Hongkong-Macau Trip 2015: Day 1 (Ngong Ping Village, Victoria Peak, Madam Tussauds)

Before I graduated from college back in 2013, my Mom had been asking me to bring her to Hongkong for a shopping trip. Since then, I saved a portion of my earnings until I have enough funds to buy her (and myself, of course!) plane tickets to Hongkong. I booked during Cebu Pacific Air's Piso Fare Promo last April 2015. I was not able to get the discounted price for our return trip to Manila, hence, I paid Php 4,500/head - one 20kg check in luggage and all taxes & fees included. Still, not bad for an international trip, right?

Day 1 - November 4, 2015

We arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 at around 4:30AM to avoid the traffic. Our flight is scheduled at 7:25AM and luckily enough, we boarded the plane and flew on time!

It's also our first time to ride the Airbus A330! Probably there's a large volume of passengers for MNL-HKG trips, hence the need for a bigger plane! It's also equipped with an on-board WIFI which you can use with a fee of HKD 126 (approx. Php 244.13) for 15 minutes. Basically, I just availed it for experience which I also shared both in Facebook and Instagram! Haha!

To kill time, my Mom played Piano Tiles on the plane (the game's quite addicting, btw).

In less than 2 hours, we have arrived safely to our destination! HELLO HONGKONG!

Upon collecting our luggage, we went straight to the money changer and bought our Octopus cards. One (1) card costs HKD 150 where the HKD 50 is refundable should you decide to return the card prior departure. The Octopus card is a reloadable transportation "ticket" which can be used to most of the buses, subways and trains (MTR). It can also be used at convenience stores and other shops in Hongkong for cashless transactions.

We then headed to the airport bus terminal. Since we need to drop our bags at the hotel, we took the A21 bus which will bring us straight to Tsim Sha Tsui (TST).

Took some snaps during our 45-min land travel! You can also take the Airport Express train to the Central Station and ride the MTR to TST but I opted the bus since we have 2 large bags with us. Plus, it's cheaper and the view was pretty awesome!

Finally reunited with my Aunts (my Mom's sisters) and off we went to our first destination: NGONG PING 360!

Ngong Ping is a Buddhist-themed park featuring the Imperial Chinese architecture, interactive shows demonstrations, restaurants and coffee & tea shops. You can reach it via bus or the more famous Ngong Ping Cable car for a better view of its surroundings. Of course, to complete the "touristy experience", we opted for the cable car! We bought the tickets at a discounted rate of HKD 125/pax  from our hotel. Other perks of buying the tickets in advance? We took the express lane to the counters to have our vouchers replaced with actual tickets and all my Aunts were relieved after realizing they were spared from the long line. Haha

The cable car ride lasted for 20 minutes and we enjoyed taking snaps of the city and mountain ranges. Our group photo was taken by the nice couple whom we have shared this ride with. :)

  

It's my Mom's first time to travel abroad with her sisters, too bad they were not complete though. Next time, perhaps? :)




We're here!!

At Ngong Ping Village, you can also see the largest seated Buddha a.k.a. Tian Tan Buddha.

Wishing Pavilion

The statue is named Tian Tan Buddha because its base is a model of the Altar of Heaven or Earthly Mount of Tian Tan, the temple of Heaven in Beijing. It's 34 meters tall weighs over 250 metric tons and was constructed from 202 bronze pieces. Visitors have to climb 268 steps to reach the Buddha though the site also features a small winding road for vehicles to accommodate the handicapped. (Source: Wikipedia)

After two hours of walking around Ngong Ping Village, we took the cable car again back to the city. There we had a quick stop at....

Citygate Outlets! It's a rare outlet mall with tonnes of mid-priced brands, some of them being Adidas, Esprit, Giordano, Levi's, Nike, Quicksilver and Timberland. They also have Michael Kors, Kate Spade and many more! My Aunts and Mom enjoyed shopping here, in fact, we even went back to this mall on our last full day in Hongkong!

After almost two hours of shopping, we headed to our next destination: the Victoria Peak!

I made a booboo on our way here because good old Google Maps told me to take the bus to Victoria Peak without thinking that I bought roundtrip tickets for the Peak Tram. Btw, you will alight at the bus terminal of The Peak Galleria should you decide to take the public transpo to Victoria Peak.

To make things worse, upon arriving at Victoria Peak, I brought us to the tram's terminal and to our surprise, we went down to the city instead of "the peak"! Upon realizing my mistake, my Aunts asked the ladies at the lower terminus if we can go back. They agreed but advised us to either buy a single-journey tram ticket or travel via bus on our way back to the city since our roundtrip tickets are all used up. *sigh* Charge to experience! 

The Peak Tramway is a 1.4km funicular railway in Hongkong, which carries both tourists and residents to the upper levels of Hongkong Island. Running from Garden Road Admiralty to Victoria Peak via the Mid-Levels, it provides the most direct route and offers good views over the harbor and skyscrapers of Hongkong. (Source: Wikipedia) We got our discounted tickets from our hotel at HKD 218/pax inclusive of roundtrip tram tickets and entrance to Madam Tussauds & Sky Terrace.

Tram's Interior

So after fixing my booboo that evening, we went to Madam Tussauds to have some fun!

Madam Tussauds is a wax museum featuring some known celebrities and public personalities. It basically gives you a better look of your idols, pretty cool!

My Aunts striking a pose!

My Mom enjoyed posing with these almost-real-looking wax figures!

Groufie before running to the Sky Terrace!

Hongkong Skyline! My Aunt braved the heights just to have a pose with her sisters!

Lovin' this view! The Sky Terrace can also be pretty chilly at night (and probably more during winter) so don't forget to bring a shawl or jacket. :)

So after taking a few snaps at the top of Hongkong, we decided to go back to our hotel and call it a night. But first, let me share with you these escalators that we took on our way down to the bus terminal. Waaaaah!

So that ends our first day in Hongkong! See you tomorrow, Macau!