My Journey of Life: June 2012

Hongkong - Macau, 17-21 May 2012, (20th & 21st)

20 May 2012

On the 4th day, we went to Disneyland for a whole day. The entrance ticket was HKD 399 per person, no weekday or weekend rate. Foods were expensive there and many attractions were suitable for kids as there was not so many thriller games. We stayed until 8 pm ++ to see fireworks.

We went back to city and took train to Mongkok district to find local snacks. Wow...all the snacks sold there were very delicious and cheap, too bad that we knew it late. We ate those snacks as our dinner, hehehe...

21 May 2012

This was our last day at Hongkong, we woke up a bit late, did final packing and checked out. After that we went again to Mongkok district to eat those local snacks. Siomay 1 portion was HKD 10, eggette HKD 6 per piece, chou dou fu (smelly tofu) HKD 6, grill and fried cuttlefish HKD 15 & 18 and we also did shopping around.

At 4 pm, we went to airport by express train that costed HKD 100 for a single trip, expensive T_T. When we arrived at airport building, we saw different building, unlike the first time we arrived. It was so large and nice. Ok, just enjoy the pictures...

HK airport

Hongkong - Macau 17-21 May 2012, (19th)

19 May 2012

Woke up early in the morning, the weather was quite good. Too lazy to find another staying place, we decided to extend our staying until Monday but never expected they charged us at higher rate for the next two days, they said it will be about HKD 2,200 per night due to weekend. We cancelled it and this time, we had to change other hotel. We looked for few hotels nearby, had some cheap ones but the quality and condition were not that good. We gave up, finally chose Holiday Inn Hotel to stay, the rate was just a bit cheaper than Imperial but quality was better than it, HKD 2,100 for 1st night and HKD 1,900 for 2nd night. I really regretted I didn't prepare our accommodation properly before we went to Hongkong.

We continued our trip to the Peak by MTR. Alighted at Central station and continued walking to peak tram. We bought combo package return ticket, Madame Tussauds and Sky Terrace, much cheaper. The train brought us high to the top. After reached there, we took breakfast before went in to Madame Tussauds. Inside Madame Tussauds we took a lot of pictures. The wax figures there looked like real one, so nice. Then we went up to sky terrace to see Hongkong from highest place. I think if go there at night is more beautiful.

From there we then headed back again to Central station. we wanted to go to Ngong Ping village by cable car. There are 2 kinds of cable car, standard and crystal cable car. Take crystal one if you want to see the bottom view because they use transparant glass as base. Please don't buy ticket any places unless it is an official ticket counter. We got cheated here because we bought from wrong counter. Reached Ngong Ping village, it was raining again, we ate lunch at vegetarian restaurant here.

Went back to city around 5 pm, we took bath and rest a while in hotel. At night, we went out again to Victoria Harbour to watch symphony of light and had dinner at harbour city. Went back to hotel again took a good night sleep.

Peak Tram

Replica of Bae Yong Jun, Korean artist

Replica of Teresa Teng

View from Sky Terrace

From Crystal cabin, we can see sea at the bottom

View from our cabin

Our room at Holiday Inn

Replica of Robert Pattinson

Replica of Lady Diana

Giant Buddha statue at Ngong Ping village

Symphony of Light at Victoria harbour

Hongkong - Macau, 17-21 May 2012 (18th)

18.05.12

Woke up at 7am, raining..again, haiz. The weather was so unpredictable. We couldn't go anywhere but stayed in room also bored. Finally we went out to pacific coffee nearby having our breakfast, 1 doughnut + 1 choco muffin was MOP 32. I could say food here was not cheap, even 1 bottle of mineral water 500ml costed MOP 8.

We would be heading back to Hongkong at 11 am. Ticket to Kowloon was cheaper than the one we came yesterday, it was HKD 139 for one trip. The trip back to Hongkong was so terrible due to bad weather, I got sea sick, 1 hour suffering from boat swaying, lucky I didn't vomit out. Arrived at Kowloon ferry terminal, we continued looking for Embassy hotel/service apartment, the one that we searched through internet before. We were so shocked when we saw the building, looked very old and dark. No wonder they didn't put any picture of building in web. We were still thinking, "Oh maybe it's just exterior of building (Never judge the book by its cover right?)" We then went up by elevator to the place, hoping that we could get better impression of this hotel but we were wrong. The room condition looked different so much with the image shown in their website (Now, i am rechecking their website again, it's difficult to believe, the pictures there are so nice, did we go to the wrong place???). I myself don't recommend this hotel, although the price itself is quite cheap, i think it's about HKD 400 - 600. Never thought that staying in Hongkong would be a problem to us, no wonder people say living cost in Hongkong is expensive especially for housing. If compared to Singapore, at least with such price we can get a clean and comfortable place to stay.

We decided to move to another hotel, we checked in the Imperial Hotel at Tsim Tsa Shui district. Wow!! the rate was so expensive, it's about HKD 1,400++ per night with a room smaller than Sintra Hotel in Macau. No choice, we needed a room to stay that night, so we paid for one night first, hoping that the next day we could find cheaper one. After settled with room, we took rest a while then at night we went out again although it was still raining outside. Reached at the Avenue of Star, it was heavy rain again, the wind blew so strong even our umbrella couldn't cover our body anymore. We just took few photos there then went back to Tsim Tsa Shui to have dinner. So far we didn't see any hawker center around, so we just ate at food court inside shopping mall. A set of chicken and soup with rice was HKD 48 while roasted duck rice was HKD 29. About 9 PM we went back to hotel resting.

See the small blue signboard above that brown bus? That is Embassy hotel building, should be at 3rd/4th Fl

Hongkong city view from Victoria Harbour

One of artist's handprint at Avenue of Star

Avenue of Star

View from our hotel's room

Hongkong-Macau 17-21 May 2012 (17th)

Hi all..!! I am back with another story to share. Here we go...

17.05.12

4 am I woke up, as usual..too excited, couldn't sleep well a whole night. Looked over through window, it was raining heavily outside, thinking myself, "Hope the flight won't be delayed". Reached airport around 5.30 am, checked in and waited for boarding time. The rain hadn't even stopped yet, lucky that our flight took off on time. It takes about 4 hours of journey from Singapore to Hongkong. We arrived at Hongkong airport almost 11 am. My first impression with this airport was not good, when I entered the main building I smelled something smelly, it came from the floor carpet that they used, looked like never been cleaned up for years, was wondering whether this building is intended for low cost budget airlines passengers.

We went to ticketing counter to buy our Macau ferry ticket. After got the ticket, we looked for noodle stall to have our lunch, 1 bowl of dumpling noodle was HKD 41. There is free wi-fi access inside airport, we were too engross surfing through our phone, until almost reached the time for boarding we then went to ferry terminal, never realized that the distance from airport to ferry terminal is not that close. We still needed to go up and down the escalator and take train to reach terminal. As result, we were the last 2 persons who got on board, hehehe.

The ferry took about 1 hour to reach Macau. After settled with immigration there, we looked for our hotel shuttle bus at bus terminal outside the building. A lot of shuttle bus service was waiting outside and it's free of charge and you can board into one of the bus even you don't stay in their hotel. Anyway, most of hotels here are close to each other. We stayed at Sintra Hotel, previously had already booked via website for 1 night MOP 747.50 (1 MOP = 1 HKD) with a refundable deposit MOP 600 and you can pay using Hongkong dollar in Macau everywhere. I recommend this hotel, the price is not so expensive, near the city and the room is clean & complete with all necessary amenities.

After rest a while, we went out to MGM building, nothing much, seemed like casino everywhere not many entertainment there and from MGM we took another shuttle bus to City of Dream, the Venetian Macau is just the opposite of City of Dream. Interior design inside Venetian building is very beautiful, it is an indoor city, really amazed with it. After finished exploring the building, we went back to city area by shuttle bus. We had dinner at local restaurant, 1 bowl dumpling noodle was MOP 30, 1 set of sweet sour fish with rice was MOP 55 with free flow of tea.

Night coming, we then continued walking to Senado Square and ruin of St. Paul, also bought few tit bits there before we went back to hotel and took rest. Don't forget to try Portuguese egg tart there, 1 piece was MOP 7.