Hongkong Trip - Part 1 (March 2012)

9:50 AM | Mga etiketa: City Tour, Overseas

I am back!

Pardon me for not being able to post some of my travel accounts due to my busy schedule at work and home. I've been planning for months to update this blog for some time but unfortunately wasn't able to do so...

To make up for the lost entries, I would like to share our Hongkong Trip last March 2012 with my BFF and BF (now ex-bf since he is my husband now). I would say we really had a blast touring the Hongkong and mind you the six(6) days trip is too short to enjoy the gastronomic and panoramic experience in Hongkong.

Prior on going to Hongkong, we availed our tickets via Cebu Pacific promo. I only paid 3,900++ php for each person. We got the promo six months ahead of our planned trip. It should be a trip for four of us but unfortunately one of our friend bailed out since the date coincide with her mom's birthday.

First Day:
Our flight is scheduled at 6:00AM for departure and we were in the airport at around 3:00AM in the morning. Unfortunately, we haven't noticed that one of our baggage allowance is named after our friend who bailed out. That left us to scurry and transfer our stuff in our bags in order to fit our maximum 15 kgs baggage allowance. Upon going to immigration, we didn't encounter problems after answering their questions with no hassle. To be honest, we even enjoyed answering their Q&A especially on the part if we were really friends since High School! The thing with immigration is, as long as you know that you are going out of the country in a legitimate way, there is no need to get nervous while answering questions. It is just a 5-10 minutes Q&A which also depends on how you answer their questions.

We arrived at Hongkong International airport at around 8:00AM in the morning. We spent a few minutes inside the airport to get free maps and tourist information guides in their lounge. Just to warn others, I noticed that some Pinoys tend to fool other Pinoy tourists (Not that I am generalizing everyone, we just encountered few in the airport). Call us paranoid, praning or whatever terms applied to us but it is always better to be safe than sorry. If someone asks you to join your group, say no and go to your planned itinerary. As much as possible if you are looking for direction, just use GPS or if you don't have Iphones, Ipods and Android gadgets with you, ask the tourist information officer inside the airport for guides in traversing the city. Always remember not to talk to strangers no matter how nice they are.

What we didn't know is that we're not prepared that the temperature in Hongkong during March is around 13 degrees! It was freezing cold and we only brought one jacket each! We didn't notice the temperature. We felt the chill early in the morning after we disembark from the train and bus going to our reserved hotel. Another snafu we encountered is that the hotel reservation we had was a hoax! Thank God that we didn't paid anything but we encountered a hard time looking for a cheap accomodation for the three of us. We went to YMCA hotel (a bit pricey if you're not a member) and Langham Hotel (pricey also for a one night stay). We tried Hop Inn in Tsim Sha Tsui and they are already fully booked for the next three weeks. I promised to go back in Hongkong and would try the Hop Inn Hotel. The receptionist referred us to a nearby Hangkow Hotel. Good thing there are vacancies in Hangkow Hotel and it's prices are reasonable for a six days worth of stay. The accomodation is not bad since we will be out most of our stay in Hongkong.

On our first day we walk through the area of Tsim Sha Tsui and took pictures. The landmarks and places we visited are:

1. Hongkong Museum of Science and Arts

2. Coach Store (because of me! hahaha)
3. Victoria Harbour
4. Walk of Fame in Hongkong
5. Kowloon Park
6. H&M store (because of me again!)
7. Food trip at TST streets (take note: literally street food which is very delicious such as chicken feet, fish balls and authentic Gong Cha milk tea)

Also, since we were already discovering places in TST, we already booked a reservation for our HK Disneyland trip the next day... That would be on my second blog item... a specific blog entry on our magical trip at Hongkong Disneyland.

Pictures of our first day trip are here!