Hong Kong 2016: Day 2

I think it’s not crazy to generalize that people from Manila gets cold easily. I mean, if it drops to lower 20 degrees, we already bring out our sweaters and jackets. It was 15 degrees on our second day in Hong Kong. It was the first time I experience that kind of cold that I considered skipping the shower and just layering up. But fret not, people, as my friends and I manage to drag ourselves to the shower and pray that the hot water doesn’t run out before we stay the day.

It was around 7AM when we got out of our hostel and went exploring for the day. We were pleasantly surprised when there were only few people out and about. We took advantage, of course, and end up taking photos of the almost deserted roads. A kind Filipina also offered to take a photo of us so that’s when we had our first decent group picture that’s not from a selfie stick.

We had breakfast at a nearby McDonald’s afterwards. (This unknowingly set a little tradition I do to try every McDonald’s in a country I visit.) It was funny looking back at how we try to keep everything affordable for us as we just started working a year prior this trip. I remembered us ordering two big breakfast meals and just sharing it amongst us. I think it cost us HKD13 each for this meal. We had every breakfast we had at McDonald’s for this trip. It was fun, and I didn’t regret that we did it. But it’s not something we do on our trips now. It’s nice that I remember this little tidbit from a trip three years before.

Wong Tai Sin Temple

Our first stop of the day is at Wong Tai Sin Temple. It’s one of the most well-known temples in Hong Kong and houses three different religion: Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The temple also claimed to “make every wish come true upon request”.

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The place was packed with locals and tourists alike when we visited. There was so much going on since the moment you get off the nearest MTR station to the station. You won’t get lost at all. Just follow the people.

Wong Tai Sin Temple is open from 7:00 AM – 5:30 PM.

Ocean Park

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Our second stop for the day was Ocean Park. I am a fun of adrenaline pumping rides so this was heaven for me. The place was huge and I’ve already heard of all the roller coasters they have so I was so excited.

Ocean Park is into two sections: The Waterfront and The Summit, and the two sections are literally separated by a mountain. You either can ride a cable car or a train to go back and forth between the two parts! The Summit is my favorite. It contains all the thrilling rides. And if roller coasters are not your thing? The Waterfront is a great option for you to explore.

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As soon as we arrived, we took the cable car up to the Summit – which turned out to be a very good decision since a few hours later the cable car ride was stopped due to strong winds. The ride lasted around 15 minutes, I think. It was freezing cold but it was amazing to see from such heights. We stayed as long as we could in the Summit because the winds were just unforgiving. We rode around 5 roller coasters in all, before going back to the Waterfront. We didn’t get to explore much of the Waterfront as we’re already over the cold, so that’s something I’ll be exploring on my next visit. Wink, wink.

Favorite thrilling rides: the Mine Train (feels like they’re throwing you off a cliff), The Flash (360 turns all the way), and Hair Raiser (loops, loops, and more loops!).

Ocean Park is open from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

By 6:00 PM, we admit defeat to cold weather and made our way to Central station to catch some dinner and roam around a bit. We found a restaurant with good reviews on Google but somehow cannot find it after minutes of walking around. We just ended up having some noodles soup in this place that’s packed with locals and Filipinos. Travel tip: Go where the locals are lining up for. They’re bound to be good.

After dinner, we tried to find this famous shop that sells egg tarts… and also failed. We didn’t even realize that we ended up in the Mid-Level Escalators just trying to look for that one bakery. After about half an hour, we just gave up and went back to the hostel.

We got back around 9:30 PM with a slice of cake in anticipation for Sydney’s birthday celebration at 12:00AM. Guess who was still up until 12:00AM? Only the birthday girl! The rest of us were snoozing by that time. Happy birthday, Syd!

That’s it for now.

Ciao.