I finally did it!

It had been a while since I last updated my blog but today is a special day... I finally completed my university education! I spent 1/3 of my life (10 years) on this bachelor degree... and with my undying determination, I finally made it and make my mum proud of me once more!

Time Lapse: ION, Orchard Road

My first time lapse video. Enjoy!



Took about 600 photos over 1 hour to create this time lapse video.

Hong Kong - Day 7

Last day in Hong Kong. Everything was quite rush today... woke up and washed up, took a cab and rushed to Kowloon station to check in my luggage via the airport express check in service. Then went to a shopping mall nearby to have my breakfast, done some window shopping and off i go, on airport express to the airport to take my flight home...


Looking back at my Hong Kong trip, i would love to visit Hong Kong again to visit those places that i have missed or left out and new places as well. But i doubt i will be back to Hong Kong so soon. And maybe the next time i come back to Hong Kong, it will be with someone? hehe


Home Sweet Home

More photos here

Hong Kong - Day 6

Second last day of my Hong Kong trip. I will go easy and slow down my pace today, will try to do some last minute shopping if possible. So i went straight to Central to try Mak's Noodle (Wanton Noodle) for my breakfast since i did not get to eat it the day before. The serving is very small... and so it can barely fill my stomach for breakfast, since i am not full, i have decided to walk over to Wai Kee porridge which is nearby to try their pig blood porridge. It had been so long since i last ate pig blood (pig blood was banned in Singapore due to hygiene purpose for many years already).


After breakfast, i walked out to the main road and hop on to a "Ding Ding" tram, quite a fun ride actually, always saw this kind of trams in those Hong Kong dramas and movies but this my first time taking a ride on it! I went to the upper deck of the tram and sit by the window, start snapping away along the way as i made my way to Causeway Bay. Reaching Causeway Bay, i decided to go for some window shopping around the shopping malls here and this is such a small world! I actually bumped into a reservist camp mate who is also here on a holiday with his girlfriend. After i am done with my window shopping, it is time to find lunch, and i saw this very big signboard restaurant which attracted my attention so i decided to go in and try their food. Ordered their Char Siew Rice, the meat is quite chunky and quite tasty though a bit salty.


Reviewing the photos i took today, i have done quite a number of street shoots today and is quite pleased with the shots i took. Dinner time! Decided to try the korean food in Hong Kong. But very disappointed after trying, the korean food served by this korean restaurant is quite below the standard i expected and surprisingly, this korean restaurant actually won quite a number of awards in the past!


And so that marks the end of the last second day of my Hong Kong trip.




More photos here

Hong Kong - Day 5

And it's day 5! My fifth day in Hong Kong and it is also my birthday haha. Last year, I spent my birthday exploring Ayutthaya in Bangkok ... so this year i am going to do something similar ... that is to go for a heritage tour in Hong Kong and explore the old side of this urban country.


I had breakfast at Australian Diary Company. Saw the breakfast review was not bad so decided to tried it. They also sells steamed milk like Yee Shun Milk Company but i ordered steam egg by mistake haha. Tastes not bad although i also would like to try their steam milk to compare which is better but too bad stomach don't have much room. After breakfast, i made my way to Sham Shui Po, did a little research and found that there is quite a number of very old buildings here which suits the objective of my this photography trip to Hong Kong. I spent about 2 hours exploring this area and even bought myself a new camera strap from one of the camera shop here! hehe.


Next stop, i took a train to Yuen Long. Wanted to visit an old village that have existed since the Qing Dynasty ... did some research and found that this village lives the descendants of an important official serving the Qing Dynasty. I took quite a number of photos at this old village and i spent nearly the attire afternoon checking out this old village under the hot afternoon sun (must have bored those who would preferred shopping in air con malls in Hong Kong!). I visited their ancestral halls, old study halls etc ... i can say a very educational tour haha.


Finishing my heritage tour, i went in search of my very late lunch ... Victory beef ball noodles at Yuen Long ... since i did not get to eat Taf Fei beef ball noodles, i had to try this! Took a cab to reach the place and only to find out it is actually within walking distance from the MTR station haha. The beef balls here really kinda bouncy i find and it reminds me of the chinese comedy "Shi Shen" by Stephen Chow ... feeling some more room for more lunch, i decided to pop by Ho To Tai Noodle Shop which is nearby, read that their prawn roe mee is their specialty so decided to try for myself. And guess what? I ended up buying one box of the noodle back home hehe. After finishing my late lunch, i did some shopping to buy some local products back to Singapore for my colleagues and friends.




More photos here
and here as well

Hong Kong - Day 4

It's day 4 and today i am going to explore Central. Woke up and took a train straight to Central for breakfast. Upon reaching Central station, first thing i am going to do is to find a place for breakfast. So i went in search of Wai Kee porridge, i am not exactly a porridge fan but i heard porridge in Hong Kong is very different from ours (Singapore) ... the rice is boiled so thoroughly that it had dissolved ... it took me not very long to find this porridge place and i ordered lean meat and century egg porridge along with fried dough and rice roll... had a very full and fulfilling breakfast. The porridge indeed tasted different from my mum's porridge and those i ate in Singapore so far.


Next stop, i went in search of Man Mo temple... took a 10-15 minutes walk to reach my destination. Initially I thought the temple was those big and grand type but the temple turned out to be quite modest in size. As today was a weekday, there isn't much tourists around, good! So i toured around and took some shots of the temple interior. After my visit to Man Mo temple, i took another long walk of about 30-45 minutes to further down Central... to take some shots of some iconic buildings such as Bank of China Tower but due to the glaring sun and hot weather, i decided to take just a few photos and took a train back to Sheung Wan station in search of Kau Kee beef brisket noodles which is strongly recommended to me by a friend. It took me quite a while before i find the place and i nearly went into a similar name shop. And alas! i ordered the wrong type of noodle, should have ordered the rice noodle :( but this noodle indeed taste good and the soup broth is very rich with favor. I like! I will eat it again the next time i visit Hong Kong.



After lunch, i decided to take a tram up to The Peak and get ready for sunset photo taking. The journey up The Peak via the tram is pretty fast, along the way i seen for myself how steep the slopes can be, just imagined you had to climb your way up to The Peak! After exploring around The Peak surroundings for a while and i decided to take cover at Starbucks and sit down for a drink to kill some time while waiting for sunset since i can only visit the viewing platform on a single entry basis and it is way too early to go up to the platform now. Time passes very fast and soon i am on the viewing platform and the usual me took an unconventional approach to shoot a different angle from the viewing platform that usually people will do... hehe, too bad there is no sunset to be seen today due to bad cloudy weather but i managed to capture some good cloud movements from the angle where i was shooting! Overall i find the usual photo spot for The Peak had been "shot to death", so i only shoot a couple of shots and left The Peak to look for my dinner, actually intended to eat Mak's Noodle (Wanton Noodle) but they closed too early, so in the end i settled for a typical Hong Kong cafe nearby for dinner. Dinner isn't fantastic though.


And that's it for day 4 for me... resting for the night for day 5!



More photos here

Hong Kong - Day 3

Yes! It's another new day at Hong Kong! Went straight to Yee Shun Milk Company at Yau Ma Tei for breakfast and this time round i tried their chocolate steam milk, very chocolaty i find. Chocolate lovers will loved this! But not me haha :p


My itinerary today shall be Lantau Island and Tsing Ma bridge! After breakfast, took a train to Tung Chung MTR station. There is a CityGate outlet (factory outlets) right next to the MTR station. From there, i took a crystal cabin cable car to visit Ngong Ping 360 village where the Giant Buddha is! Actually i got a fear for heights and was worried whether the cable car will be shaky like the cable car i took before in Genting Highlands, but luckily the cable car is rock steady and soon i was engrossed in snapping here and there till i almost forgotten that i am afraid of heights!


Reaching Ngong Ping 360 village, i briefly walked around and tried their dou hua which they claimed that they used the mountain spring water to make. It indeed tasted quite refreshing and not too sweet! Reaching outside the steps of the Giant Buddha, i spent almost an hour plus at the same spot trying to get a good shot till the extent some tourists actually thought i am a photographer working there and asked if they can pay me to take photos for them! -_-" I did helped a fellow Singaporean couple (their camera battery went flat) and a group of China tourist (from Hainan) took a photo of them and offered to email them their photos. And of course, i provided free service haha.


After i am done shooting the Giant Buddha, i tried their vegetarian food (paid of cos!) and the serving is too big for me to finish alone so i only ate a bowl of rice and did not finish the vegetarian dishes. Went on my way to Wisdom Path for more photo taking and i even tried to climb up to Lantau Peak! But my stamina not good enough (with my bag + cam + tripod) and i also dun have much water left to pull me through so did not manage to finish the climb. But i will be back again someday to attempt this climb again (anyone want to join me? hehe)! Actually i intend to visit Tai O fishing village but by then it is already 4 plus in the afternoon so decided to skip this to go to my next destnation, Tsing Ma bridge to shoot sunset.


Took a mini bus from Ngong Ping 360 village to Tung Chung MTR station and felt asleep on the bus during the ride haha but i did not missed my stop hehe. Did some quick window shopping at CityGate outlet before making my way to Tsing Yi MTR station. I came too late and missed the mini bus (308M) to go to Tsing Ma bridge viewpoint so i flagged down a cab and took the cab to the viewpoint. Upon reaching the viewpoint, i waited for sunset and night fall but since the view isn't great, i decided to be a bit more adventurous to walk around the viewpoint and found a spot at the highway where i took a very nice angle shot of the bridge. But a bridge patrol came shortly after and shoo me off the bridge, but the patrol officer was quite nice and offered me a ride to somewhere nearby the MTR station hehe (saved my cab fare! :x).


And that's it for day 3! Feeling satisfied that i had taken quite a number of good photos i liked :)




More photos here