For now, I will be sharing the itineraries in Hong Kong for two days and some tips. I will be sharing in my next post the experiences I had in Hong Kong.
We arrived in Hong Kong from Cebu past 12 midnight via Cebupacific on the 31st of October 2011. Our problems encountered were:
- Immigration Booth - No pictures are allowed to be taken however you can always take photos on the airport but not on the immigration booth or anywhere near it. We were kinda lost at finding it so what we did was followed the rest of the group on the plane. Hong Kong airport is quite the busiest and largest airport in the World! When we finally found the immigration booths, there has been a long queue already (this I noticed when we arrived, passengers were running because of the queue). You can submit your passport in group. The immigration officer would ask if your a family or friends. Present you hotel confirmation and your round trip ticket. Bring along with you a money in cash just in case they will be asking for how much you brought with you.
- Hong Kong Dollars - Bus from the airport are the cheapest transportation aside from MTR. We were in a tight budget hence we opted to rode on buses and MTR only. However, if taxi were necessary we have spare money with us. What we have was 500HKD and that we need to have it change to smaller bills. We even withdrawn from an ATM in the airport but it dispense 100HKD (200 is deducted every withdrawn money on the ATM). What we did is that we bought a gum in an 24hours store inside the airport just to have the 500HKD change to smaller bills.
- Bus - A direction was given when we had our hotel reservation. However, our problem was there was no A21 buses. We have asked several people including the utility man however they don't speak English and only direct us with "sign languages". You better print the direction with its corresponding mandarin translation or any of Hong Kong languages so you can just always point that when you asked. The utility man pointed us to bus N21. We just learned that A21 buses will arrived by 6am. So we decided to take the N21 bus. The problem now is that we don't have Octopus cards (re-loadable) because at past 12 midnight most stores were closed. However, you can always pay the bus with an exact fare bur they don't change. Good thing we have withdrawn money from the ATM. The bus fare cost HKD 23 each. However, you can pay for the group which cost us HKD 92. We have given HKD 100, so there's no change in that we just thought of the HKD 8 is for the "tip" since the driver have dropped us off near Dragon Hostel.
- Maps not enough - Dragon Hostel is not quite easy to find because there was no sign for it. Good thing I saw the picture of the entrance to it. Maps were not enough, you need to ask and always look around for signs.
That were the problems encountered. With that, reminiscing it was quite funny. Now, the tour.
Day 1: Ngong Ping and Hong Kong Disneyland
- It is better to buy the tickets at Dragon Hostel because it is discounted and to avoid long queue. Stanley from Dragon Hostel, the cheapest hostel I've found and Stanley is quite accommodating, will give you map when you asked for directions. Dragon Hostel is near the Mongkok station just a few blocks. Purchase a Tourist day pass or the octopus cards. Tourist Day pass is good only for 24 hours from the start of its used and cost HKD 55 while octopus cards can be used anywhere it can bus or mtr or for purchase for food just look for the signs if they accept Octopus cards. The Octopus cards cost from HKD 150 to HKD 300 I think.
