Trip 2008 (1)

My trip to HK and Japan came so quickly.

It seem only yesterday that my friend mention in passing of trip in March, and I told him I was interested as well, and here we are, several months later, blogging from Hong Kong.

It still doesn't feel so real yet, as I was still working until the last day, and getting on the flight at night doesn't give me time to settle and think.

The flight was pleasant, apart from the new Cathay seats, where you are not able to recline the back part of the seats. The food was the worse I've had. Its the first time in any trip that I did not eat breakfast. How can one swallow the watery scrabbled eggs?

The first day I was back, I spent half the day trying to renew my China travel documentation. The rest of the day I did alot of things - karaoke (Neway - songs were old, but they did have internet access in the room), buying a camera (considered Casio and Olympus, but eventually reverted back to the old favourite, Canon), eating street food (stinky tofu) and eating great food (baby lobster that have not grown yet - it looks cruel at first but the flesh is so tender, also had duck stuffed with scallops and other treasures). Apart from spending time with my relatives on the first day, it was also great spending a few hours with my friend from church, who was flying back to Sydney that night. It was great to be with a familiar face on the first day, and we chatted in English like we do in Australia, to the dismay of some people in the busy streets of Mong Kok.

Today is the second day, and being a Sunday, I went to a local church with my auntie. Similar to my experience in previous years, the sermon in local churches in Hong Kong is very shallow and did not contain any exegesis. The point about obeying God's law (based on a passage in Leviticus) was hammered for about an hour, but what the speaker did not mention is that most of us are not able to do so. The speaker did not explain the impact of Jesus and the NT on the law. The role of the law is to show us that we are sinners, and that we need Jesus, but this was not emphasised in the sermon. The face that I picked this up may yet be God talking to me again and trying to show me something in my life that I may not want to face at this point in time.

Went to yum cha with my relatives after church. My cousin asked me whether I have any plans of getting married or owning a property. This is so embarrassing. What can I say? That at this age, I am still so troubled in my relationships with others and that even if I have plans, they may not eventuate anyway? So sad.... =(

The afternoon was spent walking around the new shopping complex Elements with one of my travel buddies, and going into all those designer label stores. The service was extremely good (with special mention going to the IWC stores who spent a long time showing us the watches and allowing us to try them on, but no matter how nice they were, I think it is too excessive to spend $7,000 to $15,000 AUD on a watch). I also had a great time looking at the H&M store. It is the first time I've seen this brand (which is associated with Madonna) in Hong Kong. Had Japanese dinner with an old friend from church who has came back to Hong Kong with her husband a year ago, and it was great catching up. She is also working at the Hong Kong office of the firm I am working for in Sydney, and we were also talking about the various people that we know and the gossips that are associated with them.