So how do you affordably travel one of the world’s most expensive cities? Well, it goes a little bit, something like this ….It is time today to dive into the city of Hong Kong. An incredible destination!
First tips about Hong Kong airport
Now this is actually my second visit, and I spent about 10 days on this trip to make sure that I found the best restaurants. The best viewpoints the best places for you to go and explore, and I wanted to give you some tips and tricks to saving some money on this upcoming trip.So without further ado. Let’S start right where your gonna start your trip, which is in the Hong Kong Airport, It’s actually cheapest to set your phone up in the airport, Very rare, to see that. But that was the case for me. I paid around 65 Hong Kong dollars for the SIM card and the data plan.
It was definitely worthwhile, especially because of how heavily I relied on Google Maps throughout this trip. We have been at the airport now for about two hours, looking around the websites from Agoda, Booking.com, Airbnb, and we have finally found a solution. So I’ll show you what it is.We’re heading there now. Now, typically there’s two main areas people like to stay in Hong Kong.
There’s Kowloon and there’s Hong Kong Island. Kowloon is very much the conventional Asian-feeling hub almost like the Times Square of Asia, and it tends to be a little bit cheaper Now going on to the island the downtown hub. This is actually the formerly British side of Hong Kong. This side feels a slight bit more modern and it’s got the iconic Victoria Peaks. An hour and 15 minutes later it’s dark outside, but with all the lights, it feels like it’s daytime.
Food, Food Haven Hong Kong!
It’s like the Times Square of Hong Kong. Now food…. it’s going to be one of the biggest parts of your trip to Hong Kong, we did our research. We were proactively searching for the best restaurants in the city and even though we couldn’t try all of them, we have so many incredible restaurants to share with you.
Our first meal in Hong Kong started off at the internationally-renowned Din Tai Fung. Alright, it is time our first Hong Kong meal and, if you don’t already know dim sum, is one of the top Chinese foods. You need to try. So tonight we are getting the finest of it And then we’ll show you the hostel we booked. So truth be told, this is not exactly the cheapest place to go, but that’s kind of why we chose to stay in a cheaper place.
We wanted to have our money allocated to doing the best experiences and really seeing Hong Kong. Cheers to that. It was so good, So so good.
Now this costed me $ 125 USD for two nights in the hostel and if you don’t know this already, Hong Kong is the second most expensive place in the world based on real estate prices and the amount you’ll pay for hotels and rent reflect that. Next I’m going be going to meet with friends Ale and Melissa. To show you guys, one of the best desserts in Hong Kong or so I’ve been told.Thank you (We’re almost there The city, so many smells & sights things going on.)
It is constant madness, I don’t know if I could ever live here, but strictly as a visitor, it’s so cool to experience. Right, so this is Kakigori a dessert that changed my life and became part of our nightly routine in Hong Kong.
Shaved ice. Thank you very much, and this is the Macha x Oreo-flavored one. I’ve now had strawberry matcha but Oreo’s my favorite and it’s awesome. It’S 80 Hong Kong dollars, which is quite a bit, but it’s very much worth it and you could probably split it. Mmm. We only mess with the best, and so we were constantly going to Shari Shari
There’s a few of them located throughout Hong Kong, but the incredible thing is they actually import their ice from Japan? You will love it or your money back Terms and conditions may apply haha. So we just caught our metro heading back.It’s $ 14, instead of $ 177, which is what it would’ve costed. If we took the Uber so overall you save a lot of money with metro
We had a really late start today because we had a really late night. We went out to Lan Kwai Fong, which is one of the craziest places I’ve ever gone out. We’re taking you to this really beautiful, beautiful housing project area where they have subsidized housing for people here in Hong Kong,
Choi Hung Estate which means Rainbow in Chinese
It cost us $ 150 just to get here, which is pricey guys. Uber started at $ 115, but then actually I checked again and it surged up to $ 180. But we have just arrived. So, let’s go explore, Choi Hung.
And so this is what draws in people like myself, photographers videographers alike. It’s, the beautiful pastel rainbow that they have going on, and this is actually home to between 18,000 and 43,000 people. But what is for sure is that there’s a lot of people living in a very small quarter, Kind of worked out.
Err-Oh, So one of the things I love about Katy is she’s got such a big heart. I was shooting around getting shots with the drone and Katy looks over and sees a little boy getting beaten up by some other little kids and she immediately stepped in went to comfort the kid be there.She’s just been hanging out with him for the past hour. He is clearly opened up now and they’re playing basketball.
So our journey in Hung Choi is over. So now we have to head to the black market.
Temple Street Night Market
Em… to the Night Market. We have to head now to the Night Market, so we’re. doing it an affordable way and we have to take the subway for this.
We finally arrived to Temple Street and that’s the beginning of the Night Market.So entrance and the market is over. There Come with me,
Let’s go shopping, Is that real Louis Vuitton haha? So that right there is a $ 10 Louis Vuitton and she even said it’s real, so — Yeah. She said it’s real
Wow, The savings are unreal. We didn’t just make fun of everything. We actually bought something ( Katy laughing ), It’s not a popular opinion, but they do say that China is the leader of all fashion trends.
Very fashion-forward, It is the newest collection, the Surf Collection by Myra Gaye. From the moment we got there, the people were incredible And even though, from time to time there is a language barrier, you definitely can get by because they’re more than willing to help They were so nice And we have literally just now reached the end of Temple Street
Alright guys we are at my favorite restaurant ever We’re at Heekee Noodle, and the reason we came here is because there’s one item on the menu that I just absolutely love.I dream about it. They have my all-time favorite meal. Oh my gosh
It’S got beef belly. It’s got: pork intestines, pig blood and fish balls all in one Mmm, deep-fried, three kinds: balls Mmm. What is that
What kind of balls are those You don’t wanna know, ( laughs ). This was only $ 20 for everything that you saw here pretty awesome deal. I even got myself two of these milk teas because they’re freaking awesome.
See you in a bit 45 minutes outside of downtown and we are going to an area known as Sai Kung. Bosco is from Hong Kong and he’s showing us around today. Bosco drove us about 45 minutes outside of Kowloon downtown Hong Kong area, but the interesting thing is that, in order to get past right here, this checkpoint, you actually need to be either a local or have a permit to drive people in
So that’s why we actually had to take a taxi beyond this point. If you come here, you got ta, find him He’s the best He’s made my day already. He was the happiest man on earth.
I know he’s so cool This is actually something I should mention is that in Hong Kong, it’s not customary to tip people. I tried to give him a 20. He basically in a very polite way said “. Oh, that’s, okay, it’s not necessary .”. Even though tipping is not customary every now and then when you meet someone special and they really make your day, I see no problem with leaving one. So this is why we walked all the way down to the beach, because this is a side of Hong Kong. You probably didn’t know existed.
This incredible white sand beach on some days, can have beautiful, blue-ass water out there when the sun is perfect, and today it’s pretty good actually considering this morning was so gray, But there’s something I need to show you, and this is because of the recent typhoon that Came through This whole walkway has been devastated. When you look past the destruction, you see the incredible natural beauty here
So this is why we drove about an hour and a half to two hours outside of Hong Kong walked about an hour down a hill up a little bit of a treacherous passage, and this is what you get. One of the four rock pools Here and the incredible thing is: there’s only five of us here right now, Because we had gray clouds this morning and it’s a weekday. We got this place basically to ourselves.
We are on our way back after a really really tough hike back up the hill. Now you may have noticed this isn’t the same car we came.
So we arrived to our tonight’s hostel. This place was $75 a night, but it’s modern, It’s clean and as long as you know the person you’re sharing a room with you should be okay.
The transportation system in Hong Kong is really good, There’s so many buses They run so frequently. You can literally see it all over the street, these double-decker buses. So I have to say that taking a bus or the metro are both great options.
So on the flight over to Hong Kong, we met this random guy from Toronto. We, asked him what restaurants we should check out here in Hong Kong. He told us to check out Crystal Jade and right now. I just had these handmade egg noodles with a spicy sauce and peanut sauce, and it is amazing I’ll do it if you do it.
I don’t always wake up at sunrise, but when I do, I complain about how early it is the entire way, through We’ve just arrived here at the top of the mountain above the Hong Kong Island, known as Victoria’s Peak, and we’re going to be showing you guys What we hope to be a beautiful sunrise, Otherwise this will not have been worth it. What’S up party people, I’m the party person
Alright, guys after an incredible sunrise this morning, we’re now taking one of the coolest ways you can get around Hong Kong. It is the tram car that runs all the way down from Victoria Peak back into the downtown side. All aboard Last call for Hong Kong Land. This slope right now is like this
You can’t tell, but this is way better than a taxi. That was super cool, Definitely take the tram at least one direction, So we have saved arguably one of the best things of Hong Kong for last
After doing sunrise at Victoria Peak, we had a long nap. We woke up around midday around 1:15 p.m. and now we’ve just gotten into a taxi to go to Lantau Island.We’re, going to Tung Chung station
From there we’re going to be taking one of the world’s longest gondolas up a mountain to what is arguably one of Hong Kong’s most recognizable sites. We got 25 minutes to get to the top and we’re gonna have some incredible views.
Oh, my god. Ah So this is the pathway that, if you hadn’t taken a gondola you’d follow all the way to the top , We’re all in agreement that that was one of the highlights of Hong Kong. So far The gondola is spectacula
As I previously mentioned. One of the best things about Hong Kong is the food and with that being said, we didn’t get to try every one of the best restaurants, But we did try a lot of them and I wanted to share some of my top choices with you. First. Honorable mention is definitely going to the Cupping Room If you’re looking for an awesome, breakfast or brunch it’s right in Central Hong Kong and it is delicious
The cappuccinos were fantastic and that’s all I’m gonna say. Another great breakfast spot that I ate at is called Urban Coffee Roasters. It was right across from my hostel conveniently located…if you’re craving an American-style diner experience.It’s called Brunch Club and Supper kind of a weird name, but the food is fantastic.
Katy actually claims it’s one of the best omelets she’s had Now. If you’re having a night out in Lan Kwai Fong a place that you should definitely start your night at is no joke called Ho Lee Fook. Now I don’t know if they’re trolling us, but either way the food is the bomb dot com. It’s like this kind of funky Chinese-style restaurant and it’s done up in a rather modern and hip way. I really enjoyed my meal there and the drinks were also great.
When you’re ready to take it up a notch, then just walk a block away and go to Quinary for a couple cocktails before your night out.I have to say some of the best cocktails I’ve had are right here and it’s actually internationally-renowned as one of the best cocktail bars or so I was told. On the theme of incredible cocktail bars, one of the most beautiful bars I have ever seen in my life. Is this one right here? It’s called Goughs and if you want to have a drink, some appies this would be an awesome spot to do it. It’S like this grand Victorian theme with a side of steampunk and edge
You just got ta check it out, It’s so beautiful For our last meal, we’ve come to Yumm Cha and there’s a few of them in the area, They’re a big franchise, and they have some really really funny dim sum. It’S so awesome.
So the food was really good, but the bill was extremely shocking. We spent about $ 40 US per person on what was a relatively big meal, but I didn’t even get a drink. We didn’t get dessert.It was just a really really expensive meal. The last one I want to share with you is Little Boa and if you’ve never had a boa before it is a Chinese-style bun with pork inside sometimes chicken
It is basically a conglomeration, a community of smooth-handed magic-loving card movers. I think that’s the best way I can put it Personally. I love immersing myself in new situations, new communities, new cultures – and this right here is a very interesting subculture.
