Hong Kong with Friends

Food! That’s the first thing that came to my mind when I arrived in Hong Kong. I was hungry after the 2 hour flight from Manila especially since my friend Chamie kept telling us how delicious the food in Hong Kong is. Fashion! To my friends, Hong Kong is THE place to shop for new clothes, new shoes and most of all because of the cold weather, you can wear scarves and other cool winter accessories. I didn’t know what to expect but I knew I would definitely have a lot of fun especially since I’m travelling with five fun, crazy friends and meeting more along the way. But before that, we already had quite an adventure at the airport in Manila.

Our adventure started at Cebu Pacific airport in Manila wherein one of our friends, Lori, came close to missing her flight. Her passport had yet to arrive from a visa application and was expected to arrive on the day of our departure. The expected time of delivery to her house was at 5.30 pm which was way too late considering she lives in Marikina while the airport was around an hour away from her house especially with the rush hour. Luckily, Lori was resourceful enough to contact Air21 and claim her package at the Quezon City office prior to delivery and rush to the airport. To help her, we queued for her so that when she arrives, she would just

needto check in. Finally, after a dozen or so calls and the stress of not knowing if she would reach the airport on time, she made it relieving us of all that stress and worry.

Quote of the day (from Lori who almost missed our flight about all the obstacles she has to face) : "Isa isa na muna, mamaya na yan, pag-isipan ko na yan pagdating ko dyan. (Let's take it step by step. I will think about that later when I get there)"

Tip: If applying for a visa, apply earlier or you might just miss a trip of a lifetime

The flight was relaxing and we safely arrived at Hong Kong at 10.30 in the evening. We were to stay at our friend’s condo at Causeway Bay. His aunt met us at the airport and took us to the condo by riding the airport bus A11 to North Point Ferry Pier. The bus costs HK$40 dropping us off 2 blocks away from our destination at Causeway Bay.

Tip: To save money, take a bus from the airport to your destination but you need to research on the bus routes because there are various buses that go to and fromthe airport to different parts of Hong Kong. Another option is to take the airport express which you can book online which costs from HK$60 to HK$100.

The condo we were to stay in was situated in an ideal location surrounded by 7-eleven stores in every corner and a Wellcome supermarket just below plus lots of restaurants and shops around the area. Since we weren’t sleepy, Chamie asked if we wanted to eat flat rice noodles at one of her favourite restaurants. All of us gave a big fat: YES!

The restaurant Hai Huang located near the SOHO building had the best soy milk I had ever tasted. The soy milk is their specialty along with rice rolls. The soy milk tasted heavenly, not too sweet and not too bland while the noodles were full of flavour and coursed smoothly down your throat after every bite. We also ordered a salted fish congee which tasted great! It was Hong Kong food heaven. The food prices range from HK$15 to HK$20 per order. Based on my experience here, just order their specialties and it’s hard to go wrong plus Hai Huang has an English translation for the food they serve which is really useful if you can’t read Chinese characters. After that delicious first meal in Hong Kong, I couldn’t wait for the rest.

Before going home, we decided to look around 7-Eleven and Wellcome. 7-Eleven carries practically anything and is open for 24 hours making it an ideal place to go to if you have forgotten something such as me forgetting my tooth brush. While Wellcome is also open 24 hours and carries more goods. If you want to save money on meals, you can cook your own food and buy stuff from Wellcome.

Tip: If you plan on using Hong Kong’s public transportation frequently, better get an octopus card for use in the railway stations and buses to save time and money. For details on octopus cards, go here: http://www.octopus.com.hk/get-your-octopus/choose-your-octopus/on-loan-octopus/standard-octopus/en/index.html

The following day we went to Macau and we had quite an adventure day. That story will be for another day ;)