We were fortunate enough to depart from the newly-built Terminal 3, recently completed in January. A S$1.75 billion project, the Terminal is capable of handling 22 million passengers a year. The members leaving for the Hong Kong trip were naturally excited and in eager anticipation as our teachers, the lovely Mdm Wee, Miss Meta and Mr Chang, handed out passports and gave out instructions amidst incessant chattering and goodbyes exchanged between family and friends.

We departed our sunny island at approximately 8.30am on an SQ flight. We made full use of the 3 hour flight, some utilizing the inbuilt flight entertainment system, some playing cards distributed by the very generous SQ air stewards and stewardesses, while others just slept (I know I did!).

Upon arrival at Hong Kong at around 12:15pm, we were welcomed by our very affable tour guide- Sky!

(This is Sky, and he is always very happy. Always smiling :D)

After transferring our entire haul of luggages and musical instruments into the coach, Sky brought us to a very important place for our very important first impression of Hong Kong.

@ A restaurant named 深井大八方 (I think)

A typical Hong Kong meal consists of rice and around 7 dishes. Note that the roasted goose is in the middle of the picture, because it is the star of the show! It tastes like a oilier, fatter but definitely more flavourful version of our humble duck.

After stuffing ourselves with food, we went to the local Community Centre to view a performance by the Xin Tian Di Chinese Orchestra.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the performance was occupied with the elderly, who had taken time out of their Sunday afternoons to come together to appreciate traditional chinese music. The performance was unexpectedly interactive, as the host (who is also a member of the Orchestra- he plays a mean erhu) introduced each instrument to the audience and held a quick Q&A session. The programme was conducted completely in Cantonese, and it is during times like these when I learn to appreciate the wonders of the Chinese language. Thank God for the powerpoint slides filled with Chinese words (Even though the Hong Kong people speak Cantonese, its written form is vastly similar to the version of Chinese that we know).

After the very educational performance, we were headed to our second taste of the true-blue Hong Kong experience-SHOPPING!

We are not going to put pictures of the shopping centre up, because it is really just another Marina Square, Vivocity and Wisma Atria put together. Favourites like Zara and Esprit are a dime a dozen, not unlike in Singapore.

However, there was something that the shopping centre had that we didn't.

Snoopyland!




Look at Snoopy fishing, playing golf and looking out lovingly into the Hong Kong landscape! The place was filled with hyper kids and couples and photo-crazy tourists (us), and definitely beats the boring old playgrounds or weird ball-filled rooms pretending to be playgrounds that we have in Singapore.

After running through the shopping centre trying to buy stuff in the limited time that we had, we went for dinner. Yay food again!

After stuffing ourselves (again), we finally returned to our hotel and checked out our rooms. Dead beat from the day's galore of activities, we all turned in after a short reflection session, looking forward to another great day in Hong Kong.