Taking a stroll down memory lane, after the anniversary posts of Turkey and Seychelles, we HumSafars would like to share the beginning of our journey with you, our Honeymoon trip in July 2017.
This trip will be published in 2 parts, as it covers 2 very beautiful and exquisite locations, Hong Kong and Fiji and it wouldn’t be justified to fit both into a single post.
Visa formalities for HK are to be completed online beforehand, it is a simple pre-arrival registration form which needs to be filled with basic details such as passport number, address, cash carried along, hotel and flight information etc. There are no charges applicable, and the approval or rejection is seen immediately upon entering the information. No limit on the number of times you can fill the form in case of a rejection, which could also be driven from a technical error at times.
Our flight from Bangalore to Hong Kong was a direct one, on Cathay Dragon and a total flying time of around 5 and a half hours. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed by around 4 hours and since our booking was completely done through an agent, we weren’t even aware of the delay until we reached the airport counter. Thus leaving us stranded at the Bangalore airport (not the most ideal start for a honeymoon trip, I know).
Day 1– After this long and tiring experience, we landed at the HK airport around 9:30 am. Since we were only in Hong Kong for 2 nights, we had planned to make most use of it. The original plan was for us to check in to our hotel and get a good 3-4 hours of rest before the half day city tour, but thanks to the delay, our rest time was cut short and we were instructed (very rudely) to be ready to start our tour in half an hour upon reaching the hotel. The funny part here was the tour operator was for some weird reason blaming us for having to wait at the airport so long, I would assume they would keep track of the flight delay.
After freshening up in half an hour, my wife and I reached the hotel reception awaiting the tour operator. We wanted to ensure we were there before time as he had passed a pretty racial comment before saying you Indians always delay, and we kinda wanted to prove him wrong. Anyway, the tour started and after picking the other passengers and we reached Victoria peak. Victoria peak in simple words was like a mall, atop a hill. So naturally, it had a really good view of the city, and also had a major attraction in it, the Madame Tussauds Wax museum. We were informed of the meeting points and time at leisure and we all dispersed. We ended up in the wax museum, and got the chance to pose alongside the likes of Amitabh Bacchan, Jackie Chan, Paris Hilton etc. After clicking a lot of photos and enjoying the view we met the rest of the group and proceeded to the next location.
While we went up to Victoria peak by car, we were going down via a train. This ride was almost vertical in a pretty cute train! From there we reached the waterfront, where we had a small ride on the boat to check out the skylines and fancy buildings of HK. We then proceeded to the Tsim Sha Tsui area, which has a variety of stores in case you are interested in shopping. After roaming around for a bit, we retired for the night.
Day 2- We got up well rested, and very very excited as today was planned for Disneyland!! Yes, we were on our honeymoon, but we both enjoy cartoons!! After a drive of a little over an hour, we reached Disneyland and queued up to enter the magical world. Even though it was a weekday, the place was jam packed! We spent the entire day running from ride to ride, from one amusement to another queuing up and awaiting our turn. A few of the rides lived up to the expectations we had, like the rollercoaster in the dark, the haunted castle etc. There were also a few rides which looked really scary and exciting from the outside, but turned out to be made for children (not only for children at heart like us) and thus were a bit of a let down. Another surprise was the Dr Strange show, which was in the local language, and absolutely no translation for tourists.
We also encountered some rain, which forced us to purchase raincoats (overpriced) to save ourselves while we ran from pillar to post which made the experience even more memorable. We did face some issue in finding vegetarian food, and best we could find was some sticky rice and leafy vegetable stew. We witnessed a live musical performance of the Lion King which was absolutely amazing!!
Come evening, a parade started which goes around the property. This parade had live characters dressed as cartoons, huge blow ups, and vehicles completely covered in the cartoon’s background with live bands in small intervals to keep the crowd entertained.
A short while after that, the fireworks and light show was scheduled to start. We made our way to the front to make sure we have a good view of the event. God! Was that beautiful!! Amazingly coordinated light and music across the various palace structures of Disney. The fireworks around it like we see before the beginning of every movie, only this was live!! A mind blowing experience!!
After enjoying the view and clicking lots of photos and videos, we made our way back to the hotel and retired for the night after a small dinner at a Pakistani restaurant just opposite our hotel.
Day 3- After a late breakfast, we just walked around the city for a while, and were taken to the airport to catch our flight to Fiji. HK airport is huge, with a lot of good shopping options. Do reach with ample time at hand if you intend to shop. Journey of Fiji to be updated soon in our new post…….
Some pointers-
- Hotels take 100 USD as a deposit, so keep that in mind
- People are somehow very biased against Indians, please try to change that by being on time (maybe someday it would change)
- Vegetarian food at the hotel’s breakfast buffet was really good, but not easily found otherwise. Sticky rice and leafy vegetables is the best go-to option
- People understand English almost everywhere, but would suggest to talk a tad slower compared to what we Indians normally do, will avoid any miscommunications
- Ocean Park is another famous tourist destination, but since we had just 1 full day we chose Disneyland over it
- Disneyland also has a VIP kind of pass, which would significantly reduce the wait time for rides. Seemed totally worth to spend the extra amount for that
- Approx cost of trip (all prices for 2)
- Total Package (including Disneyland and Half Day tour)- USD 500
- Flights- ~USD 1200
- Overheads- USD 150
- Hotel we stayed at:
- Harbour Plaza 8 Degree
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