Kev and I finally had the chance to go on that much awaited vacation. In our 6 years together, we never had been fortunate enough to go on a holiday by ourselves. And so we were super duper excited about our HK trip, especially our visit to HK Disneyland - the child in us wanted to see this resort so bad and we finally had that wish come true last weekend. More on this later...


A lot of time wasted upon arrival at HKIA last Friday...

I was a bit absent-minded upon my arrival at HKIA. As soon as the plane stopped moving, I turned my ipod on. I was happily mouthing the words to a song, while making my way towards the immigration counter. The line to the counter was long, but then again, it was the busiest time of the day.

I was already the 3rd person from the front when I suddenly realized that I didn't fill out an arrival card. And so I had to go all the way back to fill that out and had to fall in line again - which, by the way, is a very long line - at a different counter this time to save face... =P

If you want comfort, don't go stringent on your budget

To cut costs, Kev and I decided to reserve a room at a hostel. You see, we only need a room to sleep in, as we expect to be spending most of our time outdoors. So the hostel we chose did not require us to pay deposit - just the confirmation number should've sufficed.

I went to the hostel's admin office, and was expecting to be greeted by a pleasant lady, whom I've spoken on the phone with. So I was a bit surprised to be greeted in halting English by one of the Chinese staff. I explained that I was not able to print out my confirmation email but I have my reference number. But it appeared they didn't understand a word I said. This Chinese guy talked to me in Cantonese and using a calculator quoted a room rate, which is a bit more expensive than the rate confirmed to me. I had to explain several times that the rate confirmed to me was lower, but they could not seem to understand.

I pointed my finger to the computer monitor, gestured typing motions with my fingers, as I said, "I'll show you email."

I opened my inbox, showed them the confirmation email I received from them, before they finally agreed to the rate I was insisting and the room type that I booked. I checked the facilities as soon as I was showed the room, and the flush to the toilet is not working!!! No biggie, I'll insist with Kev that we spend the night at his hotel room instead, where he is confirmed for check-out on Saturday. But how are we supposed to survive on Saturday and Sunday with a toilet that won't flush? We ended up using the common facilities at the hostel, which is right across the hallway from our room.


I got lost in Causeway Bay

It has been a while since my last HK trip. I know my way around Central very much, but the only time I ventured Causeway Bay on my own, I got lost. And then last Friday, I got lost again...


I never had a problem reading maps before, but for some reason, I couldn't navigate my way around Causeway Bay that day. I was on my mobile talking to Kev as I was supposed to be going to his hotel. He ended up telling me to stay put and to identify the nearest landmarks and he'll go to me instead. Hahaha... talk about bloopers in HK man!!!

We planned to go shopping before meeting up with old colleagues for dinner - but it was not meant to be. Kev and I finally met at around 7pm, and we only had 30 minutes left before we had to meet up with them. And so, we quickly made our way back to his hotel to meet with the group.


Dinner was so expensive!!!

Erm...okay...

So we met with former colleagues, and not everyone had that much money to spare. We didn't have a say as to what food should be ordered, none of us even had a look at the menu, ergo, none of us had any idea how much the food cost at that resto.

But food was great, so who am I to complain?

So finally it was time to pay the bill, and we all had to pay HK$ 170 each!!! Converted to Peso, that would be about PHP1020!!! And I didn't even get to eat that much!!!


My slight adventure with HK street food

The last time I saw Zarah was in Greenbelt early this year... and so I was very much looking forward to seeing her in HK again. Since she was also a former colleague, she was invited to join us for dinner. But when she finally arrived, all the food are gone. So we decided to walk around the city and go shopping while some of the shops are still open.

But in the midst of our shopping, this girl made me eat HK isaw!!! HK fish balls, that is way better than pinas fish balls, and HK ox tripes, smothered with mustard a la wasabi... weird combination, but it was very good!

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