Lightening show in the clouds

As I write this I am flying over european sky. I see lots and lots of green pastures below the clouds.

As predicted by our families usual travel pattern, thunder storm was forecast for the day. Surprise surprised when I didn't see one drop of rain all day. Turns out the show was just about to start.

As we reached our flight altitude we flew into a storm cloud. Have you watched the last Harry Potter where everyone transfigured into Harry to take him from the house? There was a magical battle that followed in the night sky, well,that was our view out of the plane!

It's spectacular to watch lightening this close, we could see the lightening setting off all around us, rods shooting between all the clouds! Spectacularly beautiful but also very frightening. I wonder whether the plane has safety mechanism to prevent being hit? Our video monitor experienced failure at the start of the flight. I wonder if we actually was hit?

We were not permitted to use any of our electrical devices so I couldn't capture the scene for you. I wish you could have been here to see it.

We are about less than two hours before we land in Zurich. NZ is 10 hours ahead, our flight is scheduled to arrive at 6.15am, the pilot said last night that zurich airport is closed in the evening and we cannot land until 6.05 earliest. I never realized international airports close during the night... so by the time I arrive in the early morning, it will soon be dinner time back home.

Update post: we have arrived! Now at the backpacker and have dropped off the packs, the weather is a lovely 23 degrees.

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Location:Sihlstrasse,Zurich,Switzerland

Final meal at grandma's home

Final meal at grandma's place for this trip. All my aunts came over and Auntie Ying prepared a terrific meal!






It was scrumptious and amazing meal, I don't think I'll be able to fit in any of tonight's meal on the flight to Zurich.

Little Bor Zi came over to dinner too!




Still have less than 4 hours before we fly!

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Location:Clear Water Bay Rd,,Hong Kong

Sky 100

Do you wanna know where I am right now? I'm on Sky 100, the tallest building in HK 490m high!







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Shopping and other things

There is a sense of nostalgic longing as I write this blog. My stay in HK is near it's end. HK is such a mixture of places for me, a home, a vacation spot and sometimes neither of these.
I think I'll always still see HK as home no matter how far I live. It's amazing how our roots pull us back.

Regrettably my wallet is telling me to move on. With it increasingly flattening I think my shopping spree must be put on hold.

On the up side, I now start to wonder how different other places around the world will be like. As I take this trip overseas it will be a new experience and a new challenge.

Oh, something interesting on my trip in HK for my lovely readers. I was taking the MTR the other day and there was this high school bully picking on other students. He was swearing and scaring the other students, everybody on board that car was looking at him. He eventually walked off a bit. Now he realises that everybody was looking at him, he shouted 'what are you #*£% looking at!' to this man seated behind him. He was really rude. The man stood up and this bully realised the guy was a whole head taller. The man had a 'word' with the student telling him off. You would think the guy would smarten up and move on.
No, he talks back! The next thing he knew he was grabbed by the neck and pulled on the ear off the next stop! I think most of the passengers would have felt like cheering and clapping!

I don't agree in violence but enough is enough for unacceptable behavior. He was still in his school uniform. What shame he brings upon himself...

I think Joyce may be excited to know that as I'm writing this blog I'm on my way to buy the phone she wants!

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Location:Po Yap Rd,,Hong Kong

Macau and the House of Dancing Water

This is the second time I've visited Macau, last time was staying with a friend who is local to the area and this time as a tourist in a Hotel. I found the experience very different.

This time around we visited a couple of the biggest casinos, The Galaxy, Venican, and the New Po King casino.    

The word to describe these casinos is "GRANDEUR". 

This is the New Po Kin Casino, I've dubbed it the Giant Onion!

 This is the Massive galaxy, note the car at the bottom of the photo. If seen in day time, the building looks like a towering golden wall. We tried walking from one end of the casino to the other, it was very tiring, I would say it is as long as one end of Sylvia park to the next! Oh, there was a "large bets" area on the ground level that the starting bet is $1000! There were a couple of people gambling in there, I wonder how much these people make everyday to gamble so much all in one go?

Did we gamble? Grandma did go for a little bit by playing on the 5cents slot machine!

There is a terrific indoor fountain in the middle of the casino that does a musical show every half hour and raises this giant diamond from the middle. The grandeur of the place was quite amazing.

photo of the fountain before the diamond was raised up. 

The Venician is another casino that I think many people have heard of, the giant Casino that houses man made rivers (note plural!!!) on the second storey of the building. The river is such that it passes in the middle of the shopping area inside the casino. A fake "sky" for a ceiling with singing gondola oarsman shipping tourist from one end of the river to the other makes an interesting afternoon stroll inside the air conditioned casino complex. 

I felt quite astounded at the magnitude of all the casinos we visited, no wonder some people refer to Macau as the Las Vegas of Asia. While we were there, we saw many construction sites that is building more of these mega  casino complexes. I remember when I first visited Macau a few years back, I really enjoyed the rustic feel of the place, maybe in a few more years, this side of Macau will almost vanish on the main island. 

Now, to the highlight of the trip, The House of the Dancing Waters show!!!

Imagine a round theatre with a pool of water in the middle, plus acrobatics, high diving, dancing, music, a touch of top gear, an impressive array of mechanical props, indoor crazy weather and indoor fountain show. These things and more describe the HDW show. 

My Grandma later told my aunt that I clapped my hands off for the whole show!

They rose this pavillion from the middle of the pool!!

 A bridge appeared from no where and suddenly it started to snow! not foam or paper but actual snow ~

I think the show is well worth the tickets, the acrobats were just amazing in all the stunts performed, I think the two women seated behind us must have shouted their voices hoarse with the amount of cheering they gave throughout the whole show. The whole 70 mins I did not find one part which I thought was boring or not entertaining. I would absolute go again if I had another opportunity. 

The weather was beautiful, a bright and sunny 33 degrees, I have finally learnt the art of using umbrellas under the sun. Yes, mock me if you will, but this Asian habit has rubbed off on me. I was quite pleasantly surprise by the amount of heat reduced simply by a UV blocking umbrella. I brought a little electrical fan a few days back because I couldn't stand the heat, in Macau, grandma has been using it to cool herself off the entire time... I looked on with envy... 

A final note, some of you must remember this below? Brings back a bit of nostalgia from the past... 

Crab pot at Fernandos. 

Not so nice creepers but lovely people

I'm an iPhone user!
This post is done through the phone. Hehe
Just a quick update, tomorrow I'm heading to Macau with grandma and auntie ling. I'll be taking my official backpack to try it out. Living out in the country with grandma has perks and not so good perks, yesterday this pilgrim identified multiple wasps invading our living spaces as well as huge spiders. The one I saw must have been the size of my palm...

Tonight we attended Mass at our friend Tiffany's church In Wan Chai. there is a beautiful alter piece like a chandelier hanging from the cross. the grace of god pouring down to earth.I didn't take a photo but will post it here if I manage to find a one.

I have some really lovely family and friends, so far I've been offered car lifts in this terrible heat, freshly speared fish and a whole bag of lychee!

Hong Kong - The shopper's paradise

For Hong Kong people, shopping is a normal part of their weekly leisure activity. Rightly so since everywhere you go, there are terrific malls designed and purpose built to tempt away your money. Everywhere you go above a MTR station (Hong Kong metro station) is a beautifully air conditioned mall. A shopper's paradise...

All the malls offer a safe haven for people to hide from the humidity and heat of summer weather, and decked out with beautiful clothing and produce at affordable value. 

Today I got to meet up with my friends who took us to one of the biggest malls in HK, it is 7 levels high and having wandered around for 2 hours, I felt like I haven't even scratched the surface. I think I managed to see two levels? I'm not really sure because the size of the place can make a person quite disorientated.  

Although still more affordable than back home, I have to agree with my family that everything in Hong Kong has gotten more expensive over the years. 

For ladies, if you ever happen to come over for summer, go buy yourself a couple of sets of swimwear!!! The selection and price in HK is absolutely unbelievable! 
Side note - This pilgrim has not yet managed to get her hands on a new yellow umbrella... sigh...