Interesting queries

I was invited to have a lunch at a place which my friends intended to go not too long ago. But do to some unforeseen circumstances, we did not manage to go that restaurant. I don't think I would go there by myself because it looks expensive and indeed when I was browsing the menu, it was quite out of my comfort zone BUT since it was a vendor treat so I just needed to select what I want to eat =D

While waiting for the food to arrive, I went through a big stack queries and found that these were very interesting hence I would like to hear what are your answers to these?

Honestly, I would like to face the ocean just like how my college room used to be. Well preferably with a nicer beach which of course should come with beautiful girls in bikini XD

 Hmm other than my very close friends, I think most people don't know me ...

 Hohoho, exploration of all kinds of course. Go to places where normally I won't go and do the things which I normally can't do.

 This is a real tough one. If I can change it for the better, I would go to the past else to the future to see how things would turn out.

Contrary to what most people perceive me, I have not done much bad things so there are quite a number of things which I would really like to try out.

If you haven't guessed it by now. the place is Ben's =)

The food is not so great for the price that comes along with it. If you really want to try something different, try the vanilla peanut butter milkshake =D However for me, it still loses to Manhattan Fish Market's Chocolate Peanut Butter milkshake or Fat Boy's Thick Chocolate Milkshake

Let me know what you guys think about the queries, I handpicked these out of about 100 cards.

Hong Kong 2012

Recently I had the chance to go Hong Kong for a product training. To take advantage of this, I naturally extended my stay and went around the famous attractions. Based on my research, you should be able to achieve this in a 5 days 4 nights trip. So that was how I planned out itineraries but of course, mother nature don't usually agrees with anyone's plans and you will have to adjust around her.

I planned to go to :
Disneyland
Ocean Park
Ngong Ping 360
The Peak
Avenue of Stars for the light show
Shenzhen (I just want to abuse my going-to-expire visa)

Seems like nothing much at all right? What you really require are good legs for all the walking, hopefully some good research on how to go those places and a thick face to ask those busy HK citizens. Of course the major attractions you will not have any problems at all because they have many signs and announcements.

In my mind, that's that BUT what is more important for me would be how do you tackle those places especially those that you need to queue up for eg what is a MUST do in Disneyland and Ocean Park? Strangely enough, I did not find much info on this probably because everyone's interest is different which is true in most cases or I just did not have enough time to do it properly. Basically, I would advise for visitors to attend all their shows. I particularly enjoyed Mickey's Philharmagic, Stitch Encounter, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Jungle River Cruise and Festival of Lion King. My advice is to really watch the timing especially those with limited shows. In Disneyland, if you are an avid adventurer, I recommend a task for you to complete =D Visit ALL the different themed restrooms, most people would just want to do their business and get on with enjoying the park. I reckon if I was with my friends, we would most likely take pictures in them, something which seemed to be a tradition when we were still in school XD

Watch the weather for Ngong Ping's cable car, mother nature disrupted my plan by greeting me with a typhoon level 3 but thankfully I had other destinations and was able to spend the day accomplishing another task. If you are able to plan things REALLY well, you can squeeze some destinations into 1 day. I think that requires precision planning and in their mind they know exactly what they want to do at those places even without being or seeing the place yet. I like to discover stuff which are not advertised.

What's next? Food! There are so many recommended food places. What you really need to do is to mark down all the detailed places and plan your route. Oh yeah, another important point when looking for food, LOOK UP! Many of the food places are NOT on the ground floor, some are even underground ... I think in the end, I just managed to go to 1 of my researched shops. Local food places have wisen up and have limited or some not so correct but understandable menus in english. Places which don't have, you have to use your thick face to ask, what makes it worse would be that you look like a chinese BUT can't read any, yes, your's truly is not able to read chinese but to compensate, I can speak both Cantonese and Mandarin.

I think I managed to accomplish my tasks of visiting the places which I wanted to go except for the food places. Learned something interesting during the training which we should explore and of course get to experience some Hong Kong culture :)

 Gai Dan Zhai - literally translated as little chicken eggs but most shops use the term eggette

 Fried Char Siew Pau - this taste GREAT!

 Malai Ko - this cake tastes great too

 Fried char siew thingy - nothing special about this

 Ocean Park - good places to learn about conservation and great place if you love sea creatures

 Disneyland - yes, its raining just as I reached =_="

 Set A breakfast - surprisingly set A is basically the same thing in all char chan thengs

 Other sets which are non-beef

 Tried this egg tart just because of its shape :p

 Pineapple bun - unlike other pineapple buns, this bakery really put pineapples in the bun!

 Noodles for dinner

 Giant Buddha as part of Ngong Ping 360's attraction

 This meal is part of an expensive ticket to see what is inside the Buddha, the visit was NOT worth it at all BUT the vegetarian meal was awesome!

 Or Jien HK style - not bad

 Che Zhai Mien - the portion was big BUT the mixture of the ingredients was not to my liking ...

对面海 - literally means Opposite Ocean, winner of the Dragonboat festival at Sai Kung

Normal pineapple bun - these are like Mexican buns but the top are pineapple stuff

 The peak via taxi going up and via bus going down - the queue was so mad that I reckon I won't make it up the hill before nightfall

OK view - just outside a restroom area =_="

 Shenzhen side of the border - gives me bad memories of China

 I did not go out and explore what this place is famous for, its just a place for me to change train.

I took the train so much that I got this.

What are my advices for travelers? Install apps which can help guide you around, preferably those that do not need Internet connection. What I used (on Android) HKMTR by Gary Wang (not the official one from MTR), Discover Hong Kong by the Tourism Board, Mobile BusInfo by Studio Kuma, TripAdvisor's Hong Kong app and of course who can live without Google Maps offline?

Must get Octopus card BUT watch your spending, I think I spent HKD300 just to go around to all the places. Most of the fares are around HKD10 and around half that for short distances.

Wear shoes that won't kill your heels and breathable. Walking around can and will take a toll on your main transportation. If you choose to, you can get competitively priced shoes at Mongkok.

For places to stay, IF you have the money, its really worth the difference :) Else you are in for a culture shock and I do pray that you are not claustrophobic. 

Follow the queue, if you don't and you look like a Chinese, you are gonna get some sounding because Chinese (from China)  really love to cut queues ... For all their hectic lifestyle, surprisingly HK people queue up for buses and trains. In Disneyland/Ocean Park on a normal day, a queue can be anywhere between 15 - 60 minutes depending on the show/ride. This will affect even the most meticulously planned iteneraries.

Cash and credit card :p For me the food was quite expensive as each meal would cost me at least RM10+. Make sure you have the currency conversion memorized in your head because you will need it especially for shopaholics who do watch out for their money. It is really a haven for shoppers, so many interestingly priced stuff.

Chengdu : Land of Giant Pandas and MaLat Spiciness

I was recently asked to perform a site certification for the company in Chengdu, China. The reason behind the choice was fairly straightforward, there weren't too many candidates who is able to converse in Chinese in my team. Initially, I thought it was just a 1 person thingy but later on I found out that my boss would be joining me =_=

Anyhows, its not a trip, its for work and its supposed to be huge. I have handled big projects before so this is not really that difficult although it is my first time doing a site certification. In my mind, it is an easy job and it should not take more than 1 day. Boy was I wrong and in the end it actually took around 2.5 days to complete =_=|||

This coupled with the initial confusion on flight dates, it was chaotic. After the dust have settled down, I went 2 days before the actual work started so that I have at least some time to do some exploration of the city. Since my boss would be there, we could go and visit the Panda Research Center together and that would of course cut down on the travelling cost but it would seem that transportation would be provided by our host and that worked out perfectly because that way we would not get cheated by the taxis.

The driver brought us to have local dishes and other places of interest like Kwan Zhai Xiang Zi, Jinli Street, Shu Ma Guang Chang (its Chengdu's Lowyat). These places are the most accessible and not too far out of the city. If you ask for my opinion, I would suggest for you to visit Jinli Street in the city and Panda Research Center. I did not get the opportunity to visit Leshan Buddha or Er Mei Mountain but I think this places would be of interest as well especially for those who like to take pictures. The further place would of course be JiuZhaiGou and HuangLong if you have a couple of days to spare not to mention be willing t0 pay for the flight tickets.

All in all, the foods are filled with spices and almost unavoidable and the sceneries at the tourist attractions are wonderful. The roads will be an eye opener, 3-5 lanes highways and 2-3 side roads just beside the highways to turn off. Visibility varies from 200m to over 1km. Most of the time the city looks to be covered in a haze. I suppose pollution is quite bad there but I did not get breathing difficulties so it should still be acceptable.

One thing which I cannot get used to would be driving. Their cars are like Americans, left hand drive and drive on the right side of the road. When I sit in the front passenger seat, its like the car is missing the all the driver's things where its supposed to be. Almost all the people there drive like the road belongs to them, move and stop at their fancy. Using the horn as if they are the police speeding to chase after fugitives. The traffic lights do not need to be put up because cars can stop in the middle of a major 4 land road and try to make the turn while avoiding oncoming traffic. I was scared stiff and nobody would volunteer to sit in the front.

I declare I is alien
Shuangliu Airport
Panda Research Center
A real live panda upclose
Cute little cubs!!!
Jackie Chan donation plaque
Panda supply truck
Panda bus, additional RMB10
Wooden-like bus
Kuan (Wide) Alley of KuanZhai Alleys
Zhai (Narrow) Alley
I don't think she is model because she ain't that pretty but look at the amount of photographers she attracted
Blown up candy
So many brands of ciggarates
Chengdu's 三大炮 (3 big cannons)
Police, the car reminds me of Japanese police cars
McD, its real
MaLat Hot Pot
Chengdu's Lowyat aka ShuMaGuangChang
Street food : Fried stuff, the pork satay is DELICIOUS!!!
Street food : Fried potato
Jinli Street
3 kingdoms
Traditional building designs at Jinli Street, I love them
Zhang Fei beef
A souvenir from my host