Back from HK - Day 3 and 4

Day 3 - We took the MTR to Admiralty and then a cab to the tram station. The queue for the tram ride was extremely long as it was a Sunday. We even saw some of the maids working in HK having picnics at the peak as it was their day off! After that we went to Causeway Bay. A lot of shopping there and finally we went to Times Square to have our lunch. We had ribs and roasted chicken set at a Tony Roma's - and I must say their salad is very nice. After that we went back to the hotel to put down the items we had bought at Causeway Bay. On our way back to the hotel, we found a mobile hawker selling roasted quail eggs, walnut, chestnut, potato etc at the road junction. I bought the quail eggs which were simply delicious! After that we took the train to Jordon and then went down to the Jade Market and Temple Street. Another round of shopping before we had the claypot rice at the famous Heng Kee. We took the MTR from Ya Ma Ti to Prince Edward. There are 3 computer terminals for free internet access on the concourse. I waited behind a lady and realized she must be a maid working in hk. I can't help but saw that she was reading hundreds of emails! There is a limit of 15 mins for each session but I saw one lady who refreshed the page and started the whole session again. I realised that it would be impossible for me to wait as these people must have a lot of free time and would be spending a lot more time on the terminal!

Day 4 - We took the MTR to Wong Tai Sin temple followed by Che Kung Temple. After that took a cab to Tsim Sha Tsui and finding nothing much to shop there, we took the MTR to Causeway Bay again. After that we had lunch in this small restaurant where I found my lost missed fish dumplings! After a long walk, my foot hurts and we went for a massage at a centre near to our hotel. The lady boss told us that Nicholas Tse was there filming a show called the "Witness" and was hanging by the signboard outside her massage centre! The tour agency sent a car instead of a bus for the airport transfer - which means we reached the airport very early as it travelled very fast! We took our tea at the Cafe Deco in the departure hall. I ordered a combo sandwich and my husband took the goose liver again!

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Posting from HK - Day 1 and 2

Day 1 - We arrived in HK 1230 a.m. on the 21 Nov and checked into Metropark Mongkok hotel at around 2.30 p.m. The room is really small - half the size of the room I stayed in at Regal Oriental. After putting down our luggage, we tried the wanton mee in a "cha chan teng" nearby. After that we walked around Mongkok area and and then took the MTR to Central which is at Hong Kong side. I called up Winsor and asked him where we could get some DVD. He told us that it would be easy to get them at Kowloon side - Tung Choi Street. We managed to walk to Lan Kwai Fong and also experienced going up the longest covered elevator in the world to SOHO area. At the end we had lunch in sheung wan at a restaurant called Mama Mia. We ordered 2 sets - My hubby had steak with goose liver and lobster soup whereas I took the set with ribs and pea soup. The dessert has a very interesting name "heart too soft" - something like a chocolate cup cake with fluid chocolate inside. The sets come with a free bottle of red wine and we only paid HK 338 for everything. A good start to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Time really flies - I have known my hubby for 22 years!
After that we went back to Tung Choi Street to get the DVDs and tried out more street food. My husband ate 2 pieces of smelly tofu and I love their fried octupus. He also tried the snake soup.

Day 2 - We went for the half day tour. Our first destination was the Avenue of Stars and the tour company took a picture of us. We visited the jewellery factory and a factory outlet. After that we visited Ngong Ping village which is at Lantau Island.

It was quite a fright on the cable car ride up to Ngong Ping Village. There was a technical problem and we were stalled for a few minutes - imaging being suspended in the air a few hundred metres above the valley. You can view the video clip below.

On our way up we actually saw quite a number of people climbing up the mountain - I was so.. impressed .. I think I will drop dead half way up the mountain. We finally reached Ngong Ping village and walked towards Po Lin Monastry and took our lunch at a nearby Vegetarian restaurant which is surrounded by the forest. We ordered the set lunch which comes in a set of 2 bowl of soups, 2 dishes of vegetable/ mock chicken and rice. I must say that we enjoyed the lunch esp in the serene of the countryside. We took the cable car down and then the MTR back to our hotel. We went for the French/Japanese buffet in our hotel. My husband fell in love with goose liver and had it again! The spread was good with mini lobster, snow crab, prawns, oyster etc. I am very impressed with the roasted lamb and something like a stuffed bacon. The food was simply delicious and attracted a large no. of patrons though it is quite costly at HK258 per pax. However, as hotel guests, we are entitled to 25% off. I also accessed the internet by the computer terminal at the cafe ( HK20 for half an hour usage) to check in via the internet for our return trip at the singapore airline website. I was quite happy that we had been given the window seats so I did not make any changes this time.

Learn@ Award Cermony

I brought Ginia and Janice to the learn@ Prize Award Ceremony @ MOE today. Beverly could not make it as she is having her piano exam. They had beatened more than 100 teams to get into the Climate Herald category (top 40 teams). For this competition, they had to blog and present their proposal at MOE. It was so amazing that they beat top schools winning the Bronze Award. I have asked Ginia to pass the trophy and certificates to Mrs Florence Lee tomorrow so that they can be presented to the team when school reopens. I also told her to take out the $300 book vouchers and divide them among the 3 of them.

Day 4 in Hong Kong

We visited Yan Chai Hospital in Hong Kong for our CIP. I must say I was a bit taken aback by their hospitality - they had prepared a banner to welcome us and had made all the necessary sound setup. They even invited the elderly volunteer group and I was surprised to hear that most of them are in their eighties. I talked to one of them and she told me she came to the hospital to volunteer everyday! Our group presented some song items and games.We actually bought 10 first aid kit from Singapore and bought 2 packet of rice, 2 cans of oat meals and 2 cans of ovaltine from the Kowloon City Mall for the old folks (the teachers shared the cost of the items). The students interacted with the elderly and one of the elderly cried and she told me it was because she was very happy with our students visiting them. We also had a tour of the nursing home in the hospital to understand more about their facilities as well as more of the elderly in hong kong. As the service is heavily subsidized (the resident only pay HK$2000 as compared to almost HK $10,000 in the private nursing homes) there is a long waiting list for the Yan Chai Nursing Home.

After that we had lunch, which again is such a spread with corn soup, platter with char siew, shellfish and japanese seaweed, prawns, french bean, lettuce, chicken with pepper, duck slice with cucumber etc. After that we shopped at Granville Road before we went back to our hotel to pick up our lugguage. Bernice's family were also there waiting to pick her up as they will be spending 4 more days in Hong Kong.
We went to the Factory outlet near to the airport and the students did some last minute shopping. Many of us bought some "wife biscuit" as souvenirs for our family in the airport. We also took our dinner at the airport as check in was at 6.30 p.m.
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Day 3 in Hong Kong

We had dim sum for Breakfast and our tour guide bought something from Mcdonald for Siti. Like what the tour guide explained - the students must experience the yum cha culture in Hong Kong. I thought this was a very kind gesture by the tour agency as the students would be very sick of the hotel buffet breakfast if they were to have it for 3 days. It was quite a spread at the Golden Delight restaurant @ regal tsim sha tsui hotel - siew mai, prawn dumpling, chee cheong fun, noodle, lotus leaf wrapped glutinous rice with scallop, abolone congee, white sugar cake and spring roll with potato.

We took a tram ride to the peak and I must say that it was a unique experience for all of us along the steep slope. We were mesmerized by the view at the rooftop and the wind was strong. However the journey down the peak by bus was pretty bad for many of the students as well as Mrs Lai and Ms Vani. The bus was like spinning round and round and they all had motion sickness. After that we went to Repulse Bay and Aberdeen Fishing Village. I must say I am very disappointed with the visit to Aberdeen Fishing Village as we can't see the boat people anymore. We could still see the Jumbo restaurant and we took some pictures there. After that we went to the Golden Bauhinia Square -nothing much to see there but I was so impressed by the efficiency of the photographer. It took them less than a minute to take and print out the picture - the time we took to walk back to the bus!

We had lunch at this Teochew restaurant "ChouZhou City" and I must say the food is good. Many of us asked for porridge instead of rice as they had motion sickness earlier on. As the students do not want any more duck, their speciality braised duck was replaced by braised meat slices, pig ear and tofu. The students love the food - soup, steam egg with minced meat, lettuce with mushroom, caizin, chilli chicken, celery with fish slices and fish fillet in soya bean. After that it was free time at the hotel and we went through the report for EUA in Mrs Lai's room. Dinner was at the hotel and I must say that I was touched as the students had spent the afternoon rehearshing for some items to bid me farewell. The tour agency told me that they will give us a room but instead we had to dine with other diners and I was quite embarrased and touched by their performance, especially Mrs Lai and Ms Vani, in front of the other diners as well.


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HOng KOng Day 2

Thanks to Ms Lai from Kowloon West Division Red Cross as well as Diocesan Girls' School Red Cross Youth for making today a most enriching day for us. Thanks to Grace Chan (Hong Kong Red Cross Youth Unit 55 Head Section Leader) for writing to me - I have not known anyone who responded so fast except myself - ha ha!!


The cadets actually practised their footdrill at the Kowloon Walled City Park today before they showed the Red Cross Youth from Hong Kong our footdrill at DGS in the afternoon. Kowloon Walled City Park has so much history and geography in it and I am amazed that admission to such a well managed park is free. This was the place where the last emperor of Song fled to from the Mongols in 1278. After that the Qing officials were also there (Yamen) and finally it was taken over by the British. After the WWII, the Chinese flocked to the areas and created a slum/squatter. The area housed 50,000 people, making it one of the most densely populated area in the world. It was also known as a city of crime and was demolished in 1993 to give way to a park.

We then went for lunch and quickly proceed back to the hotel to change into our full uniform. We proceed to the Kowloon West Division Red Cross HQ and Winsor and Cardry presented to us the various programs by the Hong Kong Red Cross and I must say we do have a lot in common in terms of the humanitarian projects in Singapore. One thing unique about the District Office is that it is located in a public housing estate ( like our HDB) and they actually rented 3 units. They explained that this is so as rent is high in HK and being a volunteer organization, they could only afford to locate themselves in an housing estate.

After knowing more about the projects and the structure of the Red Cross in Hong Kong, we went to Diocesan Girls' School (DGS). DGS is one of the top school in Hong Kong with a junior and high school section ( like our RGS). Their unit was the national and district champion for many of the Red Cross competitions held in Hong Kong. They presented to us the projects which they are involved in as well as sharing their winning entry for the community service project. Our cadets also presented to the HK Red Cross Youth our activities and the various achievements we had made. I must say I am very impressed by the presentation made by the Hong Kong Red Cross Youth and they actually prepared some ice breaking games for our cadets. After that both units showcased their footdrill - our command is in Malay whereas theirs is in English. However, they managed to do a combined sizing together. The girls were so sweet as they also bought for us egg tarts.

We had dinner in this very popular restaurant which belongs to the Foo Lum Group. I ensured my kids there will not be any more duck which we already had for dinner on 10th and lunch earlier on - But guess what landed on our table - roasted goose. I realised that all meals came in set of 8 dishes and I must say our kids are well fed.


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Hong Kong Day 1

Met the 27 Red Cross cadets, Mrs Lai, Ms Vani and Mr Andrew Ong at the Changi Airport Terminal 1 at 4.30 a.m. We travelled on the budget airline Jetstar and as the flight is at 640 a.m. we need to check in 2 hours before that. There is limited leg space on the plane and the students had to pay for the drinks and food.. well we are truly on a budget trip. The landing was quite nasty too..

Lunch was on our own and our tour guide, Mr David Wong, brought us to the avenue of stars and we had our lunch in a building near it. Some of the students went to eat in McDonald and the Sec 1 cadets as well as Xinjie and Vivian followed us to eat in a Chinese restaurant next to the McDonald. We ordered the set meal which is around HK$40 inclusive of the soup and the rice/noodle.

I must say that I am pleased with the hotel (Regal Oriental Hotel) and the food provided by Golden travel. We had our dinner at this Chinese restaurant. There were 8 dishes including roast duck and red bean paste for dessert.Our tour guide went beyond his call of duty and got Siti her meals from this Halal Indian restaurant everyday as she could not take the food in the Chinese restaurant though the guide ensured her that there is no pork in some of the dishes.

We also did some shopping at the ladies' market and then back to the avenue of stars to see the symphony of lights. I was not really impressed with the light show and we went to buy a slice of cake for Ian from Starbucks as it was his birthday.

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