Hong Kong 2015

Call me a city girl - The towering skyscrapers, comfortable shopping experience and awesome food is what draws me back to Hong Kong time and time again. 

Day #1

I took Cathay Pacific this time around and despite it being the school holidays, we managed to get our tickets for less than SGD350 per person. Arrived at Hong Kong International Airport and I love how the Airport Express shuttle is just a stone's throw away from the arrival gate and more importantly, on the same floor. This means no lugging of heavy luggages up and down any steps or escalators. Perfect for the frail like me or families with children. 

To save some money, we opted for the Airport Express to  Kowloon Station and took a 10 minute cab ride to our hotel. Unfortunately, our cab driver did not understand English and he brought us to the wrong hotel. Our hotel was called Hotel Panorama but he brought us the The Peninsula! I know both start with the letter P but they are worlds apart! On the bright side, despite us in our floppy clothes, he probably thought that we were rich enough to book a stay the The Peninsula. Thank you for the compliment!

Arrived at Hotel Panorama and we were ushered to the executive floor for a special check-in. I had booked the Executive Club room because of the harbour views it offered and the room certainly lived up to its expectation.

The bath tub was definitely my favourite spot. After a long day of a lot of walking, the best feeling for the day was just soaking in the bath tub of hot water and enjoying the dazzling lights of the skyscrapers. But do note, the bath tub is definitely small for European standards. I'm about 1.6 meters and I had to stick my legs out while soaking myself. 

For dinner, we had Chinese food at Maxim Palace, City Hall. Unfortunately, they did not serve Tim Sum in the evenings and so we ended up settling for the other dishes that Hong Kong is famous for ; goose meat and roast pork. I personally found the goose meat a tad bit too oily for me but I reckon that's just the Cantonese style of cooking. The roast pork's skin was exceptionally crunchy while the meat was extra juicy. I would say go for the roast pork if you are coming to this place. 

After dinner, I decided to bring M to The Peak. We bought tickets for the Tram ride up and skipped the paid Sky Terrace 428. Instead, we went to the free observation deck at The Peak Galleria. The observation deck is located next to the Trick Eye Museum. And below I present to you the stunning view which I saw.

To get back to the base of the mountain, we waited 30 minutes in line just to secure a tram ride down. When the tram doors opened, it was a chaotic scene of people pushing and shoving, just so that they could secure a seat. Those who were at the back of the queue ended up standing the entire ride down. After alighting the tram, our nightmare began. We stupidly hopped onto a taxi that had been waiting patiently for any potential tourist. Thinking that it would a simple 15 minute ride, we told the taxi driver that we were willing to pay the HKD50 toll to use the underground tunnel. I mean, apart from the toll, how expensive could a cab ride get? Well, halfway through our ride, I spotted our taxi metre jumping ridiculously faster than our previous taxi rides. By the time we got off our 15 minute ride, M ended up having to pay HKD300. We were astonished at the exorbitant price but simply paid the driver as we did not want any trouble. 

When we reported the incident to a hotel staff, she told us that we had been cheated! Firstly, the underground tunnel toll should only be about HKD30. And to pay HKD300 for a 15 minute ride is equivalent to a ride from our hotel to the airport. Of course we were devastated and thus my reason for sharing this, so that my readers would not get conned by such unethical drivers. The hotel staff also suggested getting the taxi to stop directly next to the hotel lobby instead of a few meters away. She told us that most hotel lobbies have CCTVs and hence this would deter the taxi drivers from cheating tourists off their money. She also told us to get a receipt from the driver to further deter him from cheating. 

Day #2

After a terrible night of being cheated, I was determined to put that tourist smile back on my face again as we were going to one of the happiest place on the planet. And that is none other than ... ... Disneyland!

Even though I am above 21 and have no kids, I still find going to Disneyland fun! It's a place where the atmosphere reeks of happiness and makes you a very happy person for that day. I am not really into rides and so the highlight for me in Disneyland has got to be the street parades and fireworks. I love it when the princesses come out to greet the audience during the street parade. But for M, he gets more excited when the animal characters come out. As you can see, both of us look out for different things at the parade.

The afternoon street parade of Disney characters

Every young girl's dream corner. The Elsa and Anna photo taking area. There were also a lot of girls who were walking around the park dressed in either an Elsa or Anna costume. They must have felt on top of the world for that day! I would have if I were a 7 year old kid.

One of the many feel good rides we took which is perfect for any kid at heart. 

At 7.45 pm, the Disney stars come out once again and this time it is for the night parade. It was really fun identifying the various Disney characters as they came out. I managed to snap a picture of Cinderella, Mickey, Tinkerbell and the Sea King from the Little Mermaid. 

When I told M that we were going to stay till 9pm for the fireworks, his initial reaction was, "WHAT! What are we going to do from now till 9pm". The man just don't get it! It's the most romantic part of the whole Disney experience! We weren't here as kids or as parents looking after their kids but as a couple. And I remember all the couples in Anaheim Disneyland getting all lovey dovey during the fireworks and so that was my plan. But oh wells, my plan failed. M is a very practical lets-not-PDA type of person. At 8.55pm when I pointed out to him a couple that was kissing, his reaction was, "Ewww". 

And so I decided to be romantic with my camera instead and captured this video for keepsake.

Day #3

As we were going to China the next day, we headed to the China Hong Kong City Mall to get our tickets to Zhuhai. We made a wrong turn of going to the Star Ferry Terminal and unfortunately, they do not sell tickets to China. There are many touts around the mall asking you to buy tickets from them. Fearing that the tickets may not be legitimate, we ignored them and went straight to the physical booths.

After getting out tickets, we headed to satisfy my Dim Sum craving at Kung Fu Dim Sum.

Hooray, I finally had my Dim Sum craving fixed. As usual, I ordered my usual favourites such as Siew Mai, Har Gao and Chicken Feet. We couldn't really read the traditional Chinese words and had to get the help of the waitress when ordering. Thankfully, I knew the Chinese words of the food I wanted as we knew zero Cantonese and they don't speak English. 

Didn't take much pictures after this as I started on my shopping spree. We went to Harbour City which is just next to the mall where we bought our ferry tickets from. I love Harbour City because they are just simply so many stores and they have a mix of mid to high end goods. I really love the convenience of having everything under one roof and not having to cross roads or sweating it out under some makeshift clothes store. Thinking that a branded bag would cost cheaper here due to the absence of the good and service tax, I was proved utterly wrong. To my horror, the bags from Balenciaga are actually more expensive as compared to the prices in Singapore. I ended up stocking up mostly on new work clothes from Zara and Bread and Butter. 

Dinner was at a steamboat restaurant in Mongkok called The Great Restaurant. Interestingly, they do their steamboat here differently. We had to buy a pot of chicken which was mixed in some spicy sauce. After finishing the chicken, the waiter would pour some water over the remaining gravy and that would make our soup broth for our steamboat. We would then pour in our all raw food and start cooking. Thanks to my Hong Kong friends whom we dined with, they were able to help us converse with the cantonese speaking waiters. And that reminds me, since I go to Hong Kong so often, it's about time I start learning Cantonese. [Shout out to my loyal reader MW, when are we going to start our Cantonese classes?]

And this concludes my 3 day trip in Hong Kong. We headed over to Zhu Hai the next day by ferry and I'll write more about it in another post. For those who are new to Hong Kong, my friends have actually recommended this food app called "Open Rice Hong Kong". It is like our hungrygowhere but the Hong Kong version.

If you enjoyed this post, you may enjoy reading my Hong Kong 2012 Travelogue too.
Hong Kong 2012