Before my big adventure as mentioned in my last post, I am taking a short trip in to Hong Kong to see my friends off. With one full day in Hong Kong we decided to do the smart thing and go to Disney and Hong Kong.
First off I would like to thank my Disneyland sponsors, also known as my parents. They were awesome and paid for my ticket and food in the park. I really couldn’t have afford the trip otherwise.
The whole trip started yesterday as I said goodbye to my friends in Zhuhai for the semester. I will do a post on the place I ate later when I don’t have 100 other things to talk about.
I had a difficult time getting from my dorm to my Hong Kong hotel. The main reason being that I took my friends huge suitcase (a whopping 56lbs) so she wouldn’t have to carry two on her trip to Thailand after her finals ended.
My original itinerary was to take a public bus into an area called Gongbei, which is the crossover from mainland China to Macau. Then to take various free busses from the border to the port there. If I had done that I would have saved around 9 used.
However like a lot of the best laid plans, that isn’t what happened. I had to take a taxi because the bus wouldn’t let me on with the big bag and my small bag. I also wasn’t able to crossover at Macau because the ferry tickets were sold out so I instead had to go the port in Zhuhai and of course they were sold out of general tickets, with only first class 3 hours later available.
Just to tally up my original planned costs was:
Ferry ticket: $21
Bus to ferry: $1
My Actual Cost:
Ferry ticket: $41
Taxi: $10
That is life though and I am just grateful I got to Hong Kong at all. Once in HK I got lost in the ferry terminal trying to find the MTR station but I did eventually find it. I then proceeded to get lost 4 more times maneuvering my bags down elevators and all around the stations but I managed to make it to The Jordan station with all of my body parts in tact and all of the luggage I left Zhuhai with.
I am staying with my two friends, one from America going home and one Chinese going to Europe to study abroad. The Hotel we are in is really nice though a little bit expensive by lower end hotels standards in Hong Kong. It is called Best Hotel and it is right next to the Jordan B entrance.
Our room has three beds which is awesome and it is super clean and the water pressure is amazing. We paid $189 used for 2 nights of a 3 bedroom. I count it worth every penny if just for the shower.
My night was spent eating weird smelling 15hkd beef noodles on the side of Temple Street at Midnight, which I wouldn’t recommend.
This morning we woke up around 9:30am and didn’t get out of the hotel until 10:45 am. We at this delicious restaurant right next to us and it was quite cheap. I will add the picture to this post when I can.
We had planned to go to the Big Buddha on Lantau Island and then head to Disneyland. It was too foggy so instead we went shopping and wandering around for a while. My friend Tia had a suit made at Sam’s Tailor so we checked on it too. I will talk about that later when her final result comes in tomorrow and probably when I go get mine done next semester.
Around 2:30 we started our trek out to Lantau Island and Disneyland. It took us about 45 minutes from East Tsim Sha Tsui station which was quicker than expected. The whole trip cost about $3 which wasn’t too bad. For our ticket to Disneyland we used Klook and after buying them just scanned the QR codes they gave us at an automated ticket station that was really easy to use. We literally just walked straight in with no waiting in line. This was a sign for us because the park was relatively empty. I say relatively because in China their empty is my mid level packed. The longest wait we had was 18minutes at the busiest time of the day.
The park was really fun, though it was around the size of Magic Kingdom in all. The castle is very small too which was kind of funny to see. We had around 4 hours in the part and it was not near enough time to explore everything so if you decide to go definitely give it a whole day. The food is as expensive as you probably think it is, but the fish balls in curry sauce in Adventure Land were good.
We got to see the fireworks and the parade which were cool but it wasn’t DisneyWorld awesome. I had a lot of fun exploring the park with my friends and I am so glad I got the chance to go.
We hurried home after the fireworks because we were all bone tired and then ate at some famous Hong Kong chain restraint that was so good we are going there tomorrow for breakfast. Afterwards we came back to our room and did face masks and packed up.
I am so glad I got to have this day to see my friends off, especially my friend Tia who has been a really great friend to me for the last semester and it is going to be hard tomorrow saying good bye. I am having a hard time imagining being at my school in Zhuhai without her to be there to go on random adventures to Gongbei. Just another reason I am glad I studied abroad.
Tomorrow I am flying to Shanghai so wish me luck and hopefully I will post tomorrow!
