Wishing all my friends and family Happy TIGER New Year! 祝福我所有的家人和朋友虎年行好运！：）

Hong Kong 香港之旅 [3] – Lamma Island 南丫岛

Simply paradise! Lamma Island is the highlight of my trip to Hong Kong.

Lamma Island 南丫岛 is a small tourist island south-west of Hong Kong Island, 40 minutes speed boat ride from Star Ferry Terminal to Lamma Island Yung Shue Wan Main Street. Welcoming you to the island is a small terminal with lines of bicycle – the main transportation mode on the island. But, I was more captivated by its bright blue sky! So hard to see blue sky in Hong Kong.

Here’s my personal list of must-do in Lamma Island:

• Savour the unique atmosphere at the roll of seafood shops at both Yung Shue Wan 榕树湾 and Sok Kwu Wan 索罟灣， tables donned the classic red-white or blue-white square cloth, very European look
• Visit this little souvenir shop call “The Scarecrow 稻草人”, love the dainty handcrafted nick knack (perfect souvenir) and their motto “暂且抛开烦恼事，细味岛上悠闲天”
• Have lunch at the Bookworm Cafe 南岛书虫， the most delicious organic food I’ve ever tried.
• Visit the century old Tian Hou Temple 天后古庙, where the lions in front of the temple are carved in Western style instead of Eastern style
• Take a rest at Hung Shing Yeh Beach 洪圣爷海滩, the famous beach in most Hong Kong soup dramas
• Walk the trail across Lamma Island to Sok Kwu Wan 索罟灣 (1.5 hours of up and down hills)

Sounds like a lot to for a day trip right? It is. We should have stay the night and enjoy the lay-back lifestyle of the island. It is so different from metropolis Hong Kong, there is no shopping mall, no rush, no crowd. Definitely the place to go for a short getaway. Shall I entice you further with photos?

Tiger Woohoo! 舞虎大日子!

真的有舞虎这种文化吗？上谷歌找找看，真的有哦！而且还是客家人的文化。*不好意思* 本身是客家人，却从来都没听过舞虎， 也从来没有看过舞虎。

暂且不谈舞虎的文化历史，而是谈今年以舞虎为故事背景的马来西亚第一部土产的华人新年贺岁片 – 大日子。从1月14日上映至今，票房破了两百六十万马币，可是马来西亚史上票房最高的本地中文电影。

那么这部电影成功在哪里呢？

• 大卡士？
• 好剧本？
• 够宣传？

是否达到这所有条件就能打造一部成功的电影呢？答案是未必。但这部电影却是一个成功的列子。

大卡士

电影里的所有演员， 不是好莱坞或中港台的明星偶像，而是我们马来西亚华人观众眼熟耳熟的风云角色，特别是阿Beng， 更是我们每天上班赛车的搞笑良伴。 这些都是都是为本土华人传媒娱乐业打拼的人。

好剧本

故事够简单，够老套！故事就只有一条线 – 互不相干的人物因不同的因素聚在一起，莫名的挑起传承文化和一村人的命运的大使命，经过波波折折从一而终，从中学习做人的道理。再加上搞笑成分和刚刚好的小插曲，岂不是一个成功的最好方程式？够商业但不失亲切。

够宣传

我看应该没有哪一部电影能不计成本，有24小时全天候的不断宣传了。

然，我觉得这部电影成功的主要原因是我们已经等了这样的一部中文电影太久了！我们需要一部我们能看得明白但却不乏深度的本土中文电影，而不是摸不着脑的独立电影。不要忘了娱乐就是让观众买笑哦！

整部电影印象最深刻的有两场戏：

• 村长的儿子Alan （或Peter或。。）所说的一句话： “不同的名字用在不同的身份。”说明了人生如戏呀！在扮演不同的角色时，就用不同的名字，这样就容易辨认得了。然，有时候我们却被自己的多重身份给混淆了，什么时候才是真正的自己呢？幸好Alan 最终找回自己，我希望其余的我们也快快的认清方向，找回自己。

• 小女孩把安全枕和私房钱给了Rain, 流着眼泪求他们不要走。连一个小女孩都懂的道理，怎么我们大人却不能？这一幕我泪如雨下。

本土中文电影，继续加油，我期待下一部好作！

Hong Kong 香港之旅 [2]– Lantau Island 360 大屿山 360

Tourism can really change a place.

My first knowledge of Lantau Island are from Hong Kong soup dramas, where the mothers or grandmothers will said, “这几天去大屿山吃斋。” (Going to Lantau Island to pray for a few days). It meant two things:

1. Lantau Island is far (that’s why it takes a few days)
2. Lantau Island has a very respected temple – 宝莲禅寺（Po Lin Monastery)

Then, Lantau Island has an additional attraction, the 天坛大佛 Big Buddha which attracted not only believers, but tourists alike to this holy site. With further improvements in transportation where the MRT reached 东涌 Tung Chung， visitors have increased many folds, including myself. We no longer need to rely only on boat to get to Lantau Island, in its place is an hour-long metro train ride from Hong Kong Island at the speed of 80km/hour. Although we still have to endure the hour-long bus ride, that’s the fun of anticipation.

In our second trip to Hong Kong, we’ve returned to Lantau Island, because it has added another attraction – Ngong Ping 360. When we came in 2005, it was in the midst of construction, in which the whole process was recorded in Discovery Channel documentary. I was truly fascinated with the difficulties and ingenuity of construction through the steep hilly terrain.

However, at the same time I was truly disappointed, the cable car has changed the face of Lantau Island forever, it had turned it into a commercial tourist spot just like every other tourist spot. I can understand it from a commercial point of view to recover the huge cost of constructions, it does drawn in a huge number of tourists, but Lantau Island has lost its identify forever and generations of memories are gone!

To add “insult” to injury, the opening of branded outlet stores at Tung Chung Mall has given people more reasons to go to Lantau Island.

Next time when I go to Lantau Island, it’ll be because of the outlets mall.

Hong Kong 香港之旅 [1] – Yuen Long 元朗

In our second holiday trip to Hong Kong, we’ve decided to venture out from the metropolis areas, we wanted to see a different side of Hong Kong instead of the hustle and bustle which often characterized a big city.

Our first stop is 元朗 Yuen Long, situated at the west corner of 新界 New Territories. It is about an hour bus ride away from central Kowloon, by any standard, is considered a remote area. When you said “remote”, I was expecting a kampung (village). But by Hong Kong standard, remote is still a very populous suburb with nearly 1/2 million residents, it is nonetheless a bustling township. With well connected public transportation, it is definitely not remote at all, at least to me.

Yuen Long is a very old township, it is mainly divided into the new town and old town. The old town maintain early settler housing which is much more spacious with traditional doorway, arches, temples. Residents organized themselves into village mainly by dialect.

Being a local producer of fresh food, the street market is a must go, you can find anything from fresh meat, seafood, fruits, vegetable, bakery, sundry shops and flowers. Seeing all these food made me excited! (sign of growing old ;p)

Of course, any vacation will not be complete without food. We went to 2 famous must try in Yuen Long: 好到底面家 and 佳记甜品 for their famous noodles and deserts. I’m rather surprised to find Durian on their menu and even more surprised that Hong Kong people has embraced Durian as a favourite.

Walking on the streets of Yuen Long made me forgot that I’m in Hong Kong, as many people speak Hakka, my own dialect, as many Hakka live in Yuen Long. Also, Yuen Long is also known as a migrant town as it is near to factories where migrant workers found work.

The only thing we didn’t do at Yuen Long is to visit its many fish ponds and farms, as well as Hakka village. Leave it for next time.

Them 他們

In December 2009, the Malaysia government unveiled the 1Malaysia Trans­forma­tion Roadmap to transform 6 government agencies in a public forum and exhibited it over 3 days to garner public opinion and feedback. It has attracted wide interests.

To my memory, this is the first time ever the government had made transparent plans for such transformation and attracted thousands of visitors to their exhibitions and contributed much feedback. The media also had a field day interviewing the public and definitely not forgetting what the opposition parties had to say.

True to their style, the opposition parties are neither praising nor condemning such effort, but they took a “by-stander” approach. One of the opposition leader said “I hope THEY will follow through and ensure that all these transformation action plans are executed.”

Talking in the third person term makes everything very impersonal, doesn’t it?

• It’s THEM who made the mistakes…
• We need to ensure THEY follow through with the plan to implementation
• It’s THEIR ideas…
  

Sounds familiar?
When we talk in the third person terms, it seemed that we have separated ourselves from others and make ourselves righteous and untouchable. Isn’t it strange?

When do we learn that we are also part of the problem or the solution?
Why must it be that they are the one who made the mistakes? Are we not to blame for the mistakes and take part of the responsibilities?
Why must it be them to complete the task? Shouldn’t we be pro-active and assist in ensuring all are done according to the highest standard and quality?

Years ago, I worked for an organization who had a very interesting project, call “Blame Me” project. The objective of the project was to urge everyone involved that they can MAKE A DIFFERENT if they really wanted to get down and dirty. As a result, people who were involved had much greater successes and produced much higher quality of work, because they took responsibilities. So I had became my motto – Blame me first before blame anyone else, because I could have done something to make things right.

The opposition parties had forgotten they are now the “government”, at least for 3 states, and have more parliamentary seats as they ever had in Malaysian political history. They have waited a lifetime for this opportunity, and the time is now! So I strongly urge them not to stay outside the circle, but rather pro-actively include themselves in the circle and make a positive impact. Remembered those who had voted for them, for us the people has taken upon ourselves to make a different in Malaysia.