Hong Kong Happening

I’ve been to Hong Kong so many times in the last 15 years, perhaps every other year, but I’ve never really “felt” it since I was always with my sister and she always just led us around. This year is different because I went with my husband and we had to learn to catch the train or walk everywhere via maps. Thank goodness for GPS, right?

I booked us a roundtrip flight via Philippine Airlines and got us rooms at the Wharney Guang Dong Hotel in Wan Chai. It seemed like a good enough place to stay in according to Trip Advisor – the price was just right and it was close to the MTR/train. Actually, you can stay anywhere in Hong Kong as long as you are near the MTR. Their transportation system there is so effective like Kuala Lumpur’s and Singapore’s. I learned just the day before we left that the hotel is actually in the red light district but it turned out to be not so bad at all. At least it wasn’t dangerous to walk around at nighttime. The particular street is lined with pubs and restaurants and people, mostly tourists, are still partying until 6am.

We took the red eye flight (was the cheapest and the earliest that we can leave given the husband’s very short time off from work) and arrived at Chep Lap Kok Airport at around 11:30pm on a Thursday night. I had asked the hotel concierge for possible transport to the hotel since I was convinced that we probably weren’t going to make it in time for the airport express, but the time through immigration and baggage claim did not take long so we were already out by midnight and hopped on the airport express train just in time. The last train departs at half past midnight. We got off at the Central Station and I knew we were supposed to take another train to Wan Chai but it was probably due to exhaustion that I just got so confused and we started walking around and couldn’t make out where to go. A kind-hearted marshall overheard us arguing and pointed to the train going to Chai Wan (which was the last stop of the train that makes a stop at Wan Chai. You can tell why we were confused.). Good thing we only had one bag! Poor husband had it with him while we were running around, panicking that we had missed the last train. We made it, but not before discovering that our Octopus card that I had preloaded at the airport was out of balance because I had forgotten that the airport express fee was $100 one-way. You can rent a card at the airport for $150 – $50 for the rent which will be refunded upon return of the card, $100 pre-loaded amount. So we had to purchase a one-way ticket which cost around $4 (most train fares are between $2-$10 depending on your stop). We got off at Wan Chai and was a little confused again about where to go because we had taken the exit that I was not familiar with (I had memorized the roads and even the establishments, thanks to Google Maps). We found the hotel in about ten minutes, checked in and were just glad to finally be able to sleep. It was a little past 1am.

We awoke at around 7am the next day, ready to walk all day but not without sampling the famous breakfast just a few steps from our hotel at The Flying Pan. It’s a diner-style restaurant that offers breakfast 24/7 and is always on the list of top restaurants to have breakfast at based on my research online. We each had their combo meals. And yes, the juice was tiny. I’d read that the place is always packed and the service not so good; maybe we were just lucky because we were the only ones there except for another tourist who was just finishing his food. The server was also rather pleasant. The food was okay; maybe we should have tried their special eggs but we were raring to start the day exploring. We spent around $189 for our meals. The exchange rate was about Php 5.8 to $1 HKG dollar.

The Flying Pan
81-85 Lockhart Rd, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2528 9997
http://www.the-flying-pan.com/

We set off to the west of Wan Chai where Central is and the husband took some

photos along the way. It was really cold out – 16 C – glad we brought our jackets along. We only had two whole days and we wanted to see as much as we could. We had no plans of shopping although there were a lot of store sales. We walked through the Hong Kong Garden and by the historic Bank of China building. We didn’t have enough $HKG with us as we had only exchanged a few at the airport the night before to purchase our Octopus card (never exchange all your money at the airport – the rates are too low).  I had spotted some money changers when I was doing my research but there were none that we could see that morning so we kept walking. We walked A LOT and almost gave up until we spotted one along Queen’s Road. The exchange was about HK$7.6 to US$1, not too bad.

It was about 10am and we retraced our steps to where we could take the tram to go up the Peak and view Hong Kong from the highest point. The queue had grown from just an hour before so we waited quite a bit. We paid $75 each for the tram and access to the Sky Tower. After the ten-minute ride, we were finally up at the peak. I didn’t realize that the building on top of the hill was a mall 5-storeys high. It was winter in Hong Kong so we had about two layers on, and was much colder up at the peak. The sun was out though so it wasn’t so bad. We could see all of Hong Kong which was great, but it could have been better without the fog. Husband posed for a really good photo with Bruce Lee’s wax likeness outside Madame Tussaud’s. We decided to have lunch at the Tsui Hwa restaurant at the Peak Galleria before heading down. The food was so-so – I felt dizzy after the first few bites of my noodles and I suspect it was due to too much MSG in the food. The place was packed though. Maybe we just didn’t know what to order. Our orders set us back $148.

Tsui Hwa
Shop 1A, G/F, The Peak Galleria, 118 Peak Road The Peak
Phone: +852 2849 2345
http://www.tsuiwah.com/

We took the tram ride down and went back to Central but couldn’t really figure out what to do next so we decided to walk down the pier and take the ferry across to Tsim Tsa Tsui in Kowloon Island. I love how the Octopus cards just take care of the fares as long as you have load in them. We just swiped our cards (ferry ride is about $2 each one-way) and sat down for our ten-minute ride, taking in the view and very grateful for the chance to rest our feet. We got off at the port and walked by the bay, took photos like all the hundreds of tourists that were there. The entire afternoon was spent exploring the Avenue of the Stars, looking for camera accessories at Nathan Road and window shopping at Canton Road – all to kill time until the light show at the harbor at 8pm. It was getting too cold but the view of the Hong Kong sky line was awesome.

We went into Harbour City mall and had pizza at the Old Spaghetti Place (we couldn’t find Pizza Express at all!). That set us back about $211. We were so tired at that point that we decided to catch the train home and call it a day. Yes, we missed the light show.

We were out of our hotel room by 8am the next day. I couldn’t believe we covered so much on our first day. It was probably due mostly to the fact that we only did very little shopping.

Causeway Bay was our destination this time east of Wan Chai. We took the train and looked for Windsor House where King’s Cuisine was. I read from a blog that yum cha starts as early as 7am in this restaurant and you get a discount if you bill out by 10am. I wanted the husband to try the traditional Chinese style tea involving dim sum. The place was at the 6F and looked oddly non-Chinese in that almost all of the walls were painted white save for one side at the reception which was in silver. It was already filled and people still kept piling in. It looked like we were the only non-Chinese and non-senior :). I love dim sum, especially xiao long bao and hakaw. Unfortunately, I couldn’t discern from the menu where xiao long bao is and it looked like the servers didn’t speak English so we ordered what looked familiar. The hakaw was delicious; they made them fresh, unlike the overcooked/oversteamed ones we get at local restaurants here in Manila. We also ordered sio mai and other stuff that I can’t recall now, along with the usual tea. They were all really good. The husband brought my attention to the extra pot of hot water and the plastic bowl that were placed on the table. I told him the water was used to refill the pot of tea, but he pointed to the seniors at the next table. They were pouring the water into the plastic bowl and submerged the utensils, even the plates into it. To disinfect? We did the same to our utensils and chopsticks for the sake of blending in. LOL! We clocked out just before 10am and our bill was around $120 for 5 dim sum orders – wasn’t sure if that’s discounted.

King’s Cuisine
6/F, Windsor House, 311 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2332 9090

From breakfast, we walked around again (legs aching) and looked for the Times Square that I’ve read about. I thought it would look like New York (with the big billboards and all the lights) but was a little disappointed that it was really just a mall with a big clock tower outside. After looking around for a few minutes, we decided to walk down to nearby Tang Lung Street to take the green Minibus (40) for a 35-minute trip down to Stanley Market (fare was $10 each). It was a scenic drive but we took the big bus back to the city because the minibus driver was just crazy. Anyway, Stanley Bay is near the coast of southern Hong Kong and the view was just wonderful. 

I’ve been there once before a few years ago but all I can remember of the place were the market stalls. It’s nice to just sit on the benches and people-watch this time. I liked how the restaurants were just lined up near the bay walk and people were just milling about. Some tourists were already having a beer at lunchtime, enjoying themselves. We had lunch at the Pizza Express (found you at last!). The place was kind of crowded so we finished up quickly and caught the bus back to Central. Lunch set us back about $270 (a regular-sized pizza is pretty pricey here in Hong Kong).

We got off at Central and continued to walk around again until we reached the IFC. We were so tired from all the walking from yesterday that we decided to just hang around there and treat ourselves to special fruit juices by Agnes B. I then convinced the husband to walk back with me to Pottinger Street where the nearest Rabeanco store was, just because I LOVE their bags. The poor guy consented and off we went, but alas, nothing caught my fancy. It seems we have better choices here in Manila and the prices are the same anyway. We caught the train back to Wan Chai and just roamed around the area looking for a place where we can get comfort food. Voila! There was a Yoshinoya down the road and the gyudon beef bowl was just what we needed to cap the end of our Hong Kong adventure.

It was a very tiring 2 days but I’ve seen more of Hong Kong on this trip than I ever have in all the 7-8 times I’ve gone to this country. If you’re going to Hong Kong to see rather than go shopping (sales are in July-August anyway), then you might want to do as we did – walk around a lot or take the historic ferry. There is always something to see.

Wharney Guang Dong Hotel
57- 73 Lockhart Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2861 1000
http://www.wharney.com/

TIPS:

1. If taking the airport express back to the airport, return the Octopus card to the counter found just after getting off the train, before heading off to the check-in counters, or it will be a long walk back if you forget to do so.
2. Most establishments do not accept $1000 because of so many fakes going around (they will point you to a notice in the store), so make sure not to carry them. You may have your $1000s exchanged in banks like HSBC for smaller denominations. It’s also wise to carry a credit card for emergencies but not all shops accept them.
3. The exchange rate is better for USDs so best to carry them and have them exchanged in Hong Kong instead of buying with your peso.