Hong Kong & Macau Trip, March 22- 27 2010

..Tinggalkan semua....
Jalan-jalan ke Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Las Vegas,
Jangan sampai tua... sebelum waktunya ..
-Sheila Majid-

Taking an advice from Sheila, we decided that this year's number one contribution to our credit card bills, would be a trip to Hong Kong and Macau. Tak tau la bila pulak nak sampai Tokyo, Las Vegas or Paris tu :P. The moment we made the decision, we saw the signs everywhere (terbalik pulak, org nampak sign dulu). Posters of Visit Macau, people wearing 'I'm Lost in Hong Kong' t-shirt and hell yes, Air A had a promotion. So after a week of sleepless night, surfing and running spreadsheet (yes, nothing excites me more than the thrill of finding cheap flights and hotel)....only have to reschedule all over becasue of another trip. Never mind that, 6D5N, Hong Kong.. here we come!

Day 1 - The flight

It's about a 4 hours flight from KL to HK. By the time we reach HK, we were cranky and tired. Our gate was at the end of the earth. A long walk afterwards, we got our luggage and get out of the terminal. First order of business, is to get the travel card. It has unlimited free ride for tourist for 3 days, plus 2 way trip on the airport express. Nice.

Right. Next, where is the said halal Popeye outlet? There's a lot of airport guide so to speak all over the airport, you could just walk up to them and ask. Pretty cool. So, she pointed us that the outlet is on the departure hall. Finally found it. Lo and behold. Bloody expensive. A set of burger and fries is about HK50 ke HK60. Nak tak nak tapau jugak la. Kang la kebulur pulak.

Now to search for the airport express. We were to board it and get down at Kow Loon station and take a bus shuttle that will stop near our hotel. We booked ourselves into Imperial Hotel. Next to the imfamous Chungking Mansion. Ever wonder what Chungking Mansion looks like. Nah ambik kau.

Full of sleazy characters. I suppose it's cheap, tapi macam menakutkan aje. Our room has the view of what the Mansion's backyard looks. The hotel is in a very nice location. Near Tsim Tsa Tshui MRT, walking distance to a few shopping malls and very near the famous Peninsula Hotel (if you are ever up for hi tea). It's also near some other attraction like a musuem or something (of course haram tak melawat) as well as the Avenue of Star... which was the first place we visit that night.

Konon nak catch the light show sampai sudah asyik miss aje. But we had fun walking up and down the Avenue of Star... looking down at our feet to see which star we just trampled. From here we get a great view across the harbour and catch the HK skyline.


Next we thought, let's venture to one of the night market. So we took the MRT and ended up at Temple Street Market, without the customary getting lost first of course. The market is exactly like Petaling Street down right to the fake handbags, t-shirts, trinket and rude sales people. It's great to feel home :) When the kaki tempang sympthom starts to creep in we decided to call it a night.

Day 2 - Let the assualt begin

Today we shall exorcist the ghost of shopping. Maka kena la membuat bannyakkk peace offering. We choose to go this well-known outlet mall City Gate . It's near the airport. So we took the MRT all the way to the end.

City Gate is also near the cable car. The cable that is suppose to link like 3 mountain tops or was it Island. There's also the 360 Buddha. Kakakku yang bertuah try to phsycho me on going on a ride... but oh no. It was too high up. Even looking it from ground level starts to make me wanna puke. Apatah lagi if naik. Mau kena cardiac arrest.

The outlet has a lot of shops. From Coach to Crocs to Ralph Lauren. Tapi takde la murah sangat. Almost bought a Coach wool scarf. Mana tau kot-kot snow would fall in Malaysia. Hahahah. The best was the Nike Outlet. It has the latest collection but sizes might be a bit difficult. Pun begitu I got one in yellow. Akak like uols. Goodness, tersangat la laparnya bila duit dah habis. Energy depleting, energy depleting. What else but McD. McD kat sini best jugak. They serve Hot Chocolate with their meal set. There's no tax charges as well. Then it also have like a high end cafe where they serve lattes and sandwiches. Tak cukup fillet o fish, blasah tuna sandwich pulak. Baru la dunia ni rasa kembali aman. Sighhhh..

Petang tu pulak, we decided to check out the Peak. This is on hong Kong Island. We took the MRT to Landmark. One of the exclusive mall in Hong Kong. From there we venture out on foot thru Battery Path, towards the tram low level station. Bapak la penat. It's an uphill climb ok. Finally made it to the station, alive.

Dah beli ticket segala, berebut-rebut pulak nak naik tram and nak duduk seat yang best. It's always good to get the seat on the right side of the car sebab boleh tengok view ke bawah. Dang! It's really steep, but pretty cool. The tram go thru the Mid Levels and pass high rise apartments. Below the hills we can see that the cityscape getting smaller and smaller.



Many many poser shots afterwards, we reached the top of the hill. We got sometime before nightfall so we made a quick tour around Madamme Tussaud. Berebut-rebut dengan geng bukit nak bergambar dengan Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok. My fav was Encik J. Depp. Wuhooo. They don't look real at all. Mcm made in China je. Tak kisah la, just for the thrill of it.

After that we went searching for the HRC store. Percaya tak HRC Hong Kong ada kat the Peak ni aje. After HRC, we stumbled upon Bubba Gump plak. The t-shirts were on sale.. so apa lagi.

We also bought the tickets to Disneyland here. Every purchase of the tickets gets a free gift. We got picture frame and an umbrella. Masa nak queue tu it was a bit havoc sbb ada group of people.. tah bangsa apa tengah kecoh2 nak membeli jugak. The guy manning the queue earned my full kudos sebab dia telah apologies bila tengok aku dah start rolling my eyes towards the holigans in front of us. He even spend time explaning everything on the brochure and patiently wait by us till we reach the front of the line. Takut kot2 org depan ni trampled kitaorg, or kitaorg yg akan trampled depa. Hahahahah... Seriously, on the entire island (or islands) with population of millions, mamat ni la manusia paling polite yang aku jumpa kat sini. Semoga dia dapat naik pangkat cepat.

By the time nightfall, we are in total 'gagal state'. If we could hurled ourselves down from the peak, we would. Tapi digagahi jugak sebab nak ambik night shots from the peak.

Then it was time to go back. Only to discover everyone else had the same thought. Ya rabbi... panjangnya la queue. Sampai keluar kena beratur. You think Survivor is tough? Wait till you get in a queue with an entire population of human being who doesn't have manners! Semua nak cut queue lepas tu muka toye gila macam takde apa2 berlaku. Aku dah memang openly cakap melayu maki hamun. Tapi nak maki lelebih pun dah tak larat. Beratur aje la. Akhirnya.. sampai la tram tu. Macam nampak apa. Nak masuk pun nak kena jadi barbaric bertolak-tolak. Either that or tak balik la kau.

After the tiring queue, we recached the low level station. Skang macam mana mau balik? The MRT station is another good 15 minutes walk. Though downhill, kaki aku sudah merayu agar tidak melakukan perkara-perkara yang boleh mengakibatkan kecacatan yang kekal. So either we take a cab or ... waittt there's an open top bus. Just our luck, we had to queue with the holigans from the Disneyland booth. Tapi tak kisah la. Tolak-tolak... dua barisan dua barisan.. macam naik bas mini zaman2 dulu. We managed to squeeze ourselves and get to sit on the open deck. The ride down was winding yet exhilarating. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee..... too bad camera aku dah nak habis batery.

We got down at the last stop which was a ferry terminal. So shall we take a ferry across? Hell No! Dah penat and malas nak figure out where's where and what's what. Kang sesat ada pulak aku tido tepi jalan ni. So we took a cab. It went thru the tunnel to cross the harbour from Hong Kong island to Kowloon. Expensive la sket, but no complains.. sebab memang penat yang amat.

Straight to bed because tomorrow, Disneyland is waiting....