Avatar

I previously stated that the film '2012' could walk away with the best special effects Oscar for 2009. Boy was I wrong. Talk about speaking too soon. I totally forgot that this movie was still coming out.

Avatar marks James Cameron first film since he made Titanic a year ago. I always thought he wasn't actively making films anymore since he became bloody rich after Titanic. And that the pressure of topping the number one box office hit of all time was just too much. As it turns out, he was just taking his time and working on this film.

I was totally blown away by this film. We watched it on IMAX. And it was worth it. This is an awesome movie. James Cameron, doing what he does best. Using special effects as a tool and not as a gimmick. When you see the Navi. It would never cross your mind that they are just Computer Generated images. They look so life like. Plus the story is just amazing. The moment the movie starts you'll instantly find yourself in another world.

The movie is 3 hours long. But there are only a few times when you'll notice this. Most of the time, you just can't get enough and would want more.

I'm positive that this will be one of the 10 movies to be nominated for Best Picture during the Oscars. I'm a bit sad, because there goes 'District 9' & 'Star Trek' chances of nabbing a nomination. I don't think they'll allow more than one sci-fi movie among the nominees. But then, Avatar is a truly remarkable film. I think it should win the Best Picture race. The chances of a sci-fi film winning is rather slim though. But I'm still hopeful.

Inglourious Basterds

After months of waiting for this film to be released. We finally got to watch it last night. It was exclusively showing in Robinsons cinemas. A big "THANK YOU" to Robinsons Cinemas for allowing us to watch the film without cuts.

The film focuses on two plots to assasinate Adolf Hitler who's attending a premiere in a French Cinema. Both plots aren't related to one another. And the fact that they both end up in the French Cinema is purely coincidental. Though set in World War II. This isn't really a typical war film. As Tarantino describes it, it's a spaghetti western set during the war.

You may think that this movie is filled with a lot of action and violence. But there actually only a few minutes of action in the film. Those few minutes are of course awesome. But the movies strength lies more with the script and the interesting characters.

In a Tarantino film, no character is too small. It's amazing how he can show a character only a few minutes. But you'll end up remembering them for a long time. And there are a lot of memorable minor characters here. Such as Stiglitz, the German officer who finds thrills in killing other German officers. Lt, Archie Hicox, a British officer and former film critic who finds himself in a stand off against Major Hellstrom. Major Hellstrom himself is also another memorable character.

Mike Meyers appears briefly in the film as a British soldier. When I heard he was going to appear in the film. I really couldn't picture how he would fare. Mike Meyers in a Tarantino film doesn't seem to mix. But in the end, I think he did rather well.

The most memorable small character in this film would be that played by Eli Roth. The Bear Jew. I think he has one of the coolest character introduction of all time. He's in a tunnel and all you can hear is a baseball bat banging on the wall. The bang gets louder and louder as he comes closer. And when he finally emerges from the tunnel, he is all so sinister and blood thirsty. Though the thought of him bashing someones brain out is rather appalling. You're a little bit excited to see him do it.

The major characters in the film are amazing as well. French actress Melanie Laurent plays the part of Shosanna, a jew who was able to escape from the massacre of her entire family. She now owns a small theater and is presented with an opportunity to avenge her family's death and wipe out all the Nazi head officers.

Brad Pitt is the main star of this film. He plays Lt. Aldo Raine, the leader of the Basterds. Though it seems his screen time is a tad short for a lead. His few min on screen are just pleasant. Pitt has mastered speaking in hilarious southern accent. He speaks it so well that he still has it when he tries to speak Italian. It's one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

Christopher Waltz is labeled as a supporting actor. But he shines the most in this film. His performance gives us a classic villain. One for the ages. SS Officer Hans Landa, is a ruthless and highly intelligent officer. Scenes where he appears can drive chills to your spine for fear of what he may do. But the beauty in Waltz' performance is that he played Landa as a complete gentleman. In scenes where he appears, Landa is mostly gracious, polite and articulate. The fact that Waltz can play someone to be so charming and yet frightening is just brilliant. I think he'll definitely walk away with the Best Supporting Actor award during the Oscars.

Tarantino has a bizarre and unique way in making movies. His style of film is unique to him and I don't think can be imitated by anyone. I know some have tried and none have come close. Only he can end his movie with a rewrite in history and still pull it off. With Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino gives us his best work. The last line spoken by Aldo Raine in the movie accurately describes what the film is. It is his masterpiece.

New Moon

Here now is the second installment to the hugely popular Twilight saga. I have not read any of the books. And up until this movie, I had no intentions of reading it at all. Now I'm considering it. I didn't read any of the books so that I wouldn't feel disappointed with the movie. As with most movie adaptations of novels. The book is often better than the movie.

This movie somehow sparked my interest more in the saga. The first movie focused on Bella Swan and her relationship with hot vampire Edward Cullen and his vampire family. This movie expands our knowledge of the Twilight universe by focusing on werewolf Jacob Black and and his clan. Or should I say pack of wolves. Other than that, this movie also introduces us to the Volturi. They are the the leaders of the vampire race who are very fierce and very powerful.


This movie showed me why the books are very popular. The premise is quite interesting. And something to look forward to. At the end of the film, I actually wanted to know what happens next.

Though the story is nice and all. The dialogue isn't quite good. I know this isn't suppose to be Shakespeare or anything. But the conversations seemed rather plain to me. Plus the acting wasn't the best either. The young stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner have a lot of potential. But they still have a lot of growing to do in terms of acting. They should take the opportunity to learn from they're veteran co-stars Michael Sheen and, agree with me or not, Dakota Fanning. Among the young and relatively new cast however. One seems to shine in this film. Ashley Green has done a terrific job playing Alice. Her character is now one of the most interesting characters of this series.

From what I've heard. The book was rather boring. So I have to give credit to the filmmakers for making this movie exciting. Though a lot of improvements still need to be made. This movie has already greatly improved from the first one. And somehow, I have a feeling that the next movie would definitely be better than this one. Indeed the Twilight series is a very exciting saga to follow. It has made a follower out of me.

2012

From the director of Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow. Roland Emmerich gives us another film where he destroys the world in spectacular fashion. How does he destroy the world this time? Well, the world ends due to a massive solar flare caused by planet alignment, which in turn heats the earths core and causing crust displacement. This is supposedly has happened billions of years ago and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The ancient Mayans have predicted that it will happen again in the year 2012. I must say, I found this theory interesting and cool. And the movie did an excellent job of explaining it.

Though Roland Emmerich has proven that he's the best when it comes to the apocalypse. His act for story telling seems to have taken a step in the wrong direction. The movie feels like it tries too hard to find an excuse to be able to show you visually stunning sequence. But I think that was the intention all along. The film makers didn't set out to make a great film. I think they're goal was to give the audience a visual effects extravaganza. Which they did successfully. It's still to early to say. But I think this film will bag the visual effects & best sound editing Oscars next year. The special effects, regardless of what silly excuse they thought of to show you this, is a lot of fun & worth seeing.

This movie also features a terrific cast. I think the director has a talent for is choosing the right actors to star in his film. This film stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Jimi Mistry & Danny Glover. All pretty likable and talented actors. It's nice to see them in this type of film. And though some may disagree, I think they gave good performances and turned the characters they portray to be interesting ones.

To sum it up. This film is alright. It's a lot of fun as long as you don't pay too much attention to the plot.

Julie & Julia

Julie Powell(Amy Adams) is an aspiring writer who never caught a break. And thus she works as a call center customer care person for an insurance company. Not a pleasant job since you're getting nothing but complaints the whole day. At the end of a stressful day, she finds comfort in cooking. One day she decides to try cook every recipe written in the famous cook book 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' by Julia Child(Meryl Streep), and write a blog about it.

As we watch Julie go through every recipe, the movie also shows us the life of Julia Child when she was still living in Paris. A time when she was still learning to cook and beginning to write her cook book.

Though Julie & Julia live decades apart. They somewhat lived similar lives, and both found joy in cooking.

A lot of people may be able to relate to this movie. If you're the type who's stuck in a job that you do because you need to do it and not because you love it. And what thrills you in life are the stuff that you do when we get out of the office. Such us eat, cook, sports, movies, photography etc. Then this movie is for you.

If you can't relate to this movie. Well that's OK. It's is still worth seeing. The story, other than being true, is both inspiring and entertaining. The acting is of course top notch. Plus the food is just mouthwatering. After seeing this movie you may want eat up a feast and even want to learn how to cook. Brace yourselves. Diet's will be broken. I know mine was. :D

Red Cliff

I've been waiting for almost a year for this movie to be released here. And last night, I finally got to watch it.

It's a film about the battle of Red Cliff which occurred during the period of the Three Kingdoms in China. This period was the bloodiest period in the history of China.

Why am I so excited about a movie about this?

Well to begin with. This is the most expensive movie ever produced by China. And the most successful too. It beat Titanic as the highest grossing film in China.

Second, it features some of Asia's finest and brightest actors like Tony Leung(Lust, Caution), Takeshi Kaneshiro(House of Flying Daggers) and Zhao Wei(So Close).


And to top it off. This film is directed by John Woo. Bloody era plus masterful action director, equals a bloody historic action epic!

Well at least that's what I was expecting.

Red Cliff was originally released in China as two movies. Each with a length of about two hours. For the international audience, the two films where combined and about 90 minutes was trimmed off to form just one movie. And this is the version that we got to see.

I was dismayed a few minutes into the film. As it turns out. This version is dubbed in English. And the dubbing wasn't of good quality. Regardless of that, the film still turned out to be alright. It redeemed itself with the battle scenes. John Woo showing us why he one of the best action director in the world. He was able to show us the battle techniques and formations used in those days and still made it look cool.

This is not the best version of this film. But that says a lot. If a downgraded version of this movie came out rather good. Then just imagine just how much better the original version could be. I'm excited to find out.

The Young Victoria

Cza and I we're walking around Greenbelt 3 and stumbled upon Young Victoria which was exclusively showing there. I've always wanted to see a movie about Queen Victoria. So yeah, I asked Cza if we could watch, and I'm so glad she said yes.

I saw a trailer for this film about a week before and wasn't totally excited with seeing Emily Blunt in the title role. Don't get me wrong. I think she has a lot of talent. But playing a Queen, I had my doubts.

As we watched the movie, Emily Blunt proved me wrong. She pulled it off quite nicely. She played the young Queen as being fragile and like your typical teenage girl. But when the time came for her to be strong, she was.

This movie is a bit like Elizabeth. It's a movie about a young lady who ascends to the throne. Except that this one is a rather teen flick version of that film. As the title states, this is a movie about the Young Victoria. The film does focus Victoria's life and struggles before, during and after her coronation. But it also primarily focuses on her romance with Prince Albert, who was played excellently by Rupert Friend. In this movie, Prince Albert is a rather shy and lost for words kind of fellow. But eventually wins the heart of Victoria, finds his voice, and becoming the perfect match for Victoria in ruling the kingdom.

Queen Victoria's life is already a fascinating read in wikipedia. And this movie is about 90% accurate in depiction. So to put it quite simply, this movie is fascinating.

District 9

The movie is told as if you were watching a special on the Discovery channel. Your shown news footage's and interviews from experts about the aliens that landed in Johannesburg, South Africa(Finally! The aliens didn't land in America, "The only country aliens seem to land in" hehe ). The aliens, which are referred to as "prawns" because of their appearance, didn't come to conquer or wipe out the human race. Instead, they find themselves unable to go back to they're mother ship and is stuck in our planet. And in typical human fashion, the alien refugees are segregated and are all housed in government camp known as District 9.

Twenty years later, District 9 has turned into the slums. The government has decided to relocate the aliens to an area that's far away from Johannesburg which they've named District 10. As policy, in order to move the aliens, they must be served with relocation papers and sign them. And the man assigned with this task is a government worker named Wikus van de Merwe, who's also main character in this film. The trouble starts when Wikus serves the relocation papers to the aliens. At this point as well, the movie shifts from the news footage to the actual story concerning Wikus. This is also where the fun begins. Don't want to give away what happens next as not to spoil it, but it's fascinating.

No big names in this movie except for producer Peter Jackson. None of the actors are well-known which is why the films style works. The movie presents a different view of humans and aliens. The aliens have superior technology, higher intelligence and strength. But they are not an aggressive race. Primarily because their leaders died and they've got no one to lead them. The villains in this movie are us humans, who wants nothing more than to harness the alien technology. Indeed this is highly unique and awesome film. It's one of the best movies of the year. Go see it!

Time Travellers Wife, Up & GI Joe

The Time Travellers Wife

Didn't know anything about this movie going in. I think I only saw the trailer once. I prepared myself for a boring love story. But the movie is actually quite nice. The story was unique and could have been quite confusing if not told properly. But the film makers did a good job in telling it. And good job for stars Eric Bana & Rachel McAdams. They were able to properly convey to the audience what their characters were going through in their unusual circumstance. It's a nice story and good enough movie to watch.









Up

When you watch an animated movie. You expect some laughs, thrills and a lot of fun. But once in while, a cartoon can also make you cry. This is one of those type of cartoons. Best bring some tissue with you if your the type to cry easily. I nearly broke into tears myself. Luckily I was able to keep it together. Never has a cartoon made me cry since since Bambi's mom was killed.

Not to worry. Though their are some sad moments in this film. There are plenty of fun ones too. It's a very fun and heartwarming movie overall. We're planning to watch it again in 3D.

Oh and if your going to watch this. Do try to enter the cinema early. They're going to show a short animated film before they play Up. It's called 'Partly Cloudy'. It's something you shouldn't miss.


GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra


Ever since I heard they were going make this movie, I was excited for it but wasn't expecting it to be any good. The trailer didn't help lift my hopes up. When it came out, well as expected, certified critics and wanna-be-discussion-forum-critics aren't showing any love for it. But I on the other hand loved it.

This movie somehow brought back the child in me. When I used to watch this everyday when I came home from school. I was highly entertained with the simplicity of a team of heroes fighting a team of villains in an awesome action packed battle involving cool weapons and vehicles. This movie contains all those, and that's all I need to enjoy it. This movie is absolutely crap-tastic and I'm looking forward to a sequel.

The Lovely Bones Trailer

The trailer for the 'The Lovely Bones' is out. You can check out the trailer here.

I haven't seen the trailer yet though. I have to wait till I get home because they don't allow video streaming here in the office. I first got curious with this movie when I first read that Peter Jackson bought the rights to the novel and will direct the film. After reading that, I went to Powerbooks at the Greenbelt walkway and bought myself a copy of the novel. Since The Lord Of The Rings director liked the book enough to make a movie out of it. Then it must be an awesome book.

Unfortunately, I've only read half of the book. I got busy of all of a sudden and never found time to finish it. But based on what I've read. The story is rather interesting and it does seem to be nice. The movie comes out in December. Hence, I'm putting reading 'The Lovely Bones' back on top of my to do list.

Why so Sirius?

I've been wanting and saving up for a laptop for a while now. But expenses here and there always prevented me from buying one sooner. My plan was to get one in December no matter what. But last Saturday, Cza was going to buy one for herself and one for her brother. And so I just went and said 'oh the hell with it. i'm getting one too!'.

Let me introduce you to Sirius...

Why Sirius? Well I originally wanted to give it a girls name. But i think partly because Harry Potter is out in cinemas and that it's colored black. Somehow Sirius Black just seemed to be good name for it. And so I stuck with it.

This entry marks the first of hopefully many entries made with Sirius. It's by far the most exciting entry I've ever made. The picture above was uploaded using Sirius' card reader. We're not up to date with technology here at our house. Our current PC was hip during the stone age. So please have sympathy for me when I say that the card reader, is pretty damn AMAZING!.. hehehe

I like my new toy. Welcome Sirius!

Chilli's

This was a couple of weeks ago(July 1). Cza and I haven't been going out for dinner for quite some time because we were saving and dieting. So when an oppurtinity came up for us to have dinner at Chilli's in Greenbelt 5. I was overly excited!

Can't remember the names of the food or how much they cost. This night was just more of about having a nice enjoyable evening out with friends.

Here are pics from our evening at Chilli's.

Rex & Belle

Mango Shake

Can't remember the actual name of this dish.
I think it's Chicken w/ Shitake Mushrooms.
Take my word for it. This is GOOOOD!


Me & Cza

Cheese Steak Sandwich

Fish Fillet

Pork Chops

Cha, Rommel & Charles passed by at Chilli's

to say hello. Rommel took this pic. Our friend,

Allantonie, also joined us for dinner later on. I

wasn't able to take a picture of him though. hehe

Choco Lava Cake.

Treated to us by Allantonie.

Thanks Allan!

It just dawned on me, that I've eatin at Chilli's for quite a number of times. And each time I found myself totally satisfied. The food was always excellent. So way to go Chilli's! We'll definitely come back.

type type typin away..

it' s been a while since my last post. i think i have writers block. well mostly i'm just lazy too. i've seen a lot of movies after star trek. i wanted to make an entry about them but couldn't find the strength or words to describe them.. i have a lot of unfinished entries too. such as the rest of our hong kong trip, our boracay trip, food trips, movies, my birthday etc.. not sure why but i just can't seem to to bring myself to type further after i've typed the title.... back in college i read that thte best way to get over writers block is to simply just type. it's also the tip that sean connery gives his student in the movie finding forrester... "ust write. don't think. just write. don' worry about spelling, grammar or anything else.. just write.. you can fix it later".. well that's not how he said it verbatim.. but something like that.. that's basically the point of this entry. hehehe.. just me writing down my thoughts.. typing down whatever comes to mind. it's not as easy as it seems.. it's a loty of fun sure. but the thing is. i have a lot of thoughts that are coming into mymind. and i'm a slow typer. so by the time i get to type a single thought. about 4 thoughts have already come and gone. never to be typed. because my thoughts move faster than my typing speed. howell.. so again.. this is just me. free writing.. if your wondering where im heading with this. well, basically nowhere. hehehehe. just wanted to try something. give it a try. it's actualy fun. no need to worry about proer punctuation, spelling and grammar.. just type.. it's actually quite liberating. hehehe..

Farewell to Issabil...

Issabil, a very good friend of mine for 10 years. He started out as our entire family's friend. But eventually became solely mine. We've been through a lot together. He was a big help when we were working on our thesis during college. He was there when I graduated. He was there when I got my first, second and third job. He was there for all my ups and downs for the past ten years.

Together we've gathered our friends for nights out of the town. Together we've gone to places here in the Philippines such as Boracay, Cebu, Bohol, Baguio etc. Together we've gone to places out of the country such as The US, Singapore, Malaysia, London & Madrid. He was there for all of my out of country trips except for Hong Kong where he roamed somewhere else.

Together we've sent about a million Valentines, Birthdays, Christmas & New Years greetings to friends & family. And together we've sent and received about a million "I Love You Dear" messages.

+63917-ISSABIL

1999 - 2009

And now, I have a new number and new memories to make. I hope this new number of mine last as long as Issabil and even longer.. :D

Star Trek

I'm not a die hard Trekkie, but this is one of the movies this year that I was most excited to see. I'm fascinated with Star Trek and all but never fully become a fan. The previous Star Trek movies that I've seen, I found rather OK. But They never blew me away. I always felt they lacked action and wished they were more exciting. Now comes this new movie directed by JJ Abrams and well, I finally got to see the type of Star Trek film I hoped to see.

This is the most exciting Star Trek movie that I've seen. I'm not sure if the original fans would be happy with this one though. I think this version moves away from the original concept that made Star Trek popular. But from the stand point of a non-hardcore fanatic, I found this movie brilliantly amazing. If your not a fan of Star Trek. You may become one after you watch this.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The summer blockbuster movies are here. Kicking things off is X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Since this is the first summer blockbuster of the year to come out. I took it upon myself to gather everyone to watch it. I sent out an email to my friends, reserved seats for us through sureseats and we watched it on the very first day it was released.

Though it may not seem like it, I was only semi excited for this film. I like Wolverine and Hugh Jackman and all. But after the huge let down that is X-Men: The Last Stand. I felt that the X-Men movies are on their way down. And besides, last years The Dark Knight pretty much set the bar way high for super hero movies. There's no way Wolverine can match Batman.

After seeing the movie. Well I could say that this is better than X-Men: The Last Stand. The action sequences is quite impressive. I wasn't familiar with directors(Gavin Hood) previous work. I knew he directed Tsotsi, which I've heards is a good movie. I've never really seen it but based on his work on this movie, I may have to find myself a DVD of it.

Going back, the action in this movie, as I've said is impressive. And there's a lot of it too. The opening sequence alone features Wolverine and his half-brother Sabretooth fighting in the Civil War, the two World Wars and Vietnam. It's never really explained though why two Canadians keep fighting in each war the US is involved in. I guess it's to show how old they are and just how much of a beast they can be.

The entire movie can be best describe that way. It's one action sequence to another. Each scene in between just tries to set you up for the next action scene. It does a good job, however, of introducing new mutant characters and their abilities. Ryan Reynolds appears briefly in the film as Deadpool. He has a short action scene which may lead to spin off movie of his own. Comic book fans will also be thrilled that Gambit is also in this movie. Taylor kitsch did a good job playing him and his powers and abilities are nicely depicted in the movie.

To sum it up, the main plot of the movie isn't really something to look forward to. But the action, the mutants and the actors playing them are a good enough reason to come and see this movie.

I'm a freak..

alright.. i'm gonna finally admit it to everyone and more importantly to myself.. i am a Naruto FREAK!..

naruto isn't really something new. it's been around for some time now. i've heard of it, but only got introduced to their world last year. i was able to obtain a copy of the Naruto Ultimate Ninja heroes game for my psp. i played it and liked it. as i played more and more of got i slowly got curious with each of the playable characters.

anyway, that led me to buy a DVD of all the Naruto Anime Episodes. and wow! i am totally hooked! :D.. when i start watching the dvd, i struggle to stop. i can't wait to see what happens in the next episode.

in my defense, this isn't really the first time i got hooked to an anime series. i got previously hooked to samurai X, gundam seed, yu yu hakusho(ghost fighter), chobits & flame of recca. so this might just be another craze which will eventually run it's course. but honestly i hope it doesn't. hehehehe

Boracay 09 (sneak peek)

It's been a while since my last post. A lot has happened since then. I spent holy week at the Mountain Province with Cza and her family. And just last week I was at Boracay. A lot of things to blog with so little time. hehehehe

When I get the chance, I'll try to complete my posts on our Hong Kong Trip and our trip to the Mountain Province.

But for now let me just share with you some pics from our Bora trip.










More to come.. =)

Hong Kong - Day 1

More than a week has passed since we got back from Hong Kong. When you go away for a vacation, what awaits you when you get back is a ton of work. I had to catch up on work which is why I haven't gotten around to posting anything about our highly enjoyable Hong Kong & Macau trip. And yeah, I was feeling lazy too.

Date: 03-18-2007, Wednesday
The day of our much awaited and well planned Hong Kong-Macau trip has finally arrived. We met up at the airport around 6am, checked in our baggage, paid an enormous travel tax(P2000! it's a robbery!), went through immigration, grabbed a quick bite, boarded the plane around 7:30 and was off the ground by 8:15.

We arrived at the Hong Kong airport at around 10am. We met up with Pete and Aims there who were coming from Singapore. From the airport, we needed to go to the Dragon Hostel in Mong Kok, where we were going to stay. To get there we took the A21 bus and got off at the corner of Nathan Rd and Argyle St. The Hostel is located about a block away from the bus stop.

This here is the only picture of
the Dragon Hostel that
I have.. hehehe

After checking in and leaving our baggage at Dragon Hostel, we proceeded to grab something to eat. We were really hungry and time was precious. So we ended up eating at McDonald's.

On top of our itinerary for the day was a trip to Ngong Ping and see the Giant Buddha. So after eating it was off to Mong Kok Train Station.

To get to Ngong Ping, we rode the train and got off Tung Chung station.

Upon exiting the Tung Chung train station, you'll immediately see the Citygate mall. This is number two on our days itinerary. So more on this later.




Now comes the exciting part in going to Ngong Ping. In order to get there, we get to ride on a Cable Car.

Staircase heading to the Cable Cars
which welcomes you in
various languages.

In front of the Cable Car ticket Booth.

The Sanity Keepers

Eliza & Cza

Aims & Pete

Sean & Kai

My Dear admiring the view..
and by view I mean ME, the dashing photographer..
bwahahahahaha.. =p

Cable Car view of The Giant Buddha

Ngong Ping Cable Car... duh!

We have arrived at Ngong Ping. We took a little walk at Ngong Ping village to try and get closer to the Giant Buddha.





This is the closest we got to the Giant Buddha. We would have gone further. But it was hot and we were tired of walking. Plus, next on our itinerary was to do some shopping at Citygate. We definitely need more time and energy for that.

And so ends our journey to Ngong Ping. We waved goodbye to the Giant Buddha and headed back the same way we came.


Here we are again at Citygate. If you happen to be in Hong Kong and is looking to do some shopping. You should definitely come here. Items are sold at 50% off and above. I never intended to do any shopping in Hong Kong. My sole purpose for our trip was just to do some site seeing. But I ended up buying myself a couple of Giordano jeans for P600 a piece.

We didn't take any pictures inside Citygate. Everyone was busy shopping. We also had early dinner at the food court here. Cza & I ate some noodle soup. The food court is really nice. But again, no pictures because at this point we were so hungry. Nothing on our minds except food.

After we've filled our tummies. We rushed back to Tung Chung station to get to our last destination for the day, the Avenue of Stars. We needed to get there by 7:30pm so that we could watch the Symphony of Lights. And so we got on the train and got off at Central Station. From there we briskly walked to the Avenue Of Stars. We got there just in the nick of time. The Symphony of lights had just started.

The lights show was really nice. I was able to capture a bit of it on video. It's not too good however. But you can watch it here if you want.

After the light show we walked around the avenue of stars and, what else, took more pictures.













The one thing I was determined to get here in the Avenue of Stars was a picture in front Bruce Lee's statue. And sure enough, we were able to find it and get a picture.



After this we just headed back to the Dragon Hostel and called it a nght. It was a long, tiring and highly enjoyable first day in Hong Kong.

More of our Day 1 pics here.