still at taipei int'l airport here... we got lost trying to find the "departure hall" ...
i LOVE how environmentally friendly taiwan is :) .. and all of asia i'm assuming
i'm so glad i can sleep sound at night knowing there are fewer lighters out there to cause destruction to taipei now...
definitely life threatening!
so we found this ginormously awesome hello kitty store
little did we know it was our departure gate...
seriously...
NO JOKE!!!
no we didn't actually wait outside sitting on these cute hello kitty face chairs... we were like the last ones to board our plane.... hmm.. for some odd reason.. i feel like this'll be a reccurring theme on this trip ...
Hong Kong welcomes us! yes!!!
all the double decker busses intrigued me
so cool... yet potentially dangerous... towards the end of our trip.. we sat on the bottom deck because we were so lazy to climb the stairs up -__-
our hostel room which was rated #1 in asia by hostelworld ... hmm.... we assumed there were no hostels in existence in asia until 2008 :) ... ez also had this theory .. which i agree 100% on... that there was actually a hidden door somewhere in the building that led to their actual ginormously sized plush bedroom with an outside pool with waterslides ... the bedroom they were staying in was just the lobby leading to their room.... but they never found that door .... aww shucks :/
even though i was really frustrated with the currency system here... bc i found it slightly unnecessary to have a $10 coin when there was a $10 bill .... the $10 bill was really cool... it was so colorful and you can see through the bill from the little circle on the left
we were so exhausted our first night there.... and the air conditioning couldn't turn off... so we were freezing in the middle of the night....oh yah... forgot to mention our first night at the hostel... so da bien and i get off the bus at around 1am in search of mirador mansion... by default we're lost finding our way there mostly thanks to me.. but we walk under this dark tarp tunnel and there's like 10 to 15 jamaican girls you know you don't wanna mess with... sorry for generalizing but we haven't seen any other ethnicities besides asians and whites for like 2 months now... so we're freaking out to realize that they were chillin right by the entrance of mirador mansion...
we go up to the 13th floor... pretty much dragging all our luggage around the whole floor trying to find our hostel.. we find it in this little corner and check in... everything's fine until we go into our room to find our phone, toilet, bathroom door and air conditioning didn't work.. all at different times of course ... not to mention one of the women working there yelled at da bien when she was trying to find a computer with internet to contact her dad... aka papa pu ... PLUS the workers didn't forward any of the million calls that papa pu made to erica in the night and early next morning...
so we dealt with quite a bit that night O___O ... so needless to say... we were kinda fracking frustrated to have our trip start off unsmoothly.. and we knew we were getting out of that hostel as soon as we possibly could...
thank goodness for papa pu... he came to the rescue .. so around 8am the next morning.. we meet him at the hotel he's staying at...
slightly nicer than our hostel i believe...
she looked pretty happy and relieved to be out of that hostel...
i'm not sure why papa pu needed two beds when he was the only one living in the room.... but i won't question... he and his friend.. who lived two floors above... offered to let us shower in their restrooms... such a relief :)
and then we got ready.... with da bien's crazy makeup palette! :O
after we were freshened up... we roamed the streets of mong kok with papa pu and da bien's uncle..
yup... still the streets
busses!
and then we moved into our hotel where we stayed the remainder of our trip... courtesy of papa pu :)
we had to pay our respects to ... actually they were just statues in the lobby
this taiwanese ็่้บต place was apparently pretty popular here...
halloween's a bigger deal here than in taiwan fosh!
actually... these pumpkins DO look pretty scary...
... a sight for sore eyes :)
people waiting in line to go into LV
we ate dim sum somewhere in here...
the fanciest dim sum i've ever had in my life... at first i wasn't sure why we all had 2 pairs of chopsticks... later i figured out that 1 pair was actually serving chopsticks and the other was feeding chopsticks... or the pair you eat with... i'm not sure which color was which...
did i mention we sipped red wine with our dim sum?
i've never ate dim sum in a more civil manner...
oh yah... we had our own room... and our own serving table apparently...
crab fried rice... derish!!
baby duck.. yah i didn't touch that dish..
egg tart... with a twist.... it was made of bird saliva.. i guess that's how wealthy people roll
that greyish freckled fruit is dragonfruit... use your imagination for the other fruits :)
we wined and dined with millionaires... they were so cool though for letting me take pixes of the food before they started eating ... actually... they were expecting me to take pixes of every dish by the end of lunch .. oops :)
and we had a flatscreen in our room...
the view from our room...at the restaurantafter lunch... we met up with wallz and ez ... conveniently we were staying at practically the same hostel... so right before we set off for our day of fun... da bien and i had to take care of our room sitch... we spoke with the manager... she was so rude that at some point she totally ignored us and started tending to another guest ... we had to talk to her daughter who was much more reasonable... and apparently we were supposed to move into a nicer room the next day because our assigned room was given away the night before bc we checked in so late .... da bien and i were not informed about that once with all the interactions we had with the other worker ... oh well
but we lucked out and got a night's worth of refund... score! ... but that also became problematic... as wallz and ez witnessed later that day... because it took us ... at least an hour.. literally ... to figure out how much money i owed da bien..
anywho... so our first mission was to find food for the boys...
but we lucked out and got a night's worth of refund... score! ... but that also became problematic... as wallz and ez witnessed later that day... because it took us ... at least an hour.. literally ... to figure out how much money i owed da bien..
anywho... so our first mission was to find food for the boys...
i looked forward to buying mtr tix here... touch screens!!!
they definitely don't have lit up maps like this in taipei...
i'm not sure why i took a pix of this... i realized they have this back in taipei too... fail!
the fanciest pizza hut i've ever seen... and been to.. guess where we ate?
so i couldn't take pixes inside pizza hut.. for copyright issues? i don't remember... but i had to take this pix ninja-style ... all the food looked amazing... i guess pizza hut here is like equivalent to cheesecake factory or CPK
SO MANY COINS! SO CONFUSING!
and then we went shopping.... this was one of the mtr malls... much more ritzy than the ones we have in taipei
we walked around the mall..
and ended up being stranded in the virtual zone ... i'm guessing the trees on the escalator is a preventative measure to keep people from escaping...
we resisted our urge to give in to the power of the cue machines...
the only way for us to go to another level was through the arcade... it was a dangerous feat... but we survived... i had no idea horse racing was huge here... i'm just that ignorant...
super dangerous turf... we came out unscathed! success..
my brief excursion in here really topped off my hk experience...
back onto the mtr... there were enough seats for all of us... which rarely happens.... but ez chose to stand... -__-
view of hong kong island from kowloon... that lit up boat's the restaurant boat... bummer we didn't get to eat there :(
we made it to the avenue of stars! :)
i kept following the trail of lights...
still following...
i have no clue who this person is.... but they had no vowels in their first name...
finally we found names we recognized...
this man's gonna look 30 the rest of his life...
he was soooo ballin he didn't even need handprints!
the stands here were so cute... looked like it came out of toontown..
i took so many pixes... and realized it wasn't the restaurant boat :(
pirate ship!
can we have these vending machines back in the states?
the wall on the left corner of this pix changed colors.... ez wanted to make "shadow figures" in front of it ... less educated people would call them silhouettes ... good one ez
the boys looked confused....
a menacing dragon in front of the clock tower...
love it...
the boys just always have to be in the way...
on our way back... we walked by this ballin shopping area.. one day i'll be able to afford everything there :D
LV at night
you can see the gucci insignia in the background as da bien pointed out...
there were only 3 mannequins.. the other one checking out the guy mannequin worked there... or at least i hope
a faraway LKF!
if they had one of these in taiwan or la.... my life would be complete....
the best thing invented by man... or woman
always starting my night off with a tequila shot.... sorry ez... gold outnumbered silver
smirnoff ice = heaven :)
um... don't remember taking this pix...
he secretly loved it...
he loved it fosh...
double fisted the whole night :)
why he walked to that doorway i have no idea....
a proud alchie i guess...
GOSSIP GIRL!!!! i have no idea who that guy in the pix is... but i wonder what he was amazed by..
awww... ez did you finish all that by yourself? so selfish!
ummm... practicing your cute face for cue wallz?
baby champagne ... asian size!
a fugitive fry that got away...
oh mickey d's...
the last fry that never had a chance to escape...
they were looking at da bien's stoic face the whole night ...
oh yah.... i got ez to charge my camera and phone with his crazy cool international power outlet converter ... i guess we had one in our room all along...
the room provided a water boiler... asian much?
our room :)
ramen ... only in asia...
i wish taipei had as many trashcans as in hk...
life sized ramen bowl... i think i could eat it all :)
times square... yup... in hk..
still times square...
red ant restaurant... we have one of those in the 626 area :) ....
traditional cantonese dishes : beef and crunchy noodles
wallz and his congee...
ไนพ็็ๆฒณ... amazingness!
tofu flavored gelato?
da bien went into this halloween house
and walked out with this mask... MAGIC!
wallz wanted in on the coolness... not as cool i'd say
i had initially wanted to sit on the cupboard...
fail...
plan b
looking classy ez... all you're missing is your cigar... and suit up!
hk's got interesting fashion... a little too fashion forward maybe
the streets of causeway bay
outback!
IKEA!!!
barbie watch store
ez in the zone.... he was really excited about his ufo bread.... so excited he made the flying motions (?) of a ufo while demonstrating to us why it was called a ufo bread... oh yah... he bought 8 things of pastries and devoured 5 within half an hour...
pokemon candy!
i got in trouble for holding up traffic at the foot of the escalator taking this pix ... but you're worth it twin :)
i'm not sure what the boys were looking at... but they were preoccupied for a couple of minutes
the OG jeffrey the giraffe
from now on... when someone says "shut up!" ...i'm gonna follow it up with "I'm a horse.. i'm dignity" ... bc this is where i got it from :)
really demented looking disney characters.. it was a trendy land indeed
hmmm.... twister on the escalator? sounds like a recipe for disaster...
an umbrella vending machine... sharp eye wallz..
this was inside the H&M
so it took da bien and me 5 minutes combined to attempt to open our door... it took wallz one try... ez knocked out while we were trying to get into our room...
he was sooo tired he was willing to sleep between our beds..
bright.... lights....
derish! ironically... none of us ordered ramen...
beef sukiyaki ...it tasted just like yoshinoya's beef bowl
the pier that took us to the other side ... love the lights
this boat brought us to hong kong island...
we watched the light show on the water
and we caught a glimpse of the restaurant boat...
behind ez's huge head... the other side
we got ice cream once we got off the boat... such fatties.... thanks for taking one for the team wallz.. and ordering the first one... which ended up really plain relative to the rest of us :)
she satisfied her brownies craving ...
muahrharhahrharhar....
actually.. i think my ice cream was the boringest in the bunch.... blueberry gelato ice cream
this was before his ice cream melted in his hand...
in case we get lost finding the swings...
the peak galleria... from ground level .. we got lost in the galleria looking for the peak and i told wallz to find it... and he points outside the window and goes... is that it? ... good one wallz... this is probably the reason why you haven't lost ez yet...
the peak... building
alcoholic?
not the actual disneyland.... but when i saw this display i ran / power walked down 2 flights of escalators to look at this beauty..
a hat that finally fits :)
yes i had to take a pix of this too...
the ceiling kept changing colors.... love it
and the walls kept flashing stars ... or specks of light
bubba gump greeted us near the top
after climbing like 12 flights of escalators... we finally made it up to the peak...
gorg...
the peak galleria from the top
residential areas? oops...
this donkey was living the high life... da bien! get out of the pix!!!
skyscrapers galore...
don't know what that is... i think it was around here that the 4 of us thought it'd be a good idea to cockblock a couple that were getting kinda intimate.... ez being the gentleman that he is ... started serenading the couple.. i think they liked it :)
smog smog go away...
ez's on top of the world / escalator....
oh ez...
this car was like a batmobile! it scales walls...
the weirdest looking giraffe i've ever seen!
ez loved this head massage thing
the head massage thingy didn't fit on her big head...
yup... back to the color changing ceiling!
i am just that good....
so not in character da bien! dinosaur?
muahrharhahrhar.... i love you da bien!
besides butter lion.. she has a disgusting infatuation for giraffes...that night we just chilled in our hotel room drinking our 7-11 beverages .... i hope the guys had fun having girl talk with us... sharing our cheesiest stories and .. that's all i can remember...
thank you ez & wallz for hanging with us and enlightening me with the ladders / jail theory ... the never-endingly repetitive finding-a-guy-who's-willing-to-invest-all-his-resources convo... and for all the ridiculous comparisons in equally ridiculous scenarios.. it was really refreshing hanging out with guys again ...
early next morning... meaning 6am... we had a flight to catch at 815... we had like 2 hours of sleep...
thank you ez & wallz for hanging with us and enlightening me with the ladders / jail theory ... the never-endingly repetitive finding-a-guy-who's-willing-to-invest-all-his-resources convo... and for all the ridiculous comparisons in equally ridiculous scenarios.. it was really refreshing hanging out with guys again ...
early next morning... meaning 6am... we had a flight to catch at 815... we had like 2 hours of sleep...
hmmm.... nail me huh? ... the owner's probably thai... in retrospect... this may have been a factor contributing to us missing our flight...
the airport express shuttle... so chic!
ginormous pockys... even though we have this back home
we had cantonese styled breakfast here...
everything looked good... even though they were essentially the same things
ez had as good of an ice scream eating skill as this boy...
plane tables!
so cute!
pandas galore!so we missed our flight... bc we were 5 minutes late for last call... the next available flight was 4 hours later... so we got reeeeaaaalllllllyyyy acquainted with HKIA ...
after a tiring, frustrating, yet awesome and laughter-filled weekend in hk... we're finally back in taiwan... thank goodness bc da bien felt it necessary to remind me of her taro milk tea cravings every chance she got...glad to be back... can't wait for our next one :)
