Day 4 - Morning Travel Shenzhen to Hong Kong

Sunday 9 December 2007

Today would be our last day in Shenzhen. We would be going back to Hong Kong later. But 1st order of the day was as usual, breakfast. Breakfast was at the same restaurant as we did yesterday morning. When we got to the restaurant, the place was full with Malaysians or Melayu to be more accurate. Hummm......guess for Muslim tours, this restaurant has been "pajak" to serve the Muslim tourist especially the ones from Malaysia.

Hot buns sold at restaurant where we had breakfast

After breakfast, we went back to our hotel to collect our bags and checked out after that. This morning we would be taking a coach back to Hong Kong since we would be joining other Malaysians tour groups.

When we got onto the bus, it had already picked up the others. Alamak....ah sohs (aunties) and their loh kongs (husband in Cantonese) and families. Ni yang tak best ni...sikit kurenggggg with these people. Bukan sebab apa-apa....just that they were pretty "loud", if one knew what that meant. We were no racist but excuse me, could we travel in peace please? No choice...tak pe lah...I said to myself.

ABE and kids queuing outside Shenzhen Immigrations

We were then taken to the Chinese Immigrations Complex for clearance. Again we queued as how we did when we entered China that day. Unfortunately, Lychee couldn't follow us back to Hong Kong. She assisted us at the Immigrations and then told us that we would be joining the other group and their guide would be of our assistance.

Muni and kids also in queue at Shenzhen Immigrations

MINAH Comboy's hairdo...but it wasn't any close to this

The OTHER tour guide...ummm....I must talk about this woman (too bad I didn't manage to get her picture). My first impression of her was, cowboy mana plak terlepas ni???? There she was, in jeans and boots (I guess boots were just so in fashion in Shenzhen...so she decided to have em on her...ha...ha) and some "scissors cut" t-shirt (haiya...dunno how to describe lah....but it looked so, so trashy....me wouldn't want to be caught dead in somethin' like that!!!) And the most striking thing about her was her hair. It was a tak menjadi Vic Beckham's hair do and it was dyed BLUE!!!! That's it....CONFIRM mai tang "bukit" mana la ni.... Anyway, I decided to call her MINAH Cowboy.

I cleared Immigrations pretty fast. The rest in my group were still in the queue. MINAH Cowboy and some of the people in her group had also cleared Immigrations. So when I saw her waiting in some corner, I asked her, "Do we follow you?" And she gave me one very "kurang ajar" (rude) reply. Almost screaming she said , "UP TO YOU!!!"

Eh..hello....MINAH...cakap baik-baik boleh tak??? By then, I could feel "panas" on my face and that was it...I told myself, this MINAH was just asking for trouble. Jaga kau!!!

So I yelled back at her..."Excuse me....helllooooo........what do you mean by UP TO YOU!!!" And I gave her my most "dirty" look. She walked away with her people and I stayed put, waiting for the rest.

Then on the bus, she was talking loudly in Cantonese. By then, I had declared WAR with MINAH Cowboy. Then suddenly the bus jerked and wanted to leave and some of the people in my group were not yet on the bus. I said to her.."Hey!!! There are still people who are not on the bus yet!!" She then replied, "Kita nak reverse bus saja." I replied back..."Lain kali cakap what you want to do can ah??"

By now, she knew that I was no one she could fool and mess around with. I was so upset with her, when I went up the bus, I physically bushed her off with my backpack. Ha..hah...now you see sapa yang cowboy...me or you!!!

That was a good 1 hour of tensed situation. My kids didn't say a word coz' they knew, you mess with Mom, woman...you've had it. She fights back. You'll be lucky if she didn't bite...hah..haha.

View of ships on the way to Disneyland

Alhamdullilah, things went OK after that. MINAH Cowboy saw that we were no "lekeh" (in Neghori dialect, it meant "ordinary") people whom she could treat like dirt. So she went over to ABE and Muni's husband, Dolah and explained how to go about in Disneyland later.

I eavesdropped on what she was saying. OK lah...good enough info for us to go into Disneyland. It's just going into Disneyland, not rocket science mahhh. I was sure there were signages in English and surely folks in park speak English as well. After all, this is a Walt Disney park, ain't it?

After about 1 1/2 hour ride in the bus, we were finally in DISNEYLAND!!! The bus dropped us at the coach parking area. After organizing ourselves and our things, we were all ready to see Mickey and gang.

So, Disneyland here we come.

Day 3 - Shenzhen City Tour

Saturday 8 December 2007

It was another early morning for all of us. We were to have quite a long day today. The day started with breakfast at 7.30am. Breakfast was at same restaurant where we had dinner last night. Breakfast was a heavy one that morning - fried rice, scrambled eggs and noodles.

A bicycle spotted outside the restaurant

Our program for the day was visit to Splendid China, a cultural park where one would be able to see the different tribes and interesting cultures of the Chinese people.

High rise in Shenzhen

More modern buildings in Shenzhen

Our guide Lychee started off with more intro on Shenzhen. She was explaining how rapid was the development in Shenzhen and how the city would play an important part in the coming Beijing Olympics. All of a sudden, she started talking about a theme park which was not in our itinerary - Windows of the World. She was then giving rates to the park and was coming on quite strong in getting us to go to the park. If we agreed, we'd have to pay like another RM500 plus per family. Huh....this was too much. We told her that since this was not in the tour, there was no point us going there. Looking at time and the amount of walking the kids and Mom would have to do, both Muni and I decided not to go for the Windows of the World tour. Lychee seemed a bit upset but we were the ones paying for it. So she'd just had to respect and accept our decision.

The bus or coach (which Lychee happily pronounced as "couch") took us to view Windows of the World from its entrance. I guess this was the usual tactics of tour guides wanting to make some extra income from innocent tour groups like us. Too bad for Lychee, we didn't fall for her persuasions.

It took a while for Lychee to figure out where she was to take us next since there were no takers to Windows of the World. She then decided to take us to the Jade Museum. OK...we figured...a museum would be good to start with in the morning.

Customers by the bus loads to the shopping places a.k.a museums

When we got to the museum, there were already lots of people queuing to get in. We were greeted by a young lady who then explained to us the different types of jade. There were green jades, purple jades, white jades and also blood red jade. Wow...I never knew that there were jades of many different colours.

Once she finished with her story on jade, she led us into another room. Thadaaaa.......it was a showroom where jades and jewelery of all kids were sold. Ha..hah...so much for going to a museum huh!!!

My ardent shopping supporters

As the saying goes...ladies...glitters ...they attract!! And that was what precisely happened. When the lady was explaining the science of purple jade earlier, I had already set my eyes on them. So as soon as I got into the showroom, I went straight looking for the purple jade. There were a couple of jade bracelet on display but my eyes were all set on the purple one. With the girls as my supporter, it didn't take me long to get a sweet purple jade bracelet for myself.

After my damage on the bracelet, Mom got herself a crystal jade bangle and a matching set of dark green jade bracelet and ring. Muni too got something for herself, a multiple colours of jade bracelet. The best thing about this place was..they even accept Malaysian Ringgit. Haa......a definite place where damage was to happen. After the "rush" for the jade stuffs, we also got some tea for friends and family back home.

Nissa & Ayna...that's all tea in the bag!!

When we came out of the jade museum, Lychee was all smiles. Why?? This was definitely better than Windows of the World...her commission on our purchases were ready for collection. I guess she's still new at this tour thingy. One thing for sure...with Malaysian groups, be sure to take them shopping. You'll be on your way to the cash register in no time :-))

Next , Lychee took us to a silk shop. Unfortunately, there was nothing very irresistible or with a calling "BUY ME" tag for us to get.

Way to Muslim restaurant

All the shopping got us very hungry after that. Next stop was lunch. On the way to our lunch place, Mom asked Ayna about the camera she had earlier passed to the girl. Ayna, with a panic look, searched in her bag. But......tak dak!!! Alamak...there goes one camera!!! What to do, as Mom put it, "Tak de rezeki...biar lah." True in some ways...but it was sheer carelessness too, if I were to sum it up simply.

Roti sold at the restaurant

The happy faces...after lunch, of course!!

After lunch, Mom and the rest of the gang performed solat at the restaurant. They opened up a room for them to pray.

We then boarded our bus heading towards our next destination - Splendid China. It was a big theme park depicting all the interesting landmarks of the big country. The park tour started with a warrior show, groups of men on horses showing their skills riding and fighting on the horses.

After that we went on a tram ride to see the interesting replicas of China's landmarks. There was the Great Wall and also the gardens and lakes in Hangzhou. So...apa lagi picture and posing time lah.

The tour in the park ended with a cultural show. All the different minority groups in China showed its elaborate costumes and dances. What a colourful show it was.

By the time we left the park, it was dark and we were all so tired. Dinner was next and we were heading back to the restaurant we we had breakfast this morning. It was quite a long drive and I ter"doze" off in the bus. What a day....

Dinner was good and we ate almost everything that was served. After dinner we asked if Lychee could drop us off at the shopping place. Mom, Abe and Nissa didn't want to hit the streets anymore, so we sent them back to the hotel. The girls, Faris and I were ready to shop again that night.

We spent a couple of hours at the shopping place. Got more stuffs and souvenirs for kids' friends. The girls got themselves Giordano t-shirts and Lesportsac bags. By the time we decided to call it off for the night, it was almost 10.30pm. We hailed down a cab, this time a real cab...not taxi sapu as it was in the previous night.

The cab ride back to hotel didn't take us long. When we got out of the cab, everyone was smiles all over. Mana tak nyer.....shopping sakan and they managed to get good bargains for the things they bought too. In the lift up to our rooms, I was thinking to myself....gosh, I see the making of my shopping proteges in these kids.

Day 2 - Train Ride to Shenzhen

The afternoon of Friday 7 December 2007

After HK city tour & lunch, we got onto train to go Shenzhen. The ride took us about 45 minutes to get to the last station - Lo Wu.

The ride was a pleasant one, with views of the busy streets of Hong Kong and the flourishing commercial towers and shopping centers and officers.

Check out the old woman standing behind ABE.. Did ABE offer his seat??

Your guess and mine were right .... no way ABE was going to offer his seat.

Halfway during journey, came in an old woman with packs of old newspaper. The train was slightly packed with commuters by then. She so happened to park herself near ABE's seat. Kids were already looking at ABE to see if he was going to offer the old woman a seat. Ha..ha...tak de nyer ABE bangun!!! So he buat la ala-ala advertisement kat TV3 tu...yang Adlin buat-buat buta and didn't want to give up his seat to the needy ones. Kids said, "Tau dah...Daddy won't give up his seat." And I wasn't at all surprised......ABE bole...even in Hong Kong :-((

Good for you lah ...Ah Ma....she must be sayin' this, "Me need none of your seats...me could sit on me old newspaper!!"

But I guess the old woman was pretty used to young people not wanting to give up their seats. So, she was pretty smart. In no time, we saw her gathering her collection of newspapers and boxes and she comfortably sat on them. Yesss....that's the spirit old woman!!! She went down 2 stops before us and my cheers went to her for being self sufficient and creative.

Crossing over...from Hong Kong into China

We then came down at Lo Wu station, which was also the last station. It was quite a walk to the Immigrations on the China side. There were some slight confusion over filling up our forms and also locating our China tour guide. But once we managed to meet up our guide, things went smoothly afterwards. So we lined up again....according to the names listed in the document for our Immigrations clearance.

Once everyone has cleared Immigrations, we followed our tour guide to the bus, which was parked at the other end of the Immigrations complex....so we had to walk further. Kids were ok with the walk. Mom (age 68 and still goin' strong) was ok too.....but ABE was the cranky and grumpy one. By then, the kids didn't want to "layan" him already. I saw the look on Farah's face....and it had this written all over her..."Haiya..Daddy...u walk la....just like everyone else....no driver here....this is not one of your TNB Indian trips....where you've got drivers waiting for u hands and feet!!". Nasib baik Farah tak laser kan ABE...knowing her...push comes to shove ...she would just blurt it out.

In the bus to the hotel, our tour guide introduced herself. We've got a sweet and young girl whose name is Lychee. Yup.....just like the fruit!!! And what a coincidence too, lychee is the famous local fruit of Shenzhen. Lychee then gave us some brief intro of Shenzhen.

We were then taken to our hotel to first check in and then we came down after that to go for dinner. Dinner was at a Muslim restaurant, not far from the hotel were we were staying.

Haiya...ate so much ...face still poyo ka???

Tired and hungry, kids did justice to the food. In no time, we finished what was served to us. Alhamdullilah...rezeki jangan ditolak..as how the old folks put it.

After dinner, Lychee asked us what we wanted to do. Do we want to go back to the hotel and rest or do we want to go do some shopping. Waaa.......shopping la of course!!! It was the unanimous voice from the ladies. ABE gave that "poyo" look....but who cares. By then, the kids really didn't want to layan their cranky ole' man. He..he...I told ABE loosen up a bit...this was the kids' holiday, remember!!! By then...I too...wasn't in the mood to layan ABE.

TGIF and shopping atmosphere in Shenzhen

So...it was shopping time!!! By the time we got to the Dong Men shopping area, it was already so packed with people. That night being Friday night, a lot of people were out in the street having fun...TGIF maaa.

Farah looking at the mountain of shoes on SALE

We walked around, got a table cloth and a Burberry look alike handbag for Mom, some stuffs for the kids and a game for Nissa's gameboy. I looked at my watch and it was already 10.00pm. Mom looked exhausted already and so was Nissa. Had it been just me and the girls, we would still be shop hopping. Ok la...I guess, it was time to go back.

Our guide had earlier told us that we could just hail a cab to get us back to the hotel. However, when we showed the cab drivers our hotel card, they didn't want to take us there. In the end, we managed to get two cars to take us back to our hotel. It was like "taxi sapu" in KL. But these "taxi sapu" were Hondas and Toyotas. We had to pay slightly more than the normal cab. But it go us back to hotel. Suspence jugak...tempat orang...mana lah tau..tourists are the most likely people that could get tricked. Tawakkal saja la....Alhamdullilah...we got back to our hotel in less than 10 minutes.

Kids then went into their own rooms. In no time everyone was in slumberland. I felt a slight cold coming down on me. So...I took 2 panadols and that knocked me up till morning.

Day 2 - Hong Kong City Tour

Friday 7 December 2007

The wake up call from the hotel was at 6.30am. But most of us were already awake by then. Kids had some light breakfast in their rooms and Mom had her usual stuff for breakfast. We would be checking out of our hotel that morning as later in the afternoon we would be heading to Shenzhen.

We met at the hotel lobby at 7.30am. As we would be taking the train to Shenzhen, we had reorganized our luggage. Leaving the big bags behind, only bringing along two of our smaller luggage.

Early morning traffic crawl heading into the city.

On the way to beakfast, the bus stopped to pick up another family who would be joining the same tour. Then we headed to our breakfast place. Breakfast that morning was dimsum at the Islamic centre.

Dining area at the Islamic centre

Kids cleaned up the dimsum spread that morning. The weather was a little cold that morning....so the hot dimsum spread really got their appetite going.

What's left of the dimsum breakfast

After breakfast we were taken to Golden Bauhinia Square.

Golden Bauhinia Square

View of Hong Kong Island from the waterfront

The square was named after the giant statue of a golden Buahinia blakeana at the centre of the area, situated outside Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This was also the place where the ceremonies for the handover of Hong Kong from the British in July 1997. This was an awesome place for photo takes.

View from the Peak

After the Golden Bauhinia Square, we were taken in our coach up the Peak. The bus took us up to the Mid peak. From here we could see the spectacular view of the surrounding city skyline, displaying the towering skyscrapers and the peaceful green hillsides. Our guide mentioned that there were some bungalows on the hill side along the road up the Peak. Most of these bungalows, which cost millions of dollars, belong to the rich and famous in Hong Kong.

A plane spotted in the blue skies

From the Peak, we were taken to our next place of visit, Repluse Bay.


It was a winding road down from the Peak and then we finally came to a stretch and the sea was in our view. We got down from the bus and headed towards the beach. Kids got their cameras out and started taking pictures in the beautiful area of the beach.


After Repulse Bay, we were taken to Aberdeen Fishing village.


The guide recommended that we took the sampan ride to get a closer look at the fishermen and their life in the boats. The entire area was lined with boats...the big and luxurious ones as well as the working boats which fishermen take to the open seas for fishing.

Show off the big boats...

Send in the fishing ones..

There were two more stops after that. The first one was a jewelery store. Nothing much which fancied us. So there was no damage there.

All focus on health and beauty

The next stop was a medicine shop which sold ginseng and Chinese traditional herbs. Mom and I got some herbs for ourselves..not cheap but for health sake...we figured, it was worth the purchase.

By then we were all very hungry and ready to have lunch. Lunch that day was at an Indian restaurant. Nice and cozy restaurant. It was a good lunch. As usual kids cleaned up most of the food served (oo..ya...they spared the vegetable...just like at home, I guess)


After lunch we requested to go to the Islamic centre in Tsim Sat Sui so that the group could perform the solat. Mom and the girls went up to the prayer hall to pray.

Shops along Tsim Sat Sui area...but we didn't have time to take a look

After everyone was ready, we then boarded our bus and our guide took us to the train station. This was where were board the train to our next destination - Shenzhen, China.

Day 1 - Flight KL - Hong Kong

Thursday 6 December 2007

Kids (some going..some not..) at departure hall KLIA.

Getting the kids to get up this morning was not difficult. Yesss...finally the day came!!! And we would be going to Hong Kong. Our group was a big one this time. In fact the whole tour group was just us. There were 13 of us. Me and my family, Mom, my sister's two girls Aliah and Ayna and my friend Muni and family.

We left for KLIA at around 10.15am. Our flight was at 1.45pm. With the kids, we figured we'd better be early. It was raining all the way to KLIA. Guess the monsoon season had started making its way here.

Mom, Aliah and Ayna were already at the airport when we arrived. After the short briefing by our KL tour person we checked in our baggage and got our boarding pass. Since we booked a semi FIT (Free Independent Travel) package, we would not have any guide accompanying us from KL to Hong Kong. Well...I guess that was OK...we'll just have to look up for the Hongkie guide ourselves.

Lunch that day was at Mc Donald's. The queue was pretty long. Aliah & Ayna didn't get to finish their burgers coz' it was time to go. So they had to pack the food into their bagpack.

Going through Immigrations was OK. The kids had quite a thrill when they we passed through the auto gate check point. Aliah then came to me and told me...she had forgotten to get her money from her dad!!! Huh....money still with Dad??? Alamak...macam mana ni??? Apparently, my brother in law had gone to get small notes of the Hong Kong Dollar for the girls. In the midst of the rushing just now, the money was not passed to her.

Adoi...this was challenge no 1 I guess. Kids being kids ....they were sure to forget things. However, thanks to their Uncle Othman (who works in CIMB KLIA), they managed to get their money just in the nick of time before we headed to the departure gate. That was some close call.

After performing our solat, we headed to the gate and passengers were already boarding. The flight was full..that was was told to us when we checked in just now.

It was an OK flight with slight turbulence when we were flying over the South China Sea. It took us about 31/2 hours to get to Hong Kong. By the time we landed, it was almost dark.

View at arrival hall Hong Kong Airport

Just landed at Hong Kong Airport

Nissa in a queue at HK Immigrations

Clearing through Hong Kong Immigrations was a breather. We then headed towards our meeting area with the local Hong Kong guide. However, when we asked the people at the counter about our guide, we were asked to check at another place. Huh??? Not same place one ah???

Our hotel pick up...a red bus!!

Kids managing with the trolleys after loading bags into the bus

So...we headed to the other place where our guide was supposed to be. This time we found the guy...a young Chinese chap...whose name is MASA (time....uummm...what a coincidence).We were then taken in a bus to our hotel - Newton Place Hotel in Kowloon. The ride from the airport to hotel took quite a while as the new Hong Kong Airport is a distance from town.

We checked into our rooms soon after we got our keys. Farah, Aliah & Ayna in one room. Faris and Mom together. Abe, Nissa & I in another room. By the time we got into our rooms, the kids were already hungry. Meals for the tour would only start on the next day. Mom being Mom...a seasoned traveler, she had food packed in her bag. That night we had a combination of food. We had the serunding and sambal ikan bilis together with nasi himpit and pergedil which Bibik had prepared earlier. Mom also cooked rice in the small rice cooker which she brought along. It was like a picnic that night.

Tired and excited..kids slept pretty well that night and could wait to start on their adventure in the days to come. As for me...I was just so glad to see the comfy bed...especially after the long day.

It's Vacation Time

My camp is OVER!!! Will be taking some time out to spend some quality time with the kids the next couple of days. So where are we off to this time?? Yessss....to DISNEYLAND!!!

There will be 13 of us in the group. Mom, my two nieces Aliah & Ayna, Muni & family and me and the rest of the gang will be off to Hong Kong starting today till Monday next week.

So Mickey & Minnie...here we come!!! Gosh...can't wait to post our interesting stories from this trip when we return next week.

Till next week...byessss....wish us a good holiday :-))

Annual Season of Hajj

I just remember that a friend will be leaving for Hajj in a few days time. Being away from my homebase these past few days, sort of disoriented me a little.

Every Muslim who is financially able to do so is obliged to make the pilgrimage to Mecca during Hajj at least once in his or her lifetime.

It seems just like yesterday, I was like my friend, busy making my final preparations for my Hajj journey. This time two years back, Mom, Abe and I were already in Madinah and getting ourselves ready for this journey of a lifetime. And these were the very words we and the multitudes of Muslim from all over the world chanted:

Labbaik Allah humma labbaik... Labbaik la sharika laka labbaik... Innal hamda...Wan-ni'mata Laka walmulk... Laa sharika lak.

O my Lord, here I am at Your service, here I am.

There is no partner with You,here I am.

Truly the praiseand the provisions are Yours,

and so is the dominion and sovereignty.

There is no partner with You.

Two hajj seasons had passed since we left the holy city Makkah. Time just flies by.....

Tonite, I must call my friend to wish her a safe journey and Hajj Mabrur, InshaAllah.