It starts with a dream, a wishful thinking, a sense of adventure, and before you know it, everything start to unravel itself. Who would have thought that a vague idea of traveling abroad hatched among us friends would actually come true nine months later? I don't know with my friends but for me, I was really pervently hoping that we could pursue this dream for a number of reasons.
First of all, I need to have a sense of fulfillment, afterall, this would be my second last vacation before being confined to my responsibilities. Yes, I would like to count my chickens before they hatch by saying that come April 1, 2009, I would already be starting my duties as a medical clerk in the hospital. Unfortunately, this is not an april fool's joke. I have already resigned myself to round-the-clock medical environment, meaning, that by then, I would be giving up all activities, hobbies, socializations totally unrelated to medicine. Unlike now, I can still step out of this path every friday night and saturday where I would not study or do my assignments even if I have to cram overtime on sunday. This is my principle, and helps me get through the week's stress. So, knowing that for the next year, I would be confined to the hospital, I decided to have my fun ahead, even if it means I have to do it alone, because I know my friends are somewhat pessimistic with the idea. They don't really trust us to be able to achieve this goal.
Second, I know I have enough savings for this trip. What's the purpose of all those times I had been such a miser? Maybe I'm just really a "wise-spender" or not really interested in shopping, or unable to find anything interesting to buy but the fact remains that I had been relatively thrifty with my allowance in the past year. What's the use if I'm not going to spend it in anything worthwhile? Afterall, it's just money. I won't be able to bring it in the afterlife. And there's really no better time to do this than now.
So, I muster up my energy to convince my friends to really see this through. This is my only opportunity before my realities of being a doctor sets in. I kept reminding them to buy tickets and finding accommodations in the internet. I have set my mind to this. I can't bear the heartache if this trip didn't push through.
I know that God is really good. Despite the obstacles (primarily the lack of finances, then Esmot's mom hospitalized, then getting off from work) finally, we were able to have a clear shot of this once-upon-a-time dream of ours. On October 22, Mitzi, Loren and I flew to Manila and met with Joy Myrn there. At around 12 AM October 23, Alaine arrived at the HongKong Airport from Japan. By 5:40 AM on that same day, the four of us in the Philippines (me, Mitzi, Loren plus Joy) stepped on the plane that would take us to Hong Kong in two hours. By 9:40 AM, Esmot, after 14 hours in the air, coming from California finally arrived in Hong Kong.
And that's how, after 6 years, the six of us were finally reunited whole, in a foreign soil, and had the time of our lives....so far.
PS. This is only the beginning of what could be a tradition in the making.
This is on the bus A21 to our stop, the 6th, Mongkok. Even on the way to downtown Kowloon, we're already exhausting our cameras. Little did we know we'd have problems recharging. They have weird sockets. (By weird, I mean different from what we're used to here. And who can blame us? We are consumed by our excitement!)
Know what these tall buildings are? Residential buildings, probably housing thousands of apartments. You know a place is really heavily populated when they have buildings like these. (The most that can fit in my camera. That's not including the other buildings along the sides, and those that are still in the construction works. Do the math!)
I don't know what they call this bridge, it's definitely a long one. We got this picture while we were on the bus A21 from the airport to Mongkok. (I think we passed this way on our way back, from Mongkok to the Airport)
"Itadakimasu!" My first time to eat roast duck. (Honto ni oishii desu!). Good thing I practiced using chopsticks when I was younger. I knew it would come in handy someday.
The busy streets of Hong Kong. I've been to many places but not this densely populated, so I was amazed that their pedestrian crossing actually encompasses the entire intersection. And the people are kind-of psychic--they can tell that the lights are changing to green about 5 seconds before it actually did. (Hmm, there's a red sun by the horizon unfortunately my cam wasn't able to capture it unless zoomed in)
