Hong Kong Getaway

This year the only holiday we have had was a short trip to Bali in May-- which was not very enjoyable because of the bad weather...so you can imagine by now I desperately need another break! The past couple of months at work have been really hectic due to the office move and quarter-close; as an accountant, my life is ruled by reporting deadlines, so leave planning is always a headache. There are so many specific periods in the year that I am unable to take leave - the best example being the month of April. From the last week of March till end-April every year, not only does my company have a quarter-close but we also have the annual regulatory reporting for the prior fiscal year. And why do I mention this example? Because so long as I work in this job / company, I will never be able to go Japan and see the sakura (cherry blossoms) in full bloom *sigh* This is really my dream but it seems like I will have to go Hokkaido in May to enjoy the beautiful sakura blossoms. Oh well I will keep on dreaming! (And saving...Japan is such an expensive destination!)

Anyway due to the "last minute" planning, I was unable to get good deals on airfares to my preferred destinations - USA and Japan. This year-end it seems the whole of Singapore is going on holiday - everyone tells me they have booked their Nov/Dec trips 3-4 months ago! To be fair, since we have no children, we have always made it a point to avoid taking trips during the school holidays in Singapore; that's when tour agencies and airlines charge a premium for everything! Hotels too come to think about it...

After going through many possibilities and working out the costs, we have finally decided on Hong Kong (HK)! The main deciding factor was we were still able to get a good deal from Cathay Pacific, the national airline of HK. They have an ongoing deal called "SuperCity 2010/2011" and the package starts from SGD 699 which includes the following:

1. Return tickets Singapore-Hong Kong - Singapore
2. 2 nights accommodation in a hotel of your choice (this is where price varies)
3. Airport transfer to hotel & back (choice of seat-in coach by VIGOR / MTR train tickets)
4. Complimentary HK half-day tour (also by VIGOR)
5. FREE excess baggage of 10kg per adult & child on HK-SG sector (shop, shop, shop!)
6. Accrue mileage on all Cathay flights still! Cathay is on the Asia Miles program.
   
7. Yum Sing discount vouchers

After comparing various internet web sites, we find that the hotel extension room rates offered by this Cathay deal is really quite reasonable (read: cheaper)! We will extend 1 night in HK, and spend 2 nights in Macau, so you could say we will have 6 days and 5 nights in HK/Macau in total. However, as we are unable to get the best flight timings, so we arrive in HK at 8pm on a Sunday, and will leave at 3pm on a Friday. This really gives us 2 full days for exploring HK & Macau each...how to eat as much as possible in these 4 days? Oops did I say I was supposed to go on a diet?! ;) But since Jay is determined to make this a real food tour, who am I to say no to him eh? LOL

Oh did I also mention we have been to HK numerous times? Growing up, Jay seemed to visit HK every school holiday because his grandmother had friends and relatives there. Since 2004, every other year or so we have been there for short trips; my last visit was in June 2007 for just 3 days, while Jay went again in Nov 2008 for just 2 days. Both of those trips were business trips :P This is why we were reluctant to choose HK as our holiday destination this time round; we always feel we should use our limited funds to go see new places, but this year because of the weird climate pattern (floods in Vietnam and Malaysia now, typhoon season in North Asia) we could not go to many places without risking bad weather :(

The other deciding factor is the strong SGD vs weaker HKD; for the first time in like forever, we are able to get HKD 6 for every SGD! Wow! And I have always visited HK in summer - which is hot & humid :( Therefore I am really looking forward to seeing HK in cooler weather (I hope - with this climate change HK may not have a winter in years to come!)

I am still searching for a good but cheap hotel in Macau; thought I would share with you 2 web sites which we have used before:

Hotels.com (http://www.hotels.com/) which we have used to book our hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii last year, and Agoda (http://www.agoda.com) for our hotel in Bali, Indonesia. Both sites seemed reliable, are easy to navigate and most importantly, have been safe so far. For our Hawaii trip last year, we have booked some items online and after our trip, we noticed some small unauthorised transactions in our credit card bill. This goes to show, we have to be vigilant and it's safer to pay more for a reputable vendor with secure web sites for online purchases.

Other popular web sites are Asia Rooms (http://www.asiarooms.com/) and Zuji (http://www.zuji.com/) which friends have used and recommend.

As for planning our food tour, I am using this blog Kampung Boy City Gal as a reference. I am amused to read that all the supposed "great food" places are overrated! This is only to be expected, as taste is something very personal / individual, and once a food place gets too popular quality tends to suffer. Since we only have limited time in HK & Macau, we have to be more selective then.

Here are some of the food I look forward to having again in HK & Macau:

雞蛋仔


鏞記酒家金牌燒鵝 & 金牌叉燒


乳鴿


Egg Tarts


Most of these pictures are sourced from Open Rice HK which is very helpful for food reviews in HK, and the rest, I saved them in my hard disk from so long ago I forgot their original source - my apologies!