April 4, 2013
Manila - Clark - Hong Kong
It was one of my most awaited trips this year, as I travelled with different set of friends this time. Well, not because our Project C team didn't work out, but simply, I wanted to celebrate my first anniversary in my current work, with people I used to work with. Yes, despite I left them, we remained good friends.
This was my first trip of the year, to finally end the first quarter of the year. I have scheduled another one towards the end of the year (so I can recover from the expenses I incurred from this trip, yey! proper budgetting!) and I am also praying for an all-expense paid to a dream destination for lovelife calls.
Anyways, this is part one of the many entries on my recently concluded Hong Kong-Macau escapades with two of my office friends. Here we go:
Trying the new Clark-Trinoma Airport Lounge
Since I would like to introduce my friends to the concept of backpacking (yes, I am a bad mentor, since this is their first time to go out of the country), I decided for us to take the cheapest route to Clark Airport in Subic, Pampanga. This is despite of our early flight to HK scheduled at 7:45am.
Our meeting time is 3am, since the first bus will leave at 3:30am. We decided to meet at the airport lounge itself, we got seats to take while waiting for the others to come. I was there by 2:30, and there were a lot of passengers taking the early bus trip. The bus was also parked right outside the lounge, waiting for passengers to come in. By 3am, everyone was walking towards the bus and taking their seats, while I am still waiting for my two companions (yes, they were late). Good thing that if they won't come, I will be spending all our money in HK, all by myself (because I am the finance keeper during this trip).
A little past 3:30, we were bound for Clark Airport, and after an hour or so, we found ourselves getting off the bus and lining up to enter the departure area.
Airport - to - Airport
I was the point person for this trip, so I handled everything - from the tickets to how-tos. Good thing I was able to check in ourselves thru AirAsia's web check-in and all we have to do is to drop our bags in the frontline, pay for the travel tax, terminal fee and line up for immigrations.
I have several copies of the itineraries, just in case the IOs look for it (reminiscing our Project C: Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand last year). I had them prepared their company IDs as well, since some of the IOs look for these IDs. Luckily, the IO didn't look for such documents and stamped our passports (yehey for first stamps!). The whole process (from baggage drop to boarding area) took only about 45 minutes, and we patiently wait for our boarding gate to open.
Prior to the trip, I was checking the weather thru Accuweather mobile app, and weather predictions include thunderstorms, occasional rains and cloudy skies throughout the duration of our stay in HK. Though we were prepared for this (long sleeves and pants), we still prayed for weather improvements since our itineraries involves a lot of walking and open areas.
After roughly 2 hours and a great turbulence upon descent, we landed in Hong Kong International Airport. This is probably the best airport I have ever been in. Free tourist maps are everywhere (Philippines, I hope you do the same), easy navigation of the area and finding the immigration lines despite its large floor area.
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| Just follow the signs... :) |
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| I wish Philippines will have the same facility in our airports. And not charge the maps! |
Upon arrival, we grabbed few maps on our way to the Immigrations, lined up and have our passports stapled. Yes, Hong Kong doesn't stamp your passports anymore. Instead, a printed paper will be stapled on your passport page, indicating the number of days allowed to stay in HK. For OC people like me, this is a no-no, since staple wires create dents on the next page.
We grabbed a bite in McDonalds, right after we picked up our check in bags. We also decided to buy our MTR tickets at the airport for HKD 150 (with HKD 100 initial load, HKD 50 for card deposit, which you can claim if you surrender your MTR cards upon departure in HK).
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| Octopus card. Our travel buddy for the next 4 days. |
From Airport to Mongkok
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| In transit. First glimpse of the double decker buses in Hong Kong. |
Being the punong-abala for this trip, I wanted to stay in Tsim Sha Tsui but the hostels I am looking at were fully booked during our stay, so I decided to choose Mongkok district instead. I never had made the best decision of my life so far, until this day came! (Review of the hostel on a separate post).
Upon exit of the airport, proceed to the bus stations and look for A21 buses. Mongkok is the 6th stop from the Airport. Fare is 33HKD. It took us about 40 minutes from the airport to Mongkok. After getting off, we took Exit D2 to Argyle Street, walk towards Sincere House and proceeded to room 707; Dragon Hostel. This is our base for the next 5 days in Hong Kong.
We checked in at our hostel, made necessary checks and knick knacks and we are off to our walking tour of the Avenue of the Stars, Star Ferry and discovering the Old Hong Kong.
Tips:
1. For HK first timers, you may want to seat at the top level of the double decker buses to get a scenic view of the roads and a lot more things. You may want to grab the first front seats on top.
2. Airport buses have the luggage section inside the bus. Make sure you put your bags properly so other people can stack theirs as well. For rolling luggages, have them on their side so they won't roll when the bus is moving.
3. Prepare exact change if you still don't have your octopus card. Octopus card will always be the fastest way to pay for your transportation. Just make sure you have enough credit on your octopus card.
