Happy 14th Birthday, Marieann!

14 years ago, you were born. You remain a precious gift to me. I see part of me in you and I also see you growing into your own person.

Happy 14th Birthday, Marieann!

Be yourself and reach for your dreams! 

PS. Finally, her birthday is not the first day of school again. :)

Hong Kong Trip 2015 Day 4 Part 1 Ngong Ping 360

We woke up early today as I bought our tickets for Ngong Ping 360 Crystal Cabin experience at 10:15am. The MTR journey from Tsim Sha Tsui to Tung Chung took about 55 minutes. We arrived at Ngong Ping 360 just before 10am. I was really glad that I bought our tickets online. The queue for the ticket purchase was very long! We were fast-tracked to the queue for the crystal cable car which was also shorter than the queue for the standard cable car. :) 

In the MTR train

Juliane walking ahead in the fast track lane

Within 10 minutes, we were in our crystal cable car! It was pretty scary looking all the way down to the ground as I am afraid of height. It was quite a cold day so the mountains were shrouded in mist/ fog. The cable car journey took about 25 minutes. It was quite exhilarating, minus my fear of heights. :) 

In the cable car on the way to Ngong Ping 360

The crystal bottom

Quite misty/ foggy

Arrived at Ngong Ping 360

I spent quite a bit of time taking photos of Hello Kitty! Lol. We bought quite a fair bit of souvenirs at the first shop we entered haha. We walked through Ngong Ping Village and to Tian Tan Big Buddha. However, we didn't walk up to the Big Buddha when we saw how many stairs it took to get up to the top. :P We tried some local snacks such as spicy fishballs, egglet, glutinous rice cake which were delicious. We left Ngong Ping close to 2pm.

I was thrilled to be taking photos with Hello Kitty

More Hello Kitty!

Juliane and her wish

Making my wish

General Kumbhira who represents the Boar

Tian Tan Big Buddha right at the top

General Andira who represents the Monkey

A HUGE Lucky Cat, we both need lots of luck for the coming year

Trying Spicy Fishballs (requested for only a little sauce)

More local snacks: egglest and glutinous rice cake

Our return trip in a Hello Kitty cable car! 

The crystal bottom with Hello Kitty on it

Still quite misty/ foggy

Bye bye, Hello Kitty cable car

We had McDonald's lunch at Citygate Outlets because I wanted to try the Hokkaido Salmon burger lol. After lunch, we went straight to the Kipling outlet. After 40 minutes, we left Kipling with 2 backpacks and a handbag which costed me a total of SGD$235 (40% discount)! :D We left soon after as I have already got what I wanted. 

We headed back to Kowloon for our night adventure.

Christmas Eve 2013

It is the eve of Christmas. For us, it is quiet and normal like any other day of the year, ok, except for Chinese New Year because there are CNY traditions to follow and do.

Here is wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2014! :)

Favourite CNY Decor

My favourite CNY decor is not at any of the shopping malls (not that I have visited that many malls haha) but the one at Botanic Gardens Visitor Centre, Tanglin Gate.

I am pretty sure there is an official name for it by BG but I personally like to call it, The Tree of Hope. It is a tree with paper cranes of red and yellow hanging down from the branches. I think there should be a 1000 paper cranes hanging from the tree. It is a simple idea but very unique and symbolises the new hope and wish for the Chinese New Year just as well as the usual Chinese Zodiac sign of the year, which is the Ox for 2009.



I guess this CNY decor is special to me because I once folded a 1000 paper cranes (using 5cm by 5cm size paper) by myself. For someone who is impatient, I am still suprised that I had the patience and determination to fold 1000 small paper cranes. The cranes are still somewhere in Australia lol. It was a very special memory and moment for me. :)