Tuesday, March 28, 2017

SIGHTSEEING IN HONGKONG (DAY 2- Hong Kong City Tours)



Though we were booked for three days and two nights in Hong Kong, we had to squeeze our schedule and pinpoint what we wanted to do in Hong Kong and in Macau. On day three, we are scheduled to fly back to Manila at noon. So technically, we only had two days to roam around HK. So we decided to take a DIY (own trip) with a combination of city tour from a travel agency. Though we got lost, experience some delays that wasted some time on the first day, still we accomplished what was listed on our itinerary. 

The second day of our Hong Kong trip is equally jam-packed. City tour in the morning, visiting places of interest we chose individually and going to Disneyland in the afternoon. The second day was our HK Tour proper. Good thing I chose to take the city tour because it felt nice to learn the historical facts of HK and having fun while doing so. With this, we were able to adapt ourselves to their environment and culture. I have observed a lot of differences between our culture. I tell you more about it in a separate post.


For now be ready, because like what I said our second day is a tiring yet fun filled day with lots of activities to do and places to go to. 


Alert! This is going to be a long post with tons of pictures in it so I decided to cut/ separate it. But nevertheless, by reading this you'll learn as much as I did. So sit back, read and relax and wait for the succeeding post soon?... hehe


Starting our day by having breakfast at CAFE DE CORAL which was at the L5 of Rambler. We ordered for a minimal yet heavy meal. 


A steak, a sunny side up egg, baked tomato and hash brown served with coffee plus minute maid juice on the sides. I love the combination of this one. I commend the taste of the steak. Got this around 22-24 HKD if I remember it correctly.

After our breakfast, we went up directly to the hotel lobby to meet our tour guide from Continental Travel Agency. Our guide for the day was Mary (her English name) the owner herself. She has made our tour relax and definitely a memorable one. Th 
We rode their tour bus and left Rambler at 8:30 am. We were accompanied by a lot of our kababayans who also booked their stay at Rambler Garden. 

Here are the places we went to for our city tour. 


Victoria Harbour situated between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon in TST. I'm standing in TST Promenade where Avenue of the Stars is located. From behind you'll see the cityscapes of Hong Kong Island. TST Promenade is also a nice place to view the Symphony of Lights at night. We didn't have the chance to see it because of our schedule but we'll make sure to catch that one on our next visit. 


Avenue of the Stars is currently under construction. Anyways, we still got to enjoy our photo ops with the statue and learn something from the...

Gardens of the Stars 

Situated on the other side of the footbridge from Avenue of the Stars. 




The view from the footbridge going to the Gardens. On the left or right you'll see the busy highway of TST. 


While below are some of the interesting sights in the Gardens of the Stars. 








Dito talaga nailabas yung kakulitan namin but really goes to show that we really enjoyed our trip. The statues were figures of some prominent and most known personality in Hong Kong. See how happy my husband when he finally see the Bruce Lee Statue. He's his idol. 

Our next stop... 

Aberdeen Fishing Village



known to be one of the oldest and important fishing ports in HK. We were able to ride and experience sampan (boat) and see the floating restaurant. We had to pay 70HKD/each for the ride. It was a 30 minutes boat ride sailing around the whole fishing village. If Macau has gondola at the grand canal, this is HK version of Gondola at the fishing village. 



Entry point going to Jumbo - Seafood floating restaurant. You see most of our kababayans from behind :) hehehe



My view while riding a sampan. 



Some foreigner from the other boat. Joshua and I waived and say hello at them and they politely answered back. hehehe :)

I must confess when I heard Fishing Village is included in the city tour, I thought of telling our agent if remove it from our tour and we will go on our own instead. But still having a second thought up until I boarded our tourist bus for the second time. But since it was still early, Joshua and I decided to finish the tour. Staying for the whole trip was the best decision we made!

Because we went excitedly when we saw a different kind of fishing village. Definitely in similar for the one's we knew of. The water is clean, no stinky smells and the view is breath-taking. I don't know how they are able to preserve such clean and turquoise coloured water for centuries. At the same time having a clean and well organised/ structure fishing village with its classic nature yet has a developing district. I only go amazed with everything I am surrounded with. I can only wish that we still have this back home in the Phils.:(

We had a great sampan ride... as Mary puts it "something you need to experience before you die" hehehe... It was marvellous and something I haven't experience yet in my own country. 


TSL Jewellery Shop






Though I do not understand why a jewellery is a part of our city tour at first. We had decided to go on. TSL is a jewelry shop, where most fine and exquisite kinds of jewelry are designed and handcrafted. TSL means Tse Sui Luen the name of the owner himself. Mary says in HK most locals love jewelry and almost all of them own a birth sign pendant. 



I am no Chinese blood and bringing home a new jewel was not on my "to buy" list but when I see the Rat pendant everything changes (Hahaha) just kidding, I just change my mind and bought one for myself. I even asked my husband's approval before buying it because it wasn't inexpensive. With his support and weighing, I finally bought my first TSL Rat necklace in HK. 




Photos are prohibited inside so I got to pose in from of the jewelry shop instead with some locals from the background (legit) hehehe... 

Our next stop was at Gift/ Souvenir Shop 

Again, I wonder why a souvenir shop has to be included but then again we went and buy some souvenir from it, I forgot the name of the shop (sorry). Since we don't have an ample time to visit Mong Kok and Cause Bay we brought the souvenirs here. We've spent 458 HKD in this store alone but good thing we do not need to carry our package while on tour because the staff promised to deliver it in our Hotel before noon and they did! :) Got our package in the hotel baggage security before we left to Disneyland that afternoon.


The Lower Terminus of Victoria 

There is nothing spectacular on this trip, aside from the fact that we learn that a piece of land in Hong Kong can cost a 100 Thousands of Dollars per square meter. The went to the hills of Victoria where famous, politicians, celebrities, business tycoons are living. We learned that normal citizens of HK live mostly in condominiums but their cost of living is relatively high.

We didn't take any pictures because I think our bus driver are quite in a hurry lol. But we were able to see with our own eyes the stretch of Hong Kong from below. 


Some guest had to be dropped off at Ocean Park and the next stop will be at Disneyland. So we ready ourselves because we need to load off the bus once we reached TST. We were dropped off at Nathan Road so we bid goodbye to our tour guide and said Xie Xie to them. 


Our day is not yet done. Because by 12:30 pm our personal tour (DIY) begins again. (Less getting lost this time haha).