Hong Kong [September 2014]
I've been longing to go back to Hong Kong the moment I fell in love with the place last 2011 (I realized I wasn't able to post my day 5 during my last HK trip) and thank God I did last September. My sister and I booked a ticket early this year, at first it was just a secret but since I told my mom about my Hong Kong and Singapore trip, she immediately said she wanted to come with, good thing we we're able to book a ticket for her and my 2 other nieces the same day, same flight.
The week before our scheduled trip, a typhoon hit the Philippines and so as Hong Kong. News about PAL flight almost did not land safely in HKIA due to bad weather got my sister worried and the more little Mariel kept on praying for a safe flight since she and Jazzy was excited about Disneyland ever since they knew about the trip.
The day came, thank God for a fine weather and a safe flight and swift landing at HKIA but didn't expect the weather would be that hot, it was suppose to be degrees lower. The last time I visited was just perfect, fine weather and cold winds. <3
Will just note here what we did at the airport in bullets.
Immigration
buy Octopus Card / Reload Octopus Card
Buy discounted theme park tickets at CTS - China Transport Services
Maps (HK Map and MTR route map) I swear it's really easy roaming around HK and if you are familiar with the place, you can ditch the MTR route map
get luggage
breakfast (we arrived around 8ish - 9am I guess)
After breakfast, we headed straight to the Bus Terminus and hopped on the S1 bus to Ngong Ping, Tung Chung (Giant Buddha)
Went straight to the Giant Buddha since it's just near the airport so we just lug around our bags with us the whole time but too bad we weren't able to go to The Outlets.
We hiked to the Giant Buddha! No just kidding, we took the 25-30min cable car of course. Everybody loved it, fresh cold winds and the beautiful view.
We had our lunch at the village before roaming around.
Yup those little wanderers are my little nieces Mariel and Jazzy looking like a pro checking out the NgongPing 360 map.
The Giant Buddha, we met again! Went up with Jade, my two little nieces and Marlon. The kids went up without struggle! OMG haha I'm old and without practice plus I swear it was really hot!!!!!
After Ngong Ping, we we're suppose to go to The Outlets but opted not to since we have to check in at the guesthouse before night time.
The amazing race began in looking for our guesthouse in Kowloon! We booked weeks before at airbnb.com, the place isn't that hard to look but the host gave us different addresses (since they have lots of guesthouses, all got mixed up) prior to our schedule, good thing we bumped into a fellow filipina who kind of (maybe) managed the place so she helped us look for our designated building and room! The room isn't as bad as I expected though. But the environment was way waaaay different from where I stayed last time at the Central.
We settled down, plot our schedule for the night, refreshed and head to Central to have our money changed and had a little tour and reminiscing. HAHA Oh and finally saw Jollibee in HK, it was just at the back of WorldWide House all along! We had our dinner there 'coz of the kids.
After dinner, took an MTR to Tsim Sha Tsui...
to witness the Symphony of Lights...
and visit The Avenue of the Stars.
After the show and some photo opt with Bruce Lee, took a bus straight to Mongkok and experienced the night market even though our feet are aching from the whole day of walking. HAHA
No photos at the night market though since we we're busy :p
Day 2 was designated for a whole day tour at Disneyland Resort. The kids we're excited about this. This is their "Hong Kong", I meant HK for them is just the Disneyland alone. HAHA
But this time, we didn't finish roaming around the whole place. We're stuck sometimes on picture taking with the princesses haha it's ok the kids we're really having fun!
They even joined the parade with a fellow filipina performer!
Oh finally I was able to visit Toy Story Land! It was still about to open to the public week after I visited Disneyland 3 years ago.
And this time, I didn't even bother to take photos and videos of the Disneyland fireworks. It's just really nice that you'll witness everything with your naked eyes yes? :D My sister and niece took videos though. HAHA
Day 3, Ocean Park.
Ocean Park is big and difficult to tour the place in a day, once again didn't manage to finish touring the entire place.
Plus it was really really really hot that "hiking" in Ocean Park was more exhausting than ever.
But it's the total opposite in the Polar Adventure.
Where those cute little Penguins live and other Polar animals too.
Ah look at those bellies! Looking at this photo now makes me want to go swimming with them Penguins. HAHA
Oh that lazy giant panda! Asleep for 22 hours a day. Isn't he the cutest?
We covered maybe more than half of the attractions and shows and the kids really enjoyed everything in Ocean Park specially the Dolphin show which I didn't take pictures of. For the rides, mostly it was adult-rides, only my brother-in-law and I rode the Hair-Raser, a huge roller-coaster. Oh my mom rode with us at the Rio Rapids too! It was fun but a short ride.
We didn't wait for the Symbio - the water show for some reason and left the park at 6pm.
Marlon and I went separate ways from the rest at the MTR to have another amazing race at Central. Amazing race literally, since we we're chasing time. It was fun looking for the shops in a huge city and we did it just in the nick of time and roamed around Mongkok again for our last night before we head back home the next day.
Didn't visit other tourist spots and no side-trip to Macau this time but it was still a fun new experience. Also, I realized I have fewer photos this time, lugging around a huge camera is "literally" pain in the back. HAHA Ok I'll end this lengthy post here 'coz I think I'm just babbling and my post makes no sense. HAHA
Hope I can visit HK again soon, minus the theme parks and Macau too!
