Goodbye, our founding father Mr Lee Kuan Yew

This morning, Singaporeans woke up with much sadness as our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew passed on in the early morning at 3.18am. Although our dear Mr Lee had been getting frail and hospitalised since CNY period, the nation is never ready for his passing.

I scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed, most posts were regarding his passing and many people changed their profile picture to LKY related monochrome picture as a tribute. It is the first day of Term 2, we were feeling the blues about returning to a hectic Term 2, and after adding on the this feeling of sadness, it was pure mixed feelings as I went about my daily business quietly.

Just like our humble nation, I grew up from a humble background. Dad was a blue collar worker, Mum was a immigrant from Msia. I am really glad that I received good education, my family also upgraded from a 3-room, to a 4-room and finally to a 5-room flat as my two siblings and I grew up. When I spoke to Mum earlier this evening, she said that the CPF policy was the best thing the late Mr Lee had given us, it enabled us to have a roof over our heads and we even got a little more affluent. It is evident when we are even able to do better than our grandparents and our parents, each of us are now owners of condos and ECs. As I grew older and traveled around the southeast asia region, I've noted how developed our nation is compared to all our neighbours, Mr LKY had single-handedly built this first class oasis among third world region. I am truly proud to be a Singaporean, where my red passport can bring me to most countries without a visa, where we have the best airport, best airlines and many world class facilities.

This is the first time I'm experiencing a national mourning period of this scale. I am happy that many of my generation remember this great man, this man who we called our PM as we grew up. He is close to me like my parents, he watched over us as we grew up and played a very important role in shaping our life.

Thank you Mr Lee for being such a great leader. And goodbye.

Race Review: Runninghour 2015

This is the first time I take part in a Runninghour race, and I believe the 2015 race is also their first edition. I signed up a few months back when they revealed the Braille medal, it is really unique and one of it kind to show that the race is to raise awareness about the visually impaired community.

Nice run, I'll be back.

After the Hong Kong trip, I kept wanting to go for a run to burn off some of the stuff I've indulged in during the trip, but somehow there was no motivation to run and it kept raining these few days due to 清明. On Sat, I finally went to the gym and did a 5km on the treadmill as it was raining in the evening. The run felt good but I knocked out at night without having dinner and I didn't pack my stuff for the race. 

I woke up without setting the alarm clock at 5.15 and really didn't want to get out of bed, with the thought of skipping the race. It felt really good lying there and it was almost another DNS race for me. In my mind, I was going through the stuff I need to pack to get ready but it was like a dream as I found myself still lying on bed after 10min. I finally coerced myself out of bed at 530, did the necessary preparation and got out of the house at 550am. 

The train was crowded as it took 5-6min to arrive. I think many people had exactly the same thoughts as me, wishing that we can at least get a seat so that we can continue to get some shut eye. Whenever I travel early on weekends, there are a lot of blue collar workers waking up early to commute for work, looking tired... I kind of pity them and appreciate my life even more. 

Anyway, the crowded train took sometime to reach Raffles Place and many people dressed in the purple Runninghour tee alighted. The station was crowded with runners, and I had to make a stop at the toilet as my tummy was already protesting when I was on the train. Luckily, there was just one person in front of me in queue, so I got a cubicle shortly. When I'm done, it was already 650am, just 10 min before the flag off of the race.

MBS looking so serene in the early morning

I followed the crowd and reached the race site after walking through the links. There were not as many runners as other races but the competitive runners were getting ready to be flagged off , and I had not even collected my racepack as I was overseas the previous week. The racepack collection was done at the registration counter and there was nobody in queue. Next, I went to the baggage deposit counters to drop off my bag after taking the bib out from the racepack. Again, there was no queue and I even noticed that many of the racks were still empty. I found it quite odd but proceeded to pin my bib and at this point, the air horn was sounded and the competitive runners were off.

No queue, thumbs up!

When I got to the start line, they did not let the leftover competitive runners start immediately, we had to be flagged off with the blind category runners. I was surrounded by people with the purple bib, they were all in twos with their blind run partner, the eye mask and the lanyard also looked like something of good quality. It would be quite nice to experience the blind run next time if I can find a partner to go with me, they do pair up people without a buddy but I thought it will be odd to literally run blindly with a total stranger. I did ask W to go with me months ago, she was interested in the run but she could not make it on Sunday mornings due to church commitments.

Me among throngs of runners doing the blind run

Trying to get ahead of them

We got flagged off ten minutes later. I could see that the blind runners were really not used to running without their sight and most of them move really slowly in a zig zag manner at the start. I was stuck among them as they moved really slowly, so I went to a clear path at the side and ran forward to get past the crowd. We were flagged off from the Marina Boulevard, the same place where I did the Garfield run one year ago. The route was very familiar as I got to the MBS shortly and made my way towards GBTB and the Marina Barrage. I did not stop at the first water point under the bridge, and as I had guessed, the second water point was at the Marina Barrage. I looked up the huge slopes at the Barrage, hoping that we will not need to run up the slopes for this run but eventually we were still diverted there. It seem unavoidable for races to include the slopes in their route nowadays, as I've just done it two weeks ago at the Venus run. I managed to keep on running up, up, up the slope, then down, down, down again.

Running past the MBS area

After the Marina Barrage, we ran along the GBTB east and headed towards the U-turn point (near the 5km point) where the next water point is. Somehow, I felt that it was not easy to maintain my pace and I even slowed down to a walk several times. I felt worry about the 2XU compression run that was going to take place the following week, and I will be running my first HM of the year. Perhaps, my fitness had really dropped after not running much the past two weeks.

Along GBTB east after the U-turn point

Even though I walked quite a bit, I was just two minutes slower than my best timing, and I finished the run in 1h10min. There was no isotonic drinks throughout the run, but we were given a bottle of water at the end, the collection of the medal was also smooth. When I went to pick up my bag, I realised that there were runners dropping off their bags. Then it dawned on me that the 5km race was not flagged off yet, and the runners had just started to take their place at the Start Line. It's probably good for us 10km runners since this staggered timing eliminated any bottleneck, but not so good for the 5km runners as it was getting really warm when I left the place.

Forcing a smile for the photographers near the end point lolz

Heading back.. looking serious.

My favourite pose and picture

Hong Kong Trip 4 Day 3 (15/3/15)

When I woke up at 6am, I realized with shock that mum was already up and sitting on the sofa playing her online games. Gosh! I sat up for a while to update my blog, then went back to snooze until 8+.

Took this shot outside One Dim Sum at 10am but the queue was too long :(

We were all ready to go out by 9.20, the plan was to get to One Dim Sum before it open at 10am, queue and be the first batch of customers inside. I've tried it with ww during my previous trip and I guess my parents will love the cheap and good dim sum there. After I got out the room, I happened to test the door handle expecting the room to be locked but I was surprised that the door could be opened. We tried a few times and realised that the door is faulty, it could be unlocked all the time and we didn't realise it! The chambermaid happened to be a few rooms away and she helped us get help from the front desk while we went back into the room to wait. The technician came to repair the card scanning mechanism so that the room can be locked once we close the door. Our room cards were not able to work but they assured us that they will fix it and we do not need to stay around to wait. The folks were getting restless so we finally set off from the hotel.

Ended up at Kam Wah Cafe at Mongkok, recommended by my friend San

We took a cab from the hotel as I thought it should be easier for the folks instead of getting them to do two train transfer (there's usually cabs waiting around just outside the main lobby). It looked like a easy trip on my Google apps which mentioned that it is just 15min ride, but it took longer than that, cost us 100HKD and we reached the place exactly at 10am. There was a short queue outside and I quickly joined the queue and got a queue number, there was a couple of people behind me and they're obviously tourists as well. Unfortunately, after the crowd started filling up the restaurant with only 25 seats, it stopped with us being second in queue. With the first batch of customers for the day just seated down, the staff gave us an estimation of 40min wait time. I was kind of disappointed as mum did not want to wait, but since I've already tried the dim sum there and this trip is solely for bringing them around, I was thinking I'll just bring them back again when its off peak hours. Luckily I did some research beforehand, and I have a backup eatery near the vicinity.

Their pineapple bun is a best seller

I used Google map to bring me to this 金华冰厅just ten minutes walk away. It was crowded but we managed to get seats immediately, the place is similar to the first 茶餐厅 where we had our breakfast the previous day, but at least this is a recommendation by my friend San so I guess the food quality should be better. The 菠萝油 was indeed much less oily and crispier than the one I had the previous day, I could see that it is their specialty and almost every table ordered that. The egg tart was not too bad too. Dad stuck to the same beef noodles that worked well for him the previous day and I ordered a 榨菜肉丝 macaroni as I really liked the dish from Din Tai Fung. The beef noodles was great but not the 榨菜肉丝 as it was dried and hard and there was only a few pieces of meat. The breakfast set came with sausages, ham and a sunny side-up. Like the milk tea from most 茶餐厅, the tea was too strong and too bitter for my liking, we requested for hot water to dilute it a little and the taste improved.

I love soupy macaroni, too bad this one did not tasted good

Happy folks after the breakfast

After we left the restaurant, we found our way to Mongkok Station, took a train to Tung Chung to head to Lantau Island. This is my fourth trip to Hong Kong but it was only my first to Lantau. The Citygate factory outlets was a popular spot for shopping but it's too far for me to venture there during my previous trips, therefore it was also my first time there. The factory outlet was rather crowded, we only went into Nike and realised the prices were still quite steep, therefore we lost any interest in shopping and decided to just head to Lantau island.

My funky mum in hippie clothes

Friend recommended shopping there but nothing appealed to us

Took the bus up Lantau instead, which was a cost saving way

We happened to be at Hong Kong when the cable car to Lantau island was due for maintenance, and the service was closed for a week. We found an alternative way which was to take the bus (No. 23) up, the queue was super long as there was hoards of tourists heading to Lantau, but it was constantly moving as the buses arrived one after the other, but just needed time to load the passengers. We paid for the trip using our Octopus card so it was hassle free, there were some staff doing head count to ensure exactly 60 passengers boarded each bus so there were nobody standing on the way up. I found the trip up quite similar to taking the bus up the Victoria Peak, except that the trip took an even longer time (about 40min) and the road kept winding up and up before it came to a complete stop. It was still early when we reached, it was not even noon but there were already a lot of tourists walking around. The wind was quite strong, for the first time I felt that my thin cardigan was not enough to keep away the cold. We came across this small shop selling bean curd and other steamy food, perfect for such chilly weather. Mum was always in an adventurous spirit so we decided to stop for some food and warm ourselves up. There were some tables and chairs around the place so we could also rest our feet (although we had not walk that much) before we started our pilgrimage up the steps leading to the Big Buddha.

Ngong Ping Village which is quite touristy

These tasted good during the cold weather

These are the stuff they sell (quite taiwan feel)

The Big Buddha statue is the icon of Lantau and Hong Kong, and I've always seen it in pictures and brochures. There were many steps leading up to the statue, it was quite foggy that day so we could not really get a clear shot even when we got quite near. I'm just glad that Mum and Dad are still healthy and able to go up those flights of steps without much difficulties although I was already panting. After we reached the top, we walked around the place and I realised that it was a columbarium inside and there were tablets of the dead. Just like me, Mum had a sweet tooth even in this chilly weather so we bought an ice cream to share between us. Tourists were milling around taking photographs, the sky cleared a little so the Tian Tan Buddha statue became clearer, we took the chance to take some selfies as we walked down the steps again.

Mum posing about halfway up the steps

The folks with foggy Big Buddha

Shot of mum nearer the top

Weather cleared a little before we headed down

A wefie with Ngong Ping village behind us

Just realised that my mum loves posing and taking pictures

Various shots around Ngong Ping village

The other side of the Giant Buddha was Po Lin Monastery where many people were praying and making offerings using gigantic joss sticks. Somehow, the folks are not really religious and not interested in the temple, so we just briefly walked past the place. The other side of the path led to this touristy street with interesting shops and building structure that are perfect for taking photos. We walked around for awhile, visited the clean washrooms and then decided to head down to Tung Chung. I slept for the 30min on the way down and had a good rest, Mum spotted a bake sweet potato cart and we bought one to try since we could not find something like this on the streets at home.

Baked sweet potatoes and these were really huge!

It was well past lunch time but we were not hungry yet, we decided to try our luck at One Dim Sum as the timing was just right after we left Lantau, it will be quite off peak by the time we get back to Mongkok, (about 4pm) and I was crossing my fingers there will be no queue. We went back the way we came, took the train back to Prince Edward MTR station where we could easily walk to the shop (just a short 5min walk). There was still a short queue outside, this shows how popular the ex one Michelin star restaurant is, but we were okay with waiting for 15min. As we were queueing, there were stools outside so we could actually sit and wait (like Tim Ho Wan here), I was busy reading reviews and looking for the best stuff to order.

Back to One Dim Sum and the queue is manageable now

After awhile, we got seated and passed the ordering slip to the wait staff. Finally! We conquered One Dim Sum on our second try! The effort was well worth it as we ordered a total of 8-9 dishes and every one of them were really yummy. The last time I was here, I was not really hungry so it was difficult for the two of us to enjoy most of the stuff, we even left feeling really bloated. However this time round, we came with our stomach empty and left the place feeling fulfilled.

The paper menu which was like a place mat on every table

Loved every single dish

Lovely dim sum

The soup 老火汤 was yummy and we finished every single drop, it is a tradition for Cantonese to brew delicious soup and they have different flavours everyday, the one we tried was the old melon soup. Both the rice dishes were really good too, simple and fresh ingredients and not too oily, almost like home cooked stuff that tasted just right for us. The barbecue pork bun, the siew mai, the dumpling with salted meat... I loved everything that we had ordered, and my folks did too. I noticed the queue stopped for awhile at 5pm, but soon it was approaching dinner time and people started to queue up again.
After we finally had dim sum checked off the list, we took a walk towards Mongkok MTR to look around. We had ran out of HKD and the folks were also looking for money changers, from a quick search online there should be plenty of those at Mongkok area. The good thing about going overseas with the folks was I did not spend a single cent, sis paid for most of the expenses and the folks brought extra to spend. While they were changing their remaining RMB to HKD, I spotted this next door.

Spotted Yee Shun Milk company along Mongkok

Weiwei and I had tried their 双皮炖奶 during our previous trip and I remember the hot one tasted really good, so I suggested we go in for some desserts. Luckily, the folks were gamed for more food although we were already feeling full. We finished the two bowls of desserts 双皮炖奶 and 姜汁炖奶 (both hot version) in a short while and they agreed that it was good. Even though we enjoyed the food, I've noticed that food price in Hong Kong is not as cheap as we imagined, two bowls of these desserts in a normal shop setting cost 60 HKD and that's more than 10SGD.

Best hot desserts ever

We walked around for awhile more, Mum got some instant noodles that we can snack on as supper (her noodles are really a hit) and we decided to get back to rest early. It was only 7pm but we headed out early and I guess we were kind of tired from the amount of walking we did in the day. We took a cab to One Dim Sum earlier but it was actually quite convenient by MTR, after two stops from Mongkok, we alighted and changed to blue line at Kawloon Tong station, two more stops and we reached Sha Tin.

Our loot from H & M

Sha Tin MTR was actually linked by the overhead walkway to our hotel, we just had to keep walking for 10min or so before we'll get to our hotel lifts. We erroneously rode the escalator up and Mum spotted a H& M outlet, I was wearing my new H& M pants earlier (bought during sales at Kallang Wave mall) and she really loved the prints. Oh my funky mum! I cant imagine my mum actually liked those printed pants and have the same taste in style as me. New Town Plaza mall is quite popular for shoppers so it was quite crowded in the outlet at that time, with a long queue for the changing room, so we decided to visit again another day when its quieter.

Later that night, after we showered and rested for awhile, we realised it was only 9pm. Mum suggested we go back to H&M to take a look since it is still too early to sleep, it was a really good idea as there was really much fewer people in the shop when we got there. The printed pants (my latest fave after the rompers) were going for 99 HKD each and its considered cheap as I got mine for 19.90 SGD during sales. Mum picked out 3 pieces and I managed to get myself 2 pieces (avoiding the prints she had chosen) and we walked out as very happy ladies with 5 H& M pants for 496HKD! It also solved my wardrobe problem for the next day as I did not have enough long pants for the trips, I've forgotten that it is still kind of cold in HK and my rompers will not come into use in such weather. 

Hong Kong Trip 4 Day 2 (14/3/15)

The folks woke up quite early despite resting late, they were already up and moving about at 7am+ when mum told me to set the alarm clock at 8.30am. By the time the alarm clock went off, we were about to set off.

Having arrived at the hotel late the previous night, we did not get to take a good look at the surroundings, the neighbourhood seem much quieter compared to the places I've stayed previously (Nathan and Tsim Sha Tsui area). We asked the bellboys for direction to the MTR station and started ventured out. The weather was cool and nice enough to go out, even with just a T-shirt and long pants on. Nevertheless, most of the people have a jacket/sweater on.

First meal of the day at Kee Hing

Kee Hing breakfast

There are some eateries just across the street, we spotted one Hong Kong cafe (Kee Hing) buzzing with the early crowd and we decided to give it a try. It was full inside, but a table had three available seats, so the wait staff pointed us that way. It's a Hong Kong culture to share table, but the folks were a bit taken back by the squeezy area. They looked at the menu and ordered a beef noodles dish and a sausage macaroni soupy dish, obviously they were very happy with the food there as we decided to add on another bowl of beef noodles. The beef was fresh and really tender, it was not extraordinary but the food was considered good standard compared to what we usually have. I also tried the 菠萝油 but it was actually too oily and the butter was an overkill. We left the place after footing the $99 HKD bill, feeling happy with our stomach full.

We found our way to Sha Tin Station

Its essential to get an Octopus card in HK

We found our way to Sha Tin MTR station easily, it is located inside a big shopping mall and the place was already crowded with people although it was only 9am+. We got the Octopus card to travel around (150 HKD each) and Mum started to get quite worried as we did not have much HKD left with us since we were going to Shenzhen and she left most of the remaining HKD in the hotel room (I have no idea why she did that). Anyway, we started our adventure traveling to Shenzhen by taking the MTR towards 落马洲 (Lok Ma Chau). From there, we will cross to 福田口岸 to meet up with Aunt and Uncle.

Somehow the trains along this line give me a very 'China feel'

We alighted at  上水 as it was not a direct trip to Lok Ma Chau, we had to stop and change to another train. As we were crossing to the immigration, I noticed that it was probably a good choice as I remembered the huge crowd the previous time I crossed over to Shenzhen from Lo Wu. The transition to

Food here was really good, too bad we were too busy  to enjoy :(

Shenzhen was smooth and we arrived at 福田口岸, however, we realised that our relatives were waiting for us at another stop and we had to take the Shenzhen metro to meet them at 购物公园 station. It was another trip that needed us to alight and changed to another train. By this time, I noticed that the folks were already feeling tired from the amount of traveling and transferring we had to do. The metro system in Shenzhen was modern and easy to access, but we still felt the strain of boarding and alighting from trains, looking for the right place to go, and some walking. To cut the story short, we finally met up with Aunt and Uncle at Coco Park shopping mall.

Our main mission was to get to the bank and get our bank accounts opened, but we couldnt reject it when Aunt/Uncle brought us to this very nice restaurant to have our lunch first. Obviously, they really liked the food there and had planned things this way to give us a really warm reception. Unfortunately, sis called us after some of the dishes came and she rushed us to our mission, so we had to ditch lunch to look for the nearest ICBC.

Took a quick shot and some bites before we rush to bank

My aunt is working in a bank and had assured us that it will be a pretty smooth process. However, things turned out quite differently. At ICBC, they asked for a local phone num and a local address to open the bank account, so we had to trouble Aunt to give the bank her numbers. It is also a hassle for her as the num was provided to phone banking/ notifications and she had to come up with a few different num for us to use. According to her, different banks have quite different requirements for opening new accounts and even the technology used is different for the OTP. We were really grateful that she offered her help or we would need to abort our mission right at that moment. After signing on many different pieces of paper, mum finally had her account done and she went to one of the terminals to get her account activated. Overall, the process of just opening the accounts and getting the accounts activated online was torturous, both due to the fact that it's China being China and we were really not used to the system.

We also intended to open accounts at another bank (Huaxia Bank), according to Aunt/Uncle, they have the best rates when we need to withdraw cash in SG. However, after taking cab down to one of their branches in Shenzhen, we were informed that foreigners were not allowed to open bank account there unless we can produce proof that we are staying in China for at least three months. This is a new regulation starting from 2015. Grrr.. another red tape.

The most ridiculous thing happened next. We walked to another ICBC branch to open another bank account, and we were denied as well! Different branch under the same bank actually had different ways of handling things.. Arrgh. Aunt helped us talk to the manager and finally they allowed us to do it. Mum's account got locked just after her internet banking was activated previously, the phone banking platform is difficult to use as there's a few different layers of passwords, so we also helped her to resolve the issue at the branch. I really wondered if the complex system really helped with the security or just added to the hassle. They gave us this USB shield thing that we need to do internet banking with, however, when I whipped out my Apple Macbook air to test the device, we were informed that it only work with Windows. We ended up paying more to get another password security device, which is similar with what we're using in SG.

Lovely family photo before we parted ways

After all the hassle, we were feeling really tired and it was already 4pm+. We walked to a nearby mall that's linked to the nearest metro system. Uncle treated all of us to Starbucks coffee (I also got my new China/Shenzhen Starbucks mugs there) before we bidded farewell to them. We were really thankful that they were around when we went through the all the hassle and headaches earlier.

My parents outside Shenzhen Starbucks :)

It was around 7pm when we got back to the hotel, it had been a long day so we rested for an hour or so before heading out for dinner. Sha Tin station is great for traveling to Shenzhen (direct line) but it is quite far away from the main city area. We decided to just look for an eatery around this area as we're dead beat and we had enough of the trains for today. It was Saturday night, so most of the eateries at the nearby New Town Plaza Mall were quite crowded. We spotted Din Tai Fung just a few minutes walk from our hotel but there were 50 numbers in queue before we can be seated.

Mugs to add to the collection

The trick is to get these Starbuck cards and use the credits to buy mugs

We preferred to try some rice dishes after having noodles for the whole day, but most of the eateries are serving Jap/Italian/Western specialty or just noodles. We walked around for awhile before we came to this restaurant call Hainan Shaoye, it caught my attention as earlier, Dad was wondering if they have hainanese chicken rice here in Hong Kong. We decided to try out the place since we can get seats immediately, we were quite amused after looking at the menu as the place specialised in SG/Msia food. I had a bad feeling about it as there were bad reviews about the food when I searched, however we did not feel like venturing around anymore, so we just want to have the mediocre meal and go back to rest. Luckily, we decided to order one whole Hainanese chicken and it actually tasted quite good, tender and juicy. It was not a cheap meal but at least the folks was satisfied with something familiar and they found it worth the price.

Hainanese Chicken for dinner

Reviews were not that good but we were happy with our meal

After the meal, we were tired so we were back in the room resting before 10pm.