Tag Archives: Hong Kong itinerary

Hong Kong 2011 Vacation: Settling at Golden Crown Guest House

Posted by wandergirl on July 20, 2011 2 comments

Since we arrived pretty late in the evening, there wasn’t enough energy to roam around after checking in at Golden Crown Guest House.

The room given to us was on the 5th floor,  one with inner window. It had three beds, but we only used two. It was a pretty decent room, but I was confused because they have bigger rooms inside their office and some more pretty nice ones on the 6th floor. Perhaps, those were the newer rooms but we didn’t bother to ask anymore because we don’t want to spoil our stay. Besides, our room is maintained daily, so I guess it’s forgivable.

Ken was the one who accommodated us and led us to our room. There were some clean towels, a bottle of body wash, three cups, and a flat screen TV – which we didn’t get to enjoy since most of the shows were foreign to us.

Just like what the people from Pinoyexchange and Femalenetwork GIRLTALK suggested, Golden Crown Guest House is a nice location for first-time Hong Kong visitors. It’s cheap and well-maintained. And best of all, it’s only a few minutes walk to Avenue of Stars, Clock Tower, Star Ferry Pier, Harbour City, and Canton Road where H & M, Esprit, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton are found. Additionally, it’s also just across the city buses to the airport, plus MTR exits are everywhere so you can go from point A to point B with only a few, enjoyable minutes of walk. In all, it’s very convenient especially for budget travelers like us…lolz.

Below are the breakdown of expenses we’ve incurred for our 4 days/4 nights getaway. Obviously, a huge chunk of our pocket money was spent for buying souvenirs and some personal stuff hahaha. The computation is based on 2 pax…that’s me and my hubby :)

Hong Kong 2011 Vacation: Arrival at Hong Kong

Posted by wandergirl on July 20, 2011 None comments

First, I was extremely wowed at the sight of Hong Kong as we approached our landing. Second, I was all the more speechless at how huge their airport is that we had to take a train to get to the Immigration area.

We arrived 9:10 PM and after seeing the long Visitors queue, I somehow freaked out if we’ll ever make it to Golden Crown Guest House before 12 midnight. Reaching the Immigration officer, my friend was asked how long will she be staying in Hong Kong; but when it was my turn, the officer just looked at me and gave me back my passport – the same thing happened with my hubby. At 10:30 PM we were already in the baggage area to claim our things and headed straight to the Nothing to Declare door. At this point, I decided to send an SMS to Golden Crown to let them know we’re on our way.

We looked for the customer service booth to buy our Octopus card (HK$ 150/pax) and took some more photos of ourselves before heading to the gate where the buses to the city are stationed. Although it’s already quite late we didn’t feel obliged to hurry and instead we were all relishing every moment of the experience. It was raining the night we arrived but we were ready with our umbrella.

We rode the A21 bus and alighted at bus stop # 13 and walked less than 5 minutes to Golden Crown Guest House, which is between CITI bank and Standard Chartered bank.

w/hubby

w/my friend

walking towards the buses to the city

at the city buses stations looking for A21 bus

Hong Kong 2011 Vacation: Departure to Hong Kong

Posted by wandergirl on July 20, 2011 None comments

Philtranco’s pick up point going to DMIA Clark was at the back of Megamall Bldg. A. My husband and I decided not to bring a lot of clothes since it’s Hong Kong’s SALE season and I was pretty sure we’re buying some apparels, anyway.

Traffic was extremely horrendous so we had to take the MRT from Quezon City to Shaw. We arrived at Megamall nearly 5 minutes before 12 noon, and Philtranco bus came past 12:30 pm. There were only quite a few passengers and in less than 2 hours we were already at DMIA.

Since we’re early, we had to wait for 3 hours before check-in. Too bad DMIA’s WIFI connection is only accessible inside the immigration area, so had to content ourselves chatting with each other before we checked-in at 5:15 PM. But once inside, everything goes faster already. We paid for our travel tax (PHP 1, 620/pax) and the terminal fee (PHP 600/pax) and then lined up at the Immigration. Funny because I was asked about my occupation and when I said I’m a home based content writer I was asked for my employment ID. Duh, it’s home based! I brought my SSS ID though and when I reiterated it’s home based and told the Immigration officer that I only have my SSS ID, he finally decided to leave me alone :)

After Immigration, waiting for the next 1 hour for our 7:15 flight was already peanuts. Besides we’ve got reasons to get busy already – thanks to WIFI and roaming activation.

Prepping up while aboard the Philtranco bus going to DMIA

Before boarding SEAIR

Settling down...