Thursday, May 21, 2009

Hong Kong Day One (Part 1)

22nd April 2009

Slept for a few hours before waking up and cab down to Changi Airport to check in at 0500h. Our flight was at 0640h, was feeling sleepy at the point of the morning. Check in gate was D40, if i remember correctly and went to grab O'briens before boarding the plane because you are only allow to consume food that is purchase onboard flight.

Jetstar plane is small but i think it will be ok for people who is smaller in size. I have long legs and i have to lift up my legs to get a comfortable position throughout the flight to Hong Kong. But if you want extra leg space, you can always top up SGD20 for the extra leg space during the flight. We slept for a while and soon we are landing. It was quite fast, i thought. Saw sunrise and the Big Buddha on the plane.

The only thing i don't like about budget airline is that you need to take a shuttle bus from the runway and go to the main building. The long queue the immigration point, the best thing is that the Hong Kong Immigration Officers have a hard time trying to recognize the photos in the passport and the real guy in front of them. You should know why, because they kind of looks the same to me as well. *Opps, no offense.

Finally, we are out of the immigration and trying to get our luggage from the belt and head out. First thing was to go to the toilet, and the thing is that it wasn't that clean compared to Singapore's standard. Then went off to get the Octopus Card at the MTR Visitor Counter. HKD150 gone for the card (consists of HKD50 deposit which you can refund at the end of your trip, HKD100 value for traveling)


The next thing was to go to the Bus Terminus, to hop onto the already planned Airbus A21 down to our Dorsett Kowloon Hotel near Mongkok. Bus fare in Hong Kong is flat rate, there is no stages like Singapore. It costs HKD33 to City Area which is a cheaper alternative to taking the Airport Express which costs you about HKD90. Savings up to HKD57 at this stage.

During the bus ride, you will be able to see the scenery around Tsing Yi Area. I didn't manage to watch the time taken for the journey, was busy taking photos on the bus. And soon we are at Mongkok area, a bit of a "kan chiong spider", suppose to drop at the 6th bus stop, also didn't count the stops. When we saw Mongkok, we alighted and then realize that we are only at the 4th stop. So we have walk from Mongkok Station to our hotel, which is within walkable distance. For the next few days, we had been walking the same route back to Hotel.

This is the bus stop we alighted...

This is the famous Mongkok MTR Station Exit. Some interesting facts about this station, it has a total of 11 exits (A1, A2, B1, B2, B3....) So if you are exiting from this station, be sure that you look carefully for the sign before heading out. If not you will be at another place you might not want to be. But of course you can make a turn back.
We got into our hotel and checked in. Paid the remaining sum of money for the hotel room in HKD and a deposit. Then went into our room on Level 16, when we open the door, the room was really like what the reviews we saw. When you walk in, it is just a bed and a toilet, not much space to move around. =) But it is ok, since we are only sleeping in at night and most of the time we are out.

After taking a quick shower, we head out for lunch and Wong Tai Sin.

Useful tips for this post:
1. Get an octopus card will do you a great job for traveling around. No point taking the Airport Express if you are not in hurry. If you are in 4, i think cabbing will be much easy and cheaper to share among the 4 of you. =)

Total Damage for this part: HKD150 (inclusive of the Airbus ride)

Continue in Part 2.

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