Alpha's Summer Adventure

[Roonmastor]

Might be a bit late, but drinking lots of water = jet lag gone.

[The People's ElboReformat]

. I didn't know jet lag could last for so long.

It doesn't, Alpha is just a lazy bastard.

[Alpha eX]

. I didn't know jet lag could last for so long.

It doesn't, Alpha is just a lazy bastard.

I'm over it now, it only lasted so long because I wasn't sleeping properly. Back to a normal sleep pattern now.

[The People's ElboReformat]

I think I've got jet lag. Despite not travelling anywhere.

So sleepy at the moment. Despite not waking up until nearly 2pm.

[Exxy]

Starve yourself during the flight, then eat something your body accociates with breakfast, lunch or dinner when you land. Body clock resets itself and jet lag is minimal. Sorted

Bit late now mind.

[Alpha eX]

Kowloon
17-06-09

We had to wake up early today to catch a ride with Antonia's mother who was leaving the house at 12, this meant we should have woken around 10 but we were still tired from the previous night and woke nearer 11. We managed to have a quick breakfast before heading out.

After dropping Antonia's mother off, we went to Admiralty Station to catch the MTR, the underground. I live in London where the underground system is a horrible mess of overpriced trains that are always running late or breaking down, they carridges have very little leg room and no air conditioning. I heard the HK underground network was very clean so was looking forward to trying it out. I first had to get an Octopus Card which is like the Oyster Card, it stores credit that you use to touch in and out of stations then top up when the credit is gone. The station was clean and very spatious, as were the trains, so much room, I couldn't believe it, air conditioned too!

Our first destination of the day was Sham Sui Po, a street full of electrical stores that sell pretty much everything to do with computers. The stores are more like floors in a building with many stalls in them, pretty much an indoor market in each building. As we got out the station the heat nearly kicked me back in, the sun was finally out and damn it was hot!





We first looked around at the laptops as we both wanted to get a new one. I wanted a netbook and Antonia wanted a normal everydya use laptop. Sadly, despite all the choice, we didn't find one because of the discomfort in the building due to the heat. We then went to look for a Nintendo DS, prices were quite high and the boxes they came in looked very suspect, not to mention everytime we asked for a price we was offered an R4... There was a lot of fake games in the game market, mostly for DS. I was tempted by Taiko no Tatsujin for the Wii at a fair $530.



After looking around the markets in Sham Sui Po we hopped back on the MTR and arrived in Tsim Sha Tsui which is very close to the Harbor and Kowloon Park. We got out the station and the sun seemed to have doubled it's output, I was almost fried into the pavement.

We decided because the weather was so nice to go and walk around Kowloon Park for a bit, we wasn't too sure where it was but knew it was close to the station. A short while later we was at the enterance to the park.

Close to the enterance of the park is a large fountain. As we got close to it Antonia said she saw the head of a Terrapin pop up and then back down into the green murky water. I quickly looked but saw nothing. As I walked around the fountain I saw not just one Terrapin but a whole group of them!

I was taking lots of photos and watching the Terrapins for a while, don't usually see these at home in London while walking through the local parks. I actually scared two of the four back into the fountain but a pair decided to stay while I stared at them.

When the Terrapins finally sank back into the water we went off to explore the park some more when we came across a Mc Donnalds Ice Cream stand. The Coke and Fanta Ice Cream floats looked amazing so I ran up to go get one but sadly the machine was broken and they only had Ice Cream, I settled for grape which was very sweet, loved it!




We spent another hour exploring the park. We first went to the Avatory which had many cages filled with strange birds, the parrots were cool but didn't talk and were behind mesh so it was hard to get a good picture. We then walked past the lake and saw loads of Flammingos before leaving the park towards The Royal Paciffic Hotel.

Inside the Royal Paciffic Hotel is a shopping mall filled with small shops and a giant Aji Ichiban, a japanese pic'n'mix shop. We walked around here for a while before getting hungry.




We decided stop by Mc Donnalds for a quick snack. Why am I eating at Mc Donnalds while in HK? Shake Shake Chicken. I love Chicken and Lemon foods, mostly chicken, so when I saw a poster for a new Chicken snack at Mc Donnalds there was no stopping me.

I really enjoyed the Shake Shake Chicken, it's cripsy and has a nice southern friend bbq flavor to it. I have already decided what I will do next time I go to a Mc Donnalds, create the ultimate burger which combines beef and chicken between two buns, it's going to be amazing. I also tried the Hot Banana Pie, basically an Apple Pie with Banana inside, not as tasty as I assumed, it tasted like mouldy mushy banana, warmed up on the side of a road out in the hot HK sun, yuck.

We left the Pacific Tower Shopping Center and went off to find the giant Toys R Us somewhere in Harbor City Shopping Center which we thought would be an easy task. NO! We first checked the map and out of the 200+ stores, it wasn't listed. We asked someone who worked there and they said it was at the other end and then gave us a long list of directions which we later forgot. It took us a good 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other, the place is huge.

We finally made it to Toys R Us, it's right at the end near the dock and on the bottom floor. Aparently this is the biggest toy store in Hong Kong, thankfully it wasn't a dissapointment like the one in Causeway Bay. If you look at the other pictures, there is block construction set display where a worker has made a famous internet bear...

The store was HUGE and defintly what a Toys R Us should be like. The only bad thing was a looping song which drives you crazy after a while and I think hypnotises the children. I didn't expect to buy anything but saw some cool construction sets, as a kid I really liked Lego and these looked similar.



I bought two sets of these, one small kit to build a panda and another large kit to build more than one animal, a chamelion, crocodile, frog and some bird. On the way out we saw a load of gashapon machines. We got a bunch of $5 coins and got a load of gashapon from just two sets in particular. We got far too many but got the ones we wanted and a few doubles.

We made our way out of Harbor City Shopping Center passing a nice token arcade for kids, no pictures inside because I didn't want to seem like a peado, we then passed an interesting fish display on the way out to the harbor.




As we exited and got out to the harbor we could see everyone was loitering around to take pictures of the bay. Being a tourist with a
camera, I decided to join in.

We walked further down the road to the dock where the boats passed. Here you get a great view of the bay and many professional photographers fill the area. As it was nearing sunset, we decided to stick around for a rest and some photography.

The sunset behind a load of buildings so it was hard to get a good shot of the sunset but I tried my best. We had to head home early for dinner tonight so we decided to take the ferry back to Central where the driver would come to pick us up with the rest of the family. I got a few pictures while crossing the bay, it's a shame it wasn't dark as it would have been great for photography but there's always another day.

Dinner this evening was very interesting, we had Moussaka, a Greek dish made with layered cheese, meat, aubergine and tomato. The maids had made this with the left over duck from yesterday. I was hesitant to try at it first but after taking a bite, I really enjoyed it though the texture was a little too runny. The bottom layers, meat, aubergine and tomato was better than the cheesy layers on top.




Antonia's father put a DVD on while we was having dinner together, The Bone Collector which I hadn't seen before. It wasn't the best of films but much better than that crappy mouse one we attemtped to watch yesterday. After the film we went back to Antonia's room to rest.

Here's the stuff we got today at Toys R Us, told you it was a lot of Gashapon!

[Fatal Exception]

I want asian maids

[Nook29]

The girl on the right hand side of the second picture is hot.

[The People's ElboReformat]

Great pictures Alpha. Terrapins FTW. No Pudding though.

[Lionsheart]

Moussaka doesn't have cheese, it has white sauce. Therefore that wasn't moussaka.

[Dolph Wiggler]

Haven't read the post yet Alpha but i love reading about Kowloon, even though the walled city's gone it's somewhere i'd really love to visit.

[Cardinal Chunder]

Awesome post, Alpha. Could you get me some Mango Tic Tacs as well, please?

[Rog]

Awesome post. More!

[Jam-Master Jay]

Just spent the past hour or two catching up with this thread.

Brilliant read so far. I'm very jealous, Alpha!

[Hulohot]

The terrapins are cute. You can feel the love. Very inspiring camera angles Alpha. You are very good.

[gaminglegend]

Alpha have you been to the red seventh floor yet?
Or the ghost house?

Cracking read Alpha, very pleased and thankful you continue to amaze and delight us with these threads. It looks amazing. Has the father still not found out? I can understand his resistance towards you, but allowing you to stay in his own home, under his roof, his already a huge step, isn't it? That oreo jello looked so nice. How much was it?

[Roonmastor]

Anyone else look through the terrapin pictures with some soulful love music playing in their head.

[Crimson]

Great post Alpha, as always.

I wasn't the only one who thought of Shenmue upon reading the title, was I?

[aayl1]

Amazing update. To say I'm jealous would be an understatement.

The Bone Collector

Good choice that man. The Jeffrey Deaver books in the series are amazing, by the way.

[Alpha eX]

Moussaka doesn't have cheese, it has white sauce. Therefore that wasn't moussaka.

I think it may have been white sauce, it was very creamy. Even if it wasn't, it was a very interesting dish with great flavor, just wasn't too keen on the texture.

Awesome post, Alpha. Could you get me some Mango Tic Tacs as well, please?

I've put you on the request list, it's pretty much first come first serve, i'll get what I can going down the list but Mango Tic-Tacs shouldn't be a problem if anyone wants them.

Alpha have you been to the red seventh floor yet?
Or the ghost house?

Cracking read Alpha, very pleased and thankful you continue to amaze and delight us with these threads. It looks amazing. Has the father still not found out? I can understand his resistance towards you, but allowing you to stay in his own home, under his roof, his already a huge step, isn't it? That oreo jello looked so nice. How much was it?

Haven't been to the red seventh floor yet, now I know it's a shrine I think it'd be a bit rude to go up there for any other reason than to pay my respects.

We can't get to the ghost house, it's blocked with a tall security gate. We'll find another one, I might actually google haunted places in HK and suggest we go visit, won't tell Antonia though

The father still hasn't found out and I don't think the mother is bothered at all. She hasn't mentioned it or treated us any differently which is good, I think she is a lot more understanding than the father, very cool lady.

The Oreo Jello wasn't too expensive, I might buy some to try next time I go to the supermarket.

Anyone else look through the terrapin pictures with some soulful love music playing in their head.

Now I can't get it out of my head!

The terrapins were really cute, they were necking and looked like an old couple in love. I seemed to be the only one, aisde from Antonia, paying any attention to them.