Hong Kong Trip Report - FINISHED

[maryr1oz]

Hi Everyone

First up apologies in the variance of photo quality throughout - i have an old iPhone which takes hopeless photos, so there's some of those mixed in with my point and shoot, and DH's much better iPhone.

We spent a week in Hong Kong in July. We loved it! Although it was extremely humid and hot. Here's my trip report of how we spent our week...

I actually left Melbourne on June 24th. I had bought 2 separate airfares, the first with Qantas was MEL-HKG return, then i bought an Emirates return from Hong Kong to Barcelona. I flew into Hong Kong on my own, spent 6 hours and then took off again for Barcelona. After 3 weeks in Spain, and 1 week in France with family, i returned to Hong Kong, where my husband then met me, and we spent a week together. I thought i was travelling very smartly, with only my new 4 wheel suitcase and a backpack.



My Qantas flight departed Melbourne at 9:30am. I was super glad i did online check in, because at that time of the morning the regular check in queue was LONG. There was some very snippy comments being made from people in the regular queue when people like me joined the online line, and only waited a couple of minutes.



I went through security and Customs, and it took quite awhile. This was also days before school holidays began, so a pretty busy time i imagine. Once i finally got through, i took a quick look at the shops, then headed down to my gate.



It was a very windy and wet morning in Melbourne. As a result the plane was blowing around on the tarmac a lot, and the take off was very bumpy - it set me up for spending most of the flight feeling quite queasy.



The flight was absolutely full. The plane was old, and not very comfortable. The onboard entertainment system was really outdated. I really didn't like this flight, mostly because i think i just didn't feel well. I thought the food wasn't great either.







The flight time was about 9.5 hours, but we circled at Hong Kong a little before we actually landed. It was about 5:30pm local time when we landed, and my next flight wasn't departing until 12:30am.

 

[maryr1oz]

Hong Kong Airport Layover
Hong Kong Arrival.2
First Night
History Museum and Waterfront
Markets
Hop On Hop Off Morning
Hop On Hop Off Afternoon
The Peak
Thunderstorms and more loops
Disneyland - Getting there
Disneyland - Entering
Disneyland - Main Street
Disneyland - First things first
Disneyland - Toy Story Playland and Lion King
Disneyland - Tomorrowland for Lunch
Disneyland - Fantasyland
Disneyland - Ice cream and we're done!
Dinner and a Rest Day
Disneyland - Rope Drop
Disneyland - First Up
Disneyland - Finishing Up
Ngong Ping 360
Final 24 Hours
Final Thoughts

 

[maryr1oz]

I had to clear Customs and collect my bags in Hong Kong, because i was travelling on two separate airfares with two separate airlines. I had decided since i would be on travelling for another 20 hours to come that i would like to have a shower in Hong Kong. Through Viator i had bought a discounted entrance into the Plaza Premium Lounge. This worked well because it's not in a restricted area and i could bring my suitcases with me. I ventured straight there.





I immediately headed to a shower, which was very well set up. If you didn't have your bags with you, they provided everything you could need for a freshen up.



After the shower, i settled in the general area of the lounge and got some food. I still had a headache from the flight, so the ample bottled water and fresh fruit was heavenly.









I was offered a hot meal from a menu, but i declined as my tummy just wasn't up to it. I relaxed in the lounge for a couple of hours while i used the wifi for web surfing and face-timing to home.

After awhile i left my suitcase in their storage area and went for a walk through the terminal. Of course i was hunting out the Hong Kong Disneyland Shop! This shop is upstairs in Terminal 2 and has a big section at the front of clearance items, mostly at 75% off. I decided not to buy anything here at this time, preferring to wait until i'd returned from Europe.



Hong Kong airport is a very comfortable place for a long layover. Soon enough i left the lounge and went and checked in for my next flight.



It took about 20 minutes for me to get out to my next gate at what felt like the other side of the world. I was super excited to see these lounge chairs tucked off to the side, and since i had about 2 hours until boarding, i laid my backpack on my chest, set my phone alarm and thankfully had about an hours sleep. When i woke up my headache was finally gone!

 

[netimka]

great start to the trip, will be post about the Europe bit as well?

re Hong Kong airport, were the stuff at the Disneyland store the same as in the park... and anything good in the clearance section I love shopping and Disney and sale in Disney store is one of the best think that can happend to me

 

[PrincessInOz]

Subbing in.

Sorry you weren't feeling well on the flight over. Hope that it passed after this day.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

So glad you are writing a trip report!

Sorry too for the unwell plane trip - I know how that can be. The lounge looks like a welcome relief.

 

[maryr1oz]

So fast forward 4 weeks, and here i was arriving back into Hong Kong, this time from a different direction, and this time for a longer stay. I arrived about 3pm, DH was arriving from Melbourne about 5:30pm.





I'd been travelling for about 20 hours from Barcelona, and i was really tired. I decided after my good experience with the lounge earlier that i'd go there and buy in again, this time for a shower only.

I still had some time to kill, so i had a strong coffee at Starbucks. I also went to the Airport Express train desk and bought us tickets into Kowloon. I then waited at arrivals for DH to come through - thankfully the Qantas planes disembark close to the arrivals hall, so it wasn't too much of a wait until he was coming through.



We got straight onto the train bound for Kowloon, and when we arrived it was super easy to transfer onto one of the shuttle bus loops to our hotel. I believe our loop was K4, and it dropped us within about 200mts of our hotel.

Our hotel was fantastic. I'm an avid reader/reviewer on TripAdvisor and this hotel had take my fancy. Residence G Hong Kong is located in the north east corner of Tsim Sha Tsui, very close to the Science Museum. It was closer to walk to the Jordan MTR station than Tsim Sha Tsui. We had a 'Greater' room on the 17th floor, and every minute from check in to check out i felt very well looked after and happy with the hotel. Here's some photos from our room.

First, the view, including the very brave scaffold workers







The room













The other thing that i was impressed with that was provided was an Android phone. It was in our room and ours to take out with us wherever we liked for the week. We used the phone to tether our own phones to, so we had wifi access wherever we went. It also gave us free local calls, free calls to Australia, and plenty of restaurant, attraction and shopping recommendations.

 

[maryr1oz]

Our first night in Kowloon wasn't too exciting. It was a Saturday night, and we were both really tired from travelling. We did need to eat though, so we walked a loop around Tsim Sha Tsui.



They were actually filming some scenes for a movie right outside our hotel that night.



It took me a little getting used to that there were lot's of eating places in the malls, but that they were up on high levels. We ventured upwards in a few places and just kept getting hit with long lines at each place.

Eventually while high in the iSquare mall we stopped at a Vietnamese place with no lines, so we ate there. It was ok, i really wish we had of eaten some local food the first night though.



We walked back along Nathan Road towards our hotel and crashed out pretty early. The bed was so comfortable, we both had a great night's sleep.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice room. Looks like you were very comfortably set up there.


Hmm......: What happened to the European part of your trip? Are you doing a TR somewhere else???

 

[zanzibar138]

I'd like a Europe TR too please

Sorry to hear your flight wasn't great. It's never a good start to a trip when that happens I now take a couple of Qwells before every flight. I'm usually ok unless there's turbulence or a lot of general bumpiness, but once I'm sick I'm done for, so I don't want to take any risks!

Your hotel looks great! Will definitely keep that in mind for future HK trips And the Vietnamese looks pretty good too - it's probably our favourite cuisine though so I'm a bit biased.

 

[Shir Kahn]

This sounds interesting, I'll be following along!

 

[maryr1oz]

great start to the trip, will be post about the Europe bit as well?

re Hong Kong airport, were the stuff at the Disneyland store the same as in the park... and anything good in the clearance section I love shopping and Disney and sale in Disney store is one of the best think that can happend to me

Hi I will start a Europe portion of a trip report over in the Aussie board i think. Yes the merchandise was mostly the same as at the parks, although the clearance stuff was maybe old stock they were trying to clear as i never saw anything on sale in the parks. The stuff they had in there was mostly 75% off, and it was mostly clothing, stationery and mugs.

So glad you are writing a trip report!

Sorry too for the unwell plane trip - I know how that can be. The lounge looks like a welcome relief.

Thanks

Nice room. Looks like you were very comfortably set up there.


Hmm......: What happened to the European part of your trip? Are you doing a TR somewhere else???

I will have to start it over on the Aussie boards i think!

I'd like a Europe TR too please

Sorry to hear your flight wasn't great. It's never a good start to a trip when that happens I now take a couple of Qwells before every flight. I'm usually ok unless there's turbulence or a lot of general bumpiness, but once I'm sick I'm done for, so I don't want to take any risks!

Your hotel looks great! Will definitely keep that in mind for future HK trips And the Vietnamese looks pretty good too - it's probably our favourite cuisine though so I'm a bit biased.

Thankyou!! Yes would definitely recommend the hotel to everyone. I think qwells is the way to go for me next time too...

This sounds interesting, I'll be following along!

Thankyou!

 

[maryr1oz]

Sunday morning we had a much needed sleep in, and then wandered over to the Hong Kong Museum of History. It was less than a 5 minute walk from our hotel. We crossed over Chatham Road South via the pedestrian bridge.





It was then a quick walk through the courtyard between History and Science Museums, and we arrived about 9:50am.



We joined the queue to enter when they opened at 10am. We paid our admission of HK$10 each and were pointed in the direction of the beginning of the exhibition. I thought the museum was fantastic, and we spent about 2 hours wandering around. There was a great mix of displays and so many fantastic objects throughout. It was the best way to begin our week in Hong Kong.

















After we finished at the museum we walked towards the harbour, and along to the Avenue of Stars. The heat was brutal out there with all the concrete and no shade in sight. It was our first view of the waterfront, so we did stop frequently for photos.











We curved around to the ferry terminal, and decided heading into the Ocean Terminal shopping centre would be the best way to cool down for awhile.



The shopping centre was packed, and it was lunchtime. Every restaurant we saw had lines outside. We decided on a french cafe called Maison Kayser that had a salad bar, and we waited about 20 minutes to get inside. It was fresh and light and what we needed.



We did wander through the shops for a little while, and then took the 20 minute walk back to our hotel in the early afternoon. DH did some work on the computer, and i just relaxed for a couple of hours. Later in the afternoon we would venture out to walk through the street markets.

 

[maryr1oz]

About 5pm we left the hotel, walked to Jordan MTR station and caught the red line to Prince Edward station. We had picked up the guide produced by Discover Hong Kong, it had a walking map of several of the night markets.

We began walking through the Flower Market.





We arrived at Yuen Po Street and the bird market.









We walked down Fa Yuen Street, and through the goldfish market.







We then crossed to Tung Choi street, and into the Ladies market. It was starting to get dark now.







We were hungry, and as we were walking, this place caught our eye.



We went inside and were seated immediately - we ordered dim sum and it was AMAZING!









We did a quick walk through a wet market, but they were mostly packed up for the day.



We decided to call it a night, and caught the MTR from Mong Kok back to Jordan. We would return to the Temple Street markets another night.

 

[dollarmite]

Great report and I love the photos. They bring back happy memories of our HK and DL trip over Christmas 2013. We loved the museum and spent a few hours there.

 

[PrincessInOz]

You covered a bit of ground on this day. Looks like a jam-packed trip.

 

[maryr1oz]

On Monday morning we walked down to the Star Ferry Terminal at Tsim Sha Tsui. We picked up tickets we'd bought here for the local Hop On Hop Off bus tour. We purchased a 2 day ticket online before we left home. This included 2 days of 'loop' tours, several return tickets on the Star Ferry, a harbour cruise and, return tickets to The Peak and also a short ride on a Sampan.

We caught the ferry to Central, and right at the terminal we were able to board a bus that would take us out past Ocean Park, throughout Repulse Bay, down to Stanley and also to Aberdeen.











We decided to take a break at Repulse Bay, and we walked along the beach. There were already some swimmers in the water. We walked along to the Kuan Yin Temple and stopped for a look. There were a lot of people around here.















We returned to the bus stop along a higher road which was very shady and green.
We decided not to get off the bus at Stanley, but enjoyed seeing it from the bus.



The next stop was Aberdeen, and we alighted here for our included sampan ride. We first weaved among the moored boats, many of them houseboats.











Then we toured across to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. There was a lot of scaffolding on it, and i'm sure it's much more spectacular at night, but we very much enjoyed seeing it anyway.

 

[maryr1oz]

After we left Aberdeen we returned to the end of the loop at Central. The ferry terminal is joined to the IFC Building (and mall) by walkway, so we headed in that direction as we were quite hungry. As soon as we stepped inside we spotted a Pret-a-Manger and sandwiches were exactly what we wanted.





We didn't really float around the mall for long, we were hot and tired and in need of a break. So we caught the MTR back up to Jordan, and returned to the hotel for an afternoon break.

Later in the evening, we wandered back down to the Ocean Terminal mall for some shopping. My husband liked shopping at stores like Gap, Marks and Spencer, Uniqlo and H&M. I had spent most of my shopping money in Europe so i mostly just tagged around after him

Done with shopping and feeling dinner before we retired for the night, we ducked in to the Langham Hotel and chose the Main Street Deli for dinner. DH chose the pulled pork sandwich, i had a burger. The food was ok - expensive hotel food.

 

[maryr1oz]

We were told to get to the Peak early. That was fine with us - it was already so hot. We caught the MTR to Central, walked underground for awhile, then came to ground close to the Bank of China Tower.



We walked around the block and arrived at the Peak Tram Terminal. It was about 9am. There was a small line, but we were able to get on the next tram.











At the top i had anticipated doing the circle walk around the top - i was already too hot. I couldn't even contemplate it. On the other hand, none of the shops in the mall there, or the Sky Terrace opened until 10am. So we took some photos, and sat in a small cafe with a cool drink.





At 10 we headed up to the Sky Terrace deck. It was brutally hot up there in the direct sun with all the concrete around, i sucked it up though and tried to smile DH took the audio tour while i hid in a small corner of shade.







We decided after our visit to the top that we wouldn't hang around much longer. We went back to the tram to return to ground level.

 

[maryr1oz]

Great report and I love the photos. They bring back happy memories of our HK and DL trip over Christmas 2013. We loved the museum and spent a few hours there.

Thankyou
We really did love that museum...

You covered a bit of ground on this day. Looks like a jam-packed trip.

I wish it had of been a little more jam packed, but i just can't handle the heat