Saturday, October 16, 2010

Hong Kong Day 1

My Hong Kong trip ended not long ago and it was a fantastic trip. Enjoyed walking around Hong Kong, visiting shopping malls and eating all the food that we have surveyed online earlier. Let’s start with day 1, the arrival day.

Our flight was around 4pm in the evening, which means we have to check in around 2pm. After checking in our luggage, we walked around the airport. There was this TV that was showing Ugly Betty!! Although I am not a big fan of the show but it’s better than nothing right? Hehe.

  The mandatory photo to mark the first photo taken before any trip. Hehe.

 

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Exif_JPEG_PICTURE                                              There waiting area was quite packed with people that day. It was kind of hard to locate a vacant seat for us to sit while waiting to board the airplane.

 

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It’s time for boarding!! The plane is smaller than the one I took to Hong Kong but it’s okay. Note to self: Must bring iPod if taking Air Asia flights in the future. Hehe.

 

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Exif_JPEG_PICTURE                                              We were lucky that it wasn’t raining that day. If it’s raining, it would be a bumpy and scary flight. Haha. Anyway, we did not purchase any food because we wanted to have dinner at Hong Kong but the smell of the food that other passengers purchased was really tempting. I did not even purchase Ribena okay!!!

We arrived at Hong Kong at around 8pm. One shocking incident happened but it was assured by Pooh that everything will be okay. “So just forget about it and enjoy the trip”, he said. Oh well, he’s right. Nothing could be done at that stage. We purchased Airport Express Travel Pass which includes single journey to/from airport and 3 days of unlimited travel on MTR for HKD220 (including HKD50 refundable deposit). We have calculated the fares that we will be using for our trip and decided to get this pass because it’s cheaper and more convenient. We do not have to keep track of the amount left on the Octopus card. Just tag in and out. It even includes the ride to Hong Kong Disneyland. The best part was it could accommodate our sudden change of plan to visit another place.

After that, we took a taxi to our hotel. It was quite expensive though. From the airport till the end of the bridge was around HKD160. Another HKD20 to our hotel. Total is HKD280 including toll and other surcharge. Damn expensive!!! But we wanted to reach the hotel as soon as possible because the both of us were starving at that time. It was already 9pm and we have yet to eat our dinner.

 

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Reaching the hotel was a difficult task because the hotel is quite new and does not have a Chinese name. Luckily I spotted the hotel when we were on Nathan Road. Else, the taxi fare could be higher. I sensed that the taxi driver was quite pissed off with us since we couldn’t tell him the name of the hotel in Cantonese. But Calvin asked the hotel’s receptionist, he said that the hotel has yet to have a Chinese name. So it wasn’t our fault okay, Mr Taxi Driver :p

As expected, the hotel room was really small.

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Exif_JPEG_PICTURE                                              But it has all the basic necessity that I need. Air conditioner, water heater for shower and TV. In additional, it has free wifi in our room!! Not even the hotels in Europe has that okay :) So I have no complaint at all of the hotel. After all, it’s just a place for me to sleep and clean myself. Best part is the hotel is just a few steps away from Yau Ma Tei MTR exit. Really really near. Me like.

After checking in and freshen up a little bit, we went to Temple Night Market which is just behind our hotel to look for dinner. We were greeted by women who tried to attract us into their respective restaurant for clay pot rice. Clay pot rice is actually quite famous in Hong Kong. Since it’s nearly around every corner and we were hungry, we choose the one with most customers and ordered the small one to be shared.

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We ordered the clay pot chicken rice and a plate of green vegetable. From the internet photos, I knew that the rice and chicken will be pale, unlike the one that we have in KL. I thought that it would be good but I was totally wrong. The waitress suggested to mix the rice with soya sauce, which we did. But the taste was really awful. It’s just like plain rice with boiled chicken and very little taste of soya sauce. Damn yucky. Surprisingly, the clay pot rice arrived first and the vegetables arrived like 15 minutes later. It’s horrible!! The vegetables was really long and salty. Haihhh… first meal in Hong Kong turned out to be a total disaster. Oh well, lesson learned. No more clay pot chicken rice in Hong Kong. Hehe.

After dinner, we walked along the Temple Street Night Market. We realized that pornography is quite a norm in Hong Kong because….

 

Exif_JPEG_PICTURE                                              they have stalls in the night market that sell “toys”. Hahahahahahaha. We even caught photo of a customer viewing the toys. Hehe.

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Exif_JPEG_PICTURE                                              There’s a lot to see in the night market. Fake goods, souvenirs, fortune teller stalls, aunties and uncles singing the heart out at the road side karaoke, etc. We did not get anything from the night market because fake goods are so not our thing. The souvenirs were mostly key chains and me and my girlz have this agreement that no more key chain souvenirs for each other when we travel. Because we have tones of them and very little keys/zippers that we could use them for. Hehe.

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While crossing the road, we noticed that there’s a filming taking place nearby us. So we waited to see if we could spot any movie stars.

 

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And this is what we got. A group of people cycling…. No movie stars. Booohooooo……. Anyway, we made a U turn at the end of the night market and headed back to our hotel. Feeling a little hungry (I ate very little of the clay pot chicken rice), we went to 7-11 to get drinking water and microwave food. I think their 7-11 are very convenient for food because they have this cabinet with different variety of microwave food to choose from. All you have to do is to put it in the microwave and select the time, wait for it to “ting” and you and enjoy it on the spot in the 7-11.

 

Exif_JPEG_PICTURE                                              I read from the internet that their chicken wings are quite good so I tried it out. It wasn’t that bad actually. Taste better if the sauce was a little bit thicker and stickier. Hehe.

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Exif_JPEG_PICTURE                                              Anyway, this is our Airport Express Travel Pass pack. It includes discount vouchers to tourist attraction like Disneyland, Ocean Park and others. We have purchased our Disneyland tickets online earlier, so we couldn’t use the discount voucher. They have a mini map for the MTR station in Hong Kong for easy reference. I guess tourists are privilaged VIPs in each country. Hehe.

That’s all for Day 1. Day 2 is all about Disneyland and shopping!!! Woohoooo~~~

~BuHBaI~

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