Hong Kong Trip: Day 3 (Ocean Park)

We woke up early in the morning to go to Ocean Park. I think it was the first time for me and Dianne to ride a double decker bus. Mom used to ride one when she was younger along Luneta Park.







The line for the tickets was not as efficient as it was in Disneyland. Even though I have already bought the tickets online, I had to queue in line with guests who still need to buy tickets on site. The line was quite long since it was a holiday in Hong Kong. While waiting in line, my sister saw this amazing kid that was climbing up the statues in front of the Ocean Park gate.



The only ride we were able to go to in Ocean Park was the Ocean Park Tower and the Cable Car. All of the other rides were too much for my sister and my mother. So we spent all day visiting the many aquariums. We visited some of the aquariums more than once because we were so fascinated with how they have setup the habitat. Ocean Park's aquariums are by far better than the Melbourne Aquarium.












Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the dolphin show. The auditorium was already jam packed when we got there. But we saw the sea lion show and it was great! Both the sea lions and the trainors were showcasing their acting talents!

We weren't able to see the panda's also because of the renovation. We made a vow that we will return to see the shows/rides we've missed and to see the pandas!

We proceeded to the Harbour to watch the Lights Symphony show. The sky was a bit foggy and so we were not able to see the lights show in their full splendor but it was still great!

Hong Kong Trip: Day 2 (Disneyland)

Day 2 was reserved for Disneyland!

We were told that Hong Kong Disneyland wasn't really that good since it's only like Enchanted Kingdom back home. But contrary to what we were expecting, we had a blast in Disneyland! Maybe it's because Dianne and I are long time Disney fans and so really enjoyed most of the shows in the park.

We rode Space Mountain, the Buzz Lightyear ride, and the Mad Hatter ride. Mom had fun in the Buzz Lightyear ride. At first, it was only me and Dianne who were blasting the enemies but after a few minutes, my Mom took the blaster from me and started firing away! Hehehe.



We had our pics taken with Stitch and Buzz Lightyear. The line for the pics with the other Disney characters, particularly with Mickey and Minnie, was too long!!!

We rode the Disney train but the views were less than I was expecting. It wasn't the exciting ride I thought it was.

The Jungle River Cruise was cool! The same with the Raft ride to Tarzan's house. There was a cute guy in the River Cruise crew but he was suplado. Hehehe.

We also saw the parade but weren't able to stay until the fireworks display. Mother and Dianne wanted to go to the Ladies Market at Mongkok.

Next post will be about our Ocean Park adventures! Will try to post it tomorrow since I am too sleepy right now. Till next post!

Hong Kong Trip: Day 1 (Departure)

The Cebu Pacific flight to Hong Kong was delayed for 2 freaking hours! The crew told us that the plane will be coming from a domestic flight and since there was a power problem in the domestic airport, all domestic flights were delayed. Sigh! And to top it off, I forgot that Cebu Pacific flights do not include the departure tax in their tickets yet. We had to pay for Php 1,620 per person for the travel tax. All of my previous travels have already included the travel tax in the ticket price. Good thing we had extra money in peso that day.

We arrived at Yesinn at about 11pm. We took the A11 bus from the Hong Kong airport to King's Road in Fortress Hill. The cost of the ride was HKD 40 per person. This was the cheapest transpo since the Airport service via MTR costs HKD 100 per person and taxi from airport to Fortress Hill costs HKD 350.

The room was quite small, 1 double bed deck and the toilet was also quite small. But we liked it since the small space was really maximized and it has all the amenities you might need. There's a water heater shower in the toilet, microwave oven, ref, aircon, and water heater.

The small lobby of the hostel even had 1 computer terminal where guests can access the internet for 15mins if there's someone else who will use the computer. This was very useful for us since we had to backup twice the 2 1GB SD card that we brought for our digicam.

The receptionist of the hostel was a very friendly Filipina named Lee who gave us useful tips on how to go around Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Trip

Just finished booking our room accommodation for our Hong Kong trip. We booked a 3/4 Persons Family Ensuite (2 double beds) room for me, my mom and my sister. I was hoping for a triple ensuite room but these rooms were already booked at Yesinn Hostels on our scheduled trip.

Our room costs us 1,677.00 HKD or 8,702.88 PHP according to an online currency converter. I paid using my credit card and I was charged an initial $335.40 HKD (1,740.58 PHP) for the deposit.

As I was looking for a place for us to stay, I considered the Wang Fat Hostel and Sun Kong Hostel as possible hostels for our trip. The problem was I saw a lot of mixed reviews about these 2 hostels. Some say that these 2 were ok, others say that they had problems. But my main concern was that some of the reviews said that even if they have already booked in advance, when they arrived the receptionist could not find their reservation. That to me is a big concern since I don't want to have the hassle of looking for a new accommodation once we're there.

We also have booked our flight care of Cebu Pacific. We will be leaving on March 25 and will return on March 29 March 28. Total airfare for 3 adults was PHP 16,995.18. I also paid this through my credit card.

So far, we have already accumulated around 30K of expenses, including the expected international tax when we leave.

Next to do is book our online entrance tickets to Ocean Park and Disneyland. I want to make all the online bookings that I can so that we will have less to worry over when we take our trip. Also, it will be easier to budget our pocket money. My goal is that our whole trip will only cost us about 50K. Luckily, our schedule lands on the off peak days in Disneyland and Ocean Park. According to Disneyland's online booking system, 3 adults will cost us 885.00 HKD (4,592.76 PHP). The Ocean Park will cost us 624.00 HKD (3,238.28 PHP). That leaves us about 10K for our food and transpo for the 4 days. Sigh! How about our shopping expenses?! I think I need to re-think our budget ....

Here's hoping all the preparations for our trip will make our trip more fun!