A Visit to Hong Kong Oct 2009
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In less than 3 months, I'm back in Hong Kong again visiting Tong Tong, Junion, Scully and sisters. It also happened that it's the China National Day that week and Junion is taking leave on the Friday so it will be kinda like a long weekend for him as well to allow me to spend a longer weekend with his family. Coincidentally, it is also the Mid-Autumn festival that week so I will get to experience how the locals celebrate the occasion, which I'm glad that I came cos the family gave me a very heartwarming experience.
Upon reaching the airport, I was pleasantly surprised that Charlie was waiting for me at the arrival gate before she head off to work at the airport. We had a brief chat before meeting Junion at the arrival hall and we split off with her to move off from the airport. Our first intended destination is 旺角, where we will go hunt for some electronics stuffs that my colleagues and friend had asked me to get. However, we never get there. We first went to New City Plaza at 沙田 for lunch (where I finally get my dose of 冰镇奶茶）before heading out for electronics stuff hunting.
咖哩牛腩饭
When we moved out from the shopping mall and guess what, Junion isn't familiar with the roads in HK yet and we have GPS on our phones BUT no HK maps! SNAFU. No matter what we just couldn't find our way to 旺角, ending up going in the direction to airport, Disneyland, 尖沙咀 and some other places which I'm not familiar with. One of the major Hor-Lan (Hor-Lan is a Singaporean slang for losing our way) adventure on my first day in HK haha. In the end, we gave up and decided to go back New City Plaza and just roam around the mall.
One of the photos taken during our Hor-Lan adventure
We just do some casual stroll while catching up with each other and then we came across a watch shop selling some Casio G-Shock watches. i remembered Junion told me in the past that I could get Casio watches at very good prices and indeed the prices displayed are attractive and I ended up getting one which matches the colour of my bike. Awesome. I later came to know that other than Junion, Scully and Janice also have the same watch design with different colour variants. After gotten the watch, we passed by a hair salon where Junion patronise frequently and I decided to have a haircut there to give myself a fresh look. Having $10 haircuts for the last few months don't really give my hair an awesome look.
Same Design, Different Colors: Janice's watch is not in photo, as she didn't wear it that day
Once we are done with the haircut, we proceeded along to fetch Scully from her workplace before going to Junion's Mother-in-law, Auntie Lam’s place. Before heading there, we stopped by Sunshine Plaza at 马鞍山 to purchase Guitar Heroes 5 game and an additional guitar controller that is made of wood (I am supposed to bring it back but decided to leave it at Junion's place after I realised that I can't hand carry it since I did not include baggage check-in option in my air ticket booking)
Guess which is mine? :p
Heading off to Auntie Lam’s apartment, where we are going to have dinner at the 大拍档 across the road, this is my first time going into a local neighborhood. Certainly a new experience. Living at 31st floor, I would say they have an awesome scenic view from their apartment. Tong Tong was there with Janice and Auntie so finally I get to give Tong Tong a hug again. Boy she had grown some within 3 months.
As I am not familiar with the local food and I've not been fuzzy with food ever since coming back from my Thailand Bike Trip early this year, the family ordered some local fare for me which I can try. One of the dishes, 炸九肚鱼, tasted very good and mixed very well with the porridge I'm eating with. There’s another dish where it looked like a prawn but with a shell as hard like crayfish (hopefully the sisters can enlighten me on this one cos I’ve forgotten the dish name). After the meal, Junion and Family, Random, Charlie, Janice and Kit headed back to Junion’s place to try out the new Guitar Heroes game bought earlier. With the newly bought guitar controller, we now have 4 persons to play at the same time. It's a blast playing this game with them. This ends the night where everyone looked exhausted and tired.
The following day, we headed out to 元朗 for brunch since Janice is going for her appointment in the area as well. While waiting for the shop (B仔甜品) to open as well to wait for Janice to finish with her appointment, we had a bit of food munching at this restaurant which sells Taiwanese food. Not bad, but weird to go all the way to HK to eat Taiwanese food though lol. When done with the meal, we head back to the dessert shop to have some local delicacy, 肠粉. Scully also ordered a bowl of mixed fruit which is BIG for the 5 of us. The 肠粉 tasted awesomely smooth, unlike the ones I tried in Singapore and Malaysia. So smooth that Scully had to demonstrate in a very..... erm...way. Great recommendations from the family!
Ain't she like to pose LOL
The smoooooth 肠粉
It was Mid-Autumn festival and the family planned a BBQ at 西贡so after the dessert session we headed off to get the stuff for the event. The ladies went to get the stuff while I accompanied Junion to get the backpack he wanted for his Dahon bike cover bag. We let the ladies drive to the destination while I and Junion will take the public bus there. Upon reaching the park, I learnt that the BBQ pits are open to public with no booking fee required. You find a pit, you use it. Just pack things cleanly when done with the BBQ. Everyone are just gracious, when one of the pit users cleaned the place up nicely before letting us take over.
With everyone helping out, we set up the pit and decorated the place with lanterns in no time. The good point about HK-style BBQ is that everyone gets to sit around the pit and BBQ, chatting away. Tong was totally in 忘我境界 and excited playing with the kids there as well as trying to snatch their toy balls. Luckily their parents are nice enough to let their kids play with her. Naughty and hyperactive girl, but that's what made everyone loved her so much. I feel that this is an awesome BBQ experience where they allowed me to soak in this family-warming atmosphere even though I am not a part of the family at all. Truthfully, it's one of the best Mid-Autumn celebration I had so far. Thanks Auntie, Junion and the ladies (plus the ladies' dudes) for the good time!
Everyone's barbecuing happily...awesome atmosphere
Benny and Charlie preparing the lanterns
Our little model keke
After the BBQ, we packed up the place nicely for the next pit user and we head off back to Junion's place to chill out. 7 of us, sans Auntie, Tracy and Pak Kei, squeezed into the car to leave the place and when everyone is talking about how the car can accommodate so many passengers, Junion jokingly said it's a Nissan Odyssey haha. (the family was talking about upgrading the existing car to Honda Odyssey for some time, hence the joke). We stopped by a dessert shop where they have bought the 榴莲忘返, a bowl of coconut milk with durian meat ball and black glutinous rice ball and a Durian pancake dessert so as to have them while watching TV (Junion and sisters, enlighten me on the dessert name if you can, 唔该 :p)
榴莲忘返
2 dudes showing off their multifunctional headwear
Kit also having a go at it
The sisters engrossed in the movie "1408"
The couple's signature 偶像剧 photo pose
On that last day there, they had planned to go KTV for a singing session. For a start, we selected the Alphabet and other kid songs to let Tong sing. I feel that she has the making of a singer as at one time, she walks along the seat while singing the song like a singer lol. Halfway thru the session, her “engine” gave up on her and she fell to sleep on her stroller in no time. "Thanks" to Junion, he selected a cantonese song for me but luckily I pulled it off with Random's and his help. This is also the first time that Charlie and Kit joined the session with me around and they sang well too. Guess it runs in Scully's family that everyone are decent singers. Not to mention Random. If I were to use his quote, I would say to him, "you rocks! \m/"
After the singing session, they got some local snacks for themselves as well as gotten some to let me try them out. Let me recall, there's 鱼丸，黑椒牛丸, 火腿热狗 and 芒果西米露. Awesomely tasty stuff.
After a short shopping spree, we headed down to 大尾督 to have some cycling fun as well for Junion to 开张 his new Dahon bike. For the rest of us (Random, Charlie, Scully, Tong and me) we rented a bike for ourselves and the ladies (Tong included) got themselves a family bike. We didn't cycle a long distance but the awesome scenery there makes up for the short trip. We managed to reach the platform during the Magic Hour so I'm able to capture some shot but could be better if I brought my ND filter (yes, I forgotten to bring T_T"). Thanks to Random for pointing out the Magic Hour, IT IS BEAUTIFUL! Nevertheless while the cycling trip is a short one, it's fulfilling. We headed down to a dessert shop after to have a bowl of unique 豆腐花, unlike what I have eaten back home. Tasted good, and my favorite actor, 周润发, was one of the celebrity patrons there. Due to my Cantonese fluency issue, the lady boss spoke too fast that I didn't realize that she was telling me how much to pay for the dessert and she thought that I ignored her lol. The day ended with a simple 外卖meal at Junion's place.
豆腐花
Junion and I had one last "ashtray" talk before we retire for the night. They will need to work on the next day and I had to take a bus to the airport early as well.
Here I am, right now on the plane back to Singapore, making full use of the 3+ hours' flight to write this post while the memory is still fresh. Certainly do hope to stay a bit longer but then good times must end. On the positive side, weather had been good to us for the past few days with no rain and good sunshine. So I always tell them jokingly that the good weather is due to the presence of 阳光男仔 from Singapore (guess who keke) and ended up earning a couple of "satays" from Junion -.-"
Once again, I sincerely thank Auntie Lam, Junion, Scully, Janice, Tracy, Pak Kei, Kit, Benny, Charlie and Random for their hospitality shown during my visit there and hope my visit won't tire the entire family out. With a slightly better grasp of Cantonese, I am at least able to use some simple terms and they are nice enough to correct me when I used them wrongly. Auntie, Junion and sisters, hope to see you people in the near future :)
For more photos and videos, they can be viewed here
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