Day 10

We stayed up late last night to make farewell cards for the 3 Hong Kong teachers, Miss Chen, Miss Natalie chen, Mr Kelvin Ma, aunty Jenny (tour guide), Muay Jie (lab assistant). They were always available to make sure that all our needs were well taken of throughout our entire trip.


Hong Kong fast food version of McDonald's or KFC










Foods were surprisingly fast, cheap and good. Maybe it was the first we ate them.


After checking out of YMCA camp site, we were brought to the sports complex where Lai Chack Middle school was holding their 80th Sports Meets.











The sports meets was declared opened after the torch light up ceremony. We were invited to take a group photograph with the school Principal. Mr Lau has the honour to hold the torch on behalf of our school.












March past of the athlete contingents

















Our students doing the cheer leading before the start of first sport event. We did the cheers in 3 versions - English, Chinese and Cantonese. The last version in Cantonese was especially well received. We have practised this version for the past 2 nights and the efforts have obviously paid off.




Although it was sunny, the weather was cool and as you can see, everyone was in a good mood. We were eagerly awaiting the start of the first event.


First event: Boys 100m run.










We were here to cheer for our HK buddies who were participating in the sports meets.







Time to say good- byes

It was hard to say good-byes to our buddies after spending 10 wonderful days together.


There were many sad expressions and many of us vowed to keep in touch through email.


Some of us were openly shedding tears and teachers have a hard times pulling us apart.











After the teary separation from our buddies, we were on the road again. This time to HK International Airport.



Along the way, we stopped for lunch at a Chinese Restuarant.



Many of us bought "Wife" biscuits at this famous bakery shop at the airport.




Home Sweet Home

Our plane took off on schedule from HK International Airport at 1600 hrs. We finally arrived at Singapore Changi Airport at 1945 hrs.

We were tired but happy to see our parents/friends/loved ones waiting at the arrival hall.

On behalf of all the students, we would like to thank Mrs Tan and Mr Lau for taking such good care of us throughtout the journey. This is one trip that we will remember for many many years to come.

For all of you who have been following our blog, we thank you for your time and hope that it has been interesting read for you.

Good-bye.

HK Twinning Programme 2009 blogger team signing off.

Day 9

Today would be our last day at Lai Chack Middle School. We entered the school with a somewhat heavy feeling knowing that we would miss this place very much.

While we were having lesson in class, Miss Chen treated Mrs Tan and Mr Lau to a typical Hong Kong breakfast meal at the nearby shop: fish porridge, you tiao wrapped with chee cheong fun and fried carrot cake. It looked so delicious!

Most of us did not have the heart to listen to the class lesson. We spend most of the time chatting with our buddies.

Visit to Lady Street

This is Lady Street (near Mongkok MTR station), a popular shopping area for tourists. We took the MTR there ... only 2 stations from the school. The train system was quite similar to Singapore MRT.

The amount of stuff sold here were amazing! You could find all sort of things here. But be warned ..... most of them are fakes!

Part of the fun of shopping in lady street is knowing how to bargain.

Miss Chen (Hong Kong teacher) taught us how to bargain if you found an item that you are interested to buy.

First, you asked how much does it cost.

Then, you walked away regardless of what price the seller offered you.

Note: DO NOT COUNTER OFFER !!!

The seller will run up to you and automatically drop the price further. Now you tak note of the reduced price and continue to walk on pretending that you are still not interested.

If the seller is really keen to sell you the item, he will run after you and further lower the price even though you have, by now, walked 3-4 stalls away.

In this way you could easily get 50% discount without having to open your mouth!

We tried this trick ... and it worked. Look at how much stuff we bought. Ha ha ha !

After shopping, it was back to school for one last activity before the farewell dinner ... making eraser using plastercine.

A flower eraser!

Farewell Dinner

We started the evening event with games.








Dominic was being "punished" to sing a song with Miss Natalie Chen as his group lost the 1st round of games.








Foods were delicious. We were told that the sandwiches, fried rice and salad were prepared by our Hong Kong buddies.




Zhi Yu represented our school to go on stage to share our group reflection for the trip. She did a good job speaking in chinese.

It was gift exchange time after the sharing session.



After that, it was karaoke session.

Mr Kelvin Ma (Hong Kong teacher) kicked off by singing a cantonese song.

.... It's fun to stay at the Y. M. C. A.

Although the evening event finally ended at 0800pm many of us were reluctant to leave. Some of us cried as we bid good night to our buddies.

Day 8

This morning, we have a quick breakfast at the YMCA camp site before setting off for the much anticipated trip to Disneyland.





We were briefed that each of us would be given HK$120 (about S$24) to spend on lunch and dinner. As foods & drinks sold in Disneyland were very expensive, we were instructed to bring along 1 water bottle fully filled with water (we could top up the bottle at the many water coolers located inside Disneyland). To save money on foods, teachers bought 20 bread/bun at a bakery (the night before) for us to take along so that we have more money to spend on souvenir. How thoughtful of them!

We finally arrived at Disneyland at about 9 am after a 45 mins bus ride from YMCA campsite. The place was still quite empty as Disneyland would not be opened till 10 am. Everyone was so excited that we could not stop snapping pictures of everything in sight.

Security check at the entrance was very tight, we have to open our bags for inspection by the security guards before we were allowed to enter.

Greetings from Mickey and Minnie.

Before we could try any of the fun rides, we have to attend 3 hrs of physics lesson conducted by 2 instructors from Disneyland. The lessons (mostly hand-on activities) were very interesting as the instructors explained how energy, light and sound the were used in designing the many fun stuffs inside Disneyland.






One of the fun activities was how to build roller coaster. All of us were very eager to try out our very own design.

In the process of design the roller coaster, we learned about conversion of Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy and vice versa.

Look at our newly designed roller coaster. Isn't it cool ?

The lesson ended at 1230 pm. We were free to roamed around Disneyland but for safety reason, teachers wanted us to "move" in groups of 5. Group leaders were responsible to ensure this rule was not violated, otherwise the whole group would have to stick with the teachers for the rest of the day!

The happiest person on earth!

Have you ever talked to a walking dustbin that can reply back?

This dustbin could not only move and talk but also respond to you when it was touched ... awesome!

The entire place was filled with music and song!








It's a small world after all.
















Plenty of souvenirs to buy here. But they are so expensive ... it was hard to find anything below HK$60.












Disney in parade ... we lost count of how many pictures we took. A lot of us ran out of battery power for our camera!

The "Lion King" show was fantastic! There were songs, dances, colourful props & costumes, singing with strong vocal, special effect lighting and sound etc. It was simply amazing. You could sense the great appreciation of the audience by the thunderous applause at the end of the show.

Bud light year ... very cool!

The laser shooting game was so much fun ... i wanted to try again.

Food was very expensive as expected. Most of us ended buying sandwiches, mini pizzas, mesh potatoe pies etc from the bakery shop. Here a combo meal of sandwich and drink cost HK$42.

I want to stay here forever!

All good things must come to an end. We ended our visit to Disneyland with the spectacular firework show in the evening. It was a long but fun filled day. A lot of us came back to the hostel holding bags of souvenirs/gifts for our friends/loved ones.