Silka Far East Hotel : A Review

Silka Far East Hotel
Address: Hong Kong, 青山公路荃灣段135 - 143 號135 - 143 Castle Peak Road, Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong

I decided to make a separate review regarding how our stay went at Silka Far East Hotel for the benefit of other travelers on a shoestring budget.

My sister and I learned about this hotel through the travel agency we chose to take care of our stay in HK. They arranged pretty much everything for us (accommodation, tour etc.) because we already booked our flight separately. They gave us the freedom to choose which hotel to stay at depending on our budget and they even ranked the hotels based on the star rating, nightly rate and by far this hotel offered one of the most competitive rates compared to the other hotels they're affiliated with.

twin beds 

The hotel is quite far from the central area because it took us roughly 30-45 minutes from the airport. We marveled at Hong Kong's entirety en route to our hotel. It is btw walking distance from the Tsuen Wan MTR station which was really a good thing. We passed by Tsing Ma Bridge or HK's version of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. There were tons of sky scrapers and we learned later on that HK is not a fault line (not an earthquake zone) thus explains why they have a lot of towering buildings which are mostly residential.

mini bar

Check in was a breeze, the front desk speaks english which was good. They asked for a refundable deposit (cash or credit card) for incidentals most probably. They will hand you the keycard afterwards (one for each occupant) and you can just simply go right up to your hotel room.

Our room was kind of small for two person but I can't complain anymore because all we need really is just a basic hotel room to sleep in since we'd be out for the most part, we'll be busy for sure. I mean who would stay in a hotel room when you're on vacation right?

Amenities (2 persons) :

• 1 tube of shower gel
• 1 tube of shampoo/conditioner
• 2 toothbrushes + 2 small toothpaste
• complimentary coffee and tea, 2 sachets of brown sugar
• coffee stirrer
• sanitary bag
• 2 complimentary slippers
• closet with few hangers
• mini bar but no complimentary water (the cost of each item inside the fridge/minibar is 8HKD)
• a lot of towels
• hot/cold shower
• hair dryer

bathroom toiletries

They have daily housekeeping whether you like it or not but don't worry they have trustworthy housekeepers. With other hotels, you have to hang a sign outside your door if you want your room cleaned, at Silka, they will clean your room if you won't be around the whole day regardless which was good on the other hand because every time you go back to your hotel room you have fresh toiletries and towels again.

Silka also offers continental buffet breakfast from 6:30AM-10:00AM (if my memory serves me right) at their onsite restaurant on the 6^th floor.

continental breakfast

I love the spring rolls, they were really tasteful. They have wide array of breakfast items to choose from (although mostly deep fried): They have croissants, wheat breads, franks, nuggets, siomai, siopao, congee (which you have to mix yourself), pancit canton or bihon on some days, coffee, milk creamer, juice and garden salad at their breakfast bar. If ala carte you have to pay extra 55HKD for breakfast instead so might as avail the rate which includes breakfast so it'll be hassle free.

elevator advisory

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at Silka Far East Hotel because as I mentioned, my sister and I are not finicky travellers, as long as the basic stuff are there no problem. For me, I personally just need a coffee pot in the room for both coffee and tea, easy to cook cereals for my high on fiber diet and I should be all set.

Will I recommend Silka Far East Hotel to other travellers? Yes why not. Make sure to always book ahead of time because they have few Non Smoking rooms at the hotel. The ones on the higher floors are the only Non Smoking rooms If I'm not mistaken and that would be the 15^th floor and up.

Generally, the fine for smoking on non smoking areas would be 5,000HK$ by the way once caught smoking may it be inside or outside the hotel premise. HK locals are mostly smokers in my observation.

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Hong Kong Getaway Part 5, Home bound Fin'lly

28 April 2015

HK-Manila

This pretty much concludes our Hong Kong Birthday getaway. We had breakfast around 6:30AM at the hotel since all our luggage bags are ready. After breakfast, we made sure we won't leave anything at our hotel room and as soon as we're good to go we checked out at around 7:30AM to wait for our shuttle bus to the airport. Our flight to Manila is at 10:40AM (HK and Manila is under the same time zone so no time difference) but our shuttle bus to the airport arrived 15 minutes late because they're supposed to pick us up at exactly 8:00AM.

We thought, we still have enough time to run some errands like go to the MTR station to get a refund for our Octopus cards etc. The Cebu Pacific check in counter moved in a very slow pace so it took us almost half an hour to check in our luggage. We spent so much time looking for the MTR customer service counter where we could get our refund. We were already bickering and all until I saw the airport express counter. I told my sister that a customer service counter may not be too far away. We finally found the one and got our refunds. I got 113HKD refund whilst about the same roughly for my sister. We also returned our Octopus cards afterwards.

Tsuen Wan area 

We started looking for our boarding gate which was #46 around 10AM already (we should be at the gate at this point) but we have to buy some bottled water to replenish ourselves because we were already both dehydrated due to excessive walking.

The HK airport is vast I'm telling you, so, you should be ready to walk. We passed initial security first then Immigration, then the X-ray machines and the last part is to find your boarding gate. The IO officer who assisted me was kinda cute, he didn't look too chinese lol.

Anyways, we got ourselves some bottled water so we rushed to find boarding gate 46. It was the longest walk of our lives man! The clock is ticking and by the time we reached our gate the message board is already blinking in red that reads 'final call'! Oh my, we literally hurled ourselves to squish ourselves in the que. We promised that we will never be late again because we almost missed our flight geez! God is good. This highlighted our HK trip pretty much lol.

this time my seat is beside the
window!

2PM past – Manila, NAIA T3. Our plane landed safe and sound finally. The weather was really sunny and all. As soon as we picked up our luggage from the carousel we dropped by at this airport money changer to exchange our HK dollars to Peso then later on towards one of the BPI atm machines to the left at the arrival hall (which we should've done before we boarded our plane bound to HK) to get some more funds for expectedly overcharged cabbie fare later on.

My 119HKD became 1k+ php by the way which only means that a Hong Kong dollar's value is quite high once converted to peso. Had late lunch at Burger King, then picked up a fixed rate cabbie for a hefty rate of 780php from the airport to again Tune Hotel. The traffic was quite terrible as expected.

3PM past - Reached Tune Hotel, since we arrived later than the regular check in time which is 2PM they adjusted our check out from 11AM to 12NN instead, not bad. We asked if they have tea pot rentals which they don't so we were advised that if in any case we need hot water they could get one from their headquarters so we did not bother anymore.

Stayed overnight at Tune Hotel so we won't be too tired for out trip to the north the next day because it would be another 7 hour trip from the Victory-Pasay terminal. Again, the heat is quite unbearable when you already got used to the cold up north for years.

29 April 2015

North Bound

At the bus my sister and I started talking about our next trip, the nearest hotel from the airport yadda yadda. I told my sister that the next time we travel we should be back to driving again and must bring our own car instead of commuting like avail a park and fly hotel package perhaps to save us from montrous cabbie fares etc. We haven't decided if we're gonna travel again next year but who knows right? We might be back driving again or whatever. But what's not gonna change is that our love for travel will never wane out.

10PM - Back to homey! Oh man I miss the cold.

Please check out the video I made about our trip! This pretty much sums up our adventure :)

If you like my videos please hit like & subscribe! 👍🏼

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27 April 2015

Hello Kitty Cafe Le Petit

Causeway Bay

Today is our birthday! I'm still feeling a bit sick but better compared yesterday and like I said ample rest is all I need to feel better. Our last itinerary for this trip is to go to Hello Kitty Garden Cafe in Ormsby but it was a Monday so the cafe is unfortunately closed so we just decided to visit their Le Petit Cafe in Causeway bay which is just few stations away from Tsuen Wan.

We took the train from the Tsuen Wan station and alighted at the Admiralty station then took the interchange (blue line) bound to Causeway Bay, 3^rd stop from Admiralty. We entered the mall (that sells shoes etc) which is right at the Causeway Bay exit and took the escalator. The Hello Kitty Cafe Le Petit is at the ground floor where the supermarket is. It was a small stall, no sitting area. There's just a little corner where you could devour your cake or sip your coffee standing as there isn't any single chair.

We bought ourselves our little birthday cakes since were old we don't need to celebrate anymore like kids do during their birthdays lol. I bought myself this apple cake for 48HKD whilst my sister got herself this cake with a crown for 35HKD. We were solved with that and decided to bring them to our hotel room instead since there isn't any food court where we could devour our cakes anyways.

My sister bought some more stuff to bring home for 'pasalubong.' We went back to Silka Far East Hotel afterwards and even attempted to locate Subway Sandwiches close to our hotel but failed to do so because we realized it may no longer be there anymore that's why.

I just spent the day resting because I can't endure the heat outside. I thought HK's weather is the same as Baguio but to my dismay It was just a little colder than Manila. I got sick because of the sudden change of temperature I guess because it's really cold where I'm from and we're talking about 20-25ºC the hottest whilst Manila and HK temperature ranges from 28-30ºC plus.

We started packing again for our trip back to the Philippines. I love HK but I wish we could've stayed somewhere close to the central area so that traveling through train wouldn't be that time consuming.

MTR

Traveling via train is a breeze in HK because their MTR stations are clean and not so congested compared to Manila. They have very systematic train system which is reminiscent to that of Singapore. The train routes are color coded so you won't get lost unless you're not paying attention to the signs that will lead you to where you're supposed to go.

Their MTR map is pretty basic and comprehensive. You just have to understand from which point you came from towards your destination. If the maps shows dual colors it means an interchange. An interchange is where you alight to get to another line because if you don't you'll be stuck in one area no matter how long you stay on the train. Just make sure to get yourself an MTR map the moment you get yourself an Octopus card. The train has its own map by the way with matching blinking lights that will tell which stop it is and so as the next one up.

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26 April 2015

Day 2 – HK Half Day City Tour

6:30 AM - Breakfast at the hotel.

8:00 AM past - Met up with tour guide, presented our travel voucher; Boarded the tour bus; Hong Kong city tour starts. Tour guide introduced tour bus official photographer.

Itinerary:

Avenue of the Stars

we can't even take a picture with
Bruce Lee, he's sooo in demand!

This place is where brass stars of Chinese celebrities are embedded in the sidewalks otherwise known as the walk of fame. I thought Victoria Harbour is breathtaking kinda like the Marina Bay in Singapore. The tour photographer took pictures of all the tour participants for souvenir photos which we have an option to purchase or not.

Jewellery Factory

We visited the TSL Jewellery Factory. A lot of Filipinas work at this jewelry factory. A little history about how the company came about then later on they tried their best to sell jewelries to the tourist. I did not like this part of the tour that much because I am not into jewelries. The jewelries were really pretty but I just don't like wearing gold or any expensive jewelries per se. Am not a fan.

Factory outlet
(no photo)

This part of the tour didn't make sense at all. We entered this factory outlet or should I say small shop that sells everything for 160HKD and up and they weren't even interesting items. My sister and I did not purchase anything from this shop because we just don't like them at all, not much variety in short.

Aberdeen Fishing Village - Sampan boat ride

The Sampan boat ride is supposedly optional but our tour guide insisted that all participants of the tour try it as it's just once in a lifetime. Apprehensive at first because it wasn't cheap at 60HKD (which was 50HKD before). We decided to still go right ahead although at the back of my mind it'll just be a short boat ride at an overpriced rate. Unbelievably we both loved the whole Sampan ride thing especially when we reached the floating restaurant part! That part of the Sampan ride gave it the eastern/oriental feel. It was costly sure but sometimes you find happiness in small things such a simple yet memorable boat ride. This even became our favorite part of the tour.

Mid-level of Victoria Peak (pass by)

This is literally just a pass by. Our tour bus just stopped by once we reached half of the peak, some picture taking and there we took off. I think this part of the tour is just a filler.

This pretty much wraps up our half day city tour with the group. We did not avail the package with disney tour because we want to stroll on our own for the rest of the day. Actually, our plan for the rest of the day is to visit Ngong Ping Village then MongKok for some souvenir shopping later on. The day is just too short when you're busy!

Whilst at the Mong Kok area (which we weren't even aware we're already in Mong Kok) I told my sister to try our atm cards again when I saw the Standard Charter atm machines close to the Red line MTR station. Alas! to our delight I was able to finally withdraw money from my BPI atm card! We were both glad that we started shopping right away when we saw this local store that sells iphone/android cables. I bought myself this ipod cable (so I don't have to borrow one from my sister everytime I need to charge my ipod) for 20HKD (roughly 120php) which is still cheaper compared back home. We were both starving so looked for the closest chinese resto with english speaking employees to make our lives easier. We felt both at ease with additional money in our wallet other than the ones we exchanged back home. Thank God we might have a merry birthday tomorrow we thought.

chicken rice with
mushroom

Etude House in Mong-kok

12:00nn past - Had lunch at this authentic chinese resto in MongKok which name we can't recall because it was in chinese. We ordered their Chicken Rice with Mushroom dish. It took me a while to finish my plate or should I say bowl because I used chopsticks. I swear to never do that again. My hunger pang just waned out because I hate using chopsticks really. The food cost? 29HKD each. It was sumptuous though. Afterwards, my sissy bought this liquid eyeliner at Etude house, it was sold out back home and yes the price is cheaper here in HK surprisingly.

3:00pm past – took the train to Tung Chung where the Ngong Ping Bus Terminal is. We came from Mong Kok so we alighted at the Lai King interchange (orange line) to get to the Tung Chung line which is the last stop. The bus 23 terminal was relocated to another area which is few walks away from the mall.

the MTR station 

How to get to Ngong Ping Village?

The view of Tian Tian Buddha from afar.

Look for the exit that says Ngong Ping Village once reached the Tung Chung MTR station, you won't get lost really just make sure to read the signs that reads which exit to take (depending on where you're headed).

From the MTR exit turn right (Ngong Ping Village 360 exit). Across the MTR station there's this big blue mall. You have to walk past that mall and follow the arrow that points to Bus #23 terminal. Ngong Ping Village is divided into different areas. We eagerly would like to see the Tian Tian Buddha and Po Lin Monastery so we have to take bus #23. If you're headed to other areas in Ngong Ping you definitely have to take a different bus number.

One of the Tian Tian Buddha guards

In our case we did not try the cable car because from below you'll see the long que upstairs which all leads to the cable car ticketing booth. We took bus #23 instead because the que is just one eight compared to the cable car que. The fare cost roughly 20HKD+ just bound to Ngong Ping so make sure you top up your MTR card enough funds. The fare is the same on your way back by the way except this time you have to take the Tung Chung bus which sends you back to where you came from when you took bus 23. Roughly 50HKD for a roundtrip to Ngong Ping Village. Mind you, you could use your Octopus card to purchase cold bottled drinks from the vendo machine at the bus terminal.

Tian Tian Buddha

The Buddha is massive and we were amazed when we actually saw it. There were lots of tourist as expected although not as many as I we anticipated. There's no entrance fee neither to see the Buddha.

We walked our way up no matter how exhausting it was because you won't appreciate Tian Tian's beauty if you will not go up there. The weather was nice back then, the temperature wasn't so hot and it's windy once we reached the peak. We also saw the Buddha guards encircling Tian Tian's perimeter and from the top you'll see the bay. It was beautiful.

I read before that the Buddha was strategically placed there to overlook Hong Kong's entirety, some Feng Shui thing. The Buddha's right hand says no to affliction whilst his left hand means giving. I realized what a miss If we did not go to Ngong Ping Village because your HK trip wont be complete without it. I now understand why my sister insisted that we go there by hook or by crook! It was a long train ride from Tsuen Wan to get to Ngong Ping but it's all worth it.

Po Lin Monastery

The Monastery is also beautiful but we did not go there further because the smell of the incense is already making me cough out hard since I already have colds that time. I have a weak immune system since I stopped taking vitamin C which I regret. I just though that vitamin supplements makes me gain weight that's all. Nevertheless, it was trip all worth the walk and all. I really suggest if you're gonna go to HK to visit Ngong Ping Village. It's your choice if you want to spend more money by taking the cable car or just take the bus, either way you'll see the bay anyways.

Mong Kok

5:30pm past – Bound to Mong Kok/ Ladies Market.

I was already exhausted but my sister seems like an Energizer bunny who never gets tired of walking almost the whole day long. I told her that we shouldn't stroll very long after buying souvenirs because I wasn't feeling well anymore due to too much walking and we've been out for almost over twelve hours.

ladies market 

Mong Kok is very much alive at night, we got there around 6pm already. There were shows and stuff, entertainers, skits, live bands etc. I wasn't so impressed with the souvenir items because they were pricey compared to Singapore or Cambodia. In Singapore you could buy 5-6 pieces of key chains for 6SGD whilst in Hong Kong if you haggle a 5-6 pieces of keychains could be at 100HKD from 120-160HKD which is really pricey!

I bought 300HKD worth of keychains and I was done after that I told myself I'll stop. I was just really squeamish to get something for myself for a souvenir so I bought this cellphone case which I haggled for 35HKD from 38HKD, oh wow 3HKD discount need I say more? I'm not a big spender really so spending that big of money made me sweat so I just told my sister that we should go back to our hotel because I was really tired and I don't want to spend everything on souvenirs because I honestly would like to go back to HK someday and just visit Mong Kok to buy more stuff for myself. It's finally a wrap after I told my sister that I can't walk anymore and I really wanna go back to our hotel room asap and get some rest she wouldn't stop strolling Mong Kok. My God, I was absolutely tired! I spent less than 350HKD in Mong Kok. That made me more sick lol.

After sorting out the souvenir items I immediately sipped some Twinnings red tea and took Bioflu to make me feel better. I just need rest that's all.  

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Hong Kong Getaway Part 2 - Touchdown HK

HK Airport

25 April 2015

airport runway 

Touchdown Hong Kong!

I got a little worried at first when I saw the people at the HK airport almost all wearing surgical masks. So, I thought, if I missed out reading about any sort of outbreak in Hong Kong recently or something. They even have an advisory posted at the airport about flu symptoms and that If you are experiencing the symptoms to urgently approach the airport people about it. What made it sounded more serious is that they also have announcements via their paging system. I told my sister If this was a good time to indeed travel to HK after what we learned. We noticed later on that out tourist seemed to just shrug it off so we thought maybe it was just a precautionary measure perhaps.

We tried to look for the travel agency representative at the airport-Arrival Hall pole #6 but we did not find whoever the person is. They usually have this placard that bears your name but that did not happen this time so we got a little worried since we have no way to contact whoever the person was since we haven't purchased any local sim card as of yet.

HK airport

Oh by the way as soon as we found an atm machine we immediately tried to withdraw funds from our local BPI atm cards. We were under the impression that we could use just about any local atm machine in HK bearing a cirrus logo. That's when the dilemma kicked in, we can't withdraw any money from our BPI atm cards simply because (as per further research using the airport's free wifi access) we did not activate our atms for international use. It has dawned on us that this only happens when you leave your country unprepared which we were back then. We felt so all over the place upon reaching the airport, we don't know who's supposed to pick us up, we can't withdraw money from our local banks and we can't figure out how to activate the sim card we bought at the airport.

All went well after we had lunch at McDonalds airport our brains finally started working because we were both starving that's why. I finally was able to call the travel agency contact person. We approached the person from the travel agency (he was local) and was advised that the person who's supposed to pick us up already left because it took us some time at the arrival hall since we still needed to purchase our Octopus cards and sim card.

Octopus/MTR Card

the ever useful HK MTR map.

As soon as we walked passed the Immigration counter we decided to purchase their Octopus/MTR card. Lesson learned during our first time in Singapore years back, we did not purchase any train card at first so we looked like idiots not knowing how to pay for the bus after reaching our destination. The good thing was there were three of us so the bus driver just let it go and advised we should purchase an MTR card, how embarrassing really.

Going back to HK, we bought our Octopus card from this customer service kiosk. The girl at the kiosk wasn't so friendly although she speaks english her chinese twang made it quite difficult for us to understand her aside from she's not even smiling the whole time as if she's carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. The MTR card cost 150HKD; 50HKD is the refundable deposit and the 100HKD is the preloaded value for you to consume. It was pretty expensive hadn't its refundable.

Note: In the event you're no longer coming back to HK or it would take a while for you to go back there, you may visit the MTR kiosk at the airport and surrender your Octopus card. The 50HKD will be refunded back to you along with whatever unused credits you have left with your Octopus card.

Mobile Service

CMHK prepaid sim purchased from
HK International Airport for 80HK$.
It's pre-loaded with credits btw.

Again my Globe Prepaid roaming service did not work in HK which was the same thing when I was in Cambodia after I requested via SMS to have it activated it still did not work! So, to save us from all the troubles we bought this prepaid CMHK sim card at the airport as well for 80HKD.

It took me a while to figure out how to activate it because I got confused with the sim sleeve which has both cantonese and english translations. I was only able to figure out later on (after bickering with my sister 'cuz we were both starving already) that I need to make a phonecall to have it activated.

I called our contact person in HK as per our travel voucher and advised we're already at the airport, again she wasn't very friendly as expected. She told me that the hotel-airport pickup guide is waiting at the pole #6 across McDonald's, so we finally found the local guy from the travel agency who eventually took us to the hotel along with our fellow Pinoy tourists. It was quite a long drive from the airport to Silka Far East Hotel in Tsuen Wan actually. At first sight, I did not fall in love with Hong Kong because of the dirty old buildings and the not so clean surroundings compared to Singapore.

In about half an hour we finally reached our hotel called Silka Far East in Tsuen Wan. The area did not impress me because it was reminiscent with that of Quiapo or Binondo in Manila, it looks like the original chinatown of course because of the tarps hanging outside every food shops there. The hotel surely is just few walks away from the MTR station.

Day 1 – Arrival at Silka Far East Hotel

The front desk people speaks english although a little incomprehensible as expected because of their usual Chinese twang but they were very courteous though. We were asked to pay a refundable 300HKD deposit which is understandably for incidentals. We got our keycards with the wifi username and password instructions. They even laid down these laminated letter sized papers with disney packages on it which we eventually declined since we already had our itinerary set up with the travel agency. We were glad to learn that the hotel + tour package we availed comes with free breakfast at the hotel as opposed to what's on the travel voucher which states outside hotel breakfast. It was a good savings considering the hotel charges 55HKD for their breakfast buffet per head. Not bad really.

We settled at our cramped up hotel room. It was a little too small for two but we were ok with that because compared to Tune Hotel at least they are generous with toiletries. They even have complimentary coffee & tea, a mini fridge and a minibar. The room was airconditioned of course with in room safe, phone, many towels, unlimited wifi access regardless of how many gadgets you have, wall mounted flat screen tv with unfortunately only 1-2 english movie channels.

We were assigned a twin corner most non smoking room on the 15^th floor (so we expected the room and beds to be much more smaller than the ones we have back home). It does not have a view so that's a set back and there were little noise when we arrived due to the ongoing repairs close to our room. I know that's a bummer but what the heck the room may be cheap that's why. The room was too small that we can't even move around that much without tripping on our luggage bags but it was not that big of a deal because we're not gonna be home most of the time anyways.

Since we got to our hotel room around 2pm we just busy ourselves figuring out how we could withdraw money from our atm cards so we called BPI from our preloaded CMHK sim. We were advised we should be able to withdraw in 3 minutes after activation. We went out of our hotel room and tried the nearest atm machine from our hotel called Bank of China. It DID not work. So, we just decided to buy a liter of bottled water at this local convenience store to keep us hydrated and a pack of locally made pastry.

The bottled water cost 11HKD whilst the pastry bread about 18HKD I think. We were worried the whole time since we only have about 400HKD each which is really not enough for four days. To make the long story short, as a work around I decided to transfer funds to my other BPI atm account and tried withdrawing money from it as a last resort but still no good even if it was already activated for international use. We just accepted the fact that things don't always go as planned if you travel still partly unprepared. I thought we just couldn't isolate if it's our atm cards or the atm machines fault that we couldn't withdraw money because there isn't any other non BOC atm machines around.

We weren't totally empty handed actually, we just couldn't go on with our lives in HK with just very little money in our pockets though. The good thing about availing a tour package is that you don't have to worry about paying for hotel room as it has been taken cared of for you, all you need is shopping money to enjoy your stay further.

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Prepping for the Trip

My sister and I started planning for our trip to Hong Kong three months ago for our birthday. We normally plan for a trip longer than three months every time we travel to allow ample time to save up for our pocket money and research online for rave reviews regarding top spots to go and suggested hotel accommodations for tourists. We just thought about heading to Hong Kong last January and from then we started researching for travel agencies that offers HK tours only because we already booked our flight.

It wasn't easy really because it is such a risk to entrust your good money on travel agencies you just recently stumbled upon online. Most of the travel agencies we came across online wants upfront bank deposit/payment and rarely accepts Paypal payments except for this travel agency called SPF Travel & Tours which we found 100% legit.

Payment via Paypal is an excellent mode of payment because it takes 28 days (Paypal policy) before the payment clears thus gives the client enough time for disputes in any case there'll be. It may be a hassle on the travel agency's part because it takes almost a month before they get paid, however, on the other hand, I thought, it is still a win-win situation because both parties feel safe.

We waited in vain before the payment cleared so we decided to contact the travel agency after 28 days just to make sure that they already received the payment. We got the travel voucher as soon as the payment went through sent via email. You can check out SPF Travel and Tours website for travel packages to various countries including HK.

We availed their 4 Days/3 Nights Free and Easy package which includes the following:

• 4days / 3nights Hotel Accommodation
• Daily Hotel Breakfast (6:30-10:00 AM)
• Roundtrip Transfer (Airport-Hotel Airport)
• Compulsory Half Day City Tour

At the Holiday Inn Manila Galleria, We booked 
a 2 Twin Executive Non Smoking Room

23 April 2015
Pre-Departure

Holiday Inn Manila Galleria

We came from the North so we needed to at least come down to the South couple of days before our flight so we could get some rest. We took the 7AM trip to Manila via Victory Liner for 450php each. A seven hour trip is exhausting plus the hot temperature down South will surely wear you down. I grew up in Manila so I am sort of accustomed to the scorching hot temperature there but If you stayed up north for almost four years now a 25 degree Celsius and up temperature is already a killer. My sister arranged all the hotel accommodations while I took care of the flight and all tour arrangements with the travel agency.

We stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn Manila Galleria in Ortigas and availed our employee room benefit. We haven't stayed at the Holiday Inn Galleria before but we already stayed at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria years ago and we enjoyed our stay there so we decided to come back and stay at the Holiday Inn for a change. We were assigned an upper floor room that overlooks the Ortigas business district and we were happy with our stay as well because it was an executive room with a living area which is big enough for two persons. IHG properties never fails to amuse us amenities wise compared to other hotels we stayed at during our travels abroad. We missed the metropolis so much and all the hustle and bustle there is. We even went to Megamall to grab some Subway sandwiches for dinner.

24 April 2015
Tune Hotel Aseana, Paranaque

We switched from Holiday Inn Manila Galleria to Tune Hotel for our flight the next day 25^th of April due to its proximity to the airport (NAIA T3). Tune Hotel is just 3KM away from the airport as per my sissy's research which is an advantage because our flight is at 7:25AM.

In my assessment, Tune Hotel is perhaps a 1-2 star hotel good for overnight stays or layovers because there's nothing fancy about this hotel. Their rooms are too cramped up in my opinion, it's air-conditioned though with a ceiling fan, hot & cold shower, flat screen wall mounted tv with several cable channels & an in room safe, unlimited free wifi access. The wifi username is your room number whilst the password is the last name of the person who booked the room. Not much amenities except for one 1-2 pieces of soap, a tube of shampoo & conditioner in one, no toothpaste nor toothbrush, 3 towels and that's it. They don't even have any tea pots, coffee cups nor complimentary coffee or tea, no fridge neither and you need to head downstairs if you need hot water (the staff at the front desk could get you hot water from their pantry). The good thing was, at least the hotel has a lift which made hovering from your room to heading downstairs easier. 

at the Tune Hotel Aseana, Double Room: a/c controls, 

takeaway menu, in room safe, toilet & bath, fire escape plan, 

room key card

The most painful part was they don't have any in room phone in case there's something you need to request from the front desk. Their wifi by the way is only limited to 3 gadgets and the good thing was we only have 3 gadgets; a couple of mobile phones and a laptop. My wifi access did not work outright that we even needed to go back downstairs to advise the fron tdesk their wifi is only working on one gadget. The good thing was we're only sleeping over for our early morning flight because we can't endure the no tea pot/hot water for tea or coffee. Geez. Unfortunately, we're staying over again once we land back to Manila from HK. At least we now have an idea to collect the toiletries from the hotel we'll be staying at in HK once we fly back home and stay at Tune Hotel once again.

We're not picky travellers really but you always expect basic amenities every time you stay at any hotels worldwide such as basic toiletries for the correct number of occupants in the room. I mean do you expect two persons to share  one set of toiletries? A shampoo & body wash dispenser would be better.

arrival/departure card

Departure

25 April 2015

Manila – Hong Kong via Cebu Pacific

All our bags are packed and we're totally ready to go! Today is also payday so we're happy to bring in more cash to HK 'cuz we already changed the rest of our PHPs to HKDs whilst staying at the Holiday Inn Galleria. We bought some HK dollars via Sanrees Money Changers at Robinsons Galleria by the way because they offer reasonable exchange rates there. Going back, we left Tune hotel around four past in the morning via a colorum/private car arranged by the guard at the hotel. The driver was nice so I asked how much they charge from the hotel to the airport so he said they only charge 250php which I think is just really the minimum rate for cabs near the airport nowadays. It was a breeze because there was no traffic since it was still early so we got to the airport in less than 10 minutes. We gave the cabbie driver 300php which already includes the tip because he did not ask for any additional and instead just helped us unload our luggage unlike the driver who drove us from Holiday Inn Galleria to Tune Hotel who seemed pretty nice at first but as soon as we alighted from the cab, he asked for 'additional' money on top of the already arranged non-metered fare. Imagine our cabbie fare from Holiday Inn was less than 250php and we gave him 270php even asked if we could round it up to 300php?? Wow. Alligators in the metropolis. People who travel out of the country save up for their trip. These unscrupulous cabbie drivers are friggin' leechers.

Cebu Pacific bound to HK, yes we sat right
next to the entrance/exit door lol.

Anyways, we lined up at the check in counter around 5AM and took some time to check because of the quite long queue already considering it's still pretty early. What might've consumed our time partly was we did not pay our travel tax first prior to check in so it was a hassle that we needed to go to the travel tax counter first before we could get our boarding pass of course. We only paid the travel tax at 1,020php roughly I think and they no longer charged for terminal fee which is good. I've heard about this in the past and I think they have already pushed through eradicating the terminal fee. They should have done this a long time ago anyways because other countries DO NOT charge for using their airport terminals as it is a basic service that every country should offer at no cost.

So there, we checked in our luggage and passed through Immigration. The stupidest thing we did was we forgot to withdraw funds from an atm machine prior to passing through the immigration counter. When we finally thought about it the IO no longer allows my sister to go out of the boarding gates premise which we forgot once you already reaced the boarding gates to our dismay. After all the bickering we just decided to withdraw money from an atm machine once reached HK. We were so problematic prior to boarding the plane because we just have enough money for 1-2 days in HKD because the rest our money were stuck in our atm cards.

the perks of sitting right next to the window

7:25AM past our plane departs bound to HK. Whilst my sister was busy taking aerial shots as our plane takes off I felt dozing off due to tiredness prepping up for our early morning flight. I think I slept for the most part and woke up few minutes before we landed at the HK International Airport.

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