This is my third time to Hong Kong and W’s fourth time! So I wasn’t particularly excited especially since HK is too similar to Singapore except when we get to meet relatives and friends.

Day 1 was spent travelling to our hotel, The Kimberley Hotel , getting a dinner and early rest. Our hotel was in a really central location and easily accessible via the airport coach bus. We decided to take the bus instead of airport express as it is cheaper and we do not need to change line. The bus drops near Kimberley Road.

The airport coach bus we took was A21 which cost HKD33 per pax and you can use the Octopus Card. There are designated spaces for luggages and if you carry big luggage like me, it is advisable to be early so you do not need to lift the luggage up if there is not enough space at the bottom tier.

Day 2

 Caught up with my grandaunt and her family. Met her twice (once in HK 3 years back and once in SG 2 years back) and am so glad to see her healthy and strong 🙂

Hope to visit her again soon!

In the evening, I met with Ho Ho who brought me to this Korean restaurant, Kimchee Korean BBQ in Tsim Sha Tsui. I was still very full and could not eat much.
Nonetheless, I feel so happy to be able to catch up with Ho Ho, one of my best friends from Denmark and meeting up with him makes me feel that time really flies! It has been 6 years and many of us are already settling down, settled down and some are even parents!
Wish you all the best Ho Ho! 🙂

金饍韓國料理
Located in: 1 Peking Road Shopping Arcade
Address: Hong Kong, 尖沙咀北京道1號8樓 1 Peking Road Shopping Arcade
Phone: +852 2628 0136

Day 3

Caught up with my dad’s cousin and his family in the morning. I visited them 3 years ago in HK as well. Glad to see them doing well 🙂

As for lunch, I went to meet Fannie, someone whom I met in Harbin when travelling alone. Met Fannie again when she came to Singapore earlier this year and here we are in Hong Kong. Always so happy to be able to meet up friends despite living in different parts of the world.

We had our lunch in Barista Caffe, which was rather hard to find as it was located in a small hotel. But trust your GPS! Always good to get a local prepaid SIM card 🙂
I really enjoyed my pasta but the portion was huge and I could not finish. The set lunch was affordable at only HKD65.

Barista Caffe

Address: Hong Kong, 尖沙咀亞士厘道18號東亞中心3樓

Phone: +852 2511 0998

Hours:  8am to 6.30pm (weekdays), 12 to 6.30pm (Saturdays). Closed on Sundays.

 We had dinner at Lei Garden in Mongkok.

Day 4

Disneyland Hong Kong is very accessible by the MTR! We took about 40 minutes to reach from Tsim Sha Tsui.

I brought my minnie mouse ear which I bought in Tokyo as I did not want to waste money to buy new ears haha.

Love the Christmas theme Disney!

We went back to Tsim Sha Tsui and W wanted to try the Itacho Sushi here.

Verdict: Singapore’s Itacho is better and cheaper! The 40cents sushi was not 40cents here, sushi tasted the same but the udon used here is the thin noodle which I did not like. I like my udon to be thick and QQ.
The bill was about SGD30+ each here but usually I eat less than SGD25 in Singapore due to the 40cents sushi.

Day 5
The weather looks good and we decided to hike up Lantau Peak! We took bus 11 to Pak Kung Au from Tung Chung bus terminal. As there is no bell to press, you have to alert the driver to stop at Pak Kung Au. The bus ride was 20 minutes and you can use Octopus card to pay. They do not return change for cash payment. Monday to Saturday is about HKD11 while Sunday is almost double the price which I am not sure why.
Bus 23 also passes by Pak Kung Au but the queue was longer and we presumed that was because bus 23 goes to the Lantau Peak while bus 11 goes to Tai O village.

Bus 11 (Tung Chung – Tai O)Website: http://www.i-busnet.com/english/info/lantau/11.htm

Bus 23 (Tung Chung – Ngong Ping)Website: http://www.i-busnet.com/english/info/lantau/23.htm

 You will see this once you alight.

 We have to cross to the other side to start the hike to Lantau Peak, otherwise on the side where we alighted will be towards the Sunset Peak.
As we wanted to end at the Big Buddha, we had to take the Lantau Peak.

Fluffy clouds

It wasn’t as easy as I thought. The steps were pretty steep!

 Finally reached after 1.5 hours!

 But we have another 45 minutes to go before reaching the Big Buddha!

At the peak, we couldn’t see the Big Buddha at all. How is it possible to reach within 45 minutes, we wonder?

Coming down towards Ngong Ping was even steeper!

 Soon after this point, we spotted the Big Buddha but it seemed so far away! 30 minutes seems impossible as it was mountains away from where we stood!

Can you spot the Big Buddha? There wasn’t anyone around to ask but we thought since there is only one way down and we have to go down nonetheless, we shall just go ahead.

 And then we saw this in 30 minutes and we thought yes we are on track! The Wisdom Path.

 Big Buddha.

We walked around the Big Buddha but did not visit the Po Lin Monastery as we need to hurry over to Tai O Village. We did not have any lunch yet as we gobbled down a sausage (HKD22) and bean curd  (HKD15) sold around the Big Buddha. The bean curd and sausage were surprisingly good though rather expensive!

 Many souvenir shops on the way to the Ngong Ping bus terminal and cable car station. Always a tourist trap! Kyoto’s kiyomizu dera has similar shops too.
From Ngong Ping, we caught bus 21 that says to Tai O Village and we reached in about 30 minutes. Again it is best to use Octopus Card as they do not return any change. The fare was HKD6.30 and we were lucky to have caught this bus as at this point of writing, I realised the frequency of the bus is hourly!

Bus 21 (Ngong Ping – Tai O)Website: http://www.i-busnet.com/english/info/lantau/21.htm

Once we reached Tai O village, there was this guy who was selling boat tickets to go around the village and claims that it was the last boat for the day.
The boat ride took us around the fishing village, and out in the sea a while to see any potential dolphins which we did not.
After the ride, we crossed a bridge and came across another boat company which sells ticket at HKD20 instead of HKD25 which we took! We felt cheated but luckily it was only a little more expensive.
So for future tourists, please walk a little more to take the cheaper boat ride (which I believe goes to the same attractions).

Tai O village was a good break from the crowded cosmopolitan Hong Kong.

Tried this Tai O Donut which was quite tasty! Apparently this is quite famous in Tai O.

 And I love my crispy egg waffle (鸡蛋仔). Better than Singapore’s waffle.

We had a good dinner at 威尼斯酒家 where the boss was super friendly and we really like how the villagers dine together in the restaurant. We felt like we were part of the Tai O family! The food was of generous servings and affordable. 
We caught bus 11 back to Tung Chung where W wanted to buy the New Balance sneakers we saw earlier in the day at the Citygate Outlets. Unfortunately that day happens to be their Christmas party celebration for their staff and New Balance closed early! 
In the end, W still scored a good deal with his Timberland bermudas while I almost bought this Furla metropolis bag which was going at about SGD380 only. So tempted! 

Day 6

We made a day trip to Macau, which happens to be a public holiday for Macau. Hence the ferry ticket was slighly more expensive. We took the Turbojet Ferry to Macau, which had a longer queue than the Cotai Ferry.

After purchasing our tickets, we realised that Cotai Ferry has promotion for return tickets for birthday month which was around HKD100 cheaper! Unfortuantely we already purchased our tickets. The good thing is, Turbojet’s Macau Terminal is nearer to the Ruins of St. Paul’s.

 Senado Square.

Reminds us of Spain.

Ruins of St. Paul’s.

The fake Eiffel Tower costs about HKD100+ to enter which we felt is totally not worth it.

 The casinos were very beautiful at night! We took a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal where we purchased Cotai ferry as this terminal has Cotai ferry only. 

Day 7

On our last day, we decided to try Yi Dian Xin which was highly recommended by my brother. Indeed, it did not disappoint us!

 The shop opens at 11am and we reached at 11.15am where there was a queue formed already!

 We waited for about 20 minutes and the food was definitely worth the wait! The bill was about SGD15 per person and we ordered 9 dishes of dim sum.

We head over to Sham Shui Po as my brother wanted to get some Dragonball toys.

Before we leave Hong Kong, we bought some Jenny Bakery and Hang Heung wife cake (I think it is better than Wing Wah) for our family, friends and colleagues. Our Kimberley hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui is really convenient as we get everything we need at a walking distance! If our shopping gets heavy, we can just unload back in the hotel 🙂

Do take note that there are a lot of Jenny Bakery imitations in Tsim Sha Tsui so make sure to go to the authentic one!

Jenny Bakery

Address: Shop G24 Ground Floor & Shop 42 1st Floor, Mirador Mansion, 54-64 Nathan Road                Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Exit D2 Phone:  (+852) 2311.8070 Hours: 9am– 6:30pm Website: http://www.jennybakery.com/wp/hongkong/

Hang Heung

Address: Tsim Sha Tsui Carnarvon Mansion 8-12E Carnarvon Rd                 Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Exit D2 Phone:   2385 7938  Website: http://www.hangheung.com.hk/