Cities like Hong Kong aren’t suited for lazy people like me. I don’t like walking. Here in PH, we have every bit of transportation even for small distance travel (hence the crazy traffic!). So I got myself into a very exhausting trip. It felt like my feet were about to fall off my legs. But first, let me backtrack on what made us (me and my younger sister) take this impromptu trip!

Originally, my sister asked my youngest sister, but she declined. I said I’m willing to go, & I’ll pay for our tickets. In amazingly good timing, we got airline tickets on sale, & we scored just less than 3K round trip (for the both of us!) She said that it would be our “test run” for our upcoming Japan trip & if we could travel by ourselves. And considering that I’ve returned and written this post, you could say that we succeeded—albeit not without a small hiccup! It was kind of nerve-wracking because it was just the two of us (I traveled with my family the other times) so this one was truly memorable experience.

Hong Kong is always suggested as your first foray into international travel. For one, it’s only 1 hour & 45 minutes—really near! And two, no VISA! Hong Kong is an evident merge of East & Western cultures. So many tall buildings, so many people! It’s a very busy place! The only regret we had was that we didn’t eat local dishes because we were intimidated by the language. One time we wanted to eat at this place, & the menu was entirely in Cantonese! We didn’t like to chance it, so we exited the establishment, haha.

Like I mentioned before, we did a lot of walking. Something I don’t normally do in my everyday life here. I think I exhausted my leg muscles’ abilities to their limits LMAO! But we didn’t have any choice since there was no other option but to travel by foot! I also recommend going to Hong Kong during the winter (November– February) because damn, the heat was unbearable! I mean, the heat in here is devastatingly humid, but we have transpo to avoid walking; so I got a little tan from all the walking I did. (I was kinda upset that some tourist places like Avenue of the Stars are closed for renovation.)

We stayed near Causeway Bay, and I found out there is a JP mall there called Sogo Department Store that sells JP products. In fact, I found a JP bookstore there: Asahiya Bookstore! They sell JP books, as in, everything is in Japanese! (please look forward to my review of the store!) Overall, it was a really fun experience. From the time we got lost, or we rode those Ding Ding Trams and still got lost! To the “how do we get to the airport again?” kind of scenario (since we avoided riding a taxi because it might max out our budget!) But we made it YAY!

But once we got home, we experienced a kind of hell in the form of scammer taxi!  When people told foreigners about shady people here, I found that a bit too much! But I was wrong! They need to be called out! So yeah, be careful of riding taxis here (particularly around the airport)! I’m a local, & I got swindled! We paid almost 4X of what we normally pay, but things went weirder, and it scared us (we’re both female!) I won’t ride a taxi anytime soon. The sad part was that the only thing that ruined this vacation for me was the part when I was already in my OWN country! But I believe in karma; things like what he did to us (and perhaps some other people) will not go unpunished!

But it will not deter me from traveling again! I’m excited for my Japan trip next (please approve my VISA!). And there are also many Asian cities I have yet to visit!