A quick summary of the trip
Here a summary of my trip to Hong Kong. I’ve been asked this a few times and it’s time I documented my answers… haha…
On the whole, I enjoyed it very much. Even with the irritating people from China.
Three things that I love:
1. Tim Sum! (not the chicken feet tho *shiver*)
2. Shopping! (I love the range of Japanese phones available)
3. Typhoon! (Well, it was something different and granted us easy access to the best sushi)
Three things that I dislike:
1. People from the big continent
2. The rain… (from the typhoon =_= but it was better than being hot)
3. Did I mention the people from mainland China?
★
The first day was pretty simple, with shopping and food. We touched down at about 10 something but after wandering around collecting our luggage and stuff and looking for the bus, we arrived at the hotel at about 1230pm or so. I think we were about 45 mins late for our appointment with our “local tour guide”. Check-in was a breeze and then we spent about ½ hour to settle down and get the safe deposit key (the box was tiny!) to stow our passports.
Then we hit the shops. I bought 2 polo tees which were relatively cheap at HK$110. That works out to about $21.53 for 2 shirts. Eh. Is it too cheap? Did I remember wrongly? Hmmm… It was my first time having KrispyKreme doughnuts. The plain glazed ones are the best, I think. It rained and I was glad I brought my umbrella.
★★
The next day, we had tim sum for brunch and it was fantastic. And cheap too. Relatively speaking. It was raining again with T3 typhoon warning so we decided to skip Disney and shop around. By afternoon, the warning was back to T1 and then there was no more warning.
We had the best mango dessert and some odd looking waffle thingy which was also yummy. Then our tour guide, “Beigu” had to leave for dinner with her family and we were on our own. Had Yoshinoya as we didn’t really know how to order the other stuff in Cantonese plus we wanted to see how bad it was compared to the one in Singapore. It was much much better but still not as good as those in Japan.
Also bought our phones on day 2, the 707sc (never thought I would ever use a Sumsung) and the Toshiba 904T. In retrospect, it may have been a better buy to get the 904T too instead of the 707sc comparing the price and the functionality.
★☆★
On Friday, the typhoon warning was back up again to T3 so again, Disney had to wait. We went to shop around again but since we were early, most of the shops were still closed so we wandered around the deserted streets. We decided to take in some lunch after not buying anything and had tim sum again. Yay. Also had the chicken feet which was … chotto…
Typhoon warning was up to T8 while we were eating so we dragged our feet and took lots of photos trying to get that perfect shot where none of us looked ugly. Guess if the source is horrible, the photo will capture as such… =(
By the time we came out of the restaurant, all the shops were closed again. And it was raining. And the queues for the bus were just amazing, still long. Luckily we avoided the train crunch and getting around was a breeze. Just that it took a little longer and it was still raining. We ended up at Itamame, a sushi shop which usually have a 3 hour (or more!) wait and got in within 5 minutes. The food was amazing! Will post the photos another time.
★☆※☆★
Saturday was a bad day. Originally planned to finally go to Disneyland but last minute, Beigu had to return to China mainland (she is from mainland after all!) because her uncle had passed away. So it was that we found ourselves wandering around without know how to speak a word of Cantonese. Ok la, we can speak some words but cannot be spoken aloud in civilized company. Haha… just kidding.
I had planned to go Disney as I figured that we wouldn’t need to speak any Cantonese but Beigu said she wanted to go too so we postponed it again. So we found ourselves in Central, finally catching an English movie that we were not able to. And it was in Mandarin. =_= We watched Secret. The tickets there are expensive. Student price is HK$50 and for an adult with HSBC card, it was HK$63 (10% off).
Headed to LV boutique again (first time was on the first day) but this time the service was not good. They didn’t have the stock that Wengu wanted so we settled for wandering around that large shopping centre. Wengu did eventually get a Y3 bag but while nice, I’m sure not many people will recognize the brand and how expensive it is.
Dinner was at Triple O’s and I expected it to be better and larger than Carl Jr’s. But it was no competition.
Headed back and took some night pics from the top of the hotel as the rain has stopped.
★☆★☆★
Beigu made it back that night and we finally headed to Disneyland. Gosh, this is really where I learnt to hate the mainland Chinese. The loud uncouth conversations I can live with. But not the blatant queue cutting and pushing. Damn annoying. We stayed all the way for the fireworks since I didn't have a chance to catch the one at the Victoria Harbour. It was set against Sleeping Beauty's castle. Lovely.
※★☆★※★☆★※
Anyway, the next day was time to head home. We went out to do a round of last minute shopping and then checked out of the room after taking a final shower. Then we headed to get some more stuff while we left the luggage at the concierge. Then we decided to take the MTR to the airport. I was trying to convince them to take the bus since we were early but my heart wasn’t in it and we took the train. We did the town check in and then took the train there. Gosh, it’s damn expensive. About HK$96 or so. We had just topped up our octopus card and it was in the red again. Left about HK$13 and there was an admin fee of HK$7 to re turn it. So we decide to gift the cards to Beigu for her or family to use.
So that wraps up the HK trip.
Pics to come later. Too lazy tired to put them all up. Bit by bit la, kthanksbye.
On the whole, I enjoyed it very much. Even with the irritating people from China.
Three things that I love:
1. Tim Sum! (not the chicken feet tho *shiver*)
2. Shopping! (I love the range of Japanese phones available)
3. Typhoon! (Well, it was something different and granted us easy access to the best sushi)
Three things that I dislike:
1. People from the big continent
2. The rain… (from the typhoon =_= but it was better than being hot)
3. Did I mention the people from mainland China?
★
The first day was pretty simple, with shopping and food. We touched down at about 10 something but after wandering around collecting our luggage and stuff and looking for the bus, we arrived at the hotel at about 1230pm or so. I think we were about 45 mins late for our appointment with our “local tour guide”. Check-in was a breeze and then we spent about ½ hour to settle down and get the safe deposit key (the box was tiny!) to stow our passports.
Then we hit the shops. I bought 2 polo tees which were relatively cheap at HK$110. That works out to about $21.53 for 2 shirts. Eh. Is it too cheap? Did I remember wrongly? Hmmm… It was my first time having KrispyKreme doughnuts. The plain glazed ones are the best, I think. It rained and I was glad I brought my umbrella.
★★
The next day, we had tim sum for brunch and it was fantastic. And cheap too. Relatively speaking. It was raining again with T3 typhoon warning so we decided to skip Disney and shop around. By afternoon, the warning was back to T1 and then there was no more warning.
We had the best mango dessert and some odd looking waffle thingy which was also yummy. Then our tour guide, “Beigu” had to leave for dinner with her family and we were on our own. Had Yoshinoya as we didn’t really know how to order the other stuff in Cantonese plus we wanted to see how bad it was compared to the one in Singapore. It was much much better but still not as good as those in Japan.
Also bought our phones on day 2, the 707sc (never thought I would ever use a Sumsung) and the Toshiba 904T. In retrospect, it may have been a better buy to get the 904T too instead of the 707sc comparing the price and the functionality.
★☆★
On Friday, the typhoon warning was back up again to T3 so again, Disney had to wait. We went to shop around again but since we were early, most of the shops were still closed so we wandered around the deserted streets. We decided to take in some lunch after not buying anything and had tim sum again. Yay. Also had the chicken feet which was … chotto…
Typhoon warning was up to T8 while we were eating so we dragged our feet and took lots of photos trying to get that perfect shot where none of us looked ugly. Guess if the source is horrible, the photo will capture as such… =(
By the time we came out of the restaurant, all the shops were closed again. And it was raining. And the queues for the bus were just amazing, still long. Luckily we avoided the train crunch and getting around was a breeze. Just that it took a little longer and it was still raining. We ended up at Itamame, a sushi shop which usually have a 3 hour (or more!) wait and got in within 5 minutes. The food was amazing! Will post the photos another time.
★☆※☆★
Saturday was a bad day. Originally planned to finally go to Disneyland but last minute, Beigu had to return to China mainland (she is from mainland after all!) because her uncle had passed away. So it was that we found ourselves wandering around without know how to speak a word of Cantonese. Ok la, we can speak some words but cannot be spoken aloud in civilized company. Haha… just kidding.
I had planned to go Disney as I figured that we wouldn’t need to speak any Cantonese but Beigu said she wanted to go too so we postponed it again. So we found ourselves in Central, finally catching an English movie that we were not able to. And it was in Mandarin. =_= We watched Secret. The tickets there are expensive. Student price is HK$50 and for an adult with HSBC card, it was HK$63 (10% off).
Headed to LV boutique again (first time was on the first day) but this time the service was not good. They didn’t have the stock that Wengu wanted so we settled for wandering around that large shopping centre. Wengu did eventually get a Y3 bag but while nice, I’m sure not many people will recognize the brand and how expensive it is.
Dinner was at Triple O’s and I expected it to be better and larger than Carl Jr’s. But it was no competition.
Headed back and took some night pics from the top of the hotel as the rain has stopped.
★☆★☆★
Beigu made it back that night and we finally headed to Disneyland. Gosh, this is really where I learnt to hate the mainland Chinese. The loud uncouth conversations I can live with. But not the blatant queue cutting and pushing. Damn annoying. We stayed all the way for the fireworks since I didn't have a chance to catch the one at the Victoria Harbour. It was set against Sleeping Beauty's castle. Lovely.
※★☆★※★☆★※
Anyway, the next day was time to head home. We went out to do a round of last minute shopping and then checked out of the room after taking a final shower. Then we headed to get some more stuff while we left the luggage at the concierge. Then we decided to take the MTR to the airport. I was trying to convince them to take the bus since we were early but my heart wasn’t in it and we took the train. We did the town check in and then took the train there. Gosh, it’s damn expensive. About HK$96 or so. We had just topped up our octopus card and it was in the red again. Left about HK$13 and there was an admin fee of HK$7 to re turn it. So we decide to gift the cards to Beigu for her or family to use.
So that wraps up the HK trip.
Pics to come later. Too lazy tired to put them all up. Bit by bit la, kthanksbye.