Tips for travelling from Hong Kong to Macau

If you think travelling from Hong Kong to Macau is daunting, well take heart cos it's not.

But it does involve travelling out of one country and entering another, which means immigration checkpoint comes into play and you have to fill in arrival cards. But the form is really simple and straightforward.

Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal in Kowloon

HK Arrival Card

BUYING TICKETS
Kind of like Puduraya buying bus tickets. There are many counters as well as touts. Actually I reached at 11am and could have bought the 1130am tickets but wasnt sure whether it's the correct ferry cos I didnt want to end up in Cotai so bought the 12pm ticket. PLUS I wanted to be on safe side in case the immigration procedure may take long.

TIPS:- sometimes there are promotion with credit card when you buy RETURN tickets but I didnt find out about it until I boarded the TurboJet and read it from their on-board magazine.

TURBOJET SCHEDULE

IMMIGRATION
Websites will advise you to be there early for the checkpoint but from experience at the Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal in Kowloon, the whole process is real quick. Less than 5 mins esp if you do not have any luggage.

Seats are allocated manually when you check in. They put a numbered sticker on your tickets.. somehow I think the person in charge have been briefed to put tourists near window seats.

Not sure but this is my feeling cos the person took a look at us before selecting the seat numbers and coincidentally we were given window seats on both trips.

TIPS:-
1) there are shops in the HK China Ferry Terminal, including Esprit outlet, SASA etc.

2) local currency in Macau
Even though merchants accept HK currency in Macau, you must use Macau currency for local buses! So prepare in advance if you plan to take buses.

3) getting around in Macau
most hotels provide FREE shuttle buses to their hotels. To catch these shuttle buses, make sure you walk to the nearest tourist attractions.


4) concierge service
All the major hotels in Macau have excellent concierge services! Besides directions, you can even buy your return Turbojet tickets from them directly as their computers are linked online with TurboJet ticketing system. So you can be sure you wont be stranded in Macau!


5) a good tip for TurboJet is to get a LATER ticket but if reach the ferry terminal earlier, you can opt to board the EARLIER TurboJet (provided there are seats available).

Mannings vs Guardian

NOTE according to Wikipedia, Mannings is:-
"Mannings for Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau) or Guardian (for Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam) is a chain of personal health and beauty retailer offering comprehensive range of pharmacies, healthcare, personal care, skin care and baby care products. It is wholly owned by Dairy Farm International Holdings."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For my trip to Hong Kong, I decided to use disposable panties as I was expecting to change hotels, meaning no chance to do any panties laundry.

So got myself cotton disposable panties (I hate the tissue like type) from Guardian.

But I find them very small and tight for an L size :(

So when I saw Mannings (which is what Guardian is known as in Hong Kong), decided to buy it since it's about same price (HKD19.90 ~ RM8.05) as Malaysia PLUS it came in a reusable zip lock bag!!

VERDICT:-
Huge difference in size right?

Mannings' L size (the white panty) is the correct L size. Guardian's L size is more like an S size in comparison. No wonder I felt uncomfortable wearing them in Hong Kong.

So the question is why do retailers in Malaysia keep shortchanging us the consumers? If Manning in Hong Kong can give good quality plus zipper bag at the same price, how come Guardian can't since they are owned by the same company?

Can technology help find these thieves?

Saw this post in Facebook today and immediately downloaded DropBox to my smartphone.

But it will be interesting to see if Ranimah can locate her note and laptop with this photo.

It's quite a clear photo of the perpetrators, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Know them? They are thieves!

【前线人肉搜索警报】偷人家的note然後拿來自拍，
結果照片上傳，樣子拍得很清楚
請網民人肉搜索出這兩個偷別人東西還沾沾自喜的人
Assalamualaikum friends, my note 10.1 and laptop were stolen on January 4 this year from a restaurant in Seri Kembangan area. I installed dropbox in all my gadgets including the ones being stolen, and it is my habit to import every photos to my dropbox account. While importing the photos last week, I noticed several unfamiliar faces inside my dropbox camera uploads folder and it came to my mind yesterday that these are the faces who stole my gadgets. Look at these faces, they are so proud modelling my note inside public toilet, they didn't even bother to change the cover (you know pink is one of my fav colour, and I definitely recognised this pink cover). I believe they didn't sign out or delete my dropbox folder inside the note and that's why their photos imported to my folder. I am going to do police report today with these photos but I hope to locate the thieves, anyone have seen them before? Please help me to share this photo and locate the thieves, I hope to find back my laptop too.

失主：https://www.facebook.com/ranimah.mohdramli

======================
新鲜热门关注都在这里！网罗综合各大新闻及资讯网！赶快LIKE 本专页随时获得最新消息更新 http://www.facebook.com/fb.top.news
=======================

Side Effects of consuming Bing Han ginseng

Some individuals may experience radical reaction(s) when they consume Bing Han ginseng for the first time.

There is no particular order or general rule.

The reactions can appear a few times in a matter of weeks and different people may experience varying levels of severity.

RADICAL REACTION SYMPTOMS ARE AS BELOW:-

SICKNESS	RADICAL REACTIONS
Wind	Increase in pain.
Skin diseases	Increase in rashes, scabies and measles - this is to remove toxin and acid.
Anemia (low blood)	Minor nose bleed for those who are physically weak.
High blood pressure	Heaviness in the head, increase in blood pressure, possible vomiting.
Gastric	Heat in chest. No appetite and increase in gastric pain.
Stomach cancer	Increase in pain in affected areas.
Weak intestines	Will pass out stool with blood.
Heart disease	Rapid shallow or trouble breathing. Restless.
Headache	Will experience pain for consecutive days.
Gynecological problems	Itchiness in the female genitals. Increase in vaginal discharge or even discharge with blood clots. This is to remove toxin from the body. Increase in blood flow during the preceding menstrual cycle can be a good reaction symptom. Possible chance of irregular menstrual cycle but these are all temporal effects.
Hemorrhoids	Stools with blood will increase. This is to remove contaminated blood.
Poor liver function	Occasional headache, vomit, itchiness, dry throat, fatigue, pimples breakout, yellowish skin colour.
Diabetic	Itchiness and swelling.
Blood clots	May experience serious lack of oxygen, chest congestion.
Acidic body	Sleepiness even during daytime. Dry throat. Urge to urinate at night. Constant flatulence.
Weak brain nerve	Unable to sleep for few nights consecutively but will be in high spirit the next day.
Polluted lungs	Increase in phlegm. For sensitive nose - increase in nasal flow or runny nose.
Weak kidney function	May experience pain in the kidney. Increase in urination as well as discoloration of urine.

The following are the general symptoms:-
- Increase in blood

- Itchiness in skin

- Blisters or sores on lips (condition will improve in few days time)

- Pimple or measles breakout

- Rashes, scabies and measels (toxic being removed through skin)

- Increase in eye discharge or dandruff

- Fever of about 38C - which will not decrease even with medication

- Fatigue and sleepiness during the period of health restoration

Useful tips when travelling to Hong Kong

AIRPORT
Travelling out of HK with Air Asia is from Terminal 2, not Terminal 1. However if you alighted the bus at Terminal 1, no worry. It is within walking distance.

You just need to take a lift down and make your way to the bus / train direction. Near the entrance of the train station, pls take an escalator or lift to go down. When you walk out, you need to take an escalator up one floor to reach the check in counters.

Sounds confusing? No worry.. as HK is very systematic, they have personnels on hand to give directions PLUS the whole airport has free WIFI (except toilet areas).

EATING
even though most signboards and menu are in chinese, there are high chances are they will have english menu when you ASK - the operative word is ask. You have to request for it!


SIGHT SEEING
1) you can get cheaper entrance fees from local hong kong travel agent - eg from your hotel or etc. They are normally cheaper by HKD20 - HKD30.

2) Ngong Ping 360 cable car
you may get cheaper vouchers from travel agent but the best method is to pay FULL online as the queue can be very very long especially during weekends. I waited for 1 hour on Sunday at about 11am. The queue got longer at about 12pm. You do NOT have to queue when you purchase online.

What's there?
Well unless you join a local tour once you reach Ngong Ping Village or you are into climbing up the hill to see the Big Buddha or eat the vegetarian food, there is basically nothing much to see or do in Ngong Ping.

3) Ocean Park vs HK Disneyland
This is personal preference. If you like colours and taking photos of animated characters, then Disney is for you. I mean, how to fight with Mickey and gangs right?

But if you are into nature, there are a lot of interesting exhibits in Ocean Park especially in the Grand Aquarium. You get to see real sharks, jelly fish, sturgeon, pandas, sea lions, penguins and etc.

Price
Ocean Park HKD280 adult
Disney HKD399 adult

Rides at Ocean Park

Rides
More thrill rides in Ocean Park but no 3D or 4D rides in Ocean Park.

Overall feel around the park
Disney beats Ocean Park on this hands down. I mean the entrance at Ocean Park looks very aged and boring to say the least and the signboards inside the park are quite confusing in Ocean Park and a lot of places looks a bit 90s, like the sitting places as well as eateary outlets.

Even some of rides look outdated.

Getting There
This deserves a special mention as again Disney beats Ocean Park on this hands down on this cos at the end of the Symbio show (which runs at 7pm daily) in Ocean Park, everyone rush out to go home and only mode of transportation are either taxi or bus no. 629. Can you imagine the queue??

VERDICT:-
Priority is Disney but if you have been to Disney and you have the time and money to spend, then you can go for Ocean Park as well cos where else can you find 4 pandas in one park outside of China.

SHOPPING
I actually enjoyed most of my shopping in Citygate Outlets, which is a big mall adjacent to the Ngong Ping Cable car station with the largest number of outlets shops!



Because of it's close proximity to HK airport, you'll see a lot of people with luggage in the mall.

It's big and most major brands are there but dont expect good service as due to the crowds most of the staffs will be missing in action. You basically have the find the size, colour etc yourself.

But you'll be rewarded with good prices and extra discounts when buying more than 2 items at most shops.

I prefer here cos it's air-con, covered and you get everything under one roof cos I find Mongkok area too  crowded for my liking :(

ACCOMMODATION
I stayed in a budget place called Golden Wave Hotel. They do not have online booking as you basically call and speak to the proprietor themselves. Prices are seasonal and fluctuates from time to time. Dont expect big rooms but this is after all HK!

For their website click http://www.goldenwavehotel.com.hk/en/info.html

Location is very very convenient. Just a stone throw away from Jordan MTR station exit C2. To get here from airport, the fastest and cheapest way is via airport bus A22 HKD39 one way as the bus stops right next to the hotel.

Worth mentioning is the hotel is just next row to Australian Dairy Co. and same row as Yee Shun Dairy Co.! Yummy yummy!!

CONCLUSION
leave me a comment if you need help getting around HK and I'll be most obliged to help when possible =D

Oliferin - for better skin!

If you are a follower of my blog, you might have read about me getting lots of sand flies bites (click this link sand-flies-bite-and-treatment).

When I could no longer stand the itch, I visited a doctor and whilst I was there, asked him a lot of health questions. Like why do I always come back from a walk in the park with rashes on my leg.

The doctor explained it's cos I have grass allergy. Meaning my skin gets easily inflamed and react cos it's not balance. So he recommended that I take a supplement named Oliferin as it's a powerful anti-oxident made from olives from Spain.

To visit the official website, click this link Benefits of Oliferin

Well I did not take to his advice immediately as the price is quite high for me and I was taking GNC Double Strength Fish Oil then. But I did keep the pamphlet and google on it. Finally in February 2013 I thought ok, why not give this a try.

I bought it from OUG pharmacy and it was running a promotion pack, meaning buy 2 bottle (60tab x 2) and free 1/2 bottle (30tab). So I paid RM270 for 150 tablets meaning each tablet costs RM1.80

The packing was a bit of a put off as the paper stopper on the cap was discoloured.

But do not let this stop you from trying Oliferin because after about 2 weeks of consuming 1 tabled a day, I noticed the skin on my legs were better and the pigmentation on my face lighter.

Now I am going to finish 1 bottle and my legs have improved significantly. Previously my legs were so dry that it shines and is very very tight to the point of cracking. Too bad I did not take photos of my legs before consumption. It was much much worst than the photos below.

After 3 weeks

Improvement after 3 weeks

Now it looks more like normal skin though it still shines a bit. Even the ugly veins have improved!!

After 50 days

So if you suffer from dry skin, I will definitely recommend Oliferin to you!