Year 2 + HK Day 1

school have officially started on monday :C

however, i have to say that i did have a very fruitful and eventful 4 months vacation. having being able to travel to langkawi, bangkok and my most recent destination - hong kong.

for me, i consider traveling a luxury. cause after all, not everyone's that fortunate to be able to travel anywhere they want to, isn't it? its true even for me. there's so many other countries i would like to visit. but many at times, particularly when we're still young, money can be the constraint. especially when i don't come from a rich family (not that i bear any resentment to my parents). but at least, it teaches me to be more independent and work for what i want :)
that's why i am proud to be able to finance my own traveling expenses. it makes every trip so much more worthwhile and memorable. because i had to work hard, literally, and save up my 'salaries' to allow myself to enjoy each holidays. and i always have people asking me how do i actually finance all my trips. but the fact is, i don't spend a fortune on lodging and air tix.
maybe i shall share some tips i swear by:

#1 - PLAN EARLY. i cannot emphasize how important planning your trip WAYWAYWAY before you fly can help you save loads of $$$. and by that, i mean planning it more than 5-6 months ahead.
#2 - SIGN UP FOR JETSTAR MAILERS. this is only if you're not traveling to exotic places of course. check out if jetstar actually fly to the country you wanna head to. they always have friday sales fare and 1-for-1 air tix periodically :)
(ps: i got my air tix to taiwan in oct for only sgd350(1-for-1 deal), with 20kg check-in luggage, which roughly cost sgd800 now)
but i gotta warn you that even during 1-for-1, fastest fingers first is exceptionally important. somehow the price of tix starts to increase with time. hahas.
#3 - GOOGLE FOR CHEAP HOTELS. check out reviews and all before booking as well. but i am not one who actually demands for a 5 star hotel. i believe in saving money on lodging so that i can have more to spend during my trip :)
#4 - PLAN YOUR OWN ITINERARY. check out entrance fees of places of interest, as well as if they have free entry days :)

and that's about it. i enjoy free and easy trips and dislike joining tour groups because i dislike having to go by their schedule and waiting for people all the time. plus, half the time, its cheaper to go for free and easy tours. heh.

back to my hong kong trip. - Day 1
(will only blog about day 1 today. there's far too many pictures. hahas.)
planned this with bff since 2 years ago and finally we were able to make this plan work! plan= heading to hk tgt . had a few hiccups along the way.

so on the 23 aug at 4.40am we checked-in and had a hearty breakfast at macdonalds before heading over to the boarding gate to board our plane .
we knew we had a long day, so breakfast had to be heavy. and it was indeed heavy. we didn't feel the hunger till ard 6pm that day. hahas.

happy us with our boarding pass :DD

after approx. 4 hours, we finally reached HK airport and we took the train to our hotel.


they had super duper long travelators and their MTR (their MRT) is ridiculously HUGE. there are many 'dhoby exchange' within the transit area, cause they have far too many lines. hahas. it was fascinating at first, but throughout the days when we got more and more burn out, the walking seems to be more and more unbearable.
enthu first day!


and finally we arrived at - PRUDENTIAL HOTEL.
pweetty nots ?? hahas.
bathtub sia.
then it was off to mongkok after we've left our things at the hotel.
FIRST STOP - new town mall. a
and we had this YUMMY cold noodles which cost sgd 0.50 ! ♥
cheap grass jelly milk tea with ten times the standard of koi at only sgd 2.
shopped ard and left ard 5pm to head back to the hotel to change for our next stop - THE PEAK.

took the mtr to central and walked to the peak tram station. ohyes, we got some tourist concession mtr ticket which allowed us to take unlimited rides on the mtr. that helped us save a lot on transport fees.




YAY. we finally reached the stop!

got our tram + madame tussauds tix and got onto the tram. we had to queue for awhile tho. the weather was a killer mann.



reached the peak!
next stop - MADAME TUSSAUDS
we had a lot of fun in there! hahas. but shar didnt wanna try out some 'SCREAM' thingy inside with me :C


JAYCHOUUUUU ♥♥♥


we had fun with the costumes they provided. hehe.


photo-taking was not allowed in that shop actually. hahaha. but we managed to get these 2 shots before getting told-off. oops.

after we got out of the wax museum, our stomach finally realised that we haven't had any proper food. growls.
so we decided to settle for HK cafe, which was a lil overprice. i guess its because its a tourist attraction la.
but the portion was pretty huge. we felt like balls after dinner. hahas.

then it was to THE PEAK for some awesome night view of HK.
we had to pay extra to get up to the viewing gallery :C didn't check the tix properly earlier =X
but the view up there was worth it. very pwetty and cooling.
we were told that it would be very VERY cold at the peak. so we were both dressed for the occassion. lame. but it wasn't THAT cold actually. i had my trench coat on and shar had some wool-jacket on with boots. hahas. we forgot that its SUMMER. summer nights cant get that cold.
came down and back to hotel!
one last pic for the night.

Day 2- Disneyland. will blog about it when i find the time ! school's killing/boring me. and making me feel so broke :C just got 2 textbooks today and i could have bought at least 3 dresses with that moolah. sads.


i miss you :C