HONGKONG
- R D M
- Jun 18, 2016
- 6 min read
Our trip to Hong Kong has been planned—and postponed—for a couple of years now and finally, it happened. This is our first and much-awaited international trip, EVER. Going out of the country for the first time gives you both excitement and the jitters. You aren’t really sure if this is the right time to do it, what clothes to bring, what places to see; it’s too overwhelming. Fortunately, all are set, the tickets are booked, hotel rooms are reserved, and the itinerary is finalized. It’s finally time to fly. We made a really early trip to the airport, the sun barely showed itself. When we arrived we realized that our flight has been moved to a later hour. We weren’t notified of the changes and as an apology for the inconvenience, we were provided an access to the VIP lounge during our wait. Since we’re talking about firsts, this is also one of them. Staying in the lounge was cool, really. Breakfast food was provided and everything was first class. Realizing that time has been passing by idly on a Thursday morning, I took a short nap just before the departure time.
As we hopped on the plane, ‘Cathay Pacific’ provided great accommodation services to its passengers. I watched a movie throughout the flight and the minute I stared out the small plastic airplane window, I was in international waters, a few moments away from landing in Hong Kong. Just as soon as the passengers started removing their bags from the overhead compartments of their seats, I got curiously ecstatic. Hong Kong airport is HUGE, and busy. Everyone was going someplace some time talking gibberish. We barely got lost and take this—you have to ride a train just to get to immigration and baggage claim. It took us almost half an hour long line before we got to the bus that would take us to the airport.
Seeing the sight of HK irresistibly makes you compare it to your own country. It looks similar to some Philippine cities; only cleaner and more disciplined. We took videos of the sceneries the entire bus ride and there was barely any traffic—I love the country already. The hotel, BP International, was kind of a letdown though. The reviews said that they were rated four stars, so we were expecting more from the place. When we arrived and checked in, the room was small. It had two single beds and we had to order a foldable one because we obviously couldn’t fit in two. The bathroom was tiny too, but it was sanitized well so I’d have to give them that. We were all tired from the flight so we didn’t really mind. The three (Me, my mom, and my sister) took couple hours of rest and decided to explore outside by late afternoon.
We ate in this little café called “Studio Caffeine”. The ambiance was cool and a little hipster but their food, especially the pasta, was great. We had a night city tour called ‘Hong Kong After Dark’ at 8 PM. This was the worst experience I had there by the way. We took a taxi ride to Yau Ma Tei station because we were told that we would meet our guide there. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see him/her. No signs, no contact or anything. We got pissed and decided to go back to the hotel instead. We got lost trying to look for a taxi stop, and because some drivers didn’t know how to speak English, we had some trouble going back to the hotel. It was almost 11 PM and you know how it gets creepy at night when the stores are closing up and the park lights go out and there’s nobody we could ask; there was no internet either. Luckily we found a taxi and showed him the hotel card and he was familiar with the place. We were all relieved and tired to even comprehend the trouble we just got into.
Friday morning we were set to go to Ocean Park. We left at 8 AM together with some tourists. We took a stop at this warehouse called Dynasty Jewelry, I guess it was part of the day tour package. My mom was obviously hooked since she was a big fan of sparkling items, and oh have I mentioned? HK prices are way cheaper compared to the PH merchandise. Everything is sold at a way lesser amount because they do not add taxes to them. It’s awesome—you get to buy more stuff with less guilt afterwards.
Ocean Park was humongous. There were lots of attractions to see that we were given a map to be guided. One of the highlights was the cable car ride, another one of my firsts. The whole ride was breath taking, however it was quite a bit awkward because we were with another man. He smiled the whole ride and was a bit friendly, although I could tell that he, just like the other HK locals, could not understand English too. Another experience I loved was the dolphin show. I enjoyed it too even though I’m 18. But as a strong advocate of animal rights both virtually and in real life, I can’t help but think if the animals are treated and taught right with respect and love behind the scenes. The Panda Village was my most favorite attraction. Even though I thought that would be able to hug one, seeing one in person being as cute as I’d hope from the Facebook videos I’ve watched was satisfying enough.
Third day in Hong Kong made me feel like there’s still so much more to see yet the time was really limited. We were set to leave at 10 AM to one of the places I’ve been dreading to visit since I was 7—Disneyland! EVERY. CHILD. DREAMS. OF. THIS. Everything was my favorite in Disneyland I couldn’t even pick one. At the entrance, there was a huge line at the ticket counter and bag inspection. Thankfully, we were already given by the tour guide so we were able to save some time. Even though the park was just at the peak of its opening time, there were already a lot of visitors inside. We started of eating Mickey-shaped waffles, meeting Pluto, and BAYMAX. I even made the iconic fist bump with him. I literally crossed a lot of things off the bucket list that day.
Sleeping Beauty’s castle was a vision. It was big and just as what I imagined. One thing that marked my mind was the 3D theater, ‘Mickey’s PhilharMagic’, where we watched Mickey and his friends perform until Donald Duck screwed it up—it had a crazy plot really. We took rides and shockingly my mom came with us; the place really does bring the inner child in you, no matter what age you are. Some rides I loved was ‘It’s a small world’ and the attraction ‘Fairy Tale Forest’. The first one lets you ride on a boat and takes you around the place listening to different versions of the famous children’s song through languages. At first I thought it was too childish but once I heard the Filipino version of it, I loved the whole ride. The forest was a park and it’s like a walkthrough on the different princesses’ castles. ‘Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters’ was an interactive ride where you could go shooting some aliens around giving you points if you kill some.
Approaching the other regions of Disneyland, the ‘Jungle River Cruise’ was definitely one of my favorites. It also lets you ride a boat and we were able to hop on with another Filipino family which as crazy because we were all speaking in Filipino by the time the boat ride started. ‘Mystic Manor’ was also quite memorable. The effects were realistic and it looked like everything in the mansion came to life throughout the ride. The most extreme ride I went on was the ‘Mine Cars’. That roller coaster ride seemed child friendly at first but boy I was wrong in all levels. Afterwards I was regretfully enjoying the aftermath of it all.
Of course, who would even forget about the ‘Paint the Night’ parade and the fireworks show at the end of the night. All eyes were locked in the sky and at the castle by 8 PM. It was magical and out of this world. I was really grateful for that experience. I know it costed a lot and took my mom weeks to prepare that trip for us, but as cliché as it sounds, it was a dream come true for me.
Our last and final day took us to the city where we spent the morning strolling around the shopping stores. We found our family favorite ‘H&M’, and decided it would be best if we experienced even a few minutes of shopping in there; all the items were sold at a really low amount. We walked around a bit more, took more Instagram-worthy photos and called it a day by the time we were leaving for our flight. It was a smooth trip on the way home really and it made me excited rather than upset about going back to the Philippines. It made me homesick—all the lack of traffic and air pollution.
The trip went by so fast yet the memories were still vivid. I kept all the tickets and the maps that I was able to save from the whole duration of our travels hoping one day I’d be reminiscing about it. My first international trip and yet I felt like I couldn’t get enough of it. I mean yes sure the trip wasn’t perfect but it was an experience still worth writing and sharing about. A four day trip in Hong Kong, meant to last a lifetime.
PS: Travel diary for our Hong Kong is linked below.
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