Provocative bikini pictures ? ;)

Just a quick post on the subject mentioned above, since the picture of me in bikini has aroused so many interesting questions by my friends back home, which I find rather amusing.

"Oh wow, Grace, you're on bikini ?"
"Hey Grace, we are just looking at you bikini pictures! ;)"
"Oh hey, we are talking about you in bikini."
"Oh Grace, you're in 2-piece?"
"Grace I never thought you would wear bikini!"
"Oh Grace since when you become so open-minded? What has changed you? "
" Grace .........bikini ...Grace ....bikini ". Endless of it.

I find all these comments rather amusing and entertaining ;)

First - I'm not too conscious or too vain to show my not-so-sexy-nor-hot body in front of public. I always find my plain, uncurved, unwomenly and short frame size makes me look like a kid in bikini. I'm not fat. I tried to gain a little more weight so that I look more full and curved , despite all my local Hong Kong girl friends (in fact guy friends too) screaming for diet when they are even thinner than me :S For the name of the gourmet, it's too much price to pay ! There is even this middle-aged-lady working in administrative office of my apartment who keeps asking me how to I keep myself so fit, so thin and such perfect body . I always wind her up a little and tell her that I eat a lot to stay this fit! I like to joke around with her, I feel flattered when I see how her wondering eyes keep looking at my body and asking me the same question everytime she sees me, without fail.

Second - I always tell my friends that I got myself UNLEASHED in Hong Kong. It's true though. Being in Islamic country, we were brought up with all the decency we need by trying not to expose too much of our body in respect of the Muslims. And because I always get unwanted stares if I were on little-less-than-normal-standard clothing ( oh it's HOT, for god's sake! We have beautiful sunshine all the time. ), I always try to avoid. So I would get even more unwanted stares and whistles if I were on bikini on the beach - not becuase I'm sexy, because I have too little piece of clothes on ! Oh well, it would be different context if you were a 'Gui Po' * Caucasian women * because you are expected to be. But this doesn't apply on a Malaysian. Back to the subject, I am more than happy and feel so at ease to have bikini on at the beaches in Hong Kong because everyone else does. And I don't get curious stares because there are too many others to feed ice-cream for their eyes :)
The phenomenon of seeing someone wearing 1-piece swimwear to the beach is just as same as to seeing someone wearing 2-piece and busy doing several laps, back and forth in the swimming pool.

I love being on bikini at the beach, even though I might have got fat and all wrinkles when I turned old, I will still put on the that little 2-pieces when I'm on the beach, because that's what they are made for, and because I couldn't care more ;) I'm glad I amused you much on my bikini pictures :)

Counting the days ...

I have been counting my days this month around. First on for my traineeship which is going to end in less than 2 months time. I almost forgot about the fact that I already been in Hong Kong for more than 4 months. The time I waited anxiously for my wroking permit to arrive in Malaysia feels like yesterday. And the time I spent so many sleepless nights thinking whether or not I should go to Hong Kong, or wait a little more time for my chance go to Europe perhaps. Time zoom past me like a bullet train, especially when it is a good one. When something comes to an end, it is mind-boggling and head-scratching time again to start making plans and start another new journey. This is the time when I hate most - decision making , which doesn't even sound helpful when I have a frickle mind. I'm at another cross-road in my life again. I came to another junction , wondering which way I should take. I came to Hong Kong, I saw Hong Kong myself ,and I fall in love with this city - a city so vibrant , so lively. I wanted to stay longer. And now I have less than 2 months time for my job hunting. I'm desperate. I'm frantically looking ways to stay a little bit longer.

But my dear friends, don't get me wrong. I love my country. I feel proud to be born in Malaysia, especially I feel so special when I 'impress' ( in a cheating way ?! ) so many people along the way when I'm in Hong Kong by my language abilities ( which of course is such common scene back home, where we converse in more than one language in our daily conversation ). But home is always home, you know that it is always there for you. Malaysia won't suddenly disappear from the Atlas Map in a day. I already spent enormous time in my life - the day I was born, my childhood, my teenage days, my young adulthood, breathing Malaysia air and stepping on Malaysia ground. I need to get out. To breath new air. To put my feets on a foreign ground. To bump around even though you know there are so many uncertainties or maybe obstacles await you, where I could just find my way home easily - my sense of security, where I can just cuddle comfortably in a safety net, EASILY. But I found my way out, after waited so long, after waited to fulfill all my commitments back home. But I'm not ready to go back, not yet. I will somehow, but just not yet.

And now this is my jigsaw puzzle - should I stay in Hong Kong ? Or should I venture out to another new journey, which I been wanted long, which I will sit in awe,looking at other people experiencing the journey I wanted, and green with envy when I look at pictures? I have had enough of sleepless nights on this. I will take any opportunities that come along the way now.

On a positive note, I'm counting my days to something beautiful happens :) Something delightful to lift up my spirits despite all the untolerable moments. Something to look forwards to , and to give myself a definite answer to all the question marks tangling on my mind. Soon though, less than a week time !

Roller Coaster Ride

Okies, it has been like ancient years ago that I put up some updates here. I almost forgot that I owned a blog. So many happenings around for the past weeks or months that I find it almost impossible to narrate it down in words. Life was such a roller-coaster the past weeks and I swear it was perhaps the most adrenalin-gushing ride that I ever been on. But, I'm still alive and kicking in Hong Kong, not to mention surviving :) So how was the roller-coaster ride like ?


First Stage - All the way down !
---------------------------------

As the name suggested , my emotions went all the way down hill. The amount of tears that I had in the past one month was perhaps the accumulated volume of tears that I would have in my normal entire year , or maybe several meter squares of dry land could be moistured up with that amount of volume. And I'm not talking about world-crumbling/heart-breaking break-up, or earth-shaking fights with your partner, rather something so special, genuine, and so true. It spells FRIENDSHIP. When I first got to know this special group of friends, I know it wouldn't be long and it would come to an end in 2 or 3 months time when they started to leave. What I didn't know was that I would grow so much of emotions and bonding with them that it literally hurts so much when bidding farewell to every single of them. Especially all of these happenings took place in a foreign land. We denifinitely swept over Hong Kong under our feets in just 3 months time. And yasmin, I'm still taking this town over with my GIANT head :)


Second Stage - Surviving Skills
--------------------------------

I picked up fast ! After some heart-breaking farewells, we decided to get thing going and moving. And we went to this hidden paradise in Hong Kong - Tai Long Wan. A beach so secluded and heavenly that it took us approximately 6 hours to get there. Couple hours of bus and taxi ride , another hour and half of trekking. oh well , yes Cerille, paradise in Hong Kong needs a lot of efforts to reach... too bad :) But it was worth the efforts. No one else was in the beach except us , US ! We claimed the beach all by ourself !


On our way to the paradise ...


Innocent village kids ...


Still trekking ...


Below the trekking hill...


Up on the trekking hill ...getting close, getting close


Paradise from atop ...


Cliff-hanging !


Tai Long Wan


Third Stage - Back on track !
-----------------------------

I got myself back after a little while. Life is getting back on track for me and I will be taking it slow and sipping it slow like on the red wine. I start to have more time of my own to make my own plans and take charge of my life a little. I'm moving forwards and looking forwards to something good happening ... a whole new experience and beginning awaiting me ahead :)

Pitching high in Hong Kong !

I vaguely remember the first time I done karaoke in my life was when I was 13, 14 years old ??! Didn't know much of the songs in the lounge's collection but I went because it was my friend's birthday. She was all hooked up with Sammy Cheng ( canton pop's queen ) by then. And every now and then, I still go karaoke back in M'sia but most of the time then not, it was an invitation rather than my own interest or initiative to go karaoke. Reason being was chinese and canton pop were never my cup of tea. And it's not because they don't have English songs ( well actually quite limited collection with petrifying and horrifying music videos ! ), but it's just all my karaoke-loving friends are no fan of English songs and I always ended up singing it by myself. A fact you have to know is that the trend-setter of karaoke is Hong Kong , which is good if you're harcore die-hard fan canton pop. The gist here is, KARAOKE is big in Hong Kong ! It's equivalent to the mahjong culture that embedded deep in the root of every Hong Kong people.

Well it's just not in the case in Europe and my European friends were agog with excitements to do karaoke. Well I'm as well, in this case, not the first-timer kind of excitement but rather the sheer thought of singing English songs with companies who enjoyed it excites me. I decided to take the group to this karaoke lounge recommended by Ricky and some local friends called Neway, 15 minutes walk from the student hall. The receptionist and the manager were delighted when they saw 20 patronizers came marching and taking over the reception hall of the lounge. I must admit this lounge has got some good marketing strategy for penetrating us ( or me since I'm the communicating point ) to take its package offered. After much chaos negotiation, we decided to take the 120HKD package which allow you to sing till wee hours 6am in the morning , with buffet dinner included , 2 free drinks and snacks!

To me, the highlight of my day has got to be the buffet dinner . I was jumping with joy like a kid when I saw the massive choice of food available. I was on top of the roof when I saw they served the fried rice wrapped with egg , exactly the "Nasi Pattaya" we have back home ! Sushi and deserts are just like icing topping the ice-cream. By this time I was drooling all over at the food ... couldn't wait any longer.

With good food to satisfy my appetite, the good songs feed my thirsty lust for music well. With people more than 8 nationalities gathering at the karaoke rooms ( Swedish, Danish, Swiss, Aussies, Greek, British, Finnish, Canadian, German, M'sian ), it was simply amazing to see us singing our lungs out at the common songs despite the differences of our own mother tongues. From oldies songs of Madonna, Bee Gees, Beatles, Frank Sinatra, U2 to cheesy songs of Britney Spears, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls and etc, it was sheerly a good blend of the golden oldies together with modern cheesy and boyband hits.

It was a voice-pitching night indeed and suffice to say, all of us ended up with sexy husky voice to greet each other "Good morning!" the next morning. :)



Food !!


Here's the imitaton of the ever-famous Hong Kong style of posing picture - PEACE "V" sign. It's funny for me to see Annie & Kian, the British, getting the hang of it as well.


Me & Johy


Big screen of the room if case you forget the lyrics.


Big comfy room :)


Marcos and Sofia

Hilarious beach day

Another sunny Sunday. Although with less than 4 hours of sleep, I was in high spirit of going to the beach. The PolyU student, together with the AIESECers organized this beach-cum-barbeque to a beach off Hong Kong Island called "Big Wave Bay". My bibble tells me that it is secluded bay compare to popular beach like Repulse Bay abd Stanley. We were astonished to find the place packed with beach-goers when we finally arrived there after 1 hour of bus ride.


As usual, the girls started with our ritual of sun-block application before we answered the irresistible call from the ocean. Once we were in the water, we were dumbstrucked. The water were full of pieces of unknown black things. Me and Cerille were shouting for life when we found some moveable items swimming around our feets. No offence, but I did felt like swimming in a sewer. But on a positive note, the bay does really serves its reputation well. The wave was so big that everytime it strucked or going to struck us, I was frantically holding up to my bikini, worrying sick my bikini will be gone with the waves ! It was really hilarious when I saw my other girlfriends awkwardly doing the same thing . So when I standing in the shallow water laughing my head off at them, a big wave strucked from behind, swept me off my feets and was made stumbling under the water. Served me well. Now it was Cerille's turn for some entertainment when she saw me awkwardly getting up from the water.


Of all the beach trips that I had in my life, this one will rank top for the most hilarious beach trip I ever had :)



The baby I 'kidnapped' from the beach :) Obviously she doesn't look as pleased as I am.

Top of the world !

I can't remember when was the last time I actually did a hiking in Malaysia. Even if I had, those were the mild ones, like trekking in 'Gunung Kledang' in my hometown, which is now a childplay after what I did on last Sunday. When Kian suggested for a hiking in New Territories, the egotism in me was shouting for me to go. And usually, whenever I go visit or travel to a place, I always have the habbit researching the place before hand, a.k.a checking out in travel guide book, 'googling' on the internet and etc so that I have a brief idea of it and will appreciate the place more. But I was torn down by exhaustion the night before going to hiking hence I did very little research on our hiking place. I briefly know the route we were going to trek because Kian roughly pointed out the route for me and reassured me that it's going to a easy trail, but little did I know what seems like an easy and short hiking route on the Lonely Planet was magnified into the scale of 10.

And so, the 18 of us gathered together and bravely marched to the start point of the trail we were going to conquer in the next 1 and a half hour, at least all of us thought so. And Kian said so. All of us didn't have any doubts on it. Hence we started off our little adventure happily ...at least for the first 10 minutes...humming songs, appreciating the flora and fauna, worshipping the beauty of mother nature, feeling in heaven to be away from the hustle and bustle of the hectic city life for a while. Everything seemed perfect. Until the hot heat from the sun started to heat us up like the roasted pig and we started to sweat like a pool of human waterfall, as what Johan put it. Suddenly the humming of songs and worshipping started to turn into a tirade of swear words. Blame the heat. And to highlight the whole event of our hiking half way through our journey, we saw a sign written:



Just as the right type of information we need to know ! We are now a bunch of inexperience hikers without any equipment except for bottle of waters, sun-screen, banana ( couldn't understand why Markos brought a babana, which he ate it later before surrounded by monkeys after reading the sign of "No feeding of monkeys" ) and god know what else. The message might be a turn-off to most, but it acted like a booster for eogistic people like me to conquer the Lion Rock. Albeit I was swearing hard, I know I wanted to make it to the top. After 4 hours of leg-torturing journey, we finally drag ourself to trek 495m and make it to the top of Lion Top. I still can't believe I had trekked for 495m. A sense of satisfaction and accomplishment made up all the swearing and cursing along the journey.

By now, I can't no longer feel my feets. They were detach from me and being master of their own when we were trekking down the hill. My legs ached immensely the day after, as if being chained with extra pounds around my legs.

Albeit all the complaints and blaming, I enjoy every bits of it. It was one my proudest experience so far. Kudos, Kian !


Lion Rock's top


The 'bravery' groups :)


I made it !


At the top of Lion's Rock ...


Bird's eyes view ...


Bad idea of suiciding, guys ...


Not top yet !

Perfect beach day

Saturday - 2/7/05
-------------------

I woke up 7am in the morning and looked out of my window. Sunny day with bright sunshine. A smile grew within my heart. This was a hint given to me as it had been raining cats and dogs for the past few weeks. The weather for the past weeks was really nasty and unpredictable. Even more unpredictable than the PMS syndrom of the women. As if running a mood swing competition against the women, it changes from cloudy to sunny and from sunny to rain, in just a blink of an eye, a click of the button , a strike of the lightening or any other best adjectives you can think and describe of.. Yes it was that fast. The hint was obvious. Perfect day for the beach. I trust my intuition and I'm glad it didn't disappointed me.

Without wasting any more time, I quickly went through my bibble a.k.a the travel guide book, looking for the nearest and good beach to go to. Repulse Bay , that's it ! It said on the book one of the popular beach in Hong Kong. I wouldn't want to compare the beaches in Hong Kong to the ones back in Malaysia because it will be pale in comparison to what we have in our tropical land. So I qucikly told Yurgo about my plan and asked him to gather all the IEASTE people as fast he can. Three hours later after we got our lunch and went for the bus ride, we find ourself lying on the beach of Repulse Bay. Amazing :)

Of course the water is not crystal-clear ( instead I noticed myself swimming with other unexpected companions like plastic bags other than with the girls), the sand has rocks which is big enough for me and Kian to play the Malaysian childhood game "Seven Stones", but then again ....we were having so much fun with everyone here engaging with their own activities ( for guys it were the 'Bay Watch' ;p , for girls were the frantic sun-block application competition ) , so who cares about the sand and sea as long as we were lying on one ?

It was my intuition and impromptu plan but everything else just fell nicely into without any pre-arranging or pre-planning. Perfect isn't it ? :)



How adorable ?


Look at the animated clouds !


Hairy yet 'macho' Greek boys - Chris & Yurgo


Just lazing around...


Repulse Bay



Caught in action.


grace & yasmin

'Survivors' of the sleepless night

Last weekend was a long weekend because Friday is a public holiday as it's the anniversary for the hand-over of Hong Kong to China. Hence we had 3 whole days of holiday. Couldn't miss this chance to do some outing and some sightseeing in Hong Kong, can't we ? And with the European friends around, they definitely know the way to get things heat up - clubbing. I let myself a little loose that long weekend and follow them for some 'wild' and 'crazy' nights. We decided to stay for the night instead of going back to the hall after the midnight movie on last Friday night because we were so 'enthusiastic' to see the flag rising ceremony in the Convention Centre in Wan Chai, which we told it would be held at 6am in the morning. This is also why we decided to stay in Wan Chai instead of going back because it's nearly impossible for us to wake up 5 am in the morning to get back to Causeway Bay. So a bnuch of the 'enthusiastic' people stay up the night in Wan Chai, thinking it would be like historical moment to watch the flag-rising. When it was near 5.30am, we started to head off to the Convention Centre. Interestingly, we were the first bunch of 'tourists' arrived there. It was so early that by the time we were there, the police on duty were just started to dividing their work shifts. And the worst thing was, we were told the flag-rising was on 8am and not 6am ! We were all too beaten up by exhaustion and fatigueness that we decided to go back home.

Back in Malaysia, if I were to asked to watch the celebration of the National Day in 'Merdeka Square', I would rather cuddle myself comfortably at home watching it live on TV rather than dashing to the place with million of people in the square. And look now, what were I doing in Hong Kong ? Stay up all night for the flag-rising ceremony ( well almost if we waited long enough ). Touristy, yeah , but hey, I'm the trainee now. And yes, I'm a tourist in Hong Kong. At least for the time being. By the time I end my traineeship, I shall able to answer if my friends ask me for the places to dine and travel in Hong Kong.


Kian having a supper in 7-ll (seven eleven)


Marcos enjoying his supper in 7-11. The package comes with rice and pork, not bad at all.


My first try on the darts.




Ladies of the night


All conquered ...


All beaten up by exhaustion ...


First bunch of tourist to arrive at Convention Centre on 1/7/05.


Proudly present to you the 'survivors' of the sleepless night ;)

Gourmet Hunting !

If you are into food and gourmet, you probably should heard of the famous Hong Kong gourmet Choy Lan (or however it's spelled). I heard of him so many times on the newspaper and magazine back in Malaysia, especially the food center he opened where he searched high and low for the best representative cuisine of every countries. And he put together all his piece of work in this food center in Whampoa. And I heard that there is this restaurant in the food court which sell the exact same curry noodle of my hometown. How can I miss this chance now to see it myself since now I'm in Hong Kong ? So I brought along my Europeans friends to venture to this place I've never been. Suprisingly, the place was just 15 minutes walk from our student hall. How nice more could it be?

When I eventually found the place, I was really agog with excitement. I can't wait any longer to try the Ipoh curry noodles. We went inside and I tried to search for the noodle house. My search was to no avail. The noodle house stopped operating 7 or 8 months back. Feeling disappointed, I asked the counter officer to recommend the good shop to dine in. And we went for this restaurant selling 'Shi Chuan' dishes. Little did I realized we actually went for the best selling noodle house in Hong Kong. The waitress keep recommended me the Award Winning dishes, which of course the price is also 'Award Winning' expensive. All my adventurous European friends are daring enough for taking the spicy "dan dan" noodle. And if it means Shi Chuan food, you should know they are reknown for their spicyness. I must really said I was really impressed by them for their good sport on trying new things. The noodle is a little spicy for me, so you can imagine how spicy is it for my dear European friends.


But, again, we had the finest meal of the night. And we did it accidentally. My day was made. Oreos ...


Written "Choy Lan" Whampoa Gourmet Place ...


You could tell the spicyness of the 'dan dan' noodles from this picture




The queue waiting outside the restaurant ...


Johan in action


The Award Winning dish..nice slices of the chicken meat