i want to fly.
always wanted to.
but will I?

Monday, July 28, 2008

After more than a week, my trip report is ready! The longest post ever in this blog's history!

1st Day


Left home at 7am in the morning for Changi International Airport Terminal 1, a short car ride to the airport from my home. Took some pictures along the way and soon, my family and I were at the airport. Being an aviation enthusiast, I always enjoy coming to the airport.= The meeting place for the tour group was at the Cathay Pacific Airways Group Check-In Counter at T1.


When I got there, some of them were there already. Leaving my luggage with my Mum and sister at the meeting place, I rushed up to the Viewing Mall on the second floor to see if I could catch a glimpse of my ride a few hours later. Sure enough, there it was, an Airbus A330-300. Stayed up there for a while to do a bit of plane-spotting before coming back to the meeting place. Soon, most of us going for the trip were here at around 8am, and many friends and relatives sending us off.


Not long past 8, our tour guide for the trip, William, arrived. We received the luggage tags for the trip and also our boarding passes for our flight to Hong Kong. My seat was 57G and our plane was parked at Gate D34, meaning to confirm that the plane I saw earlier was indeed our ride. After checking in our luggage at the counter (my luggage weighed in at 16kg!), We were briefed on the seating arrangement onboard the airplane. No changing of seats until airborne, don’t disturb other passengers, of course no one would not want to change seats before the flight…


Soon, it was 9:30am, everyone took some final photos with friends and family, said goodbye and went into the transit area. With less than half an hour before we had to go to the waiting room at our gate, we explored the transit area. As there were only 5 boys on the trip not counting teachers, we had to stick together as we moved about. I managed to check the weather at Hong Kong Intl Airport for the time we were landing via free internet-access computers available in the transit area. Thunderstorms and rain…not a good sign but it would make for an interesting ride! We also went up to the food court in the transit mall where there were counters for you to talk to people outside transit and that’s where some of the teachers and also our school Principal and Vice Principal. I had a short chat with Joon Kiat before we headed for our gate.


There in the waiting room, I took more photos of our ride, this time being able to identify the ID of the A330, B-HLI. A final headcount and check to make sure all handphones were turned off before we boarded and we were going into the A330. Going down the jetway, I took more pictures of the aircraft, then boarded the aircraft and went to my seat, 57G. To my dismay, it was not a window seat but a center block seat in the 2-4-2 economy cabin layout. Luckily, I was able to change my seat with Victoria who had a window seat on the right side of the aircraft, now seating beside Lionel.


The aircraft pushed back from gate D34 at about 10:20am onto taxiway N3 facing east. The two Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines soon roared to life. As we taxied to the runway, the pilot-in-charge max-ed out the flight controls on all axes to make sure they were free and correct. Flaps down for takeoff. The aircraft taxied to runway 20C via N3 NC3 A7, A1, holding short of the runway at E1. As I watched the Fedex MD-11F taking off before us, I was extremely excited, probably somewhat over-excited, that I would be taking back into the skies after my last flight some eight years ago. As the MD-11F before us lifted off the runway, making a left turn, our own A330 turned right onto runway 20C.


Once lined up with the runway, with a surge of power from the engines, we were pushed back into our seats as the aircraft accelerated to takeoff speed, probably about 180 knots judging by what the weight would be at full passenger load and fuel for a 4 hour flight with extra fuel. As the plane reached the very end of terminal 2, the pilot at the front pulled the nose up into a climb. We could very distinctively feel the g-force pushing us down into our seats during that initial climb-out. Positive rate of climb, gear up, flaps up. Soon, the aircraft started to reduce its climb rate and climb for our cruise altitude of 39,000 feet.


During the climb, the flight attendants started to serve the passengers peanuts and drinks as a starter before the main course meal later on. Looking at the flight map on the In Flight Entertainment Display, I could tell that we were on the Mersing Four Bravo (VMR4B) departure route. Within approximately 20 minutes, we reached our cruise altitude. The flight attendants served the halal meals to the Muslims on board first before they started to serve lunch meals to the rest of the passengers. When it was my turn to get my lunch, I chose the chicken lunch set. To my surprise, they served Haagen Daas ice cream! I got served the chocolate flavoured ice cream. Choice of drink, Coca Cola! I finished my meal and watched a movie for most of the flight. About 1 hour before landing, I needed to use the toilet. Unfortunately, there was a long queue at the toilets; I had to wait a while till it was my turn.


At about 150 miles from Hong Kong Intl Airport, we started our descent. As we passed through 7000 feet, I saw what I had been expecting, thunderstorm clouds. Going through 5000 feet, we experienced moderate turbulence and sometimes even the whole wing disappearing into the cloud, sort of like a roller coaster ride which was a joy for me, probably not for others though. I could also see the water vapour forming over the top of the wings for very brief periods during the approach. Luckily for most passengers (unluckily for me), the storm clouds over the airport itself had gone, hence, the landing was smooth without any turbulence. Flaps down, landing gear down.


Descending down the glide-slope, we were on an ILS approach to runway 25R. Once we touched down, the spoilers were deployed and the loud sound of the reverse thrust at work was obvious. The braking action of both the reverse thrust and the wheel brakes was really strong as we could feel our bodies jerk forward when they engaged. It takes quite a lot to stop a 180-ton beast of an airplane. After vacating the runway, the A330 taxiied to gate E17 on the Northern side of the airport. As I expected, many people rushed to get off the plane once it parked at the gate although the jetway connecting our plane to the terminal had probably not been connected yet, causing a human traffic jam along both aisles.


When we could finally exit the aircraft, as we walked down the aisle, I thanked the flight attendants for a wonderful flight before exiting via one of two jetways connected to the plane. We walked to the immigration counters and saw a long queue, it took quite a long time before we were through to the other side but once we were through, we went to collect our luggage at belt 11B which was at the other end of the terminal. Lionel took a baggage cart to put both our bags and luggage on and pushed it to the belt. Behind us, Hui Tian and Debbie Lim were also pushing a baggage cart. Due to the distance, everyone was running over to the belt. Hui Tian who was pushing the cart, ran over Lionel’s legs a couple of times, dangerous driving. When we got to the belt, William told us not to use the baggage carts so we had to return them back. Everyone checked to make sure they had all their luggage before William led us out to meet our Hong Kong tour guide, Winnie. As there were wheelchairs available at the airport, Swet Ling aka SL, who sprained her ankle a week or so before the trip, rode in one with William pushing her. From where we met our HK tour guide to the bus station, it was quite a long walk. Along the way, there was a downhill ramp. William played a prank on SL by letting go of her wheelchair as she went down the ramp.


Soon, we boarded the bus which brought us to our hostel where we would be staying for the next 5 nights at the Hong Kong Baptist University Hostel. On the way to the hostel, we crossed Tsing Ma Bridge, built as part of a transport link from Hong Kong Island to the Airport Chep Lap Kok. The hostel that we were staying in was not far from the famous red-white checkerboard that signaled airplanes to turn to line up with the runway when flying the infamous IGS runway 13 approach that required a steep right turn. At the hostel, our choir stayed on the 14th floor. Two other choirs that Mr. Liew taught, Unity and CHIJ St Joseph were also staying at the hostel at different floors to us. For most of the day, aside from having our lunch and dinner, we were slacking in our rooms as Mr. Liew, who was on a later flight, had not yet arrived. We were told to assemble for practice at 10:30pm, and sure enough, Mr. Liew arrived right at that time with another choir, not sure which it was. I had to bring down the keyboard from my room for practice. After our practice, it was the next choir’s turn for practice. As they did not have a keyboard, they had to use ours. I was instructed to come back down and collect the keyboard at 11pm which I did before calling home. As it was late, I kept the call short and quickly washed up before going to sleep.


2nd Day

Woke up at 7am this morning, today we were going to Hong Kong City Hall and Sha Tin Town Hall for the acoustic checks for the choir competition. I had my breakfast with the boys at about 7:30am till 8+. We had to get ready to go soon so we went back to our rooms to change. We left for Hong Kong City Hall first at about 8:50pm. It took quite a long time to reach our destination as there was heavy traffic virtually all the way there, especially at the cross-harbour tunnel to Hong Kong Island. When we were almost there, I spotted the Bank of China Building in the midst of the urban jungle that is the Central Business District of Hong Kong. At City Hall, we did our acoustic check for the category A2 – Choirs aged Under 16 category. As we had another acoustic check for the folklore category at Sha Tin Town Hall, we had to rush back to Kowloon, across the tunnel again and up the mountainside to Sha Tin. Along the way, there were many interesting sites such as giant sized Olympic Rings. At both acoustic checks, we heard many good choirs from across Asia, there was even a choir made up entirely of little children! After our acoustic check at Town Hall, we had our lunch at a location no one would have guessed – backstage.


Lunch didn’t take very long and we were soon going back to the hostel. But the day didn’t end here. We only went back to get our stuff for the Opening Ceremony Concert of the competition. For the concert, we went to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, first for the rehearsal. Making a trip back to the hostel and back again to the Cultural Centre at 7pm, traffic was considerably lighter than what we experienced in the morning. The concert started at 8pm and lasted two hours. Many choirs from across Asia performed spectacularly, wowing the audience. One outstanding choir, not outstanding for their singing (they are good but that’s not what is outstanding about it) but for using LED flashlights and pointing it at the audience, my eyes hurt quite a lot from that. By the time the concert ended, it was 10pm. Furthermore, we had to wait for our bus for another 10-20 minutes or so. About the time when we boarded the bus, I realized that the Cultural Centre was right opposite of the YMCA Hotel, the place I stayed in the last time I was in Hong Kong some eight years ago. On board the bus going back to the hostel, many of us were already sleepy and took a snooze during the ride back. With the first of our competition categories early the next morning, we were given strict instructions in a debriefing at the hostel canteen. Sleep early, wake up at 6am the next day, breakfast at 6:45am and be ready in full attire by 7:30am…

3rd Day

As instructed in the debrief the night before, I woke up at 6am this morning, although it did not seem like 6am as the sun was already shining outside, probably due to the different latitudes compared to Singapore. Went down for breakfast at 6:45 am, breakfast was the same meal for everyone, two sausages, scrambled eggs, one piece of bread and a lemonade drink. Due to time constraint, everyone had already changed to their performance outfit before coming down for breakfast. After breakfast, at about 7:30am, all three schools had a final rehearsal at the open area outside of the canteen, one after the other. Once done, we boarded the bus which would take us to Sha Tin Town Hall for the competition in the Folklore category.

By 8:30am, we reached Sha Tin Town Hall, took a photo with the banner just before Unity came. Mr. Liew then instructed us to move to the sheltered parking lot. At the parking lot, without the keyboard, Mr. Liew started rehearsing with Unity again. Not long after, CHIJ St Joseph arrived and Mr. Liew asked me to get the keyboard from them, which I did so quickly. At 9am, the Town Hall opened which meant we could finally get inside, and also enjoy the air-con! Once in, more rehearsals until finally, the doors to the concert hall itself opened and we entered the hall. After we were seated down, we had to wait quite a while before the competition actually started.

We, North Vista Chorale, were the 10th of 11 choirs participating in this category so we were in for a long wait. When it was almost our turn, there was some mix-up about when we were supposed to move out of our seats and get ready beside the stage, some people stood up while some remained seated but it was soon resolved. Once the choir before us had finished their performance, we moved out of our seats and got ready to go on stage. One by one, step by step, everyone was up on stage. Our performance has started. For this category, we were singing two songs, 拜访春天 and 踏雪寻梅. Within the 10 minutes allocated for each performance, we were done singing both songs. As we made our way off the stage, we knew, whatever we did right or wrong, good or bad in the performance, it no longer mattered as it was already over and there was no way we could change it.

The ushers guided us to make our way to the back of the hall and held us there while the 11th choir, CHIJ St Joseph, performed so that we would not be disturbing other people. When they were done, we made our way back to our seats to take our belongings. Instead of making our way back to the bus, we had a surprise. We were headed for the shopping mall beside the Hall. It looked really weird for me to be wearing a suit and carrying a keyboard in a shopping mall. One particular thing I liked about having to carry the keyboard around is that I can pretend that it is an electric guitar or a cannon and act accordingly, really amusing for me. We went to mini-mart to buy some snacks for the following nights boarding the bus to take us back to the hostel. Reaching the hostel around lunch time, I washed up back in my room and changed to regular clothes for lunch. From lunch all the way to dinner, again, we had nothing to do, hence, us guys being guys, played poker cards, same thing after dinner.

That night, our practice time with Mr. Liew for tomorrow’s competition, the A2 category, was at 10pm. Assembling at the open space, we started practice while waiting for Mr. Liew. When he came, he brought us up to the 1st floor (2nd SG floor) where there were music practice rooms. We went into a cosy little room with sofas, which the 3rd row, including me, fortunately got to sit on due to the small space. Mr. Liew debriefed us on the day’s performance, telling us how nervous we were. With that in mind, almost all of us thought that the day’s performance was going to be a bronze award…practice continued with the three songs for the A2 category before we went to bed.

4th Day

Unlike the previous day, there was no need to wake up so early as the competition was in the afternoon. After breakfast, we had a final practice in another music practice room, this one much larger. It was a good practice, every song was sung in tune with dynamics after running through one or two times to begin with at first. When the practice was over, we went to get ready for our second and final performance in the Hong Kong Youth and Children’s Choir Festival Competition. At approximately 11am, we left for the Hong Kong City Hall where the category A2 competition was held. When we reached the destination, we had a shock. We were the second choir to perform! As with how the previous day went, We waited till the doors opened before we could take our seats in the Hall and waited for the competition to start.

In this category, Mr. Liew had set a target for us, to get in the top 3. There were only 6 choirs participating in this category so it was not going to be a hurdle as big as the folklore category. When the first choir had finished their performance, we went up on stage, this time standing on the stage floor, contrary to the steps the day before at Sha Tin. For the A2 category, we were singing three songs. 扑蝶, How Merrily We Live and Let There Be Peace. In another 10 minutes, the second performance was also over. Two months of our hard work had come down to the 20 minutes of the two performances. As for the results, we would have to wait till the next day. On the way back to the hostel, Me, Peterson and Timothy played “Celebration” on our hand phones. Whether we could celebrate our result would have to wait.

With no plans for the rest of the day, everyone was partying in their rooms for the rest of the day. For us, the competition was now over, regardless of our result.

5th Day

Woke up even later than usual at about 7:30am today, today is the day that the results will be known to us and everyone was very excited yet nervous. Not sure what time we left for the closing and prize giving ceremony at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre but it was about mid-morning, probably 9-10+am. On the bus, William gave us mooncakes of different flavoured fillings to eat.

Before the prize-giving ceremony began, the educators and instructors who were the judges for the competition commented on what they observed from judging at the different categories, some interesting points being about movement, dance steps etc. While dance steps are good for the performance, if done too excessively, such as turning your neck, straining it, it will affect the quality of the sound produced and the direction of the sound. Another interesting during this time was the fact that there was a bird flying about within the hall!


Soon, it was the prize-giving ceremony, starting with Category A1, children’s choir under 12. The champion of that category was surprisingly a school choir from Singapore, East View Primary School, congratulations! Next up was the A2 category, children’s choir under 16, one of the two categories we participated in. To our demise, we got a bronze for this category, while we did not know whether it was a Bronze A, B or C yet, we were all disappointed. To make matters worse for us, this was the performance that we felt was the better of the two, so if this was already a bronze, how bad could the other get? Josephine and HuiLi collected the certificate. As the MCs went through the rest of the results, while we were still a bit anxious, we were not very excited about hearing the result of the other category. When they finally announced the folklore category, we were all expecting the worse.

After the first award for bronze were given out, while announcing the second bronze award, I heard the MC say “another bronze award”. I pondered for a while over that phrase and choice of words. “Another”, would that mean it’s the last of the bronze awards in the category? It lifted my hopes for a Silver. Anxiously awaiting the next award result, the MC said “and now for the first of the silver awards”. At this point, literally everyone in our choir was listening very closely, shocked at the possibility of getting a silver after going through the disappointment of the A2 category award. To everyone’s delight, “a Silver-C, North Vista Chorale” came out from the MC’s mouth. Again, Josephine and HuiLi collected the award. At the photo talking after the presentation of the awards of the category, Ko Matsushita, the composer of the song “Everyone Sang” which was the set piece of the Singapore SYF competition 2007, stood beside the two of them, how lucky! At the end of the ceremony, we got to see the award certificates. The bronze we received for the A2 category was a Bronze-A, so close to a Silver-C yet so far. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about the bronze and started to celebrate the silver award achievement.

After a seemingly long celebration, as our bus was not here yet, we sat down in a corner while waiting for the bus. After a long wait, the bus was finally here. Instead of going back to the hostel as planned, we were taken to Ladies’ Street for a shopping spree. When we left the Cultural Centre, I heard the bus driver shouting quite a bit. William told me that the bus driver was apparently angry that he had to bring us somewhere else instead of our original planned destination.

After a short ride, we arrived at the Stanford Hotel, just beside Ladies’ Street. Together with the four other boys and Mr. Tan, we followed William to a food stall while the girls went on with their own shopping. At the stall, all five of us ate Wanton Noodles, some dry while others in soup. For those who ate the dry noodles, that would be me and Petersen, we could not finish all of it as there was too much in the first place, plus, the sauce was a bit too salty for us, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. After our lunch, we went exploring at a market beside Ladies’ Street. Returning back to Ladies’ Street, we started to do our own shopping too.


The first thing I bought was a magnet with a picture of Chep Lap Kok Intl Airport, for HK$10. While the shop owner originally wanted to sell it to me for HK$20, after hesitating, she quickly offered HK$10 as the final price, I’m a good haggler I guess! Went on looking for stuff for my family, bought a doorknob cover for my aunt who loves everything and anything related to Hello Kitty, a Ferrari Cap with a irresistibly-smooth-to-touch visor, a Steven Gerrard Liverpool Jersey Keychain and also bought a Belgian Chocolate Flavour Haagen Daas ice-cream to eat on the way back to the meeting point at the Stanford Hotel. Along the way, the shear number of 7-11 stores there amused us. Everywhere you turned, there would be a 7-11 store! Since we arrived at Ladies' Street, Mr Tan almost never stopped taking pictures! We also saw a store selling Octopus tentacles coated in some orange thing, not sure what it is but one thing for sure is that I’ll never try it!


After pick-up by the bus, we were transported back to our hostel where we again, for the rest of the day, just slacked and partied. That evening, we also learned that Eddy had been hospitalized with throat infection. Before going to sleep, we packed our luggage for we would be leaving this place the next day…

6th Day

Woke up at 7:30am today, today we were checking out of our hostel and checking in into the Regal Oriental Hotel beside where the old Kai Tak Airport stood. Bringing our luggage down for breakfast, we had a delicious last meal at the hostel canteen before we were transferred to the hotel via bus. At 8:30am, we boarded the bus, leaving the hostel one last time. It took a short while to reach the hotel. When we reached the hotel, I could see, before my very eyes, the old Good Harvest Air Freight Building at Kai Tak Airport, hard to believe it was still standing, 10 years after the closure of the airport!


Instead of leaving our luggage in the lobby as planned, we were to bring our luggage up to room 533 as it was quite expensive for us to leave it in the lobby. When we got to the 5th floor where room 533 was, as we entered the room, we saw 4 single beds, and a bathtub in the toilet! We left our luggage there and quickly headed back for the bus, not wanting to be late at the next destination, the long-awaited Disney Land! Among the boys, we joked about the name of Disney Land being 打死你 Land as it sounded very close to Disney Land. On the way, we received our tickets from William and we soon arrived at Disney Land at 10:30am that day. Due to the distance from the entry of the park to the ticket entry of the theme park itself, it took almost 20 minutes from the time we got off the bus to the ticket entrance. Unfortunately for me, there were more delays as my ticket had some problems being scanned by the machine at the entrance and I had to wait a while before it got changed.


Finally, at 11am sharp, I got in. We saw the train pull in to the station. It had a picture of Mickey Mouse made of flowers beside it! Walking under the bridge ahead of the station that was ahead of us, we caught our first glimpse of Disney Land. From the entrance at Main Street, USA, we could see the towering Castle at Fantasy Land all the way at the center of the park! Again, the boys went around together. As Lionel had come here before, we followed him around the park since he was the only one with any clue of which way it was to where.


The first ride we took was the Jungle River Cruise at Adventure Land. The queue was quite long as it was a Friday, about halfway through, Hui Tian, Wei Qian and Debbie Lim joined the queue. Within 10 minutes, we were on one of the boats and on the ride. Along the ride, there were many Animatronic animals such as elephants, crocodiles, gorillas, hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses. At one point, there was also an attack on the boat by tribal people. Towards the end, we were pushed by a river current into a narrow and rocky area. This was the most exciting part of the ride. Flames roared behind a rock formation with three holes, illuminating the shape of a human skull. With a sudden burst of water, the fire was put out and lots of steam formed to the point that we could not see anything.


Exiting the ride, we were originally headed for Space Mountain next. However, as we passed by the 3D movie, we decided to go for that first. Grabbing our 3D glasses, we were at the front of the queue for the next movie showing. Again when waiting halfway through, Hui Tian, Wei Qian and Debbie Lim also joined the queue, second time. No matter, when the doors opened, we quickly got ourselves good seats and sat down. The movie lasted about 15 minutes and it was definitely a fun “ride”, better than the jungle cruise.


Next, we headed for Space Mountain and Tomorrow Land, passing by the Castle along the way and taking some photos of it. Unfortunately, Space Mountain was closed until 3:30-4:30pm, hence we went for the next closest ride, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. After queueing for a long time, bad news came. There was some technical fault with the ride and was therefore closed until further notice. Hoping it won’t take too long we waited and waited. The queue moved up many times but the ride was still not operational, just people ahead of us exiting the queue. At this rate, we would be late for lunch at the designated spot at 1pm. With that in mind, we gave a call to our teachers at the designated spot to tell them of our plight. Eventually, we got a QuickPass for a direct entry to the ride when it became operational again which meant we could go for our lunch first!


We went to Comet Café for our lunch. After finding a table, Timothy and I sat down at the table while Lionel and Petersen went to buy their meals. For the third time, Hui Tian, Wei Qian and Debbie Lim showed up, this time along with more of our choir members, what a not-so-pleasant coincidence again. After Lionel and Petersen got back, Timothy and I went to buy our lunch. Finishing our meal quickly, we headed back for the Astro Blasters ride which was open by now. With our QuickPass access, Me, Timothy and Lionel got on the ride almost immediately while Petersen, who did not have the QuickPass, had to queue up all over again. With a car all to myself, I had to guns to shoot targets with.

After exiting the ride, while waiting for Petersen, I bought some souvenirs, a Stitch soft toy and a Pluto soft toy with magnets in it. A few minutes later, Petersen exited the ride. From there, we headed for the Autopia ride. While we were queuing for the ride, we saw Debbie Lim and Wei Qian but not Hui Tian ahead of us in the queue. To our dismay, Hui Tian was even further ahead in the ride. For the forth time now, they were queuing for the same ride as us again. After a long wait, we got to the ride. Petersen took car 1, Lionel car 2, Timothy car 3 and myself in car 4. Once they left the ride station, I stepped on the pedal and chased them down. Unfortunately, with a limited ride speed, I could not catch up to Timothy ahead of me. The ride was a breeze and was quickly over, not as fun as I expected.

With Autopia behind us, we headed for the now open Space Mountain. With a long queue ahead of us, we waited a very long time before we got on the ride. When we finally boarded, there was no turning back, not that anyone of us was going to do so anyway. The ride climbed in 3 steps. In the darkness, no one could see what was ahead in the ride. At the top, the car plunged over into a steep turning drop. Many tight turns, hills and bumps later, the ride was over, not very exciting for me.

At the exit of the ride, we could see the in-ride photos. As Lionel’s face in the picture was blocked by the person in front of us, we decided to ride again. This time, Petersen and Timothy opted out. For the second time we rode Space Mountain, we requested to sit at the very front. This way, there was no way that our faces would be blocked by anything. At the end of the ride, before we bought the pictures, PeiYing and PeiWen asked us to ride again with 8 more of our choir members (can’t remember exactly who now) to fill an entire train of 2 cars with 12 seats in total. Unfortunately, only the 4 of us took the ride in the end. By now, the third time I was riding this roller coaster, I had grown bored with it, which was clearly shown in the in-ride photo where I was sleeping.


As it was getting very close to the meeting time of 5:30pm for our dinner, we decided to head back to main street to buy more souvenirs. There, I bought a Chipmunk keychain before going to the restaurant for dinner. When we got there, William told us that the organizers had given us the wrong meeting point. After a short rest, he took us to the correct meeting point where almost everyone was already there. After a sumptuous meal, it was time to leave Disney Land. Again, it took a long time to get out of the park to our bus. When we finally got onto our bus, I reached into my pouch to take out my camera. Something, however, was wrong. My handphone was missing! I searched every pocket of the pouch and my pants frantically but I could not find it. I tried using the second handphone I had which had a Hong Kong prepaid SIM card to call the Singapore line but I could not hear the ringtone of it. I must have lost it in Disney Land, probably at the restaurant as I clearly remembered that I still had it then.


As the bus brought us to Ladies’ Street for a second shopping spree, I called my mother to inform her about my missing handphone and tried to contact anyone who found my handphone, continuously all the way to Ladies’ Street. William brought the boys to a shopping mall a few blocks from Ladies’ Street and all the time, I was still trying to contact my lost phone. At the shopping mall, which was 12 storeys tall, on the way up a long escalator, I spotted a model shop that sold aircraft models. After a browsing for movie DVDs at a store on the 12th floor, I asked to go to the model store, to buy a model airplane and cheer myself up over my lost handphone. It took a while to figure out which level the shop was on due to the complex structure of the mall itself but once I got in, I forgot all about my handphone. Browsing through the airplane models, I spotted a relatively large sized Concorde model priced at HK$ 290, which I deemed too expensive. However, I was not going to leave here without an airplane model. After searching for a few minutes, Petersen found a 1:350 scale Concorde priced at just HK$75, much cheaper than the other Concorde model. I quickly purchased it.

Next, we went to a desert shop just outside the shopping mall. I ordered a desert that was Mango-crazy! Mango Ice cream on Mango Pudding in Mango Juice with extra Mango! Never in my life have I seen such a desert! Halfway through eating the desert, the aircon suddenly became intolerably cold. Quickly, we took out our jackets. It helped keep us warm as we ate. After finishing our deserts, we headed back to our pick-up point, again the Stanford hotel. Shortly before the bus came, Debbie Tan asked me if I had bought anything for Cheuk Wing, which I answered no as he had already asked the girls on the trip in our class to buy the things he wanted for him (he knows I don’t shop much!). Freaking out, she quickly pushed the responsibility to Hui Li.


On the bus, we were given our hotel room keys. I was to share my room with Timothy, and our room was 533, the one that everyone had put their luggage in… When we reached the hotel, we had to wait for a long time before the luggages were cleared out. Petersen and Lionel, who were sharing room 531 beside our room, decided to share 533 with us instead as there were adequate beds. They took pillows from room 531 over to our room. We were told that there were PPV adult-movies in the hotel, and when Lionel turned on the television, the PPV screen for adult movies appeared. Lionel quickly turned it off, changing the channel before turning it on again. As it was quite late, we quickly showered before going to sleep, me first, followed by Petersen, Lionel and then lastly Timothy. While waiting for each other to be done showering, we watched football on the television, Germany versus Bulgaria. As we were to check out by 8:30am the next day, I set the alarm on my remaining handphone accordingly to 7am before going to sleep.

7th Day

The last day in Hong Kong!! I woke up quite early at 5:30am this morning, no idea why at all. I took some pictures of the now leveled Kai Tak Airport outside the window, wondering how nice it would have been to stay here while the Airport was still operating some 10 years back, though the hotel might not have been here 10 years back. After taking the pictures, I decided to go back to sleep. Lied down on the bed, but constant snoring from one of the 3 other boys in the room (I won’t mention who) kept me awake all the way to 7am. Getting off the bed at 7, I had a muscle cramp in right side of my neck. Washed up and woke up the rest of them at 7:30am to prepare to go off. I packed my luggage and double-checked to make sure I did not leave anything behind this time. At about 7:50am, all four of us were ready to go. We went down to the basement where the breakfast buffet was and ate all we could. At 8:20am, we went back up to our room one last time before we grabbed our luggage and went down to the lobby. We handed the room key over to William and loaded our luggage onto the bus waiting outside the hotel.


On this final day, we were to explore around Hong Kong, going to Victoria Peak and also to Madame Tussade’s Wax Museum. Unfortunately, some people thought the checkout time was 9am and therefore wasted some time in packing up and going off. By the time we left the hotel, we knew we were behind schedule. On the bus going to Victoria Peak, Winnie told us of many aspects of Hong Kong. After a long bus ride, we arrived at Victoria Peak. Due to time constraint, there was no time for us to stop and take pictures. We had to take them on the move.


At 10am, we reached the wax museum. There, William gave out our entry tickets. I took a picture with a model of Bruce Lee striking a pose and also took another picture with a model of Jackie Chan at the entrance with the Lionel and Petersen.


In the museum, we saw many figures of famous people from show business, such as Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, political figures such as Lee Kuan Yew, Saddam Hussein. Historical figures such as Adolf Hitler, scientists such as Albert Einstein, movie characters such as James Bond, and even football stars, David Beckham, Ronaldinho, Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali and music figures the Beatles and Michael Jackson and much much more! At the museum exit, we bought the photo we took with the Jackie Chan model at the entrance.


Once everyone was out, we rushed back to the bus. We went to a Chinese restaurant for our lunch. William had to leave us to pick up Eddy and Mdm. Woo at the hospital. We had a delicious meal there. We then again rushed back to the bus, which rushed us to the airport. By this time, there was a possibility that we could be late for our flight. On the long ride to the airport, as no liquids were allowed to be brought in, I finished a 770ml bottle filled with water to the brim, sharing with Timothy. Ironically, right after we finished the drink, Mdm. Suhana told us that at the airport, until everyone’s luggage had been checked in, no one was to go to the toilet…By the time we got to the airport, both Timothy and I and Lionel too urgently had to go to the toilet. At the airport, we also met up with Eddy, who by now had been discharged but not fully recovered. After waiting for about 5 minutes, Mdm. Suhana finally allowed us to go, telling us to go as fast as we can. The three of us sped off to the closest toilet, about the width of the terminal away from us. Once we were done, we rushed back the whole distance again to where everyone was. We got our passports and boarding passes and proceeded to check-in at the Cathay Pacific Group Check-In counter.


After checking in our luggage, we sat in a corner beside the entrance to the transit area while waiting for everyone to gather. Once everyone was here, we went in to the transit area. There were long queues at the immigration counters and we had to wait for up to 10 minutes. Once through, we went through the security check. I was wearing my pouch tied to my belt so I could not take it out. Instead, I had to take out everything from my pouch and place it in a tray for the x-ray machine scan. Once done, I walked through the metal-detector. The alarm sounded. I had forgotten to take out my hand phone. One guard directed me to a mat where he used a hand-held metal detector to double-check for any metal on me. When he was finally done, I went to get my belongings from the tray and out them back into my pouch. Once through, again, i did a little bit of plane-spotting while waiting for everyone to gather.


Going to gate S27, along the way, I spotted another model shop just opposite of our gate. With 15 minutes left, I quickly searched for any good models to get. After a 5 minute search, I still could not find any aircraft I wanted, that was until I laid my eyes on a Sky500 Singapore Airlines Cargo Boeing 747-400F. Despite its price of HK$295, I quickly bought it as there was no way I could buy anything else once I got on the plane. After spending the last of my cash, I went to the gate where everyone had assembled. Again, I did more plane-spotting. I found out that our ride for today was a Boeing 777-300, how fortunate to take two excitingly different planes in just one trip! The Boeing 777-300 was registered B-HNO.


At 3:50pm, when everyone was here, we queued up to board the aircraft. With a long queue ahead, I knew that this was another fully booked flight. When boarding the aircraft, I took more pictures of the 777. After entering the cabin, I found out that the 777 had a 3-3-3 seating, which no longer meant that my seat, 60J, was a window seat that I thought it was.


When everyone had boarded, the doors closed and we pushed back from the gate. We taxied to runway 25L for takeoff, just behind where our gate was. Before us, another Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300 took off from the same runway. Lining up the runway, with the world’s largest engines, the 2 General Electric GE-90s strapped to the wings, the plane thundered down the runway. With a full load, it seemed to take a long time before it rotated and got airborne.


With clear skies ahead, our 777 climbed up to 37,000 feet. As everyone was already tired from the whole trip, most of them were asleep as soon as we got airborne. I was tired but I could not ignore the fact that I was taking off in a 777, and hence I only laid back to rest after airborne. Again, I had chicken for my meal in the sky, this time being my dinner. After finishing my dinner, the flight attendants served Magnum Ice cream to the passengers. About a third of the way to Singapore, the airplane descended to 36,000 feet. For most of the flight, I was watching a move on the IFE. At an hour and a half from Singapore, I tuned to the Discovery Channel where they were showing a documentary about our human brain. It was a really interesting to know how the brain works. Near the end of the long flight, as the airplane descended to Singapore, it made a 360 degree turn over Malaysia, not sure why but probably for separation from nearby aircraft.


At 7:35pm, the 777 turned right to intercept the glideslope of the ILS for runway 20R at Changi Intl Airport. With flaps down and the landing gear down, we were cleared to land. At exactly 7:45am, we touched down on runway 20R. At the same time, the countdown timer on the IFE also reached 0. What a coincidence! The 777 vacated the runway via taxiway W7, and taxied to gate D49 via WP, NC3, A6. Just as we stopped, rain started pouring down on the aircraft. As we passed by Terminal 3 on our way to the gate, we saw 3 Singapore Airlines Airbus A380-800s, two of them side-by-side. What luck! Unfortunately, the darkness of the night and the visibility out of the window hindered by the rain prevented any good photo opportunity.


As we parked at our gate, many people got up, ready to go, again causing a human traffic jam. Finally, we exited the aircraft. Again, I thanked the flight attendants for wonderful service on the flight and exited via the door at the very front of the aircraft, where the cockpit door was. From gate to transit area, I took more photos of the other aircraft at the other gates beside us. Once in the transit area, we walked down the length of Terminal 1 to the immigration checkpoint. Along the way, I chatted with Mdm. Suhana about my dream of being a pilot and she gave me some tips and inside info on becoming one (she has a friend who is a pilot and another who wanted to but couldn’t make it).


At the immigration area, I queued up at the Biopass passport lines. This was to be the first time I used it. As compared to the old stamping system in the other lines, this was much quicker and I got out soon enough. Timothy, who had the old style passport, had to queue for a very long time. There were some problems with 2 people ahead of him in the queue, and when he decided to change lines, the queue he was in moved, and the person behind him was next. I waited and waited for him, so long that we were the last 2 people of the choir to leave the immigration checkpoint. Quickly, we walked to the belts to collect our luggage. By the time we got there, everyone else had picked up our luggage. Grabbing a trolley, we put out luggage onto our own trolleys and waited for further instructions. Outside, I could see my family and classmates eagerly awaiting us to come out. After final checks that we had everything with us, we finally went out to the arrival hall.


As I got out, I met up with my family. They had a surprise for me. It was a red Sony Ericsson W760i, the phone I wanted for so long but had not been able to get…until now! Even after losing my handphone, my parents willingly forked out almost SGD600 for the phone. I am so grateful and thankful for that! Not long after that, someone spotted JJ Lin walking out of the transit area to the arrival hall! However, we all noticed that one person was missing, Mr. Tan! It turns out that he had been stopped by security for a random check and came out later than everyone else. After bidding a final farewell to William and saying goodbye to teachers and friends, I left for Terminal 3 with my family to eat at Popeye’s Chicken! Due to the long queue, we decided to take-away and eat at home.

This trip, my first with the school, was definitely a memorable one! That brings the end of my Trip Report, I hope you did not faint from reading the whole report due to the shear length of it! Just for your information, that is 8,357 words you have just read! And now, a final picture, my new Sony Ericsson W760i (Limited Edition Red colour!), Sky500 Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400F SIA-Great Wall Airlines Hybrid Livery 9V-SFH and the British Airways BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde G-BOAG!

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