Gazillionth Thought Bubble

First up, airfare. I booked our tickets in February from Cebu Pacific for 8172.80 php (4086.4 per person, roundtrip) . Despite their reputation for late flights, both of our flights left on time. Lets not forget the travel tax which is 1620 php per person.

The next thing I booked is our hotel. We stayed at Best Western Harbour View located at Sheung Wan in Hong Kong Island. I booked a Deluxe Harbour View Room for 3 nights in April through Agoda. Overall, it cost us **6,605.17 php **- that’s around 2,200 per night for two people. Quality hostel rooms would cost you about the same price so we chose to go with a hotel. Location wise, it was convenient. Buses passed by the hotel, trams are a block away, and the MTR exit is super close but it’s still a walk getting to the trains. The walkalators are a big help though. The room was big enough and the bathroom was adequate. They also replenished our bottled water everyday. The best thing about thise hotel is they let you leave your luggage before check-in or after check-out while you go around. The only negative thing is the waiting time for the elevator. It takes so long especially at peak hours.

By the way, we didn’t rent any mobile internet service. We just relied on internet from our hotel and the places we went to (there’s wi-fi almost anywhere!). I just bookmarked the areas we wanted to go to in google maps which I was able to access offline. 

Airfare: 8172.80 Travel Tax: 1620 x 2 = 3240 Hotel: 6605.17 

Total: 18,017.97 php

Now, for the itinerary.

Day 1: Ocean Park

The first thing we bought upon arriving was an Octopus Card. They have two kiosks in the airport. One exactly after baggage claim and the other after immigration. The line was practically non-existent past immigration. We bought the on-loan octopus card for 150 hkd. It comes with a 100 hkd credit and 50 hkd deposit which is returned upon giving the card back.   

We took the Citybus to get to our hotel. The rates differ depending on where you’re headed. Ours cost 48 hkd which was deducted from our octopus card.

Our agenda for the day was to go to Ocean Park. Having changed our itinerary at the last minute, we weren’t able to book discounted tickets via Klook but we managed to buy discounted tickets at a kiosk inside the Admiralty MTR station for 355 hkd each.

We took bus 629 to Ocean Park which cost **10.6 hkd **(deducted from our octopus card). It’s fairly easy to find what you’re looking for (i.e. bus stops) in Hong Kong because their signs are very efficient so from the Admiralty station just find out which exit to take to get to the Ocean Park buses. It takes around 15-20 minutes to get to Ocean Park & there’s a bus every 10 minutes. 

Theme park food can be very expensive and Ocean Park is no exception. You’ll get the best bang for your buck at McDonald’s up at The Summit. 

We left Ocean Park at around 5-6pm and headed to Tsim Sha Tsui to watch The Symphony of Lights which is totally free. We found a spot at the viewing deck in front of the Hong Kong Cultural Center. 

After that we had dinner at Din Tai Fung at Silvercord. We had the pork xiao long bao (60 hkd), angled loofah & shrimp xiao long bao (60 hkd), steamed pork bun (16 hkd), and steamed vegetable and pork bun (16 hkd). Including a 10% service charge, I think we spent 167.2 hkd or 1010 php. I’d recommend their pork xiao long bao (although Crystal Jade’s was so much better) and vegetable & pork bun.

Octopus Card: 150 x 2 = 300 hkd / 1868 php Ocean Park: 355 x 2 = 710 hkd / 4421 php