Hello readers. This new post is about my trip experience to Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen for 7 days 6 nights in the end of year 2014. If you follow my blog, you will know that I normally travel within neighbouring countries like Indonesia, Singapore & Thailand. My first trip further from these countries was on 2013, where I went to Korea with travel agency. Early 2014, I started planning for DIY trip to Sydney with a group of friends and it was a successful one. So after that, with few experiences in hand on travelling ‘ala backpacker’, I dared myself for more challenging trip. Hong Kong was selected as my destination plan as it met both my financial and interest requirements. And as I usually prefer to utilize my holiday by covering as much places to visit as possible, that was when Macau and Shenzhen were also included in the plan.
So before I proceed with my story, let me share with you few important preparations before we started our journey to Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen.
i) Flight Tickets
Whenever where you go especially across the sea, of course flight tickets will always be the no.1 and the first thing you need to prepare. I went to this trip with non-other than my partner in crime, Nor. In my opinion, if you go for travel that required a “nomad” /backpacker style (walking a lot, public transport hopping, hotel hopping, etc), it is much better to travel with small group / less partner like 2 or just 3 members. More people mean more demands we needed to handle and definitely will affect your trip if you cannot full-fill one of those. (Ade yg merajuk la, terasa la, masam muka in the end x syiok kan). So, since berdua itu lebih baik (double is better) :D, we book our flight with Air Asia as per below details :
30 Oct 2014 (Thursday) : KLIA 2 (4.25pm) to HK International Airport (8.15pm)
and returned flight on
5 Nov 2014 (Wednesday) HKIA (8.50pm) to KLIA2 (12.40am the next day).
ii) Accommodation
Next after secured the flight ticket, 2nd important thing is to find a place to stay. Mind you the costs living in HK are very high, with limited land for housing that caused the price for accommodation a bit expansive. But not to worry if you know where to find one. The favourite place of accommodation among backpacker and tourist is at Tsim Sha Tsui (TST). Here, can be found two buildings called Chungking Mansion and Mirandor Mansion (a massive grey blocks of about 15-16 stories) that housing a few hundreds of guesthouses. Name it Tokyo Hostel, Australia Hostel, American Hostel, Russian Hostel..... They have hostel with name of almost every country in the world!! TST is a perfect place to stay because it is a major transportation hub in HK with many high-end shops, halal food restaurants available (since lots of immigrant from Africa, Middle East, Pakistan and Indian dwelling there) and also with lots of tourist attraction nearby.
We book our flight tickets + accommodation via Air Asia Go at RM933.21/person which inclusive returned ticket KLIA2-HK-KLIA2 and 6 nights stay at AUSTRALIAN GUEST HOUSE located in Chungking Mansion.
Australian Guest House
D7 Block D, 16/F
Chungkin Mansion
40 Nathan Road Kowloon Hong Kong
The rate for our Deluxe Double Room is about RM160/night which is quite cheap. Basically, The average rates per night for double room in Chungking & Marindor Mansion are around RM160-RM180. All the rooms offered by these hostels basically are more or less the same, which means there are extremely small and each square centimetre is used in the most efficient way. What separates a place from another is the fact that some are dirtier, whereas others are extremely clean. It depends a lot to whom the place addresses to; the ones meant for the immigrants from the Indian subcontinent or from Africa or Mainland China may be in poor conditions and filthy, but the ones meant for Western backpackers (generally mentioned in Lonely Planet or other travel guides) are cleaner and nicer. As for our guess house, Alhamdulillah it was clean.
Note : Make sure you always with companion even this place is actually safe. For the first timer here, there are many agents (normally Indians) lingering around at the ground floor looking for customer. They will promote you to go to their hostel and sometime can be a bit pushy especially if you look lost. Just stick with your booking and try to act natural, don't look afraid. So far they didn't do anything bad to us when we rejected their hostel and even helped us to show the exact elevator to get to our hostel. There are only 2 elevators in that building, one for odd number levels and the other obviously for even numbers. Imagined during peak time, the waiting time to get in the elevator can be very long. Like the room here, the elevator also is not big. You imagine this place is like Pertama Complex or Wisma Central in KL. Most of the people there are immigrants, not much local so of course we will feel a bit insecure. I didn't want to be skeptical with those people but just can't help to have that feeling right? But like I said, it is actually safe as they never bother us and just doing their business, but no harm to take extra precaution. Remember, afterall you are still in foreign land.
iii) Itinerary
Once you have flight and accommodation in hand, now you can start to draft an itinerary on which places to visit there. If you just wanted to tour Hong Kong Island only, 3-4 days should be sufficient. As Disneyland was one in my wishlist, of course I didn't want to miss it once I got a chance to visit HK. Somemore, it is one of major attraction in Hong Kong plus with the cheapest cost compared to Disneyland in other countries like Japan, US or more further countries. Another famous themepark in HK is Ocean Park, however we excluded it in our itinerary since we had a very limited days to spent with more places of attraction to visit. Please note that you need one full day to spent for Disneyland and Ocean Park or else it not worth the ticket price. Plus if you wanted to extend your visit to Macau and Shenzhen like we did, you need to allocate more day, to be exact one full day for each places. There are lots of blog you may refer for itinerary including my blog which I will share in details later :D
Note : Do also check on closing day, business hour, public holiday on every places you wanted to go. You don't want to go that places and suddenly it is closed or during peak/congested with other visitors right?
Basically, my draft itinerary as below:
Day 0 : Arrived at HK. Check in Hotel.
Day 1 : To Hong Kong Island by ferry and tour (HKCEC, Repulse Bay, Masjid Ammar, Central Mid Elevator and The Peak).
Day 2 : Macau Day Trip.
Day 3 : Shenzhen Day Trip (Window of The World)
Day 4 : HK Tour to Ngong Ping 360, Aberdeen Floating Village and Avenue of Star
Day 5 : Whole day Disneyland & shopping Ladies Market at night
Day 6 : Check out, short view Victoria Harbour/TST Promenade then take bus to Airport.
iv) Transportation
Over 90% of the HK population makes use of their well-developed public transport. As Hong Kong public transports are very efficient, we utilized it the most. Most of the time we used MTR train system, and a bit of bus, ferry and tram ride..!! Advisable to print MTR map for easy reference during your trip there and study/plan your route first before started your xtvt of the day to optimize your time. You can also download the MTR Application on your mobile phone. You just type your current location and destination, and the apps will find the best route for you and complete with fares! So far the MTR routes are quite straight forward and not so complicated compared to train systems in Japan or Beijing (just name a few). If you are accustomed with public train in Malaysia, then you will not have a problem there.
Check this MTR Website for routes and fares.
It is recommended also to buy Octopus Card once you arrived in HK. What is Octopus card? Similar like TnG in Malaysia, it is used to pay for all public transport in Hong Kong (Train, bus, tram, taxi, ferry, etc) and also to make small purchases at many places like 711, Starbucks, McDonalds and many others. So you don't have to be worried to find a small notes as most of the public transports here needed to be paid in exact fare. The card value is HK$150, which HK$100 is the starting amount of credit and HK$50 is a deposit which will be refunded once you returned back the card at any MTR counter. The amount of reload is minimum HK$50 so plan your usage wisely ok :)
v) Foods
It is not very difficult to find halal food in the Mirandor /Chungking Mansion (on the ground floor where lots of cafe selling Arabic/Indian foods are available). However we felt a bit hesitated to buy as it's not look very hygiene. Other decent Arabic restaurants also available around the TST area, but the cost a bit pricey around RM20-50/per meal. To cut cost, we brought instant foods from Malaysia like Maggie in cup, Brahim products (instant fried rice, nasi beriani, nasi tomato, etc), biscuits and 3-1 drinks. Luckily our hostel provided the microwave facility, so we could just reheat our foods anytime we wanted to eat! Very easy and cost saving. Travel to Macau and Shenzhen will be a bit problem as Halal foods are difficult to find. But no worries with our Brahim instant foods. Just bring a small plastic tupperware to pack. Tara.. You may eat home cooking Nasi Beriani and rendang even in China!!
As for the other places of attraction in HK, don't worry coz there are Halal Restaurant available there. Hooyay!! Among the halal restaurants that I discovered are as follows :
i) HK Disneyland - Tahitian Terrace which served Asian Foods. The price is around RM50/meal but once in a time ape salahnya kan...
ii) Ngong Ping 360 - Ebeneezer's Kebab. Price range between RM30 to RM50.
iii) Islamic Centre Canteen, Masjid Ammar Wan Chai. This is recommended if you wanted to taste a real Chinese Dim Sum, an hey... Its Halal!! Price is quite affordable around RM20 to RM40. Although it’s a little confusing to walk from the MTR, I promise it’s worth it. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, leave Hong Kong without trying this!
iv) Popeyes Chicken with Halal Logo at Terminal 1 HK International Airport.
vi) Visa
You may not required visa to Hong Kong and Macau. But visa is required to enter China. Since Shenzhen is in China territory, you need to apply for visa. Lucky you and thanks to China immigration as if you traveling from Hong Kong and you plan in to visit Shenzhen only, you can apply for instant Visa On Arrival (VOA) at the land border there. The fee is RMB168/visa. The visa is valid for 5 days from the date of issue. It does not specify how many entries it is valid for, but it is single entry.Once you cross the border out of Shenzhen, the visa will be scored through. Technically this visa is only valid for visits to the Shenzhen area, but I don’t know how they will know if you travel to other areas of China, as long as you leave through the same port and coming back through the same port too!
vii) Weather
Hong Kong has a monsoon-influenced subtropical climate. It is mild for more than half the year. There are mild, relatively dry winters, and hot, humid, and wet summers. The best time to visit Hong Kong is from October to early December, when the weather is sunny, cool, and pleasant. You don't have to pack heavy trench coat or down jacket whatsoever. Light jacket (denim or leather) will do to cover coldness during night. It can be very hot during daytime especially at Hong Kong island area so advisable to wear something comfort, fabrics that good in absorption and light. The time when we went there, the temperature dropped when it reached early November. So overall our journey was pleasant... not very hot nor cold.
viii) Others item
I would recommend you to bring medicine as this trip required a lot of long distance walk. Your may get blisters on your feet that itch, hurt and ooze clear liquid. Once your feet injured, it will spoil everything. Minyak gamat is the best remedies (trust me, I'm talking base on real experience):D
As for expenses, you need to convert you money in 3 currencies. HK Dollar, Macau Pataca (MOP) and Chinese Yuan (RMB).
The conversion is around HK$10 = RM5, RMB10 = RM6, MOP currency is slightly the same with HK$.
I converted RM800 to HK$ and RM200 to RMB. It is more than enough if you are not into shopping like me. I will share on my expenses in other post ok.
So I think I'm finished on the preparation. Without wasting anytime, I bring you my journey to Hong Kong.......Continue on next post of course :D
Till then, have a good day peeps!
Trip to HK, Macau and Shenzhen Fast Link Here
Day 0 – Departure to Hong Kong and First Night at Chungking Mansion
Day 1 – Star Ferry Ride from Kowloon to HK Island
Day 1 – HKCEC and Golden Bauhinia Square
Day 1 – Repulse Bay and Stanley Village
Day 1 – Lunch at Islamic Muslim Centre, Ammar Mosque and Tram Ride
Day 1 – The Mid Level Escalator
Day 1 – The Peak Tram and Night at Victoria Peak (Sky Terrace 428)
Day 1 – End of Day 1
MACAU Day Trip
Day 2 – Journey to Macau by TurboJET Ferry
Day 2 – The Venetian, Macao
Day 2 – City Of Dreams and Hard Rock Hotel
Day 2 – The Galaxy Macau
Day 2 – Grand Lisboa and Senado Square
Day 2 – The Ruins of St. Paul’s
Day 2 – Macau back to Hong Kong
Shenzhen Day Trip
Day 3 – Starting Journey to Shenzhen, China from Hong Kong
Day 3 – Window of The World
Day 3 – Shopping at Shenzhen and back to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Trip Continues
Day 4 – Ngong Ping 360, Lantau Island
Day 4 – Aberdeen Floating Village and Jumbo Kingdom
Day 5 – Disneyland Part 1
Day 5 – Disneyland Part 2
Day 5 – Disneyland Part 3
Day 5 – Shopping at Ladies Market, Mongkok
Last Day – Avenue of Star
Last Day – HK Museums, 1881 Heritage and Back to Malaysia
Total Expenses
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