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posted : Thursday, July 29, 2010

title :

back from my 9 days of Hong Kong Trip!
9 days seems long, but it felt pretty short....
wish i could just stay there for as long as possible lol =P

well anw, i was there not exactly for a holiday, but to work
at the mega huge annual event-Hong Kong Bookfair 2010
Innoform (HK) Media purchased our programs and i was supposed to go there
and assist them
so out of the 8.5 days to be exact, i worked for 5 days
(4 days actually, cause i was sick one of the days)
first day was wasted cause gotta settle down and to the bookfair for some trainings
and so left with 2.5 days to travel around, but the last day was wasted too cause
of uber bad weather in hk..
and i brought a friend, kaiee, along cause i couldnt go alone, which was the initial plan
we were rather unlucky to meet with the typhoon season
it rained for most of the days, with 2 days of 黑色风暴, which is the highest warning alert
and so the last day just gone like that, and flight back got delayed for 2hrs too
sooooo, all in all, despite the very little time to play, it was still a great trip! =)
oh and i had beef everyday =X

on the Airport Express Train to our hotel after arrival

2 people came to "fetch" us from the airport

and this 30mins train ride is freaking expensive =S

all i wanna say is transportation in hk is expensive..

and then we settled down in our hotel, Empire Hotel in Wan Chai,

where my working place, the Hong Kong Convention Centre is located.

had a quick lunch and back to hotel for a nap cause we were damn freaking tired

had less then 2 hrs of sleep before our early morning flight..

was supposed to meet the GM and some promoters of Innoform at 6pm,

but we waited till around 8pm before we could start the training,

cause they took quite awhile to set up their booth..

some of the companies doing their set-ups

us sitting on some random chairs entertaining ourselves while waiting for them

finally got to start the briefing..

there were over 10 Innoform staffs working at this bookfair

most of them were part-timers, and all younger than me!

like 17, 18, 19.... felt freaking old....

my little corner out of the entire booth

the bookfair is a mega huge event in hk.

there were many levels of different halls selling books/products.

unlike Singapore Bookfair which is so so so small as compared to hk..

just my hall alone selling children's products is bigger than SBF lo lol..

and the crowd was super super..

the walking time was supposed to be around 10mins from my hotel to the convention centre,

but it took me like 20 mins to get in there with the crowd

there were just toooooooo many people that you hafta queue up and walk for like few hundred metres before u could even purchase your admission ticket

oh, you hafta pay 25hkd to enter the bookfair, and it's free over here

HKTDC confirms earn big time =P

ah and the people there bring lugguage to the fair!

like the lugguage you bring overseas

like 6 in 10 people you see in the fair drag a lugguage

and the bookfair opened till 12am and still freaking lots of people

even the delifrance and shops in the area opened till very late just for this bookfair

see how "crazy" hongkongers are over books!

we only bought like 4 chinese books on impulse, ok most of the books there are in chinese

traditional chinese somemore

cause it costs only 100hkd, which is less than 20sgd. super cheap! haha

kinda wasted that we didnt walk much around the bookfair, and never get some english books..

photo taking with some of the promoters.

pretty disappointed that i couldnt take photos and exchange contacts with all of them.

they had working shifts, and so i could only exchange contacts with those working on that day

they were all very very nice to me, and i really appreciate it

really happy to meet them =)

ok, so while i was working during that 5 days, kaiee just wondered around hk herself

felt pretty bad that she had to travel herself

but fortunately, the GM of Innoform was very nice.

she planned a working shift for me too, and so i didnt have to work for like 12-14hrs a day

i only hafta work for like 8hrs a day, so had some time to eat walk around for some of the nights

eh here are some of the photos taken by her.

not very sure where she went but ya.. lol =P

ah! my fave fave fave noodle stall!! just nearby my hotel

it's just sooooooooooooooooo great that i had their beef noodles 3 times!

you get to choose the ingredients yourself and their 粗米粉 is soooo soft!

and there's this other beef noodles stall that is soooo great that i had it 3 times too!

it just smells so good that you could smell it even across the road! i swear!

LOL! i know i know, it's pretty dumb to keep eating the same thing overseas

but it's just soooo great ma. what's more i didnt have much time to eat around

so we were really happy and lucky to find this 2 stalls besides our hotel

aiya forgot to take photos of the noodles

i really miss them man!!

the interior of the eatery

Mong Kok Street

we went there one of the days after my work for dinner

heard from the promoters that there are many shopping places there

mm but what we saw were many many shops selling shoes

so just had dinner, what's more we aint the shopping kind

eating and playing are my preferred activities haha =D

well Mong Kok Street is pretty cool, there were freaking lots of people even late in the night

and so we dined at Little Fushion which sells Jap and French food i think

this is my chessy beef lasagna which looks eh pretty gross with the yellowish thing

until i realised it's actually potato lol

kaiee ordered Fried Udon and it was good

this was our "side dish".... Seafood with Fried Nian Gao

mmm we didnt know that it's actually a main dish portion

and so the waitress was pretty shocked when we ordered that too, and asked,

"你叫三样啊?" -.-!!!

was alittle offended when she said this, what's more 2 waitress asked the same thing too..

what's wrong man? we really did finish up our food lo

but anw, the food was good and cheap!

just around 25sgd for 3 main dishes and 2 big cups of bubble tea and ice lychee =)

and then thou already mega full, we still succumbed to mango desserts!!

passed by a rather famous eatery which sells a variety of mango desserts.

there is one at Wan Chai too.

our Mango with sago and extra Mango!

Bird nest with pomelo and mango icecream and fruits!

last day of work ended at 8pm.

so we went to Tsim Sha Shui for dinner

didnt know what to eat so just settle for a Jap restaurant

kaiee's very nice Steak with Mushroom Rice

my not very nice Cold Ramen with Saseme Mayonnese

i didnt enjoy this dish cause i dont like saseme at all

i just saw the word "推荐" and missed out the word Saseme -.-!!!

but the Chocolate Sundae made up for my not very nice ramen
it was stated "人气" this time,

and we conclude that "人气" means really good food and

"推荐" is for not very nice food and that's why they hafta recommend it lol
just like some people who are damn popular are 人气 and

some people who aint that popular so needa get 推荐 haha

okok this is just a lame insider joke =P

mmm kaiee thinks this caucasian's side view looks like Edward

where got sia.. looks more like our maths lecturer -.-!!

ok and so finally gotta play!

off to Ocean Park on the first day.

the weather's freaking hot! 33 degrees! nearly heat stroke sia..

whats more we stupidly wore jeans that day. omg....

cant believe it..

anw, it was very very crowded that day, cause it's school holiday over there now

and so all the queues for the rides were mega long

had to queue an hour or so for some of the rides

so imagine standing under the scorching sun. arghh!

the thought of it makes me feel like fainting now

this "look-damn-scary-rollar-coaster-ride" was actually a scam!

i swear it really looked damn scary with the 3 360degress turns,

but totally nothing sia.

im not scared of theme park rides, the only thing im scared of is nauseaness after the rides

and just after the first ride, i felt nauseous, probably had too much food before that

and so i was very scared to take this rollar coaster,

not because im scared of the ride, but just afraid that i would puke

and so ya, was rather disappointed when it ended like less than a min..

cause it got me scared for nothing! =X

saw that very tall structure there, i took this Space Shot ride!

alone.....................

because someone was scared.................

lol..

but ya, it was disappointing too

the one in Genting is so much better

this Snow Cone was our saviour..

it's just so very hot

dont know why rainstorm on many other days and just so hot that day

until i buay tahan and took off my outer layer clothes..

the Ocean Aquarium

took many photos of the sea creatures but only showed a few here

they are super huge!

cute little creature. forgot his name

and this is Paul!

we played one of the stall games and won him!

super huge! until we had to check him in together with our lugguage haha

the hotel staff put him inside a black thrash bag and

machiam looked like we're smuggling body lol..

was surprised the custom didnt check what's inside the thrash bag

by the time we reach our hotel it was already 9pm

original plan was to go to The Peak after that but it was too late

missing out The Peak and Tim Sum were one of my "biggest regrets" for this trip

2nd day: On our way to Macau!

i just only wanted to take a candid photo of kaiee and the ang moh behind just joined in without her knowing

so cute him! =D

we choose to go Macau because we really wanna gamble lol

so took a ferry over and got persuaded by one of the many Casinos to board their bus

there are like 30 over Casinos over there

Sands Casino

the one at Marina Sand Bay

i cant remember the spelling of the Casino we went

some L'Are something..

i just know it's damn smelly in there with all the cigarattes =S

ok anyway, so it was the first time i stepped into a casino

at first we lost around 1500hkd, and were super demoralised and wanted to go

then suddenly i got some "feel" over at the "Big, Small" table lol

and suddenly won like 4 5 rounds consecutively

and so in the end we only lost 500hkd,

which is about near 100sgd

actually we won 700hkd at first, but thought aiya we just came in only,

how can we just leave so early..

now i know.. Problematic Gamblers. haha....

and guess what??

I LOST MY PHONE IN THE CASINO!! ARGHH!!

seriously dont know how i lost it....

but luckily i kept my SIM card with me

maybe a blessing in disguise ba

and i only realised it when we were on the bus back to the Ferry Terminal

so took the bus back again to the casino to search for it, but of cause in vain la

anw, while taking the escalater up at the Macau Ferry Terminal,

there was a group of elderlies infront of us with lugguages

then suddenly we heard a rather loud "pomp" and saw one of the ah ma-s,

lying on the steps of the escalater!

she fell down and hit herself at the back of her head,

and couldnt stand up, and gotta use one hand to prevent herself from rolling down the escalater

and she just lied down there till it reached the next level

omg, both of us were damn scared and ran up the stairs beside it wanting to help her

when we saw her, her whole head and hands and shirt were filled with blood,

alot alot of blood. we were very very scared and didnt know what to do

except to offer her tissues

but the other elderlies said it's ok and they will settle it

i dont know what happened in the end cause we gotta rush back to the casino to look for my phone

all i know is i saw policemen after that

and when we returned to the terminal and took the same escalater again,

so coincidentally, when i stepped on the steps, the steps infront of me were the blood stains,

a big big patch of them..

haix... the image of the blood stained ah ma just couldnt go away from my mind

it really affected us both that night, what's more with my phone missing.

what a day for us =X

after checking out from the hotel, we lunched at a bar beside our hotel

finally some western food lol..

and then it rained damn heavily the whole day

so ya wasted day...

and so home sweet home that night =)

all in all, it was quite a meaningful experience for me,

after all, it's the first time i get to like work overseas,

even though it's only a part time job

i would like to go back to hk again, this time to play, and not to work

haha! =D

7/29/2010 11:19:00 PM