yummy eels

Even though with lots of nice food in Kyoto... we still went for a McDonald meal... Ha!

Japan trip - Kyoto Part 1 (Kinkaku-ji, Ryoan-ji and Nijo Castle)

2009-05-25T17:57:00.000+01:00

Famously known for its traditional culture and historical places in Japan, Kyoto really has a lot to offer:

The Golden Pavilion of Kinkaku-ji

The scenic entrance walk

Very unique entrance tickets

As the name suggests, the Golden Pavilion is covered with pure gold (leafs) on the top two floors of a three storey building.

The stunning view with the reflecting image of the Golden Pavilion on the pond of Kyoko-chi

The building is not open for visitors so we could only enjoy the view outside.

Apart from seeing the Golden Pavilion, the beautiful view of the surrounding landscapes made this a place worth visiting. It lightened up our day.

Fudo-do, a hall dedicated to the God of Fire

Ryoan-ji Temple

Located not too far away (probably two or three bus stops away) from the Kinkaku-ji, we reached the next famous spot of Kyoto, the Ryoan-ji Temple.

My original plan was to exclude this place from our itinerary because personally, I didn't find it worth spending 1000 Yen between us to see a few rocks really! However Frankie insisted that we must visit this place because it is so famous! Well.... only if we know how to appreciate it!

The stone garden at Ryoan-ji Temple consists fifteen stones of different sizes placed on white sand, representing an image of islands and an expanding sea. It promotes Zen philosophy and is intended to inspire people to imagine their own landscape. The garden is also referred to as 'The Crossing of Tiger Cubs' as it resembles a mother tiger carrying her cubs across dangerous river torrents.

A model of the rock garden.

and the life-size one...

Are you inspired? I can say it certainly not to us... what a shame really.

The Tea-room Zoroku next to the rock garden (not open for public). According to the leaflet I got "Zoroku means to contain (or hide) 'six'. The six stands for the head, tail, and four legs. Consequently Zoroku means a tortoise, which is the symbol of Gembu, the guardian god of the north."

We didn't bother to spend much time exploring other areas within the Ryoanji Temple because we thought the landscape would be similar to that in Kinkaku-ji.

Nijo Castle

Nijo Castle was built about 400 years ago in Edo period to guard the city's Imperial possessions and residences.

Ninomaru Palace.

One of the striking features about this palace is its 'Nightingale floors' where the corridor floors will produce the squeaky sounds like birds when walk on them.

Unfortunately cameras were not allowed inside so not many snaps taken.

My Homemade 'Acar'

2009-02-24T21:55:00.002Z

Yes... I made acar (pickled vegetables) last week. This is not my first attempt ever since I got the recipe from my mum about 3-4 years ago. I still remember my first trial was so successful, even my English colleagues loved them very much. However the subsequent trials didn't go down that well and not as good as the first time. Nonetheless I still thought they tasted okay for me.

The main ingredient for acar is cucumbers. Others include carrots, chili, ginger and garlic.

The tedious bit of making acar is that it involves cutting, cutting and more cutting.....

A lot of patience and effort required.

The excess juices of the cucumbers and carrots need to be removed. I would usually leave this job to Frankie as it requires much stronger muscles.

On top of that they can be pressed under heavy objects to achieve maximum result. This process usually takes hours.

Other ingredients should have been dried naturally under the sun. However being in the country where sunlight is scarce not to mention during winter, the other option is to fry them.

Next, proceed with the preparation of sauce.

Once everything is ready, mix all the ingredients together in one big pot.

While preparing the sauce, I realised I didn't have any chili paste left. It made such a huge difference because without a taste of spicy favour (even though with the shredded chili in it) the acar didn't taste like acar! I had no choice but to send Frankie off to a local shop to get some, and he got me chili powder instead as he couldn't find any chili paste.

There might be some mixed up in the sequencing but at least I was satisfied with the result, albeit I think my first trial was still the best.

Finally... with some sesame seeds and prawn crackers, I am very much enjoying my homemade acar.

Adding Warmth to Our Home

2009-02-17T22:33:00.003Z

Ever since we moved in to our flat nearly 3 years ago I have never stopped complaining about feeling cold in the flat especially during winter seasons. With the weather in January this year exceptionally cold, we felt like as if we were living in a fridge.

After a careful research and obtaining several quotations we made the decision to invest in our flat by installing secondary glazing to all the three huge windows. The existing windows were single glazed except the second bedroom with double glazing but we thought it would be good to do all three in one go to improve both the thermal and sound insulation.

The installation was arranged to take place on Sunday the 8th February 2009, starting 9-10am, and would last for 3 to 4 hours.

We woke up early on the day, started removing the curtains as well as cleaning the windows and the window boards ready for the installation.

However we waited and waited for a long time, and eventually the fixer with his assistant showed up at noon. Without much delay they started immediately.

The existing windows.

We were lucky to have a wide window board as the secondary glazing needs to sit approximately 100mm away from the original windows to achieve the desired effect.

The 'materials on site'

The tool boxes

They started by installing the upstairs bedrooms. The fixer told us he had never fixed a glazing to window such as this size before. Yes, we know we have big size windows that's why majority of the heat loss are through the windows.

Since the curtains were already down we took the opportunity to wash and dry them under the bright sun.

Our windows are so big that each of them requires two pairs of curtains. There were a lot of laundry to do.

Solely depending on the sun would never have our curtains dried for the night so there were more ironing to do. It was really busy day for us....

Right... back to the original subject. We were really worried because by this time they were still doing our bedroom, and it had taken them nearly 3 hours fiddling around. Apparently they got problem trying to drill holes into the concrete lintels with their not-so-powerful tool. So the assistant had to go back to the shop and get the right one, and once gone it took him an hour to come back.

With the right tool in hands works were back on track. Fairly quickly they moved on to the second bedroom.

The finished products

Second bedroom:

Main bedroom:

Unfortunately one of the panels was cut a bit bigger than required. They had to take it back and trim off 2cm at the edge and bring it back the next day.

And within seconds Frankie was seen with his Dyson.

Finally they proceeded to the down stair lounge.

Telling from the dark sky outside it was late and they had only finished the work just before 7pm. A total of 7 hours work instead of the original 3-4 hours. However to their credits they had never stopped working at all since noon!

We were kind enough to 'reward' him with full payment on the day since they worked really hard to complete the job even though there was still one panel to be rectified in our bedroom.

Needless to say we only got back the rectified panel three days later due to his busy schedule. And we are still waiting for the 10 years warranty he promised! Yup... they are warranted for 10 years! Not bad....

With all the panels now properly fixed, we can really feel the difference. Hope the money we invested is worth in the long run and get a much reduced bill in the future!

Rachel's 2nd Birthday

2009-02-08T21:14:00.003Z

This post is specially dedicated to our friends Lau & Joanne and their daughter, Rachel who has just turned two this week.

"See I got TWO balloons!"

"I am good friend with my puppy Woof Woof"

The family portrait

All the dishes have been thoughtfully and skillfully prepared ~~with the help of a secret recipe book~~

"I wanna be a princess... "

"Or do I look more like a Minnie Mouse?"

"Look mummy! I can carry Woof Woof... "

Rachel is unwrapping a present from us.

"~~Da~~Da~~ My new table and chairs... okay I got to do some serious reading now"

The birthday cakes... there are two

"Because one is for me ~~(the big one of course)~~ and one is for papa. Papa's birthday is one day later than mine!"

"Thank you uncles and aunties for attending my birthday's party and also your present and ang-pao. Thank you mummy, papa and of course popo.... I love you all ~~muak~~!"

Japan trip - Nara (Kyoto's side trip)

2009-01-12T20:34:00.003Z

As our one day JR West rail passes (bought to travel from airport to Kyoto) covered for the Kansai region (Osaka, Kobe, Nara and Kyoto), we began our first trip in Japan by visiting Nara - a nearby city which is just an hour train journey from Kyoto.

Outside of Kyoto JR station.

We bought a bento (take away) box meal to enjoy on the train. Isn't the packaging look gorgeous?

The tourist spots are quite a walking distance away from the JR station.

Many people gathered in front of this shop...

... to look at these two strong guys pounding (while shouting out with 'ar~~ ar~~' noise) to make the 'mochi' - Japanese rice cake made from glutinous rice pounded into paste. It is a very popular dessert in Japan.

On the way up to Kofukuji complex...

Three-storey pagoda

Octagonal Halls (there are two)

This purification fountain is a common sight at temples or shrines. It is to purify ourselves by ritual washing hands (and mouth rinsing which we did not do), using the ladles provided before proceeding.

The five-storey pagoda and the Eastern Golden Hall

Entrance to the Nara Park.

This park is the home to hundreds of freely roaming tame deers. Their horns have been removed for safety reason.

Many tourists would feed the deer with the specially made deer biscuits.

This is my first time experience being that close to a deer. It was just laying there motionless but looking into your camera as if saying: "Okay, who's next?"

This particular one just couldn't stop rubbing its nose against rough surface.

Entrance gate to the Todaji Temple (Eastern Great Temple).

There are two 28 foot tall guardians at the entrance.

The surroundings were really beautiful.

The Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsu-den), is the world's largest wooden building.

Todaji Temple

Some performances in front of the temple.

Check out their costumes.

The Great Buddha - Virocana Buddha, is the chief object of Todaji Temple with the height of body being 14.98m. It is made from cast bronze which was then plated in gold.

This huge wooden column with a small hole at the bottom has become a highlight among the crowds. According to the popular belief if you can manage to crawl through this opening then you will be sure to reach enlightenment.

For your information we did not crawl through the hole. Didn't think it was a good idea to stuck in there!!

Busy street selling souvenirs, foods and etc.

The charcoal roasted sweet potatoes. It was really sweet and nice, the best part was holding them warm in our hands!

The famous tako (octopus) balls

Sorry to say that but they weren't taste great....

Japan trip - a taste of the Japanese life

2009-01-11T00:40:00.016Z

Our first taste of Japanese life started as soon as we arrived at our first destination - Kyoto, which is approximately 75 minutes north of Kansai Airport in Osaka by express train.

We booked into a ryokan (Japanese traditional inn) for our next 3 nights stay in Kyoto. Ryokan Kyoraku is actually a modern type of ryokan rather than the traditional type with beautiful decorated features etc, and they can cost you a bomb as their prices would normally include for dinner and breakfast. Ours did not provide any meal.

The entrance, where shoes were not allowed. Slippers would be provided for the guests.

Luckily they have the lift facility in the building, otherwise it would be very difficult with the baggages. We stayed on the 3rd floor.

They provide free internet access with their only computer. It was quite fast though!

The common sitting area

Our room with the tatami floor. It was small but clean. Ya, they ought to because guests were not allowed to stay in the room between 10am to 4pm every day! They claimed that that was their cleaning time!

Our futon beds, folded neatly at one side. They were quite comfy actually.

These two chairs and a small table were cramped into the balcony area. Would be good to enjoy a tea session in the summer, but with the temperature dropping to 9 to 10 degree Celcius we didn't think it was a good idea.

The doors can be shut, yup they are made from papers!

The small toilet, designed for petite peopole like us.

After taking bath we changed into the 'yukata' provided. They are the Japanese summer cotton kimono (worn by both men and women).

There is one important rule to wear this yukata. That is to wrap the right side of the yukata over the body, then overlap it with the left side.

Make sure you don't do it the other way round otherwise it means dressing a corpse for burial.

Ok... time for the tea then..... cheers everybody!

Japan trip - a preview

2009-01-08T23:34:00.004Z

Japan was always on the top list of our must-go countries and with much determination we decided to give it a go and planned our two weeks holiday there in December last year.

Going to Japan is not straightforward for Malaysians. Unlike many other countries that we have visited before, to enter into Japan we need to have entry visa beforehand. However, this is not as easy as it might sound. To get a visa we need to have all the necessary documentations and bookings confirmation ready, i.e. flight tickets, hotel booking, itinerary plan, company letter, money (of course) before the Japan Embassy will even consider our applications.

I know what you might be thinking, what if we were refused the visa? Wouldn't that be a bit risky if we have already incurred cost for the hotels booking, flights etc? Well, then you better consider a refundable ticket, like we did with Malaysia Airlines (flying from Kuala Lumpur). My experience for hotels booking was that they did not require any advanced payments at all!! (but there was disadvantage for this too!). So you can cancel the booking anytime as long as you inform them within the reasonable timescales.

There was no fee for the application and it took us a week to get back our passports, and of course with the visa. To our surprise they granted us a year visa but then limited us to 90 days stay at any one time. Well that isn't bad, and we got the excuse to go back, don't we?

A brief of our itinerary plan:

Day 1 Arrive at Kansai Airport (Osaka). Stay at Kyoto for 3 nights. Visit Nara.
Day 2 Visit Kyoto.
Day 3 Visit Kyoto.
Day 4 Visit Osaka, then stay in Hiroshima for 2 nights.
Day 5 Visit Miyajima island
Day 6 Visit Hiroshima, then stay in Nagoya for 2 nights.
Day 7 Visit Takayama
Day 8 Visit Gotemba Premium Outlet, stay in Hakone for 1 night
Day 9 Visit Hakone, then stay in Tokyo for 5 nights
Day 10 Visit Kamukara, then to Yokohama
Day 11 Visit Tokyo
Day 12 Visit Tokyo
Day 13 Visit Sanrio Puroland
Day 14 Fly back to Kualal Lumpur from Tokyo

At the time when we first looked at the exchange rate and did our budget, it was 1 Pound for 200 Yen. However Japanese Yen later became stronger and stronger and we had no choice but to buy 139 Yen for every 1 Pound. That's to say everything in Japan was going to be expensive!! This included the hotel payments, if we had paid first at the time of booking then I won't have spent so much!

One of the must-buy essentials when visiting Japan is the Japan Rail (JR) pass. It offers the most convenient and economical way of moving from one city to another in Japan, unless you only want to stay in one city for your entire trip. However this JR pass is only valid for trains that operated on JR lines including all shinkansen (bullet trains) except the fastest one - Nozomi. It comes in 7 days, 14 days or 21 days with option for green car (1st class) or ordinary car. To make it privilege to tourists, it can be purchased anywhere else except in Japan!

After much careful thought and detailed calculation, we decided to purchase the 7 days only instead of 14 days for the two week trip.

With the visa and JR pass in hands, we were ready to explore Japan....

Kansai Airport is a man-made island near Osaka. It can be seen clearly from the sky.

In order to use the JR pass, it needs to be exchanged and validated for a 'usable' one at JR ticketing office.

This was the train we boarded to reach our first destination - Kyoto.

Notice any changes?

If you look carefully, you will notice that some of the seats had changed position!! They can make all the seats facing the same directions, that is to say you will never worry about sitting on a train facing backward! This is something interesting and new to us, as our trains in UK can never do that!!

Wow... Japan really is advanced!

Wembley Stadium Tour

2008-11-19T23:45:00.002Z

Consider that I am living in a country for more than 8 years where football is the most popular sport and with countless football stadiums exist all over the country, I have never been to one in my life.

But this doesn't mean I will never step in to a stadium. My company had kindly organised a tour to the very famous Wembely Stadium located at North London sometime in August. This gave me a good opportunity to experience something new. However I was in shock when told that the tour would last for 90 mintues. I wondered what could it be that take such a long time to tour a stadium!

One of the astonishing features about this stadium is the arch which spans 315m from one end to the other, is a very important structure to support the roof hence allowing clear view from every seat without any obstruction scene of structural columns.

The entrance to the tickets office.

After registered ourselves and given the entrance passes we waited for our guide to take us to tour the stadium at 5.30pm.

And finally our tour guide arrived on time and then started briefing us. So let's join me to the inside world of Wembley Stadium.

First's up, the corridors, with some football related paintings/photos hanged on the walls...

Apparently there are as many as 2,618 toilets facilities.

So here we are... Try to guess how many people can fit in this stadium?

There are 90,000 seats, making it one of the largest stadiums in the world. This is not it, all the seats are covered by the retractable roof so no one will get wet. Yeah, it costs £798million to build, the most expensive stadium ever built.

This is our tour guide.

A view of their dining/conference room.

We are now in the press conference room where interviews will take place after the matches. My colleague, Steve (in blue shirt) volunteered to go up there and experienced how it feels like when being interviewed!

This is me in the 'hot' seat then!

The treatment room.

Next to the treatment and restroom is the changing room. Each player will have their designated seat apparently.

I may not know much about football but I still know who David Beckham is. Everybody just waited for their turns to take a shot with his shirt! Including me of course.

This room is equipped with netting ceiling. You probably can guess why.

Yes, it allows the players to practice their football skills.

The tour guide wanted us to queue up in two lines, pretending to be the players ready to meet the crowds. At this time the cheers of the crowds from pre-recorded tape made us feel like we were in a real match.

The grass pitch really is a high quality one.

These are the special leather seats. We were told that unless you are friends with Royal's families else even though you have the money still cannot get to these seats.

We were standing in front of the Corporate boxes level. The tour guide told us David Beckham ownes two of these boxes, but refused to tell us which ones...

Heading up the stair...

for the trophy.

In exchanged of our entrance passes we each got a small souvenir.

It was almost the end of our stadium tour.

We came to Bobby Moore's bronze statue as our last stop, which really ended almost one and half hour later! This statue is in the honour of Bobby Moore for winning the World Cup when England beaten West Germany back in 1966 at the former stadium.

If you ask me would this tour make me want to come back next time to watch a match? I think probably not... I would rather spend the money (and time) on shopping. Well... unless it is another free event, who knows!

I have passed my driving test!

2008-10-28T12:25:00.003Z

I made it through! Yes... after spending nearly £600 for the whole process and taking 20 hours lessons I finally passed my driving test today.

I am very glad and happy.

Istanbul, Turkey (Part 3) - Taksim, Grand Bazaar, Spice Market, etc.

2008-09-17T22:11:00.001+01:00

It was another sunny day in Istanbul and we started the day by visiting Taksim, located at the north side of Golden Horn (European side) and connected by the Galata Bridge.

Across the bridge we headed towards the Funicular (underground station), and took a short trip on the subway tram to Taksim Square.

Coming out of the subway we came to this long street with shops at both sides, and of course we did some shoppings. This is meant to be a pedestrians shopping street but occasionally you would still find cars driving passed.

There is also an old tramway that runs in a single track from the end of the subway towards the Taksim Square.

We went into this shop selling mainly the Turkish delights (like candy shop). See all kind of Turkish delights you could get...

We then spotted a Chinese restaurant, hidden at the side street and immediately decided to have our lunch here.

Very red-ish interior decoration

They served quite basic Chinese food only, more like a takeaway style I would say. Also they charged extra to refill the teapot with hot water, something we didn't expect in a Chinese restaurant!

Walking towards the end of pedestrian street we came to the Taksim Square, which is also the turnaround point of the old tram.

The square was decorated with different type of colourful tulips displays.

Weather at this time was really hot and the best way to go back to the subway was to take a ride on the old tram. We paid 1 Lira each and boarded the tram.

After only 2 minutes of our rides, we suddenly felt that the tram had hit on something and eventually came to a stop. I looked out the window from my seat and opps... an accident had just happened! An idiot's van collided with the tram. Judging from its position I guessed the van must have reversed without looking out for the tram!

We waited and waited and gradually the passengers on board all left and we were then been told to get off the tram as well. How unfortunate we were! And we have already paid for the tickets!!

To cool us down from the unfortunate incident and the hot weather we walked in to this dessert cafe to have some ice-cream.

On the way back to Eminonu district.

The New Mosque (Yeni Cami)

Next to the mosque is the famous Spice market. It was first constructed in 1597 but only completed 67 years later.

As the name suggests, they sell all kind of spices here.

Good if you know how to cook using those spices, but I don't so we didn't get anything here.

Coming out from the other end of the exit was actually another shopping paradise streets after streets. It was more affordable here than the shops in Taksim.

Ah... we spotted a traditional dressed man selling juices. That pair of croc shoes not really traditional eh??

We didn't know our way but just kept on walking and eventually came to another famous bazaar, the Grand Bazaar (also known as the Covered Bazaar).

You won't believe how big it is until you are inside. It is one of the largest covered markets with incredibly more than 6,000 shops in 58 streets!!

Bargain is a must here. We bought a small colourful glass souvenir with asking price of 40Lira, but ended up paying 10Lira! That price probably still not the lowest they could offer!

Back to where we stayed we looked for restaurant to have our dinner.

Ok.. this one then.

Finished the meal with a small cup of the Turkish apple tea.

The next day which was also the last day of our trip, we didn't have much plan even though our flight back to London was in the evening.

We went back to Sultanahmet area to finish off some parts of the areas which we missed out earlier.

Walking towards the market selling rugs... there we could see rugs laying on the streets already.

As if Turkish really like their bread very much. They can be seen everywhere.

These nicely arranged huge roasted chestnuts looked really yummy, but after checking the price we walked off immediately because it was very expensive!

All kind of designs for earrings.

A lady was making fresh bread at the front of a restaurant. A good way to attract customers though.

We had a stroll at this park next to the Tokapi Palace.

At first sight they looked like ice-cream but in fact they were salads!

To enjoy our final meal in Istanbul before flying back to London we decided to give this local restaurant a try.

We just ordered whatever dishes we wanted and then they would place them on the plates.

Da~~ da~~ here are what we had ordered. The one on the left plate is an artichole dish and apparently it is quite popular among Turkish.

And last but not least a big slice of watermelon for me.

Istanbul, Turkey (Part 2) - A day on the Bosphorus tour

2008-08-04T19:53:00.001+01:00

A trip to Istanbul is not complete without exploring the Bosphorus Strait. You really need to allocate a day for this tour because of the whole journey will take about 6 hours if you choose to disembark at the last stop, like we did.

A return ferry ride will cost 17.50 Lira per person with the public passenger ferry. There are other smaller and private ferryboats going to different and shorter routes as well.

Tickets kiosk

The public passenger ferry leaves Eminonu Terminal which is the starting point of its journey 3 times a day, with additional 2 departures in Summer season. The earliest departure is at 10.35am everyday.

I did my research about the Bosphorous tour beforehand and they advised that it is better to get there as early as 1 hour before the departure in order to secure the best seats as the best view is on the left hand side.

We didn't make it that early but about half an hour in advance. The Eminonu terminal is actually within walking distance from Hotel Ilkay, where we stayed.

We were lucky to find good seats at the front of the ferry on the upper deck with outside view.

The sea water was quite clear and we could even see the jelly fishes floating around.

The ferry departed on time and we then saw another similar ferry coming back. We sat on the deck where the rescue rings were.

Views on the shore

The ferry will disembark at 6 dock stops in total and this is one of the stops.

The service on the ferry was quite good and frequent I would say. Every now and then this guy in red shirt (and his colleague sometimes) would walk round with tray on his hands selling the customers Istanbul's apple tea.

or their traditional yogurt. And of course other things like ice-cream, juices etc. You don't even need to lift your bums to buy one.

The artificial island in the middle of the sea, Galatasaray Island, with sports facilities onshore.

Fortress of Europe

The bridge

Istinye bay, well you can't actually see it unless from an bird eye view.

This is a zoomed in view of the beach side...

After about 1 hour and 45 minutes we finally reached our destination - the Anandolu Kavagi which is also the last stop of the journey.

Most tourists would also get off at this stop too.

A stall selling sea shells type of souvenirs and some dead seahorses (on the white tray)!

There are many fish restaurants around this area. We then stopped by this restaurant and somehow convinced by them to dine in here.

They recommended us their sort of 'popular menu', in other word the 'tourists menu' I suppose.

Minutes later they brought us a basket full of bread which was not fresh and quite hard already (must be left over from previous diners), and two plates of salads with minimum ingredients but big in portions!

Trying to finish the salads was challenging but we somehow managed to do that probably because of eating mainly meaty type of food since we arrived in Istanbul and didn't mind to have something green. After finishing the salads we were already half full.

Our main courses arrived and well... the first one which was recommended by the waiter who said the set meal would include fish, fried calamari and fried oysters, and this was what we had been served... Shouldn't really expect much, should we?

The next one was just a normal grilled fish and we chose blue fish since we have never tried it before.

We couldn't be any luckier because it rained suddenly during our meals but stopped completely after we finished.

Thinking that the hot weather could have been cooled down a bit by now but it wasn't. We had to walk up the road about 15-20 minutes before reaching this sign.

This was only half way towards Castle Ceneviz, located at the top of the hill.

Climbing up the steps

Finally we reached the top, pretty much covered in sweats.

However, it was all worth the effort.... Look at the blue sea, er... the Black Sea actually!

Castle Ceneviz

Coming down was much easier but the unbearable hot weather made us take out the umbrella for the first time.

The next ferry would leave at 3.00pm in less than 30 minutes. Before boarding the ferry we purchased the local ice-cream to refresh ourselves. Unfortunately those nice seats with outside view had been taken.

While waiting on the ferry, almost everyone on this side of the deck were entertained by this Dalmation dog running and swimming in the water. Frankie tried to snap a few shots of the actived dog.

and he was very proud with this particular shot showing the moment the dog was jumping into the water! Good timing though!

Do you think it looks like Snoopy from this angle?

Views on the way back to Eminonu Terminal.

We sat at where we were for almost the entire journey back and didn't explore much of the ferry itself, later we found out that we could actually sit at the benches outside...

or the highest deck.... Unfortunately the ferry had already disembarked at the terminal.

Eminonu was quite a busy place in evening and we saw a mussels seller. The customers would just open up the shells and eat them with a few drop of lemon juice on the spot.

There were also stalls everywhere selling sweetcorns in either boiled or roasted.

and we happily bought a roasted one to try.

It was the driest, most tasteless as well as cold ~~sweet~~corn we had ever eaten!

Malaysia Week 2008 in London

2008-08-03T17:53:00.002+01:00

Malaysia has come to London this week!!

This is a 5 days event organised by Ministry of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage of Malaysia to promote Malaysia in the UK. Bringing with them here are the traditional music, fashions, dances, arts and crafts, food and much more.

This event ends today (3rd August 2008) at 9pm.

This is not the first time Malaysia Week held in London. For last two years it was organised at a much busier part of London, Covent Garden. This time they change the venue and choose Potters Fields Park near London Bridge underground station instead, for a better view with Tower Bridge and the City Hall as backdrops

A few of us mainly Malaysians plus one Singaporean, went to give our 'supports' yesterday.

If you haven't had a chance to be there, here are a few snapshots of the event.

Activity of the day

Individual marquee stalls scattered around the park

Tower Bridge can be seen from here.

The food stalls

Free fruits testing

A view next to the London City Hall

An entertainment stage has been put up at one end for the performances of dance, music and fashion shows.

He is the man behind the voice of the day, a presenter from Malaysia whose face looks familiar but we just couldn't tell the name.

"Err... why are they looking at me strangely... ah ..they are taking a picture of me!!"

This time I couldn't find the 50 pence a tin of 'kaya' (coconut egg custard) I bought two years ago, guessing that they must have learnt that it didn't worth the effort by flying such a heavy product and sell it just for half a pound.

Anyway let's hope that the event will continue to be a success in the future. Malaysia Boleh!!

Istanbul, Turkey (Part 1)

2008-07-31T21:40:00.003+01:00

We had recently completed a short trip to Istanbul, Turkey and it was our first holiday in 2008.

Turkey's currency is called Lira and the exchange rate we had was £1 = 2.30 Lira.

We flew with Turkish Airlines which took us 4 hours to reach our destination.

Look! which plane was revising behind?

The world's largest passenger plane Airbus A380 from Singapore Airlines!

Our specially ordered seafood meal

This personal screen in front of the seat only available on newer planes because the one we flew back was an older one which didn't have this facility.

Istanbul is the largest city of Turkey located between the Middle East and Southeast European, and is the only city that has two continents, the European part of the city (left on the map) and the Asian part of the city (right on the map) separated by the Bosphorus Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.

The tram

The roads are not just for the trams, but occassionally you would find cars using the same infrastructure!

We spent 4 nights at this hotel.

The entrance/lobby area

and our room with the bright olive green wall colour!

When we arrived at the hotel it was almost dinner time. We had a look around and almost everywhere was selling the kebab-ish type of meals. We saw this shop looked not so bad and went in to order the one shown on the display menu (yellow arrow pointing) but in chicken instead of lamb.

Next to it was this fruit stall selling freshly prepared juices and we ordered the typical orange juices.

When the meal arrived, we couldn't believe what we were getting.... it was so much different from the display menu although we did ask for chicken instead of lamb, you could even count the chips! Anyway it did come with generous portion of bread...

Straight after finishing that we went to the nearby McDonalds to have a more 'traditional meal'. At least you won't get the menu wrong here.

Next morning we had our breakfast in this restaurant located at the basement of the hotel.

Majority of the attractions are located in the Sultanahment area on the European side which are within walking distance from our hotel. Asian side is mainly residential area so we didn't spend time exploring that part of the city.

Tokapi Palace was once the residence of the Ottaman sultans which is now becoming Istanbul's most fascinating museums. The admission ticket was 10 Lira per person.

The gate of Salutation, entrance to the courtyard of Tokapi Palace

The courtyard after passing through the ticket barriers.

Scaled models found on the side of the entrance.

Corridor displays

The cooking pots and kitchen utensils

The Gate of Felicity, entrance to the inner court

Frankie with the guard!

The Conqueror's Pavilion

Tower of Justice

Porch outside the Imperial Council Hall

Did you know Tokapi Palace actually houses the Moses's miraculous stick? Unfortunately no photograph was allowed. In fact majority of the precious displays including the jewellery and treasure pieces have 'no camera' signs on them!

Within the Palace there is another private section of the apartments, Harem where the Sultan's mother, wives, concubines (妾), children and other members of the royal family, as well as the servants and eunuchs (太监) lived. To get in there we needed to pay another 10 Lira each!

The courtyard of the Harem eunuchs

The bath area

and the loo!

The Imperal Hall, official reception of the Sultan as well as the entertainment hall of the Harem.

The Fruit Room with painted wall

The Twin Kiosk / Apartments of the Crown Prince

Outside view of the Twin Kiosk

Courtyard of the Favourites

Coming out from Tokapi Palace we went to Istanbul Archaeology Museum which was just a short walk away.

The admission fee was another 5 Lira per person.

Inside the Museum of the Ancient Orient

The Archaeology Meseum

Can you guess what they are?

Here is a clue...

They are called 'sarcophagus' 石棺, basically the coffin made from stone.

The Troy exhibit

The temperature reaching almost 30 degree Celcius on the day and it was too much for us. Before proceeding to the next spot we took a break and had our lunch at this restaurant which is located at the famous tourists area of the Sultanahment. So no doubt it was the most expensive meal we had in Istanbul, and actually we were paying for the view rather than the meal I supposed.. There weren't many choices nearby anyway.

We sat at the terrace floor overlooking the Blue Mosque, although not directly in front of the view.

The Ottoman's house

The waiter recommended us this Ottaman lamb style (nothing very special other than it cooked with lamb)

Frankie went for the Harem Sultan Special, served with rice and chips, and bread of course.

The Hagia Sophia, was once a Christian church, later a mosque and now becomes a museum. Admission ticket to the museum was 10 Lira each.

Stone remains showing the Lamb of God.

Opposite the Hagia Sophia is Sultan Ahmed Mosque, also known as Blue Mosque because of its interior blue wall tiles.

Entrance was free of charge but you need to take off your shoes and put them in a plastic bag provided.

They also provided ladies with head scarfs to wear, although not everyone followed the rule, but I was exception!

Hippodrome of Constantinople, was once a horse-racing and chariot racing track during the Constaninople's day. Today there are only few monument columns where the hippodrome was.

Located next to Hagia Sophia is Basilica Cistern, which is the largest underground cistern in Istanbul. Admisson ticket was 10 Lira per person.

The entrance to the underground cistern.

There are 336 marble columns supporting the ceilings of small domes. They are each 9 metres high.

This one with decorative features

Toward the northwest corner of the cistern there are two columns with bases carved with head of Medusa. They were only discovered when the cistern was drained therefore their origin is unknown.

To end the day we headed back to the hotel and had our dinner at a nearby restaurant/cafe.

Lamb cutlet

Last two days in Hong Kong

2008-07-21T18:54:00.000+01:00

It has been a while since I last updated my trip in December last year... such a long time now! So here are what we did on the last two days in Hong Kong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday, 4th Dec 07

Today we slept until late morning... too tired to wake up early after days of non- stop walking. We planned to have a relaxing day anyway so didn't matter to spend a bit more time in bed.

We had our breakfast at this local cafe named 'Happy Garden Noodles and Congee Kitchen', at the Canton Road.

So we decided to have congee for breakfast

My century egg and pork meat congee

Frankie's fish congee

... and eating with Frankie it won't be that plain, so he insisted another side dishes

very fatty 'siew yuk' (roated pork belly)

Our main place to visit for the day would be the Tian Tan Buddha & Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island 大嶼山. It was quite a long journey from Kowloon. Tung Chung station is the nearest stop.

When we reached the Tung Chung station after more than 1 hour journey, we were disappointed to learn that the cable cars had shut down due to recent accidents. The only option was to take the bus service, which of course made the overall journey even longer!

The sky wasn't clear so we could hardly see the giant bronze Buddha statue from bottom of the hill. Before climbing up the 268 steps to reach the top platform, we were asked whether we would like to buy entrance tickets for the exhibition located on the platform which also included a vegetarian meal, at a price of HK$60 per person. We decided to go for it afterall we had already spent so much time coming all the way from Kowloon.

hey... you suppose to show your palm not your V sign!

A much clearer photo of the Buddha.

Other statues around the Buddha.

I was not allowed to take any photo inside the exhibition. This exihibition is actually a small area displaying mainly the Chinese calligraphy and paintings. So we didn't spend too much time there.
A view from the top

and we had to go over to the other side, where the yellow roof building to have our vegetarian meal.

The entrance gate to Po Lin Monastery

Ok, time to have lunch now. Without actually expecting much from our vegetarian meal, we were delighted to find out that it wasn't that bad afterall. Each of us got a plate of fried vermicelli, a bowl of 'tau fu far' and a further two pieces of dessert from a varity selection. And I had to say both the fried vermicelli and tau fu far were good. I even overheard someone mentioning that the tau fu far here was quite famous!

After the meal we decided to leave, so back to the bus stop again. The next destination got to be the shopping centre at Tung Chung station.

It was our first proper shopping trip actually since in Hong Kong, if the one at Harbour City didn't count! I was soon found out that the Espirit outlet was closed due to their Christmas do on that day! aiks... how unlucky I was.

The Christmas decoration outside the shopping centre.

After tucked in our KFC dinner we took the MTR back but we stopped at Mong Kok station because the night was still young! So we continued our shopping spree walking back all the way to the Tsim Sha Tsui area.

Check out the shops along Nathan road.

get your sunglasses out now...

and look what I found!!

Without a doubt we went in and started looking around, I got to buy something here. It wasn't that big actually but I managed to find a purse which I like... with the striking red colour! And I have been told this is a Japanese brand!

Everywhere was decorated with christmas displays, of course it was Christmas season at that time...

Wasn't this cute?!

More colourful lights

Soon we discovered the G2000 shops which I wanted to go. Jenny kindly gave me the discount code from her Hong Kong friends which entitled me to enjoy a 30% discount, on everything including the new arrival! Wasn't this a good news... so I got to do some serious shopping here....

Ok... after spending more than HK$2K here and almost their last few customers left before their closing time, we were finally happy to leave and back to hotel.

But it won't be perfect without popping into the Hui Lau San's to have some supper...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday, 5th Dec 07

Had a lazy morning again today. (Isn't this what you need when going on holiday... relaxing and enjoying)

As usual, time for breakfast so without any hesitation we went down the Canton Road again to find something to eat. After much surveying and noticed the way Frankie starred at the roasted duck at the window display at the same cafe we went previously, I knew where we would have our breakfast then.

Anyway we didn't order the roasted duck but go for more traditional breakfast - fish congee, 'yaw char kueh' (they were huge!) and the fish cheong fan.

Still remember the HK$200 vouchers we had from China Airlines? All we wanted was to find where the Park and Shop supermarket. Since it was the last full day we in Hong Kong, so the mission today was to find the shop no matter how.

We did ask where we could find this shop from the staff while shopping at G2000 the night before and was told the nearest branch would be somewhere near East Tsim Sha Tsui.

Photos taken on the way to East Tsim Sha Tsui.....

Surprisingly on the day we saw two pairs of newly weds at the Culture Centre. I guessed there must be a marriage registery office at this building.

One of the brides...

Next to the Culture Centre is this Space Museum with a dinasour head.

By this time we had almost spent 30 to 45 minutes searching for the Park and Shop supermarket but still couldn't find it. The further we went the less confidence we had. So we made the decision to turn back to Canton Road to go to our next destination. On the way again we asked a few people whether they knew the location of supermarket. No body seemed to know it but one guy pointed us to back of Harbour City Shopping Centre, and we believed him! But of course we still couldn't find it.

At this point both of us already showed a bit of frustration. Frankie suddenly came to the idea of searching online at the hotel's internet cafe, so we walked back to the hotel quickly. Within seconds Frankie was so much ahead of me that I couldn't keep up with him.

See how far ahead Frankie was (in white shirt)!

Unfortunately we then decided not to use the internet facilities as the hotel charged a bomb! We felt that it wasn't worth going for it for the reasons a) we might not even find anything since this supermarket wasn't that 'popular', otherwise people would have known it; b) we had to spend money to use the vouchers! quite ridiculous and something didn't add up right I thought; and c) we had already wasted almost 2 hours looking for the shop.... It would be better off to leave it to faith, if we could find it then it would be a bonus otherwise we might have to forgo the vouchers.

Time was precious on the last day in Hong Kong, so we made our way to the History Musuem and Science Museum.

I bet you had the same experience like we had, when you have already given up searching for something, it would always appear in front of you. This was exactly what happened to us..... We spotted the supermarket, finally!!

So quickly we went in to do some shopping.

First of all, the snack aisle...

"Emm... so many varieties which I haven't tried before, which one should I go for then?"

" I can't choose so I will have both!"

We could have spent as much time as possible here unfortunately we were short of time really. After paying for the goods, which slightly exceeded our voucher values, we decided to walk back to hotel and put away the things instead of carrying them all round.

"I am a happy bunny now!"

By this time lunch hour had passed and we were hungry already. Instead of going back to the Museums we walked to the Star Ferry Pier.

and boarded this ship.....

No! I am just kidding here. Instead we boarded this ferry bringing us across to the Hong Kong Island.

The ferry stopped at the Central Pier.

We headed to Lan Kwai Fong and came to Yung Kee Restaurant for our late lunch.

The menu

The food we ordered included:

Chicken and fish maw soup

Seafood fried rice

Roasted goose

Crispy roasted pigeon

Stir fried aubergine with mince and fish

After eating at this restaurant we realised how unworthy the Jumbo Kingdom was. The food and services here were much much better and we really had a wonderful meal.

After the meal we continued our journey to the Museum of History.

The very famous lion statue

because it appears on the bank notes!

The Science Museum is literally opposite the History Museum. By this time it was getting darker so we didn't spend much time here.

Are you an average male?

or an average female?

"I can tell you I am!"

The world population chart

and exactly 44 seconds later...

The world population has since increased by 98 people. That was almost 2 births per second!

"OK... time to go now..."

Some of the night scene photos taken.

The famous Pennisula Hotel at night

compared to the day look, nothing really exciting about it

The clock tower

The Avenue of Stars (behind the New World Centre)

Aaron Kwok's hands print

The markets' streets

This is goldfish market

You can also find different types of pets here, mainly puppy and kittens

The Ladies' market

Temple Street night market

These are the fortune tellers stalls

Walking to these markets' streets were quite exhausting, as we did lose our way. Before heading back to the hotel, as usual we would have some supper and this time we chose to have it here.

On the way back to the hotel we saw these crabs advert and I couldn't help but took a photo.

and the next day while waiting for the shuttle bus to the airport... I found one very interesting advertisement... it was the crab again! and this time on top of a taxi!

A visit to the PYO farm

2008-07-19T22:36:00.000+01:00

Ever since we found Garsons in Esher six years ago, we have been visiting this Pick Your Own farm every year. So there is no exception for this year. We always choose to visit Garsons during their food fair, and today is the first day. We thought it will be a good day out so we invited our friend Lau and his family to join us since they have never been there before.

This garden centre is huge.

There is a restaurant inside the garden centre which serves fresh ingredient food.

Look! a bumblebee on a flower!

Me and Rachel, the daughter of Lau and Joanne. She is about 1.5 years old.

Entrance to the food fair and farm shop.

This is the reason why we always schedule to come here during the food fair.

Have you ever seen such a big garlic?

The farm itself is enormous and it is advisable that you drive your car and park next to whichever crops you want to pick, otherwise you will definitely be exhausted by the time you finished walking around the farm, like what we did during our first visit!

You can also plan your visit depending on the crops you want with this calendar.

Some of the winning designs for the scarecrows competition.

Gooseberries

Blackberries

Dahlia flowers

One of our favourite crops - the strawberries

Happy Rachel with handful of the strawberries.

Redberries

Blackcurrents

"I dig, I dig and I dig...."

"... and I finally got ONE.. yeah!!"

"Nah...!"

You can choose to cheat by picking up the potatoes here.

... or you can get your hands dirty like what Lau did.

The freshest potatoes you can ever get!

These sweet corns are not ready yet.

Finally, the cherries farm. They are only available for picking in July at Garsons.

Most of the cherries are hidden underneath the leaves, so you really need to either bend down or squat down to see them.

See how many we had picked...!

Lastly, remember to pay for all the crops that have been picked, otherwise you could be embarrassed by the security guards waiting for you before driving off at the exit.

Owning our very first car

2008-07-14T00:25:00.000+01:00

Yup... this is it, the first car ~~Frankie~~ we ever bought in life though not a new one!

Introducing you to our Golf Plus 1.6SE from Volkswagen. This car is just under 3 years old.

Measuring at 4.2m long x 1.8m wide x 1.6m high, this diamond black in pearl effect Golf Plus is a car with 5 doors and 5 seaters. It is somehow categorised as a MPV vehicle (don't ask me why!), and is a slightly bigger version of the Golf.

This car is fitted with a reverse parking sensor, an added benefit.

View on the rear seats. The middle seat backrest can be pulled down and become an armrest with holes for your drinks. These seats can also slide forwards and backworks to either increase the boot space or increase the legroom.

It also comes with a tray on each side, perhaps a good place for picnic?? but I am sure Frankie will operate a strictly no food policy in the car!

One of the useful features on this car is that the whole of the backrest at rear seats can be folded down almost flat, for clever use of space and ideal for carrying particularly long objects.

View on the front seats. These seats can be jetted up or down.

There is a phrase which says everyone wants a piece of Golf, but we got it with a plus, isn't that great?

Celebrating Our 2nd Anniversary

2008-06-10T20:51:00.000+01:00

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of our marriage. To celebrate this special day we booked a table for two at a local Japanese restaurant for the dinner. Well... it was actually another excuse to eat outside and not having had to cook at home....

Sushi-Hiro has received good comments and reviews online which prompted us to give it a trial rather than the usual Kiraku restaurant we went before, located just a few shops down the street.

From outside Sushi-Hiro looks rather boring and uninviting as you hardly can see what is happening inside.

To the left of the window shop display, there are some Japanese gourmet food models which look quite real at fist sight.... they look delicious, don't they?

We were then led to our reserved table at a corner, with me facing the sushi bar counter where the chefs prepare the food. The decoration inside the restaurant is so much better and relaxing.

There aren't many tables actually due to the limited space available. I think overall only 4 tables with seats between 2 to 4 per table. There are further chairs near the sushi bar counter cater mainly for individual customers. Majority of the customers are Japanese, although there are still non-Japanese customers like us.

We were then given a menu and an order form together with a pen to tick for what we wanted. Looking at the menu the choices were quite limited, compared to Kiraku. It is not difficult to summarise that this restaurant is mainly specialising in sashimi (raw fresh seafood), and the only hot dish available is miso soup. Browsing through the menu for few more times we finally made up our minds....

So as the starter we had the miso soup which came with 2 small clams and spring onion each... nothing too fancy but tasted nice.

While waiting for our next dishes, I could see the chefs were busy preparing our food. All the ingredients were displayed at the counter bar and they would then select whatever the ingredients to go with it.

Within 15 minutes our meals were ready and here we go...

The first dish was the set meal in a round Japanese lunch box style with rice filled underneath and 12 selection of the sashimi, followed by the normal 6 pieces of sea eel and cucumber sushi rolls. We also ordered 3 other individual dishes from the nigiri range.

The last dish on the table was another sushi roll range with various ingredients including prawn, mushroom, pickled vege, cucumber and something else which I could't remember. This sushi roll tasted quite sweet for some reasons (must be one of the ingredients) and as you could see a very big portion!

The dishes we ordered didn't seem a lot but believe me, we were so full after finishing all... I think this was mainly because of the amount of rice we ate! Luckily after the meal we had a bit of exercise by strolling back home.

Frankie's new love

2008-05-18T17:36:00.000+01:00

About a couple of weeks ago Frankie told me he decided to ditch his traditional 'FionFion' because he has found his new love 'TomTom'.

He tried to convince me, saying that:

the traditional 'FionFion' has already been with him for more than 5 years and he wanted her to take a rest from now on;
the information given by the traditional 'FionFion' will not be 100% accurate, in other word reliable;
the traditional 'FionFion' may sometimes lose her signal thus show hesitation;
the traditional 'FionFion' cannot do the latest information update;
but most importantly, he cannot be angry with the traditional 'FionFion' if she gave the wrong information, and if he ever does that he will get scolded instead.

After listening to what he said, I agreed to let him have one.

So, last weekend we went to the nearest Halford store at Chiswick to get a new 'TomTom' as it was on promotion sales. In case you are wondering what a 'TomTom' is, it is basically a satellite navigator by the brand TomTom.

Frankie can't wait and decided to give it a test, so he opened up the packaging and read the instruction, and after a few manoeuvres we were ready to go.

We have also received the traffic receiver as part of the promotion deal. It will update you of the current traffic and redirect you to an alternative route if there is any traffic jam ahead.

The destination was Oriental City at Colindale where we will be having our lunch. So we just followed the arrow on the screen, as simple as that.

This navigator also has an in-built speaker to tell you exactly what to do at the next junction. You can choose either a female or male voice from different countries for their different accents. We, er.. rather Frankie chose the UK female speaker named Jane.

OK, let's see if TomTom is really that good. After a few minutes drive TomTom instructed us to turn right after a traffic light. Frankie and I cannot believe it because there was a clear sign on the traffic light post showing a no-right turn. We have to keep on going and only then turned to the next right. If we had followed the instruction given blindly we could either break the rules or worse be involved in an accident!

TomTom was quick enough to recalculate a new route since we didn't listen to her...

A minute later TomTom wanted us to go straight.... but this time there was no road in front! We had to make a right turn and then a left turn to join to the road otherwise we could have run up the kerb and into the bushes! See... the traditional 'FionFion' sure will not give you such dangerous instructions!

Ok, other than these two 'narrowly escaping experiences', TomTom was doing fine bringing us to our destination, on time. Something still worth buying I can say.

Cesar and David's Wedding

2008-04-01T05:58:00.000+01:00

Frankie and I took a day off today to attend a friend's wedding.

Both of us have attended numerous wedding occasions before but this wedding, to us, is the first time experience in our lives, because it is a Civil Partnership.

So what is so different of this marriage than others? A Civil Partnership is a marriage of a same-sex couple instead of a man and a woman.

This marriage is perfectly normal and legal in the UK. It is so common and recognisable that even you can buy a wedding card specially designed for them.

and I touched it up with the 'twin happiness'

Cesar and David's Civil Partnership started at 11am at the Marleyborne Registry Office, London. There were more than 10 of us came to give our blessings to them.

Cesar's 'sisters'

Here the ceremony began...

Exchanging the vows...

Next exchanging the rings...

Finally signing of the marriage certificate...

"Congratulations to Cesar and David, you are now married!"

The ceremony finished within half an hour.

Outside the Registry Office

We were then invited for lunch at a restaurant known as Bistro in Soho. By this time Cesar managed to change into another outfit (as you may have expected) ...

It was the very famous Scottish Kilt!! And Cesar was not alone... even his friends also changed into the same outfits.

Cesar and David both know the staffs in Bistro restaurant quite well as they often dine here. They have specially arranged the food for the day and served us more than the normal three-course meal.

The starters included seafood platters

and succulent chargrilled chicken wings.

We then got to choose our main course from their menu. Frankie has chosen fillet of sea bream, topped with smoked salmon & saffron cream, served with mashed potato

and I opted for this chargrilled fillet of lamb with salads.

The lamb tasted so nice! Even Frankie, who doesn't like lamb, also praised for it!

We were then served with two desserts. The first one was strawberry and lemon sorbets, and the second one was this yummy Bonoffee pie.

The food here is really nice and offers great value for money. It is good to know that we have another good restaurant to go next time!

Last but not least, let's wish this newly wedded couple a very happy and forever marriage!

My version of D-cake

2008-03-30T13:38:00.000+01:00

Once a while when I suddenly have food craving especially on something that cannot or hardly be obtainable in the UK, I will refer to my mum for the recipes.

Few weeks ago my mum referred to a well-known food blog by Lily Ng, and one recipe that really caught my eyes was the 'Apam Balik', a type of pancake that I quite like when I was still young.

So today, I made this pancake for the first time.

Everything was done from scratch including the roasted peanuts. As suggested by Lily, I had the batter done yesterday and left it overnight ready for today's lunch.

Using my Tefal non-stick pan I scooped in the batter and spreaded evenly across the pan and then added in the sugar, butter and peanuts. The process was quite easy actually.

The pancake was ready within minutes and I felt very happy because my pancake was crispy!

When I was young I didn't know what to call this so I created the name 'D-cake', simply because it has the shape of D when folded. It has become our household name for this pancake ever since.

So here is my version of D-cake....

Doesn't it look tasty to you??!!

Nonetheless there is still room for improvement because I found that my D-cake was rather too crispy making it a bit dried.

However, for this time I am happy to rate it as 7 out of 10!

My 30th birthday

2008-03-29T17:25:00.000Z

My birthday has passed about two weeks ago. There was nothing special about it and I was reluctant but to accept the fact that I am entering into another decade of life.

Having said so, I was still looking forward for my pre-agreed birthday present from Frankie... ha! As this was a pre-agreed gift so no surprise at all although sometime I was still secretly hoping to receive an unexpected surprise, but on a second thought I would better be proactive a bit to avoid being given something that really ~~disappointed~~ 'surprised' me later...

So, here is my birthday gift... an iPod Nano, which has been in my wish-list for quite some times. I chose the red colour among many other colours, as this is a special edition exclusively to Apple store only. Furthermore, with the red iPod Apple will give a portion of our purchase to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa. Good that I have done some charity during my birthday, although strictly speaking it was Frankie :)

There is also another exclusive treat buying the iPod directly from the Apple store, that is they include for the free of charge engraving service to make your iPod your very own way.

I have mine birthday wish engraved on the back of the iPod.

To give credit to Frankie, he had thought more than the basic. He bought me a better earphone with a noise isolating function and has three different sizes of ear adapters so that I can choose the one that suit to my ears. He also bought me a nicely fitted leather case and not forgetting the travel charger.

I have been using my new gadget for two weeks now and I am loving it. It makes my journey to and back from work more enjoyable.

While I am enjoying the good times, what is left for Frankie is picking up the credit card bill at the end of the month and burn a big hole in his pocket. I am sure he has no complaint to make.

'Lou Sang' or 'Lou Hei'

2008-03-03T04:36:00.000Z

Yesterday we had a party, with the same group of friends gathered at Mak & Siew Ling's house but minus Chorng Shan this time.

The main reason of this gathering is to toss the 'lou sang' 捞生 or 'lou hei' 捞起 (in Cantonese), a Chinese style raw salad, courtesy of Lau & Joanne (brought back from their recent trip back to Malaysia).

Tossing lou sang is usually done during Chinese New Year where families and friends gather together around the table and toss the shredded ingredients on a big plate into the air using chopsticks and at the same time saying all the good words out loudly to mark the start of the prosperous new year.

Even though now that the Chinese New year has passed we were still very much looking forward for the event.

We became the host and hostess for the night and prepared our usual em... steamboat meal for all. We can't be just eating lou sang right?

So Cecilia, Joanne and Siew Ling started putting together all the packed ingredients, nicely, on the big plates, while Lau stood there watching and... ehem...supervising, of course.

Ok... let's check how it compared to the picture...

"Oh no... the gingers suppose to be beside the carrots and not the chili...Nevermind no one is going to find out!"

With much of the teamwork from the ladies ~~and man~~ the lou sang was finally prepared.

~ dang ~ dang ~ dang ~ dang ~

Our lou sang without raw salmon fishes

Everything was ready, except that Chong and Jane have not arrived yet... well to be fair to them the dinner was planned for 5pm, and they still have 15 minutes to go.

So everybody waited patiently.

At last they showed up, merely on time. So wasting no more time we made a start and gathered together around the table.

And being a supervisor, he has the duty to make sure that the ~~easiest~~ most important task should be done correctly and that the sauces should be poured onto the ingredients equally, so the best person to do this was of course Lau himself. Everyone got ready with a pair of chopsticks on hands and all the nice words in minds.

And 1, 2, 3 we tossed the ingredients highly into the air and mixed all the ingredients together, and saying all the good wishes to everyone.

One was not enough so we continued with the second plate.

Ready?

Go!

I quite like the pickled taste actually. Within minutes we finished all the lou sang and tidied up for the next steamboat meal.

I was too busy cencentrating on photographying so didn't actually listen to their conversation but when I now look back the next few photos taken, I can't help but start thinking and imagining.....

Before dinner...

After dinner...

Only now I realise I can sometimes be very imaginative as well....

The night was still young so the entertainment after dinner... was gambling of course, but not in any kind of monetary term. We only played cards - the famous 'Chou Dai-D' 除大-D, while enjoying tea we bought from Taiwan.

I haven't been playing 'Chou Dai-D' for a long time and I was excited that I won couple of rounds ~~easily~~ (hee hee hee...)

Day 3 in Hong Kong

2008-02-29T18:38:00.000Z

Monday, 3rd Dec 2007

Yet another sleepless night even though we were so tired. Our biological clocks had not been fully adjusted to Asian time yet. We had lost as much as 4 hours sleep nonetheless we still woke up at 8.30am. We had an important task to do in the morning, that was to pay our package costs to Taipei booked previously in London with China Airlines online. In such an advanced century they still do not have the facilities to accept payment online, so we had to arrange the payment in Hong Kong as they have a branch here. No choice, they were the cheapest we could find.

We got ready by 9am and walked down to Canton Road again to see where we could have our breakfast this time, and within minutes we saw this New Island Cafe, which looked not bad and some more packed with customer so decided to try it out.

We were made to share a table with a lady. The staff gave us a menu with choices for Menu 'A' or 'B', and one of the choices was ham macoroni (in soup!). Apparently it was a popular breakfast as we saw a lot of customers ordered that, the lady sat next to us was one of them! We didn't like them so we ordered something else from the normal menu.

So I ordered a bowl of fish balls and 'Ying Yong' - a mixture of tea and coffee.

I didn't like the Ying Yong drink and found the taste a bit weird

Frankie ordered the usual Wantan Mee, and it came with soup. He should have ordered it dried because we read somewhere when we did the research that dried Wantan Mee tastes better.

According to Frankie the wantan were good

After breakfast we then made our way to the China Airlines office at Quarry Bay. The staff served us was helpful and we got our tickets at the prices agreed without any question. We were also lucky because they were having a promotion at that time to give away gift coupons for a local supermarket called 'Park and Shop', totalled HK$200! Not bad huh!

With the tickets to Taipei in hands we could look forward for our next trip to Taipei in 4 days time. Hooray!!

But first we still had to continue our holiday in Hong Kong. So we started our day by visiting the Stanley market. The easiest way to go there was by bus because it cannot be reached by the MTR, of course you can take taxi but at a price. We boarded a mini bus and it took us more than 30 minutes to reach there.

We find this notice displayed on the bus quite funny

Stanley is located at the south coast of the Hong Kong Island, so the scenery is nice.

Scenery on the way to Stanley market

After a long bus ride we reached Stanley market, safely. Stanley market isn't that big actually but it is situated next to the ocean.

We didn't spend too much time here and only bought two miniatures dim sum in the bamboo steamers fridge magnets, one with 'Char Sao Pao' in it and the other one with 'Siew Mai'. Quite cute.

To go back we had to take another long bus ride again. Probably not so worth the trip if you don't have sufficient time.

Nonetheless we still managed to go back to Admiralty station around noon. From there we proceeded to the next destination - Ocean Park. Ticket to ocean park costs HK$185 per entry. And from Admiralty we had to take special bus there so we each paid HK$10.60.

It was a mistake not to take lunch first at Admiralty and we only bought some cakes to eat on the way.

My mango love-shaped cake - taste a bit sweet

Spotted a bunch of kids taking photos in front of the entrance.

Tai Shue Wan entrance

Once passed the tickets barriers I couldn't stop photographing.

Luckily there are escalators in this park. Otherwise we both would find it very challenging to climb up the stairs!

Up the escalators there was a cafe selling food so not to starve ourselves we went in and got a pork chop rice. Again it was a mistake not to look around first. Worst pork chop rice I have ever tried!

After that we came to the Pacific Pier, the home of California sea lions and harbor seals. We were just on time to see their performance.

We continued our way downhill and saw people queuing to take a ride on the Ocean Park Tower which is a seated rotating platform that allows tourists to have the bird's eye view of the park.

Quite a fascinating view from the top.

See this photo of next will know that we came to the shark aquarium.

'Atoll reef' is next to the shark aquarium. This is one of the best aquarium in Asia, one will feel like walking into a deep ocean and getting close to nearly 2,000 colourful and spectacular fish.

We were more interested in the individuals species leaving in the small aquariums at the side.

Nemo!!

This is called 'Weedy Seadragon' 草海龙

This is 'Leafy Seadragon' 叶海龙

'Nautilus' 鹦鹉螺

'Garden eel' 花园鳗

Time was very precious and limited, we had to bypass some of the places and moved to the next park because we wanted to see the giant pandas! To get there we had to take the cable car, which was fine. But when we saw the queue our jaws almost dropped!

While waiting, I noticed this... so cute!

Apparently the Sea Jelly Spectacular is just beside the cable car terrace.

It took us more than one hour to actually see the cable cars, you can imagine how terribly long that queue could be. Anyway it was stilll worthwide when we were up there.

What an impressive view. This is the longest cable car ride I ever had.

By the time we reached to the other end of the park it was late afternoon. We had to run towards the giant pandas habitat before their closing time, otherwise we would regret not to see the pandas.

There are three giant pandas in here. They are housed separately.

Ok, please meet Le Le 乐乐, a male panda born in 08/08/2005. Err... we could only see his rear.

Next is An An 安安, another male panda. He is older than Le Le born in 1986. He was hiding in the 'house' and we could only see him from far. Look like he was having dinner.

The only female panda, named Jia Jia 佳佳 was no where seen. I guess she won't look any different from her male companions?!

Disappointingly we left the real pandas but found many other 'pandas' a long the way, so more photographs.

Coming out from the panda's world, we saw this giant balloon and Frankie quickly jumped in the basket and took a photo.

At this time the sky was dark and they announced that the park was about to close for the day. The next incident was the only part that I have let myself and Frankie down as I didn't do a proper research how we would be going to the Jumbo Kingdom from here. We were a bit lost at first as the area was quite isolated and we didn't know the nearest bus station. Nonetheless this won't be the end of the world. After asking for a direction we came to a busy road nearby and waited for the bus to come.

Jumbo Kingdom is very famous among tourists. This is a must-visit attraction in Hong Kong. The best time to go there is of course at night where the boat is lit up.

The shuttle ferry service is free and will take you to the floating boat.

Some of the internal decorations

We were seated at the second floor and after careful read through the menu we placed our order.

Slowly our food was served.

First, it was this century egg with pickled ginger. We didn't order this actually but was served, part of the cover charge I suppose.

Frankie ordered this 'melon with snail soup' 毛瓜炖响螺

While I had this normal seafood tofu creamy soup.

Next, the char siu

And not forgetting the crispy roasted goose

We had a very unpleasant moment here actually. This is a must-see attraction but not necessary a must-try restaurant!

The service was very bad and lousy, even though it was the service from the captain! First she forgot to bring back the teapot after refilled, secondly she brought back the cold teapot instead of a freshly refilled one, and the last one was something I really cannot accept. We ordered a seasonal vege with crab meat. We asked what type of seasonal vege was served on that day and she told us a type of vege which we didn't actually know but sound ok so we ordered. When it was served, it was brocolli!! Brocolli is an expensive vege in Asian but I have had enough of it back in London and when we asked her she said the seasonal vege was somethin that will change everyday... hello!! we did ask you before we decided, didn't we? and you as the captain can't even make it right! She even said if we haven't touched it she would change it for us!! How could we tell what was the vege beneath it since it was almost covered up with the crab meat sauce, we didn't realise until actually picking one up.

Not intending to create a big hooha we continued our meal. The quality of the meal here were not up to our standard actually, the roasted goose meat were too tough, possibly cater for one-off tourists like us so not really bother too much.

This meal was one of the expensive ones we had in Hong Kong. Total cost HK$552.20 including 10% service charge which really wasn't worth paying. That plate of century egg costed as much as HK$16!

Anyway, we became Emperior and Empress for a few second, without the costumes. Otherwise a costumed photo would set you back around £10 per person.

On the way walking back to the hotel we saw a dessert cafe, known as 'Tang Chow', what a nice name and went in immediately for a supper.

This photo was taken the next morning if you wonder why!

We ordered three type of desserts.

The sesame seed dessert.

and both Taufu Fah - normal and with black pearls! Yummy yummy

Only after this supper we finally called it a day.

Frankie's new 'toy'

2008-02-28T05:20:00.000Z

Frankie has a new 'toy' to play with recently.

What do you think that would be? What sort of 'toy' will make a guy, err.. certainly my guy happy about?

Make a guess.

Could it be this Nintendo DS?

or a Wii?

or a robot dog?

No... all these are too impractical, to him.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

He has been pestering me to agree in buying this product for quite some times now, and finally I was convinced.

It is a Dyson vacuum cleaner!

Surprisingly, this is made in Malaysia

He can't wait to open it up and becomes very excited like a kid checking out a Christmas present.

And can't wait either to test out the product.....

See how he enjoys the whole experience.

It is so satisfying to see all the dusts collected in the cylinder.

Oh my god! see how dirty our flat can be!

So without any doubt, out the old....

and in the new one, with a big grin on the face, of course!

It is quite an expensive item to spend on, but I am glad that I made the right decision! ha ha ha....

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T18:23:00.000Z

Today is a very special day for couples. Since this morning I could see people carried bouquets of flowers and the florists probably had the busiest day of the year.

Being married and together for many years we don't really make this a big deal each year. We didn't plan for anything today but since there was nothing to eat in the fridge, as we have already eaten the food prepared previously, so Frankie suggested that we just go out and eat. We then decided to go to a local Indian restaurant nearby and booked a table for two tonight.

The restaurant was decorated with love shaped balloons to boost the Valentine's feel. There were other couples celebrating their V-Day in this restaurant too.

We had a lovely meal and enjoyed our night here also.

I was even presented a stalk of red rose from the staff when we settled our bill. What a surprise and Frankie can now proudly say that he has at least 'done' something on this day.

Well, he actually did better, when we got home he then surprised me with a Valentine's card!

I felt so lucky and romantic. The least expected day turned out to be not so bad afterall!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Gong Xi Fatt Chai

2008-02-12T19:51:00.000Z

Wishing you all a Happy Chinese Rat Year and Gong Xi Fatt Chai!

在此献上我鼠不尽的祝福给大家!

This year Chinese New Year fell on Thursday and being away from family and in a western country, Chinese New Year is not an important celebration except among Chinese communities. Needless to say we both still worked on that day.

Nonetheless we still made this a special day and have a small steamboat meal for ourselves on Sunday (9th) and invited our Japanese lodger, Tadashi to share this happy moment with us. Tadashi even contributed a bottle of red wine from a selection of his wines collection!

Cheers everyone!

Gathering at Mak and Siew Ling's new house

2008-01-27T13:43:00.000Z

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Mak!!

Mak and Siew Ling have just bought a three-bedroom house in East London and invited a few friends over yesterday for their house warming party.

Frankie and I arrived at their house around 3.15pm to help out as the party would start at 5pm. We weren't the first to arrive... Chong and Jane were already there busy helping in the kitchen. Nevermind as someones claimed would be earlier than us were nowhere seen yet...

Busy kitchen

The menus for tonight have been carefully thought through...

and more...

... or shall I say we'll all going to be their guinea pigs?

chop chop chop...

Head chef Mak is working now...

A peek of what's on the menu.

Believe it or now, when a group of Chinese people get together, they will usually a) eat and b) gamble. We are no different. With tonight Lotto's jackport a whopping £18millions so without a doubt we all agreed to buy 10 numbers, one for each of us to increase the chances of winning. Frankie then went out to get the tickets but unfortunatly no nearby agent's selling lotto, would this mean we will just lose out the chances without even trying... no! not when we have our dear friend Mr. Lau, a Lotto registered online account holder!

So there he is, purchasing the winning tickets for us! ha!

Around 5pm, dinner was ready. Let's take a closer look at the dishes on table.

Yummy yummy!

Not forgetting the must-have group photo

Ok now let's get the party started!

"Emm... what am I going to have?"

After few hours of none stop eating and none stop dreaming of how we were going to spend the £1.8million each from the lotto prize, we somehow still left with almost half the portion of food untouched....

Everyone just stayed back a little late for more chatting and gossiping while waiting for the lotto's result.

So the ultimate question is, did we? did we not?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Ya, you guess it right, no we didn't win the lotto, not even the lowest £10 prize!

But we all had a great time. Thank you both!

Day 2 in Hong Kong

2008-01-19T21:54:00.001Z

Sunday, 2nd Dec 2007

After losing almost 4 hours of sleep in the middle of the night, we were still able to force ourselves waking up as early as 8.30am, though according to my plan it should be 8am.

We have opted out the breakfast meal when booking the hotel to experience more local cuisines. First thing in our minds was the dim sum, so the hotel staff recommended us to a nearby dim sum restaurant, known as "Tao Hiong" 稻香, on 3rd floor of a shopping centre.

Some of the dim sums we ordered

One thing different from dining in a dim sum restaurant in London is that, here we were given two pots of tea. Probably because two people two pots of tea, as we noticed the other table of four had 4 pots of tea!!?? No, we were wrong! the second pot was actually just hot water, which we realised only when the 'tea' becoming tasteless and colourless....

With a satisfied meal and full stomach we walked toward the nearest MTR station at Tsim Sha Tsui which was just few minutes away. A must-buy essential when travelling in Hong Kong is the Octopus card 八达通. It makes travelling so much easy and more economical. The card costs HK$150 with HK$100 credit and HK$50 deposit. The deposit plus the remaining credit will be refunded when returning the card, but this will subject to HK$7 handling charge. Nevertheless this is still the cheapest option.

Our first destination was Wong Tai Sin temple 黃大仙祠 - one of the most famous shrines in Hong Kong.

Half an hour here was probably more than sufficient. Not wasting any more time we then moved to the next destination - Snoopy's World in New Town Plaza, located at Sha Tin 沙田. The Snoopy's world is actually not that big, but enough to keep us busy for quite some time.

Introducing the Snoopy and his friends....

Snoopy's house

Inside the 'house'

"I am so cool..."

I must say today's weather was really nice. In fact we had checked the weather forecast back in London and were pleased to know it would be sunny with average temperature between 18-20 degree Celsius during our time in Hong Kong.

Even so, after standing under the sun for longer than 30 minutes we started to feel the heat already, especially I was wearing a turtleneck. Nevermind it was time to go back inside the plaza and shop around first before meeting Jenny for lunch.

I haven't seen Jenny for a long time, I guessed at least two years or so. I still can remember she sat behind me on the next row when we were in secondary school in Kuching. Time flies and Jenny is now a Chartered Accountant (!!) and has just been sent to Hong Kong for a couple of months training before going back to Malaysia. I took this opportunity to contact her and asked her out for a small reunion.

Seeing her again made me really happy and also envy! She still have the stick thin figure as 10 years ago!! Don't know what is her secret. Anyway we then decided to have japanese food at Genki Sushi for lunch. Shamed that the food here not really nice.

Us sitting at the sushi bar counter.

So coincidentally Jenny has bought the same camera as we did just few weeks ago, a Canon PowerShot G9. She bought hers in Hong Kong and we bought ours from Amazon.co.uk. We did think about buying it when we reach here, as the price will be cheaper. The thing is, buying a camera in UK is really just buying a camera (including one battery and one 32MB card) , you don't get any free gift e.g. casing and tripod, as a whole package. But after a careful thought we ditched the idea simply because as this one is more like a semi-pro camera with lots of different functions, it would be silly to use it without study how to... Now even better, we can exchange tips and learn from each other!

As it was a weekend Jenny has no other plan so decided to accompany us to the next destination, Victoria's Peak and Madame Tussauds. The nearest MTR station to the Victoria's Peak is at Central in Hong Kong Island. On the train to Central we noticed many Philippine maids and Jenny told me Sunday is the off day for them and they will gather together, and this somehow happened to be at the park outside Central station. Don't ask me why. They will just sit down together and start to picnic and have party! It reminded me of a Cantonese film, Driving Miss Wealthy, starred by Lau Ching Wan and Gigi Leung Wing Kei I watched some years ago. Ha!

Victoria's Peak, also known as The Peak, is a mountain in Hong Kong. It is the best place to see the panoramic view of Hong Kong. A short walk uphill from the station will lead us to The Peak Tram Terminus, where we will be taking tram to the top of the mountain.

The queue to get the tram ticket was unbelievably long. I suspect by the time we reached to the top most probably will be dark already. We then discovered another shorter queue next to it, ahh... a fast track lane. To qualify for fast track lane one needs to buy a combination of return tram trip and a entrance ticket to Madame Tussauds, a wax museum of famous celebrities. The ticket for both is HK$130, with option to top up to Sky Terrace at HK$15. According to Jenny, it was free when she first visited just months ago. Now they really know how to make extra profit!

Guess who's the first we saw next to the ticket counter?

It's superstar Jackie Chan

After passing through the ticket barrier was another queue, but for the tram to come. There was no more priority right for us as fast track ticket holders, so we just waited for our turn as everybody else.

Waiting for the tram to come

One ready needs to sit still and no one is allowed to stand because the tram is almost running 45 degree steep uphill.

Inside the tram car

A preview of the Hong Kong scenery

Madame Tussauds is inside the Peak Tower on one of the floors. I lost count already how many floors there are all I knew was we were constantly on escalators up and up. You will still be able to buy the entrance ticket to the wax museum if you didn't get one at the tram terminus, but would be silly as you have could have save time queuing for it.

Entrance counter of Madame Tussauds

A big welcome from Kelly Chan

Hollywood glamorous couple, Brangelina

Aiks...I look so short!!

Ha... Frankie isn't any better either!

Here are some of the photos taken...

After almost 2 hours inside the museum, taken numerous photos with celebrities, I still not very satisfied, simply because WHERE IS AARON KWOK??? I can't find him anywhere!!! Have I missed him? No it can't be as I have kept an eye on him from the beginning... He was my childhood idol and I would love to 'meet' him but what a shame... I came all the way here and he is not here!!! Jenny even questioned me whether am I sure if I can find Aaron Kwok here. Yes, I am 100% sure!

Here's the proof! (photo from Madame Tussaud's website)

They better have a good reason why withdrawn him!

Anyway... we then proceeded to Bubba Gump, a seafood restaurant resembles some similar characteristics of the movie film Forrest Gump, for our dinner. We were actually early for our reserved table, which we booked before visiting the museum. Nonetheless we still have to wait because we have specifically requested a window seat overlooking the Victoria Harbour. So we were then led to the bar area while waiting for an empty one. It was quite dark inside but the overall ambient was nice.

Waiting for our table

As this was our first proper dinner since in Hong Kong, Frankie decided to splash out a little more and ordered me the most expensive dish on the menu - Alaska king crab legs... hehehe... but actually there was nothing special other than they were big!

My dinner

Whereas Frankie ordered himself a Fisherman's Combo Bucket meal - deep fried shrimp, slipper lobster and fish, cajun spices and french fries, and the meal was served in .. em.. old newspaper??

No worries, this is not the normal newspaper we read everyday, but those with plastic layer so we won't get poisoned!

Jenny's meal - shrimp linguini and creamy soup

This restaurant has a different service attendance approach, instead of waving our hands to attract the waiter or waitress's attention, we will just flick to the red sign which says 'Stop Forrest Stop' and immediately someone will come and serve us, otherwise it will just be the blue 'Run Forrest Run' sign. Clever!

While enjoying our food the radio suddenly annouced the start of the Symphony of Lights at 8pm, and we were so lucky to overseeing this from the restaurant.

Basically it is a 14 minutes spectacular multimedia light and sound show organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board. The lights are displayed from the most famous skyscrapers on both sides of the Victoria Harbour of Hong Kong accompanied by symphonic music.

After the meal we then went up to the sky terrace at the top floor to take some photos of the night scene. It's really beautiful up here.

Christmas decoration

The night was still young and Jenny assured me that it would be save to still be out and in fact she said she felt quite safe walking alone in the city of Hong Kong than in Malaysia. That's why she then led us to the famous Lan Kwai Fong, a small square of streets well known for its night life, for drinking and clubbing of course. If you watch Hong Kong movie you will know this area!

It is indeed a small area and we didn't spend too much time here. We just kept on walking and and exploring the area of Central the Jenny's way.

We then hopped on the overground tram and managed to select the front best view seats.

Everywhere in Hong Kong is neoned up and as it is approaching Christmas there are a lot of christmas lights and decorations dispalyed almost every corner of the city.

We then got off somewhere, kept on walking, passing through a shopping central, up and down the pedestrian bridges etc... we could have got lost without the guide from Jenny and certainly won't have come to the front the Hong Kong Convention center to see this large Golden Bauhinia statue, which is a gift from China government when Hong Kong was officially handed over to China in 1997.

We wanted to take star ferry back to Kowloon as we weren't that far from the pier, unfortunately we have missed the last ride. So we have to turn back and walk to the MTR station instead, before that we managed to snap few more shots directly from the waterfront looking opposite Kowloon.

We waved goodbye to Jenny and got off at the Tsim Sha Tsui station while she continued her journey back home.

It was hell lots of walking today especially for Frankie so on the way back to hotel we stopped by the famous dessert restaurant, Hui Lau Shan. It was near midnight by now and surprisingly there are still shops open till late.

Hui Lau Shan

And I ordered this

Stewed egg white with bird's nest & harsmar 燕窝雪蛤炖蛋白

Didn't manage to snap Frankie's stewed harsmar with red dates and lotus seeds 红莲冰糖炖雪蛤 before he finished it all!

What an exhausting day!