About my trip to Taipei and HK

Hi guys. I haven't seen you all for 8 days already. Did you all miss me? Anyway, I'm going to tell you all about my awesome trip to Taipei and HK for the past 8 days!

My family and I woke up at about 6am on the 18th of December as our taxi was coming at 7am. My brother and I was so excited about the trip that we couldn't sleep the previous night! Our taxi came on time, and we reached the airport at about 8am. The journey to KLIA took us about 45 mins to an hour. We had 1 bag each plus 2 bag packs (my brother and I) and 1 hand carry luggage which we always bring on any trip. So looking at the amount of bags was like: Wow... Then we checked our baggage, leaving only the hand carry and my brother and mine bag packs. We then went to the Plaza Premium Lounge to rest for a while and have some breakfast. The food was quite okay and I even got to use the Internet service there. Since our flight was at 9.20am, we only went to the boarding gate to wait at about 8.50am. When we arrived there, we were just in time.

Our flight was a Cathay Pacific one, and we had to transit at the HK airport before flying again to the Taipei Taoyuan International Airport. We reached the HK airport at about 12.30pm as our flight to HK took us about 4 hours. Then we had to stay at the HK airport for about an hour and a half. Finally, our next flight took off from HK airport at 1.20pm and we arrived at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport at about 2.20pm. When we first arrived at the Taipei airport, it was quite cold as the temperature was below 20. We all had to wear our jackets as the cold wind was blasting onto our skin. We then went to claim bags and guess what?! My mum lost her bag!! It was the first time she lost her bag on an international journey and she says that she wants to go on a shopping spree if her bag really has gone missing and couldn't be found. She could claim some insurance money, about RM500... So it was something new to us all. Anyway, we then did some procedures about my mother's missing bag, and then we took a airport taxi to our hotel, Grand Formosa Regent Hotel. My dad actually went on the wrong side to board the car! You see, in Taiwan, the driver seat is on the LEFT hand side, whereas in Malaysia, the driver's seat is on the RIGHT hand side. So my dad went on the RIGHT hand side of the car, and wanted to get in when he saw the steering wheel in front of him. He quickly changed sides and let the taxi driver to drive instead of him. It took us about 1 hour to reach our hotel, but the hotel was really good. It had a bath tub and a nice, cosy lounge. My brother then checked out the swimming pool on the 4th floor with my dad but the pump was spoilt. Too bad... After an hour of rest, we then decided to go shopping along the roads linking to our hotel. There were all these designer brands next to our hotel:Gucci, Dunhill...After that, we walked to the MRT station (It's like our LRT but better... :P) and bought two whole days cards to be used tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. At the end of the day, the airport sent my mum's missing bag to our hotel. She was happy that she did not have to buy a whole new bag of clothes.

On the 2nd day, my dad had these places to visit in Taipei and we walked like mad! Our legs felt like jelly and we were very exhausted by the time we got back to our hotel rooms. But it was all worth it as we got to see all the beautiful scenic spots in Taipei, but dad, I have to tell you, you should spread out the sites! You're tiring us out! Then the 3rd day was not as tired as the 2nd day, but still as tired. Again, we did more walking... Then on the 4th day, we flew back to HK and checked into Renaissance Hotel. The room here is VERY small compared to the rooms we had in Taipei, but okay la...

On the 2nd day in HK, we visited Macau and joined the local tour there. We didn't finish the tour as we had to leave Macau at 5.30pm and the tour ends at 6.30pm. So we only visited until the Macau Tower. At the Macau Tower, they had this observation deck made on glass floors so you could see the 58 floors under those glass floors. It was a scary sight for me as I was a little afraid of heights. After we visited Macau, we celebrated my Gu Zhang's birthday at Lei Garden. Since my cousin was working here, he told us the quick and easy way to go there using the MTR (It's also something like MRT and LRT, that's why it's so confusing...) Our cousin and cousin-in-law, who arrived from London at the same day as us, was there too, so it was kind of like a family reunion as we always don't get to see each other together. My family and I gave Gu Zhang a tie we bought from the Dunhill store in Taipei. My parents said that they saw the China president, Hu Jin Tao, wear this tie in a picture and thought it might be a very suitable present as my Gu Zhang is the president of Taisei.

On the 3rd day, my family and I went to HK Disneyland. The Disneyland here is quite small, but it's a good start as this was our first Disneyland before we move on to the bigger ones. The only Roller Coaster ride available was Space Mountain, and even that was a little small. Most of the rides there were for small kids: Winnie the Pooh, Tarzan, Disney's Princesses... But I still bought some souvenirs: two pairs of earrings, and a badge to pin on my Leo vest.

Then the 4th day-Christmas Eve. My cousin took us all to eat roasted goose in Tian Jing. We had to take the MTR to Jordan Station, then take a mini bus to Tian Jing. The roasted goose was delicious. My family, my cousin and her husband, and I the took the bus to Mong Kok and took the MTR to Tsim Tsa Tsui. We then wanted to go back to our hotel, but we found this huge crowd walking aimlessly and the road straight back to our hotel was closed already. So we had to walk the LONG way back and i tell you, the road was REALLY LONG!! But we still managed to get some great shots of the Christmas scenery in the city. I'll post some pics later. We then thought that there might be fireworks at 12am and waited for the time to come. But nothing happened. No fireworks, no boom, nothing... But we managed to walk on HK's Avenue of Stars. It was like Hollywood's Walk Of Fame. We saw a lot of HK artists and singers with their hand prints and their signature.It really was quite awesome!

Then comes today. We packed up, checked out of the hotel at about 10.30am, and followed my cousin and cousin-in-law to eat noodles at Mong Kok. It was popular with beef but only I ordered the beef noodles. The beef balls tasted like pork balls, just that their colour was darker. The noodles was okay and we finally said our goodbyes. We then boarded the shuttle bus to the Kowloon train station and took the Airport Express to the airport. We then boarded our Cathay Pacific plane at 3.20pm and reached Malaysia at about 7pm. There were a lot of turbulence along our flight. I could feel the plane going up and down continuously... Luckily we had our seat belts strapped to us. After we arrived at Malaysia, I found out that the rain might be the cause of our turbulence. Our baggage took a very long time to come out and we were afraid that our bags might go missing again... But luckily it didn't. And we took a limo back home to our home sweet home. And now I'm writing this blog, telling you all about my awesome trip to Taipei, HK and also Macau. Hope you guys liked it! :)

All tuitions are finally over!!

ALL MY TUITIONS FOR THE YEAR 2008 ARE FINALLY OVER!! Wow, that's a really big relief. I can now relax and go on my holiday this Thursday, but i don't think so myself... My piano teacher told me to finish all my 2005 papers before I can go off to Taipei and HK. But I have only finished A, not B,C and S yet... How ah? I guess I better finish everything by this Wednesday and pass up to her by putting it in her post box by then, or I will be screwed by my parents for not finishing my hw. So I better start doing those papers, which are 3 hours each..:( I just had my last German class of the year finished at 5pm. I had to do chapters 15 and 16 as my hw, but I have my brother helping me, so I'm not so worried, I think... Holiday, holiday, holiday... Hw, hw, hw...

I'm finally going out to watch Twilight!

I finally managed to book 3 tickets to watch Twilight in big screens surrounded with boxes of popcorn and plastic cups of soft drinks. I've been struggling to reserve/book 3 tickets to watch Twilight, either at GSC or at TGV through online booking. The first day I tried, Thursday, I tried the GSC online reservation service. Since I was a member, I thought that I coukd book the tickets a little earlier and also manage to get some good seats. But when I clicked Twilight, they said that it was FULL! Full, then we don't have to watch already la... Anyway, I tried the other times. The times available were 12, 2.25, 4.40... Since we had to go back at about 5.30, i thought that i try out the 2.25 and 4.40, but they said that it was also FULL! How can that be? Then I tried to book TGV tickets, but they said that to book tickets through TGV online, we need to be 18 years old, have a credit card...... I am only 15, can't TGV be a little more like GSC? Anyway, so I couldn't book the tickets either through GSC or TGV. I almost wanted to book another movie when I thought about the calling system. Besided booking movie tickets online, you can also call their number. It's provided in the English newspaper everyday, i think... SO i tried the calling system yesterday, how come I didn't think about it? Anyway, I called their number: 0383123456. Then it rang twice, and the whole thing started: Welcome to GSC's phone reservation. Please note, that if you are booking for GSC tickets at the Berjaya Times Square or *some other place*, 1 ringgit will be charged upon tickets' collection. For Pavilion, KL, press 1...... While that was playing, I prayed to myself: Please make this calling thing worth my time... Then it came to Twilight movie: Friday, 12thDecember, press 5. Saturday, 13th December, press 6... I quickly pressed '6' and then it continued. "Twilight PG13, press 3" So I did. I pressed '3'. Then it said again: 2.25pm, press 1. 4.40pm, press 2......So I pressed '1'. Then it said: Please enter the number of tickets you wish to reserve. The maximum number of tickets is 6. So I pressed '3' and waited... "Please key in your hp no followed by the # key" So I did what they asked, and waited again...Then it repeated my phone no, and asked me to confirm it by pressing 1, so I did. Then it said something that made me smile: "Your reservation number is 84666, to confirm your reservation, please press 1. Thank you for choosing GSC cinemas, have a nice day." Oh I have a nice day alright, I am going to have a good day. After that I quickly called Leannza to tell her the good news. She was like:" Audrey, YOU MANAGED TO BOOK IT?! WOW!!" Maybe I was a little bit exaggerating, but still... Anyway, I am just sharing my experience of booking movie tickets online and through the telephone. Hope you all share my joy! :)

German, German, German...

Hallo. Meine Name ist Audrey Leow Hui-Li. Und du?

That was a few sentences in German. Here's the translation for those sentences...

"Hello. My name is Audrey Leow Hui-Li. And you?"

The reason why I wrote these sentences is because I just had German class this morning, at 9.30am till 11am. She actually extended the time, the class was supposed to be a 1-hour-lesson. The lesson was going on quite smoothly, when almost at the end of the lesson, she suddenly said: "I don't think we have enough time to finish our lesson for the year, so I'm suggesting that we have extra lessons this week and also next week as you all are going to Taiwan and HK next, next week..." What? Extra lessons? And I thought normal German classes were a little tiring already. or that was what my brother thought? I was okay with the extra classes but my brother was already making noises once she was gone. " What was she thinking?! Extra classes, I am going to DIE already from all the classes and she is telling me that she wants to have EXTRA CLASSES? Is she out of her mind?" Oh, did I tell you that the first extra class is tomorrow, starting from 1pm to 2pm? Then my brother has guitar lessons from 2.30pm. That is why he was complaining so much about the extra classes...

Anyway, I haven't done the German hw she gave today yet, and I still don't have the mood to do it yet... So how ah? I think she gave a lot of hw today... :(

TIme which passes by slowly...

Life now after school and PMR is very boring... Although I have books, anime, movies, outings, TV shows, Internet and music to accompany me, I still feel very bored! Man, I hope that my family and I can go to Taipei and HK real soon! I'm not sure what the journey's like, but I want it to be a surprise... I'm not like my brother who wants to know everything first before he does it (if you get what i mean...), I love surprises. So I decided to not know about the trip until they tell me, means that I'm not going to ask them (my parents) what the trip's like, what will we do on the trip and how's our flight... All I know is that we are going to stay in a quite good hotel (I even checked the website...), the rest I don't know... Haiz, time really passes by VERY SLOWLY now...

No going jogging today!!

Hello. I know this title sounds weird, but it's actually a good title! See, my brother and I always have to go jogging every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. And today is a Friday, so we are actually supposed to go today... My brother and I were talking about it yesterday about why do we have to 'suffer' like this, and slept that Thursday night dreading that Friday morning when our mums will wake us up... Then, this morning, I woke up at 9am drowsily, looked at the clock, and asked myself : "How come it's not 6.30am?" I then went out of my room and saw my brother playing computer games wearing his pyjamas. I asked him: " Hey Brian, did we go jogging today?" He said: "It rained this morning, so we did not have to go!" I almost shouted with joy (No, that's a little bit too exaggerating..) But I was really happy that we did not have to jogging for at least a day...

Hi. I just came back from my trip back to my father's hometown in Ipoh yesterday. And my mum bought a lot of goodies back with her, so you can imagine how filled my mother's car boot is. Anyway, the reason why we went back to Ipoh was because we wanted to send my grandma home. She doesn't quite like it here in KL so we decided to send her back to her home in Ipoh with my 2ND aunty and uncle. I think she prefers to live there than to live in KL (She looks quite happy there). So, besides sending my grandma back home, we also should have some fun, right? So my 2nd aunty and uncle took us to enjoy the delicacies of Ipoh. We tried some delicious food in some restaurants and also tried some hawker food at some mamak stalls. After that, we went to the Ipoh Parade and shopped till we drop. There was a Thai Culture Fair at the Ipoh Parade at that time, so we had a great time buying nice Thai goods at a cheap price (Even the shirt I'm wearing now was from there...). Besides that, there was also a sports complex (I think that's what it's called...) in Ipoh. So we went to play badminton and had a good time swimming with a few friends my brother and I met in Ipoh. On Monday, my father had to go to Penang to settle some things, so we stayed here in Ipoh. Did I tell you that our trip was 5 days 4 nights, from Saturday to Wednesday? Anyway, he was supposed to come back on Wednesday, but he came back a day earlier, on Tuesday. We also brought our laptops there. Although there were no Internet connections there, we still could play some games on the laptop and not bore ourselves to death. I also finally finished my third Percy Jackson book: Percy Jackson and The Titan's Curse. That book was okay, but I want to read the fourth book. I think it's not out yet, so I'll wait. On that Wednesday, I still had piano theory class at night! But I still made it in time back for that class...

Well, that's all I could say about my trip back to Ipoh. Hope you can share with me about your trips during the holidays... And why do I feel like I am writing a composition about 'How I Spent My Holidays'? Oh well... :)