HongKong Adventure Part 1

The family is very excited leading up to our short and exciting vacation to Hongkong. And the day finally arrived. We woke up early last Sunday, January 24 to be in the airport. Cebu Pacific's airline is departing from the new Centennial Terminal 3 terminal. Alright, the airport is not actually new "new" but it is obviously the latest airport in Manila. I'm sure it is bigger than the Terminal 2 where Philippine Airlines hold their domestic and international flights. The terminal 3 once operational will inherit all the other airlines at the Old NAIA terminal. So much for the airport. However, we have to point out that there are less hangers-on here and less well wishers or maybe we are early as we are already at the airport by 5-530 in the morning.

We checked in at the counter and there we spotted our travelmates/friends Lara and his husband, Jun and son Cuzz. We planned to have the same flight and same hotel. We encountered no problem at the check-in counter except that we have to turn around again after checking in the luggage to pay the Airport Fee and Travel Tax. So for all Cebu Pacific buyers, yes the ticket is all inclusive but at the airport you still must pay International Travel Tax and Airport Fee if your traveling outside of the coutry. Good thing we dont have to pay for Trisha as she is still free as a minor. However, it will be half for Peachy.

We are going through the process and inspection and we didnt realize that it is already time to board the plane. Well, before doing that, our stomach's are aching and shouting for "food" so we stop at a nearby food stall at the airport and as usual as all other airports, their prices is "airport price" that means it is expensive! imagine a bottle of water for 50 pesos where you can buy it at 10 pesos outside. Good thing we brought breads for the kids. After finishing up our food, we went straight to the plane. Since we have check-in our 2 strollers, we dont have a choice but to carry our heavy little princesses to the plane.

Peachy was seated at the window so she got the best seat in the plane with her view of Manila. She enjoyed it now more than the first plane flight she took when we went to Thailand in 2007. Trisha is seated alternately with us. We first heard Trisha singing with a familiar tune. Not too long that we realized that she is already singing the Manny Villar's campaign ad/song. We are all laughing when we realize that. Manny Villlar is flooding the TV and radio with his ad that even children can memorize his song. Lots of money(million) to spend and burn just for a commercial, just to be a President. Well, it's not surprising anymore.. he is one of the richest man in Asia. After two hours in the air, we finally arrive in HK. The main purpose of our trip is of course to bring the children to Disneynald and enjoy bonding moments. We arrived about 10 minutes earlier than expected so when we are done with immigration, we are all hungry for lunch. What a sight when we spotted a Burger King restaurant at the airport. I know you are asking why eat BK at HK when all the authentic chinese food will be there. I have a better answer for you 1. We love BK 2. It is safer to eat something that you already know and your tounge already knew. 3. This is the airport so fast food must come really fast. And it is already 12 noon and we still dont know how to get to the Hotel.

After consulting with our travelmate, we all decided to ride the Airport Shuttle Train or the Octopus Train to have a better view of the city and to have a safer ride which we had a little regret later on compared to riding in a taxi. So we purchased train card for each one of us. We thought that this Octopus pass can also be used in free train ride when we transfer but we found out too late that we can not. But don't get us wrong we enjoyed the hassle free ride at the train as it is not crowded and the view is great and the train is modern. We are in Kowloon in less than 30 minutes. Now how do we locate the hotel? We thought that from the station we can walk our way towards the hotel but we are wrong. We need to transfer station and pay again. We asked two HK nationals and we are asked to pay 60HK dollar each. We are getting suspicious to we walked away from them. After asking again we realized that there is a free shuttle bus from the train. Argh! we have to drag again our luggages and strollers to the bus at the end of the Station. They said that we have to go down at Park Hotel and from there we can already trace Guandong Hotel. It is really hard where nobody can speak straight English to you. We walked and walked until we saw somebody with a map who can help us. What a relief when we found out that we are just one block apart from the hotel where we will be staying. We are tired with the travel that we hurriedly went to the hotel. We immediately checked-in and zoom to our room where we lay in bed temporarily.