The visit was long overdue. Since we were living in Manila, we have planned to go to Hong Kong. It didnt happen those days. We got a 3D2N stay at Fraser a give during the XMas party which had to be used my May and hence the long pending trip had to happen. Afterall hotels in HongKong are known to be costly.
The flights were booked in Air Asia which is rumoured to be cheap but we have never got it that cheap. We would have liked to have a longer trip but other committments meant we just could manage 4Ds3N for the trip.
Our journey was Bangkok-Macau-HongKong-Bangkok.
The short trip meant Dona had to do the reseach throughly. We also dont believe in taking conducted tours and having a limitted budget means travelling in chauffuer driven cars on hoiliday got to wait for some more times.
One of the joy of making these journeys is to see the excitment in Shriaan. Shrihaan couldnt contain his excitment on the previous day of jouney and slept very late. He also got us at 3am to prepare for the early morning flight.
Macau is a marvel. The airstrip is made by taming the ocean. Shrihaan got scared thinkling if it was going to be an emergency landing on water. Catching up on sleep, I allmost missed it when I got up as the plane was landing.
It was raining and the sky was wrapped in rain laedden cloud and greyness. As we alighted from the plane, a chill welcomed us.
We were sad and worried that the holiday would be ruined due to the rains. But being adament to make the best of the few days we have there, we were determined to soak up the place as much as we could. We were to be staying in Venetian hotel and getting the shuttle that would take us there was easy. We were awed by the hugeness and the signed of opulence as we enter the hotel. We realised we were very early for the check in and decided to go out. As we went to borrow few umbrallas, we realised that trouble with the booking we had made through Agoda and we had to make another payment through our credit card. Next hr or so was spent in sorting it out with long distance calls to Agoda who seemed to get it sorted though we remain worried about the payment till we would know that it wasnt billed.
Venetian is huge and easily a day or two can be spent there exploring the shopping arcades, the alleyways, the food court and other varieties of entertainments. However, we decided to go out since I was not prepared to spend the only day we had inside the hotel and want to inhale the air, albait moist as much as possible. The shuttle took us to Sands and from their we took a taxi, but not before we were refused by one since we couldnt communicate in Chineses, to the Senado Square, the town centre. We then walked to the St Pauls remains, a beuitiful if not bit melancholic place, at least on that rain soaked day. The walk amidsts many stalls and baking shopps was filled with aroma of wet warmth.
From their, we took another taxi to Macau tower, famous for the bungee jumps. However, the ticket collector discouraged us to pay buy the stiffly priced tickets since visibility was poor. Another shuttle took us to the City of dreams. After sometimes, we went back to Vnetian for take the Gondolla rides and Manchester United experience that delighted Shrihaan. We were serenaded by a filipina on the boat.
We decided to take few bus rides in the night to the ferry gates and it gave us a great night view.
The portugese dinner we had was bit disapponting since the tastes was very close to the Indian food we are used to but was nice otherwise.
Who holidays in Macau? We felt that it is dominated by Chinese folks in love with the Casinos and hence hardly anyone speaks English.
We got us next day with rains on the winsdows and spent sometimes near the beautiful swiming pools and the area surrounding it.
The boat took us to HongKong in about an hour. We didnt know we would spend next couple of hourse with immigration who was to decided if we could enter HK. Fortunately, we got the visa and discovered the KFC that we so loved in Manila.
Fraser place in HK wasnt impressive atall and very small. We didnt realise then how expensive the real estate in HK could be.
Armed with Fraser umbrallas, we went to see the peak. As we reached the peak, it was totally wrapped in cloud. There was occasional lightnings and we felt sad that we missed the great view from the top. However, soon the cloud moved away to reveal breathtaking glimps of mountains and some portion of the towers at some distance. Words fail to describe what felt then.
Our next destination was the lightshow at the centre. The rain dampened the views but we liked the views on the otherside of the lake.
We wanted to have dinner at Soho but realised it is not a place for a family with a nine year old. We came back tired and ready to hit the bed.
Nextday we reached Ocean World in the morning and it was fun to take the train express, the cable car and the rides. The expensive food didnt taste that good though. We kept the evening for visit to Stanley market, the old equivalent to Chatuchak in Bangkok market packed with chiness stuff. From there the murry house was a short trek. The place in the evening appeared romantic and bit distant. From there we were again back on Soho to checkout the longest escaletor and experinece the Hollywood street.
We came back, gorged on chinese food and then went for the tram ride. The energy drinks Shrihaan had worked on him and so we came back around 12 from the Happy Valley. We still wanted to take the tram to Causway Bay but Shrihaan was tired and put his foot down.
Next day, our final day in Hongkong soon arrived. Checking out from Fraser place, we went to Central on our way to Trung Chung station to keep luggage in the self operated lockers, a most useful facility. We realised the bake scene in HK was vibrant and so we sampled some in Taste, the tart were pur heaven! The line for cable car was long and it took more than 45mins for us to get into the cable car on our way to Ngong Ping.
It was 25mins long ride over water and mountains and the scenery was most
breathtaking we have experienced. The big Budha appeared at a distance and it was one of the most reassuring experience for us. We paid our homage and to our surprise we found the Dessert for Honeymoon there. We have been looking for it so far everywhere but had to go all the way to Ngong Ping to experience it. We also tied a knot in the wish tree. Time was running out since we were yet to go to DisneyLand. We reached Disney around 3pm and we just had few hours before our flight back to Bangkok at 8.50pm. We went to the space mountain, Buzz lightyear, the Lion King show and also saw the procession. We were to leave by 6 but the Lion King show kept us there till 6.30pm. We knew we were pushing it bit far and we ran to find the taxi. Fortunately there was no line and the the ride was fast. We reached well in time to take the flight back to reality. We felt that we needed a day to do justice to it and guess Shrihaan will again visit it with his children and may be we will be come along with them.
We realised Hongkong was the favourite holiday ground for Filipinos. Most of the Disney personnel were also from the happy land. It was allmost like we were back in Manila!
The people in general in Hongkong was bit rude and was rushing all the tine. There is hardly any land left and mountains are packed with tiny apartments in tall buildings. The place was expensive and the long British years has left its mark. English is not widely used and moving around was bit of a challenge.
It was a much deserved break. We should have got couple of more days there and so cam back with a sense on incompleteness. Thats what makes these holidays worthwhile.
Snaps would soon be there on facebook. Watch out for the link.
The flights were booked in Air Asia which is rumoured to be cheap but we have never got it that cheap. We would have liked to have a longer trip but other committments meant we just could manage 4Ds3N for the trip.
Our journey was Bangkok-Macau-HongKong-Bangkok.
The short trip meant Dona had to do the reseach throughly. We also dont believe in taking conducted tours and having a limitted budget means travelling in chauffuer driven cars on hoiliday got to wait for some more times.
One of the joy of making these journeys is to see the excitment in Shriaan. Shrihaan couldnt contain his excitment on the previous day of jouney and slept very late. He also got us at 3am to prepare for the early morning flight.
Macau is a marvel. The airstrip is made by taming the ocean. Shrihaan got scared thinkling if it was going to be an emergency landing on water. Catching up on sleep, I allmost missed it when I got up as the plane was landing.
It was raining and the sky was wrapped in rain laedden cloud and greyness. As we alighted from the plane, a chill welcomed us.
We were sad and worried that the holiday would be ruined due to the rains. But being adament to make the best of the few days we have there, we were determined to soak up the place as much as we could. We were to be staying in Venetian hotel and getting the shuttle that would take us there was easy. We were awed by the hugeness and the signed of opulence as we enter the hotel. We realised we were very early for the check in and decided to go out. As we went to borrow few umbrallas, we realised that trouble with the booking we had made through Agoda and we had to make another payment through our credit card. Next hr or so was spent in sorting it out with long distance calls to Agoda who seemed to get it sorted though we remain worried about the payment till we would know that it wasnt billed.
Venetian is huge and easily a day or two can be spent there exploring the shopping arcades, the alleyways, the food court and other varieties of entertainments. However, we decided to go out since I was not prepared to spend the only day we had inside the hotel and want to inhale the air, albait moist as much as possible. The shuttle took us to Sands and from their we took a taxi, but not before we were refused by one since we couldnt communicate in Chineses, to the Senado Square, the town centre. We then walked to the St Pauls remains, a beuitiful if not bit melancholic place, at least on that rain soaked day. The walk amidsts many stalls and baking shopps was filled with aroma of wet warmth.
From their, we took another taxi to Macau tower, famous for the bungee jumps. However, the ticket collector discouraged us to pay buy the stiffly priced tickets since visibility was poor. Another shuttle took us to the City of dreams. After sometimes, we went back to Vnetian for take the Gondolla rides and Manchester United experience that delighted Shrihaan. We were serenaded by a filipina on the boat.
We decided to take few bus rides in the night to the ferry gates and it gave us a great night view.
Who holidays in Macau? We felt that it is dominated by Chinese folks in love with the Casinos and hence hardly anyone speaks English.
We got us next day with rains on the winsdows and spent sometimes near the beautiful swiming pools and the area surrounding it.
The boat took us to HongKong in about an hour. We didnt know we would spend next couple of hourse with immigration who was to decided if we could enter HK. Fortunately, we got the visa and discovered the KFC that we so loved in Manila.
Fraser place in HK wasnt impressive atall and very small. We didnt realise then how expensive the real estate in HK could be.
Armed with Fraser umbrallas, we went to see the peak. As we reached the peak, it was totally wrapped in cloud. There was occasional lightnings and we felt sad that we missed the great view from the top. However, soon the cloud moved away to reveal breathtaking glimps of mountains and some portion of the towers at some distance. Words fail to describe what felt then.
Our next destination was the lightshow at the centre. The rain dampened the views but we liked the views on the otherside of the lake.
We wanted to have dinner at Soho but realised it is not a place for a family with a nine year old. We came back tired and ready to hit the bed.
We came back, gorged on chinese food and then went for the tram ride. The energy drinks Shrihaan had worked on him and so we came back around 12 from the Happy Valley. We still wanted to take the tram to Causway Bay but Shrihaan was tired and put his foot down.
Next day, our final day in Hongkong soon arrived. Checking out from Fraser place, we went to Central on our way to Trung Chung station to keep luggage in the self operated lockers, a most useful facility. We realised the bake scene in HK was vibrant and so we sampled some in Taste, the tart were pur heaven! The line for cable car was long and it took more than 45mins for us to get into the cable car on our way to Ngong Ping.It was 25mins long ride over water and mountains and the scenery was most
We realised Hongkong was the favourite holiday ground for Filipinos. Most of the Disney personnel were also from the happy land. It was allmost like we were back in Manila!
The people in general in Hongkong was bit rude and was rushing all the tine. There is hardly any land left and mountains are packed with tiny apartments in tall buildings. The place was expensive and the long British years has left its mark. English is not widely used and moving around was bit of a challenge.
It was a much deserved break. We should have got couple of more days there and so cam back with a sense on incompleteness. Thats what makes these holidays worthwhile.
Snaps would soon be there on facebook. Watch out for the link.
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