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Asia Culinary Hongkong

Hongkong Transit 8hours part 2 (day to night)

12th August 2016 - 7 min read

This is going to be a very late post about our transit in Hongkong for 8 hours. This time will be the continuity after previously explained about Part 1 a few months back. I still believe in the saying, “better late than never” 😛

So on our way back to Amsterdam, we had to stop over in Hongkong again as part of the ticket deal that was long awaited. This time, we landed in the late afternoon, around 14.20 pm which actually allowed us to do something we could not experience in our first visit. This time we wanted to have the different ambience in the city of Hongkong, saw the big buildings which I found much similar with Jakarta, and went to the harbour to stare the city from another point of view.

The following will show more or less our itinerary in the short time in Hongkong. Our priority was to try the culinary, take ferry and enjoy the sunset/night view of Hongkong. First thing first, we set our alarm to leave wherever we are at 21.00 to be at the airport at 22.00. Our flight was at 00.15 am, it was a quite long buffer as it was actually an easy access to go back to the airport. We needed to assure we did not let the time fly by like that haha so we had to enjoy every second, but also limited ourselves without forgetting the time (thanks to alarm!).

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Just like explained in the other post about transiting in Hongkong, first thing to do was queuing the immigration and drop off the luggage in the ‘locker’. After finishing the drop off, we went to toilet, freshened up, and changed. Felt like a new person with a new spirit once cleaned. It is a must do before start exploring the city. This time we withdrew HK$700 for 2 person, which at the end, remained a lot. I still have more than HK$100 in my purse until now :/

In this second trip, we did not take the bus, but the metro instead. I must say, it’s more convenient, smooth, and faster than the bus. We headed to the city (Kowloon). The price was around HK$180 and it took 21 minutes to get into the city.

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We went through a building to another building and another building trying to search for the very famous dimsum restaurant called Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum Specialist, it’s a Michelin Restaurant. We expected, it was supposed to be good and very authentic. But we got lost at some point and could not find the place any more. At some point, in our disorientation, we passed through the Stanley Street where a lot of restaurants located and we also saw a restaurant that was recommended everywhere in the internet, also Michelin star. It is specialized in the roasted goose. The name is Yat Lok Roast Goose. It was pure satisfaction tasting the delicate crispness with meat and fat sinking into the juicy roast goose drum stick. YUMMY! But the turnover of the customers was so quick, thus we were there just to eat then we had to leave immediately otherwise the waitresses would look at us with an expelling eyes. Anyway, in spite of the un-coziness, the food was absolutely 5 stars.

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After fuelling our stomach, we continued walking, this time to the direction of the harbour to take Ferry. We wanted to go to the other side to catch the view on my featured image. They said, this wonderful panorama is best experienced from the water on board a Hong Kong evening harbour cruise. And they are right!

One tip: check the weather forecast. We somewhat know that it would be raining but we had no umbrella with us. Lesson learn: always bring small umbrella with you in your bag. 

We took the ferry (forgot the price!) to go to the other side. We got to see the view from TST (Tsim Sha Tsui). Every night at 8pm, we can see the Symphony of Light, where light and laser features more than 40 buildings and skyscrapers on both sides of the harbour. A lot of articles advises that this should be taking our breath away, but we did not feel it at all to be honestly saying, we barely were able to spot the lights :/ Anyway, it’s nice to get the chance experiencing it. The rain poured a little bit, so we decided to leave during the show and stopped in the small street ice cream vendors before heading back to Airport. Nice to see the kind of Asian ice cream like green tea, black bean, red bean, as I always like them. In Netherlands, those kind can only be bought in Oriental supermarket or Asian restaurants. Not common at all.

It was a nice short trip which actually was considered as our mini honeymoon 😛

I recommended if you have the chance to do the stop over to enjoy the city a little bit.

Asia Culinary Hongkong

Hongkong Transit 8hours part 1 (morning to day)

13th June 2016 - 7 min read

Saya dan Damar memutuskan untuk beli tiket Cathay Airlines, dengan alasan yang tidak lain dan tidak bukan karena harga yang sangat terjangkau dibanding airlines lain pada saat itu. Biasanya saya selalu pergi dengan Emirates ke Indonesia. Tapi kemarin saat tiba waktunya kami harus beli tiket, harganya menjulang ke langit banget, sekitar 1000 euro. Sedangkan Cathay +-500 euro, hampir setengahnya. Sebenernya ada maskapai lain yang harganya sekitar itu, tapi kelebihan dari Cathay Airlines adalah stopover-nya di Hongkong, daerah yang kami belum pernah datangi dan nggak bersyarat visa bagi kami. Wah, itu nilai-nya plus sekali untuk bikin keputusan dengan maskapai apa kami pergi. Juga, Cathay menawarkan penerbangan direct ke Surabaya, tempat tujuan kami. Lagian selama ini kami berdua belum pernah terbang dengan Cathay, yang rumornya pernah jadi maskapai nomor 1 di dunia itu. Jadilah kami beli tiketnya.

Waktu transit di Hongkong adalah 8 jam. Begitu juga dengan perjalanan pulangnya dari Surabaya-Amsterdam. Jadi total kami punya 16 jam untuk mengeksplor kota metropolitan yang padat itu.

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Kami tiba di Hongkong pukul 05.30 pagi. Yang pertama kali kami lakukan adalah antre imigrasi. Di Imigrasi kami perlu menyerahkan form keimigrasian yang diberi diudara oleh pramugari. Jadi kami cuma perlu antre dan menyiapkan paspor. Karena masih pagi, antrenya nggak terlalu panjang dan kami salah satu yang sampai paling awal. Begitu lolos dari imigrasi, kami ke toilet untuk sikat gigi, bebersih, dan ganti baju yang lebih rapih. Seragam wajibku di pesawat adalah jumper, jogger pants/trainer, dan kacamata minus saya, nggak banget deh kalau buat jalan-jalan haha

Jangan lupa untuk mengambil uang dengan Hongkong currency dari ATM! Perlu dicatat, pecahan dari mesin ATM adalah besar. Kami berdua ke bakery di dalam airport demi memecah uang untuk bayar bus (tempatnya semacam Bread Talk gitu kalau di Indonesia) dan beli roti goreng kari ayam. Aduhhh! enakanyaaa! Di Belanda adanya bakery model pastry atau cake, kalaupun jual roti, isinya pasti nggak macem-macem kaya di Asia. Roti terbungkus, kami pun jalan ke Terminal 2 Level 3, untuk luggage drop off. Rate per jam-nya adalah HK$12. Disitu kami sudah harus memberi estimasi berapa lama kira-kira kami akan menitip barang cabin kami itu, sesuai pengalaman kami, 6 jam adalah waktu yang pas. Nggak perlu even consider untuk membawa barang cabin kalian, jalan dengan membawa barang itu nggak nyaman. Daripada cemas dan ribet akan barang bawaan, mending menikmati pemandangan kota. Setelah beres, kami jalan keluar airport. Publik transportasi ada di sekitar situ semua, bahkan kereta Expressnya malah ada di dalam bandara. Serba gampang dan nyaman. Tiket busnya per orang HK$3.5. Note: Di Hongkong, supir Bus tidak menyediakan kembalian. Untung kami sudah memecah uang, jadi kami cuma rugi HK$3. Hitung-hitung sedekah….

Hongkong mengingatkan saya dengan padatnya Ibu kota Jakarta. Gedung-gedung tinggi dan besar ada dimana-mana, kawasan perindustrian yang dimana-dimana sedang dikonstruksi. Polusi juga banyak.. Bedanya, aturannya lebih jelas, orang-orangnya terlihat lebih disiplin juga kendaraan bermotor. Padat iya, tapi nggak sampai macet karena moda transportasinya variatif, aman nyaman dan terjangkau.

Jadi kira-kira gini perjalanan kami..

Pukul 07.30: Kami tiba di Tong Chung station (25 menit dari airport, naik bus S1). Kami berdua duduk di toko kopi di square situ, memperhatikan orang-orang Tionghoa lalu lalang dengan sibuknya, karena itu hari kerja. Disitu banyak juga toko roti, yang harganya lebih murah dari di airport. Disitu kami duduk-duduk untuk nunggu cable car Ngong Ping 360 buka. Bukanya pukul 10.00.

Pukul 09.00: Kami jalan kaki ke arah cable car dan duduk-duduk di sekitar situ. Nggak beberapa lama kemudian, antrean udah mulai panjang. Datang awal memang diperlukan sebelum turis-turis lain mulai berdatangan dan ramai.

Pukul 10.00: Naik cable car

Pukul 10.25: Sampai ke Lantau Island, dimana Big Buddha (Tian Tan) berada. Disitu kami menyusuri desa-nya, naik tangga 268 steps untuk melihat Big Buddha dari dekat. Di arah berlawanan patung Buddha, ada Lin Monastery Po yang katanya merupakan salah satu sanctums Buddha yang paling penting dan dijuluki ‘The Buddhist World in the South’’. Biara ini kaya dengan manifestasi warna-warni dari ikonografi Buddha dan taman dengan dengan kicau burung dan aroma bunga. Ada restoran vegetarian yang populer di dekat situ, sayangnya saya dan Damar harus kembali ke airport karena takut kenapa-kenapa di jalan dan ketinggalan pesawat.

Pukul 12.00: Ke cable car dan turun. Lalu ambil bus yang sama untuk kembali ke airport.

Estimasi Pengeluaran /orang = HK$400

Drop off luggage HK$72

Beli snack + kopi HK$50

Bus HK$7

Cable Car HK$255

Tips penting: Gimana caranya, usahakan tidur di pesawat walaupun waktu Belanda masih siang. Karena begitu sampai di Hongkong udah hari baru (di Belanda tengah malam), bakal capek banget rasanya kalau di pesawat nggak istirahat. Saya dan Damar nggak bisa tidur, jadi begitu kami kelar jalan-jalan dan balik ke bandara, kami langsung terlelap tidur di ruang tunggu.

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Semoga bermanfaat…