Today I had a well spent and joyous time with my HK family. In the morning I got to meet up with my dad's sister, my auntie and uncle. After finishing some necessary errands, we talked about topics ranging from family, school, health, and current activities over my third round of dim sum. My aunt had studied a little bit of English when she was younger, so she was able to communicate to Ann with a somewhat smooth tongue. It was rather funny, she would say pumpkin as 'pumpky' and suddenly switch tongues and rant about other topics. It was sad having to say bye to them as everytime I'm in HK, I only get to see them once or twice and usually just for a few hours. So not knowing when I would be able to see this sweet couple again left my heart aching a bit.
Journeying towards home, Ann and I decided to check out the mall at the Fanling station. There's a mall at pretty much each station, but seeing that we take the subway from this station everyday, we thought we would check out the stores here to kill some time before meeting up with my mom's side of the family, with whom we are staying with. Hello and behold, I sighted my love upon stepping foot into the mall. My eyes were hungrier than my stomach and out of greedy cravings, we had Hui Lau Shan (again) for dessert. Ann had a strawberry and mango drink with crystal jelly while I ventured with the mango pudding, pomelo, and more mango dessert bowl.

Later that afternoon my cousin's husband drove us all to a Lavender Garden not too far from where we lived. Like the name suggest, this place grew rows and rows of this lovely deep purple plant. There were even some girls having personal and professional photographers there doing photoshoots among the rolls of lavender, as well as many tourists grilling away at the designating BBQ spots. You also got to feed baby lambs and older sheeps. It was fun being able to spend time with my mom's side as I haven't done so venturing out and about with Ann for the past few days. It was also nicer just to do something simpler and enjoy the presence of one another while we can. We also went to a sightseeing landmark where you could see Shenzhen, a place located in China (Fanling is two subway stops from entering the border of China). Here, there was a small convenient store that sold hot and cold tofu pudding (dou fu fah) and other light snacks.

I have four female cousins on my mom's side, two of them have kids, one is age three and the other is two and a half. They are so adorable and love playing on the slides, so that's what we did after our snack-go on multiple rounds of slides and run around screaming-well, only the toddlers. It's so cute because in Chinese they call me "biu-yee" which is roughly translated into cousin and auntie as I'm there moms' cousin, so I guess I'm there second cousin?

In the evening, we all headed for a Japanese dinner and strolled a mall at Sheung Shui (literally "Up Water" in Chinese) to find some goodies.

Overall, I had a great day spent with my family and a friend. I really cherish these moments and embrace all the time we have together as I know they are quite limited. Tomorrow, I am bless and on the tip of my toes to announce that Ann and I will be heading to Osaka for a five day tour. My family here has been so gracious and generous to us since our arrival and I hope I will be able to give back to them during my travels in Japan. I am so thrilled for our itinerary to come so keep reading for more endeavors!

P.S. Ann: I'm so glad you have been having a blast in HK, you are so flexible and I love you for that! I couldn't ask for a better travel companion, so here's to more adventures with you =).