Hong Kong: A Gift for My Boy

March 7-10, 2009

This is my second trip to Hong Kong. The first was a business trip. Not suitable to blog as the farthest place I went to was at 711 down the corner of my hotel. I was not able to go around. The only places I went there was The Peak (for a dinner meeting) and a little shopping I made in one of the night markets (Temple Market).
This time, I made sure I'll be able to go farther than 711.

Together with my son, LIV and my gay best friend V, we left Manila for a very early flight on the morning of March 7. The 2 hour flight was fast, before I can even think of taking a nap, we’re about to land the Hong Kong International Airport. It was breakfast time and as soon as we changed our money to HK dollars, my LIV was already looking for a restaurant. We found a Chinese fast food near the money exchange. The food was just okay, just enough to wake us up. After breakfast, we found the exit and as we approach the exit gate, we could feel the cold weather of HK, just as we stepped out, it was freezing cold! I grabbed LIV’s jacket, scarf and his bonnet cap and wrapped my son to keep him warm. V was too stubborn to listen to me and he is a firm believer of travel light…in about 5 minutes outside, he was shaking. He only has a cotton sweatshirt with a hood. What can I do? Hes one stubborn gay.

The bus was about 30 minute ride, and cheaper by the way. I remember the bus ticket to our destination was only HKD45 unlike if you take the airport express, its about HKD100. The airport stopped right across the street from our hotel, it was that easy.

We arrived in our hotel earlier than the check in time (Ramada Hotel is located in Des Voeux Road West). We found the hotel from www. hotelbookers.com at a really low price. I highly recommend the hotel as it is very cheap but the amenities, the cleanliness of the hotel is just too good for their cheap price. Plus, the tram has a stop in front of the hotel, so it is very accessible (and again, the tram cost is just HKD5 for child and 10 for adult).

While checking in, my friend Mandy (my Marketing colleague from our Hong Kong office appeared on my side). We were lucky enough that Mandy was very nice enough to come with us to Ocean Park for our first day. We had to leave our luggage in the concierge as our room is not ready yet.

We left the hotel to meet her friend Eva who was also joining us. When I found out that Eva has a car, we just felt so lucky, imagine that’s a big savings for us. The taxis are a bit expensive, so yeah, we’re pretty grateful for them to join us.
Just like Mandy, Eva is a short Chinese girl, seems nice and both of them are well verse with English so no problem on that, and both are laid back, the perfect companion.

Ocean Park (with Eva and LIV)

Ocean park is huge! Entrance for adult is HKD179 and HKD91 for kids. We went to see the pandas, spent sometime in the lowland gardens, we rode the cable car which LIV was too overwhelmed, he’s not sure whether to enjoy it or be scared at the same time, we watched the ocean theatre (dolphins and sea lions), we saw the sea jelly spectacular, we also rode the quick ocean park tower, and went inside Atoll reef. Before we went out V and I braved to ride the Mine train which can make you pee yourself to death in 0.3 seconds.

Ocean Park from Highland view...its not my camera...it was the weather (this was around lunch)

After almost the whole day we drove back to the city. Mandy and Eva dropped us off to the nearest MTR station. We were able to find our way back to our hotel safe and sound. Got our luggage in the concierge and went straight to our room. The room was great except that there were only 2 single beds and LIV is a bit big so sleeping side by side is a hard for us. There’s cable tv, the bathroom is clean, and they have mini ref, complimentary teas and a kettle to boil water (we would usually buy tall bottled water from 711 across our hotel to use for our coffee and drinking water).

The night we came back from our day trip in Macau (see my blog on Macau), we went out for some local cuisine for our dinner that night, right beside our hotel there’s a line of Chinese restaurants. The food was tasty and of course Chinese food as always are oily…but it was good dinner.

After taking a break, we decided to go to Temple Market for a night of shopping. I’ve been there on my first trip to HK, some stuff are just the same as what you see in Greenhills and other flea markets around Manila. I was happy to buy a vintage pocket watch for HKD70. I fell in love with it, it looked soooo old and soooo Somewhere in Time. I was planning to give it to a guy I was seeing that time, but the relationship poof!! just after few weeks, so I kept the watch for myself.

On our 3rd day, it was our schedule to visit the Holy Ground for kids…Disneyland! I am pretty excited myself as it is my first Disneyland and LIV’s too. When I was young I never dreamed of going to Disney, although I’ve watched and read all the stories, there was just no way my sisters and I could’ve gone to one when we were young…we’re a middle class family and our parents are just not like that. But now that travelling is way easier than before, I would like my son to be able to travel while he’s young.
But first…we tried the hotel’s breakfast buffet. It’s about Php500 per person, we ate, pancakes, sausages, cream puffs, croissants, coffee, juice, cereal, fruit plate and even cakes. It was okay…seriously I’ve had much better breakfast buffet here in the Philippines, although I am 100% against it, I was on a trip with my son, and a gay bestfriend who suggested we should just try it.

We took the MTR to go to Lantau Island (where Disneyland is located) and then getting off at the Disney Resort station. From there, we rode the Disney train. The Disney train was just nice…check out our pictures!

Arriving at Disney Resort, as expected we took pictures on every single corner of the place. With the help of Mandy, we were able to get away with a discounted ticket price (there’s a discount for HK resident for tickets and she purchased for us). From Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland and Main Street USA, it was all magical for LIV. Even though LIV and I had a little misunderstand, the usual mommy-son thing, we were able to patch up so as not to spoil our vacation. The line for Mickey and Minnie mouse picture taking was too long and if we wait for it, we wont be able to catch some shows. We had pictures with Donald and Daisy, Mulan, Buzz Lightyear and the chipmunks. LIV’s favorite was the jungle ride, there were man-made animals, tribe people and amazing effects that made LIV’s mouth wide open. We also watched several shows like The Golden Mickey, which I enjoyed, the Philarmagic 3d show, the Lion King show, and the parade of the whole Disney gang. But I think my favorite of all was the closing show, the fireworks display. To be honest…it made me teary eyed happy little girl at that moment. To listen to each theme songs of all the Disney movies I’ve seen while growing up felt like taking me back when I was 10. We took more pictures before we heard the announcement that the resort will close in a few minutes. Looking at the famous Disneyland castle for the last time, I wonder what it was like for LIV to be able to see this at a young age. Well I hope it was magical for him as it was for me.

We went back to our hotel, it was our last night in Hong Kong, we’re tired but also happy about our experience. For our last night, we thought of taking a walk, I was hoping to see another night market, but I think we were beat that night.
Early morning, we had a quick breakfast and off we showered, packed our stuff, and we took off to the airport. We were just in time for our flight…we had to walk for maybe 15-30 minutes to get to our exit gate…walking around Hong Kong airport is exhausting…the place is just too big!

One hour after, we safely arrived in Manila. I saw my mom and LIV just ran to her. V said a quick hi to my parents and he went off to get a cab. The trip was tiring but it was also one of my favorite trips. The cold weather in Hong Kong at that time, the food, the hotel where we stayed in, the places we went to, my son’s first international trip…might do it again next time!

hotel website: http://www.ramadahongkong.com/