Nothing beats the first time: Hong Kong experience

March 10, 2013

Aaahhhh, my first out-of-the country trip. Of course, who would ever forget their first time to set foot on a foreign land? Not me, definitely. As a newbie in travelling, I got very excited upon knowing that, after 2 years of working my ass off, I am finally going out of the country!

Everything’s all set with the agency my mom trusts with her travels: CME Travel. We’re off to go to Hong Kong with a trip to Disneyland and 2 days at Shenzhen, China. Being a first timer, going out on a packaged trip would be very convenient, but after some time, I realized making your own research and itinerary would be more efficient and exciting.

Anyway, upon getting to the HK International, we headed to the immigration counter then on to get our baggage (we sort of got lost in the airport; it was huge compared to the NAIA airport and waaaay better). Then waited for our sundo.

 

When he arrived, we were given the stubs for breakfast, stickers for the tour and our itinerary. Then, we went to our hotel: Rambler Crest.

  

Rambler Crest is situated in Tsing Yi. We had to take the MTR to get to other places. We arrived at the hotel around 10:00AM and we were advised that check in time is not until 2:00PM, so we decided to roam around HK in our free time.

 

  

Good thing my mother had been to HK before so she knows where to go. So we rode the MTR (spacious; resembles the LRT that we have here),

 

and first went to Mongkok.

   

Mongkok looks like a cleaner and more spacious Divisoria. There are a lot of tiangge with affordable clothes, bag, shoes and food. I was able to snag a turtle neck dress for 70HKD (350Php) and boots for around the same price. I wasn’t able to buy a lot of stuff since my mom’s holding my money and we were thinking that we have to buy something else more important (in short, tinipid ako ni Mama. Hehe).

So we just went on strolling and looking around then one scary (but looking back I think it was funny) incident happened: We lost our mom! Yes, in the middle of all these Chinese people who speak little English, with no money in our pockets and our phones were useless. We didn’t know what to do! We looked around, and around and around (You know how it is in the movies when someone is looking around for something, yung parang umiikot yung camera. Ganon yung feeling!) then I saw my sister was about to cry, so I started shouting “mama!” “mama!”. Chinese people were looking at me at this point, pero deds. Tang*na, nawawala kami e! We started walking back and forth on that street for about 10 mins or longer, when we saw a familiar face, walking calmly towards us and said, “Alam ko naman di kayo aalis dito. So di ako nag-alala”. God, if she only knew how freaked out we were! Oh well, the important thing is we have our mother again and vow that the next time we should stick to each other or at least have a money in our pockets.

Of course, we got hungry after that. We saw food stalls along the streets, and I want to try them badly!

  

But sometimes, I have to understand that having a doctor as your mom means being careful with what you eat. She’s kind enough to let us try 2 sticks of crab and fish.

Of course, the last thing we want to happen on this trip is to have an upset stomach.

So, we walked around to look for a decent place to eat, and you might have guessed it right. We went to a place safe enough and popular enough to eat at. Mcdonalds.

Then we took the train to Hong Kong station, and passed by the World Wide Center, where mostly are Filipinos, then walked some more, then we decided to head back to our hotel.

Saw the JP Morgan Chase headquarters in HK.

Day 2: City Tour and Disneyland

We started our day by claiming our free breakfast at Café de Coral.

  

 

I didn’t like the food. It has no taste at all. Good thing it was for free.

Then we waited for our bus for the city tour. Here’s our OOTD for the meantime.

                                    

City Tour

First stop was the Avenue of Stars. It is Hong Kong’s version of Walk of Fame. Located along the Victoria Harbour waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui. It honors celebrities of the Hong Kong film industry. (source: Wikipedia)

                             

  

 

 

It was said that if you wish on this fountain then wet your hands and tap it in your head, your wish will come true.

 

 

Second stop was the J.W Jewelry. I am not interested about the jewelries. So I just took photos of the place.

                           

Next Stop was the Chocolate Empire. They have lots of free taste! We get to try all the chocolates we want. This is where we bought our pasalubong.

                                

 

On the way to our next stop: Sampan Tour.

I was freakingly amazed of this tunnel. I won’t deny it. This is an underwater tunnel. I can’t help but wonder how it was constructed. How great the tools were used to build a tunnel under the sea. I even wonder maybe it was constructed when there was no water yet. But duh, that is a sea. You can’t just put a sea.

 

After the city tour, we were off to Disneyland.

 

Pardon my selfies.

 

Sucky part: We weren’t able to see the 3PM parade because we were busy trying those silly kiddie rides and we forgot the time. Only my mother was able to see it… again. I know, who goes to Disneyland without seeing the parade? Us.

Took the Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad to get to the other side of Disneyland. Our feet are hurting already we can’t walk that far!

                                    

We have to queue for couple of minutes just to have a photo with these bitches.

One of our favorites is the It’s a Small World. It’s like being on a river cruise all around the world. It was exciting because we keep on guessing which country is which.

Few shots inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PHILIPPINES!

After It’s a small world, we waited for the fireworks. We may have missed the parade, but not this one!

The fireworks started around 7PM. Once it was finished, we rushed to the bus to avoid the stampede of the people. Our feet were hurting terribly from all the walking and running and standing. It was such a relief to sit in the bus.

We headed home and reached the hotel past 9PM, I think. We slept immediately since we have to leave the hotel tomorrow early in the morning to go to Shenzhen, China.

*We weren’t able to go to Ocean park, so we said we will try to go the following day, if the tour guide will allow us. Unfortunately, we have to comply to the itinerary provided to us. So we went to Shenzhen frustrated and just hope that something better awaits us there…

Our trip to Shenzhen, China will be in a separate post.