Hi Friends.
I had visited Hongkong early this year "Jan 2008". I had visited Hongkong from Maccau.
My original travel plans were as follows. Mumbai - Bangkok - Macau - Hongkong - Shenzhen China - Bangkok/Pattaya - Mumbai - uae.
a total vacation of 12 days, We did not take any tour operator and did all the bookings and arrangements on our own, It was kind off an adventure trip, we were bag packers ready to explore something new.
How to get to Hongkong. Well from Mumbai one can take Cathay Pacific Flight CX 750 or Air India, Or One can change aircrafts and use many other air lines like Thai airways, singapore airlines to name a few.
From Macau there is a ferry service every 15-20 minutes, and these ferry’s have only sitting, they have interiors like an aircraft, they have a stabilizer as the sea is quite rough, it is like a mini ship and it zooms over the water at about 40 knots "hover craft". The company operating this service is Turbo Jet, cost of travel is about 1500 INR for the 1 hour journey. You have the option of buying eatables once on board. They have TV’s in the boat for entertainment. A lot of people living in Macau and Shenzhen use these ferry’s to go to work in Hongkong.
Visa on arrival, we were stopped at immigration and had to under go an interview, visa is free and we got it after convincing the authorities that we are only on a vacation.
I suggest the first thing that you do in Hongkong is get an octopus card, which is a debit card used for traveling, it can be used on metro’s, trams, buses, super markets like 7/11, victoria peak and many other places, at the end of your stay you get back the balance credit. The advantage of using the octopus card is that it would save time and it is slightly cheaper if u use octopus cards for payment.
Best way of traveling is Metros and Buses, take a map from the conceirge of your hotel and a guide book and you can manage, avoid Taxis they are very expensive, start at around 7 hkk dollars, this is the minimum fare for 2 kms, after which you are charged 1.5 hkk dollars for every 200 meters and 1.2 dollars for idle time at signals for a period of 45 seconds.
Other modes of transport are cheaper than taxis, but if you convert into INR will still seem to be costly, a 25 km journey by metro would cost you 30 hkk dollars.
Where to stay, there are many hotels in hongkong, I stayed at the Ramada hotel, $122 per day on tripple sharing which I thought was a good deal, did not want to risk too much with a hostel accomodation we were new and we were a group of boys and girls.
Select a hotel either on hongkong island or kowloon nathan road.
vegeterrian you may have some problem of finding veg food, I was a non-veg so had no prob, and I had tried some outrageous food which I would not like to mention.
In terms of shopping find the place expensive if compared to bangkok and shenzhen or even Mumbai.
People in Hkk are very business oriented and life is at a very fast pace, in their stations they have esclators to all platforms and people run on the esclators to save time.
Please note that hotels would take some deposit incase you make calls.
What to see in hongkong.
well there is a lot to see, after all this place has the most number of billionaires and millionaires per capita, you can rent all the types of luxury cars, helicopters, yatches, dine at the finest restraunts and enjoy high end spas, but this was not in my iternary but this is an option if you go loaded with cash.
We went to Ocean park in hongkong, this is an amusement cum aquarium on a hill, the best part is the entire place is connected with esclators so you dont need to climb up steps and it saves a lot of energy. The park has a few rides, some of them are good like the free fall, and some of them are so so. There is a aquarium quite huge and big with many sections, but similar to the ones in singapore and bangkok. They also have a sea lion show similar to other places.
After ocean park which opens at 10:00 and ends at 6:00, we visited Victoria peak, we need to take a 10 minute tram ride up the peak, on top of the peak there is Madam tussards which is awesome, please visit it and remove pictures galore. The other branch being in London. Then there is a mall and some very costly restraunts. Go ahead to the peak and witness the best skyline in the world without a doubt just amazing, get a picture clicked there by a professional, cost 100 Hkk dollars, about 700 INR, costly city I told you.
Next day we visited disney land, it has a few rides which are basically for kids, a lot of phot points and disney characters, also there are a few shows, but this disney land is very very small if compared to paris or orlando, I had higher expectations for this place, staff are friendly here and always smiling, strict disney norms. but I expected more shows, a huge park and some daring rides.
Next day we went to china - shenzhen by metro from hongkong.
Cost of certain things in hongkong.
Bisleri Water - 10 - 15 Hkk Dollars
Metro - Start at 3 Hkk Dollars
Snakcs Like ruffles/wafers - start at 8-10 Hkk Dollars.
A meal at a normal road side restraunt - 50 hKK Dollars per person
Disney Tickets - 295 Hkk Dollars
Ocean Park - 210 Hkk Dollars
Ferry tickets - 150-200 Hkk dollars.
Madam Tussards+ Victoria peak - 125 Hkk dollars - its a good price
Pepsi Can - 7 Hkk Dollars 250 Ml.
People in Hongkong earn very good salaries, avergae per capita income is above$32000. USD.
Lot of sky scrappers in Hkk.
I will take your leave here, hope this information will help you all.
Regards
Shawn