Let’s Glimpse other Breathtaking Views of Hong Kong

I watched Romance of 7 Days (7 日罗曼史）TVB in recent days. I suddenly found that there few nice views in the drama and searched them on Google. They were Nam Shang Wai (南上围）-Nam Shang Wai ferry and scenic line tree path. 

Nam Shang Wai actually had been appeared in olden day’s drama. But this time I fall in love deeply. Perhaps gorgeous female character, 黄翠如  and handsome male character，安信源.  I then searched again for the videos about Nam Shang Wai. After that, there were recommended videos in the Youtube newsfeed. 

All were Hong Kong’s breathtaking views using aerial photography by 随我行FollowMe (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmvPuu8uIob3vEsy-1rU3rw). I didn’t know how to describe my feeling after watching. All the views were amazing. Tourists seldom visit those places because I believed it never showed in the Hong Kong tour itineraries.  

Furthermore, the background music pretty great. Without those video, I wouldn’t realized there were so much to explore in Hong Kong. It made me forgot it’s a place which crowded, unfriendly and high scrapper buildings. And I hope someday I able to explore them with someone.

Here’s the several videos. If you’re free, took a look.

★★★★★★★ 1st favorite
★★★★★-2nd favorite

#1- Poi Toi Island ★★★★★★★

#2-Cape D'Aguilar ★★★★★★★

#3-Tai Tam Reservoirs ★★★★★★★

#4-Lamma Island ★★★★★★★

#5-Yi O ★★★★★

#6-High West's sunset ★★★★★★★

#7-Miu Ko Tai ★★★★★

#8- Ha Pak Nai's sunset ★★★★★

#9- Yam O Wan's sunset★★★★★★★

#10-Woo Yeung Shan ★★★★★

The Inspiring Lesson I Learn from Blind Masseuse

Last week, I was in the KLIA 2, while waiting the next flight back to Alor Setar.

After strolling around, I determined to have the foot massage in the reflexology center. The rates were reasonable and fair.

Here's the reflexology center 

Besides that, the setting of reflexology center had privacy where thick layer of fabrics between each blinds.

The staff in the counter arrange a Malay lady, Syikin for me. Then, I just realized she was blind.

I was not new to the massaging. Despite that, it counted as my first time to deal with the blind masseuse.

I found that all the masseuses in the reflexology center were blinds. But most of them were male.

When she sat down in front of me, I took a closer glance. She was young, probably in early twenties.

I began the conversation because I curious to know her story.

“How many years you trained to be the masseuse?”

“1 ½ year at the Blind Association at Brickfield, Kuala Lumpur”

“Did you receive any salary when training at there?”

“Yes, only few hundreds living allowances. The training and accommodation fees were free”. She quickly replied.

“I see”. I replied with a nod.

“Blind Association provided job for all the blinds?” I asked again

“Not sure, but I being offered the job.”

“How you come to work and back home everyday?”

“The reflexology center had pick-up service”

“What makes you blind?

“I had born with blind when separating with the twin sister that glued together”. “My sister became abnormal after all”.

In between the conversation, she managed to ask and share her personal stories as a way to engage and connect with me.

“What time is your flight?”, “Where you going to?”

“8.30pm, going to Alor Setar”

“You work at there?”

“No, I study there”.

“What course you take?”

“Management”.

“My elder sister and brother like you too, study in the university”

“This name being called by the airport staff exactly same with my customer” Isn’t she? She will fly to Singapore?”

After 20 minutes conversation with her, I learned that:

Staying Positive and Optimistic All the Times

I’m pretty amazed with her positive and optimistic attitudes despite visual impairment when was born. She could not see anything in her whole life. This even included her parents and siblings- the people that close to her in this world. She totally experienced darkness and hopeless. This disability did not stop her to learn the massage skills and employed.  She liked an asset with value. She could earn a living to support herself without rely her family. She was not the society parasite. Instead, she contributed to the society. Truth to be told, I’m not sure how many people able to maintain positivity and optimistic in their life. Maybe less than 10 people. I’m sure I’m the same. “Sigh” will be voiced out frequently.

The Power of Small Act of Kindness-Can Make Differences

I gained faith in humanity once I heard blind association, reflexology center provided training and jobs for them. I thought business organizations are always profit-oriented. Hiring disabled persons incurred costs (e.g sick leaves, compensation & occupational safety and health regulation). Besides that, people with disabilities hard to manage in the workplace as well as it took times. However, they had changed my thinking. People with disabled were not that easy to accept by the society. Some even not received equal treatments like normal people. They hard to obtain fulfilling opportunities either in the workplace or daily life. Right now, the job given by reflexology center has changed their life. Well done, reflexology center. Their act really inspired me and forever thankful.

I left with this quote:

“Never underestimate the power of a single act of kindness. Your act maybe the added lift that someone needs to go from falling to flying”-Zero Dean 

So Hard to Reunite, So Pain to Bid Farewell!

Good times of Chinese New Year 2017 always passed quickly. I utterly engrossed with all the happiness till forgot the concept of times and its passing.

These were the moments I tried hard to hold on to. And yes, the moments that I didn’t wanted them to pass. But what the hell, Chinese New Year 2017 had been ended.

How cruel the times were!

Chinese New Year was one of the Chinese festive celebrations that I looked forward every year. Mama felt the same way too.

Mama expressed her joy and hope through preparing all her kids’ favorite dishes like Kacangma, shark fin and fish maws soup.

It’s the times to be with the family and enjoyed wonderful things Chinese New Year offered: ang pows, cookies, cakes, good foods and decorations.

Most importantly, family bonds were revitalized again! Hectic work schedules and different university breaks make my family members scattered and fragmented whole year round.

So, Chinese New Year was unique, fun and meaningful. I started feeling sad once any of the family left home.

Rationality reminded me not to but can’t control my own emotions.

Mama surely sad than me. She was going to see everyone left. JoJo was the first person to leave followed by Rosamond, me, Naruto and Mickey.

The first thing usually Mama would do was took down all the Chinese New Year decorations in the front yard. I sensed her disheartening.

It left me wondered “have to wait next year? When is the next Chinese New Year?” Second, she stopped cooking Chinese New Year dishes.

We indulged New Year Eve dinner’s dishes on the second, third and fourth day of Chinese New Year.

It was replaced with the common dishes we had on those days. She purchased our medicines and favorite snacks to fill the suitcase.  

That’s was the greatest love in the world.

I felt guilty while Mama had to adapt “two persons’ life” with Papa. The homes suddenly turned to quiet homes.

Their emotions severely affected.

And that’s why, I would not say goodbye with parents when it’s my turn to leave home.  

Because there was no goodbye and no such thing as separation. Wherever they’re, they’re always in my heart. They are the one I loved with heart and soul.

Right now I imagine what would Mama do everyday? Checking calendar, marked it and counted the day her kids will be back home.

The rest of her kids still figured out their holidays and university breaks.

I want to tell them how bless I'm to be part of this family members

Family Day at Cameron Highland

Update on **14-15 January 2017**

Joining family impromptu trip to Cameron Highland. 

In TBS and waited for almost 1 hour. Our laziness  buying tickets in advance caused the tickets sold out. 

Hotel:

Rainbow Hotel, Brinchang

No room service however nearby supermarket is 2 minutes’ walk-by. At the supermarket, I could found everything I needed ranging from junk foods, instant noodles, mineral waters and menstrual pads. 

Besides that, Chinese restaurants also in close proximity.  Visitors able to enjoy the local cuisines especially fresh vegetables of Cameron Highlands. 

Moreover, there’s nearby halal restaurants that cater for the needs of the Muslim visitors too. If these restaurants were inadequate, nearby night market that operated on Friday and Saturday was available. 

Furthermore, the room was spacious which my parents quite grateful.  The beds were firm. I had the good sleep. 

The linens were soft and clean. I lied on the bed while watching television.  It had mini refrigerator in the guest room too. We stored the fresh fruits from the Brinchang Night market.

On the other hand, the hotel did not offered complimentary mineral waters, tea sachets, instant coffees, hair dryer and kettle except thermos.  It forced us to buy 5 littles mineral water from the nearby supermarket. 

Carrying it up had problem as I passed through the staircases in the hotel lobby. To make matters worse, I extremely needed hot waters since my Papa had severe coughing. I even waited for 1 hour for the hot waters. I also claimed hair dryer from the front desk staff and luckily the hotel was willing to offer. 

Foods:

Obsession in Cameron Highland was dragon beard veggies. 

Tour:

Titiwangsa Tours & Travel- leisure and Agro Delight tour

We joined leisure and agro delight tour (RM 85) of Titiwangsa Tours & Travel for whole day.  This is due to 1 girl jumped on us to promote the tour packages.

We chose these tours at the end when I forgot to remind them to take note on the famous attractions such as Boh Tea plantation and lavender farm in the tour itineraries.

The girl had good marketing talks and strategies too. She was not only gave us the discounts for the return bus fares to Kuala Lumpur but also promised the picked-up service at the hotel we stayed.

When speaking about the tour, each tour lasts for 5 hours.

Like title referred, leisure tour purely brought leisure, relax and slow pace type of travelling for me. Totally hassle free.

This tour was guided by Ali, a friendly guy but he never ever introduced the history or stories of the attractions. No idea whether he had limited knowledge of the attractions or he felt lazy to do so.

I believed this was the greatest weakness of a tour guide. Hopefully he improved in the future.

Attractions:

1) Rose center kea farm

Entrance ticket-RM 6 per adult. 

Let Pa Pa started to explore Rose Center Kea Farm  

Vintage car. Pa Pa not reluctant to take photo with it because it's too old. Lol

colorful stones and Mickey 

obligatory family portrait

Mama: don’t smell the roses

Mickey: why? Everyone do so.

Mama: It is bad for your nose.

(The rest of us pretended never listen and continuously smelled them) #thingsmamasays

Red, white & yellow roses 

 Cutie JoJo

Spongebob read book, Naruto play smartphone. 

Mickey closed her ears, Papa closed his mouth, Mama closed her eyes. They acted so cool, don't you agree?

 Capricorn 

  & Libra 

I personally din't thought rose center kea farm worth to visit. I strongly recommended to remove this attraction from itineraries. 

The main reason was it lacked of rose varieties. Only several types of roses for taking photo. I could learned better about the roses if more roses varieties. 

On top of that, roses' processing methods were not described. The guide did not explained how the roses planted, grown, changed it's colors and shapes. 

2) Kea Farm Town's Morning Market

Google image

It operated daily from 7am-7pm.

It was found that majority visitors bought Cameron’s sweet corns, sweet potatoes and vegetables.

However, the tour guide reminded us some sweet corn stalls NOT sold Cameron Highland’s sweet corns, which were white and yellow colors.

They sold the corns that planted in Ipoh. They were not earned much if sold in Ipoh. On the other hand, they preferred sold in Cameron Highland because it was very famous for sweet corns.

Many tourists demanded for it. Needless to say, the sweet corn stalls wouldn’t tell the tourists their sweet corns were planted in Ipoh. Otherwise, their sales surely dropped.

Hence, as a smart user, it was necessary to differentiate sweet corns. Here're some TIPS:

1. Normally a bag of Cameron Highland’s sweet corns had 4 or 5 sweet corns. If the stalls offered 10 or 15 sweet corns, then it was Ipoh’s sweet corns.

2. If the sweet corn in the stalls were like the hill, this meant the corns were planted in Ipoh. Cameron Highland’s sweet corns were not much. It was due to the small sizes of the sweet corn farms and most of the sweet corn farms located in the uphill.

Moreover, Kea Farm’s morning market was same with Brinchang night market. The only difference was former in the morning session everyday while latter in the night times during Friday and Saturday.

If you visit both of them, you will notice exactly the same stall owners appeared. So, it was advisable to visit either one of them in order to save the times and energy.

3) Ee Feng Gu Bee Farm

Nothing special and new features in the bee farm. It was similar with my previous visit. 

Truth to be told, I mistakenly thought this place was souvenirs or gift center. There was a lot of souvenirs or gift such as Cameron's tea, soaps and fresh honey related products. 

This bee farm didn't has staff to explain the bee behaviors. Also, bee farm  was very smelly too. I wanted to run away during half way. 

Besides that, it's not easy to access because no clear sign boards and lots of stairs. This bee farm was poor in maintenance. 

Not worth to visit!

4) Butterfly Farm

I didn’t entered butterfly farm. I had been there few times, felt bored already and refused to visit anymore. 

But, I surprisingly found that all the pictures took in the butterfly farm turned out nice. Papa, Mama, JoJo and Mickey had the wonderful smiles. It included great times too.

I concluded butterfly farm still well-maintained and able to view more varieties of butterflies based on the sisters’ descriptions. 

Hehehehe. Papa damn funny in the picture frame. And Mama did the good job!

5) Raju Hill Strawberry Farm

Ali, the tour guide told us the strawberry farm still offered self-picking strawberry activities. Right now, visitors discouraged to do so since half kilograms self-picking strawberries costed RM30.

Owners of the strawberry farm forced to impose the price when more and more visitors self-picked and left the strawberry farm.  

However, visitors were welcomed to visit the strawberry farm. My parents did that too. They able to see how the strawberries were grown. A very good educational tour.

Besides strawberry farm, café could found there too. The foods and drinks ranged from strawberry scones, waffles, ice-creams, teh tarik.

We tried these four. All pretty yummy and tasty. 

6) Sam Poh Buddhist Temple

It's the final sightseeing point. Like other Buddhist temples, this temple was pretty serene and peaceful too. 

It reminded me Year of Rooster was approaching. 

Leisure tour ended on 1.30 pm. We were back to hotel for resting and took lunch. Around 2.30 pm, Agro Delight tour guide, Ganesh came to pick us up. 

7) Water Cress Farm

Water cress farm was the first attraction for Agro Delight Tour. It was the water cress from China and the farm was managed by Bangladesh.

Different ethnic groups had different cooking style of water cress (西洋菜). Chinese mostly in “soup” while Malay and India in “sambal belacan”.

I personally thought this visit was not worth it because we didn’t go down to the water cress farm for close-up observation. The exploration and discovery of water cress was impeded.

I even remembered JoJo commented “never expect the tour van stop right in the uphill whereby water cress farm was located down the hill, then Ganesh just explained, pointed his fingers here and there”. 

8) Vegetables Farm

Getting cooler when visiting vegetable farm. It’s drizzling. Not attracted by the vegetables farm. It’s just the ordinary farm with the crops, vegetables and fruits we had been seen in the morning or night market.

But Ganesh seemed excited to introduce several types of vegetables and also how they planted. The two guys in our tour from Singapore and Hong Kong paid attention to all the vegetable introduction of Ganesh. They had the authentic connection with the vegetable farms.

Meanwhile, my family especially Mama consistently said “Aiya, it same with our farm in Roban. Not nice, not nice”

Hehehehe

9) Hydroponic Farming 

Big and quite organized farm with wide varieties of lettuces. 

Self-service bar with hydroponic grown lettuces and tomatoes in the farm.

So fresh and crunchy. Yummy!

10) Flower nursery

Flowers like carnation,, roses flourished everywhere in here.

Mama took photo with flowers, Papa imitated too

11) Time Tunnel Museum

Entrance ticket: RM 6 per adult. 

This type of coin box had been appeared in my living room when I was around 7 or 8 years old. 

Cock bowl. 

 Water tank. Not sure if Jiu Jiu had discarded ?

Hate this measurement because Ah Gong loved to ask me to measure 10kg or 20kg of fertilizers. Damn heavy for a girl like me and not fun while taking care the sundry shop with Ah Gong. 

 Kuih bangkit's molds. Mama proudly told us she had it too. Making kuih bangkit was one of her favorite passtime during young ages. 

 Looked like Mama's sewing table. We joked with Mama by suggesting her sewing table could be considered to exhibit at here. 

 Old luggages

Old TV

12) Steamboat Dinner, Hotel Titiwangsa

The tour arranged us 1 hour steamboat dinner in Hotel Titiwangsa.

Well, I liked the steamboat dinner in Cameron Highland especially it provided free-flow of fresh vegetables. The vegetables were like picked from the farms. It tasted perfect with the chicken soup.

Besides that, the service was good. The waiters engaged eye contacts and smiled with us. They served us promptly. They did the good job in keeping the service running smoothly.

******

In KLIA 2. "Both of them already grew up, but they still love to play" Rosamond said. 

I was not alone taking flight back home for celebrating Chinese New Year 2017. Papa, Mama, JoJo, Naruto and Mickey all by my sides. 

Their sounds filled the air along the journey. Not a peaceful of mind but I heart was warm. I can't ask for more.