"Schoolies" Part 2 - Hong Kong

Day 7 - Arriving in HK and the Fruit Market

Because Nicole's house had no printer - we were unable to check-in online and by the time we did check-in at the airport, there were no seats together. Thankfully we were close to each other though. It was a shorter flight, enough for me to watch two movies and sleep a little at the start - but there was some really bad turbulence which was really scary.

We stayed at the Royal Plaza Hotel and the taxi ride there was only about 250HKD (and after splitting that between four people, it's roughly 10AUD each - compared to the about 80AUD from Melbourne Airport to my house). We really just spent the rest of the day wondering the area near our hotel. Royal Plaza is attached to a shopping mall, and because the front entrance is under renovation - we entered through the mall. We really didn't spend a lot of time in that mall - just going there to buy breakfast from the bakery and pass through to get to the train stations.

The Fruit Market was about a street away and so we walked through there. There were lots of clothing shops on the sides of the street, but at the stalls there were fruit, phone cases (all iPhone 5 and Galaxy S4 's, so they're pretty up to date - but it was really annoying because I have a Galaxy S3), bags, kid sized clothing, and other usual things. They did not have stalls selling clothes in adult sizes.

Queue the first time we're all sharing one room with one bathroom. We really just spent the night lazing around waiting for the shower, planning out our next day and eating. In Hong Kong, we were definitely sleeping and waking up earlier - it was more tiring because we weren't getting driven everywhere and had to walk and take a lot of public transport.



Day 8 - Ocean Park
We woke up at 8 and planned to leave at 9 - but somehow we were delayed until 10am. We traveled to Ocean Park via the train and then bus - arriving at just pass 11.

Royal Plaza is right next to East Tsim Sha Tsui but you only have to walk a bit further to Tsim Sha Tsui Station.
Catch the train to Central and get off at Admiralty as highlighted. There is a bus depot at both Admiralty and Central which have buses direct to Ocean Park (629).
The train ticket from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island  is $12 and the bus ticket is $10.60 (you put the bus fare into a box so give the exact amount)

The ticket into Ocean Park cost $320 for an adult and the only expenses I paid after that were food (as always - more expensive inside a themepark) and a henna tattoo I got done for $40. The henna tattoo parlour (also had that sand glass art thing and caricature drawings inside) was new to me as last time I was there (2 years) it was just another gift shop. The henna tattoos are priced by design but you can ask for a hand design to be drawn on your arm (as I did) and it was the same price. My henna started to fade after 5 or so days and lasted nearly 3 weeks.

The henna tattoo I got at Ocean World.
They darken within three days (this is right after I got it done so it's very light still)

The rides were all good, though The Dragon wasn't open (I don't think it was open last time either) and we didn't go on the water rides because it got colder in the afternoon. For those that don't know the layout of Ocean Park, it's built on a mountain and is separated into seven parts. The entrance (labelled on the map as Aqua City), Amazing Asian Animals and Whisker's Harbour (the kiddie rides) are on one side of the mountain. In these parts there's a Grand Aquarium, Panda Village, Bird Theatre and a walking trail dubbed the 'Emerald Trail'.



To head over to the Summit, you catch the Cable Car or the Ocean Express. Generally the queue for both is massive but the Ocean Express takes on a lot more people at one time and travels faster. however you don't get the view that the Cable Car gives. On the Summit side there's Thrill Mountain, the Rainforest, Marine World and Adventure Land. Both transports pretty much land you at Thill Mountain so we went on all the rides there first. Hair Raiser is definitely one of my favourite rides. We didn't go to the Rainforest because by the time we were there - it was cold and they only have a Rapids water ride. And we didn't want to go see animals. We walked down to Adventure Land after lunch - Adventure Land is very far from all the other parts of the amusement park, but the Mine Train is pretty good :3. While Hair Raiser has a loops and twists, Mine Train has some really good drops in the track. However, apart from those drops - the ride is quite boring. It also does this annoying thing where it stops really suddenly before entering the station. yeah. After a long walk  back up to Marine World - we dropped in at the Vetinary Centre and saw the dolphins - Lucie and I went on the Abyss though she tried to get out of it (like Nicole did -.-) And that was pretty much it at Ocean Park - we didn't stay to watch the water show because then the bus would be really crowded.

When we got back to Admiralty? or was it Central? Lucie was craving noodles as always, so we found 池記 and met up with Xin there. The menu was in Canto T.T so I got this crab porridge that looked really good in the picture :)

Day 9 - Avenue of Stars, the Bund, Ladies' Market

Yes! We actually did something touristy on that day. Lucie wanted to go see Avenue of Stars so we caught the train down. When we got to the river - we walked the wrong way and couldn't find the Avenue - (turn left). Eventually on the Avenue - we did a short selfie spree and then walked along the river. I didn't recognise many people though Lucie and Xin would often recall a person's name and take a picture.

If I didn't recognise these, I'd might as well shoot myself

So out of all the photos snapped here - I think this might be the only decent one of all of us... great

There's a lot of photograph and cariacture venders on the walkway - the photographs were all so nice and blue >.>

A traditional junk ship - I was alerted to it's passing by all these other tourists running alongside to take photos of it

We did walk across the promenade and look over the Bund - but didn't stay there long.


Xin directed us to Harbour Ciry which is a shopping centre full of branded stores. I can't recall the name of the restaurant we ate at, though it was very nice and had a good view. I tried a dish with noodles and mushroom in sharkbone soup - It was quite creamy and very yummy :3

Walking around some more, outside Lane Crawford we found a Disney display on the wharf. It was all decorated up for Christmas. You often don't realise which companies have developed which movies so it was nice to see everything together.

a little blurry entrance

So prettily lit up

Nicole and I at the Tinkerbell and Disney castle 'bowl?'

Finding Nemo

Monsters Inc.

Alice in Wonderland

Lucie and I at the Toy Story display

Christmas Stitch!

The night view

and I

After looking around for a while, we headed back to the hotel and then to Ladies' Market. Again, we had some difficulty finding it but we eventually got there. The street starts with a lot of stands like the type you'd see at a shopping mall where the employees would try to engage you in discussion with their products, and buskers. I think I spent more in the shops on the street rather than the actual market shops ($126 at SaSa on Dollywink, and $259 at Etude House compared to a scarf at $40, a turtle figurine at $80, a cute hat for $40 and an 32gig miniSD card for $100)

Day 10 - Causeway Bay

Caught the train from Mongkok East rather than Mongkok Station and ended up commuting for an hour. From Mongkok East, we interchanged at Hung Hom and travelled to East Tsim Sha Tsui - however, you cannot change between East Tsim Sha Tsui and Tsim Sha Tsui on a single use ticket and therefore we kept travelling on to Nam Cheong where we changed trains and traveled to Hong Kong Station. From there we walked through the connection (super long D:) to Central and caught the Chai Wan line to Causeway Bay. So - suggestion if travelling to Hong Kong Island from the Mong Kok area - use the Mong Kok MTR.

Nicole, Lucie and I at some Rilakkuma display

We legitimately entered this centre just to see the Rilakkuma display

So cute :3

annoying people

I'm not sure about the names of the shopping centres since there's so many buildings so close together. We had icecream fondue at Hagendasz, sharing the 32 set between the four of us. It was so good and the icecream takes a very long time to melt. I'd recommend not putting a whole icecream ball into your mouth....

We went to the Wonderfun Arcade, level 7 of some building.. and used the photobooths there. I wasn't able to finish decorating on some of the photos :( they look so plain

Met up with our friend Sam who took us to some more places before heading to dinner. Xin and Sam left to meet up with another girl and go shisha :( - so we went shopping ^^ Somehow though, we only managed one shop for three hours before heading home. In explanation though, the Forever21 store there is massive (like 5 floors + basement?) and the queue for the changing rooms are really long - and we all ended up buying something.

sourced: butterboom.com

Nicole dressed as Lucie and Lucie dressed as Nicole versus the usual (in their new Forever21 purchases)

Day 11 - uh..
Went to see Minjia at Tsim Sha Tsui. uh. Not going to talk heaps about it - but we travelled to Causeway Bay again to buy a present for our Specialist Maths teacher. Found a good variety of food shops in the basement of Sogu and bought a little box of raw fish. However when I got back to the hotel I forgot to put it in the fridge so I chucked it out the next day. It was so yummy :( what a waste :(
I also bought shoelifts on the way back heheheh.

Walked very quickly back to the hotel after leaving Causeway because we planned to go out and I wanted to get ready with everyone. Only to find out that everyone had already left 2 hours ago for dinner and were going straight to the location. I think, understandably, I was very annoyed because I had no method of communication with them until I reached the hotel and thought that they'd have had the decency to wait. Yes. if you're reading this, I was very pissed.
sigh.
But anyway - I entertained myself with finishing the bottle of vodka and Nicole came back because she was bored. So the night was good anyway :)

Day 12 - Causeway again
It's written in my journal that this was one of the days we woke up earlier... at 1pm. We only left by 3:30 though because no one had showered ^^.
So, Causeway Bay again. We tried Toast Box for breakfast (its uh. a bit strange but decent)

Lucie baby who got the same as I did but with beef (I had spam :D)

We really didn't do that much on this day. I bought another Armani Exchange shirt and the Forever21 shoes I'd seen the day before.
The day was mainly following Xin around shopping because she was trying to spend all her Hong Kong money. We also found a dessert place which is apparently popular, again, I'm not sure about the name...

Lucie and I shared this mango platter because we were already so full -
Mango mochi and mango, mango juice with normal mochi and mango, mango icecream with mango and jelly?
I like mango.

We went back to the hotel early so we could use the pool but it'd already closed.
No sleeping that night ^^

Day 13 - Causeway Bay for the last time

Sunrise

When the pool opened - Lucie and I went down to finally use our bathers. The pool and spa were very nice - however we weren't able to take the towels back to our room so we just had to dry off a little before running back through the corridors. After Lucie showered, we walked Xin down to the taxi (Hong Kong requires a visa for Chinese nationalities staying 7 days or more - and this pabo couldn't be bothered filing for a visa). As I showered, the pabo forgot her passport and had to come back.

Lucie's friend, Valentine, came to hang out with us for the day and we ended up travelling to Central. Walking around and a little lost despite Valentine being a local, we stumbled upon a little frozen yoghurt place before deciding to catch a tram to Causeway Bay.

The cat we stumbled upon when trying to find a place to eat our streetfood ^^

The Christmas display - this is the mall that has the Wonderfun Arcade and a convenient bathroom

Valentine treated us to some local streetfood  (which half of, was way too spicy for me to eat). We visited the Wonderfun Arcade and other malls again before catching a bus to the ferry, and then the ferry across the river back to Star Ferry. We were content on taking a train however Valentine insisted on the ferry - it's definitely a sight to see so I would recommend it too.

Victoria Harbour from the ferry

Nicole and I and the suitcase I keep breaking

After catching a taxi back to the hotel, we then walked to the sneaker street (often in Asia, whole streets are dedicated to just one type of product - I expect the competition to be extremely high in these types of areas) I found a gorgeous pair of Supra sneakers but they didn't have my size :(
Valentine had to go home because he was travelling to Macau the next day, so we got back early.

Day 14 - Homebound
Nothing really happened except packing and flights.
One down when xin left. Two down when Lucie moved to the domestic terminal while Nicole and I caught international flights back to Kuala Lumpur, and then last one alone on to Melbourne.
We didn't do much at the Hong Kong International Airport though I did spend a bit of time in KLIA shopping since I had to wait six hours. I think if you have to wait at KLIA, 4 hours is enough time if you're interested in shopping (because that's how much time I spent going into every single shop they had..)

-
mm a lot more wordy and pictures. Yay.
But this is really late posting seeing as it's a month later.
I'm still trying to get this blogger thing going. aish.
please stay tuned.

faithfully,
Mai