Singaporeans unite

Went to Lamma Island on Sunday!

Met up with Ann! My fellow SA mentor and it was so fun catching up and actually I cant believe after almost 3 years of not meeting up, we reunite in Hongkong! :) And to further illustrate how small Singapore actually is, Ann's friend Angeline, also a fellow ntu mate from comm studies, is my church friend Sarah's best friend! It was wonderful having girly company, talking about common topics and really just having a great time exploring Lamma island and its greenery together.

I think I walked a total of more than 5 km, up and down hill, stopping by small shops along the way and just taking in the beauty of the mountains, clear blue skies and the rural village life. Upon trekking for about an hour, we finally got to the Lamma Wind power station, kinda like a windmill! It was totally worth the trek, as we girls excitedly took many pictures, even asking a passerby to kneel down to take a photo for us! haha, thankfully she was so nice about it =)

Nearing sunset, we trekked up to this pavillion on a hill, with really a breathtaking view. Then, as night fell, we made our way in almost total darkness to this beach, what an experience! Caught the sunset there at the seaside, purplish skies and one of the few beaches I've been to here in Hongkong.

And of course, we ended our island trip with a seafood dinner at 'Sampan' Seafood restaurant near the pier. haha, it was challenging ordering food for 10 of us, but thankfully it came up to about 20sing dollars per person, not too bad eh! Managed to catch the 830pm ferry back to Central and I had a nice chat with Angeline, haha, it's funny how after hearing about each other for so long, we finally got to know one another personally =) I really look forward to more outings with Ann and Angeline, the Chinese babes(as the guys put it , haha) cos they're in Chinese Uni of Hongkong. I really do appreciate having girl company especially since we are all mostly on the same wavelength :)

It was a busy, eventful weekend again, exploring more of Hongkong. So once again, thank God I have mondays and tuesdays off from school.

9 more days to Home Sweet Home :)

4th week in Hongkong

Here's what I've been up to the last week or so...

Just managed to get the pictures of the last couple of days, here are some of them! haha. actually, here in hongkong, we take pictures almost every single day, it's getting challenging trying to post all pics, so here are the really pretty pictures from 4 days last week. If you wanna read chronologically, pls do start from the bottom of this post :)

3rd Feb 2007...

God really provides. And sometimes He provides for us abundantly, beyond all our expectations or wildest dreams. Aunty Jacqueline, Amelia's dad's cousin, is truly God-sent. I'm really blessed to have gotten to know her cos ame's my roomie and we go to the same church. Aunty Jacqueline is a wonderful lady, really sweet, thoughtful and generous.

on Sat night, she invited us to have dinner at Lamma Island and for a stayover at her apartment in Happy Valley, one of the expensive neighbourhoods in Central Hongkong! This night was absolutely one of the greatest nights I've had in Hongkong so far....

We boarded the ferry to Lamma at around 6pm, when the sun was about to set, and the ferry ride was so GREAT. We decided to sit at the open deck upstairs for better scenery and just for the experience. Thankfully it wasn't a cold day, so the wind was bearable, although half an hr later I got too cold and we moved to the lower deck haha.

On board the ferry. That's seng tiong, aunt jacq's friend's son who came along, and aunt jacqueline on the right :)


Queens Pier Central. This is so old school right? I remember so many scenes from tvb dramas being filmed here. Apparently, the government has plans to demolish the pier! We saw many protest posters and all along the way there.


Hongkong is so beautiful. Ame took this on board the ferry. The buildings on Hongkong Island have Chinese New Yr decorations like this!!

Crazy hair! haha. The wind was so strong, but we thoroughly enjoyed the ride:) i hope ame doesn't kill me for putting this up. haha.

Oh gosh. This is probably my favourite picture of all time! The sunset was absolutely breathtaking, we seemed to be travelling out into the open sea, and the waves and the view of the vast horizon just made me marvel at creation and i felt at peace with myself =)

Arrival at Lamma Island after a 45 min boat ride. There were restuarants lined up along the harbour, all seafood restaurants, just think East Coast!


Great variety of seafood at Rainbow restaurant.

Aunt Jacqueline was so generous- Scallops, prawns, squid, bamboo squid, Lobster... gosh, it was the BEST meal surely, yummy!!!

Satisfied us after dinner =)

After the ferry ride back to central, Aunt jacqueline suggested taking the Tram back to lower happy valley, near her place. I was really excited cos I've not taken the tram before! Sitting onboard, we could take in the city lights of hongkong's business district, and i truly felt how vibrant this city was- at 10pm, the streets of Causeway bay were still packed, with people shopping, eating, non stop activity really!

:) I like the tram. It only costs HK$2 per ride! So to kill time or just for the experience, anyone coming to hongkong has to try this.

Back at Aunt Jacqueline's apartment...

For Hongkong standards, her apartment is HUGE!!! Well, it's even bigger than my house in singapore, haha, probably costs 5 times more too. See, she works for HSBC, and the bank actually provided her this accomodation. there was 3 bedrooms, fully furnished! And ame and I had our own room for the night:)

The super huge living room, with her plasma tv! we had the best time catching the amazing race, and drinking hot chocolate , sitting on the plush sofa... It's been awhile since I last sat down comfy to watch tv.

haha. I took a 45 min bath that night. didnt wanna get out of the shower actually!! super shiok lazing in the bathtub, hot water running and just relaxing.

We were so excited to be living in such a great place, had to take some pictures!just trying to show how huge the place is. hahaha.

So excited we had a kitchen of our own(somewhat)!!! being spastic hahaha. ame is really so funny and fun to be around la!

Our own room for the night. Check out the bed and comforters! Gosh, really hotel style. I had the best sleep without freezing under the blankets, and with the hotel-like mattress! A little piece of heaven indeed :)

Thank you Aunt Jacqueline for everything!

1st Feb

Met Paul and invited him back to my hall for a hotpot dinner with my hall mates and new friends! These Hongkoners we've met were truly God-sent. They are so genuine, friendly, sincere and so generous and fun to be with! Despite not being able to communicate as fluently in english, i feel that these friendships will blossom in time to come :) Jon, this really super nice hongkonger actually went to the market to buy the ingredients and prepare the whole hotpot for us!

There's this hotpot culture in Hongkong. the local students love gathering at the common rooms to have this steamboat like dinner, where the ingredients are thrown into the huge pot and eaten fresh. But, the variety of fishballs here is amazing!! There was this fishball with CHEESE oozing it out of it, simply amazing ok!! haha. we were saying how we should import these back to singapore and set up a hotpot shop. Us 3 singaporeans, ame, paul and I really experienced the warm fellowship with local hongkongers that night, something which is a sure part of every exchange experience right? :)

5 Hongkongers and 3 Singaporeans. A night to remember.


30 Jan 2007

Billy, our best hongkong pal, invited us over to his house at Po Lam, which is a one hour ride from school. This was the best chance for us to learn about the average Hongkonger's lifestyle, which is rather similar to Singapore actually. Except that most apartment buildings in Hongkong are 40 storeys :S

View from Billy's 21st storey apartment! wow.

Bobo, Billy's doggie!

Girls and Billy at the entrance of his estate:)

Met Billy's parents and sister Sharon. And we had a good time talking and relaxing in his cosy apartment. Billy's parents are such hospitable, wonderful people. They even gave each of us a hongbao, and treated us all to dinner! These hongkongers are soooo nice. Us 6 are thinking of treating them to the famous Yung Kee roast goose restaurant soon after chinese new yr when we get back.

Thankyou all, the people who have truly been such a blessing to me in Hongkong :)

About the other part of my Hongkong life... City University of Hongkong...

I realised that this whole blog has been mostly about the fun wonderful activities, people and interesting events, and hardly anything about my school life! haha. So, i think i have to inform you all that it's not all play and no work here, although if you compare this to school in NTU, school life here is a bed of roses =)

I have a 3 school day week here! And the best part is... I have mondays and tuesdays off!!! So it really is wonderful once the weekends arrive haha. I'm clearing 4 modules here, 2 banking and finance, 1 business core and 1 elective. Total hours I spend in class is 12 hours per week, 3 hours for each subject.

The most interesting subject i'm taking this semester has to be Korean 1!! =) I actually enjoy and look forward to going to class. Has to be the teacher who's really patient and kind. Korean is interesting, gotta memorise my vowels and consonants soon! it's pretty funny when miss kim, my teacher, gets us to sing korean songs in class! we learnt the Da Chang Jin song last week, haha. this is what learning should be like really!

Then, I have 2 banking and finance mods, which are officially the most boring modules this sem! haha. For Advanced Corporate finance, a weds afternoon class, I have to buy a whole box of cut fruits to munch on to stop me from falling asleep. And for international banking, my only class on friday, i bought a box of jelly beans and had to resort to listening to my ipod occasionally to keep me from dreamland! haha. finance modules are much more difficult as compared to Comm studies modules, cos the english terms used are mostly official and i guess the students in finance are really quite driven and competitive, like in ntu! My lecturers speak good english, most of them were educated in the states or britain, so understanding them isn;t much of a problem. in fact, i actually think my lecturers here speak better english than most of the professors back home in ntu!

Hmm, i think i should take some pictures of my university campus, the classrooms and all. Soon ok?

As for this weekend, I really feel so blessed and thankful to be surrounded by such wonderful warm people like amelia's aunty! Besides bringing us out for GREAT lunches after church, she invited us to stay over at her apartment at Happy Valley tomorrow night! She works for HSBC, and has this super spacious, lovely 3 bedroom apartment on a hill at Central, the rich expats area ok! We're going to Lamma Island for SEAFOOD tomorrow night!!! Gonna take a ferry from Hongkong Island. hahaha. I'm really looking forward to it. Just realised that Hongkong has lots of nature trails and really beautiful scenic areas to explore... such as Cheong Chau, Lamma Island etc. Next week, ame and I will be going with a few of our REALLY nice hongkong friends to Yuen Long for great food and for local hongkong delicacies. Got to know some very sociable, outgoing and genuinely nice hongkong friends these few days - been mahjong-ing, and WII-ing. haha. Wii is this nintendo game thing we play on the tv at the common room! it's something like PS 3 i heard, haha, its SUPER fun ok!!! i dont really know how to describe the game, will take pictures soon!