My Travel & Food Esperienza: Hong Kong Day 1 (24-26 May 2013)

Yay to long weekend thanks to Vesak Day! I've decided to pay a visit to Hong Kong with my brother as I haven't been there since I was 5. It's just a simple 3D2N trip, all I planned was to eat and shop as well as paying visits to some of their famous tourists attractions.

Our flight was on 24 May, 6.05am with Tiger Airways, thus we had to wake up at 3.30am to get ready and reached the airport before check-in counter closes. After checking in, we head down to Mcdonald's to grab our yummy breakfast at Singapore Changi Airport T2. The flight to Hong Kong was good and ahead of schedule. Thumbs up Tiger! My brother and I had the first row with lots of space for our legs. =P Once we touched down at Hong Kong International Airport, we headed to the Airport Express Train and dropped off at Tsing Yi.

The train was so comfortable and quiet. I pre-booked the Airport Express Travel (3Day) passes, where you get two rides on the Airport Express Line and unlimited MTR rides for 3D, I collected them at Tsing Yi station. Don't worry about not being to collect the passes at the airport as there's no gantry to the train at the airport, cool ya? Do pre-book the tickets online at http://www.mtr.com.hk/eng/fares_tickets/intro.html to get HKD 15 off from HKD 300! Before leaving Hong Kong, do remember to return the pass to get HKD 50 refund. Thus the overall cost for a 3Day pass was only HKD 235, which is approximately SGD 40.

Our hotel was easy to find and it was only 3-5min walk from Yau Ma Tei MTR. The building of Caritas Bianchi Lodge was not appealing at all, but once you walked in, the lobby was well presented and the staffs were friendly and able to speak English, Mandarin and of course Cantonese. We were too early for check in and thus we left our baggage in the lobby and headed out for food!

First food place, Tim Ho Wan at Hong Kong Station. The queue was SO LONG that we decided to take-away our food. The wait for our order was quite alright, approx. 15-20min. This was my first time trying their dim sum and I have high hopes for it since Singaporeans are willing to queue for 1-2hr at the newly opened Tim Ho Wan in Plaza Singapura.

OMG. This Char Siew Bun is SUPERB!! HKD 18 for 3 of them, which is approx. SGD 0.98 per bun. I bought 6 and my brother had 4 at one go! I'm filled with 2 buns and other dim sums we ordered that tasted alright so I didn't post it up.

Cong Sao at Holiday Inn Express, near Causeway Bay MTR

Cong Sao

榴莲水晶珠

芒果奶昔燉双皮奶

Cong Sao's desserts were great!! HKD 61 (SGD 10) for these two bowls of yums! A bit pricey though, it's still worth a try! =)

Our hotel room at Caritas Bianchi Lodge in Yau Ma Tei

We headed back to our hotel to check in and were delighted with our room. It was spacious and not like every other hotels in Hong Kong where you only have enough space to put your luggage. We rested in the hotel for 1h and made our way to Tsim Sha Tsui for the beautiful night view of Hong Kong!