It has been awhile since I flew using Air Asia with my mom. My mom haven't even seen our new airport KLIA2. So when there was some sort of sale by Air Asia (they were always on promotion of some sort :P), I managed to grab a fairly good deal of return tickets to Hong Kong & Macau. We decided to fly to Hong Kong and come back to Malaysia from Macau.
I was having a tough time to decide how many days to spend in Hong Kong vis-a-vis Macau. Initially 4:3. Eventually it became 5:2 since a lot of people say that there is nothing to see in Macau. On hindsight, I should have returned a day later. 5 nights were just right for Hong Kong but 2 nights were simply too short for Macau. 3 nights would be better.
This was my second trip to Hong Kong. My first time was many moons ago back in the late 90s. Happy to say that Hong Kong is as vibrant as ever and with a lot more of highrise buildings! We can see so many ongoing constructions almost everywhere too.
What I love about Hong Kong is how tourist friendly this country is. Even though their people are not really fluent in English but they make English available everywhere i.e. signages, brochures, public transportation announcements. So if you do your research well in the internet and also with the help of Google Maps, you can get to the places that you wish to visit without any interaction with the locals at all. The locals are too busy for you anyway :P
Their Octopus Card was so convenient too. You can buy it at the airport and if you are like us going to Macau, you can return them at the last MRT station prior to boarding the ferry to Macau and get back your deposit and credit balance. Take note however that they will charge you HK$9 if your card is less than 90 days old.
We stayed at Ibis North Point due to its proximity to North Point MRT Station and Airport Bus A11's last stop. The room and the ensuite bathroom were super small. But after awhile, it grew on us. You don't have to walk so far to get to everything :P The room came with breakfast for 2. The breakfast selection was acceptable. More variety during weekends than weekdays. Never knew that the hotels did that :)
We had two halal meals while we were here. The famous Wai Kee Curry's roast duck and dimsum at Islamic Centre Canteen (ICC). I don't mind going to ICC again, unfortunately it was so far from any MRT station. I was simply too lazy to walk just to eat :P The fruits at Bowrington Market were quite cheap too. We bought lots of cherries and plums. Very sweet :)
We had a great time in Hong Kong despite the heat. We felt very safe going out at night. We went there 2 weeks after typhoon Hato and Pakhar hit both Hong Kong and Macau. When we arrived, there was no remnants of destruction in Hong Kong but in Macau the cleaning up and restoration were still in progress. Guia Fortress were closed due to repair. So disappointing. Imagine hiking so far up the hill and found out that it was closed. No notice whatsoever were posted anywhere prior to reaching the gate to the lighthouse.
If Hong Kong is tourist friendly, Macau is a direct opposite. The locals truly cannot speak English at all. They are not very helpful either. Their public buses while extensive and cheap were unfriendly to non locals. Their public bus offers no change. So you better make sure you have coins instead of notes in your hands. Their Macau Pass costs MOP120 (deposit 20, credit 100). Funnily if you return the pass, they will only refund back the deposit. The remaining credit is considered donation to them! So imagine if you plan to stay there for 2 days. You will never be able to finish the credit. At most you will use only MOP20-30. So more than 50% of the credit will be free money to the government. I wonder how much their "No Change" policy generate free income for their country? Good business model huh? Is it any wonder then that the tourists will try to utilise the free shuttle provided by the hotels to get around Macau? Unfortunately, the free shuttle are meant to carry casino goers so they don't really cover tourists sites. You have to walk quite far to reach the tourist sites. So if you were in Macau, I recommend you hire an English speaking taxi to ferry you around for the day.
Another thing to note in Macau is their hotel cum casino cum shopping malls are huge. So even though in the map it showed their location as side by side, you have to walk very far to cross over. For the first time in history, one of my feet was having blisters while walking in a mall! I was wearing my comfy Crocs, not high heels! What an experience :P
On our second day in Macau, it was so hot that we cut short our excursion to only half a day. We went back to the hotel and stayed there until check out time the next day. I thought to go out at night to see the lights but decided to take a rest instead. I figure since Macau is quite close to Malaysia, I can always do a repeat visit if I were so inclined in the future :)
Going to the Macau Airport from the city centre was dirt cheap via MT1 bus. MOP4.20 per person. Naturally we pay MOP9 :P It was a hassle free and comfy ride. There were no delay in both our flight to Hong Kong and our return flight from Macau. Thank God. When I came back I found out that Air Asia flight to Bangkok was delayed for more than 5 hours!
Despite a none too stellar experience in Macau, I found that the whole trip was quite fun. No regrets. Will I visit Hong Kong and Macau again? Maybe not. There are many more interesting countries to do a repeat visit :) Total damage for the whole trip for 2 person was RM3.9k.
The itinerary was as follows:
6 September 2017 Kuala Lumpur - Hong Kong
7 September 2017 Hong Kong
8 September 2017 Hong Kong
9 September 2017 Hong Kong
10 September 2017 Hong Kong
11 September 2017 Hong Kong - Macau
12 September 2017 Macau
13 September 2017 Macau - Kuala Lumpur
I have uploaded 359 photos and 164 videos of Hong Kong and 145 photos and 120 videos of Macau for your viewing pleasure.
You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels
Hashtags specific for this trip:
#mks2017HongKong #mks2017Macau
Njoy!!
