Hong Kong, 2013

so last christmas (specifically xmas of 2013) my family and i and shiham (of course!) went for a short trip to hong kong! it was my first time there, but not for ibrahim and shiham. i was about 4 months plus pregnant and happily nonchalant about the safety of my baby going thousands of feet above the ground with god knows what sort of air pressure level thingamajigs that could err… potentially harm the baby. but i flew away.. and flew away we did 🙂 below is the image of our airbus from the plane’s tail.. i dont know what you call those things at the end of the plane and is not bothered to check. that, my friends, is canggih! it was worthy of a photo.

speaking of the airbus.. ohh.. the lovely airbus. the whole journey was pleasant and lovely. and that’s only on the economy coach. dare you imagine what plushness it would be if you were on the first or business class? high flying pleasure i say.

we took the AM flight so obviously we did not sleep in the plane for fear of messing up our sleeping times. plus, HK share the same time zone as we do here in malaysia. so no point on sleeping anyway. obviously, me and shiham peeled our eyes on the in flight entertainment and also gobbled the noodles served. by the way, i asked for extra buns.. and i got two so three buns in total for me.. must be my baby’s luck 🙂

so we arrive at HK.. after a trip on the metro we finally reach our destination where the rest of the fam were waiting right in front of the metro’s exit. of course i was delighted to see my parents! and everyone else. we walked for a bit and finally reached a pretty dodgy area of the town where the room Azreen rented was situated. im not quite sure how to equate this area to any place in malaysia.. if i were to compare it to the ‘pangsapuri perumahan rakyat’, i would be accused of being arrogant. but for the lack of better comparison, this house in HK Azreen rented did resemble the ‘ppr’.. only maybe a few feet smaller. we all know the dilemma of property prices and scarcity in HK.. so to be able to witness and experience this first hand was very humbling and ‘awakening’. I am nonetheless grateful.

first bedroom.. the luggage filling up the space already!

homes around our place

bunk beds in both rooms to accommodate people

bunk beds in both rooms to more accommodate people

towards the tiny kitchen and only toilet

small pantry space-ish

the living area.. tiny!

top of the shelf full of food from msia! ;D lucky there was a tiny fridge too!

after resting and praying and eating, we went out for some touristy things. we went on a ferry ride to see the night lights of the city. it was pretty.. it reminded me of shanghai.. in fact, HK reminded me of singapore too. after the ferry ride, we walked (too far- cause we got a bit lost) and finally took a cab to the HK tower place thingy.. i forgot what that place was called. the queue was dreadfully long and i was almost at the point of passing out. but we perservered, only because we had the ‘octopus’ – an all purpose public transportation card that has numerous benefits like getting the express lanes in tourist spots. me tired equals to no pictures of us on the tram up the Victoria Hill (is it victoria hill?). luckily, there were some restaurants. we had some hot drinks and sandwiches at pacific coffee. later, we went back to our tiny crib.

my sister

Boxing day is the day for DISNEYLAND! super excited and happy! let the pictures do the talking!

je t’adore!

: omg mickey on the handles and windows!

: my hubby and my youngest sister

: i love you hubby!

: so cuuuuttteee

: entering tomorrowland!

: some childish ride.. pfft!

: my sister got to meet the princesses!

: the castle!

: captain jack sparrow in what land.. tk ingat dah

: the lion king show

: watching lion king musical

: finally! MAKAN TIME

: on a boat ride

: so kesian my father ingat gajah betol.

: all went on this at toy story land ‘cept for me and my parents

: so jelly, didnt get to go on this little soldiers thingy from toy story land

: in land of mystical something something

: me so tired.. i left early with my parents. hence no pictures dah

me and shiham did not continue our stay at the place azreen rented. that was a good move, although i had enjoyed cramming up with the family in the very small house. but for comfort’s sake, we went to our hotel.. which was more like a studio unit. no guessing here.. but yes, our hotel was also very tiny. we had to pray on the bed. luckily, no one fell while doing the ruku’ 🙂

shiham at the front door. beside the floating table, was our bed.

that’s the door to the toilet.. and that’s about it. tiny!

the next day, we visited the islamic center. the boys were to do the friday prayers there. we also had a lovely halal chinese lunch there. please click!

: pretty mosaic picture!

: alamak all food finished before i got to take pictures

pictures of us strolling around the city..

on the last day, before our flight back, we went to nongping.. i cant remember what the place was called. it’s not too far from the airport. there we could take the cable car to go to the other surrounding islands (i think). well, because of the crazy queue, we decided to go uphill by the bus. and if we were lucky enough, we could go downhill on the cable car. the ride up the hill was about 30-40 minutes. i was drowsy in the bus.. it only means i needed to be recharged with FOOD. thankfully, when we got up there, there was a halal indian restaurant. we were all like a pack of wolves. it was soooo cold and windy up there.. The hot meals were absolute heaven sent- for me at least 🙂 i didnt take many pictures up there because it was so cold and it was more of a religious Buddhist site. there was HUGE Buddha on the top of the mountain. anyhow, the best part was going on the crystal cable car. it was slightly pricier than the normal cable cars, but we were pressed for time and it was friggin cold, we went ahead anyway.