I just came back from a trip in Hong Kong with my family and my girlfriend joined in too for the first time with my familt. This trip took quite awhile to plan as I've never been to Hong Kong before. I had to read other people's blog and study the map and their train system in order to understand how to get around.
Hong Kong is not exactly a cheap place to travel. For this trip, it wasn't really a budget trip, In total, we had spent around $1200 per person for just 5 days. For flights and accommodation, it was not budget too. We took Singapore airlines and stayed in a 4 star hotel. It was actually my first time travelling on Singapore airlines as an adult.
Flying off at 9:55am, we had ample sleep before going to the airport. Singapore airlines had food provided and it was quite good. This was my first full meal on a plane.
I had the scrambled eggs with sausage and potatoes while my girlfriend had some noodles
We arrived at around 2:30pm due to some delays at the Hong Kong airport as it was peak period. I had arranged for an airport shuttle bus transfer directly to the hotel. Other ways to get to the city include taking the airport express or their MRT trains which is called MTR. The hotel we stayed in was called Metropark hotel Kowloon. It wasn't really near to the MTR so it was a bit inconvenient. The walk to the MTR takes about 10-15 minutes which can be tiring after a long days walk.
Hong Kong is always known as a first world city. Back in the 80s when Singapore was still developing, Hong Kong was already a metropolis. It still is till today. When we arrived in Hong Kong, tall buildings are seen everywhere.
After checking into our hotel, we went straight for dinner at Dimdim sum. This is a famous dim sum place and is known to be better than Tim Ho Wan.
We had this at the Mong Kok branch which is near to the Mong Kok MTR. The food was really good. I think this was one of the best meals we had in HK for the 5 days. The must try is the carrot cake where you can actually taste the radish and the chee cheong fun was tasty too. The polo bun wasn't really nice here so you can skip it. For polo bun, Kam Wah cafe is still the best which I will write more on it later. You can find this Dim Sum place on the map below:
After dinner, we headed off to Tsim Sha Tsui where we can see the harbour overlooking the skyscrapers at Hong Kong island. In case you didn't know, Hong Kong is made up of 3 different islands:
- Lantau Island
- Kowloon Island
- Hong Kong Island
Lantau island is where Disneyland and the airport is. Kowloon is famous for the ladies market and many other street activities. This was also the place where I stayed at. As for Hong Kong island, it is like their CBD area with high end shopping and offices.
We were here at Tsim Sha Tsui for the avenue of stars and the symphony of lights. It was quite sad that the avenue of stars was under construction for upgrading but they had a smaller area called garden of stars where I suppose they shifted all the things to this small place.
The symphony of lights was a disappointment. The lights were not fascinating and there was no music at all. I think our Marina Bay Sands lights is so much better.
Feeling bored, we headed back to Mong Kok area this time to walk around the ladies market and Fa Yuen Street night market. Ladies market has many items which you can buy as souvenirs and Fa Yuen street was quite interesting with lots of performances and music all around.
There were lots of food along the streets. We manage to buy back some beancurd, shark fin soup, fish noodle soup and their famous curry fishball and had it back at the hotel. Time for an early night rest before heading to Disneyland the next day. It was actually the best part of this trip.
Stay tune for day 2 and more!
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