Vertical city - Hong Kong 2018
Visited Hong Kong in 2007 and the memory has stuck of the vibrant vertical city.
Busy, bustling, vibrant, vertical as far as your eyes can reach and island country where you can see catch all known modes of transport in a single frame! Gateway to Oriental Asia, financial hub, all world famous banks and insurance firms has a building on its name here.
Average height of any building is 50 floors possibly. Learnt from folks that for drinking water supply, the water board equivalent of the country pumps the water to water tank atop a hill with all energy and might. Utilizing the gravity and pressure system water is automatically distributed to all the skyscrapers! You name a fashion house and cosmetic brand, chances are you may have tripped on Givenchy or a Burberry atleast once in your trip.
HongKong is famous for its tall scrapers and amazing skyline. So we decided to start the Hong Kong tour with what the city is famous for.
We took Singapore airline Ex Chennai to reach HK. It was a cloudy chilly rainy day on 23rd Dec
Immigration was quick and luggage came quickly and we boarded the Regal Shuttle service to our home for the next one week Regal River Plaza in ShaTin. The hotel is bit on suburbs and we got it for a steal. 30k for 5 nights stay with twin bed. Breakfast not included in most hotels unless opted in HK.
We booked our local HK sim card thru klook. Klook has a kiosk at HK airport Departure zone and collecting the fastest I have done anywhere. All I had to do was show the QR code on the voucher from the klook App and they hand it over to you and you insert the sim and it is active! Breeze!
Tip: I would recommend klook app for the deals and for best rate compare the attraction website rate and klook rate with the referral bonus and discounts thrown in and calculate what works best for you.
We went with klook for sim card, Peak tram and Peak tower visit, Ocean Park tickets with snacks coupon thrown in (Ocean park had 2 Adult + 1 Child for 1 adult price) So for three of us we got at the rate of 1 Adult ticket and we just had to buy half priced ticket for my toddler which was a money saver.
For Disney land we registered on website and booked the 2 day entry pass with $50 merchandise voucher for registration which was not available on klook.
So look for best deal and prebook suitably to avoid queue.
For Ngong Ping 360 we booked thru klook again after landing there to utilize the usage and referal bonuses redeemed on utilizing the previous vouchers.
Agree you go on holiday but when abroad and the currency conversion is high, every dollar saved is every dollar earned for something interesting!
We reached hotel by 4:30PM.
After check in process and a quick freshening up and grabbing a quick snack, we started to explore the city by 5:30PM. We took a bus to Sha Tin MTR and took MTR to reach the Central MTR exit mentioned in the voucher.
Tip: At any MTR or at Airport, collect your Oyster card for easy travel and the card works in 711 convenience stores too!
We located the Klook guide who took us walking for close to 15 mins to the Peak tram station and by then it had started raining and was cold too..
After waiting for our turn we boarded the Peak tram and reached the Peak by 7:45PM
Being a rainy evening, we were not ready for the sight on the viewing deck, we were like floating in a cloud, visibility was close to zero and was dense fog and chilly wind that we had to scamper inside very soon. After a tiring flight travel we didnt want to be too adventurous out in open when we had the whole holiday ahead. Quickly headed inside and enjoyed the cosy warm indoors of the Peak tower. There are many curios shops and you can get a good 1 or 2 memorabilia to carry back home , jade or dragon or fridge magnets. If you do not have any of the evening markets on your planned agenda then better to buy stuff if you find any to your liking.
If interested there are indoor play arenas and a Madame Tussads if interested to explore. We had seen it earlier during one of our previous visits hence we decided to give it a skip
There is a nice cafe which sells the HK's famous egg waffle and the Mango Pomelo Sago pudding and the foodventrous me and new traveller my daughter we decided to try out both and soon with our appetite we ordered another plate and stocked up enough energy to sustain till we reach our room
Mango Pomelo pudding was particularly nice and on a hot summer afternoon would be the perfect cooler I felt
For return we checked on the queue for tram and realised there is a long waiting time of 45mins to board the return tram. We decided to take the bus which was faster and reached the MTR central in less than 15 mins. Traced our way back to hotel as we came and had a warm bowl of Maggi to end the day!
Originally we planned on Disney land on the following day, but looking at the weather and the tiredness of us all, we postponed Disney to Day 3.
Day 2 we shuffled to take it a easy and do shopping and city roaming at our pace and schedule.
Day 2: 24th Dec started quite late. We woke up after a restful sleep and had brunch of hot rice and rasam and chips. Yes, I have a Prestige kettle cooker which is quite compact and enough to cook rice for 2 people at a time and is quick. We had carried rice and rice mixes, home made upma premix in ziplocks measured and portioned, fried green peas as snacks and as additive for upma or rice, dehydrated onion flakes, Maggi, rasam paste.
The mantra for Indian Vegetarians is to have proper heavy breakfast so that the rest of the day can be managed with snacks and finger foods. For vegetable needs fulfil with salad veggies and quick steaming veggies available in most of stores.
We carried packets of trail mix/bar and chocos single serve packets for quick hunger and set out exploring the neighborhood of the hotel.
Having the past Taiwan experience was very much handy and helped connect with locals easily.
We saw a Wellcome store and checked out products in their aisle. Bought pears and packet of chips for the day and I started conversation with the help of my limited vocabulary and google translator.
Trying to talk or atleast making attempt to talk in local language won me friends in the store!
We then walked around the block and reached the MTR by foot and went to the central district. We explored the jade market and the shopping district. We went to Fa Yuen Street which is typically the sneaker street with only shoe shops. After negotiating few alleys went to Temple Street Night Market by 2 PM. The shopkeepers were setting up shops for the evening and I negotiated in Chinese(😎) and bought a woven Tote bag with Owl print for 15$. Bought some luggage tags and key chains and just about exploring what the market has to offer....
We returned to hotel in time to enjoy hot piping upma. Just boil water, added onion flakes, added brocolli (I picked in one of the stores while returning), fried green peas, add the premix upma and top it with ghee and enjoy it with fresh red cherries.
Enjoyed and managed Day 2!
Day 3 and 4: Disneyland!!
Being Disney Day, Kiddos were up early and ready without much fuss, again had puliodhare rice and curd rice for breakfast :)
We wanted to be at the park early to beat the crowd and be there by park opening time!
Again MTR and the Disney MTR line is a train journey to bring the child in you alive. The windows are Mickey shaped and the seats are plush and the handles are Mickey heads. The decor is completely Disney themed. It is a train journey to remember.
Disney on Christmas is a dreamland with jingles and music everywhere, Green and Red themed cartoon characters, artificial snow fall and themed parade..Disney is every kid's dreamland and this one is no different.
Tip: While planning any Disney trip, get the shows schedule and plan your rides accordingly. Similarly plan your lunch early or later to get most of rides and lesser waiting time
We ate Indian curry and Spinach Paneer with Rice at the Disney land's Tahitian Terrace. 110HKD for a plate and food was decent and quite sumptuous. Palak Paneer was good but not the so called Indian Curry which had a sticky porridgey consistency. For a park food it was decent and we were glad we had something Veg in the land known for Non Veg food!
Other than that the snacks of Ice creams/Pop corns etc are usual staples as in any park
Tip for Indian Traveller : Carry MTR 3 minute Poha mix in your bag. Hot water available easily and you can have better tasting food at your convenience. A trick we adopted on Disney day 2 for lunch :) Hint: CometCafe' has hot water vending machine
Day 2 was reserved for tomorrow land and Adventure land.
For the next day too we had Pongal Rice for breakfast (Rice, crushed roasted moong dal, jeera pepper tadka, ghee), prepared tomato rice sevai with instant rice semiya for lunch and carried in hand along with Poha mix after seeing kids not enjoying park food.
No issues with outside food in park as long as you dont carry huge picnic baskets!
Since it was day 2, we finished early and spent time taking more pics and went to explore HK city Central Business area and its majestic skyscrapers in the evening.
Explored the malls, visited the street markets again in the night and returned to our room by 9PM after eating dinner of pastries at one of the mall's food court and fruit which we carried washed down with sweetened drinking yoghurt.
Tip: Drinking Yoghurt and Yakult is available easily in all convenience stores. Have it daily to avoid unnecessary tummy bug!
Plan to spend time in evening by the bay to watch the laser show on a clear night! If not a Disney person, you can plan for a ride in one of the ferries
There are plenty of cabs available but nothing beats the wonder and pleasure of exploring any city on their local transport system to enjoy the culture!
Day 5: Ocean Park
Breakfast: Bread sandwich and carry lunch: Maggi cups. Hot water for Maggi available at any of the stalls on request
We bought the tickets thru Klook and with map in hand reached Ocean park entrance. Klook vouchers gave us priority entry and would recommend taking the cable card ride up than the the Ocean Express to enjoy the panoramic view.
Reach the hill top to enjoy all the high thrill rides, they even have a VR roller coaster ride which is a must do. Imagine on a inverted loop roller coaster but wearing a VR headgear,superb experience.
All rides are great and worth one trip irrespective of queuing time. There are some great food courts with food options like cakes, pastries, fries and even a Indian chat stall near the Cable car entry at base. We tried Bubble tea and Pastries for evening snacks which was yumm
Do not miss the Panda enclosure, the Grand Aquarium at the base after returning. While coming back do not wait in queue for cable car if you are not particularly keen. The Ocean Express is a faster way back to explore the park at the bottom of the hill.
Reached Sha Tin area by 7 so we explored Shatin Plaza till 10 and ate a yumm Cheese cake at the Ikea Cafe and retired for the night to pack and be ready the next day.
Day 5: Day to start back
All packed, started our day with Bread and fruits for breakfast. Cooker were all packed the previous night so just kept the dress to wear for the day outside and rest all were packed.
Checked out of hotel and hired a cab to Kowloon and checked in our luggage at the Singapore Airlines counter in city and handsfree with boarding pass in hand and just one bagpack ---off to NgongPing 360 which is closer to Airport. Planned hence so that we can maximise our time in the attraction and still reach airport by evening to walk in for security check :)
We reached Ngong Ping cable car base by Metro and took the Crystal cabin which had faster queue movement to reach the 360 peak.
Enjoyed our time roaming the Ngong Ping Village, the monastry, the peace of the Buddha park, shopping again :) We had Veg Pizza for Lunch there and had bowls of the Mango Pomelo again which was a huge favorite with us by now.
Returning just in time to catch the cable car downhill and reached airport by 6PM for our 7:15 flight
Thats the beauty of Hong Kong and City check in..Handsfree and roaming till last hour!
Yes forgot to mention Gold shopping at Chow Thai Fook Gold shop at airport which offers good quality Gold and no tax..
Bye Hong Kong Xie Xie !
Busy, bustling, vibrant, vertical as far as your eyes can reach and island country where you can see catch all known modes of transport in a single frame! Gateway to Oriental Asia, financial hub, all world famous banks and insurance firms has a building on its name here.
Average height of any building is 50 floors possibly. Learnt from folks that for drinking water supply, the water board equivalent of the country pumps the water to water tank atop a hill with all energy and might. Utilizing the gravity and pressure system water is automatically distributed to all the skyscrapers! You name a fashion house and cosmetic brand, chances are you may have tripped on Givenchy or a Burberry atleast once in your trip.
HongKong is famous for its tall scrapers and amazing skyline. So we decided to start the Hong Kong tour with what the city is famous for.
We took Singapore airline Ex Chennai to reach HK. It was a cloudy chilly rainy day on 23rd Dec
 |
| Chennai Airport Dep lounge |
Immigration was quick and luggage came quickly and we boarded the Regal Shuttle service to our home for the next one week Regal River Plaza in ShaTin. The hotel is bit on suburbs and we got it for a steal. 30k for 5 nights stay with twin bed. Breakfast not included in most hotels unless opted in HK.
We booked our local HK sim card thru klook. Klook has a kiosk at HK airport Departure zone and collecting the fastest I have done anywhere. All I had to do was show the QR code on the voucher from the klook App and they hand it over to you and you insert the sim and it is active! Breeze!
Tip: I would recommend klook app for the deals and for best rate compare the attraction website rate and klook rate with the referral bonus and discounts thrown in and calculate what works best for you.
We went with klook for sim card, Peak tram and Peak tower visit, Ocean Park tickets with snacks coupon thrown in (Ocean park had 2 Adult + 1 Child for 1 adult price) So for three of us we got at the rate of 1 Adult ticket and we just had to buy half priced ticket for my toddler which was a money saver.
For Disney land we registered on website and booked the 2 day entry pass with $50 merchandise voucher for registration which was not available on klook.
So look for best deal and prebook suitably to avoid queue.
For Ngong Ping 360 we booked thru klook again after landing there to utilize the usage and referal bonuses redeemed on utilizing the previous vouchers.
Agree you go on holiday but when abroad and the currency conversion is high, every dollar saved is every dollar earned for something interesting!
We reached hotel by 4:30PM.
 |
| Panoramic view from our room |
After check in process and a quick freshening up and grabbing a quick snack, we started to explore the city by 5:30PM. We took a bus to Sha Tin MTR and took MTR to reach the Central MTR exit mentioned in the voucher.
Tip: At any MTR or at Airport, collect your Oyster card for easy travel and the card works in 711 convenience stores too!
We located the Klook guide who took us walking for close to 15 mins to the Peak tram station and by then it had started raining and was cold too..
After waiting for our turn we boarded the Peak tram and reached the Peak by 7:45PM
Being a rainy evening, we were not ready for the sight on the viewing deck, we were like floating in a cloud, visibility was close to zero and was dense fog and chilly wind that we had to scamper inside very soon. After a tiring flight travel we didnt want to be too adventurous out in open when we had the whole holiday ahead. Quickly headed inside and enjoyed the cosy warm indoors of the Peak tower. There are many curios shops and you can get a good 1 or 2 memorabilia to carry back home , jade or dragon or fridge magnets. If you do not have any of the evening markets on your planned agenda then better to buy stuff if you find any to your liking.
If interested there are indoor play arenas and a Madame Tussads if interested to explore. We had seen it earlier during one of our previous visits hence we decided to give it a skip
There is a nice cafe which sells the HK's famous egg waffle and the Mango Pomelo Sago pudding and the foodventrous me and new traveller my daughter we decided to try out both and soon with our appetite we ordered another plate and stocked up enough energy to sustain till we reach our room
Mango Pomelo pudding was particularly nice and on a hot summer afternoon would be the perfect cooler I felt
For return we checked on the queue for tram and realised there is a long waiting time of 45mins to board the return tram. We decided to take the bus which was faster and reached the MTR central in less than 15 mins. Traced our way back to hotel as we came and had a warm bowl of Maggi to end the day!
Originally we planned on Disney land on the following day, but looking at the weather and the tiredness of us all, we postponed Disney to Day 3.
Day 2 we shuffled to take it a easy and do shopping and city roaming at our pace and schedule.
Day 2: 24th Dec started quite late. We woke up after a restful sleep and had brunch of hot rice and rasam and chips. Yes, I have a Prestige kettle cooker which is quite compact and enough to cook rice for 2 people at a time and is quick. We had carried rice and rice mixes, home made upma premix in ziplocks measured and portioned, fried green peas as snacks and as additive for upma or rice, dehydrated onion flakes, Maggi, rasam paste.
The mantra for Indian Vegetarians is to have proper heavy breakfast so that the rest of the day can be managed with snacks and finger foods. For vegetable needs fulfil with salad veggies and quick steaming veggies available in most of stores.
We carried packets of trail mix/bar and chocos single serve packets for quick hunger and set out exploring the neighborhood of the hotel.
Having the past Taiwan experience was very much handy and helped connect with locals easily.
We saw a Wellcome store and checked out products in their aisle. Bought pears and packet of chips for the day and I started conversation with the help of my limited vocabulary and google translator.
Trying to talk or atleast making attempt to talk in local language won me friends in the store!
We then walked around the block and reached the MTR by foot and went to the central district. We explored the jade market and the shopping district. We went to Fa Yuen Street which is typically the sneaker street with only shoe shops. After negotiating few alleys went to Temple Street Night Market by 2 PM. The shopkeepers were setting up shops for the evening and I negotiated in Chinese(😎) and bought a woven Tote bag with Owl print for 15$. Bought some luggage tags and key chains and just about exploring what the market has to offer....
 |
| Sneaker Street |
 |
| Beautiful Hong Kong skyscrapers at night |
We returned to hotel in time to enjoy hot piping upma. Just boil water, added onion flakes, added brocolli (I picked in one of the stores while returning), fried green peas, add the premix upma and top it with ghee and enjoy it with fresh red cherries.
Enjoyed and managed Day 2!
Day 3 and 4: Disneyland!!
Being Disney Day, Kiddos were up early and ready without much fuss, again had puliodhare rice and curd rice for breakfast :)
We wanted to be at the park early to beat the crowd and be there by park opening time!
Again MTR and the Disney MTR line is a train journey to bring the child in you alive. The windows are Mickey shaped and the seats are plush and the handles are Mickey heads. The decor is completely Disney themed. It is a train journey to remember.
Disney on Christmas is a dreamland with jingles and music everywhere, Green and Red themed cartoon characters, artificial snow fall and themed parade..Disney is every kid's dreamland and this one is no different.
Tip: While planning any Disney trip, get the shows schedule and plan your rides accordingly. Similarly plan your lunch early or later to get most of rides and lesser waiting time
We ate Indian curry and Spinach Paneer with Rice at the Disney land's Tahitian Terrace. 110HKD for a plate and food was decent and quite sumptuous. Palak Paneer was good but not the so called Indian Curry which had a sticky porridgey consistency. For a park food it was decent and we were glad we had something Veg in the land known for Non Veg food!
Other than that the snacks of Ice creams/Pop corns etc are usual staples as in any park
Tip for Indian Traveller : Carry MTR 3 minute Poha mix in your bag. Hot water available easily and you can have better tasting food at your convenience. A trick we adopted on Disney day 2 for lunch :) Hint: CometCafe' has hot water vending machine
Day 2 was reserved for tomorrow land and Adventure land.
For the next day too we had Pongal Rice for breakfast (Rice, crushed roasted moong dal, jeera pepper tadka, ghee), prepared tomato rice sevai with instant rice semiya for lunch and carried in hand along with Poha mix after seeing kids not enjoying park food.
No issues with outside food in park as long as you dont carry huge picnic baskets!
Since it was day 2, we finished early and spent time taking more pics and went to explore HK city Central Business area and its majestic skyscrapers in the evening.
Explored the malls, visited the street markets again in the night and returned to our room by 9PM after eating dinner of pastries at one of the mall's food court and fruit which we carried washed down with sweetened drinking yoghurt.
Tip: Drinking Yoghurt and Yakult is available easily in all convenience stores. Have it daily to avoid unnecessary tummy bug!
Plan to spend time in evening by the bay to watch the laser show on a clear night! If not a Disney person, you can plan for a ride in one of the ferries
There are plenty of cabs available but nothing beats the wonder and pleasure of exploring any city on their local transport system to enjoy the culture!
Day 5: Ocean Park
Breakfast: Bread sandwich and carry lunch: Maggi cups. Hot water for Maggi available at any of the stalls on request
We bought the tickets thru Klook and with map in hand reached Ocean park entrance. Klook vouchers gave us priority entry and would recommend taking the cable card ride up than the the Ocean Express to enjoy the panoramic view.
Reach the hill top to enjoy all the high thrill rides, they even have a VR roller coaster ride which is a must do. Imagine on a inverted loop roller coaster but wearing a VR headgear,superb experience.
All rides are great and worth one trip irrespective of queuing time. There are some great food courts with food options like cakes, pastries, fries and even a Indian chat stall near the Cable car entry at base. We tried Bubble tea and Pastries for evening snacks which was yumm
Do not miss the Panda enclosure, the Grand Aquarium at the base after returning. While coming back do not wait in queue for cable car if you are not particularly keen. The Ocean Express is a faster way back to explore the park at the bottom of the hill.
Reached Sha Tin area by 7 so we explored Shatin Plaza till 10 and ate a yumm Cheese cake at the Ikea Cafe and retired for the night to pack and be ready the next day.
Day 5: Day to start back
All packed, started our day with Bread and fruits for breakfast. Cooker were all packed the previous night so just kept the dress to wear for the day outside and rest all were packed.
Checked out of hotel and hired a cab to Kowloon and checked in our luggage at the Singapore Airlines counter in city and handsfree with boarding pass in hand and just one bagpack ---off to NgongPing 360 which is closer to Airport. Planned hence so that we can maximise our time in the attraction and still reach airport by evening to walk in for security check :)
We reached Ngong Ping cable car base by Metro and took the Crystal cabin which had faster queue movement to reach the 360 peak.
Enjoyed our time roaming the Ngong Ping Village, the monastry, the peace of the Buddha park, shopping again :) We had Veg Pizza for Lunch there and had bowls of the Mango Pomelo again which was a huge favorite with us by now.
Returning just in time to catch the cable car downhill and reached airport by 6PM for our 7:15 flight
Thats the beauty of Hong Kong and City check in..Handsfree and roaming till last hour!
Yes forgot to mention Gold shopping at Chow Thai Fook Gold shop at airport which offers good quality Gold and no tax..
Bye Hong Kong Xie Xie !
Comments