I Just Opine

July 4, 2010, the day of our City Tour to Kowloon and Disneyland.

We left Mexan Harbour Hotel at eight o’clock in the morning and after having our breakfast too. Bus on-board, we were toured by Bryan of Wins Travel accompanied by Cow Loo (i did not know the real name of this foolish guide) . We first had our City Tour at Kowloon. They first brought us to The Avenue of the Stars viewing the Hongkong’s tallest building the IMC. Our tour guides allowed us to take photos from 8:50 to 9:20. And so here are the photos we had. Thanks Dave Morales and Bec Malanao for sharing these to me.

At the Avenue of the Stars where we had our kulit posing and fun bonding slash teambuilding. Temperature that time was 34 - 38 degree celsius.

Notice the American guy with us, he has a resemblance with one of our US clients Reminds of some unforgettable moment wehehehe.

It was here at the Avenue of the Stars where Cow Loo took pictures of each of us, saying SEXY and having the peace sign, full smiles pa kami! We thought it was part of the tour, that he took us photos as a documentation, but still we also had the idea that it was to be paid so we asked him how much, he told us he was doing it as a part time job and his boss was the one who knew of the amount. He kept on saying the pictures will be put in a PLATO, “Mr Gwapo, Mr. Maganda, Mr. Swave”. After taking pictures he left us and told that he will be arranging our Disneyland tour.

After this, we went back to our coach and headed to City Outlet, Xiaon - a jewelry shop selling necklaces, bangles, rings with designs and pendants that believe to bring good luck, security and prosperity - Feng Shui.

And after here, we went to Global Outlet Export - a souvenir shop (and we did not buy anything from here, expensive though!)

We’re heading to Disneyland, it was already 12noon. Along the way, Cow Loo hopped in again with big bag. Here comes the loud voice uttering Mr. Gwapo, Ms. Maganda!! as he was handing the pictures in plates, everyone chuckled as they were seeing the pictures, including us. Sabi ko na nga ba may bayad, we bet it was only HK$50, but OMG to our dismay it costed HK$160.. OMG, we had no money.. Tahimik kaming lahat, nagngingitngit sa inis, nais magwala at habulin si Cow Loo at Bryan, bigla silang lumayas after getting the pictures’ fees, budol budol ba yun? Linshak, litrato namin kulang kulang isang libong piso???? Ginto! Buti na lang may Disney, gandang strategy nila ha grrrrrr…

Tiring Disneyland Tour…

Night View of Princess’ palace, before the fireworks.

We went here on a package, everything was arranged, from HK airport pick up to the hotel, hotel to City Tour and Disneyland, from Disneyland back to the hotel and finally from hotel to HK airport. Except those MTR and bus we had, those were just some sort of familiarizing ourselves.

Till then,

Our Teambuilding…….. After a Friday night shift work, we left Manila at about 4:30 in the morning headed to Clark Pampanga for our Hongkong flight at 7:00 in the morning. We were the last passengers who arrived in Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), we wished to sit in window area, unfortunately because we were almost late, we did not make it har har har.

We seated at the very last row of the plane, Cebu Pacific. By the way, we got our ticket in promo. Wait, alam nyo ba why I posted that coffee in this post? It’s because I had my first kashungahan. I thought it was free - when the FS passed by and said, coffee, anyone? I said me!! Mocha coffee please, nya, I even woke up Bec and told her that the breakfast is there to my dismay, she told me that it was not free. Huhuhu, too late, the coffee was served, for how much? Otsyenta y pesos (php80.00) po! Awww, if only I knew. Next funny thing, when we were about to arrive, the crew said, you may unfasten your seatbelt now, oh no, I was not able to fasten my seatbelt after I went to the lavatory, and it was hard to unfasten if it was not fastened though .

Hongkong time! We were fetched by a, a, ahahaha forgot, we were fetched by a shuttle and brought us to Mexan Harbour Hotel, left our baggage and had lunch at Mc Donald! We stayed in Mexan as I’ve mentioned, located at Tsing Yi Hongkong, overseeing the harbor haha, container vans and some tall buildings on the other side. Our first day, we survived roaming around. How to get around? Let me share how we manage to tour some part of HK.

From Mexan Hotel, there is a station 88G or Kwai Fong, ride a bus and it will bring you to Tsuen Wan, fare is HK$3.40. Riding a bus from Kwai Fong or 88G station, to MTR Tsue Wan station. If you wish to ride an MTR, you need to go to the ticket machine, press the station where you want to go and drop your fare. We had HK$8.25 each going to Tsim Sha Tsui. Pag nahirapan ka, just look around and see if there are Filipinos around, like what we did Thank you kababayans!

We went to a night market located in Mongkok station, from Tsim Sha Tsui station, we rode back to Mongkok from Tsim Sha Tsui - here branded items can be found but in Mongkok, night market (DV of the Philippines) cheap items can be found, same with Central station.

First day - where did we take our lunch? at Mc Do!!! I had Grilled Chicken Burger and shake fries cost $25.xx, not bad, they tasted good! What a funny moment was when one of my teammates asked water from a crew , the crew gave him a salt hehehehe… It really was hard sometimes conversing to other people when one cannot understand what he or she is saying, like what happened to us in HK.

Miser moment - we shared food, we had bread and spam shared for the five of us. Poor poor poor, no utensils available on the hotel, we used the can’s cover as the slicer of the spam, tsk tsk tsk… Team built with this!