Amazing friends

It's almost the end of my exchange already... less than two weeks before i'm back in good ol' singapore. I think what makes my exchange in hk so amazing is the friends I've made - whom I feel, is the essence of my stay here. When i first applied for SEP, I didn't feel that it would be reality. But it really did come true. And I'm happy to say that I enjoyed every moment of hk. At first, I was scared and doubtful because I applied to hk alone, afraid I wouldn't be able to adapt to life alone, etc.. But God is so amazing. He blessed me with a great room mate, Emily, whom I've been able to share most of my life with, whom I've managed to learn so much from. Managed to make many many friends in hall: Yusa who's really funny and serious at the same time, Ceci who pokes my pat pat and offers me siew mai and ice cream all the time, Mancy who brought me out to sham shui po to shop for earring accessories, Rachel who often come in and offer us cookies to eat, Tracy who's really steady and helpful, Rabbit who lives opposite me and chats with me about fish and Singapore politics, Natalie who borrows my thumbdrive haha, Laura whom I've had many fun times with, her roomie who cooks really well, Fiona (HK) who always smile at me, Rice a nice girl, Bean the chem major who taught me how to do assignments, Jimmy who invited us to his home for dinner, and whom I helped sell milk tea at the carnival, William who offered me the sugared strawberry then, Kenson who takes soci class with emily and I a seriously funny boy, Ko ka yin Roy's room mate who's really funny and whom I believe makes a really good and trusting friend and who takes great pictures, Gin zhe the matron who's very personal, King zhe who's really sweet, the aunty who complains every morning who's very hardworking, Kwong shok and hong shok the two nice uncles, and the uncle who stays on our floor who cooks dessert for us every day during the study week, Lion who's very caring and friendly and often dates me for cycling, her room mate who bought the salted fish for me, Mimosa whom i first met when she came to borrow rock sugar, and all of my friends here are just from Grace tien alone! Really thankful because living in Grace tien feels so much like home. Everytime I cook, I'd have people to talk to.. even when I'm in my room studying, my friends would just budge in, chit chat and play around. Even in the wee hours of the morning.. I'd get to play around with them. It's really a whole new experience, something that I know I'd never get to experience when I'm back home in Singapore. Really thankful also to have made many good friends, both international and Singaporeans.. especially my good friend Roy whom I've learnt so much from - whom i think is the most significant person that has helped me grow - both in my thoughts and of course physically horizontal (because we always eat alot together) :) and whom I've spent most of my exchange life with, besides Emily! Really thank God for sending so many lovely people into my life.

It's a skinny world... woo hooo...

this is what u get when you study too much chemistry

and the picture of the year goes to...

me and my baby

New Asia's amazing view

* click for larger view :)

Fun in 志文

Sharing my study burdens with my trusty blog

WHAT?! Molecule Optomechanical Machine: Force Measured by AFM Cantilever? S-Au bond to the AFM tip? Amide bond to the amino functionalized glass? Exposing an azobenzene polymer attached to a cantilever to 420nm light puts the polymer in tis lengthened trans state. Exposure to 365nm light causes the backbone to contract, pulling on the cantilever. Length difference = 2.8nm. HUH?! WHAT?!

ARGHHHH! *pull my hair*

Spur me on Langmuir!

Tyranny! Tycoon! Typhoon!

* Hong Kong

Tropical Cyclone Bulletin
Here is the latest Tropical Cyclone Bulletin issued by the Hong Kong Observatory.
The Strong Wind Signal, No. 3 is in force.
This means that winds with mean speeds of 41 to 62 kilometres per hour are expected.
At midnight, Typhoon Neoguri was estimated to be about 420 kilometres southwest of Hong Kong (near 19.5 degrees north 111.4 degrees east) and is forecast to move north at about 14 kilometres per hour crossing the seas east of Hainan Island towards western Guandong.

Information taken from: http://www.hko.gov.hk/contente.htm

*The wind was super powerful when I went out just now.. no kidding!

This marks the end

of my lectures in CUHK

... till the exams.

Something to boast about

20大最多好評餐廳 on http://www.openrice.com !!!

1 澳門翠苑茶餐廳(旺角)
2 澳洲牛奶公司(佐敦)
3 維記咖啡粉麵(深水步)
4 肥媽小食店(旺角)
5 時新快餐店(紅磡)
6 金寶小食店 (越南...(旺角)

I've tried it all.

深水步

Food adventure for the day:

維記咖啡粉麵

I ordered 蛋牛面.. Doesn't look nice right, but taste wonderful! Hot soup with maggie noodles, lots of beef fillets and a sunny side up with goey egg yolk. HK$21.

Kayan toast!!! Is it Kaya? who knows. Not very oily, freshly made. Only HK$7!

三姐 松記糖水 - wrong one!

I made a poo poo and brought us to the wrong 松記糖水! haaa.

松記糖水

(The real one)

Famous dessert called "hello" or 哈囖. Coconut milk, mango syrup, coconut jelly, ching chao jelly, nuts (chick peas, long bean, etc), Q-Q balls, sago balls.. NICCEE!!!

Presenting the royal food tasters:

Roy Chia

Robyn Hay

My lunch today - It's arrowfish fillet seasoned with onions, brocolli and tomato and special japanese powder, wrapped in Al foil and boiled in water. Delicato!

Sweet pleasures

Life's most beautiful pleasures are in enjoying its simplest moments -
you don't have to pay a hefty sum to enjoy good food
friendship is like honey which binds people together and
makes these moments so much sweeter
Growing up seems a heavy load to carry
but the joys of it outweighs it all
Trips I'd never ever thought would be fun-
to a computer centre
or a wet market
or even school
seems like life's most wonderful pleasures
because of this-
I'm treasuring every moment that God gives me.

No longer a virgin backpacker

After leaving school for Shen zhen (which is only about 20 minutes away), we bought tickets for Guang Zhou. Took the very crowded metro to Guang Zhou dong where there is a railway station to go to various provinces in China. Arrived there on a rainy night and was timely disappointed by the lady in the speakers who kept repeating that the day's tickets were all sold out. We finally managed to get tickets for the next day, after some testing of patience.

At Guang Zhou bar street for dinner.

Just before we boarded the train to Sanya the next day!

Waiting for the train in the railway station.

In the triple deckered, 6 bedded cabin.

Sunrise.. signified our almost arrival in Sanya! hurray!

Sanya Railway station. I can never forget what tatt mentioned:

he said the reason why the floor was so reflective was because there were too many spits on the ground :\

In Blue Sky International Youth Hostel!

One of the dishes in our first meal in Sanya. It's beancurd with fatty pork, and lots of chilli - yum!

At 南山 - not bad but not as interesting as expected, it's a 4 star tourist attraction, you see.

Enjoyed this place the most - 天涯海角. Beautiful scenary and sea breeze.

Kodak moments!

Closed bridge to nowhere.

Beautiful sunset!

Taking the exciting and thrilling toot-toot to seafood place.

Yay to our hostel!

Found a great restaurant selling 饺子- only like RMB$10-13 for 20 of them! YUMMY!!!

Another place I enjoyed - sun, sea and sand - 亚龙 bay!

Yay to Hainan - Sanya!

Thank you Lord for making this trip so enjoyable!!!

禱告良辰歌

歌曲 : 禱告良辰歌
作詞 : 聖徒詩歌552首
作曲 : William Batchelder Bradbur
演唱 : 陶喆

禱告之時甘甜之時
使我離開煩惱之事
來到神的座前發表
所有意願所有需要
當我遇到重壓憂愁
我靈卻常得著自由
不陷惡者所有佈置
因為有你禱告之時

禱告之時甘甜之時
如有只翼載我願辭
來祂寶座向祂求懇
祂是信實祂是全真
祂既命我尋求祂面
信祂話語靠祂恩典
我要將我重擔卸釋
在於你前甘甜之時

望著天

手牽手　
一步兩步三步四步　 望著天

看星星　
一顆兩顆三顆四顆　連成線

背著背默默許下心愿　
看遠方的星
如果聽的見　

它一定實現

桂林山水甲天下, 阳朔风光美如画

Our plane was delayed for 3 hours due to heavy rain and lightning in Guilin. After arriving in Guilin airport, we managed to reach our hotel at 2am or so.


The next day, we took a 4hour boat ride along 漓江. The boat ride was pretty enjoyable I felt. Even though the basement was stuffy and had many old people who spent most of their time spitting 瓜子 seeds and chatting loudly, and the fact that we had nothing much to do except to sit and wait for lunch.. I felt that the time spent on the deck was amazing! The scenary was breathtaking and the air was clean and fresh. Phototaking was never so enjoyable. We signed up for a professional to take photographs of us, and we had a fun and relaxing time posing. haaa. Money well spent.

On arrival at 阳朔 (yangshuo), we were met with these ugly birds who were amazingly obedient - they're fish catchers of the 漓江, I'm told. At the entrance of yangshuo, we were greeted with small stalls selling handicrafts and 土产 (stuff made by people in yangshuo).. Vibrant and alive. Then we took the main means of transport - a sentosa like vehicle that took us to our hotel.

Our hotel 桂福大酒店, was very convenient. Just 5 minutes stroll to the famous 西街, where many 老外 hang out. There we met up with 4 other CUHK peeps who were there on 自由行 - free & easy. So surprised and happy! Amazing how we can actually meet them without prior contact - in this part of guilin, in this part of yang shuo, at that particular time an place. cool eh!

Then we took one of the most exciting bicycle rides I ever had in my life. Even though it was a doublet, we had to maneuver way through the busy streets of yangshuo, together with the locals and the reckless vehicles, and it was quite strenuous but fun at the same time! wooo.

The next day, we visited two caves - 岩... which had all these amazing rocks that people imagine they look like something or another. 银子岩 is a more preferred choiced compared to 丰鱼岩 according to my friends, but prefer the latter. Even though the 2 hour tour was cut short to just 1 hour, because of high tide in the cave, and we couldn't take the internal boat ride, I felt more comfortable there compared to the silver cave. The air was fresher and it felt less claustrophobic.

That's us - outside the cave! :D

The river rafting experience was the highlight of the trip. We sat on these rafts, called 竹棑 or 鸟棑 ... And someone would row it along 遇龙河 for us. Tranquil and utterly beautiful!

The massiveness of the mountains in guilin amaze me. God is great eh? Whenever I look up and see the greatness of the rocks, it constantly reminds me of the vastness of God's love for us all. If God can create such beautiful and amazing rocks, what more can He do?! Everything!

Haa.. Then we visited 世外桃园 - supposedly a beautiful place beyound our imagination. I felt that it was not bad, but was too commodified. Not as beautiful as I expected it to be. However, I did enjoy the boat ride, especially the scary "wild people" who kept wooing at us; the handicrafts, and the display of skills - from sewing in the old-fashioned way, making paper from fibre, to printing using those huge chops. I also did enjoy the peaceful and relaxed atmosphere it had.. and really had a great time with my friends there.

Us with the tribal people.

Another highlight of the trip - 印象刘三姐! Directed by Zhang Yimou, with 12 REAL mountains as the backdrop, and 600 actors and actresses! WOW! What a blast!

Those small lights at the bottom of the picture are people! :) Amazing! Enjoyed it to the tiniest bit! And not forgetting the amazing backdrop.. just jaw dropping! And the myriads of stars in the sky! No wonder this show enjoys a 3000 audience every time; and there's 2 shows every night!