scarying ourselves silly (31 Oct)

Alright so today was quiite a pretty packed day. I had work, was given an early leave so that I could make my swift way to our hideout for the weekend! Haha Ruiming could leave early and Peter had a press conference that ended early. So we were all off work by 4pm :)

So, if you don't know yet, Ruiming clinched the role of doing a service apartment review for the magazine. And we other two freeloaders, ok fine me, were allowed by their boss to stay at the place for two nights (Friday and Saturday). Exciting it was! :)

Behold, we were let in to stay for that very expensive HK$115, 000-per-night stay at the Penthouse on the 19th floor of The V Service Apartments at Causeway Bay.

I can actually imagine how smug and cynical the admin staff are everytime they see us three wander into the lifts or see us at the doors. Wondering how on earth does a young boy and his friend be reviewers of this penthouse. Haha

As you know rooms in HK are tiny compared to most places. So on this floor, there is probably only max 3-4 rooms. The narrow corridor has textured white walls, carpeted and has an air freshener as well.

Like most service apartments and hotels, the rooms have a card that you need to scan so that you can get in. Ruiming usually needs a few tries to get the thing right!

It is rather exciting to be staying at a Penthouse for FREE, especially when it's starkly different from the -ahem- place we are staying currently. So please pardon the (over)enthusiasm ok? Haha as Ruiming described it, the experience was "wonderfully awesome" and telling his boss that the place was like a "palace" haha

Oh yes please be aware that there are many pictures with Ruiming in it, cos he insists that the place should look like his, since he's the reviewer anyway. But pay attention to the surroundings, other than him.

The living room, which faces a plasma TV.

Kitchen on the left that is really quite narrow but it holds many many many things: stove, fridge, microwave, washing machine, toaster, blender, knife stand and many utensils, crockery and even wine glasses - all to sustain a party of at least 10. Oh i did think that it would be nice if they had some stylish hooks or bar to hold a hand towel, which couldn't be hung anywhere.

The apartment has two rooms. Both overlooking the roads. All rooms, including the living room has a Samsung plasma TV and a DVD player. Oh and a remote controller to control the window blinds.

Peter took hold of this room, which has some faux fur throw over the bed and has a vanity table. So it's obviously equipped for a girl, but he took it anyway!

This was the other room which we had to take in the end. See how Ruiming has already thrown his items on the bed. Tsk! Haha. This room has a sliding panel that adorns the plasma TV and hides the cupboards behind them. Foldable ironing board, iron and hangers are found inside them. A book or two is always placed in the rooms, magazines out in the living room as well.

Walking beyond the kitchen corner is the dining area, which is furnished with an Bang & Olufsen sound system that actually can be controlled even when not within usual 'range'.

Next to the dining area is actually the toilet. Which is rather big for a small pad like this.

A bathtub with a very interesting though tricky shower system - which we all had to take some time to figure out. We had to check if there was an instruction manuel and also check with the manager how it worked!

Oops sorry dad, forgot to take the sink area for you. But the toilet is furnished with some plants and a waterproof plasma TV as well, in front of the loo. It has a heated rack that allows the towels to be heated up and complimentary bath items were from L'Occitane. Thought that a nice touch would be to put a hand soap somewhere.

Well in between the dining area and the kitchen, there's a little narrow staircase that leads upstairs to an open-air roof louge area! It doubles up as a skylight so morning the light really fills up the dark room. Pretty! A great deal of time (still less than we wish) was spent at the roof top the next day ;)

The view from the stairs down: left shows the dining area, right is the counter of the kitchenette.

They also gave complimentary wine and a bag of 'munchies' - Pepperidge Farm Soft Chunky chocolate chip cookies, a carton of skimmed milk, bottle of orange juice, cereal, tea and coffee bags, instant noodles too. Well, by the time I came back to meet them at the pad, they already finished some.

So anyway, back to our next adventure for the day: Ocean Park Halloween Bash, which we were planning to dress up for quite a while already. And thanks to awfully generous Aunty Lay Hwa who bought us the tickets and refused to take my payment! We went to work looking like this:

Which we after that changed into this (ok boots not shown here):

I'm suppose to be the cowgirl - since I have the shirt, denim and the boots; all i needed was a hat which I managed to get from Mongkok for HK$28. Ruiming is suppose to be a comic hero, The Question - who has no face. Peter was super excited to be The Joker, then he kinda backed out during the week thinking of the makeup and the purple gear. So he's more like Zorro/Batman? with my fedora hat from the Rat race.

Ocean Park was decorated massively with loads of eerie shadows, sound boxes that emit baby laughter and screamings, mist, and loads of decoration. I didnt manage to really take as many pictures as I wished really cos it was pretty dark and pictures in the haunted houses weren't allowed. Well, I was too jumpy to take pictures in the haunted houses anyway!

See the eerie red glow and shadow? Ya it is like that in the WHOLE of the park. It was really quite creepy, though the trodding around in the black heeled boots caused me more distraction with the sore than the scare.

They still have their usual triller rides but we only took the Dragon (super crazy rollercoaster that got me gripping the harness cos the cart goes UPSIDE DOWN as well) and the Viking. Queues for EVERYWHERE were long and while there was the trill, there was that fear to be flung out too and encouraged the guys to go if they wanted to cos I didnt!

This is an example of a queue. Yes, A queue.
And what you see here is just maybe one-eighth of the line.

I have to say though that their haunted houses were pretty up to standard. Ok maybe cos I caaaan be easily jumpy but still, I thought it was really not bad. The props, the decoration, the employees all dressed and made up to scare the people were really impressive (though frightening). There were haunted houses such as Gruesome Greenhouse, Canton Case, Nightmares of the Bamboo Theatre and The Deadly Doll Factory.

I admit, that I had to grip Ruiming's hand while Peter jumps about in the front being scared. Ok haunted houses just needs to be gone with people who are less scared (or show it less).

Haha though I noticed that cos of Ruiming's face, many of the employees were more intrigued and puzzled by his costume. Haha some 'ghost' starred at him and Ruiming just starred back. There are times I had to steer him to the path because the mask made it much harder to see through in the dark than day. Ruiming laughs when he gets frightened, Peter goes 'Wooooah' with a jump.

It was really quite an experience - as they try to evoke all your senses, from the cold mist to the wailing shocking noises, the touch of hairy or wet textures, webbing, and definitely sight with gruesome-looking employees.

And for the haunted houses, they just pop out without you noticing. It's terrible cos the only place you are 'safe' is walking as away from the walls as you can! They pop out from the left, right and top that it really can pop your heart out of your mouth. Half the time, you're really running through the thing to get to the end!

Because we came in from the Tsai Shui Wan entrance, we took a rather long cable car ride to get to the other side, which is quite a distance away. One thing that I find brilliant about Ocean Park is that you only pay for the entrance fees and you dont have to worry about the individual rides, unless Singapore's Escape Park in East Coast - which is probably just one sixth the size of Ocean Park. I was thinking that revenue is much easier to calculate for Ocean Park since you dont have to settle the individual costs for each 'station', pretty niffy eh.

The open-air capsule-looking cable car cabins. During our trip the line actually stopped for abit and it was a little unnerving as the wind blew the cabin, cos it's high up - it's not exactly just a breeze!

The boys in the cable car cabin

Approaching to the other side of Ocean Park

Remember I told you about the many gruesome-characters that the employees (I would love to work there la, can dress up and scare people AND be paid for doing so haha)? Well here are some that we took with - they dont even talk to you, they just continue to scare - with a sudden jerk, sudden swerve or a growl.

Haha there was this cute bloody (literally) nurse that was squatting at a corner and everyone was peering at her and took pictures as she sat there. So, Ruiming and I wanted to do so too. Peter declined cos he said she'll suddenly move or scare anyway. Knowing that in mind, we still wanted to, so Peter was the photographer.

Haha as we both took our spots next to her, Peter was framing the picture when she suddenly, like really suddenly sprung up at the camera! Shocking Peter through the lense and making him jump back! It was hilarious! Haha we kept teasing him that the 'ghost' knew who to go after!

The cute nurse

Her scaring action at Peter caught in action! haha we didnt even have time to react!

Haha she was so cute we took another picture with her when she finally stayed still!

We were there since about 6ish and the night was edging to 11pm, my feet hurt from the walking in boots and the boys were pretty tired since they woke up early. Though in the hype of things, Peter wanted to take a drink at Lan Kwai Fong (sounds awfully vulgar right) - which we definitely thought would be super happening and damn crowded. So we made our way to the exit, until Ruiming wanted all of us to take a classic shot: with a lamp post, to the amusement of other Ocean Park-ers.

Peter is super unimaginative at the lamp post.

Ruiming tried to reinact the Singing in the Rain idea. I had to get him to stay still if not he looked like a bat.

Sigh and he insisted I wrap my arm with the pole. Terrible right.
Not like I'm skinny somemore. There. Now you have seen the whole costume.

We took a cab down, and we got a shock when we were there. It wasnt just packed. It was ridiculously sardine-packed. EVERY road was. Roads were blocked and cordoned off, police were there and even ambulances in case there was a stampede. I have to say that I am impressed by the Police system in that manner, especially when it comes to 'impromptu' occasions like these.

To cross a road, you had to walk like 500m to get to the walking path that the Police allowed you to cross. Cos they cordoned off the rest.

This is the ultimate picture, which is really just one LANE of the place. It's not even the main road:
Well, while passing through the human field, it was pretty amusing to see how people dressed up. Cos there were LOADS! Too bad I couldnt take as many or anything cos really, Halloween is no small thing here! There were cartoon characters, big babies, cheongsam girls, even Power Ranger, lotsa Lolita-types, many witches, many 'dead' people, etc.

Kids were of no exception! Many were taken pictures of and even one in a batman costume or as a pumpkin or even a dragon. So cute! This event is great for photographers actually - too bad Ruiming didnt bring his DSLR too (well, The Question doesnt carry one) cos really there were so many flashes and big camera-thingies. Imagine the colours and characters you can capture! :)

After walking a whole lot and having the idea that all the pubs would be packed anyway, I told Peter that I can't really walk anymore. Cos my feet hurt in such a way that if I stopped walking, I wont be able to move after that. And Ruiming just didnt really like the idea of squeezing with crowds. So, we made a move off first, after telling that Drinker to be careful.

Taking a tram back to Causeway Bay, it never felt so good to take a lift (which the hostel really needs) to get into a cosy apartment. And well, since I am not reeeeeeally suppose to be in this review-thing (V only expects mr he and mr rajendran, as the letter written to them had said), I shared a room with Ruiming (who can make funny pet noises when he sleeps haha).

By the time we really got into bed after bathing and all that, it was already 4am! The bed, queen-sized, was super comfy! Not to mention the 2-per-person pillows and the awfully snuggly duvet. We all slept in the next day haha

There. This shows the BORDER that we made with two pillows.
So that neither of us would end up wacking each other or kicking by mistake!

So that's it for the very very very long day. Imagine being awake from 8.30am to 4am the next day, pretty fun though! Haha ok other than the aching feet :/