Hong Kong

I honestly had so much fun on this trip! When my mum started planning this holiday last year I was kind of deflated because I was more keen on going to tiny little islands in the Philippines. I'm a beach person and most of the time I'm more willing to spend my time lounging by the beach rather than exploring a foreign country in cold weather. But I don't regret coming at all!
One of my favourite things about Hong Kong is the abundance of green tea lattes/matcha milks in almost every cafe that I visited - even the restaurants. Seriously, I'm a sucker for green tea and it was pretty great finding green tea in almost every menu. Secondly, the cold weather felt so good after being in the heat for such a long time. It was summer when I left Australia and with Philippines being a tropical country, we had a daily climate of 30 degrees (Celsius) - which to be honest wasn't bad, but for me it was just refreshing to get reacquainted with winter. Though I have to say, their winter is really mild - nothing too cold, just chilly enough for warm drinks to make you feel wonderful when you have them.
But what made this holiday extra special was that I spent so much quality time with my family. When we're not on holiday mode we usually just go about our daily business and tend to not mind one another. But I guess holidays always do that anyway, they bring out the fun and adventure in everyone. Well that's what it does to me so swell hehe. Anyway, I'm going to let the photos do the talking from now.
'Til my next travel post! x

Philippines

Sweet Philippines. My 5-week 5-days holiday summarised in one lone blog post. Coming back here always brings up feelings of being a child again and long-gone memories that resurface on car rides where we pass by the many places I used to visit as a kid.
When I lived here I never really took the time to appreciate the country's natural beauty. The mountains, the scenery, all that. I guess I sort of took it all for granted.
And now that I live in Australia, I feel as if I'm actually taking the time to appreciate how beautiful the scenery is in this place. I'm starting to really like the simplicity I see here. Fresh coconut water from the market for less than $2, even the cute tricycles.
2013 was a roller coaster and I mean I had a lot of great times but it was the year when I really really felt the need for family. And coming here ... it felt so great being surrounded by my loved-ones and though I had lots of nights when I'd stay up thinking about the day I have to go back to Sydney it still feels like I've been away long enough. Waking up to the thought that my grandmother was downstairs cooking breakfast for me with my granddad who was always searching up random stuff on Google was easily one of the best parts of my holiday. I still have mixed emotions on whether I'm happy or sad to be coming back but I guess the regular Skype calls we have should be enough to keep me close with my family while I'm in Sydney.

P.S. I'm guilty of using filters on my photos, so apologies for the overly-colourful images.
P.P.S. I started this post in Philippines but I'm posting it here in Australia.