THE WAHBIANG BLOG

The numbers of my belongings are even more interesting. Back in 2006, I moved to Shanghai with only 4 boxes of DHL Jumbo Box.  In 2007, I moved to my 2nd home in Shanghai – with about 12 boxes. One year later in 2008 June, I was transferred to Hong Kong. By then, I have about 45 boxes of junk! And last week, we moved into our 4th new house – it was about 60 boxes!



Today, we decided to spend our first night at the new house. Hong Fei, Zeph and Harshad popped by for a mini house-warming visit! For the first time, Elkan has his own bedroom – more like his toyroom! Tracy has a beautiful bedroom, overlooking Kowloon. And for Felicia and me, it will be a night of relief. Finally, we need not to worry about Elkan’s sleeping Kongfu kicks.

It is always a pleasure to have Sam in our lives. Later that night, we chat about some new "realities and options" about our lives and career – and I couldn’t agreed more.  Sadly, we could not have more time with Sam as he flew out on Friday night. (I actually offered him my new home but he asked me "if there is any ghost in my house". Okay, what a way to reject a friend!)

Believe it or not – Hong Kong opened the world’s first and only full-size replica of Noah’s Ark that was built according to the biblical dimensions. Parked on Ma Wan, Hong Kong Park Island, this Ark is the latest Hong Kong religious attraction (open end May 2009). God’s holy invitation has expired so now, anyone can enter this Ark. Same price for the saint and the sinful – Admission is only HK100 for adult and HK85 for children.  It is pretty strange to see this holy icon at the foot of the highway bridges, I would have imagine having this built on the Peak instead! Well, the real Ark landed on the peak of Mount Ararat in Turkey some 6,000 years ago and remained one of the world’s biggest unsolved mysteries today. We have found the Lost Titanic. With today’s technology, mankind hasn’t been successful in rediscovering the Lost Ark.

Over at Ma Wan – At the boarding gate, you see dummies of animals alighting the Ark – but no sight of the celebrated Captain Noah and his family. Inside the Ark, you find a world of surprises. There is a REAL mini air-con zoo with live birds, insects and small animals (Mmm…and fishes too! I don’t think Noah took the fishes with him onboard!). There are exhibit halls about the Ark. There are also halls voicing about maintaining a Greener Earth – kinda of a misplace here and I felt like visiting a kiddy Science Centre. There are also limited resort rooms (yes, like hotel rooms) which you can stayed overnight. And not forgetting a big function hall where you can host your own mini United Nation "Save the World" Conference. 

Somehow, the more time you spent at the Ark, the more you got lost (and for me, frustrated). Clearly, the Ark is a simple great theme-park concept. But to the people who run it, they are having a major identity crisis. This theme park was 20% church, 10% resort rooms, 30% Science Centre talking about Green Earth, 20% Ark-related, 20% indoor zoo with tight small tortoring enclosures of animals. My God, the Ark isn’t the instrument to imprison lives. It is a portal of new Life. Let the animals go free! 

Perhaps, the people who build this are too greedy about what they want to show and tell. It was all over the place. And makes you left the Ark with an unsatisfied feeling. (It is like you paid for a Horror Film, you ended up watching Basic Instinct.) Even the souvenir shop doesn’t carry any "Ark" collectibles. No Ark magnet or anything related to the Ark. 

Anyway.. it was still a nice weekend getaway. It is a beautiful Ark. We should have 1 back at home!

I clearly remember how my mother and I used to queue up for water at the foot of our old HDB flat. It was a massive neighbourhood mobilisation. The housewives and their children queuing up at the tap – with all the containers they can find in their house. You see all types of water vessels – plastic pails, cooking pots, fish tanks and even big trash bags. It was quite a regular and normal "exercise" for the flat dwellers. No one’s complaining and there was no panic at the queue.

Back at home, mum would store all the water in the kitchen and the bathroom. She instructed me (very sternly) not to waste the water and from her tone, I can tell it was no joking matter. Water that was used to wash the vegetables was recycled to flush the toilet. I wasn’t allowed to use more than 1 cup per day. It was like one cup per person per day. Shower was a torture, slow and animated. The water was cold and I have to make sure my body foam doesn’t "pollute" the clean source. I tried not to use too much soap. Meals were taken using paper plates and disposable forks and spoons.

I hate "waterless" day. And for the last 15 years, I "escaped" the inconvenience of operating without the running tap. (i am either at school or at work!) Most of the time, the maintenance team carry out their jobs outside peak hours (during the quiet afternoon or wee hours). Water Ration Exercise? Nope.. hardly occur since we developed NEW WATER. 

Last Sunday, I woke up realising there was no water running from my tap. My first reaction to Felicia "Yo, did you forget to make payment again??" She said no. My next reaction "Okay, then we musta missed that damn notice!" Felicia called the estate office, they said there wasn’t any water maintenance on Sunday. Later, we found out that the main underground water pipe had burst – the entire estate was waterless!

"No water!!!" I exclaimed! "Then how? I need to sh*t!"

Felicia pointed downstairs – there was a mobile watertank truck and there was a queue of residents (in pyjamas) filling up water.

"Okay, let’s go down and queue," I sighed in desperation. Felicia shook her head and informed me that we didn’t have any pail at home. "NO PAILS!" I stormed to the kitchen, stared helplessly at the tiny pots and pans. The only decent container was our dirty trash bin! This was becoming an emergency!

I went to the bedroom, woke up Elkan and packed our bags with towels and clean clothes. "Wake up, Elkan. We are going to use the swimming pool shower room now! Quick… before the entire 3000 residents do that!"

We dashed downstairs, only to find out that a couple of residents were doing just that. We arrived at the pool’s shower room. Smart ass, NOT A DROP of water. Stupidly, the group of people left the room – you can feel their disappointment. On the way out, we saw streams of people walking toward the shower room with pails and pots. Yeah, desperate minds think alike.

I came back. Felicia bought lunch. Elkan was happy. He hated shower anyway. 

In the middle of lunch, I yelled "I know! Let’s check in a cheap hotel today!!! Yeah!" Tracy and Felicia gave me "that look". Okay, it was a bad idea.

Just then, Scott called me for lunch. An evil thought came to my mind.

"Hey Scott! We haven’t been to your new apartment! Tell you what, ALL OF US will be there in an hour’s time! And I am sure you don’t mind if we use your bathroom, right?" What a house-warming for Scott. 4 of us took turns to shower at his nice condo at WanChai.

Yeah. Finally, I got to shower, sh*t in peace and gel my hair. I never felt so satisfied. For this record, I don’t miss the kampong days.

(Photo Taken: 1st July – Today is Hong Kong’s 12th Handover Day to China – an important public holiday here. The weather was great and we decided to spend our day-off at Stanley Beach. We returned home at 5pm and headed down to our condo swimming pool for Round II! What a healthy day!)