Preparing for Macao – Hong Kong 2013

I have to confess. 2013 was a really crazy year of travelling, so much so, I am way behind schedule in updating my blog on it. What has happened to me?? So much for a blog on my travels. I realised the part that usually holds me back in updating my blog is the photos which takes too darn long to edit, upload, caption and blah blah.

Anyway, so it happened that I planned for our first family trip with all three buggers in toll to take place in March 2013. The India trip was a bonus because Theo was there anyway for work.

My brother, his wife and my mother also joined us for the 4 days whirlwind journey since it had been like forever since we travelled together. Up till I was about 23 years old, I still travelled with my brother, the furthest we’ve been as two bumbling youngsters was to Turkey. I guess if my brother ever did impact my life, it was to instil in me a love for adventure.

Anyway I booked us all on Tiger Airways to Hong Kong. Since this was a short trip, I didn’t want to splurge on a SQ flight for so many people. My helper also joined us for the trip, sort of like an incentive for having served our family for 3 over years. Each passenger cost about SGD 200.

While I was booking for the flight, I made a really bumbling mistake. As there was some connection error of unknown origin, I had to tediously key in the particulars for the whole lot of 7 passengers 3 times over. By the fourth time, I was so frustrated, I forgot to check off the luggage requirement and ended up paying and buying luggage for all 7 passengers and incurring an additional SGD 280!!

I contacted the call centre immediately to cancel the additional luggage booking but the best they could do was to offer me the difference in airline vouchers. How nice. I used SGD 200 for the flight to Bangalore but ended up forfeiting the SGD80 in the end. Sometimes I really do the darnest thing.

Our itinerary for this trip was straightforward. Two nights in Macau, two in HK. It was our first trip to Macau so the obvious destination would be to visit the historical centre and eat Portuguese egg tarts! In HK, as I had already been here before, my only goal would be to visit Disneyland, and for Theo to scout out the toy collector hangouts.

While scouting for possible accommodations on Agoda, I came across a really sweet deal in Macao. As the Sheraton Towers in Cotai Central had just opened their new Sky Tower, they offered a promotional package rate of SGD 240 per night for a deluxe room, daily breakfast or lunch, one-way ferry ticket for two from Macao to HK, HKD300 worth of shopping vouchers, and a complimentary lunch at an Italian restaurant! That totally sold me as I was still debating on which part of the Special Administrative Region I should stay in.

Accommodation in HK was a little more tricky as I had to look for a place that was big and cheap enough for our motley crew of 9. We needed about 3 – 4 rooms to house us all. After doing my sums and scanning through options, I finally decided to give renting an apartment a try.

Using the website Wimdu, I was able to shortlist and locate a prime enough location on Hong Kong Island, just next to Wan Chai station. I paid a total of SGD1,000 for a two nights stay in a three bedroom apartment which hopefully could fit us all. (Though as I say this, do adjust your expectations on the size as apartments in land scarce HK). And that settled our preparation for our trip to Hong Kong.