Hong Kong Hopping: Day 1

We arrived 30 mins. ahead of arrival time in HK. So its an advantage for us to go to our hotel earlier but since a local agency arranged the flight, they have their counterpart in HK with arranged itinerary. Since it’s a bit early, we decided to wait for the free ride to hour hotel but it took us 1.5 hours i think since we are still waiting for other parties that will also be riding in our bus. So we have no choice but to wait, at least we saved HKD66 for the fare. ***TIP#01 - Don’t immediately change your money at the airport to buy your Octopus Card, if you have this travel agency, better change it to your tour guide since they have better rate than the airport.

After the other contingents were dropped at their hotels, we arrived at our hotel at around 12PM. We just checked in our things freshens a bit then started the itinerary I prepared. We have this host for the first day so he handled it on our behalf. We just changed our money at nearby money changer since it’s almost the same 7.7XX for 1 USD. Our host (a HK national) brought us to a restaurant for lunch. He said its one of the best restos (I was not able to get the name – our host don’t even know its English name) around the area. It took us few minutes before we are able to choose what to eat. It’s a bit pricey since we are just planning to eat at one of the cheap restos in the area until he informed us he’ll shoulder the cost, TING! So we let him do the ordering and he orders chow fan rice, shrimp and beef dumplings, siomai (its like siomai) and mini siopao like but with light sweet yellow liquid inside (its delicious). Again I was not able to get their names. Last food he orders was lettuce in bagoong – like sauce. Not good for the last serving but its worth tasting.

Then after lunch, we went around the area and showed landmarks and shopping malls and some historical information like the Peninsula Arcade and Heritage Building. There is an on going wedding photo shoot when we passed the building. Then we proceed to the ferry station headed to HK Island I think. It’s great experience even in few minutes. According to our host, the owner of the of ferry company loses a great amount yearly since its only 2HKD to ride the ferry. I said its one of the tourist attraction in HK it’s he’s one way to help his country.

From ferry we took the double decker bus to The Peak. Upon arriving at The Peak, we stroll around, took some pictures. I’m wondering about the Sky Terrace, our host doesn't know about it. I’m not sure if its at the top of the Y-Shaped building. But we did not try the top of the building since my mom is a bit afraid of heights and its already very cold at the place. Thanks to our host he brought a spare jacket for my mom since we left our jacket at the hotel. 

We headed to Causeway Bay by the Island (double decker tram) and our host showed us the top shopping malls there and that’s where he left us to do the adventure. We are very thankful to him for accompanying us for a day and for a festive treat of dish. We decided not to stroll there and rode MTR to go to Central to buy our Disneyland tickets at Traveleasy and bought snacks to bring there then headed to Jordan station to check the Temple Night Market to do the initial shopping but we are unable to purchase anything since we are still going to Mong Kong on the 3rd day.

After checking for prospect pasalubongs at Temple Night Market, we rode the train back to Tsim Sha Tsui station to go to Avenue of the Stars to watch the Symphony of Lights. My mom is already complaining since her knees are already aching but I still insist her to watch the SOL. When we arrive at the AOTS, chill starts to pinch our skins since we are not able to bring our jackets and haven’t got anything for dinner. Since my mom is already complaining (you know oldies) and I’m already chilling we decided to leave the area 5 mins earlier before it ends due to loads of people that will also leave the place. We took a cab headed to our hotel and charged the flat rate 18HKD. Our knees are already shouting on pain due to whole day of walking and I almost got sick since we haven’t got our jackets for very cold weather at The Peak and AOTS. I just charged my phone for alarms, boiled water for coffee, ate few for dinner, took a medicine (to anticipate cold and headache), charged our camera battery and slept. That concludes our first day.

After savoring the place, we rode the Tram going down to the metro. ***TIP#02 – if you don’t want to be stuck on long lines waiting to ride the up to The Peak, better take the bus going up then the tram going down. There were very long lines when we arrived at the station.