A Trip To Remember : HKG 23 Feb 2014 Day 1 Part 2

The very first thing that we search for were local sim pack after clearing the immigration & picking up our luggage. Kedai 1010 located at Level 7 HKIA. From the arrival floor, take a lift up to departure floor. Bear in mind HKIA is really huge so ask the people around. especially the information counter for directions or you'll be wasting your time searching the whole floor. It costs me HKD100 and HKD88 for Daddy, depends on what type of phone you are using.

The second one was Octopus Card. Bought it at level 7 Arrival Hall. The counter is outside the airport so from arrival just go straight outside until you see the counter in the next building. HKD150 for each. Hassle free having this. Just swap the card when using MTR, buses and trams. Easy, convenient. HKD50 is deposit and they will return it back to you when you return the card back.

After getting the Octopus Card, get out from the building, turn left and just go straight for the bus to Tsim Tsa Shui. Our bus was no. A21. Fare HKD33. The queue waiting for the bus to TST. Everyone in HK have this really good attitude and discipline. Different from us in Malaysia. They queue in the line for every public transport. No such thing us berebut-rebut & main redah jer. Am not sure berapa celcius at this hour, 2 p.m. that is. The sun shines bright but the weather was cold like in Genting Highlands. Everyone was wearing sweater and jacket while me was still blur, sejuk sangat ker? Biasa jer, takde la sejuk sangat pun. Sejuk manja2 gitu jer ^_^ I was feeling hot in the airport while others were with their thick clothes. Just wearing my shirt through the journey to our hotel in TST.

The bus. All the bus in HK are double decker I guess. Never seen the regular bus a week spent in HK. It took us almost one hour to reach the hotel.

Convenient. Even ada tempat letak luggage on the bus. Not to worry much on where to stop. There's some sort of sign/dashboard and even tv displaying the next stop and it's in Chinese and also English.

Among the view all the way to Tsim Tsa Tsui. Breathtaking! So many tall buildings and so padat kalah Malaysia.

Our Hotel was California Hotel in Golden Crown Court so we stopped at pitstop No. 13. From the bus stop, just walk straight until you find Standard Chartered Bank. California Hotel is just beside the bank at Level 4. They got 2 lifts to different levels. Lift to California Hotel is on the right.

To be continued again...

A Trip To Remember : HKG 23 Feb 2014 Day 1 Part 1

We sent our babies to their cat sitter on Saturday night. Woke up at 3.00 a.m. Sunday and off to KL Sentral at 4.00 a.m. Thanx to Daddy's friends who are willing to hantar us to catch the bus to LCCT. Arrived at LCCT at 5.30 a.m. more than 3 hours of waiting time to our flight at 8.50 a.m. Yup Daddy is always like that. Better early he said. Anything can happen you know bla...bla...blaaaa

Berebut nak timbang luggage with the indons early in the morning. There were a bunch of them nk balik kg agak nyer. Thank God cukup2 jer limit tak lebih byk sgt. We only buy 25 kg. The 30 kg cost quite a bomb. Bjimat maaaa ^_^
Even it's really early in the morning, not even Subuh yet LCCT seems to never sleep. So many people as if no difference at all day or night. After checking in our luggage and getting our boarding pass, just lepaking to wait for 3 hours to come and LCCT is hot wehhhh! Seems no aircond. Morning and already that hot. Gonna burnt waiting.

Thanks to AA that now everyone can fly. We depart a bit late due to some problem, a passenger seems to be late and it takes time to check in his luggage what so ever and we only departed at 9.20 a.m. despite 8.50 lorrrr so excited maaaa quick la! Tak lama berlepas, the flight attendants pass around the arrival card for us to isi and give to HK Immigrations on arrival. Compulsory for every destination overseas. This one a bit different than my Bandung trip since there's no column to declare what we brought to HK especially food, tobacco etc. Bear in mind you got to keep the arrival card until the end of your trip and pass it again to the HK immigration before you leave HK or else you cannot leave the country. Treat it as if it's your IC in Malaysia.

Were given our food quite early, 30 minutes after departure I guess and we were still kenyang with that tak sedap but pricey nasi lemak @ LCCT. Bought it online afraid hard to find halal food in HK plus we want to save time to search for food. The advantage of purchasing the meal online is that, we'll be given first priority to get the food plus there's no such this as this food already sold out, that sold out. We ordered Asian Fried Rice with Satay and Prosperity Meal (Nasi Putih with sweet sour fish and apple pie plus orange juice). The nasi goreng is masin. Only can make do with satay. Totally different from Bandung trip which tastes just nice. Also bought additional Spritzer 350ml mineral water @ RM3 since had no shop to buy it before boarding. Our boarding gate, Gate Y seems new and still under construction. Only liquor and choc were available. Water monster of course cannot live without plain water. It's almost 4 hours journey maaa.

After almost 4 hours of boring journey, we touched down at HKIA @ 12.50 p.m.

Hoorayyyyy!

The time is the same as Malaysia so no need to change your watch ok.

To be continued....

A Trip To Remember : HKG Feb 2014 Preparation

Touched down at LCCT at 1.00 a.m. this morning. Waited there, lepaking at Coffee Bean until 5.00 a.m. and catch bus to KL Sentral at 5.15 a.m. since Daddy are not that bold to take a taxi home at night. Reached home at 6.15 a.m. and I said to Daddy, still have time if I want to go to the office (with no sleep all night). Okay, not really. I just skipped the crazy idea and went to bed even though badly needed to jimat my cuti rehat ^_^

My friends have been asking quite a bunch of questions while I was in HK. One even cancel the plan to Bali and proceed to HK after seeing my post of happiness in HK ^_^ Good for you. You're not going to regret it since HK is so much fun. We feel so sad to leave it T__________T Missing Mickey, Minnie and the sea with cold weather. Things that you're not going to get in Malaysia.

So here's the preparation list for first entry of HK :

1. FLIGHT TICKET

Our journey to 'fantasy' began more than 7 months ago when Air Asia made free seats promo @RM129.00 per person one way to HKG from the original price of RM199.00. Depart Sunday morning, came back on Thursday morning. I just booked it without thinking so much about the itinerary. After few months of surveying, it came to my mind that 4 days are not going to be enough to cover all the interesting places that we want to go so I made amendment to the return flight to Thursday night hence the charge of another RM288.00 for additional 12 hours @ HK. Honestly even 5 days are not enough. Fun will never be enough!

As months passed by, we bought our preferred items bit by bit to complete our flight package. The total flight cost for the two of us came up to RM1,093.00 all in including baggage, food, seats and insurance. If we didn't change the flight it will be cheaper RM288 T_______T

Divided by two, RM546.50 per person return means only RM273.25 per person one way to HKG. Still cheap compared to other airlines (ayat penyedap hati sendiri)

2. FOOD STOCK

Also bought this mini rice cooker @ RM99.00 for HK trip. Being in a non-muslim country, it's better for us to standby so that no one gonna turn into monster due to starving ^_^ even though halal food is not a problem in HK. We planned to spend all day in theme parks and attractions afraid that halal food are not going to be that convenient to get as in Malaysia.

Part of our food stock. Apart from these, we also brought 6 pot of rice for 3 days consumption, serunding, chips, biscuits, chocolate, wafer, bread and not to be missed, Nutella! Baggage of 25 kg are not enough but we just make do of what we got. Btw, the Yeo's sambal udang and ikan bilis taste bad as commented by daddy so am not going to repeat the stock again in future. The sambal udang got no udang at all, just the sambal. Dissapointed to the max if you got nothing else to eat at that crucial time. The sambal kerang was marvellous. While the kari ayam, cannot comment since we leave it behind due to overload. Tuna magik just so-so. Tastes just like the tuna you spread on a bread.

3. HOTEL

After months of surveying and surveying, booked California Hotel on 24 December 2013 @RM807.54 nett for 3 nights.

We stayed @ Disney's Hollywood Hotel on our final day. Bought it online through Disneyland Hong Kong website a package of one night stay and 2 day Disneyland ticket @ RM1,387.77

4. PARK/ATTRACTION TICKETS

Since we don't want to carry more cash in hand, so I just bought all the attraction tickets online beforehand except for Ocean Park since our order cannot get through due to phone number error. Safer and convenient. Only need to print or show the order no and they will print you the ticket there. Ocean Park ticket is just the same whether you buy it online or at the booth but Madame Tussaud do have online promo for early bird, entrance before 11.00 a.m. and after 8.00 p.m. got quite a discount to the ticket but we didn't take the risk and bought the normal ticket price but still at a (not so huge) discount online @ HKD570 for two person. Bought the 3 in 1 combo including entrance to the Sky Terrace and Peak Tram tickets. Go check a bunch of the special price at http://www.madametussauds.com/HongKong/en/BuyTickets/Default.aspx

5. GADGETS

Universal adaptor tapi tak guna pun. The plug is the same as Malaysia : 3 plug pins. Well, being me just standby since we got a bunch of gadgets to charged only at night while we sleep before continuing our journey until night to the max the next day.

Another additon to our gadget family since Daddy's (my ex-4S) phone no longer has long lasting battery. Pink power bank but only 3 times charging capacity instead of my previous Yaobao 8800MAH capacity.

Also bought digital luggage scale from Groupon to easily monitor our baggage so that we don't occur any extra baggage charges.

Ohhh and last but not least,

6. HKD

Convert RM to HKD the day before our departure, Saturday 22.02.2014 @ Bukit Bintang. The conversion was HKD100=RM4.27 at that time. We only converted RM2,350 to HKD5,500. RM1,000 duit poket for each of us and the balance RM300 for Ocean Park Ticket that we cannot buy online.

That's all for pre-HK Trip. See you in next post.

Pop Hotel Bandung

Our home for 5 days when we were in Bandung early this month, Pop Hotel Bandung after lots of research and some find it funny due to its colourful kinder garden alike look.

Why I chose this one?
1. Affordable, cheap very much like our Tune Hotels but much better since it gave us full access to its more than 100 tv stations and also free in room wi-fi. It's not honeymoon, we only need a hotel to sleep not stuck in the hotel only. More savings means more shoppings ^_^

2. It's a new hotel so I guess it's going to be quite comfy. In fact, there's not so many reviews on this hotel online but still I took the risk.

3. It's attached to a shopping mall, Festival City Link that is and it would be easy for us to find food or whatever at night. Do you think we're going to be brave enuff to go out at night in a place where we don't belong?

There's towels, soaps, body shampoo and even supply of mineral water for two everyday! Things that you are charged if Tune Hotels ^_^

The unique design of their toilet and bathroom like a capsule. Btw, the sink & mirror are outside of the capsule for you to wash your face / brush your teeth.

Comfy room for two despite lack of space.

Despite the complaints and comments by some of my partners, I don't regret staying in this hotel. Really recommended especially because of its convenience to the shopping mall.

You want dinner, it's there. You want a store like Giant/Carrefour, it's there. Handphone store, it's there. Branded items such as Charles & Keith, it's there. Even J Co is there but we didn't had the chance to try it out the original one from Indonesia. That one I regret. We spent most our time outside shopping and only went to Festival at night for dinner at the awesome foodcourt.

There's even in-room safe deposit box and simple breakfast in the morning. Usually rice.

The price was 3,216,000 rupiah / RM1,050 for 3 rooms for 5 days 4 nights stay.

Blue Sky...

Shot taken from up above more than birds view when I was on the flight from Bandung. A really nice view from up above, so soothing.

Thank you Allah for Your creations...

Bandung Day 4 Part IV : Pasar Baru Againnnnn!

Bandung Day 4 Part III : Lunch @ Restoran Simpang Raya

Bandung Day 4 Part II : Rumah Tas

Bandung Day 4 Part 1 : Shopping Again!