UKCAT

I did not have enough sleep the night before the test. I was flipping over from side to side, adjusting the pressure on either side of my body while exasperating in frustration in lieu of the hot unbearable weather.

My consciousness only slipped off 4 hours before the circadian rhythm sent my body into alert mode. I was awake – wide awake at 9 in the morning.

With 7 hours more to go before the commencement of my paper, I sat up on the chair of the study, took out the UKCAT practice book and started reading through the tips. Minutes later, boredom crept in and my brain’s capacity to absorb decrease. Soon after, I found myself back on bed, drifting into deep slumber.

I woke up on time, with more than sufficient time to prepare and head out. I reached the test centre early, so they decided to have me begin the testing earlier.

Verbal reasoning (VR), the worst section of them all, had me rushing because I realized I was 3-5 questions behind time when the clock strike 11 minutes, the halfway mark which serve as a gentle reminder that time was not on my side. I guessed quite a bit of questions, tapping into the relevancy of my knowledge, and found none.

Decision Making was next. I never knew I could skip this section since this was not marked and was under trial. Nonetheless, I cracked my brain and worked towards the end. The only benefit I had was that this served as a miniature preparation for my Quantitative reasoning, the next section of the test, given that there were a few mathematical questions.

Quantitative (QR) was scary, but I had to stay calm and my eyes constantly glaring at the seconds ticking away at the digital timer. There were multiple questions where I could not understand the table. But I tried to make an educated guess and move on, I do not want to have this section ended up like VR. Skipping the questions were a right choice because I had more time to deal with the simpler questions more confidently.

Abstract (AR) came next on the list and I stumbled over a few questions, who’s pattern were hard to postulate and made a quick guess. Sometimes, my reasoning fell on the simplest chain of rules, sometimes a complicated one. So long as the rule I logically came up with was followed by the shapes, it did not matter.

The last section was the Situational Judgement Test (SJT). This made me realized why ethical situations are always difficult to address. You know what is the correct thing to do, yet, factors that affect your relationships with others, how others perceive you and all will taunt your decisions to steer clear from being ethical. Maybe that is why they have SJT in this test – to put the opinions of others aside and do right.

The results were instantly generated when you end the test.

Results for VR, QR, AR are generated on a scale of 300-900. According to the UKCAT website, 500-700 is the average score.

And here’s mine:

Can you imagine my excitement when I saw this?!

I almost burst out jumping with so much excitement and happiness!

I have been constantly tracking my progress since I started practising 2 months ago. My VR, on average is 570. Seeing how this section was slightly lower, but still within the average zone, I was sad. But then again, I would not know if 550 lies in the average zone until UKCAT release the quartiles in Late September.

My average for QR and AR is 630 and 650 respectively, with 700 and 770 as the maximum. So when I saw the first digit hitting an 8, I was so shock I almost got into a coma!

The figures 8 and 9 following the first digit was 0.0000001% close to sending me fainting!

I was so happy with my results and I started spamming everybody on the whatsapp, announcing my results! Haha.

But still, I think my excitement and happiness would be a lot more tangible only when I get accepted into the UK Medicine School!

When I posted my results online, I had many people messaging me, asking for tips. So here are the tips for QR and AR (couldn’t give VR since I did not score well in that subset).

Quantitative reasoning tips:

1. Among the 36 questions, there would be 2-3 graphs of higher difficulty. If you cannot digest the question, or get the answers listed in the options after 2 tries, skip it.
2. But when you skip a question, flag it and choose a random answer, or close to what you’ve calculated! You don’t want to lose these marks when you realized there’s not enough time to switch over and choose an answer.
3. Despite 2-3 graphical or data questions being harder, the rest are pretty easy!
4. Always read the question and understand what they are asking!
5. Especially the units!
6. Make sure you cover the areas the question is asking and then calculate the answer. if you are on track, then you should be able to get the correct answer
7. If you are practising for UKCAT, I suggest you to try reading the QR question first before the information. This is to free space, and mitigate the feelings of panic (from not being able to digest or understand), and allow your mind to filter the information you need to answer the question from the main chunk. But, if this doesn’t work for you, read the question first!
8. Always practise under timed conditions.
9. Unless you are starting out, then grab the techniques first (i.e. untimed test), before you transit to timing yourself (to see how fast you take to answer) and lastly, to refining your speed (under test timed conditions).
10. During the test, keep in mind the time. 9 questions should take you about 5.5 minutes. I had this habit of writing down the breakdown of time so I know when the time strikes 11 minutes, I need to be on question 18, at least.
11. If you cannot understand a question, or get the answer, skip it. Focus on those that can give you the points.
12. If have a strong mental calculator, rely on it. It is always faster to work using your mind than the calculator! I did this for most of my questions!
13. Jot down any useful numbers you get in case you need them again. (Save time on recalculating, especially when there is a lot to add)
14. Lastly, keep practising especially with distance, speed, time questions, and currency questions.

Abstract Reasoning

1. Segment your time properly! You will need to take note of your time more often so you don’t fall back.
2. Look at the 6 boxes of Set A, figure out what is the rule. Always look at the simplest box because there’s lesser distractors.
3. Look out for Shape, Size, Numbers, Angles, Symmetrical lines, Arrangement. If there are arrows, look for relationship between arrow and objects.
4. Sometimes, the pattern can be very easy to spot. Don’t over think too much.
5. Once you settled on a rule and it works with Set A, Set B’s rule should run along the same line (i.e. Set A has 3 circles and 1 white square, Set B has 2 black triangles and 2 white circles).
6. Once you figured the rules out, quickly group your test questions to group A or B or neither. Those falling into Neither have similar patterns, but does not satisfy a criteria for boh A and B (i.e. size too small, or too many or too little in numbers).
7. Most type 1 AR questions belongs to either A or B.
8. If you cannot figure out the rule, figure out which test shape belongs to neither A and B based on something common between A and B (i.e. all must have an arrow, so if a test shape has no arrow, most likely, it does not belong to A or B). Then guess the other shapes in either A or B.
9. Type 2 and 3 questions are easier to score, so score them as fast as possible and don’t waste the chances of you collecting the marks.
10. Cannot determine the pattern? Just skip, but don’t forget to pick an answer first!

Thinking back now, QR and AR is actually quite fun!

In case you guys may be wondering, I had 2 months to practice my UKCAT. How I start off my practice is to first grab the concept and see how well I fare (not in timed conditions). Subsequently, I timed myself to see how fast I can do the questions based on my abilities. This is importantly, especially to assess how well you have been improving or how quickly you are deterroriating. Lastly, do the test under the UKCAT timed conditions and determine how much to improve and ways to circumvent that issue.

Remember, do not panic and read carefully! Carelessness is something I always fall into when I was doing my practice papers.

Lastly, all the best to those taking UKCAT! Drop me a message or leave a comment if you need help! I would gladly help you guys if you need :)!

48 hours

48 hours.

That was what I told myself when silence followed my last message I sent on the night of Thursday.

I told myself there was totally no point in waiting for someone who does not even border to reply. A relationship cannot start one-sided. It takes two hands to clap and obviously, the other was not keen on convening together. Should this relationship blossom out of pity and forced contemplations, it would never last. Communication was the key, but you held one for the wrong lock.

24 hours passed.

Trying to get past 12 hours without constantly checking on my phone and on the WhatsApp is an extremely difficult task. You constantly bombarded my mind with recollections and reminiscent of what we had before. These thoughts and sweet memories seemed to latched onto the deepest pit in my mind, not wanting to let you go.

If I had a cent every time I think of you, I would have been rich within the first 12 hours.  Besides the longing for your message, and returning the vibrations of my phone with supreme enthusiasm hoping that it would be you (and then being disappointed again), I found solace in the love articles in ThoughtCatalog.

Stumbling across this 66 “I Miss You” Quotes on ThoughtCatalog made my misery a lot worse. These quotes constantly fished out pieces of time fragments, figments of our passion. I recalled the night we ventured into the park, with you sharing parts of your life. Or speeding over to the toilet several miles further when you started urging me that incontinence is going to strike.

What about the night over at Starbucks, before our first movie in the theaters? You went to the counter for a cup of Matcha drink and came back with two straws. The subtly of your intent was noted, but I did not reciprocate, for our time we had was repleted with awkwardness of a newly met couple – shy and at lost.

36 hours passed.

It was 9pm.

“Just 12 hours more and you’ll be gone”. That was what I told myself, to slowly ease the pain of not seeing you again, letting you go, before slipping myself under covers and slept.

When I woke up, the clock showed me the time – 8 in the morning.

I almost died.

All my efforts in the past 40 odd hours went down into the drain.

I received a message from you 1am the day before I crept under my covers and drifted off.

“Hey, you sleeping yet?”

That was the downfall of everything.

We texted and whenever I accidentally opened up the wounds of our past mistake, you would get angry and ignored the message. I discovered that trait in you, but it was during then which confirmed my analysis of your behavior. As long as something you were not comfortable about saying, you will disappear without a trace or madness will fill you in quickly.

I have learnt how to avoid traps in our conversations, detours that could eventually lead to the wrong path. We managed our conversation well. Everything was going smoothly, and the feelings were real – they were two-way as well.

I thought things would progress to be better, especially after chatting with you on WhatsApp for the entire day on Sunday, and also after you asked me an opinion about a life-changing situation you are facing now. Sadly, good things never lasted for us.

I guess those words you’ve said to me “Only time I will commit is if I’m sure of something”, “because I like to see things to the end”, “obviously, I can’t see how this will end well” wounded me deeply enough to leave a scar – much like the scar I had on my right knee. This newly inflicted scar built barriers around me whenever I was interacting with you, setting off alarm bells and red flags whenever I got too involved. This short week has taught me that I am not into you anymore, or rather, whatever ties we had, will not carry us far – for you, only walk in my path of life for this truncated period.

However, much like cancer cells which grow without mechanisms putting them in check, the scar built a much larger barricade. I am at lost if finding a relationship will ever work for me, not now, but unsure about the distant future.

Sometimes, I felt like blocking you off, cutting any contacts with you. But a part of me screamed and rebelled. Maybe, you could teach me a thing or two about talking to people whom I feel awkward with or shared no base of a topic to converse about.

Nonetheless, I made a decision to try to make things work. Eventually, when things get busier, I might not have the time to mend this broken, snipped tie of ours. That will then signify the death of something I like. But the memories, they will never fade.

 

Day 7 – Disney Land

Among all my HK posts, I believe this should be the post with the most photos and gifs.

Disneyland is a mandatory stop for all the tourist, and I’m sure a handful were compelled to book a temporary shelter in Disneyland. Regardless, Disneyland has been one of the main attractions for Hong Kong and being to Hong Kong thrice, I have dropped by Disneyland on all three trips. The last trip to Disneyland was back in 2013.

Within 3 years, Disneyland has changed quite a bit. However, some of its heritage still remained. (Wait, why do I make it sound like a crushing wave of obsolescence swamping past?)

Anyway, getting to Disneyland is very easy, given how accessible their established MTR line bridged, doesn’t cost much (about HKD20+ from Tsim Sha Tsui) and it takes a relatively shorter travel time. Upon reaching, we had to queue up to get the tickets and we got the normal one day pass for HKD539. Other options are available from the agencies in the online platforms or you could buy passes of various duration.

Looks like Disneyland is still crowded as ever!

Some things don’t change

While some changes, look how much bigger Disneyland has grown!

When my friend took over the Disneyland map from the counter, we discovered two newly opened areas- the Grizzly Bear and the Mystique, both of which are located towards the west of the map. Of course, with new areas come new rides! I was so excited to find a new roller coaster ride in the Grizzly Realms!

Prior reaching, I set my eyes on the Space Adventure in TomorrowLand and had to pull my friends there the moment we reached. Thankfully, that ride wasn’t particularly crowded then and we managed to queue for a short 5 minutes before we embarked on our space exploration. Why the Space Adventure you might ask? Because that was the best, the fastest and the most exhilarating ride amongst the others in the same plot of land, from what I recalled last time.

Sorry, I just had to insert that pun there.

But…

I guess this is a strong case of falsified memories your brain makes each them you retrieve the memories from the depths of your hippocampus. As usual, disappointment hit me on the head again when I realized what I think I know about the ride turned out to be so different from what I had gone through.

Look at the tickets xD

As I hop over to Space Mountain, I noticed they had new machines issuing out fast pass tickets. Essentially, you can get fast pass tickets to take the ride within a certain time frame by inserting your entry ticket into the machine. Also, do note that you are entitled to one fast pass regardless of which rides you are taking. We were holding onto the fast pass for Space Adventure and realized the machine denied us from getting another pass from the Winnie the Pooh’s boat ride adventure. Oh well.

We headed over to Fantasyland shortly after touring the rides in Tomorrowland before we proceeded to ToyStory. Back then, both Tomorrowland and Fantasyland had to wind up earlier because of some events booked those that residing at the richer end of the financial spectrum.

During our time at Fantasyland, we saw Mickey Mouse and his crew dancing around! I swear Mickey and Minnie are the most enthusiastic ones compared to the rest of the characters!

Look at them! They look super happy to see you!

Just before reaching Toystoryland, we walked past a couple of gardens and we saw this!

Toystoryland wasn’t that bad! We get to see our favorite Rex from Toy Story, tangled up in the ropes of the Yoyo while he was trying it.

Rex is so cute!

Stepping into Toystoryland send a jolt of memories back into my head. I have always thought this U-shaped ride was from Ocean Park! It wasn’t until I see this did I noticed I was wrong! Honestly, this is the 2nd best ride you need to try,that is, if you are able to take being in acceleration forward and back that can anchor you parallel from the ground.

We also took this parachute ride! I guess after the Abyss from Ocean Park, this ride seemed to be child’s play.

Following the rides, my friends decided to take a short break to catch for air and to consolidate the pieces they have lost during the rides. Quite a hilarious sight, but, it was enjoyable! We headed over to the souvenir shops and I started fooling around with the toys.

Just the toys and me

We had lunch before setting off for the Grizzly Realms! The food wasn’t too bad! I had meatball spaghetti while my friends had baked pork chop rice and some Japanese cuisine. Oh, if I am not wrong, all meals are set meals so drinks are provided unless you switched it with something more classical.

Upon reaching Grizzly Bear’s site, we saw Geysers! These are legitimate Geysers which are discovered when Disney built their park over it. Thankfully, they decided to keep these intact and we, tourist, are able to see them! Besides the Geysers, we reached there just in time for a performance! Honestly, the way these hosts engage the kids made the whole scene replete with adorableness! I keep squirming given the overwhelming level of cuteness there.

 

Soon after, it was time for the final ride – the mine train! This is seriously one of the best, besides the Space Mountain, roller coaster rides in Disneyland ever! Having my first ride in this sent thrills and adrenaline pumping all over from the unexpected twist of events. I shall not provide any spoilers for the ride! You should really try this out.

After several rides on the mine train, we decided to pop by this Museum in Mystique. I never gave this ride a second thought until my friends reeled me in. This is the only ride in Mystique land and believe me, you should NEVER skip this ride! Not only do you get to enjoy the view of counterfeit artefacts, you also get to ride on their super special mount that brings you to explore treasures of different areas. The entire ride was SPLENDID!

Once we were done, we headed over for dinner and started chilling until 8pm where a parade was supposed to happen. I said was, because the parade got canceled due to last minute unforeseen circumstances. We had to wait for the next hour for the fireworks at 9pm.

Like what I mentioned earlier, your brain has a tendency to recreate and tweak the memories a bit. I did not have a really good impression of Disney’s fireworks. But, this took me back by surprise – a hell lot.

Thankfully for us, our time in Disneyland wasn’t filled with crowded queues or inclement weather. Waiting time for the rides was at most, 30 minutes, and we got to play almost all the rides we set out to the day before.

Overall, my time at Disneyland was fun, exciting and enjoyable!

Day 6 – OTOT

Day 6 post is going to be a lot shorter due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to reschedule our planned trip to Disneyland to the following day.

That was absolutely good news to me because it meant EXTRA SLEEP xD!

I wanted to post the snap I took when I woke up but, I could not find its’ existence anywhere on my phone or my facebook chat. Oh well…

Anyway, by the time I woke up, I realized both of my friends were gone.

When I left the apartment later at around 11:45am (I know, I slept in a bit longer only), I met up with my friend at Prince Edward Station where we proceed to look for this Three Potatoes Shop located at Nullah Street. It took us quite a bit of time to locate and after walking for rounds, we found it. The shop was tucked in near a corner shop, beside ShareTea! If you found share tea, chances are the shop next to it is the Three Potatoes! Do note that the shop opens at 12pm. Thankfully, we hit there at 12 so the waiting time was not as bad.

Attached up here is the menu, and I ordered the Sour Cream and Cheese Baked Potato

And here’s the Sour Cream and Cheese Potato!

Trust me, the last thing you want to have is to be bored by the taste of plain mushy potatoes overcoated with sour cream and cheese in your mouth. I regretted awhile after I made my order because I rather have something crispy to go along. My suggestion would be for you to try the Fried Onion and Bacon Hashbrown potato. Unless of course, you don’t mind the mushiness of the potato then go ahead with the old school ones with cream and cheese.

Oh, because it’s potatoes, they generally fill your stomachs pretty quickly… 

Other than that, the potato was really nice and unique – something I don’t think you’ll be able to find here in Singapore. I like how the onions blended with the cream and the potato!

Of course, potatoes aren’t that filling after all. I realized that after I bypassed this shop 😦

Following the purchase, we headed around MongKok and dropped by some shopping malls around Tsim Sha Tsui. Oh, we also headed to the Flower Market and the Goldfish market. These places are literally rows of streets selling a variety of colorful floral in pots and bundles, and tanks of sea fauna if you are at their Goldfish market.

Didn’t get a lot of pictures of the areas, though, except a few mockeries in the signs I see as I walked along. Wait a minute, I realized I lost a lot of my photos I’ve taken 😦 Maybe using Snapchat as a photo taking application was a bad idea. I don’t save them automatically until I reached back in my sanctuary, which the idea would have been buried elsewhere.

After spending almost 75% of our days in Hong Kong, we finally decided to explore the malls we lived right by the side. We explored the One, Mira mall and one sub-mall beside Mira. They were like typical shopping malls filled with famous brands that sell luxurious items. Cafes and restaurants also settled in the corners of the mall. Out of nowhere, my astute eyes spotted this:

 

You can turn your selfie into your foam decor for your coffee! I mean, HOW amazing is that? Well, not really. Haha.

Guess who I’d found in the mall?

I also spotted this cute dinosaur safeguarding this piece of technological rock from the hands of those with nefarious intent. I know this dinosaur falls nowhere near the intimidating spectrum, but it holds hidden powers that can make your bones crackle.

Anyway, I forget to mention about the Times Square Mall located in Mong Kok, which we explored as well! Apart from being like your ordinary mall, it stood 12 stories tall and had different shops occupying them at the different levels. Maybe you should check them out.

We didn’t do much because one of our friends was away, so me and the other settled for some K-box back in the apartment after exploring certain areas!

With that, I should end my 2nd last day here in Hong Kong.

Next stop, Disney Land!

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Day 5 – Macau!

On the fifth day, we headed to Macau and being the late night owls we are, we woke up a bit later and had to rush to the ferry terminal. Fortunately for us, the ferry terminal was a 5-10 minute bus ride away!

We proceeded to the China Ferry Terminal located near Tsim Sha Tsui and as we are going up the stairs, we saw a large crowd of interspersed agents trying to sell their ferry tickets. Initially, we were skeptical and the language barrier deterred us from trying to find out what was happening – why were there so many people looked desperate to sell their tickets?

Turns out, these people are representative of tour agencies who bought a large bulk of tickets trying to sell them away 15 minutes before the ferry depart. As lucky as we were always, we managed to link up with one of the agents and got our tickets HKD15 cheaper than the market price and rushed to the ferry.

Anyway, for those who did not notice. Or for that matter of fact, our final destination was at Macau Taipa. Macau can be segmented into two regions, the Northern Macau and the Southern Cotai/Taipa linked together by tendrils of driveways.

Upon reaching Taipa, we took the shuttle bus to the Venetian Hotel where a well-known casino sat. Since our card service doesn’t extend to Macau, or rather, we did not activate them for the cost of HKD$40 credit n our phone, we had to rely on the wifi around. Thankfully, Wifi was everywhere around the regions we explored so we had internet connection around.

Anyway, if you need a wifi connection, you can drop by their information counter at the ferry terminal and collect this brochure about wifi in Macau. They will provide you details for one of the wifi hotspots which can connect you to the internet almost anywhere.

Once we were at the Venetian hotel, which resembled Venice and had a lot of spectacular spots to view, we scouted the area for their famous egg tart!

Guess what? We found them and these tarts came by at a cheaper price! They tasted amazing, with the thin crust crumbling into dust each instance my teeth sank into them and the sweet custard feeling that illuminated my inner soul. Haha, let’s make do with the nonsensical elaborations. But they were honestly one of the nicer tarts I’ve ever tried!

Besides the egg tart, I also tried their chocolate tart!

It was SUPER SUPER AMAZING!

You should drop by Lord Stow’s Bakery & Cafe for their tarts as well as the other goodies tey have on sale!

After an hour or more worth of exploration in the hotel itself, we headed outwards to where the village is.

The village there reminds me of Singapore’s Chinatown – low rise buildings with large spaces in between, painted in colorful shades on the artist’s palette. Honestly, the area was not as big as I thought or it seemed from the map, the distances were fordable by foot, except the hot weather in Macau was pretty hot.

Then, lunch came and we popped by one of the famous restaurants for their pork burger bun. I didn’t try the pork burger bun cause I believe in trying out something new and I ordered some pork chop noodle – not something new, but yeah.

Instead, I ordered almond milk. I never had this before and the closest relative to that was my parent’s soy milk with almond essence back as a kid. Well, they tasted almost the same, but the almond milk had this special taste which I liked!

Soon after, we boarded a taxi to the Macau tower for my bungee jumping!

The Macau tower had this shopping mall underground so those who wants to shop could do so there. Oh, in case you might be wondering, we did not change MOP, we used HKD instead.

We queued up and paid for the ticket. The bungee jump without the photos and the video cost me MOP3361, inclusive of the entry ticket. I got my jump and a red shirt (jumper’s edition) and was quite excited!

Thankfully, I had pre-booked a slot, otherwise, my jump would have been later. Nonetheless, I jumped approximately at 4pm when I booked the 3pm slot due to some unforeseen circumstances.

In front of me, stood 7 people in the queue. Because the area was all glass panels, we were able to see the view outside, extending from the Southern Taipa up to Northern Macau. That was when I spotted trouble.

From far, I saw large columbinus clouds inching their way towards us, emptying their bladders as they moved. Before I knew it, rain hit us and the jump had to cease temporarily.

The rain didn’t last very long as it was just passing by, and the jump continued. When it was my turn, they guided me up to this chair where they set more ropes on me. Following which, they explained the rules and how we should tug onto this string after the jump to elevate us into a seated position.

All jumpers will have photos taken prior the jump and a GoPro attached to them regardless if they signed up for the full package. After all the formalities with the photo taking, the crew members begin counting down from 5.

After 0, I realized I was at the platform and none of them pushed me forward, which I thought there would be. After the delay, one of them gave me a slight tug and I started free falling.

If I am not wrong, the jump lasted for 10 seconds.

During the first second, I could basically feel my body falling downwards, with no control and no form of security tied to me. I guess that is how you will feel like when committing suicide.

Subsequently, for the next 5 seconds, where you hit terminal velocity, you can literally feel like a superman, flying downwards with such great speed.

Until a certain distance, the string and pull you upwards and drop you downwards for three times, each reducing the energy gained from the free fall and slowly dissipating them. That was the worst 4 seconds of my life. Hanging there and dangling is the worst.

It feels like you are almost reaching the ground, to get control of your landing, but you are being reeled away back into the air. And just keep falling.

After that, I was lowered and headed back where I met my friends.

The bungee was really incredible and I would like to jump again but, didn’t have the financial capabilities to fund the next one (Despite it being a lot cheaper at MOP1000++).

Subsequently, we headed over to the Runes of St. Paul located upward in Northern Macau via bus.

There were plenty of street stalls that sells souvenirs and food. Me and one of my friends got a cup of bubble tea from there before we left the area.

I am unsure of the name of this hotel we dropped off, but we walked back from the runes and decided to board a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal.

There is this hotel with 4 levels of casinos up and 2 levels down. You need to be at least 21 to enter the casino and we managed to sneak in one of our friends who was 20 this year into the hotel. Once we were in, we headed to level 4 where they gave us a free bus ticket to the ferry terminal.

However, once we were down at the basement where the shuttle bus is located, one of the security crew decided to check on our ages. Apparently, we failed and caused a jammed there. Luckily, another member decided to let us in warning us “not to go back there again”. We boarded the bus and left Macau.

In our streaks of good luck, we managed to buy the ferry ticket back 3 minutes before the ferry departed and made it back safe to Hong Kong.

We had dinner at this newly opened hot pot shop along te street where we stayed and it was awesome!

We had a 10% discount after liking their facebook page and it was great! I ordered some Tomato soup based and it was fantastic! Some of the waiters there were able to communicate in English so we got some doubts clarified – like what was in the hotpot, and all.

Overall, our day was amazing and we had a lot of fun, especially for me since I did the jump alone.

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Day 4 – Victoria’s Peak, Mid levels, Golden Flower

Time seems to fly passed quickly and without realizing, today marks the mid-point of our time in Hong Kong. In the morning, all of us decided to sleep in a little, mainly because my friends and I decided to exchange a bit of night time sleep with card games. We skipped breakfast that particular day and made our way to the mid-level escalator, a journey towards the Peak of our final destination.

Actually, we didn’t skip breakfast, we skipped the ideas of going to the famous must-try restaurants though. Instead, we dropped by MacDonalds and I tried their breakfast set.

That was when I noticed MacDonalds had a Gudetama theme.

If you haven’t guessed it, Gudetama is this lazy egg whose cuteness apparently infiltrated into the minds of people.

Their MacDonald’s breakfast menu looks the same compared to Singapore, with the addition of Macaroni and Pasta for breakfast. Their Lunch menu was slightly different with rice burgers and all. For the additional HKD39 paid, buyers of any meals or food in MacDonalds are entitled to one Gudetama Ceramic Bowl. Both of my friends purchased it while I didn’t.

The mid-level escalator’s history can be found here. I will skip the details in case I started losing the interest amongst all. Anyway, the escalator has a unique set of operating hours whereby 6am to 10am each day, these escalators will flow downwards, and soon after, they will defy gravity.

Getting to the Mid-levels is easy, just exit from Central MTR and walk alongside Queens Road and within a 5-15 minute time radius, you should see the first end of the escalator. Alternatively, you might want to consider going there via Hong Kong MTR since it looks a lot nearer from the map.

In case you are wondering how far the escalator stretches, it extends to the base of Victoria’s Peak, the area circumferenced in green.

Once we were on the way up, we started taking selfies to commemorate the start of this long journey.

I didn’t take a lot of selfies back then because my hair doesn’t want me to steal the spotlight, so I gave most selfies a pass. Which, I think I should just spam and act all touristy, so I get to keep memories of the locations I been to. But then again, these are a waste of space on my phone’s limited storage.

While we were half way through escalating the mid-levels, we stumbled upon this.

This was a machine located in the middle of somewhere whereby people tap their Octopus card for discount. The discount was only valid for that particular day so we tapped it, knowing that we might need it later, and also for the fun of it.

Going up the escalator wasn’t as fun as expected, you will only get to see the surroundings of buildings you’ve never explored and you just keep going higher.

Once we were at the end of the bridge, it started to drizzle. I told my friends if they wanted to head back to the escalator and seek shelter in case a storm hits, they rejected my idea. And just before you know it, a storm swamped the area immediately. They wanted to carry on the journey up so I lead them in, following the signs available.

The walk in was steep and long. The arduous journey was made worst by the rain, which I think, ironically, it made the walk a lot cooler. Anyway, by the time we ascend the various steep grounds and high rise buildings, we were confronted by an entrance into the peak itself.

Guess what?

We wanted to take the tram up.

So if you are wondering what happened, here’s it. We were actually following the path up to the hiking trail! If you want to take a tram, go to either Central and exit from J2 or go from Admiralty exit C1 and head down to Garden road.

If you follow the Google’s map closely enough, the yellow highlighted road was the route we were supposed to take them to the tram, and the top left area boxed in black was the region where the start of the Mid-levels Are.

In conclusion, if you want to see the mid-levels and then take a tram, don’t forget to come down.

Actually, I should have saved myself some trouble by telling my friends something was wrong when we were trekking up. I used google map and realized we were getting further and further from the bus terminus, but I didn’t say anything. Oh well, lesson learned.

Skipping the minors in between, we managed to hail a cab and drove us to the terminus.

Once we were there, we explored the mall inside and a bit of the outside before heading back down. The weather was hot, and we didn’t want to hike in deeper to explore other regions. Oh well.

We then decided to pop by Sheung Wan for some famous tomato noodles during lunch time. And the shop came starring back at us, with a sign that says closed! After being in denial and all, we moved to a nearby shop and got lunch!

Lunch was relatively simple and plain, nothing fanciful. And it was plain cheap.

I like their half-coagulated egg yolks despite being immersed in its delicious bowl of piping hot soup. The luncheon meat reminded me of the times in the past where I used to be a huge fan of, and now eating that reminds me that I should probably get a can to cook at home.

Following lunch, we decided to head back to the apartment and rest while preparing for our trip to the Golden Bauhinia Square where the famous gigantic flower sat.

Directions to the Golden Bauhinia Square begins at Wan Chai MTR followed by a long walk along O’Brien Road. You will eventually get there and be awed by the number of tourist surround that golden flower. Somehow, I lost the photo of the statue and wasn’t able to upload this.

However, besides the golden flower, there was a second part to this area where you can take a heap load of selfies.

Due to unforeseen laziness, the other photos were not uploaded and one of them could be seen on my Instagram. Anyway, they have a lot of these cute creatures and even humanoid cartoon characters for you to take photos with.

Before we left, my friends went to this ice cream truck and bought some ice-cream, which offered them a brief period of reminiscing as a kid and their Softee ice cream truck.

Once we are all good, we headed over to Kam’s Roast goose located near Wan Chai.

The queue wasn’t too long and when you get your collection number, you will have to decide whether or not you wanted the goose because they are selling out fast. We convened and came to an agreement and placed an order for half a goose (HKD270 in case you’re wondering). Honestly, I cannot taste any difference between a duck and a goose but, this goose was simply amazing! It rocked my world so much and I will definitely pop by here again for their roast goose!

On top of that, the overbill was cheap, compared to the sky-high prices in Singapore.

If you want to try Hong Kong roast goose, I suggest youto give this a shot!

But when the realization settled in, my innards were screaming for more bottles of water to cleanse myself of the savory thick oils and fats consumed over the bowl.

No regrets.

Once we were done, we headed back to rest, preparing for our trip to Macau.

On our way back, we saw this bakery near Tsim Sha Tsui MTR and I bought their cheese tart to try.

Their cheese tart, and most of their tarts, as a matter of fact (for what I’ve tried), is unlike Singapore whereby cream cheese fills the entire body of the tart. In fact, it was more like the soft and fluffy baked cheese cake sitting on top of a golden tart. It was good, but totally unexpected.

With that, day 4 ended

Day 3 – Ocean Park

If there is something the future me will tell my past me before Ocean Park, that would be to sleep early because there was no point queueing up so early.

Ocean Park opens at 10 in the morning and we were already there by 9:30am. That was really one of the worst mistakes. Because right when the gates were opened, we rushed to the cable car station where we took the cable car up the Summit (where most rides are), only to be greeted with a sign that says: “Theme park opens at 11.”

What a waste of time and energy standing under the hot sun with not a single piece of cloud filtering the high-intensity beam of light from the sun.

Anyway, getting to Ocean Park is quite easy since there is a direct shuttle bus from Admiralty MTR. Once you exited the MTR, head over to their bus station. When you see their bus station. The moment you see the bus interchange, just head further down along the main road and look out for bus 629. That is the bus that transports you straight to Ocean Park. Never digress your route out from the bus interchange because we thought the interchange was the other one and decided to walk a 500m radius out to find, only to be brought back to where we came from by a kind passerby.

While we were exiting the train station, I noticed most areas in Hong Kong have Wifi. Talk about being able to connect online without needing an SIM card with data plans eh.

Once we reached there, we had to quickly finish up our food before the guards would let us in. And we sat outside, under the hot nefarious sun, and started munching on our food.

This is what it looks like when we cleared the security check. Just further down is the queue in into the park.

I was all hyped up and all, ready for the Hair Riser, until the cascade of events set my mood down. First was the 11am timing, the next, was that the entrance to the ride was closed.

See how excited I was when I saw the ride?!

In the end, we realized that the ride was never going to be open, and it didn’t. The ride decided to take a day off for maintenance.

Me and my disappointment 😦

Anyway, before reaching the Summit, we had to take the cable car up. The fears of hanging on a seemingly thin wire made the trip more fun and thrilling. But, there was this kid who took the same cabin as us, just stood up on the chair and started looking around. My legs were visibly shaken and my heart was stuck in my throat already. I wonder how brave could this kid be! Even his parents were worried and had to constantly remind him to sit down.

Here’s an applause for the brave soul!

Soon after the dreadful realization, we toured around the park and decided to try the other rides! The bumper cars were fun but extremely hard to operate because of the way the wheels rotate. It was fun, but the disappointment lingered around for awhile. Thankfully, there were other rides which were insanely, but I still think nothing can beat the Hair Riser. We took the flash, the Dragon, the mine train, and the abyss! Those were the few main attractions we went to! Thankfully for us, we dropped by during a weekday so the crowd was not too bad and the waiting times were all less than 30 minutes.

This was the abyss, one of the last rides we decided to take.

Lunch there was pretty crowded, there was a MacDonalds stall which sells food at a relatively cheaper price. If you want, you can head over to MacDonalds, otherwise, the more expensive food there should appeal to you more.

Throughout the day, besides the rides, there were enclosures were animals such as the attic foxes and walruses resided. I remember taking photos of the seals and walruses but they got lost somewhere in the abyss of my phone. But here’s the photos of these super adorable attic foxes!

Just watch it, they are just soooo cute!

 

This is my favorite picture of the foxes, especially the one in the center! It is repleted with an overwhelming level of cuteness!

Before we bid farewell to the park in the evening, we popped by the souvenir shops and I saw this super cute fluffy replica of a seal!

It’s so chubby I think I’m gonna die!

Leaving the park was no easy feat either. The crowd just swarm towards the buses dotted along the bus interchange and we had to squeeze. They had two bus services back to either Central or Admiralty and we headed over to Central!

Okay, maybe this is not as packed as the weekends but…

Once we hit the fresh soil of town, we proceeded to Temple Street for exploration as well as a quest to fill our stomachs with food!

Getting to temple street is easy, drop off at Austin and it is a 5-minute walk from the station. There are two parts to Temple street, the north, and the south. The north (I think) is a lot shorter with lesser stalls, while the southern street has plenty more shops for shoppers to hop about. Located on the northern side of the street, lies a famous clay pot rice restaurant which we had our dinner at. Honestly, the food was pretty average.

The worst part was that the chicken had bones! Something I was not really expecting since most chicken we had were boneless, except for their pork. Anyway, my friends and I ordered a small plate of Oyster Omelette! Since only one of our friends ate oysters, the other two of us decided to skip the soft rubbery oysters and tackle the egg. The egg was amazing, we should have ordered like the Chicken Omelette or something because the oysters are left hanging behind.

The thing I liked about this was the egg though!

In my opinion, if you will be dropping by Ladies’ Market, you might consider giving Temple Street a skip. Or if you want, you can stay over and explore the different areas of Temple Street.

And this sums it all up for my 3rd day in Hong Kong 😀

Day 2 – Hiking the Dragon’s Back

Day 2 was where the hike began.

But what is a hike without good breakfast?

We headed over to the Australia Dairy Co. which we found a lot of recommendations online that encouraged us to try. The shop opens at 7:30am and we were there around 8. To our surprise, there was a long queue along the aisle into the shop 30 minutes after its opening! Luckily for us, the queue was cleared pretty quickly and soon, we found ourselves in a corner, tucked away from the crowd in the restaurant.

 

Mandatory selfie with the shop!

Their breakfast menu and my super cursive and nice handwriting

Once we were inside, we had to quickly place our orders. Otherwise, we would end up like the tourist sitting opposite us who got screamed at to hurry up on their decisions. I guess this is what most famous restaurant would do during peak hours to ensure that they can fit in more people.

I order a breakfast set with a plate of macaroni with turkey ham, a buttered toast served with scrambled eggs as well as a warm cup of milk. Honestly, the milk and the eggs were the best food there. The eggs were so fluffy and their milk had this nice sweetness to it! It was amazing and it cost me HKD36 only!

If you guys are looking for food ideas in Hong Kong, do not give this place a miss!

Following which, we started to make our way to where the dragon resides.

Prior the flight, we were researching into areas not to be missed in Hong Kong and chanced upon the Dragon’s Back. According to our search results, the entire back will consume almost 8 hours of the hiker’s time across undulating terrain measuring up to 8km.

Getting there was pretty easy for us since we took a cab from Chai Wan MTR station to Shek O Village. What I told the taxi driver was to drop us at the entrance of the Dragon’s Hike (Long Chek [I think] in Cantonese). The trip was approximately 10 minutes and cost us around HKD54. Once we were there, we saw the signboard indicating the dragon’s presence.

Ignore the pace indicated on the wooden board because it varies among people of different physical stamina.

Unlike the 8 hours hike we were told to expect, ours took 3 hours to complete.

The hike in wasn’t too bad except the sun. It was so hot that my friends need to hide under an umbrella and stop a few times to rest. Once we were at the peak, we sat down and rested. The view from above along various points in the route was breathtaking! We could see the beaches below that circumferenced the vast blue sea.

So this is me, not 1km in and the view here is already starting to get awesome.

Photos took at various areas

Anyway, along the tracks, they have distance markers. I tried googling for them but, I got nothing back. In case you are wondering, the distance markers I saw started from 85 and ended around 97 when we were out of the whole area.

The track out of dragon’s back ends around 94, I think, but there is this long hike out to the main road where we took Bus 9 to Shau Kei Wan MTR.

That is the end point for the hike, but not out of the forested tracks!

You will see this sign once you exited the entire track. This is where you will see the signs out (mentioned below).

Note: Once you reached the end of the hike, like beyond the dragon’s back and nearer to the main road, you will see a sign showing two directions. If you face the sign, the left sign points back to where you begin (I think) and is 2km away, while the right sign points to another road within 0.5km. Head over to the right side, and go down the lengthy stairs. Once you are down, hope over to the opposite side and check if the board shows Shau Kei Wan as the end terminus. My friends and I waited on the wrong side of the road, only to realized after we missed a few buses back to Shau Kei Wan.

I actually got quite burnt from the walk after that.

Since we ended our hike quite early, we were able to squeeze another place of our destination into our itinerary. So we took the MTR to Tung Chung, which was at the other end, and headed over to the terminal to purchase our tickets.

The counter at the terminal sells tickets for both normal, covered flooring as well as the glass panel. We took the glass panel, and paid a slightly higher price (HKD255), for a return trip. Alternatively, you can walk back – it is actually possible, but the distance is insanely long with mountains to ascend.

Don’t really remember taking a lot of photos but this was one of the worst rides. The cable car was literally hanging at one end, on one side, onto the cable and there were a few occasions were huge gusts of wind almost topple our cabin. It was freaky and we couldn’t stop screaming.

There is this tower you have to go through and we used them as indicators as to where we were on the map. We were down to 3 final ones and my weak heart almost stopped from the view and the slow, torturous ride on such a high distance away from the ground.

Once we were there we just took selfie at the entrance. There are quite a few shops to pop by and I think the main attraction was their Giant Buddha. The view was nice up to where the Buddha was sitting, but other than that, I personally find the ride more enjoyable.

And then there was this cow I saw and decided to take another selfie with it.

 With that, we headed back to our apartment and prepare for our adventures at Ocean Park, Day 3!