Hong Kong & Macau: July 2012

Sunday, 29 July 2012
(Cont’d)
Fortunately for us, our seats were in the shade and didn’t face the setting sun. We were at the ‘clock end’ – where the clock was and someone had thoughtfully hung up the Clock End flag there. There were fewer seats at the North Stand compared to the East and West sides and the Clock End. The match kicked off on time and from our seats, we could see the spectators walking outside still trying to get in.

We started slowly and were behind in a matter of minutes. The first goal was definitely not Iggy’s finest moment. Theo then levelled but the hosts led again before half-time.

The other squad members who weren’t playing in the first half entered the pitch to warm up during the break. Match resumed after 15 minutes with a number of changes. A final change was made in the 70th minute and Thomas Eisfeld again saved Arsenal’s bacon when he levelled. What a chap! He did the same thing in KL, bringing us level within seven minutes of being on the pitch and he repeated that in Hong Kong, also within seven minutes of entering the pitch. Tried as they did, the score stayed at 2-2. We stayed on applauding the players. Alas, they didn’t stay long as they were catching a flight back the same evening.

We left and shuffled our way to Causeway Bay MTR station. From there, we rode the train to Mongkok, changing trains at Central. I wanted to look for a pair of red Converse shoes so I headed to Fa Yuen Street (aka Sports Shoes Street). I wasn’t happy to find the shoes were selling at HKD299 a pair after discount. That’s as expensive as the price in KL before discount! So I left and headed back to Ladies’ Market.

We left after 2135 (I was late for the rendezvous because of the long wait for my miserable fish bun) and headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui.

Monday, 30 July 2012
We had planned to go on a ferry ride to Macau today so we left at 0930. We finally found Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal (I only discovered then it was part of China Hong Kong City!) and browsed the various operators. It was 1030 when we got there and most ferries were due to sail at either 11 or 1! We finally found one at HKD310 for a day return (but you must return by the 1730 ferry at the latest or the return fare would cost slightly more). We then quickly joined the queue to clear immigration and practically had to dash for our ferry.

The ride took about an hour and we landed in the hot scorching noon Macanese sun. We joined yet another queue to clear yet another immigration (there were a lot of Korean tourists to these parts) and then took the free shuttle to Grand Lisboa. The deco was tacky but I guess the owner could afford it. We then walked to Largo do Senado and then traced our way to the ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral. It was getting unbearably hotter by the minute and I decided to part ways with Aud and head back to some hotel or casino for the comfort of air-conditioning and to contemplate my initial plan to explore Taipa.

I decided to abandon Taipa and headed back to the ferry terminal, reaching it just after 3. My ticket stated my return journey was at 4.30 pm but the girl who sold the ticket assured that I could sail back any time before 4.30 pm. Alas, the boat was full and I joined the dozen or so others also on stand-by. We were given priority to board the 4 pm ferry.

I stopped briefly at Harbour City before returning to our room.

I left at 7.35 pm and brisk walked to the Clock Tower where Aud and I had agreed to meet for the Symphony of Lights show. The show started at 8 and it was conducted in English. Lucky for us the day had been clear. On another thought, unlucky us because the air was still. No breeze whatsoever. The show lasted 15 minutes and we then walked to the Avenue of Stars.

I went to check out Sogo after that while Aud returned to the room. I had wanted to have dinner at Sogo but later changed my mind when I saw the menu. I headed back to Nathan Road, bought some souvenirs at a small alley and then headed to Cute Fei Vegetarian Restaurant for my late dinner.

Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Last day of July! It had been a challenging, testing and trying month and as much as I love my birth month, I couldn’t wait for it to end. Thank God for Arsenal for restoring my sanity just when I needed it.

We left at 0940 and headed out to Tsim Sha Tsui. I went for a last visit to Harbour City then wandered back to Nathan Road before exploring the other side of the neighbourhood. I returned back to our room at 1125 and left ten minutes later. Aud’s flight back was later. I crossed the road to the bus stop for the bus back to the airport. This time, the bus took a slightly different route. We reached the airport an hour later.

I went to perform prayers first before dropping off my bag. I had checked in online the afternoon before and changed seats from the pre-assigned seat at row 31 (!!) to one in row 16. I then went in, queued for immigration process and then explored the duty-free before making my way to the gate.

The seats on the plane were in the 2-5-2 form. We took off on time and guess what? The seats next to me were empty. So why was I pre-assigned a seat at row 31??!! I reclined down the minute the seatbelt sign was off and took a nap.

We landed at 6.10 pm but our bags took time to appear. I caught a train at 1845 but there was no budget cabs when we reached KL Sentral. We’d have to wait between 15-45 minutes (or so the sign said) so I turned back and took the LRT to Ampang Park before making my way home by cab.

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I was disappointed that the new boys Poldi and Giroud didn’t make the trip to Asia but I was even more disappointed with the attitude of the soon-to-be-gone captain. It’s a good thing he didn’t make the trip; I would have pelted him with rotten eggs and tomatoes had he come but his situation is still unresolved.

As for Hong Kong? Well, whatever made me think the city was cheap? Not this time. Meals are expensive. A small bowl of noodles and a pot of tea cost HKD36 or HKD40 (rounded up for tip) – that’s RM16++! Most things cost more than in KL: Marks and Spencer goods (even those on sale), Chanel bags (even those at the airport duty-free) and even Arsenal magazine costs HKD60 (equivalent to RM24.60, when it costs us RM20 here). Converse shoes don’t cost any less. Only LeSportsac bags and some Crocs shoes on sale cost less but other than those, I was hard pressed to find anything that cost less than in KL. So I don’t understand those who prefer to go shopping in Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta or Hong Kong when KL offers better prices PLUS you don’t need to suffer from credit card charges or lose out on exchange rates.

And after a while it got increasingly annoying to be constantly dripped upon by the air-conditioners above you. Strange that I never noticed this before.

Hong Kong: July 2012

This trip was planned in early March before Arsenal confirmed coming to KL and even after the KL trip was confirmed, I decided to proceed with it. I guess I’ve caught the bug, having watched them in KL last year and at Ashburton Grove in May and since they’re in the region, why not? I ruled out going to Beijing because I didn’t want to apply for visa and besides, it’s scorching there this time of the year. Aud subsequently confirmed going too so I browsed the available guesthouses in the city. I finally received confirmation from Yiu Fai Guesthouse in mid-March and paid a deposit for one night to secure our booking.

Friday, 27 July 2012
I broke fast in the office today and left after 8.30 pm. Took the Komuter train to KL Sentral and performed prayers prior to boarding the coach to the airport. I dozed off on the way and only woke up when we reached the airport at 10.30 pm.

Saturday, 28 July 2012
Our flight took off on time at 0055 and I was later woken up by the stewardess who asked if I wanted to have my meal then or after 3 am. I told her I’d take the latter option and tried to sleep back. Alas, sleep escaped me no matter how hard I tried to catch it and I kept getting up.

True to her word, the travelling Muslims were served their meal just after 3 am. We were also given a goodie bag – containing some chocolate dates and a can of 7-Up.

We landed at 0430, 25 minutes earlier than scheduled. Ours was the only flight to arrive at that hour and yet it took ages for our bags to appear on the carousel. I referred to the airport plan and made my way to the prayer room at the departure level. It was already Suboh so yeah, I fasted slightly longer hours in Hong Kong. Fajar is at 0430 while Maghrib is at 1905.

I tried to catch some sleep after prayers. Both the Airport Express and the bus service start at 6 am and anyway, I wasn’t in a hurry. Even if I was dying to shop, the bus ride would take about an hour and I still would have to wait for the shops to open. I don’t know if it was my imagination but it felt like it got colder the longer I was there, so cold that my feet started to cramp. I dozed on and off and once when I opened my eyes, it looked like it was raining outside. But I could be hallucinating.

I finally got up at 0830 and freshened up. It was impossible to get any sleep anyway as the departure level got noisier as the morning progressed. I then went to buy the Octopus card before making my way to the bus terminal. A single ticket to the city costs HKD33 while a return ticket costs HKD55 so I bought a return ticket of course. I saw people boarding the bus A21 and hurried to join the queue.

It took us almost an hour to reach Tsim Sha Tsui. I was seated on the top deck and was dozing off, hence I missed the stop for the guesthouse. I got down at the next stop, got harassed by a foreign chap trying to lure me into staying somewhere and went to search for Golden Crown Court. The doorway to the Golden Crown Court is sandwiched between shops and it is in a block bounded by Citibank and StanChart bank. There are two lifts: one serves the even-numbered floors and the other serves the odd-numbered floors. Raymond, the chap who runs the guesthouse, told me my room would only be ready after 1230 so I left my bag and went for a walk around the area.

I had seen, on my previous trips to Hong Kong, small shops selling branded goods and as I’m not prejudiced towards second-hand goods, I went into a few to check the goods on offer. I was surprised to note that some of the shops carry brand new goods. They manage to offer these goods at slightly lower prices than at the boutiques, probably by sourcing them from Europe. I then discovered there are literally dozens of such stores in Hong Kong. What does that tell you? Consumerism is alive and kicking hard in Hong Kong.

I made my way to Harbour City at Canton Road and was surprised again to note the long queue outside Chanel. Why didn’t these shoppers just go to the small shops then instead of queuing up? Your guess is as good as mine. A lot of boutiques have Canton Road as their address: Hermès, Ferragamo, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Prada, Miu Miu, Burberry... and they are large stores, mind you. It surprised me yet again that in a place as crowded as Kowloon where space is a premium, there are spacious and numerous boutiques such as these.

I went into Harbour City and browsed around before making my way to China Hong Kong City. So many stores were having a sale and yet I returned to the guesthouse empty-handed. I checked in, had a shower, performed prayers and had a short nap. I got up at 6.30 pm and went in search for food. Iftar dinner was had at Cute Fei Vegetarian Restaurant at Haiphong Road.

I headed back to the guesthouse for prayers and waited for Aud to arrive. She arrived at 9.15 pm just as she predicted and shortly after, we left the room to have a look at the night life. There were still a lot of people about, returning home after work and dinner or just browsing around like us. We walked all the way to Chungking Mansions, home to dozens of guesthouses. The building is an OSHA nightmare and fire hazard alright. We turned back and stopped at a supermarket before returning to our room.

Sunday, 29 July 2012
I woke up a while after the alarm sounded and had only 15 minutes to have my pre-dawn meal. Oh no! Had a few slices of bread, too late to have any instant noodles unless I wanted to burn my tongue and throat.

I got up again after 9 and we left at 10 to collect our Arsenal tickets at Tom Lee Music store nearby. It was a simple process: you just swipe the credit card you used to purchase the tickets and the machine would churn out your tickets. The whole process took less than a minute.

We took the MTR to Tung Chung station where Citygate Outlets is. It’s near to the airport on Lantau Island and I remember passing it the day before. It was a long ride and we had to wait a bit at Lai King as the train service from Central was less frequent. We finally reached the centre at 11 am.

We spent just over two hours there. I came back empty-handed (I was beginning to worry then. Had I been losing my shopping touch?) and went back to my room while Aud stopped at Jordan for lunch.

We left for the stadium at 3 pm. We walked down to the Star Ferry Pier and boarded the ferry for Wan Chai. From Wan Chai Pier, we walked to the bus stop near Wan Chai MRT to catch bus 5B to the Hong Kong Stadium. There were notices of road diversions due to some procession and the traffic made us slightly worried. Finally the bus came and we hopped on.

We got caught in the procession at Causeway Road and the traffic came to a stop. Even the trams stopped moving and everything came to a halt, everything except for those in the procession. After a while, the bus moved again and inched on. I was starting to get worried but was comforted by the sight of fellow Gooners on the road. I wanted the bus to stop so I could get down and just continue the rest of the journey on foot.

Fortunately, the police waved us through again and we inched our way up Leighton Road before turning into Caroline Hill Road. Here, the bus inched again; this time, held back by the Gooners heading towards the stadium. You gotta admire the patience of the drivers in Hong Kong. No one blared their horns at all!

We finally reached the stadium and joined the crowd entering the stadium.

To be continued

Fragrant Harbour

8 – 12 December 2010

I had promised my niece, la niña, a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland if she did well in her UPSR and to our surprise, she did exactly that. I had wanted to take her on the trip at a later date, maybe during one of next year’s school hols, but decided to bring forward the trip. So, on 19 November, I booked a Hong Kong SuperCity Package from Cathay Pacific (the package included a return trip, a 3-day 2-night hotel accommodation, return airport transfer either by coach or Airport Express Line (AEL) and complimentary half-day city tour among others). If you are planning to go to Hong Kong, I really suggest you take up this package as it’s really good. I extended our stay to a 4-night stay and paid only a bit for the extra two nights.

We left KLIA on Wednesday evening, 8 December 2010 (24 hours after I arrived from Medan!), and landed at 9.30 pm local time (Hong Kong is in the same time zone as Malaysia). We had to board a train from the arrival area to get to the main building, go through immigration and collect our bags. It was 10.30 pm when we finally boarded our coach but thankfully the traffic was kind to us and we reached our hotel by 11 pm. I chose the coach as if we had taken the AEL, we would still have to find our own way to the hotel and some cabbies don’t speak English.

It was a bright and sunny day on Thursday. We took the hotel shuttle to Pacific Place and made our way to Admiralty MTR station. I bought a Tourist Day Pass (it entitled us to HKD30 off Disneyland ticket price). We stopped first at Tsim Sha Tsui station as I wanted to perform prayers first at Kowloon Mosque. We then boarded the train and finally reached Disneyland after changing trains twice.

There are only three lands at HK Disneyland and I had thought we’d breezed through them all but although the queues were considerably shorter, we still found ourselves rushing here and there (we decided to watch some shows and had to turn up early for those shows to secure good seats. Those shows, in turn, lasted up to half an hour each). We finally sat down for a meal after 7 pm (the park closes at 8 pm, unbelievable I know) and then rushed to buy souvenirs. Things didn’t cost cheap there of course.

We decided to take the tram back to our hotel. Unfortunately, we got down too soon and had to walk the rest of the way back.

I had booked to join the city tour on Friday morning so we woke up early on Friday and took the hotel shuttle to Hong Kong station. We then navigated our way to Central MTR station and took the train to Causeway Bay, the nearest station to Park Lane Hotel for the city tour coach pick-up.

First we drove to Aberdeen on the other side of the island and went on an optional boat ride around the harbour to see the fishing village. The ride lasted about 30 minutes. Then we hopped back on the bus and went to a gem showroom. Next, we went to Tin Hau Temple at Repulse Bay Beach. We stayed about thirty minutes there and I wandered up and down the pier, enjoying the hazy sunshine. It was neither too hot at 23C nor too cold (wind factor).

We gathered back on the coach after 12 noon and drove to The Peak; after my first trip, I had planned to visit The Peak again anyway (although I’m not too happy about taking the tram down the hill) and I was chuffed when I found that it was included in the tour. And no trams for us, hurray. We spent another half an hour here looking down at the spectacular view of the city skyline. Too bad the day was a bit hazy.

I asked the guide to drop us at Kowloon Hotel instead of Park Lane and after having lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, we walked to find Esprit Outlet. Turned out it had been relocated from Hankow Road to In-Town Outlets at 33 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. It’s located near Harbour City (and that’s another gigantic mall – no, wait, it’s the biggest mall in HK; seriously everywhere you look, there are shops, shops and more shops! I kept wondering how people there could fit anything in their pigeon-hole apartment. Yes, consumerism is very much alive and kicking in Hong Kong). I didn’t find anything interesting at Esprit though (too many winter clothes) but managed to find some scarves at the Tie Rack outlet. After that, we headed to Haiphong Road to get to the mosque.

After prayers, we took the MTR to Mong Kok to check out the Ladies’ Market and Fa Yuen Street (aka Sports Shoes Street). We left empty-handed though as nothing particularly impressed us. I persuaded la niña to check out The Avenue of Stars and A Symphony of Lights (recognised by Guinness World Records as the World’s Largest Permanent Light and Sound Show). There were a lot of people taking a stroll along the waterfront. We walked until the Clock Tower then turned back to find a good place to sit for the Symphony of Lights show. The show starts at 8 pm every night and we were lucky that it was conducted in English that night.

The show lasted about 15 minutes and we then went into Sogo. We stumbled upon Food Paradise at Level B2 and only then realised we hadn’t had dinner yet. After a hot bowl of seafood udon, we window-shopped and I ended up buying a pair of Skechers sports shoes (they would have cost me more in KL and even other brands would cost me more even during sale in KL). We finally left at 9.30 pm and took the MTR back to Central. As the previous night, we took the tram back and this time, alighted at the right stop (Hill Road).

I told la niña that Saturday would be a shopping day so we started off the day with a tour of Pacific Place. Still not satisfied, we left and took the train to Tsim Sha Tsui. We walked to Sogo (yes, again!); I left la niña there and went to check out The Avenue of Stars again as I didn’t walk all the way to the Bruce Lee sculpture the evening before. It was a windy noon at the waterfront promenade and after having found Bruce Lee, I hurried back to Sogo. We had lunch at Food Paradise and feeling energised, went to check out the boutiques at the posh Peninsula Hotel.

Still feeling unfulfilled, I persuaded la niña to check out Harbour City, passing the beautiful Heritage 1881 along the way (The original site of Heritage 1881 was the headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine Police from 1880s to 1996). OK folks, Marks & Spencer stuff cost less in KL so don’t bother. Then I popped into H&M at Canton Road (crazy crowd in there but the queue was fast). After that, we headed to the mosque for prayers. There was an introductory course on Islam every Saturday – in Cantonese – so there were a lot of people in the mosque when we got there.

After prayers, we hopped onto the train for Jordan to check out the Temple Street Night Market. The market opens from 4 pm (the Ladies’ Market starts from noon) and we were very glad we didn’t buy anything at the Ladies’ Market as we managed to find better bargains at Temple Street Night Market. By no way am I saying that Temple Street is cheaper or is a better bargain but do shop around and bargain, bargain hard.

La niña wanted to return to the hotel and not eat out so we headed back to Central and took the tram to Hill Road stop.

Our coach pick-up on Sunday morning was at the ungodly hour of 5.30 am so it was a ridiculously early morning for us. I had to perform prayers at the airport as morning prayers was at 5.34 am. We reached the airport at 6 and after checking in our bag, went straight to immigration. We had a light breakfast (I was already famished by then) and walked around the shops. I don’t think there’s a significant difference between the prices of goods downtown and at the airport as HK is a duty-free city anyway. We then took the train to the departure area and walked to gate 43. Turned out there’s a multi-faith prayer room near the gate anyway so if you have a noon or evening flight to catch, you can always perform prayers there.

We took off on time and landed at KLIA at 1245. My bag however took its time to get out (it came out more than ten minutes after la niña’s bag although we checked in together). Akak was already waiting for us and drove us back to Ampang.

That was my third trip to HK, so will I return? And although I have now visited all Disneylands and Disney World (syukur alhamdulillah), I wouldn’t mind visiting Disneyland Shanghai (yes, inside me is still a kid who wants to play and doesn’t want to stop playing). Wait, people are evicted to make way for the park?? Hmmm... and it’ll be smaller than HK Disneyland. OK, scratch that idea then.

China Fast Forward: Canton

21 December 2007

Lost In Translation

We left KL after morning prayers for Canton, or Guangzhou as it is known today. I have always wanted to let my parents experience travelling in the Golden Club class and this time, alhamdulillah, they finally did. There were a few VVIPs in there too besides us the hoi polloi. I ignored them all and concentrated on the National Geographic magazine instead and then watched Stardust.

A brief info on Guangzhou: it is located at the Pearl River Delta and Zhujiang (Pearl River) runs through the city. It is the capital of the Guangdong province and has a population of about 10 million. Legend has it that once upon a time, five celestial beings in colourful robes, each riding a coloured goat holding an ear of grain in its mouth, came down to Guangzhou. They gave the grain to the residents as present, wishing the land free from famine forever. The celestial beings then went with the wind while the five goats left behind were turned into stone. Hence, Guangzhou is also known as Sui City (the rice-ear city), the Goat City (Yangcheng) and Wuyangcheng (City of Five Goats). Guangzhou was also part of the ‘Maritime Silk Road’ that linked Southern China with India, South-East Asia, Africa and the Middle East (Huaisheng Mosque was built following these links with the Middle East).

We arrived at Baiyun International Airport, which next to Hong Kong, is a major hub in Southern China, at 1.40 pm. It was a foggy, hazy day when we landed. We had problems communicating to the cabbie but we finally managed to convey our destination to him. He did manage to take us to the said hotel but it turned out that there were two Landmark hotels in the city and we went to the wrong one! The receptionist wrote out the address in Chinese and we hopped into another cab to the right hotel located in Tianhe Central Business District.

After resting, performing and freshening up, we met up with my friend, David, and he took us to a seafood restaurant about 10 minutes’ walk away for dinner. His wife, Linda, joined us at the restaurant. After dinner, we walked my parents back to the hotel then sat in the lobby. David and Linda then showed me the directions to the metro stations and some halal eateries very near the hotel at Linhe Donglu.

22 December 2007

The Tomb

After breakfast, we walked to the nearest metro station, Tiyu Zhingxin (Tianhe Sports Centre) and took the train to Changshou Lu. We then walked past alleys and narrow roads selling jade accessories until we reached Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street. Then we walked on and on and on until we finally reached Huaisheng Mosque at 56 Guangta Road. Built in 627, this is the oldest mosque in China. Yes, there are still millions of Muslims in China. We had lunch at a Uyghur Muslim restaurant across the street from the mosque where we were served by exotic-looking people and an especially handsome, dashing, tall and exotic-looking waiter.

After a hearty lunch, we walked to Gongyuanqian metro station and took the subway to Yuexiu Gongyuan (Yuexiu Park). After walking up and down the subway (we had to use the underpass connected to the subway station to cross the busy intersection), we found a Chinese Muslim chap who very kindly showed us the way to Abu Waqqas mosque. The tomb of Abu Waqqas was located at the mosque. According to Abah, he was actually Saad ibni Abu Waqqas and he was the one responsible for spreading Islam in China. He is also of the ten whom the Prophet mentioned would go to paradise. We stopped to offer prayers and pay respect to him before heading back to the hotel.
23 December 2007

Rainy Day

It rained sometime during the night as the ground was wet when we woke up for morning prayers. We took the hotel shuttle around Tianhe and got down at the Tee Mall. Then we walked over to the Grandview Mall. There were too many stores and too few salespeople who knew English. The rain must have dampened my shopping spirits too because I didn’t spend much at all. We headed back after 1 pm and had lunch at a Uyghur Muslim restaurant near our hotel, which turned out to be a branch of the one we went to on Saturday. It started raining as we neared the restaurant and the rain continued well into late that night. Dinner was had at a Chinese Muslim restaurant two doors away from the Uyghur restaurant. They couldn’t understand a word we said and we couldn’t understand a word they said and had to rely on pictures on the wall. But boy, do the Muslims there love lamb and mutton. I had to draw a picture of a chicken (and since it had been a long while since I last drew one, I had trouble drawing it then!) to inform them that we wanted chicken instead of mutton.

24 December 2007

Bright Lights, Big City

This morning, we took the train to Hong Kong from Guangzhou Dongzhan (Guangzhou East Station). The journey took less than two hours but we had to endure immigration check before boarding the train. Funny, if you travel in Europe, you don’t need to go through all this: the border police and/or immigration will come aboard the train to inspect your passport.

We arrived into hazy Hong Kong after 11 am and found our way to the waterfront and took a ferry to Central. We actually wanted to go to the Masjid Ammar at Oi Kwan Road but after a while, we despaired of finding a tram that wasn’t cramped so we aborted the plan and instead took the MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui, yes, back to mainland. Went in search for a vegetarian restaurant at Carnarvon Road only to find it had relocated. We walked back to Nathan Road (and found the Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Centre) to find our way to another vegetarian restaurant at Hankow Road but were persuaded to have lunch at a halal Pakistani eatery instead. So instead of having dim sum as I originally planned, we had chicken biryani instead... oh well.

After lunch, we walked to the Esprit outlet at 4-6 Hankow Road. Most stores were selling winter apparel, Esprit included, so we didn’t shop much. There were loads of people doing their last-minute Christmas shopping but somehow I wasn’t in the mood. I was similarly disappointed on my first Hong Kong trip: apart from the Esprit outlet and the trip to Stanley, I didn’t find shopping in Hong Kong particularly exciting. And as I disliked the street markets, the inferior things they sold and the snobbish, arrogant stall-keepers, this time we didn’t visit any street market at all. Well, even if we had wanted to, we didn’t have much time.

We then took the underpass to Sogo Hong Kong and I left Mummy and Abah there while I walked to the waterfront. Alas, if anything, the day was becoming even hazier, so there was not much opportunity for those Kodak moments. We then took the East Rail Line train back to Hung Hom for our train journey back to Guangzhou. Dinner was had at the Chinese Muslim restaurant.

25 December 2007

Coming Home
I woke up late this morning and yet still managed a stroll around the neighbourhood with Mummy. We went to the nearby Sky Galleria and then came back to the hotel to check out. Oh, Christmas is not a public holiday in China (just like in Thailand). We reached the airport after 40 minutes (mad cabbie) and went in to the departure area immediately after checking in. We relaxed at the airport lounge before making our way to the gate. The flight took off on time and I managed to finish the National Geographic magazine and watch Stardust (yes, again! I love that movie), we landed at KLIA at 7.15 pm.

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Managed to catch glimpses of the Arsenal-Spurs derby clash. Kudos to Almunia for saving Robbie Keane’s penalty and helping make Arsenal Christmas No. 1!