Being part of
the ICC family as a part time instructor, I was invited to join their yearly
educational trip. This is to give the employees basically the teachers a break
from their tiring work. The trip has been their tradition every end of the 1st
semester and before the start of 2nd semester to show appreciation
for the work they did and the dedication they have shown to the school. This is
the time when teachers and administrative employees are brought together for
them to bond, to explore, to experience the culture of other places, to relax,
to share, and to give themselves a moment of realization and to appreciate the wonders
of the world.
The exploration
began on the 20th and ended on 23rd of October 2014.
From Hongkong
International Airport, we dropped our things at Panda Hotel then headed straight
to Hongkong Ferry Terminal. Using their Cotai Water Jet, we reached the Macau
Ferry Terminal after almost ½ hours of travel.
From Ferry
Terminal, we went to Metro Park Hotel to enjoy their buffet lunch. Here we
tasted a lot of dish and other delicacies a.k.a “Lutong Macau”.
Filipinos are
known to be fond of eating and having “pasalubong” for their loved ones,
relatives, friends, officemates and co-teachers left in the Philippines; that’s
why Elsa, our tour guide brought us to “Pastelapia ou mun lou benka”. Here we enjoyed free taste of sweets and a
little strip of Peking duck.
Next Stop…
Taoism Temple. According to Elsa, it is
one of the oldest temples in Macau. Inside the temple are different figures of
Buddha for different prayers/needs of the people. The visitors can light
incense and offer their prayer to Buddha. Elsa’s joke here is that the workers
inside the temple are suffering from tuberculosis since they smell a lot of
smoke from lighted incense every day.
From temple to Catholic
church, the Ruins of St. Paul refer to the facade of what was originally
the church of Mater Dei. All establishments that were destroyed by previous
calamities in Macau were re-established by the government except for Ruins of
St. Paul since it is beautifully and magically retained in place even after the
calamities.
Macau is known
to have a lot of casinos, world known casinos and one of them is The
Venetian. I was amazed by the architecture of this structure. Inside it
you'll see relaxing blue skies as if you
are in an open air place that was just surrounded by shops, buildings, etc. It was awesome. I also tried to enter their
casino where I saw how people were crazy playing cards, betting , winning but
most of the time losing their money.
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The Venetian Photo by Gale
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During our visit
in Macau we were also attracted to these beautiful creations of mind and heart.
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| Kun-Lam Statue. A blend of Chinese Guan Yin and Catholics' Virgin Mary Photo by Gale |
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| The busy street of Macau.
The main road has only two lanes (one for each traffic flow) which is very narrow. Photo by Gale |
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Macau Tower. A 338-meter tower above ground with
61 floors and where people can
enjoy bungee jumping.
Photo by Gale
|
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The Grand Lisboa
Hotel.
One of the expensive hotels in Macau
Photo by Gale
|
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| The Sai Van Bridge in Macau Photo by Gale |
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| The Galaxy.
The most dazzling architectural masterpiece in Cotai, Macau. Photo by Gale |
We spent our Day
2 in Hong Kong. It is much larger than Macau and the country has high rise
buildings since the country does not experience earthquake having no fault
line.
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| The IFC Tower Photo by Gale |
Our first stop
in our Hongkong City tour was the Avenue of the Stars. They built the
spot to recognize their world known star like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet
Li.
We also visited
TSL Jewelry factory where we were oriented on how the jewelleries were being
made from the outlining/designing up to finishing touch. The tourists like us
enjoyed the different designs of jewelleries and astounded by their prices. One
of the jewelleries there has a cost of 1.4 million HK dollars, a cost of my
mother's dream house and my car.
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| Ms. Jessica Rival inside the TSL Jewelry Shop Photo by Gale |
Like in the
Philippines where one of the main sources of income of the lower class Pinoys is
fishing, in Hong Kong almost all the fishermen are located in
Abeerdeen Fishing Village. However, according to Randy, our tour guide,
the number of fishermen became lower and lower throughout the year because
their children wanted to go to school and become professionals and leave their
place.
After our city
tour, we headed to Disney Land. On our
way, we are amazed by the high rise building in the middle of the mountain,
this place is called the Victoria Peak, where upper class
citizens live.
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| The Victoria Peak Photo by Gale |
After almost an
hour of travel from the city, we were finally at Disney Land, the place where
everybody is waiting. The best part in any Hong Kong trip is the Disney Land
Adventure, the land of Disney characters where Mickey Mouse is the leading man.
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ICC Employees in
Disney land Arc Photo by Gale
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It's never too
late to be a kid again. We enjoyed here
different rides like Stitch Encounter, Small World, Winnie the Pooh, RC racer,
Jungle River Cruise , Toy Soldier Parachute Drop and the Space Mountain.
Unlike in
Universal Studios, where I just rode simple rides, here in Disney Land, I tried
more extreme activities. These rides made
me shout to the top of my lungs, made my world turn upside down, and made my
heart pound like a time bomb. (1) The RC racer. It was so thrilling, a
gravity defying race, speeding back and forth on a soaring U-shape track. (2)
The Toy
Soldier Parachute Drop. It dropped me from the skies like a toy soldier
in a parachute training drill. (3)The Space Mountain. A thrilling
high-speed journey to the far reaches of the universe and back on the
interstellar roller coaster.
We also enjoyed
the Mickey's
Philharmagic show where we immersed ourselves in a magical 3-D
adventure and a Festival of Lion King. It was a spectacular stage play.
You missed half
of your visit to the land of Disney, if you did not encounter the Disney
Characters parade where your favorite character were walking, dancing, singing
and interacting in front of you while in their glamorous and kaleidoscopic
lighted float.
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Disney land
Parade Photo by Gale
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The fantasy ended
with breathtaking fireworks display.
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Disney land Arc
Photo by Gale
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To complete the
package, the educational trip brought us to Shenzhen China.
Our first stop
here was the Jade Jewelry Shop, here I learned that Jade is not only a green
colored stone but it also has other colors like violet and light orange and it
comes in different designs and grades.
China is also
well known for their bamboo products, that's why we also visited one of their
bamboo shops where they introduced different products like massage kit,
wardrobe, underwear, kitchen utensils/garments, etc.
One of the main
attraction in Shenzhen is the Windows of the World where in vivid
replicas of the worlds' wonder, historical heritages and famous scenic sites are
situated.
The visit will
not be complete of we missed to taste
their delicacies like Peking Duck and Pigeon in some sort of dishes.
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The restaurant
where we ate our lunch Photo by Gale
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In Shenzhen, I
noticed that people are not that hospitable unlike Filipinos in serving food to
their customer. Well it's their culture
whether we like it or not, we shall respect each other's ways.
Want fresh air
and a place you can ride a bike while enjoying the view of the lake? Shenzhen
offers you the Oct Harbour.
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Tourist enjoying
her bicycle ride photo by Gale
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Ms Khai, Ms.Nes
and Ms. Grachel enjoying their walk in Oct Harbour photo by Gale
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The 2nd to the
last station of our visit was the Shenzhen Museum, where we learned a
lot of things from their origin, traditions, products, etc. This is the best
place to go to if you want to learn more about Chinese.
Shenzhen also
offers the Divisoria lookalike shopping center where cheap items can be found. When we were dropped off here by Amy, our tour
guide, we were warned to be aware of pickpockets.
After shopping,
we headed to our hotel, and we also walked on the street along it. I felt like I a blind person because the
establishments’ and streets’ names are all written in Chinese characters and no
translation. You can also barely find people who can understand and speak English.
At night and in
the following day, I and my newly met friends just enjoyed what the hotel had
to offer, the TV shows that we found amusing because of the translation made by
Tin, the shower that freshened us up, the bed that eased our tiring body.
It was great to
end the adventure with newly met friends, new learning and a wonderful
experience that I would treasure.
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| ICC Employees in Panda Hotel Photo by Gale |
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