This is probably my first time writing about a trip so I’m gonna be as detailed as I can, so here goes nothing.

Around late last year or was it early this year, Hugo who’s an avid airplane ticket promotion stalker booked two Cathay Pacific tickets for two, and luckily it was right after my finals or so it was what I think it was. When I began my semester, there were no confirmed dates as to when is my semester break and I have been bugging for 4 months and still the reply was “there is no reply from USM” so nearing the end of my semester, I was constantly bugging my school’s office for the exact dates of my break, because firstly; my semester couldn’t be like 4 freaking months long and secondly, I didn’t want to cancel my trip to sit for papers!

So yea, I was hustling all my lecturers and the admin of the Mass Comm office and thankfully, my final paper is literally a week before my departure to Hong Kong! Honestly, receiving your final examination’s schedule a week prior to your first paper is a very mean thing that your school can do to you.

Major stress mampus gila babi @_@.

Anyhow, after finally knowing the exact dates for my papers, I was relieved that my Hong Kong trip had no need to be canceled and I sat for the papers doing the best that I could and I think I’ll do okay,  but my main focus was thinking of the well deserved holiday ahead. I don’t expect any fantastic results though, it’s my first semester afterall therefore I shall take this as a learning cove.

Back to Hong Kong, surprisingly I slept like a baby the night before departure, and I was very well packed for everything unlike somebody who packed like as if he’s migrating to Hong Kong. I even brought several surgical masks just in case, as the swine flu case is getting pretty serious in Hong Kong. Our departure time was 8.10 am, therefore we had to wake up even before the male chicken starts singing. We woke up at 5.30 am and had some light breakfast before heading to the airport. I even brought Mr.Shit with me!

The flight to Hong Kong was about 3 hours plus and it was a pleasant flight. I’ve always loved Cathay Pacific airlines, especially 10 years back when they gave me my very own kiddy meal, I still have the cartoon lunchbox that they served food in with all the Looney Tunes cartoons. Breakfast on the plane was either Fritata with Hash Brown and Breakfast Sausage or Fried Noodles with Chicken. The movie selections was great too, there’s Twilight (which I watched for the don’t know how many times already), Seven Pounds, Discovery, E!, and many more.

Upon reaching Hong Kong, we were given arrival and departure cards to be filled in and sign, presented upon arrival and depature.  We had to sign health declaration forms too, because of the swine flu outbreak.

One thing I find very good in HK is, we didn’t have to rely on a GPS machine to guide us around, heck there’s no free Garmin HK maps either, so we stuck to the traditional paper map and in HKIA plenty of tourist friendly maps were available.

From the arrival hall to the bus stand outside HKIA, it took us about 20 minutes even with the airport express trains because HKIA is so damn huge. Getting to our destination, Dragon Hostel in Mong Kok was quite a breeze. The public transportation in HK is very very very and I shall add another very just to emphasize how efficient their system is. The roads in HK are constantly busy, and you will see more taxis compared to private cars. We didn’t have to wait long for our bus, probably about 5 minutes and we were off to Mong Kok.

Even in the bus, there were announcements as to where the next stop is and how many more minutes before the next stop. More importantly, the busses are double deckers!

We arrived at Nathan Road, consulted our maps guiding us to Argylle Road where our hostel for the next 6 days, Dragon Hostel is located. It’s located directly opposite Tung Choi (Ladies) Street, a daily pasar malam that sells a lot of stuffs from clothes to gadgets. It’s basically like Penang’s Batu Ferringhi night market, with less pirated stuffs only.

Our stay in Dragon Hostel costs RM 145 per night for a double bed with a private bathroom, and the room just barely fits the furniture provided and our luggage had to be stowed under the bed otherwise there is no way to walk around, unless we step on the beds. That’s how BIG our room is. But the bed is really comfy, so much better than my own bed man.

The room might be small, but it’s fine for us because we just need an adequate space to sleep for the night. There’s also two cups provided and outside the hall of the room there’s a microwave, water dispenser, water boiler, coffee and tea packets and fridge for the usage of the guests. There’s also a phone in the room where local calls are free, so in my opinion staying here is not bad. Economically comfy and convenient. There’s also two computers with internet access in the office for guests to use, so there’s where I check my Facebook and chat for a brief while with friends while researching on places to visit.

Hugo actually made an itinerary for our trip which made our trip much more systematic and we can manage our time to cover several areas, and our first day was  to explore Mong Kok and Tsim Tsa Tsui. The roads in Mong Kok is busy during day and night, and by night I mean till late night like 12 am onwards. Buses and taxis are everywhere, and each bus and taxi stop is walking distance in between, so to catch a ride isn’t very hard.

As you walk around Mong Kok, you will see a myriad of shops ranging from goldsmiths to boutiques to electronic to banks and as you walk further you will start seeing the same shops again. Like Sasa, almost every corner there’s a Sasa, and I was like “am I at the previous road that I just passed?” Being dubbed the shopping district, you will see a lot of people in Mong Kok thronging almost every shops and there’s the sale banner being plastered everywhere. It’s like a never ending sea of people everywhere you go, especially when you’re crossing the traffic light.

When the cross light turns green, it’s as if it’s Left4Dead all over again. It’s like turn green to alert the horde, everyone just pushes and walk in every direction.

I even spotted some funky car plates in Hong Kong, like this Raptor. There were more but I kinda forgot what they were.

For lunch, we decided to try the Hong Kong version of McDonalds and I was very dissappointed. Firstly, there was no pork burger unlike the last time I was in HK, there was pork burger. Secondly, I ordered this Grilled Chicken Burger which is not on our Malaysian McDonald’s menu and it tasted horrible! Even Hugo’s McCrispy Chicken Burger which is McChicken by the way tasted horrible, the chicken patty was so hard and dry. The total for lunch was about 35 HKD, RM 17.50 per person.

After walking around Mong Kok for about 2 hours, we adjourned via MTR to Tsim Tsa Tsui. Primarily for the Avenue of Stars. We decided to get ourselves an Octopus card each (equivalent to our Malaysian Touch N’ Go) to ease our travelling as the MTR stations are mostly jam packed with action from every direction. The deposit of an Octopus Card is 50 HKD each and we paid 150 HKD each to add more value to the card, prepaid travelling. The Octopus card is fully refundable when you are done with it, so no worries about losing out.

Navigating the map of the MTR isn’t that bad, it’s very extensive but when you arrive at your designated stop, there will be several signs leading you to the exit of your destination so just keep an eye for the signs and you’ll be fine. Worse comes to worse, consult the tourist map given!

So far, throughout the 6 days we were never lost in Hong Kong, so the maps provided is proven sufficient! Screw you GPS!

The weather in Hong Kong has been really good, only at certain times it can get quite hot but at most times, it was just fairly sunny with cooling breeze. Upon arriving Tsim Tsa Tsui, which is about 10 minutes via MTR from Mong Kok we took some pictures of the skyscrappers around. Hugo said it’s very Manhattan like, with all the designs of the buildings being reflective glasses and modern sleek lines.

When travelling at night, it’s advisable for those who have low tolerance for cold and strong winds to bring a jacket (like me!), because the temperature can get quite low at this time of the year, not as cold as winter but it’ll definitely make you shiver from the inside.

I called myself a porter throughout this trip, because Hugo had to bring his tripod around and he would make me carry it! And he only carries his camera gear in his backpack. Otherwise for me, I carry our water bottles, our passports, tissue paper, pens and all sorts of essential things that we need throughout the trip. Even the things we bought during shopping is stuffed in my bag.

This is one of the many stars at the Avenue of Stars, it was nothing much la, for me at least. I enjoyed the hazy view and the cool wind more. We were supposed to stay here till 8pm for the daily Symphony of Lights but we were getting low in battery so we decided to come back the following night.

Spot the Nikon Bazooka! The weather was good but the hazy view was very bad for photography, and it never rained throughout my 6 days in Hong Kong. Except for a light drizzle on the second day, so it could get quite dusty around Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Island at the back. This is a candid shot by the way.

Very Chinese-y (Chi-Nee-Zee) Boat at the back!

I’ll just do a little bit of the typical tourist pose la, don’t know how many people queued to pose with the bronze statues at the Avenue of Stars.

We head back to Mong Kok for dinner and for our first dinner in Hong Kong, we were spoilt for choices because there was so many diners everywhere. You can never go hungry in Mong Kok I tell you. We walked for about an hour before deciding on this noodle house because it’s quite packed therefore we gave it a try. The place is called Lok Yuen Noodle House and it’s located on FaYuen Street. They claim to be the Beef Ball King. Heh!

I ordered the Beef Brisket Noodle which is at 25 HKD per bowl and it tasted like bleh. The beef wasn’t tender, a little chewy and I requested for fish meat noodle instead of the normal egg noodle. The soup was alright albeit a bit too salty and the fish meat noodle was just about 3 mouthfuls. They replenish the fish meat noodles with beansprouts that looks like noodles. Hailing from Taugeland a.k.a Ipoh where the tauge is short, stubby and chubby,  compared to the beansprout in Hong Kong, the tauge in Hong Kong is surprisingly long! It’s thin and as long as a toothpick. Hugo and I thought, wow there’s two types of noodles but to found out that it was beansprouts it was quite surprising, more like potong stim because the tauge tasted bland and soggy!

Hugo ordered their specialty, the Lok Yuen noodle and it too tasted like bleh. There were fish balls, beef balls, prawn and fish roll and black pepper balls. Hugo bit half of the black pepper beef ball and had me finish the other half because it was just all pepper and no beef. It tasted like any other fish ball noodle at the cost of 38 HKD.

I find food in Hong Kong very pricey compared back home, but one thing’s for sure is the portion is definitely bigger!

After dinner, we spent about an hour walking around Ladies Street to look around, and the variety of things there is pretty staggering! From toys, clothes, shoes, accessories, sexy kinky lingerie, copy watches and bags, it’s a nice market to walk but beware during weekends, do not alert the horde. Oh yea, about 50 metres away from the hostel there’s a 7-Eleven, and at the entrance of the hostel gates there are food stalls, newspaper stands, convenient stores.

Hong Kong is taking the swine flu case very seriously, most elevator buttons is plastered with a clear plastic sheet and it is sanitized every hour. Even on the flight, passengers are sprayed with sterilizing sprays prior to landing. So for people who are going to Hong Kong, take care of your hygiene and health. Make sure you have your antibiotics and vitamin C ready. You wouldn’t wanna be quarantined upon arrival and departure right.

That’s all for day 1 in Hong Kong and I know it’s a freaking long post, it took me more than 3 hours to write this so please mind my grandmother stories yea. Next up is day 2 in Hong Kong and it starts high up in the sky!

♥ Wendy