cindi1601: Asia's World City Hong Kong 8D7N: Day 1-3

Planned a trip to HK from 25 May to 1 Jun this year with my colleague Xinni.

Because both of us went HK before, so we decided to throw in 2 days for Macau too.

We were gonna book budget airlines at first but last min she saw a Cathay promo and in the end we bought the HK roundtrip at only SGD 282.20! OMG lucky us rite?

As usual, I planned a very detailed itinerary on excel with the dates, timings, places, prices, transport, transport fares. I get a cheap thrill out of doing these I don't know why. But anyway, msg me if u want to kope my itinerary or for reference purposes.

Day 1, Sunday

Took the midnight flight and reached the HK airport before 6am. Realised midnight flights for full fledged airlines are quite bohua (not worth the money). Cos the food is just... bread.

But at least the time is not wasted as we can sleep on board the plane and then be able to travel the rest of the day.

Ok but anyway first thing after arriving at the airport, we bought the Octopus card (for travelling around in the subways) and also a prepaid SIM card for Data connection. It is called the One2Free Power Prepaid SIM and you can just buy it at the nearest 7-11, Circle K convenience shops etc. We put the SIM into one of our hps and tethered so that the other person could share the internet connection. The costs for this internet connection we had for the 1week holiday? SGD 7 per person after sharing. So the card should be around SGD 14 if I never rmb wrongly. But it is like $1 per day so quite worth it if ur the kind who cannot live without your internet and smartphone. Besides, can instagram on the go. HAHAHA.

Because we were budget travellers, we booked a cheap accommodation called "Ah Shan Hostel". It has quite good reviews and nini wasn't picky about places so we went along. We took the bus A21 (costs HKD 33) to Mongkok, called the recep and she came to meet us and bring us to the hostel. Actually if u are good with roads then u can just navigate and go to the hostel yourself.

Reached the place early in the morning but of course checkin was only in the afternoon. We put our luggages there first and went out to have breakfast with our other colleagues who were already in HK few days before us. Yepp they were also there for holiday so we decided to meet up for 2 days while we are there.

Walked for a bit before reaching Kam Wah Cafe, and boy was it crowded. I've been to HK a few things alr so I know the ppl there are fast paced and eateries are normally quite impatient when u order slowly or eat slowly. But ohwells, we ordered abit slow and the auntie told us to hurry up.

Ordered these. Polo bun and egg tarts. meh only.

After eating, we went to Tsim Sha Tsui's Harbour City.

The place was atas with all the luxury brands and whatnot. But my aim for coming here was to try out the dessert shops.

Laduree!

Didn't buy this cos the price was similar to SG. So might as well try other stuffs that SG doesn't have.

We went to this cafe C'est La B selling exquisite expensive cakes. Not bad.

Whiled the time away with walking around the mall. The place was huge so it took up the whole afternoon.

Random: we had Mcdonalds.

Afterwards, we went back to our hostel to checkin and lo and behold. The room was really small:

Heres nini unpacking and preparing to go off alone to visit her relative in HK.

I met up with the other girls again and we went in search of Kau Kee Beef near Central Station.

After walking like what seemed a million years, we reached the place, only to find out that it is closed on Sundays. OMGWTFKILLMEPLS. I actually didn't realise that it is closed on Sunday while researching. Haiz felt so bad. But anw we walked to a nearby eatery there and ate some noodles. Apparently this restaurant is quite famous also, so at least our food was still not bad.

Wanted to go clubbing but we ended up in a pub at night. As usual, I ordered my Magarita, which didn't look like it:

So thats all for Day 1.

Day 2, Monday

We went to Mido Cafe for breakfast.

It is an oldskool cafe famous for their baked pork chops.

I tried it and it is quite nice. But the portion was so big, plus it felt a bit gelard I almost couldn't finish it.

After that we went for some touristy activity: Ngong Ping Cable Car. We had bought the Crystal Cabin tickets from our hostel in the morning for a cheaper price. Don't have to queue up at the place itself for tickets.

Luckily! Cos we saw a long queue when we reached and we totally skipped them to wait for the cable car straight.

Actually, many other ppl have said in their blogs that the Crystal cabin is not very different from the normal ones. So yepp, I suggest u to buy the normal tix can alr. After some time, we were bored of the "seethrough" floor.

Ok after awhile we reached the other side.

Had Starbucks, bought some souvenirs, did not attempt to climb up to the Big Buddha.

And presenting to u, nini's huge polaroid camera:

But we had this 山水豆腐花, which was soooo awesome.

So much more smoother than the Rochor Beancurd in SG!

Then after that we took the cable car back and shopped around Citygate Outlets (which had nothing much for me) and decided to have Mak Man Kee Noodles at Jordan after that. The noodles were really springy and prawns fresh. But, quite a small bowl,..

Hopped over to the Australia Daily Company which was just next door. As usual, the chatty guys there loves to flirt with girls and of cos talked some nonsense to us. HAHAHA.

Day 3, Tuesday

The girls were leaving HK for SG today, so we didn't meet up in the morning. Me and nini went to have dimsum breakfast at the Mongkok Branch of 稻香quite early. We were immediately told to go in and find our own seats amongst the sea of customers. Blur us thought that they will usher us to our seats but we figured out that we needed to just find and share seats with others.

Food was not bad. The price was quite ok.

Nothing to complain about except that the crowd-goers there were mostly older ppl? hahaha.

Headed over to Ocean Park after that. After stopping at Admiralty Station, we just followed the signs and directions around the station to reach an exit leading to a roadside; there were signs to direct us to this bus stop to wait for the bus for Ocean Park.

So upon reaching the park, IT WAS SO HOT!?

There are 2 areas in the park: Waterfront and Summit. The entrance leads directly to the Waterfront, and to go to the Summit u either have to take the cable car or the Ocean Express.

We headed for the Panda Village, which was airconditioned. HAHAHA

Passed by these fishes while on the way.

Red Pandas!

Couldn't really see the 2 pandas in the park clearly. One was sleeping in the enclosure, one was blocked by the logs. zzz.

So we headed out to Old Hong Kong,

and then queued for the cable car to go to the other end of the park, Summit. Very long queue, but if not now then never.

Even though there was the occasional wind, IT WAS STILL SO HOT!

So hot that we decided to go to the Polar Bear enclosure straight after landing.

Saw seals and a huge walrus. The walrus was so huge maybe it was bigger than a car?

Then it was showtime for the seals.

Arctic fox.

Penguins.

Also sat the most exciting ride of the day at the Arctic Blast, basically some rollercoaster which was normal.

View of the park from the Ocean Park Tower.

We took the Ocean Express back to the Waterfront. There were 2 ways of travelling to and fro the Waterfront and the Summit: Cable car or Ocean Express. Obviously Ocean Express would be the faster and cooler option but its just like a normal mrt with special effects in the cabin to make u feel like you are in a submarine?

Went back to Panda Village in the hopes of seeing the pandas come out, but they never did. ARGH.

Went to another airconditioned place to see seahorses.

Then the Grand Aquarium.

And thats it for Ocean Park. Many rides were closed. And it was really too hot to the point that we didn't feel like walking around just to take the rides. We didn't even bother to stay till 7pm for the Symbio Show cos sian of the heat.

So we went to Causeway Bay Station next to hunt for some famous ramen stall: Ichiran Japanese Ramen.