HONG KONG - SHENZHEN - MACAU 2007

DAY 5


It's the official last day in Hong Kong!! At least for me...haha...since mr quek wud hang ard sipping latte at Central for another 2 more days aft our macau leg...while clem still hav at least another month to go...having to play tour guide to his family...his gf and another grp of friens till early jan...well well...woke up this morning deciding to treasure mine last official day in town...certainly wud be a long time for me to come back to this lovely city aft making 2 trips here in a matter of 3 yrs...wah it wud be a dream come true to one day work here la...certainly not for the nxt 2 years at least...sighz...


we decided to juz spend this beautiful saturday juz wandering and exploring the big malls on the outskirts of town...according to clem a few big shopping malls have been constructed over the past couple of years in places like kowloon city and kowloon bay away from the bustling tsim sha tsui and mongkok districts...a good idea and initiative to ease congestion in the downtown area...so might be worth our time to pay a visit to these new and up & coming malls...so First Stop on our itinerary: Megabox!

Met clem at kowloon bay MTR and we dropped by at Telford Plaza for Macs Big Breakfast...as i was fishing out my wallet to pay at the counter...realised that i am oni left with my last piece of HKD500...no doubt further strengthened my resolve to make a giant killing at the casinos in Macau tmr!! haha...took a free shuttle bus to MegaBox frm telford plaza...which is abt 15minutes away...

turns out that MegaBox is juz a giant copy of cineleisure back home...lol...explored the place for a few levels...other than a ice-skating rink nothing spectacular really...the shops are also almost anywhere u can find in MK and TST...and the shopping crowd is measly thin for a wkend in HK...perhaps hongkies only shops on wkdays and spend their wkends cozing up at home...we got a little lethargic no less...and simply do not want to spend the next half of the day wandering ard in another copycat gigantic 'ghost town' mall...and with that a crazy yet feasible idea juz dropped on us spontaneously...why not head to Shenzhen?!!?!!

haha...i mean we did hav shenzhen in mind when we planned for this trip...but decided all together to cancel it...since it will be a real bother to go thru the immigrations...travel all the way up north wif not a single Reminbi in our wallets...figure out that we might not even hav enough time to explore all the places in HK so decided to shelve the shenzhen plan for good...haha...little did we know we actually got bored wif HK...and all of a sudden...we found ourselves making our way to shenzhen wifout a tinge of immigration...money and safety concerns...haha...juz so typical when the 3 of us gets together...juz going ahead with nothing but our destination in mind...life is short yah...juz do wadever comes to ur mind la...lol...

found out that we had to the MTR all the way to Lok Wu...den transfer to a train passing by the vast sparsely builtup mass of New Territories...crossed a small river...before arriving on the Mainland...my goodness sounds like some route taken by some illegal immigrant from the mainland...juz that we r heading in the opp direction...wah feelin quite excited abt landing my feet on the mainland for the first time...when i can officially say i step foot onto my motherland where my ancestors hail from...maybe i shud even be more drama and start to kiss the floor immediately aft corssing the immigrations in shenzhen...hahaha...

mr quek and me in the 1st class cabin train carriage on our way to shenzhen...a super impromptu last min trip...haha

to our surprise...it turns out to be quite a breeze passing the immigrations in shenzhen...we juz hav to fill in a white card similar to the malaysia one...and show our passport can liao...the queues for foreign visitors are also unexpectedly short for a wkend...most were hogging the HK citizens and mainlanders queue though...stop over for lunch at one of the restaurants near the immigration building...u could almost immediately recognise u r in mainland china the moment u step into the restaurant...the people's faces are sharply diff from hongkies...their dressing less trendy...and all over the folks were conversing in mandarin and not canto which i somehow gotten used over the week...and of coz the whole restaurant was filled up with cigarette smoke...and the mainlanders certainly muz eat their meals wif a puff in hand...to our reliefs...we were able to pay for our meals in HKD...at some pre-discounted rate though...to think now reminbi is even stronger than HKD...gone were those days where hongkies literally live the lives of emperors in shenzhen...heh

welcome to shenzhen!!

as a safety precaution...we decided not to take any photos beyond the immigration checkpoint...in order not to act too touristy...placed our wallets in our front pockets...and keep a lookout for stalkers...i mean hav heard bountiful stories of pple getting mugged in shenzhen even in broad daylight...somemore one look can tell we r not locals based on our dressing and looks...betta play safe den be sorry seriously...so apologies for not showing any more photos of this rapidly developing industrial city of shenzhen...

more on our shenzhen adventure now...at first i really dun believe stories of how pple can actually rob in broad daylight...not till i see the menacing scenes on the streets of shenzhen...streetwalkers pranced the alleys...beggars scouring dangerously as u walked by...children defecating in public walkways...police lazing in street corners chit chatting chirply on their hp instead of patrolling the streets...street hawkers that u can only find in sungei buloh popping out at every street end...and strangers seemingly stalking u...yes apparently there was this guy who seem to be following us for quite a moment...i mean three pairs of eyes cant be wrong right...aft walking past a few streets...i was already regretting our decision to come here with so many curious stares in our directions...with our strange accent and our dressing...we were certainly out of place to the max la...i wud certainly feel so much at home in JB lo without question...i even thought the police might juz be in cahoots wif the robbers and instead of saving u frm the bandits might juz shoot u wif their revolvers instead...even downtown las vegas feel more safe la...tsk tsk...

we ventured into a few shopping malls on the main street...and were surprised to find out most were empty so we carried out walking further up north and somehow or another landed ourselves in a large scale outdoor shopping bazaar in a place call Dongmen...the crowds were certainly all here...the place reminds me of ximending in taipei...haha...somehow we actually manage to find ourselves in this shopping hotspot with no directions and maps...went into a building with shops selling all kinds of imitation electronic gadgets...psp...sd cards...bluetooth sets...ipod nanos...handphones...and every shop is eerily similar selling almost the same kind of things...i suppose that's how it is so competitve that the moment u walk away from the shop front...the salesgal will call u back asking u to requote ur price...had a helluva day bargaining upside down with these ladies...and all of 3 us came out with something at the end of the day...can u believe there is a 120gb thumbdrive that sells for only S$20?!! and a ipod mini 8gb that sells for S$25??? of coz all r imitations...but the skill of the imitation is really impressive...one can hardly tell the real and fake apart without closer examination...no wonder they say china is the factory of the world...yah rite factory of pirated goods in the world...haha

by the time we got out of the gadget mall it was already late aftnoon...explored the nearby outlets for a while...managed to get a pair of 'longines' couple watch for dad and mum...before we decided to head back to HK...and before it gets dark of coz...i certainly do not want to be trapped here siah...with that fear-provoking thought in mind...we paced back quickly from the way we came from and we realized we actually ventured quite deep in...haha...took us like almost half an hour to walk back to immigrations...the journey back was not as smooth as we came...got pulled over by the immigration officer at shenzhen for not looking like my photo in the passport...needed to convince them that i put on weight and that photo was shot almost 8 yrs back la! den gotta rejoin the queue at hk side coz forgot to fill in the white card...wasted almost 45minutes juz to queue up...and we were all dead tired and hungry...

decided to drop at kowloon city on the way back for dinner...searched in vain for food at the shopping mall festival walk there b4 heading out of the mall hoping can find some da pai dang...bash thru the city university campus and finally managed to find one decent eatery...by this time the weather was dropping fast...and we were looking fwd to some piping hot dish for dinner...it doesn't help that mr quek felt unwell midway in our search...muz be caused by the bad air and unhealthy environment in shenzhen...

passed by the uni on our way to dinner

my captures from shenzhen

aft reinvogorated by a decent dinner we decided to call it a day frm the restaurant...me and mr quek took a cab back to our hotel as it was a betta idea den walking back to the MTR and take a train or standing in the chilling winds waiting for a bus...somemore it was a wise decision to go back pack our stuffs to check out tmr and rest early for the ferry ride to macau tmr...

an unexpected trip up north to shenzhen...which is certainly an eye opener of the trip...no doubt the street images of shenzhen will stay wif me for a long time...perhaps hopefully one day this poor cousin of HK will no longer be seen in the shadows but as a true global city of its own...till den lots need to be done to improve the cleanliness, environment, streets and of coz the lives of the people...