smile.: 2015

Day 3: Macau

We arrived at Macau at night to check out the most luxurious hotel near the most luxurious casino. and obviously as a seventeen year-old girl i'm not allowed to enjoy sight-seeing amazingly lit casinos where probably most gambling movies are filmed at. while my parents go have fun, me and my brothers are stuck in the lobby checking out cool stuff shown in glass cases like an elephant tusk carved into a beautiful sculpture. sorry i couldn't get any pictures as my phone died but to give you an idea on how the casinos looked like: bright, colorful, blinding, full of cash noises, busy people walking in and out looking rich asf. mostly blinding.

Morning macau breakfast buffet at Casa Real hotel. after breakfast as we're waiting outside to meet our tour guide for macau, you will not believe this but. we saw a man got arrested right on the spot as we were outside. it was pretty dramatic. no wonder all the police officers we hanging out in the lobby. macau is a scary place when you can't handle the aftermath of gambling. i'm sure as hell not living here, no freaking way. so we met our tour guide, george. the entire distance of macau is only 3000 km. so you can basically get anywhere in time haha. macau looks to me as a pastel wonderland. the buildings are either pastel green or cute pink. our tour guide said that only the president gets the colour pink (so kawaii). i would love to be the president of macau lol. i just don't understand. why pink?

cakes yum. the chocolate one was good.

I was really excited to come to macau because when i was quite a hardcore fan of running man, i remembered the places they came in macau. especially the ruins of St.Paul where they played tug-of-war within the centre. exciting how i'm stepping on places they've been before. actually we wanted to go visit more historic sites like where the cannons were. they were uphill and i was so happy when the tour guide said they built an escalator so we won't have to climb ~~lol i'm saah lazy.~~ but with some sort of dumb reason the gates were closed on the escalator (aren't you supposed to be a tourist attraction?) so we gave up on climbing and went to check other stuff. beside St.Paul, there's a small temple and a stone wall which contains history of when the portugese came to infiltrate macau. there are still portugese living within the wall too. senado square and St.Dominic's chruch is located going down St. Paul.

The exterior of the church is eye-catching. it's a beautiful catholic church. what surprises me more is the interior. it was extremely large with rows of benches and a huge mother mary is in the front. it could be the church of a noble if it was in the roman times. i thought christians would be able to pray there but it was blocked by a scary security guard. i guess it's only open on sundays.

you know what's the definition of true luxury? the wymm hotel. a fountain show happens every 30 minutes outside the hotel. make sure to watch it at night cuz it's prettier like that. it's kind of like any other rich hotel with branded shop lots. but you'll never guess what. somewhere in this huge hotel, there's a thing called the tree of gold which is believed to give you good luck by making a wish and throwing coins in it. to me, it sounded like full of bs. i think it's another trick to get gamblers to waste more money by wasting money believing on this lol. the ceiling was designed with the twelve animals of the zodiac. oh and did i mention it's made of gold? EVERYTHING HERE IS MADE OF GOLD. and the tree of gold is actually a 15-minute show in this hotel. but i have to say. it is VERY fascinating. it was beautiful. you cannot miss this if you ever visit macau bc you will never forgive yourself for not watching it i swear. the edges of each zodiac animal on the ceiling separates to bring down a huge-ass chandelier made out of the finest of crystals. they call this place a hotel, i call this place a source of entertainment.

huge chandelier w the golden tree.

next on the list of rich things they have in macau is the venetian. it's the biggest shopping mall in macau with super cool and posh street names. our tour guide brought us into some sorta street and we felt as if we entered into some superficial universe like a replica of itali. even the ceiling was painted azure like the sky it was so realistic it could fool anyone. and i just realised that this was the place where boys over flowers, a korean drama was filmed at where geum jan di and the four flower boys sat on the gondola. i wonder if i'll ever sit with four hot guys here too. chances are zero. anyways, this place is so big that it even has it's own directory. this hotel has the biggest casino and since we kids can't go in, our tour guide told us to prepare our cameras. for what you say? for taking a look on what's happening inside the casino as we went up the escalator (lol greatest tour guide ever am i right?). i think out of everywhere, this is probably the most crowded place in macau. oh and i got my first red starbucks cup here yay. we went to the A-Ma temple as well but i didn't take any pictures.

Geum Jan Di TT.

best egg tarts in the world.

Oh and i have to mention that being a malaysian you can totally mistaken their ferry terminals with airports. because their ferry terminals are as clean and modern as the airport. like whaaat? in malaysia our ferry terminals are outdoors and ew. but theirs were exactly like an airport. what an advanced city. surprise or not, we sat on the same exact place in our previous boat when we were coming to macau from hong kong. coincidence? i think not.

Time to leave Macau :(

Goodbye Macau.

And we're back in Hong Kong for our final day before we leave back to malaysia boohoo. we were too exhausted and lazy so we got mcdonald's hehehe. because hong kong's mcdonald is famous for their pork burgers and my brother was eager to try some. after mcd's we went to temple street flea market, hung out and ate some supper. back to the hotel, i thought i couldn't fall asleep because i was so excited for disneyland tomorrow but i slept like a pig due to the exhaustion haha.

have to try mcd of different countries right? XD

And that was a wondrous one day trip in Macau. honestly mr. george was one of the best tour guides we've ever met. he knew secrets and how to take care of us. i remembered when my parents went out of the casino in the venetian but our tour guide took care of us by calling my parents to get back in to get free water for the rest of the trip. my whole family loves him. i highly recommend him. plus he can speak chinese, cantonese, japanese and english. so multilingual. wow. the end.

To be continued. Disneyland here we come.

// just so you know, i used olá in the title bc it's hello in portugese.

12/12/15 - 16/12/15

Hello internet! :)
December was jammed packed with events and it's finally the time to tell you guys my experience of it all. all my events for the month have finally come to an end which is why only now i've got the time to blog about it. out of all the events, i guess i HAVE TO blog about my overseas trip as i haven't been overseas for mmm quite a while now. i was super duper excited for travelling because my wanderlust exploded when i had spm. and to be honest, only now i get why my mom looked like she was expecting the worst to come even before the trip started. as fun as an overseas trip may be, the schedule of arriving back late, waking up early, walking around the whole day and vice versa was insanely tiring. i'm just lucky that the way we travel aren't in big groups which is very rushing, instead we took the more chiller way to vacay. by looking at tourist attractions, we kinda planned our own schedule and it worked out pretty well. how do i manage to remember what i did for all this trip when i have the memory of a goldfish? haha good question. i wrote it all in my phone's notebook just in case i forget anything special. i should probably stop dilly-dallying and start.

Day 1; Hong Kong

woke up super duper early at 3AM, hopped on the car to KLIA 2. it's our first time to KLIA 2 since we've always go to KLIA. the start of the trip went terribly wrong because we forgot about time as we were buying perfume and i had a stomach malfunction which then the airport had to make an announcement for the last passengers (that's us!) to board the plane as it's the last call for the flight to Hong Kong. the airport is seriously so big and it requires a lot of walking oh my god. and yes in all context, WE RAN. it was exactly like a movie, you know when the guy stops the girl before she boards her plane and he never sees her again. haha but what sheer luck, our plane is located at THE VERY END of the airport (HAHA THX KLIA2). but somehow we managed to make it or else byebye Hong Kong. credits for my mom who held it there, good job mom. you worked hard. here starts the four-hour flight to the thrilling adventure.

When reaching Hong Kong, the window started to froze which indicates cold weather. i was really excited since it's my first time going to a country with a different season. Hong Kong has four seasons but it doesn't snow in their winter. well it's okay as long as i can finally wear all my sweaters that i've been keeping. we met our tour guide and she gave us a tour around the city.

Honestly when i first came to the city, what i said was: "how is this different to malaysia? it's full of construction sites just like it but more addition to the skyscrapers." There were only five of us but they gave us one whole bus (yea-huh totally makes sense). Hong Kong is a "feng shui" city. it has a total population of 7 million people which is the amount of chinese we have in malaysia. and how cute the way she pronounces "three" to "fhree". i didn't realise until i stepped down the bus to feel how weird it is that everyone here is of the same race. everyone is chinese. usually in malaysia we have different races and specifically the drivers would be indians, security guards would be malay and construction workers would be bangladeshi. as a malaysian teen, we would be more paranoid and aware of these people but in Hong Kong it feels as if everyone is of the same mind and i instantly feel safer? i don't know if i sound racist or anything but i swear i'm not. i thought i could handle the weather since it was just as cold as genting highland but then when the wind blows it's freezing cold.

Me: Puh-please i can so handle the cold. Wow look at the scenery it's so beau-

*wind blows*

Me: Okay shit shit shit. i take back what i said.

First stop was a famous jewellery store in Tsim Sha Tsui. here's the list where which jewel fits your birth month. mine's amethyst which isn't what i expected but i'm not complaining. at the moment, i was into daniel wellington's watch but it's really expensive and fortunately i found the perfect which is as nice as it. and it's been my companion for the whole trip. On the way to our next destination, our tour guide actually told us about hong kong idols like jackie chan or chow yun fat, about where they live and how rich they are lol.

Next stop, stanley market. this is where i was amazed by the cleanliness of their toilets as this is a public place. you can never find stuff like this in malaysia. it was a regular street market. but ONLY, they have dogs walking around. aw dogs of different breeds and sizes were adorable. i also almost got hit by a bus here hehe. on the way back to the hotel, i managed to take pictures of the streets of hong kong which i'm insanely in love with.

Checked into Guang Dong Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui and off adventuring again at peak tower where the wax museum, Madame Tussuads and ofc the peak of hong kong is located. the wax figures were so realistic it tricks your eyes from afar. they played a clip when we were queuing in line about an idol pretending to be a wax figure when it was actually the real deal. so i was pretty terrified if one jumps at me, but i wouldn't mind if do min joon jumped on me though (yes do min joon was there, what a dreamboat). before entering, only jackie chan is excluded from the museum bc he is oh-so special. and no you can't take pictures of him.

if i had to choose, i'd say the most realistic wax figure in all of the museum has got to be changmin from tvxq. like what the heck. he actually looks real. especially how the volume in his eyes are spot-on. it's crazy. anyways, i went to get some souvenirs and up to the sky terrace to see the night view of hong kong. AND IT WAS SO COLD i was practically groaning all the way.

On the way back i got hungry and we bought delicious egg waffles. it was so cute but i couldn't take a picture cuz i ate it all lol. after all the activities for the day were done, we finally have relaxation time and walked around outside the hotel, looking for dinner. my menu had only consists of prawns and noodles when i came here. their prawn dumpling noodles was the bomb. i'm in love.

they had running man, a korean game show dubbed in cantonese. it was weirdly funny. oh and their guardians are called mannings. i can't accept this. End of day one.

Day 2; Ocean Park

Zhou San, Hong Kong. it's another productive day. TO PLAY at ocean theme park. Had the hotel breakfast buffet and walked around to the other side of our hotel while we were waiting for our tour guide to fetch us there. my mom actuallly squirmed and wanted to snuggle me when i wore my outfit bc she said it was sooooo cute. i think she looked at me like a little girl. i wish that too mom.

OOTD

We were greeted by a huge christmas tree when we arrived there. ocean park kinda has two layers? one downhill and the other uphill. our tour guide advised us to go uphill first to avoid crowds since people tend to stay down then after, up. and plus all the fun rides were located uphill. so we sat on a cable car and went up. the view was breathtaking.

Of course what's a theme park without cool shows? attended an aquamarine show which showcases the story of the theme park's mascot's best friend, aqua, seals and cute dolphins. the cuteness and acrobatics they did were magical. after the act, it was about noon so we went to get some lunch. we ate hot dogs and a huge pork leg. warning: their hot dogs are humongous.

important note: the grill squid they sell there are really delicious. my family bought about four packets bc it was just so good. especially the smell, it tickles your nostrils. mmm.

prettiest fish ever seen.

oops before i forget. there's one ride that contains water and you getting wet. honestly i thought it was just a wee bit wet and the idea of them selling raincoats there was ridiculous. but i got wet, really wet haha. still, if you are going there, don't waste money on buying raincoats. just use your jacket to cover yourself when the water hits. so after that, your regular clothes won't get wet and you can walk comfortably while your jacket can dry off in the sun.

we went back to square one, back at where we first saw the roller coasters. bc the north and south pole animal exhibition is near there. i got an addition to my list of 'favourite animals' which is arctic foxes. i like anything to do with foxes, desert foxes, arctic foxes, you name it. and maybe a red panda haha. they were adorable cute little white puff balls. although i am disappointed they didn't have polar bears, i was so excited to see them :(

A lady from china actually asked my brother where he purchased that wolf hat and i literally replied her with a china accent haha. i guess it's true how malaysians are direct accent translators. anyways, after looking at all the animals, the pandas were located downhill so we went down by train (they had two ways, cable car or train) and after a few more purchases of grill squid, the last place we visited before leaving ocean park was their aquarium.

At the end of the day, we went to our next "luxurious" adventure, Macau.
To be continued in the next post xx.

// was thinking of writing the whole trip here but it looks like i took too many pictures to fit in one post. a really looooong post.

// i wonder when i'll start work since i still have surgery and other stuff to deal with. i'm so glad i'm done with driving or else it's just more trouble.

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