The HongKong Getaway Part 1
Filed Under Travel
OK, before I veer away to a totally different topic, let’s go back to discuss my HongKong vacation.
I’m actually with my wife and three of her friends when I toured HK. We booked a regular package from Holiday World Tours via Active Travel. The Cebu Pacific package is already sold out so we were forced to choose Philippine Airlines which is just fine since they are using the NAIA Centennial Terminal. Of course, PAL comes with a higher price. To make this analysis easy to bite, I’ll post it in several chunks. Each item will be graded and they are as follows.
NAIA Terminal 2 (80%)
At first, I took a turn that made me end up in NAIA Terminal 1. I should have not turned right in Sucat Rd so I immediately proceeded to Terminal 2 after asking directions from the guards. Our friends are already waiting in the terminal for 20 minutes already and they can’t enter the terminal because we have their tickets. It’s not a good day to start a bad hair day for any of them so I pressed the pedal to the metal.
Arriving here from HKG didn’t gave any problem except for a few minor hitches like the arrogant scrutiny of the Custom official. Hmnn… I think I’m already used to that. Airport Taxi will sure ruin your already empty pocket so the four of us (the other one, Lhei was fetched by her mother) just packed all our baggages inside the compartment of my car. We were fortunate that we were able to fit the baggages in and my brother was kind enough to fetch us at 11:30pm. So since terminal 2 is clean and orderly compared to terminal 1, I would give it a fair enough rating.
Airline : Philippine Airlines (80%)
Pricey compared to Cebu Pacific. Used a B747-400 from MNL-HKG. You can feel the turbulence with a Jumbo jet and I guess it’s not about the way the PAL pilot flew the plane but because of the plane itself because when I flew via Cathay Pacific last July, 2005, I experienced the same. Going back to Manila, it was a breeze. We flew on a PAL’s A300 and the ride was smooth. I’m not sure if I just slept deeply but I think I didn’t feel anything until the descent when I felt like my ears are popping out. They served filipino dishes during the flight and they tasted good.
HongKong Airport (Chek Lap Kok) (90%)
This is admittedly one of the most beatiful airports I’ve ever been. It’s better than KLIA and Schipol. It’s huge but clean and orderly. The immigration area is very large and there’s a lot of online counters. I’m all praises to this airport. It’s so huge, you can get lost. 
Hotel: Panda Hotel (60%)
Panda Hotel is a 3-star hotel somewhere in Tsuen Wan area. It is quite far from the downtown area where most of the shopping area are located (Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, etc) but it is still very accessible via MTR. We just used the hotel as a base since what we do there is just sleep and bathe. The rest of the days, we are out shopping!!! However, I wouldn’t recommend you to book on this hotel. Just book here if you can no longer get other hotel. It doesn’t necessarily sucks but with their price, you can get a better one in HongKong that’s near any of the MTR stations. Panda is about 300 meters away from Tai Wu Hao MTR station. That’s quite a walk and remember that all day, you are already walking and 300 meters is not near. No, there’s no pedicab or tricycle that will ferry you to the hotel.