PD♥: Hong Kong (3D2N Itinerary) - 1st day

Sorry for having delayed this blog article for a long time. It's just now that I have the time to compile my blogs and start blogging what happened to me these past few months...

Having worked as an OFW for quite some time now and having saved some money from my pay, I think I deserve to have a vacation at Hong Kong with Popsy. We make it a point na it would fall on a special occassion so we decided to have it on his birthday (Sosyal ang lolo nyo.. birthday sa HK ang peg..)

Because it was our first time to go to a far, far away land, we made it a point that we can go and have pictures to almost all of the tourist spots (Paguran ang peg namin mga teh, Disneyland at Ocean Park palang tig-isang araw na dapat...). At dahil excited and first time ko, masipag kong ginawa ang aming itinerary. By masipag, I mean everyday nirerevise ko ang aming itineraries so that I can fit all places and maximize our budget (take note: nakailang revise ako sa itinerary - first by duration na ilalaan sa place then by price and lastly by location). In doing itineraries, I see to it na mapupuntahan muna namin all the places that are near the hotel, then palayo ng palayo. Good thing the places there were reachable thru MTR (the name they call their trains) and our hotel has this shuttle to the nearest MTR station so we really had no problem with transportation.

So here is our 3D2N Itinerary (This itinerary is for those who don't have their kids with them or those who wanted to squeeze the best tourist spots in HK for a 3-day stay). I'll show later the breakdown of costs that we got to spend in our stay.


Because I got to allot some days off before our HK tour, we started our trip from Manila and not from SG, where I am currently working.



Nov 11 (Sun) - Departure to HK (Weeeh!!! Excited lang mga teh :))

3:00 AM - Start of bus trip from Manila to Clark via Victory Liner (Cheapest ticket I got to HK was from Clark so kahit paguran, we still managed to go to Clark.) Ask the ticketing booth for the earliest trip to Dau Terminal. If I remember it right, we took the bus with the signboard Dagupan. The trip was only 2 hours. We haven't realized we got there already because we really lack sleep so we slept on our entire trip, ginising lang kami ng konduktor. Haha!!

5:00 AM - Arrived at Dau Terminal. We were very early but we waited for almost an hour for the jeepney. We still need to wait for others raw para mapuno ang jeepney. We were very nervous by this time because it was already 6:00 and 7:20AM ang flight namin.

6:00 AM - The jeepney driver arrived and decided to go kahit aalog-alog kami. Good thing we were already 12 in the jeepney because pumayag siya that our fare will be 100 each. If less than 10, 150 each raw (Matipid ang lola nyo, sayang ang 50 noh). Of course, we can't do anything nung sinabi na niya ang price because we just wanted to reach the airport ASAP so we agreed.

6:15 AM - Reached the Clark Airport. Good thing, we got there on time. Pagdating namin, walang pila sa check-in but sa immigration (uber sa haba). Of course, I don't want to be in a bad mood because we were there in the first place to enjoy and not to get pissed off. Sorry but I have to say this, I wanted to suggest to have at least 4 officers sana to lessen delayed flights and to cater the passengers of the international flights.

7:00 AM - Boarded the plane.

7:20 AM - Plane departed to HK. We flew via Air Asia and I wanna commend AA for reaching our destination on time. We got to sleep in our 2-hour flight.

9:30 AM - Arrived at Hong Kong International Airport and the fun begins here.. :) While waiting for the 12PM check in of our hotel, we decided to eat first at the airport. We went through the whole stretch of the airport but we only found this restaurant (At dahil maraming kumakain, we also tried to eat here). Food here is not so good but nonetheless, it was okay. After eating, we went to the booth of China Travel Services (CTS). They have a booth inside the airport terminal and it is located in the left most part when you are facing the exit going to the MTR. 



We ate at this restaurant called "Maxim's" located inside the Airport

12:00 NN - Started our trip to the hotel. For easy locating of how to go to places, I downloaded the app "Hong Kong MTR" which is by the way, very useful when you want to reach your destination by public transportation. It will tell you the fare and the approximate traveling time so before you go, download this app first. I swear, it will surely save you a great amount of time looking for ways on how to reach a certain place. It does not need any wifi so you need not to worry as long as you already know what MTR station you'll be heading to. If it's your first time, do a lot of research of what station are the tourist spots near to. As for me, I printed a map of HK and marked all the places and encircled the important stations in our trip. Below is the schedule of our hotel's shuttle bus from the Airport Express Station. By the way, from the airport, you have the option to ride the bus, take the Airport Express or ride a taxi. For us, we would like to experience the Airport Express so we bought our tickets inside the airport. From the Airport Station to AEL HK Station is a 25-minute ride. (Sakto lang sa 12:50pm na dating ng shuttle bus)

Shuttle bus schedule of Cosmopolitan Hotel

Inside the Airport Express Train

1:00 PM - Took the shuttle bus going to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel 15 minutes later. We checked in and hurriedly went to the room. The hotel was very elegant. We got a great deal because they were on sale. I advise you to book at their website because you get to cancel when you have a change of schedule and the price is the same anyway with other online hotel bookings. You can book at Cosmopolitan Hotel. You can find good reviews at Tripadvisor. What I love about this hotel is the spacious room, location and the freebies like the wifi at the lobby and the shuttle bus. The only bad side we experienced was our view is facing the cemetery but we didn't mind anyway because we are mostly out of the hotel and you can always cover the windows with the curtains. And if incase you do mind of the view, the booking agents at the lobby will first ask you if you wanted to upgrade to a deluxe room where you get to have the view of the city but of course, you need to add some fees. By the way, the hotel is near the Causeway Bay Station and Times Square - around 10-15 min walk.



Our very comfortable and relaxing bed

Very clean and neatly designed toilet and shower

3:00 PM - Got to have a long nap just to have enough energy to go to our first tourist destination - the Ocean Park. We did not take the shuttle going to the theme park, instead we went to Causeway Bay, asked for the bus stop and the number of the bus going to Ocean Park. We took bus 629A and this will take you around 20-25 minutes to the entrance of the park.

The entrance signage

Me and Popsy posing at the entrance of Ocean Park

So shallow of me that my dream ever since was to see a panda in
personal... I was very happy to have seen one.

Popsy enjoying the jellyfish

We also got to see this dolphin show

And when we were done roaming and strolling around, here is
Popsy enjoying the view at the top.

 7:00 PM - Left Ocean Park and took bus 629 going to Admiralty Center. Travel time is around 15-20 minutes. We first took our dinner inside one of the cafeterias as we are very hungry from all the walks and strolls inside the Ocean Park.

A pretty decent meal in HK costs around 25-35 HKD

Popsy with our rice meals. This set is better than the one
we had at the airport - maybe because of the rice. :)

8:00 PM - After eating we went to the nearest bus stop and we found a bus going to the Peak. We rode bus no. 15 and the travel time was around 30-40 minutes. We enjoyed the night scenic view of Hong Kong but it was scary because the bus was really fast and the path was uphill and narrow. Nonetheless, the view was very breathtaking when we got there. We went first to the Sky Terrace 428 to enjoy the best night view of HK.

The Peak Tower taken from below

Ticketing booth for the Sky Terrace 428

HK at night. This has got to be the best view I've ever seen at night.

We had a very hard time taking pictures because there
were a lot of tourists so here is Popsy's picture..

And me, of course. It was very cold at the top so good thing
to have brought a sweater with me.

9:00 PM - Because the wind was blowing very cold that night and Popsy did not bring any jacket, we decided to went down and go to the Madame Tussauds exhibit. In here, we got to enjoy the different celebrities and famous people that had their faces and bodies copied and molded by wax. Popsy really had a great time thinking of the different poses that would suit the wax sculptures.

Picture with my favorite couple, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

Popsy giving a kiss to Angelina Jolie

Popsy with Jackie Chan

Popsy and George Bush

Popsy giving an advice to the Queen (Dito lang pwede yan :))

Popsy giving a sad look beside Saddam Hussein

Popsy teasing Steve Jobs with a Samsung S3

Popsy letting Spiderman take him on the collar.
(This one has to be my favorite)

As a teacher, this one is Popsy's favorite picture with the
best teacher, Einstein.

Popsy fulfilled his dream into playing basketball with Yao Ming

Me posing with Lady Gaga.. Just got gaga with this picture!!!

And lastly, got to be close with the handsome Johnny Depp.

10:00 PM - After we finished taking pictures with the wax sculptures, we queue and waited in the uber long line to take the tram.

The tram which was fast approaching so haven't had a nice
shot of it

A quick pose at the lower peak tram terminus

First days are really fun and tiring. Going home, we used this route - Peak Tower -> Lower Peak Tram Terminus -> Admiralty Station -> Causeway Bay Station - > Hotel. From the Peak Tower to the Lower Peak Tram Terminus is around 15 minutes by tram then we went for a 10-minute walk going to the Admiralty Station then took a 5-minute ride at the MTR to Causeway Bay Station then went on with another tiring 15-minute walk back to the hotel. I bet you can feel our feet soring and backs aching due to the awesome activities we squeezed on our first day.

As I promised, here are the breakdown of expenses (per pax) we spent on our first day:

Ticket from Clark to HK - PHP 2,450
Bus and Jeep from Manila to Clark Airport - PHP 300
Airport Terminal Fee  - PHP 450 (I did not pay this and also the travel tax because I have my exemption certificate for OFWs but for tourists, you have to pay both.)
Travel Tax - PHP 1,620

By the way, I got to convert my money to HKD at a rate of 1 HKD = 5.33 PHP

Airport Express Round Trip Ticket to Hong Kong Station - HKD 180
Train/Bus Ticket - HKD 150 (this is enough for the entire 3-day trip)
Lunch at Airport - HKD 30
Ocean Park Ticket - HKD 240 (bought at CTS)
1 way Peak Tram + Sky Terrace + Madame Tussauds Ticket - HKD 178 (bought at CTS)
Dinner at Admiralty - HKD 35

For our first day, we spent PHP 4,820 for our fare and taxes and HKD 813 or PHP 4,335 each. Total of PHP 9,155 (Rhy) and PHP 7,085 (Mine less the airport and travel taxes).

Til here guys.. Be sure to wait for my 2nd day itinerary. Tata!