Hongkong-Macau-Boracay

At my last post, I asked, WHERE TO NEXT?

Here's the answer!!! Off to Hongkong, Macau and Boracay!!!

Well, we bought our tickets on a Cebu Pacific Airlines promo last May... Imagine, MNL-HK-MNL was only about Php 5,200 for me and labsy? Nice, right? and our MNL-KAL-MNL (Caticlan flights were canceled) was only Php 1,200? Who would not say yes to that? :D So watch out for more promos next time at www.cebupacificair.com, or better yet subscribe to the promo alert, so they will email or text you whenever...

First Day - Sep 26: Manila and HongKong
I woke up on a very jumpy Saturday morning (Sep 26), don't know why but I just have this annoying feeling inside, butterflies in my stomach I guess...

Well, anyway, we went to the airport for our DVO-MNL flight, but instead of taking off at 12NN, we took off at 3:00 PM, flights were delayed due to the bad weather in Manila... The disastrous typhoon Ondoy came... We were told that Ondoy's here in the Phil., but we never knew how bad Phil. was already. So, without doubt, we went on board, and had the worst 1.5 hours of our lives...

It was the most bumpy and scary ride I had so far, I don't know how many prayers I did, but they were many... A colleague even mentioned she already asked forgiveness for her sins, cause something just might happen.. But thank God, we arrived safe in NAIA. Consequently, our MNL-HK flight was delayed as well. We stayed in the airport and waited, had our sandwiches and noodles for dinner at the nearest open "resto" from the Gate we were told to wait. Finally, at 8:00 PM, we were told to board our plane... Another bumpy ride, but again, we managed... BRO (God) is good...

When we arrived at the airport, I took my hotels direction from the reservation slip and followed it. It says we have to ride an A21 bus going to Nathan Road. But before we did, we called our hotel to confirm our presence and so they would wait for us. Then we bought this amazing Octopus Card (I love this card...) for HKD 150, although after using it at A21 bus, we realized, the credit was only HKD 100, but the 50 was added back on our next reload. This is the all-around card in HK, very helpful and I cannot ask for more... I used the card to pay HKD 33 at A21 bus, just lay it on the reader and there you go, you're paid, card credit, HKD 33 less.

The bus is a two-floor bus, and since it's our first time, we went upstairs to experience the ride... Nice bus.. The trip went on for an hour, we made it to our hostel, Chungking Mansions, our friends (Liza, Levi, Gigi and Aena) stayed at Blk A of the mansion, while me, labsy, mel and tess, stayed at Blk D. After settling in the hotel, we went out to grab dinner at the nearest 24/7 McDonalds. I was overwhelmed, it was around 1:30 AM, but the streets are so alive, seemed like everybody is awake... wow! and the most amazing part is, we can pay our food through that same lovely octopus card. Did I say I love this card?

BTW, our hostels were reserved online, we went to www.hostelworld.com, we had many choices, but of course, we choose, the cheapest one. We stayed at the New China Hostel, Chungking Mansion, BLK D, 9th Flr. If you don't mind the little off smell, and would only stay to sleep and bath, then it's okay, will do... We only paid 10% for our down payment over the internet, and paid in full on our first night, roughly, for 4 nights, it was only PHP 4,000, not bad.

Second Day - Sep 27: Victoria's Peak and Macau.
Our morning, started with a breakfast at KFC (just a few steps from McDonalds), then we walked to the ferry and stopping at the signature stores just around every corner of Nathan Road. Nice aye!?

When we reached the pier, we again used our octopus card to pay HKD 6 for the ride, then walked a few kilometers, with the help of three Filipinas who were very kind to lead us to the Peak Tram. While walking, we saw an overpass, with an elevator, wish we have one of those (in Philippines)... Went in straight to a Mall where cam is not allowed, went down to a road, where a lot of Filipinos are relaxing, talking, just lying there and having a grand time... Most of them were in the Parking Area of HSBC building, (it was Sunday, Sep 27, so we guess, everybody's free...).

So, we eventually arrived at the Peak Tram. Then there, we discovered that there are other offers we may avail when we reach the first floor. So instead of paying for the tram alone, then another for each of the establishment, we paid the package price of HKD 190 per person for the tram, sky terrace and Madame Tussaud's wax museum, somehow we saved a few HKD because of the package.

The tram ride going up was quite enjoyable, but the ride down made me a bit dizzy, we enjoyed the view from the tram as we saw the buildings started to seem like falling as we went up in a very obvious slope. When we arrive at the station, we (Liza, Aena, me and labsy) went straight to the Sky Terrace, I forgot to count how many escalators we had to cover to reach the peak, but it was many, definitely. And so, behold... the city of Hong Kong from the top...

After a very cool stay at the sky terrace, we went a few floors down to Madame Tussaud's wax museum. We met with Brat Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Tiger Woods and many many more. We even tried the walk of horror, hahaha, it was a little scary I admit...

After the tour, we bought a few souvenirs and took our lunch there. Their servings were big, so for labsy and me, we only ordered one, I forgot the name of that Chinese Meal but it has rice, with chicken and veges in one serving for HKD 26, not bad and it was delicious too. And then, we only had water coz, their 80z softdrink cost HKD 12... hehehe.. budget was a lil' tight, you know...

From Victoria's Peak, we took a cab and went to the Pier going to MACAU. That's our next destination for the day. Me, Labsy, Mel and Tess, paid for a round trip for a discounted price of HKD 175 each, we saved around HKD 20 each for that. Our trip is 2PM via the TurboJet and took us around one hour to arrive in Macau.

BTW, in going to Macau, passengers will be asked to write on a piece of paper for the immigration/customs, just like in the plane, after they stamped it, don't lose it, they will ask for that old form when you go back to HK...

When we arrived, we were greeted by fellow Filipinos and told us that they can give us a tour in Macau for a cheaper price. However, there's this Mr. Sam who offered us a tour with a car and told us that those Filipinos were illegal and that they will call the police to get them. Whew! a little commotion there. If you have the liberty of time, maybe you can choose the Filipinos to tour you around, but if you're like us, we only have a few hours, we choose the super persuasive and insistent Mr. Sam to give us that tour since he has a car and from HKD 250 each, we bargained it to HKD 100, a total of HKD 800 for the whole group.

Macau, Macau, Macau, it was perfect!!! We were awed by the amazingly designed places, specially the Venetian Hotel, hosted the largest casino in the world... We all love the place and signified intentions of coming back some other time... Hmmm... when could that be??? Mr. Sam is a good tour guide, very knowledgeable of Macau, he told us the History and some if not all the necessary information of a particular place. It was the best 4-hour tour we had...

Before going back to HK, we grab our dinner at the station after Liza, Aena, Levi and Gigi paid for their tickets. The ride back to HK at 9:30 PM was not at all good. The jet was thrown by the big waves and its fast speed. A lot of passengers vomited on that trip. Our group was generally okay, except for Levi who was nervous almost the whole time, Gigi who vomited after arriving in HK and Mel, who was sick and did not feel everything. We arrived in our Hotel at around 12:00 MN and took another night of rest...

Third Day - Sep 28: DisneyLand
We were supposed to go to Ocean Park in the morning but had no time. After buying our DSLR cameras', accessories, phones and other tech stuffs and gadgets, we found our way to Disney Land. We took the MRT to Disneyland and the payments were taken cared by the amazing octopus card again... Check out this link http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com/hkdl/en_US/tools/transportation/detail?name=ByMTRDetailPage for some details in getting there.

Disney was fun, some of my favorites are the following:

Mickey's Philharmagic (it's 3D but more like 4D :D), which gave us the fun and thrill beyond watching any box office movie and renowned internationally acclaimed theater acts. Most memorable act was when Donald Duck was on Alladin's flying carpet, we too were ooze with excitement as we seemed to be on the flying carpet too... Feeling the air, the rain (amazing huh? rain drops in the theater...), and the view like we were actually there...

TomorrowLand's Space Mountain Roller-coaster Ride (had sooooo much fun). It was the best roller-coaster ride ever!!!... I have had my share of shouting at Laguna's Enchanted Kingdom, but nothing compares with Disney's intergalactic ride. Like we were actually up, up in the galaxy, we saw miniature planets, stars, black-hole (that was scary by the way), sort-of-ghosts above us, and since it's a roller-coaster, sadly, i couldn't set my hand w/ my cam to take a pic, co'z i just might fall, you know...

Mad Hatter Tea Cups (I had a hard time trying to stop laughing, I was giggling, we all were) and the It's a Small World Palace (super amazing!!!). I can go back to these moments over and over again...


Fourth Day - Sep 29: Manila, MOA
Ready to go back to the Philippines... But we thought, amazement was over, no it's not!!! I never thought getting our butts to the seats of the gate before boarding the plane will need us to ride a train... (>@@#$%) Gate 40 was a long way from the check-in counter... whew! and while there, I never thought I was in the airport, seemed like I was in a big shopping mall...

Finally, plane to Manila...

The rest of the group went straight home to Davao, but then again, me and labsy, stayed in Manila... Off to Boracay the following day!!! yehey!!!

Fifth Day - Sep 30: Boracay
After having breakfast, off we go to the airport again for our Boracay Getaway. We arrived at Kalibo, then Cebu Pacific provided vans for us to Caticlan Port where we paid for the environmental fee (Php 50), terminal fee (Php 100) and the boat ride (Php 30-40) going to Cagban Port.

When we reached Cagban Port, we took a tricycle for Php 80 ("Pakyaw" - you're the only passengers) but you may also fall in line for the Php 20 each ride. The tricycle took us to D'Mall. We walked a few meters and stayed at Royal Park Hotel, Station 1, Beach Front and with wifi connection for only Php 1,500 per night. Although, that first night, we saw a Sunshine Hotel/Inn, still very near the beach, also in Station 1, with veranda for only Php 1,000 but does not have a wifi connection. But if I saw that hotel first, I would have chosen that, will deal with the wifi later...

Our first night was spent roaming around the bars and taking pictures with the fire dancers and the sandcastles.

Sixth Day - Oct 1: Island Tour
We were able to arrange an Island Tour for Php 1,200. First stop was the Crystal Cove, we went to the caves and had a short swim in cave 2. Next was snorkeling in Crocodile Island. It was not much, maybe because I've seen beautiful corals in Davao so I was not so amazed. Then to Puca Bay and stayed a little longer there for lunch and a good swim.

A day of swimming and walking along the beach. We didn't avail of parasailing due to the recent accident. We were supposed to try Zorbing but somehow were tired already and opted to stay longer in the room and grab some sleep.

Seventh Day - Oct 2: Back to Manila
We spent the morning buying key chains and shirts and the fish slippers. And off to Manila in the afternoon.

In the evening, we walked and went to the Luneta, just to stroll, then we wanted to go to GreenBelt for dinner, but unfortunately, taxis were very rare and after around an hour of waiting, the taxi driver, wouldn't want to go to Makati, so we ended up in MOA instead. Had dinner and went on malling... again...

Eighth Day - Oct 3: Fort Santiago, Star City (supposedly)
We started early in the morning, went to Fort Santiago, Manila Cathedral and Intramuros. We would like to go to Star City on this day, but unfortunately, Typhoon Peping is around, so Star City was closed...Not Again!!! This is the nth time Star City or the weather failed us... or the other way around... whatever! Eventually, we ended staying in MOA... again... hayyy... we then decided to watch a movie, hmmm... what was the title...??? Ahhhh.... Yaya and Angelina...

Ninth Day - Oct 4: Davao
A moment we've been waiting for, going home...

Until next adventure!!!