This is part two of the out of country vacation I went to last August. After spending two days in Macau and being convinced by other Pinoys, we got our visa to go to China’s border gate (Portas dos Cerco) just up North and go shopping. It actually looks like the Tutuban Mall in Divisoria, even the products they were selling, prices are cheap too. I was able to buy shoes of course. We decided to split and meet up by noon. After shopping we went back to the hotel and packed our bags proceeded to the Macau-Hong Kong Ferry Terminal.
We boarded a ferry to Hong Kong and went to Tsim Sha Tsui where our hotel was located, we stayed at Hotel Intercon Stamford this time. How luxurious that hotel was, though they did not have a jacuzzi, they had an infinity pool which is waaaaayyyy better. We stayed for awhile to rest and check out the stuff that we bought from earlier that day. Also, i was eating the complementary chocolate bars and milk in the fridge. Oh and there were not much Filipinos in the hotel this time (unlike in Holiday Inn Macau) although when i was at the lobby, there was a piano player and he was playing Freddie Aguilar's "Anak". What a LOL! My friends and I exchanged puzzled looks when we heard it.
We headed out for dinner and to check out the bay as well. We were late for the symphony of lights which is another thing that HK is known for. It's staged everyday at 8PM and the best place to watch it is at the Avenue of Stars. It is a display of laser like lights rising from each building and prancing, it looked marvelous, specially from the bay. There are themes that comprise the whole show and its just awesome.
Hong Kong also has museums, Hong Kong Museum of Art, History, Science and Space. And all four of them are located at Tsim Sha Tsui where we stayed. Another famous tourist spot is the Victoria's Peak, this is the highest point within Hong Kong and you can get there by taking the tram. It overlooks the Victoria Harbor and the Kowloon part and the view is breath taking especially at night.
We did not go to Disneyland (i know!) since we were running out of time. We were able to go to Ocean Park though, which was equally amusing. Ocean Park has two parts, the main entrance where the Panda Habitat was and the big hot air balloon ride, and the headland which was on the other side and you would have to ride a cable car to get there. It was a good 15min ride, i think, and a scenic one at that for it was overlooking the South China Sea.
This part (headland) of Ocean Park is where most of the rides were located, it also has the Marine Park - shark aquarium, dolphin and whale shows. Walking in the shark tunnel aquarium was awesomeness!
After Ocean Park we had dinner and headed to the Avenue of Stars to catch the symphony of lights. After that we took a train to Mongkok for my favorite part…shopping!! I got shoes again and a bunch of other stuff. It was very tiring, since the night market was an array of stores in the street and there were a lot of stores and it was quite crowded. There are other streets in Mongkok that have stalls, Ladies Market, Womens street, flower market and many more. After shopping we headed back to the hotel since it was late and our flight the next day was a little bit early.
I really want to go back there, next year perhaps. Though I think our next destination will be Thailand and Malaysia. Hopefully I still have enough money left for HK!
