Travel flashback: Christmas 2008 in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is definitely an ideal travel destination all year round, with all its four seasons. My mom, my brother and I decided to celebrate the declared Philippine Christmas holidays in HK, where the winter season is said to last from November to January. We knew that it would be normally cold but we never really expected that we would be freezing hard! Baguio was nothing compared to it. The jackets we brought were too light for the weather, not to mention the locals wearing what you would literally call winter jackets.

Our tour was arranged by Philippine Hotel Reservations Service where I found its newspaper promo ad. It included hotel-airport transfer, 3-night stay in a hotel, breakfast outside hotel (turned out to be McDonalds coupons, but yum!), half-day HK group city tour, and entrance to Hong Kong Disneyland with transfer. We paid about PhP 30k for the 3-pax package.

We arrived at HKIA (Hong Kong International Airport) in the evening, and then we were transferred to a four-star hotel called Newton Place, located in Kwun Tong which is at the far eastern end of Kowloon. It was not disappointing at all to stay somewhere too far from known active late night places like Mong Kok, because Kwun Tong itself was also as hip! It was still like Mong Kok where it was just as lively because of the locals wandering instead of tourists congesting the streets.

The nearest walking distance mall from our hotel was APM Millennium City mall. We went there to have dinner and some stroll. Their malls close as late as 12 midnight.

 

Inside APM Mall, from top: TV in the men's room, electronic billboard of Cinderella
starring Lea Salonga, a performer in the entertainment area of the mall


We were fetched the next morning from our hotel for the half-day city tour. Our fellow tourists in the bus were all Filipinos! The local tour guide was also Philippine-oriented, where he can relate Hong Kong to the culture and places in the Philippines, particularly Metro Manila. The places covered in the tour were Avenue of the Stars in Victoria Harbour, Aberdeen fishing village for optional sampan ride, Victoria Peak, and a jewelry factory & store.



Avenue of the Stars & view of Victoria Harbour



View of IFC tower (used to be the tallest building in
Hong Kong until the completion of ICC tower in 2010)



Sampan at Aberdeen fishing village


After the half-day city tour, we asked to be dropped at New World First Ferry Terminal along Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui where we took the ferry to Macau. (See separate blog post for the Macau tour here)

When we got back to HK from Macau in the evening, we spent some time walking around the lively streets of Tsim Sha Tsui area before we took the MTR (Metro Transit Railway) from Tsim Sha Tsui station to Ngau Tau Kok, where the nearest MTR station of our hotel is.

Lively Tsim Sha Tsui district at night

The next whole day was allotted for Hong Kong Disneyland. Because it was Christmas season, the park offered new attractions in addition to the usual rides, shows, and meet-and-greet Disney characters. Some of them were the Christmas parade, the meet-and-greet Disney characters dressed in Christmas costumes, Mickey’s Christmas House, and a grand Christmas musical presentation by the Disney stars in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle right before the nightly fireworks show.

The regular attractions of HK Disneyland, from top left clockwise: The Golden Mickeys show,
photo-op with Stitch, photo-op with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, Festival of the Lion King show



A Christmas attraction in HK Disneyland: Mickey Mouse's Christmas House



A Christmas musical presentation of Disney characters, 
a special attraction before the regular fireworks show


We finally had spare time on our last day, and we asked our transfer service to pick us up earlier than the original itinerary to pick us up in the afternoon. Our flight back to Manila was yet in the evening, but I wanted to visit Ngong Ping which is just near the airport. The operator then agreed to pick us up at the hotel at 11 am, and we would arrive at the airport by lunch time.

We left our luggage in the left luggage service of the airport, and then from the bus terminal outside the airport, we took the S1 bus to Tung Chung. In a few minutes, we were at the Ngong Ping cable car terminal.

Cable car to Ngong Ping Village

 The main attraction in Ngong Ping was the Tian Tan Buddha which was said to be the world’s largest sitting outdoor Buddha. Tourists would have to climb 268 steps to get to where it is sitting. My brother and I spent the longest time of our Ngong Ping trip in doing this.

The Tian Tan Buddha

 We still had some extra time before we could check in for our Manila flight. We took the return cable car, and just a few steps from the cable car terminal is Citygate Outlets which is a huge outlet mall. I bought a pair of shoes at factory price, for my boyfriend-turned-husband. After shopping around, we took again the S1 bus from the terminal outside the mall, back to the airport.

There are still other parts of Hong Kong to explore. It is conveniently two hours away from Manila and there is nothing to complain about in terms of public transportation. The transportation system in Hong Kong is so efficient that commuting around the whole place was definitely no sweat! You wouldn’t think twice on going back. The lesson I learned from this trip is to not underestimate the coldness of winter! We were shivering the whole time despite the layering we did with our clothes. J