clinging and movin on.

HK was...slighttly disappointing, not to mention that macau was quite a flop. Things were expensive (relative to SG) and most of the service staff were rude; of course there were exceptions but that's another story. the streets were dirrty, and liquids were constantly percolating through the air, as if it was constantly raining. imagine contact left, contact right, all the time. and the heat was not much better than SG's in fact, i thought that back here was cooler sometimes. food wasnt all that fantastic - a bowl of maggie (gong zai mian) with 2 toppings can easily cost up to SGD$4, which is like food court prices, except that the conditions there are far from it. TT's the bad stuff i remembered abt HK :( It was however, a refreshing experience, trying to navigate the brusque manners of the hongkongers, exploring the streets late at night, past midnight as a city which truly never sleeps. unlike sg, the shops remain open waaay past 10 pm.the dessert shops felt like old world toa payoh, which was kind of nostalgic for me. this despite tasting nothing truly fantastic throughout the whole trip, not even the dim sum. what i really should have done was eat at a dingy roadside stall like the hongkongers but i guess everyone was too busy/conscious to eat those. reminiscent of taipei... oh wells.

then there was the panoramic views of the Peak, NongPing360, the GIANT Buddha and the nightview of the city skyline along the harbour at TST. :) those things were really the highlights of the trip. and not to forget disneyland. i wonder why jh chose to forego it. despite all the bad media attention, it did not disaappoint us first-time visitors. i think it's unfair to compare a new kid on the block with other sites that have been running for years in LA and Tokyo. still disneyland HK was great and if only the lines were shorter, then we could have taken more rides and visited more atractions.

i think i liked taipei more. less crowded (streets did not feel so cramped), better weather (i know, i went to hk in the summer so it's an unfair comparison) and ppl were nicer. and the best part abt taipei is that it didnt feel as frantic as HK and SG. moreover, listening to canto isnt the best feeling in the world. mandarin is preferred anytime. i'd like to visit taipei again if i have the chance. and bangkok. hk...maebe next time.

went back to school today and saw some of my classes' results. Didnt look too good - lots of 0s or 1s here and there. i felt and rather disappointed, even though those results have no bearing on me. like i didnt prepare them well enough :( felt kinda sad, but i was happy with that 1 script which had a full mark for one of the qns. but then again probably becos that was a rather good student and aid or not, the results would still have been stellar. oh wells, sometimes it's hard to distinguish whether they studied or not or whether it's really my teaching methods.