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! :)