Xtian's Clutter

It was our last day in Hong Kong and we decided to take in some of Hong Kong’s less known tourist spots. We took the MTR to the Diamond Hill Station and searched for the Chi Lin Nunnery…

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Sorry for the late post, but well, I took another vacation immediately after the Hong Kong – Macau Trip so I really must catch up on the backlog! hehe

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Well, it’s my 4th trip to Disney in a year and thinking back to myself… I never thought I’d visit the park this much since… let’s face it, I never planned to keep going back to Hong Kong to go to the park, but each time I go, it’s with a different group of people, and they all want to go to Disney. I should have gotten that Annual pass thingie when I first went. The Disney Annual Pass is $650 HKD, the Regular ticket is $350 HKD for a day pass, that’s a lot of money I could have saved there if I anticipated… heh.

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7 Days before my 4th Hong Kong Trip this year, this time as a tour guide for my brothers and my cousin. Budget’s going to be really tight, but hopefully I’ll get through this trip without burning my bankroll… hahaha

Final Itinerary (I hope) is next.

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I was "drafted" by my younger siblings to be their tour guide next month when they take their first ever out-of-country vacation. Since I am a veteran of travelling to Hong Kong (at least three times a year, this will be my 4th trip to Hong Kong this year weeee!) I was the logical (and unpaid) choice to go guide them.

I booked the tickets from Cebu Pacific Air, roughly PHP10,000 for the round trip. The tickets were for Manila-Hong Kong (first flight out) on October 22, and the return trip Macau-Manila (last flight out) on October 28. Of course I could have gotten cheaper tickets from PAL with their econolight thingey for about PHP3,000 cheaper, but then, it would have taken at least a whole day out of the trip as PAL’s return flight was earlier, and we’d have to take the TurboJet back to Hong Kong and the Airport Express to HKIA, essentially nullifying the savings and taking a day out of the trip.

Itinerary after the bump.

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“Why visit Beijing if you won’t explore the Forbidden City?” This was a question I asked those in our group that didn’t want to explore the Forbidden City. As the seat of power in pre-modern China, the Forbidden city is not only an iconic place, but also a place of marvelous architecture and quite simple, a place where one can get awestruck simply by the grandness of the place.

We started off at the side entrance to the forbidden city and not the “Main” entrance that faced Tiananmen Square. Our guide said that this was the best place to start off as this was the entrance that led directly to the more intimate parts of the city, and we were not disappointed.

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The famous Panjiayuan Dirt Market was just a five-minute walk from our hotel in Beijing so we decided to check it out on the 4th day of our trip there. Upon entering the compound, we were greeted by the sight of hundreds of hawkers with their wares all splayed out on cloth mats in front of them. They could be selling anything from ancient Ming dynasty relics to cheap knockoffs, since none of the party was an antique hunter we decided to not risk getting ripped off and just admire the old pieces for what they were.

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No trip to China would be complete without visiting the Great Wall of China. Opting for the better preserved Mutianyu Section over the more touristy Badaling Section, it took us roughly 90 minutes to get to the base of the wall by bus.

In order to get up to the wall itself, we had two choices, we could go via cable car or take a ski lift up and a toboggan on the way down, since our party consisted of people who are less than adventurous (read as, my aunt, mom and uncles) the vote went to the cable car.

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To those going to Beijing with family members, especially of the female gender, if you value your time in Beijing… DO NOT GO HERE. Now that the disclaimer is done, on to the wonderful world of pirated goods.

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Waking up refreshed and up to the task of conquering Beijing with my camera, me and the family went to the “Tourist Dispatch Center” or more commonly known as the bus station, to take the next bus to the Great Wall. We got there around 10:30am only to find out that the last bus for the day to the Great Wall has already left.

Since Tiananmen Square was about a block away, we decided to roam the park instead. Rounding the corner, we saw this map.

I said to myself, well, that doesn’t look to bad, and when the park finally came to view, well… all I can say is, damn… this place is HUGE! Flanked by buildings and national monuments, this place could easily hold one million people (and it already did in the past) and still have enough room to walk around.

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