Hong Kong Videos

I have finally uploaded all our Hong Kong video's and would like to share some of them:

The Shops at Nathan Road

Clock Tower near StarFerry concourse in Tsim Sha Tsui is landmark from the Age of Steam.

The "Journey of Enlightenment" involves a stunning 5.7 km cable car ride up the side of a mountain on Lantau Island to Ngong Ping Village.







The World's tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha sits serenely atop Ngong Ping plateau amid the the spectacular mountain scenery of Lantau Island.







Ngong Ping Village Shops

A spectacular multimedia event, named the world's largest permanent light and sound show covering more than 30 buildings on both sides of the Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong.

Meet and Greet with UIC Peeps

Being able to meet up with my former co-workers and friends from UIC was one of the best thing that happened on my vacation. I sent my invitation thru text messaging via Jenny and in days she managed to confirm 11 attendants. Isn't that great?

Jenny and I

It was very nice of her to inform them about my invitation and I truly appreciate her kindness. Eversince I got here in Ohio, she never stopped communicating with me. She is always there to chat when I am online or simply left me an offline message whenever she can. I have never told someone before how she warms my heart with her friendship. She was the very least person I thought would communicate with because of the distance. I never got the chance to really know her well and be closed to each other back then, simply because we worked in different campuses. We do talked mostly on matters about our jobs and made sure that we run the same policy, that's about it. Oh wait, I just remembered, I was one of her bridesmaid! Yay, and we do go out in groups and that's about it. Anyhow, most of my friends that I expected to come showed up at Pizzahut, SM.

Its very amazing seeing them after 3 years! None of them aged. Two of them got married while I heard some bells ringing here and there. It seems like I was just gone for few months. We were all busy catching up. I really wished we met up while JJ was still in Davao but he had to leave a week ahead of me due to a conference in Chicago.

L-R: Claire, Jenny, Ate Caring, Ate Ping, Jo Geral, Ate Vangie, and Me, Roy, Sam and Raynan. Elmer and I with Roy in the background (second photo)

Left photo: with Elmer, Claire and Jenny. Right photo: Jo Geral, Ate Vangie and I

With Sam and Raynan

Sam and I used to work together while Raynan works at the Annex campus.

Left photo: Claire used to work with Jenny, holding the Graduate section of the Library. Now she works in UM Tagum.

Right photo: Ate Vangie and Ate Caring both worked at the Technical section of the Library.

The many happy faces. It was great seeing all of you, until next time!

Week One @ Hong Kong

Hi Everyone. It's been awhile since I updated here, JJ and I have been away from a month long vacation to Hong Kong and the Philippines. I just got back last friday November 3rd and to this date, still coping up with my rest.

So where will I start? Maybe from that night of October 6th, where JJ and I were cramming until the last minute getting ready of our luggages and making sure the house was clean before we left. It would be horrible if we come home and there were leftover foods at the refrigerator accumulating molds, a smelly sink, toilet bowl oozing with dirt and what else! So I made sure everything was taken cared of while JJ is getting ready of our tech stuff. He bought me an Ipod at the last minute, great but not-so-good idea! He was having a hard time figuring out how to transfer all our songs into this new gadget plus movies and photos. We also did last minute grooming on Star. I made sure she smells good while at Aunt Carmen's house. We dropped her off at her house 11:30PM Ian, her son had a football game from somewhere.

We were up all night taking care of everything. By the time I was done at the shower 5AM Doug (our friend) was already knocking at our door to pick us up for the airport. We got to the airport, checked our luggages and in 45 minutes we arrived in Chicago where a UA 747 waited us for our 10AM flight to Hong Kong.

October 8 at 5:15PM we are finally settled in our room at JW Marriott Hotel. A 5-star hotel, very cozy and cleaniest hotel I have ever been. We joined JJ's bosses boss, also named Doug and another co-worker from Chicago named Chris for a dinner at Dan Ryan's Chicago Grill inside the Pacific Place, a mall connected to JW Marriott. After dinner, we walked around the mall to get me familiarization among their shops. I was beaming with smile looking at those European named brands. "Smile na lang ako, I promised myself to do good when it comes to shopping". I told myself, I have already enough. Hehe kuripot or just nothing to spend?

The next morning was started with Starbucks across the hotel. What a surprise, they don't open until 7:30AM? How sad is that? Maybe people here are not much into starbucks? We still waited until they open and the customers we saw at that time are all american's. Get the point? Anyway, going back to the hotel. JJ was giving me hints and tips where to go in case I decided to explore the place. I spent a lot of time reading my book and watching foxnews while eating fruits. The hotel provided fruits such as apples, banana and oranges and regularly replenish it. I got myself ready for some exploration at the famous Pacific Mall between 12-1. At first, I don't know where to eat. The Mall was so big that I was scared I get into a high end resto or a place where the taste was unfamiliar to me. Finally, I settled at The Metropolitan Cafe @LG of The Mall. I had chicken panini which really taste good, price was like eating at Panera Bread. Not bad!

I did some window shopping starting off with Mango. They have nice tops a little pricey but I actually fall inloved one at Zara. I also checked out european brands, freakin' expensive to my dismay. There was one purse at LeSportsac that I liked and almost bought but they run out of color that I like besides how many purses can I use at a time? U might think I went back to hotel empty handed? Nope! *Grin* I actually went to watson's and bought personal items of which the total costs was enough to buy 2 tops!

Back to hotel safe. Thanked God I found my way. I slept from 4PM and remembered JJ got back to the hotel at 5PM but I did not woke up until 9PM. He was telling me how he tried to wake me up until he surrendered. We both were lazy to go out so we called for in-room service. Got myself a Hot 'n Sour soup, pizza for JJ that came with salad which I ate. We goofed around finally slept 1AM only to wake up at 5AM.
The next day Oct. 10 we started with Starbucks again. Back to the hotel and finished reading my book, finally! I listened to music since Ipod wasn't working. He accidentally deleted all the music! Went to the mall and bought the tee that I have fallen inloved with. Shopping at Pacific Mall was actually as pricey. So I was waiting until JJ and I can go to the Ladies Market. Back to the hotel and slept again until JJ was almost to the point of spanking me for not waking up. I don't know. I've been so sleepy the last two days. If I woke up right away we would be able to ride the tram going up to The Peak.

Since we are running out of time for the dinner, we rode a taxi only to get there and waited for the chinese co-workers for about an hour and half! sweet!
Anyway, I met JJ's co-workers. Most of them looked like fresh graduates from colleges. They are probably just typical asian's who looked young but are actually old...like me? Bwaahahah! Finally, the dinner was over and I was excited to see the city from the observation deck.

It was very beautiful up there looking at Victoria Harbour with all the lights, it was just romantic! Doug and Chris took the tram going up and down while the chinese co-workers took the bus. Not a single of them took the tram and it wondered us why. We concluded that the tram was quite expensive compared to taking the bus and since they are a resident it probably doesn't excite them as much as the tourist do. We took the tram going down and walk back to the hotel.

Oct. 11, JJ was supposed to work at the office that morning but we got up late. He even missed morning breakfast with the boss. The good thing is, I get to go with him at the Buffet breakfast. We ate like there is no tomorrow. Food was expensive but oh-so-licious. HK $840 for both of us, wait 60USD? We ate so much! It's like we consumed our whole day meal, funny but true, that was all we ate the entire day! Anyway, instead of going to office and dropping me off to the nearest mall, JJ decided to just work at the hotel. Doug and Chris are actually going back to the states early that morning.

Later that day, we went to check Tsim Sha Tsui via the scenic Causeway Bay and with the most inexpensive mode of travel, the Star Ferry. Thanks to Ligaya and Angeli my dearest friends in Y!360 they are my source of info. They give me a lot of tips where to get inexpensive stuff and where to go for sightseeing. We walked back and forth from Tsim Sha Tsui to Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok and Kowloon. There was a lot of shop esp. at Nathan Road and Canton Road. The Avenue of Stars was along Tsim Sha Tsui promenade. It was like the Holywood Walk of Fame. As we walk through it, we saw the Clock Tower near the Star Ferry concourse. Famous at Yau Ma Tei was the Jade Market and Ladies Market at Mong Kok.

The following day we started with a breakfast at McDonalds at the Admiralty. Later, we decided to learn to get to places via the MTR. So we loaded an Octupos card which you can also use to pay for some shops. We headed out to Lantau Island. We first ate at the Spaghetti House and wasted about 2 hours going back and forth the mall looking for a bank who could incashed our traveler's check. Finally, we boarded a cable car to Ngong Ping village. They call it the "Journey to Enlightenment". The ride is 5.7km starting from Tung Chung. You can see the countryside, panoramic views encompassing sea and mountains. Ngong Ping 360 was indeed stunning, a must-see in Hong Kong.

The ride took us to the Ngong Ping Village that has several themed attractions, shops and restaurant. Nearby was the Giant Buddha, the world's tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha. It sits at the top of Ngong Ping plateau. Then we followed the hiking trail of 15 minutes leading to the Wisdom Path, an outdoor replica of the centuries-old Heart Sutra. The sutra was displayed on wooden pillars. I just hope somebody was there to read it for us and translate or explain the meaning. The Lantau Peak was obviously seen even from the Giant Buddha's site and also the Po Lin Monastery. However I don't know why we had no picture of it? Anyway, we boarded the last cable car trip at 6pm back to Tung Chung shops. JJ got himself a replacement tennis shoe. That night we moved to a harbor view room which is half more than the old room. The harbor view was not really something worth paying for. All you can see during the day are the boats and ships, it was always dark and gloomy and you can see how polluted the air was. I got headache the very first day I got out of the hotel. Perhaps what makes it expensive was the fact that you can see the "symphony of lights" at night.

October 13, its our last day and since our flight to Davao via Cebu was not until midnight, we checkout exactly 12noon and left our luggages at the conceirge. We went back to the Ladies Market, they have a lot of inexpensive bags, accessories and bargains of women's clothing. We walked back and forth Nathan Road and I noticed the streets around are dirty and stinky. Somebody even came to JJ and asked him if he wanted to see "hot japanese" and "hot chinese" dancers? I couldn't stand the smell and crowd so we took the MTR going to Wong Tai Sin. We was gonna checked out the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple but we got there just in time for them to close at 5:30PM. Darn, so we went to the adjascent shops. Got nothing and decided to go home. We passed the temple again and saw a lot of tourist going inside. We waited outside and the guards let us in. The lights made the temple very colourful. 3 main religions of china are practiced in here - Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Finally we left for Tsim Sha Tsui and find a place between the Avenue of Stars and the Clock tower to watch the Symphony of Lights. It is a multimedia event, named the world's largest permanent light and sound show accredited by Guinness Book of World Records. It covers more than 30 buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbour. That concludes our night at the famous Hong Kong. Headed back to the hotel to gather our luggages and boarded the bus that took us to the airport.