hk break

A few days ago my sisters and I were given the opportunity to take a break from work and the heat. After not being able to travel abroad for years, we FINALLY got the chance to go back to Hong Kong and really explore the place on our own.

The last time I went to HK with my family, I was first year high school. I wasn't so young then, but my memory of the trip is very vague. I don't exactly remember the logistics of it because my mom took care of almost everything; all we had to do was follow. Aside from that, I slept a lot during that trip (which frustrated my parents so much, haha). We went during December so it was about 7 degrees celsius outside. And I, being the sleepy person that I am, kept sleeping every chance I could. 

This time around, my older sister and her boyfriend planned the trip so everything was all up to us. Basically, it's our first international trip without the parents. And since we don't really travel often, we're not as comfortable moving around and handling everything by ourselves, so it was something quite new (and exciting) for us. 

Our hotel was on Hong Kong side this time so we really were not familiar with the place (since we stayed in Kowloon during our last visit). So on our first day, we wanted to locate the closest 711, McDonalds and WiFi spot. 

Very important thing I realised upon arriving in HK: THERE IS NO INTERNET ANYWHERE. My phone would get a lot of signals from different places, but all of them were locked; even restaurants didn't have Internet! Park Lane (where we stayed) had Internet but charged sixty dollars an hour. Crazy. When we went to Hysan Place, we were able to get Internet for a bit, but it got cut off after thirty minutes. So frustrating!

The Apple store, which was just a few streets away from our place, was our life saver. It was the only place that had free WiFi. So almost every morning, my sisters and I would stand outside the store just to be able to Instagram and check mail. But because the workers in the store seemed to have noticed our presence outside of it quite often, we tried not to stay there too long. 

The day we arrived. 

Early morning walk with my sister, finding our way through HK. 

On our first day, we explored a little around our hotel and Central. We also, for the first time EVER, stepped into H&M! Crazy right? We would always get clothes from there as pasalubongs, but as mentioned earlier, we don't really travel, so it was the first time. And we loved it!

For our second day, we decided to visit Kowloon where we walked around Nathan road, Canton road, and Mong Kok. This was ultimate shopping day for everyone! We were also able to eat in City Super again, which reminded me so much of our first HK trip.

On the third day we had another first: our first time to step into Disneyland! Definitely a baby book moment for us three. We grew up watching a VHS (or was it Betamax?) of Disneyland and could not believe we finally got to go! I felt like a five year old running around the place taking selfies and discovering the different things inside of it.

Even though the rides were not as exciting as Ocean Park (or as the other Disneylands, as mentioned by others), I still really enjoyed. Visiting the place really took me back to my childhood and it felt AWESOME! It was so nice hearing all the Disney songs play and seeing everything Disney. I also really love how every single thing in that place is so creative and well-thought of. I just wanted to take a photo of anything I saw!

Ecstatic Disneyland newbs. 

The trip ended with day four, where we spent our last few hours in HK walking around Times Square and the airport. Our flight was at night, so we were able to do some last minute shopping. 

Even though we were all so sad to be leaving already, what made the trip home okay was the fact that we were going to see the family and... business class food! It was just an hour and a half trip, but we were able to fly business class for the first time (another first!) and were so happy with the food that we were served for dinner. Got a little wine and delicious salmon salad + beef short ribs on our way back. Delicious! If i'm not mistaken the food was made by the chef of Aracama.  

Thank you for everything Mer and Jim!

And that is all! It was a really short but memorable trip for us, knowing that we haven't been able to do something like this in a while and we got several firsts on this trip. Now that I was able to get a feel of travelling again, I'm so so determined to be able to travel more this year. Hopefully to Cambodia or anywhere in Thailand!