Din Tai Fong in HK isn't that great. For good siu lung bao go to Crystal Jade.

Sorry to bring the thread up.

But I am going back to China/Hong Kong from Sept 8 to Sept 21. I am going to be spending 4 nights and 5 days in China (Going with a tour group to China everything is good).

For Hong Kong I am at a lost. I need to find a hotel and have been on hotel.com and Airbnd to try to find a deal. The price seems to range form $20 to $300 a night. Is for two people (me and my gf) and all we really need is Wifi and is a bonus if they have some cooking uilities (who knows maybe I will need to make instant noodle for snacks). Which area should I be looking for hotels.

As far as attractions goes I plan on visiting Disneyland, the water park, the big temple and maybe some shopping areas(mainly for the gf). And looking at the transit it seems a lot of these places I need to take the MTR and then transfer VIA bus and that really confuse me. Is there an app like google map that will highlight the route for you?

Also I will need cell phone service. I am planning on using my S4(Unlock by fido) and Nexus 5. From I can tell both should work fine in Hong Kong other than the fact I won't get LTE speed. Is that true? Also which phone company I should go with? Looking to get data as well.

Thanks!

Google was really handy for me when I needed to plan routes. Tells me which bus/MTR to take. For major attractions there's lots of english so it'll be easy to find which bus you need.

For phone I think I used 3 Mobile but you can use any of the phone providers, can't remember which one was the best rate but from what I remember they're all pretty similar in what they offer. I used a Nexus One and had good data speeds so S4 and N5 should be fine. I think I paid 88HKD for a week of unlimited voice and data.

From my personal experience, a $40 hotel in HK is significantly worse than a $40 hotel in China (Guangzhou). $40 in HK will get you a closet with a broom closet for a washroom. $40 in Guangzhou can get you an actually decent place if you shop around.

^^ Thanks I will prolly looking for something like $80 a night. All I need is a place to put my bag and sleep and wifi.

I know this isn't 80, but I stayed here for a week when in HK:

room rates - mts

Right off a MTR entrance. You're in TST so you have access to a lot of "touristy" stuff. Free breakfast and wifi. Rooms were surprisingly nice, but beds were ROCK HARD.

And if you're Catholic and need to go to church, there's one downstairs. Every Sunday you'll see a lineup of Filipinos out onto the street. It was very interesting to see (being Filipino myself).

As for cell service- I also used 3, and it was something like 90HKD for 7 days of unlimited service. So in some places, I used my phone as a wifi hotspot for my gf who needed it. With that said, wifi might not be THAT necessary if you go that route.

Lastly, transit in HK is far and away light-years better than Vancouver service. Google will be your friend, but MTR also has an app that can help with planning. If you're one who might have tummy issues travelling like yours truly, they let you use the staff bathrooms if you ask them to. I loved getting around on the MTR/buses in HK. Makes Translink look like it's run by 5 year-olds.

1) Just goto the first 7 Eleven you see and buy a prepaid sim with data. Almost every sim have data nowadays
2) get an octopus card
3) Google Map works fine in HK, Siri works even better, but too bad you don't have an iPhone.
4) Forget about cooking in the middle of the night, there are tons of restaurants open 24/7 near any hotel district. If not, just go to 7 Eleven, they have great microwave food.
5) There is no water park in hk (yet). Ocean park is just an amusement park with an aquarium.
6) Seriously, don't bother with disneyland, its a waste of time and money, and its packed with mainlanders
7) You will most likely find a hotel in Mong kok, Tsim Sha Tsui or Causeway bay, thats where all the shopping is.
8) There is an MTR app

Unless you've never been to Disney Land before I would say skip it and just go to Ocean Park instead.

+ 1 on the disneyland. been there and wish i didn't. ocean park is much much better.

how much is the admission fee for ocean park ?

Pointless.

Biggest waste of time ever.

Don't even bother.

Disclaimer: I went with my fiancee during a promotion where if you go on your bday, you can bring someone in for 50% off. So basically, I paid 50% of one fare for 2 people.

That said, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Hardly any lineups for rides, lots of mini games where they basically give away stuff for the minimum play cost, and there's animals on site to look at (which I'm fairly fond of).

However, there are a ton of mainland tourists with their rolling luggage, so that was pretty annoying. And depending on time of day/year, the lineup to the aquarium was almost 2 hours. If you're afraid of heights, the gondola from the bottom site to the other part was pretty nerve wracking. It looks like it's about 50 years old, and you're pretty high up above the ground below. And if you go in the summer, there aren't too many places that provide shade so be prepared for that.


I wouldn't go as far as you with your comments, but I probably won't go back a second time.

Ocean park's awesome if you have kids. If you're flying solo, then . . . :alone:

So got my trip all setup. Leaving on sept 8 and coming back on Sept 22. going to Beijing from Sept 9 to Sept 14 through a tour group.

As for where I will be staying Hong Kong Goign to stay in my aunt's place around Sau Mau Ping.

Not much to buy but maybe pick a few cheap USB sticks and maybe a new phone. Any good stores to buy phones from? Don't really want to buy fake phones.....

^First store on your left at sin tat :troll:

hmm wrote like 2 essays in the quick text but it got deleted because i accidentally refreshed it fuck! so cool to see my old thread relived..... i plan to go back this year around fall. How is the weather around this time in china / hong kong / taiwan??? What should i wear?

I found the MTR system very very very simple. As said by an original poster. Anyone with a brain can use it. Vancouver's skytrain system is made for braindead people after seeing MTR's hahahahahaha. We have it easy here and vancouverites should be very grateful.

What is there to do? I plan to go to macau but is it worth it if i am not planning to gamble? I mostly went to shopping places but what places are a "must" if I plan to go again??

ps. i got my mom to buy those hooker magazines in 7-11 :pokerface: and she was interested by the cover and started reading it :pokerface:

u can go to macau for a day trip and visit the casinos even if u don't gamble. I would think the casinos in macau is even more grand than their cousins in vegas, BUT, be prepared to face a lot of mainlanders within casino area. also, I think macau is famous for their portuguese egg tart n pork bun, they're available everywhere.

I was actually traveling in those exact places back in 2008 around mid October. Shanghai was 26-29°, Hong Kong was 29-31° and Taipei/Tainan was 30-33°

Yes mostly bring T-shirt and shorts. Also unlike Vancouver Hong Kong China is very humid so you might shower twice a day.

been in hong kong in late june. I understand how humid it was. I really underestimated the weather there too be honest..... once you leave the air conditioned hotel. A blast of sweaty heatwave just hits you like a silent sonic wave :heckno:

does it rain a lot around that time??? it was raining while I was sleeping in june. But around fall i am unsure

It's a hit or miss, but GENERALLY speaking...you're past the typhoon season. Should be fine.