Hong Kong - Day 1 (Arrival)

Just a word of advice... maximizing the traveling period can be beneficial but it is also extremely exhaustive as you might not get enough sleep for the first and last day... We booked the earliest possible flight to Hong Kong (7:00am) and the latest possible flight back (9:05pm) to KL... extremely tiring as we have to reach the airport by 5:00am, which means waking up at around 3:00am!

My basic checklist will be passport, air ticket, hotel reservation confirmation, camera, some medication (e.g. Panadol, indigestion pills (po chai yun)) and $$$ :)

We reached the LCCT fairly early, the counter was already opened for check-in. We had breakfast at the Theobroma Chocolate Lounge as it posters look pretty appealing. We ordered a breakfast set (comes with coffee), a sausage croissant and a hot chocolate.

Either it was really early or the food there is not up to standard for around RM30+... the omelette was tasteless, the french loaf really hard, the sausage was cold and salty... fortunately the chocolate drink was good... hot, strong and smooth :)

After the meal, we headed to the departure hall, most of the shops were closed... cut the long story short... we boarded the plane, i really do recommend that you buy the Hotseats and take the 1st row. They have at least 2-3x more leg room compared to the seats behind :)

Played with the camera a little bit and had some rest...

4 hours later... We are in HONG KONG!

I seriously recommend getting the Airport Express Travel Pass before leaving the airport! It costs HKD300 (HKD50 refundable upon surrendering at the same Airport counter before leaving Hong Kong), includes 2 single journey on the Airport Express Line (Airport <->; Tsing Yi <-> Kowloon <-> Hong Kong, max 24 mins from Airport to Hong Kong station) and 3 days unlimited MTR rides in all Lines :)
You can reload the card at any MTR stations. We loaded it with HKD100 as we were there for 6 days and occasionally travel on buses.
Try to avoid taxis as much as possible (unless you have a lot of luggage) as they are very expensive! The meter starts at HKD18 (for the first 2-3km) and adds HKD1.50 every 200m or every 1 min waiting time.
The unlimited MTR rides is a real super saver because a one-way ride from Mongkok to Central already cost us HKD9.50/pax...

It was raining slightly, below are some shots taken during our ride in the Airport Express:

We took a cab to The Royal Plaza Hotel located at Grand Century Place shopping centre at Mongkok, cost us slightly less than HKD50 (inclusive HKD5 for additional baggage). The lobby was pretty packed.

The reception told us that our room will not be ready until 2pm, so we left our luggage with the concierge and head off to the shopping complex next to the hotel. It was raining so it was inconvenient to go out into the streets.

Food court was really packed, most customers were students... Now... in Hong Kong, everything is in Traditional Chinese... some do not even have English translation! My wife went to look for a table while I, like what any other foreigner would do... I strolled around, find a nice yummy looking picture and told the cashier, "I want that one" :)
The payment system is efficient... you order, pay, get a number and wait for your number to be called :)
We ordered Century Egg and Lean Pork Porridge (Pei Dan Sau Yuk Chuk) and Pork Chop Noodles (Chu Par Mein), not exactly what I expected... maybe food court food quality is similar anywhere in the world...

We head back to the hotel after lunch and finally we get our room :)
Another thing to note, i was kind of taken back when the reception told me that they will charge us additional HKD500/night for some facilities, but if we do not use them, they will be refunded upon checkout. I found out that the charge was for some movies and porn. Of course, you will need to conform payment, else you will not be simply charged :)
The room's pretty good, actually quite spacious considering that fact that we were in Hong Kong!

We had some rest then head out for our first dinner in Hong Kong. Yue Kee Roast Goose in Sham Tseng was first on the list! This place is pretty out of town and there are a few blogs out there that has good description on the location. We used the route recommended by ourfriend. First we took a train to Tsuen Wan station and took a cab there as we were not familiar with the place and the bus stop was really packed due to  the rain. The taxi ride was quite costly, around HKD70-80 if i recalled correctly. Yue Kee is located at a small building behind Chang Kee (also Roast Duck/Goose), not very accessible but you will be able to see their restaurant from the main road.

We ordered 1/4 roast goose, a plate of century eggs and a plate of fried vegetable (choy sum). As per my dad's advice, remember to order "Lai Pai" for all the dishes, else you will get everything by the number of head count which is a very large portion also hefty price!

Actually the above is quite a lot for 2 but we managed eventually. The goose's skin is crispy and fragrant, slightly fat but good. This is the first time we tasted goose, is it supposed to have a kind of mutton-like after taste? It went well with the rice as we thought it was slightly salty. The vege's very fresh and crunchy, the century eggs are good, the style is different from what I had before, there is a plate of sugar for you to dip in and eat together with the ginger :)
The bill came out to be slightly above HKD100. After we paid the bill, we got a bowl of hot red bean dessert each for free.

We followed our friend's advice, instead of taking a cab back to the the MTR station, we took a bus. You can take either bus 234A/234B, it will take you back to the Tsuen Wan Station (it only costs HKD4.80/pax!). This is where the reloaded Airport Express card came in handy, it's like Touch N Go/Autopass.

Since it was still raining, we just shopped around the shopping complex earlier. Despite all the rain, the first shopping was a pretty good deal. I am not sure about other places but Tough jeans in Malaysia costs a bomb! The first jeans that we bought was slightly less than RM500 per pair! We went through the latest designs, got ourselves a pair of jeans each, 7 off-season/discounted T-shirts and a hooded sweater for my wife... all that for only HKD3000, not bad... not bad at all :)

It was already 10:30pm... we headed back to our room, took a shower and slept like a log...
The TV has this very convenient system whereby you can check what's being charged to your room :)