How to Spend 4 Days in Hong Kong

May 13, 2025

We’re taking you on a 4 day Hong Kong adventure exploring the city and Hong Kong Disneyland!

If you want to take this exact trip, you can download our Hong Kong Itinerary. It gives travel tips, restaurant and hotel recommendations, links to every activity we booked, packing list, and a day by day itinerary for you to follow.

In this episode we cover as many of the highlights of Hong Kong as you can see within two days and share tips to make your trip easier.

See all the experiences and some more we recommend we did in our Hong Kong Viator Shop

Find a great flight deal to Hong Kong by signing up for Thrifty Traveler Premium and watching the daily flight deals (points & cash) that are emailed directly to you! Use our promo code TS10 to get $10 off your first year subscription.

4 Days in Hong Kong – Episode Transcript

0:35

And get ready to embark on a new adventure with us around the globe.

Hello fellow travelers welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad podcast.

Today we’re taking you to Hong Kong.

We spent four days in Hong Kong 3 actually exploring the city and one at Hong Kong Disneyland.

0:57

We originally had our trip planned for Hong Kong in March of 2020, but if anybody’s calendar bells are ringing, you know, that was the onset of COVID and our trip had to be cancelled.

But we finally, finally got the opportunity to rebook and we went to Hong Kong here in March of 2025.

1:15

The main goal for visiting Hong Kong for us was for Brittany and I to visit our last Disney park in the world.

So we’ve been to the two that are in Paris, the two that are in Japan, all of the ones in the United States, the one in Shanghai, and finally capping it off here with Hong Kong Disneyland.

1:34

How cool?

Quick question spoiler, which is your fave?

So I want to say probably Shanghai as a whole, it was just like such a fun day when we all went together.

But Hong Kong Disney, it was a really fun day.

1:49

The lines were fantastic.

We’ll get into that more in detail and we’re going to even have a mini episode on Hong Kong Disney, so we’ll give you all the details there.

Wow.

And I’m going to have to go Shanghai Disney just as well.

I mean, we were there within the first year of that park opening.

2:05

You were there on that one with us.

Kim squad trip to China, it was awesome.

So I’m going to have to say actual Disneyland park with an actual castle in the middle, probably Shanghai.

But in terms of actual favorite Disney park, non Magic Kingdom style or Disneyland style, that is to be determined.

2:23

Can’t really say off the top of my head.

But yes Brittany, you are correct.

We are going to get more into Hong Kong Disneyland a little bit later in this episode.

I’m actually kind of glad that our trip in 2020 got cancelled because that trip was actually planned for just a very quick five days and we wouldn’t have done as much then as we were able to do now.

2:41

And we were able to expand this trip to also go to Korea and then Japan.

So the whole trip was 12 days with 10 days really being travel centered for these days were in Hong Kong.

And when her friend Kasha, who is one of our honorary squaddies, heard that we are planning this trip, she asked to jump on it because she too also needed to visit this Disney park because it was her last one as well.

3:04

So on this trip it was Jamal and I, our honorary squaddies, Kasha and her husband and Ryan and their four year old daughter Lenny.

We’ve never traveled with a four year old before, so this was a first for us.

And when I told Kasha that we’ve never traveled with a four year old before, she said great, I haven’t either.

3:20

So.

I know we’ve taken so many trips with them, with Cash and Ryan since Lenny has been born, but she has not accompanied us yet.

Of course she did on this one.

So that was an experience in and of itself.

So yeah.

And I was actually really surprised with Hong Kong.

3:36

Overall, I really enjoyed my time there and and I actually felt like we could have spent another day or two in Hong Kong because I was really eyeing a hike and a day trip to Macau.

That would have been fun.

I guess more reason to go back.

I love Asia.

I could go to Asia time and time again.

3:52

You all have been on an Asia world tour this year, so we have a lot of Asia content coming up.

But tell me about Hong Kong, because I don’t really know much about it.

So Hong Kong is actually along the southern coast of China and has a population of 7.5 million people, so very large.

4:08

But of of course, if we take China as a whole, which is billions of people, 7.5 million is not very large.

But Hong Kong is actually on an island and it’s what China considers a special administrative region of China.

So this was actually a British colony.

4:26

Hong Kong was since 1842 following the First Opium War, and the British gave Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

But Hong Kong is still again in that special administrative region.

So it has its own currency, its own set of laws.

4:43

So it’s part of China, but it’s not really part of China.

So as a good example, when we went to mainland China, can we needed a visa, right?

But in Hong Kong, as an American, you do not need a visa.

So they have their own set of rules, even though they’re part of China and have their own special policies.

4:58

Yeah, Hong Kong is a big, major trading port in financial center.

There’s a ton of skyscrapers.

It’s a huge bustling city.

There’s a big harbor there.

We stayed right down the harbor.

It was fantastic.

They also have like traditional markets and a lot of delicious Cantonese cuisine.

5:15

And I felt like it was like China but also different.

For example, the toilets there were Westernized toilets.

We didn’t really come across any squatty potties, which was pretty much all we came across when we were on mainland China.

Not in the hotels in mainland China, I want to say that, but out in public, yes, they are transitioning to that.

5:34

But Hong Kong is a good mix of East meets W because it has that British history being a colony up until 1997.

How did the food compare to the food in China?

Well, we mostly ate dim sum, but it was all delicious.

I feel like when we were in China we ate a lot of traditional Chinese food, but here we mostly focused on dim sum.

5:56

So different, but good nonetheless.

Yeah, you can find traditional Chinese food out here in Hong Kong as well, but a lot of people maybe don’t even realize this.

There’s 2 languages in China, you know, they say people speak Chinese but that’s not true.

It’s Mandarin that you speak more in the north and in the South they speak Cantonese.

6:15

So just like the United States, just a large country, different culture.

So here in the South is more Cantonese and Hong Kong in terms of the language.

But it’s also Cantonese cuisine, which is more dumpling and dim sum oriented.

So you’ll find those traditional stir fries, noodles, things like that.

6:31

So it’s a lot of the same, but also very subtle differences, just like you’ll find in different cuisine within the United States from East to West.

All right, give me some tips, Hong Kong tips.

Well, I want to say to book a hotel near a metro line.

There are metro lines actually very, very great.

6:47

It reminds me a lot of the metro systems that we saw in Singapore and what we’ve seen in Europe.

It was very easy to get around on the metro.

So book a hotel near the metro line.

Another tip is to get an E SIM if you do not have international data.

7:05

So we say this all the time.

We have T-Mobile.

It gives this is five gigs of international data and pretty much every country.

I don’t want to say every country on earth, but I would wager to say 90% of them and Hong Kong here counted as one of them.

But if you do not have free international data, we really recommend getting an esim, particularly with Aralo.

7:27

They are a company where you can just download your esim and get your data.

It’s going to be really helpful for you to have that when you want to route yourself using Google Maps so that you know what buses, metros to use.

So do get yourself an E SIM if you don’t have data included on your phone at no charge.

7:46

And we’ll link it in the show notes and also download Google Maps.

I used the public transport portion of Google Maps to get us everywhere we went in Hong Kong.

And it was fantastic to work for the metros.

It worked for the buses.

It did not steer us wrong at all.

8:02

You know, Speaking of that, I just want to say a lot of times in the past when we would travel internationally, I would find either that cities or regions specific metro app that they have.

Cause a lot of times they’ll either have an official one or a non official one.

8:17

And those used to be my go to when we originally went to Japan in 2019, they had a really, really good one.

They have since gotten rid of that and other ones that I’ve downloaded, try to play with, they’re not as good or they’re just riddled with ads.

Google Maps, mass transit services is probably my favorite way to get around anywhere now.

8:37

It’s really the best and I love it and it will give you live feed.

So all the more reason why you need to have data because it will give you live updates in terms of timing, routes etcetera.

Is that a separate app or that’s Google Maps?

It’s Google Maps, but you know you can sort by if you’re taking a car, public transit or walking.

8:55

So this is, we would put it on the public transit portion and it’ll tell you where you need to walk to.

It’ll tell you what entrance of the metro you should enter on, what platform it is, what direction you’re heading, and then what exit that you need to take to leave the metro as well.

9:13

I mean, it’s not 100% all the time, but it really, really helped a lot.

The only other thing I was going to say about Google Maps is it’s not good on multi level building.

So if you’re going to a restaurant that’s in like a multi level mall or shopping Plaza or something like that, it can be a little bit trickier, but it gets the job done.

9:35

Yeah.

And what Britney means by that too is there’s a lot of stations, and we encounter this in Hong Hong Kong that will dump you in malls or even skyscrapers.

And that metro station is just in there.

So you’re in a multi tiered place.

And in a situation like that, it’s a little bit more difficult to find your way out.

9:50

But if you’re just at a normal subway that’s along the street, very, very simple.

But when you get into a multi tiered building or structure coming out, difficult for sure, but you’ll find your way out.

Absolutely.

Our next tip for you is to get a tourist octopus card.

10:06

These Octopus cards are one of the major currencies in a way of Hong Kong.

They work on metros, they work on buses, they work for the Airport Express, they work in seven elevens, taxis, restaurants, some shopping areas.

And so it’s basically a physical card or if you are an iPhone user, you can have it in your Apple Wallet and you pre put money on it and you use that for everything.

10:32

I just mentioned the Metros, buses, Airport Express.

So we did get the physical cards at the airport.

It’s 150 Hong Kong dollars and 50 is non refundable deposit and then it gives you $100 to use right away and then you just have to keep reloading it while you’re there.

10:49

You wouldn’t want to use your credit card.

So the Hong Kong subways do not allow you to do tap with credit card.

You can actually buy a subway ticket each time you got to pay with cash, but that gets cumbersome.

You don’t want to walk into the station every time.

11:04

Which route am I going?

This, that and the other.

So the Octopus card is really good for that because that is just the tap system and of course it will figure out the fare on you when you tap out of whatever subway or mass transit or bus that you actually had used.

11:21

So that’s why we say to do that.

Hong Kong does have a unlimited daily use metro pass, but they don’t have it beyond just one day.

So if you’re going to be there for more than one day, it doesn’t really make sense.

So the Octopus card is a really good way to get around with their mass transit.

11:38

But Brittany did mention that you could use it in Seven Elevens pay for taxis that way.

Even a lot of restaurants will accept the Octopus card in those situations.

Of course, we did not use it because I want to use my credit card for points because lots of places took it.

But in terms of transportation aspect, Hong Kong does not really use credit cards, nor are they credit card friendly in that way.

12:00

So you do want the Octopus card.

They do not allow you to do the digital one for Samsung users.

Because Samsung.

You’ve been telling you.

Untrue, they only allow you to use it with a Samsung if you are a Chinese resident or Hong Kong resident and have a Chinese or Hong Kong phone number for whatever reason.

12:23

Just because I’m sure they assume most people coming from the US and other countries are iPhone people.

That’s no it’s not better, that’s why they have it.

So I was forced to use the card and when you reload the card, you could still only reload it with cash.

When Britney’s expired hired, she used her digital Octopus card to do that and uploaded it.

12:43

But if you have extra money on your Octopus card, you can have that refunded to you minus the $50.00 deposit to buy the card.

But any excess funds that you load on it, you don’t lose, you can get right back.

And Jamal, what was the conversion one Hong Kong dollars is?

12:59

Well, let’s say one U.S. dollar is equivalent to about 7 1/2 to 8 Hong Kong dollars as the currency fluctuates.

So when you said earlier 150 Hong Kong dollars, 50 of it is non refundable, it’s not that much right?

Just really think 7 1/2 to 8 round it to 8 for simplicity sake. 8 Hong Kong dollars is equivalent to one U.S. dollar.

13:20

Just have a few more tips for you guys.

So as we were talking a lot about transportation, make sure you give yourself extra time.

Anytime we routed ourselves from one spot to another, we always give yourself extra time because you’re going to likely get lost.

That’s just how it is in a really big city.

13:36

So it’s fun, but just give yourself extra time to find where you need to go.

I don’t want to say lost, disoriented till you find your route.

We weren’t ever really lost.

But sometimes once you get out of the subway, even if you follow the right exit, it won’t update right away for the pinpoint on your phone to reflect the way you’re going.

13:55

And you just need the time to adjust.

But yeah, allow yourself extra time.

And then you mentioned this earlier.

You know, we always love to talk about the bathroom situation.

Brittany said it.

They are Western style.

So that is the good news.

You don’t really have to worry about that.

And then the last tip I want to give is about taxi colors.

14:14

So if you are going to be utilizing taxis, they have three colors, red taxis, blue taxis, and green taxis.

If you see a red taxi, it means it’s really in the urban areas where you’re going to have all the skyscrapers.

So Kowloon region as well as Hong Kong Island, that’s where the red taxis are going to be.

14:35

The blue taxis, they serve the island of Land 2, which will take you to the Big Buddha, which we’re going to talk about later, the airport that is there and Disneyland.

And then green taxis serve the New Territories, which is pretty much everything outside of central Hong Kong, which is going to be Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

14:55

And even Land 2 is part of the new territory.

So green is pretty much all-encompassing except central area.

So if you’re trying to go far and take a taxi versus mass transportation, you should really know the colors to know where they will will be able to take you or not.

And I thought that was really cool that they’re actually color-coded.

15:12

But honestly, we only use taxis twice part way coming from the airport to our hotel and then back again.

Otherwise we use mass transit the whole time.

Squatty’s We do have an itinerary on Hong Kong that will be available for you to download.

15:28

The link is in our show notes.

So as you follow along with this trip, if you feel a little inspired, go to that link in our show notes or shop travelsquad.com.

So we left San Diego actually on a Wednesday because our flight was at 12:20 AM Thursday morning.

15:46

So Jamal and I drove from San Diego up to LAX where we got in a flight with Cathay Pacific.

We booked a premium economy flight with points and we’re actually going to have a just a tip episode on our premium economy experience with them.

16:02

And Cathay Pacific is the flagship carrier of Hong Kong.

So it just made and of course, the easiest route for us to get from our region here in Southern California to Hong Kong direct.

That flight was about 15 and a half, 16 hours depending.

16:17

On this.

I know.

So it was a long one, not as long as our flight from Los Angeles to Singapore that we did a little bit earlier this year, but nevertheless a long flight.

And we’ll talk about it when we do our just the tip episode.

But it made it feel a lot more quick in the comfort of premium economy.

16:33

But after flying business class on Singapore Airlines, let me tell you, it’s never the the same.

But it was a lot more comfortable than being in the back.

And our friends Ke$ha, Ryan and their daughter Lenny met us in LA.

And so we all took this flight together.

So we landed Friday early in the morning.

16:52

We landed at like 7:20 AM.

And from the airport, we took the Airport Express train, which is the best way to get from the airport to the city center.

And it takes about half an hour.

You can buy tickets for the Airport Express at the airport directly or through Clook, or you can even use your Octopus card.

17:11

So many ways to buy it.

And we were staying at the Salisbury YMCA Hotel in Kowloon and we were right across from Victoria Harbor.

We were right across the street from the water.

We were near 2 metro systems and a bus stop so we were in a really good spot.

17:28

Did you know that before you booked it?

I knew which area I wanted to stay in, but I didn’t realize how close we were to the metros at that point.

So I guess I just got really lucky, but the hotel was really nice and I would recommend it.

And we do have it LinkedIn, our show notes as well.

17:44

It’s a great, phenomenal area that we were at here in Kowloon.

So again, Hong Kong is an island, but it’s multiple islands.

There is Hong Kong Island, which has the main, main skyscrapers, and we’ll talk about that a little bit later.

Kowloon also skyscrapers, also very densely concentrated and populated, but it is not their central business district, but it’s just right across the harbor.

18:09

So from there, where we were at, you can look across see the famous skyline of Hong Kong.

This is a really awesome area.

So if you aren’t keen on staying specifically on Hong Kong Island, I think Kowloon and in this area is a great spot.

I asked Jamal what did he wanted to do on our first day and he said he wanted to get dim sum once we landed so.

18:29

I love dim sum.

Yeah, I know you love dim sum.

And so we went to a place called Tim Ho Wan for dim sum and it’s actually a Michelin recognized world famous dim sum restaurant that has really affordable dim sum there.

And some highlights that you should get there are the baked BBQ pork buns, their shumai and their shrimp dumplings.

18:49

Fantastic.

So Tim Ho Wan is a chain.

Only one of the locations is Michelin rated.

It used to have a star.

They’ve lost plus the star.

It’s a Bib Gorman now.

But nevertheless, still really good quality.

And we did on this trip eat at another Tim Ho Juan that was not the Michelin rated one.

19:09

It was good, but not as good.

And I only know that because, of course, we went to the Michelin rated one first.

So just caution on that one.

But yeah, Tim Ho Juan was really great.

We even went wild out there and tried chicken feet.

Whoa, I’ve never had chicken feet before.

19:26

I know it’s a very popular Cantonese style dish, let alone to have with dim sum.

And I didn’t hate it.

It’s just really cumbersome to eat.

But if it was on the table, I would eat it again, but I would never order it again.

Almost how Britney was with the durian when we talked about that in Thailand.

19:44

Or the larvae in Ecuador.

Yeah, if it’s there, I’ll I’ll eat it if I can order.

It.

And so the whole day I was telling them, like, oh, you guys, it’s our first day in Hong Kong.

We’re going to be tired from the flight.

So I’m going to keep it an easy day.

20:00

I only plan, like one big thing for us to do this day, which was going to a monastery called the 10,000 Buddhist Monastery.

And then it’s not an active monastery, but it’s this huge Buddhist temple complex that was built in the 1950s.

And I did my research in advance, but I can’t, you know, as you do it months in advance, you kind of forget about it.

20:20

And so keep telling them.

And that we’re really going to have an easy day.

But when we get there, we’re met with a 420 step climb to reach the main hall.

That is an easy day.

So it wasn’t an easy day, but it’s called the 10,000 Buddha’s Monastery because lining those steps all the way to the top are literally, well, I don’t know if it’s actually 10,000, but hundreds and for sure thousands.

20:45

I don’t know about 10,000, but thousands of gold Buddha’s, each one different in a different, a different pose, a different face, different body physique lining the way up.

And eventually you get to the point to where some of the Buddhas are riding animals.

21:01

It was riding a turtle, surfing on one at one point, riding what was it, a cat dragon.

A dragon?

Yeah.

So half of the fun of this was just seeing all of the different Buddhas and styles that they had.

Not one of them was the same.

Almost like when we were in mainland China and we went to Xi’an and we went to the terracotta soldiers.

21:21

And do you remember when they were telling us each face is actually different and it’s not identical?

This is exactly how it was with all of these golden Buddhas going all the way to the top.

But once you get to the top of the 420 steps, you go to a monastery with a stunning pagoda, there’s additional halls with Buddhist relics, and there’s a panoramic view of the city below.

21:42

So it was actually a really nice thing to do.

And I actually picked it this day because it was like the most out of the way thing that we were going to do in compared to some of the other activities we had planned.

So I figured we would do this on our first easy day.

Not so easy climbing after a 16 hour flight, but we were energized after having some dim sum, so that made it a OK.

22:05

There are wild monkeys at the top and whenever you’re with monkeys, I always say this, be cautious.

You don’t want to get scratched or bit.

You know, they’re dangerous, Those primates for sure.

But really cool.

I was not expecting that.

And then we got to the top and there were several wild monkeys, so you can see them.

Well.

22:21

And then we were deciding if we wanted to do something else in Hong Kong at that point.

But again, we were traveling with a four year old, so we decided it was nap time for a little bit.

So we went back to the hotel, checked in, took a quick nap, and then we went to one of our favorite restaurant chains, which was called Din Tai Fung.

22:39

There’s actually one in La Jolla in San Diego.

And so we’ve been to that location a few different times, but we decided to try it in Hong Kong as well.

This is the original 1.

This is not the original 1.

The original 1 is in Taiwan because it’s a Taiwanese Chinese style restaurant, but they do have chains in multiple places, so this is not the original.

23:01

We did go here for dinner.

They’re really famous for their expertly crafted show long Bao buns, which are the soup dumplings.

Have you ever had a soup dumpling before, Kim?

Oh yes, I love them, and I’ve had them from Din Tai Fung in San Diego.

OK, there you right.

So you’re familiar with it on that sense of things.

23:19

So some locations are Michelin recognized this one was not, but nevertheless it was good.

We’re used to the San Diego one.

I will say the San Diego one was better.

They had a lot of the same things, but also of course a lot of different things since you are actually in an Asian country, things more to their local palate, but enjoyable nevertheless.

23:39

You can see the theme here getting dim sum constantly already as we’re in Hong Kong here.

She slept through the entire dinner.

I think we got her to take two sips of apple juice the entire dinner, and the next morning she didn’t even realize that she had been to dinner the night before, she just slept through the whole thing.

23:58

So Cash and Ryan did not go out with us after dinner because of course they went back to their hotel to put down Lenny because she just couldn’t really wake up from the nap.

But she handled the flight like a champ.

You know, I, I understand it is what it is.

So after that we were like, OK, well, Brittany and I are going to go to some of the night markets because that was our plan to do.

24:19

But before we went to the night markets, excuse me, I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself.

Right by our hotel is the Shimsha Shui.

And that when I say that that’s how you pronounce it in English based off of how they spell it, right?

That’s really how the white English person is going to say it.

24:36

Shim Shashwe.

It’s spelled Tsim SHATSUI.

OK, Of course, we try our very best to pronunciate.

Forgive my Cantonese because it’s not the best, but I did Google how you actually say it.

24:51

And a native Cantonese speaker said, oh, yeah, white people will say it, Shimsha Shui.

But it’s really Jim shot joy, you know?

So whatever you hear, it’s a little bit difficult, right?

But this area is famous for being on the waterfront of Victoria Harbor, giving you the skyline views of Hong Kong Island.

25:11

And they have a lot of high end shops, bars, pubs, restaurants.

This area really caters to tourists.

But in the evening, they have a light show called a Symphony of Lights where they take at least like 40 of the most prominent skyscrapers on each side of the harbor.

25:27

And they do a light show where they’ll have laser beams tag another one.

They’ll light up and be all sort of colorful dances, really fun.

Hundreds and thousands of people show up on the waterfront to watch that.

They do it every night at 8:00 clock, so we checked that out before we headed to the night markets.

Yeah.

25:43

And our hotel was in the perfect spot because we were literally right across the street.

So all we had to do was crossover and then go to the waterfront and it was right there.

So it was perfect.

And from here, we decided to go to a few of the night markets.

And so we went to a market called the Ladies Market, even though that’s the name, they do have things for children and men.

26:04

They are open from about noon till about 10:00 PM and it’s one of the most my streets in Hong Kong because it has hundreds of souls selling clothing, accessories, handbags, souvenirs, electronics, trinkets.

You can find pretty much anything here.

Anything good?

26:20

There wasn’t anything I was particularly interested in at this time.

Like you could probably get a pretty good knock off bag here but I didn’t but it was still fun to just.

We’re going to see you with the Gucci in a couple weeks and we know where it’s from.

26:36

She did.

She did not buy a knock off this time like when we were in Shanghai and both you ladies got your knock off purses, which by the way, I think a great knock off representations.

Yeah, you could find all sorts of real fashionable stuff there.

They had watches for men, souvenirs, all sorts of stuff.

26:52

So it’s just a fun place to stroll.

And of course if you want to do shopping, this is a good spot to shop.

But there is no food here.

And I don’t remember if Brittany already mentioned this, but despite it being called the Ladies Market, you could find stuff for men there too.

It’s not just for ladies, but I think originally it was more female oriented.

27:11

But as time has moved on, just a plethora of shopping for everybody.

And then we decided, well, well, we’re on a market tour.

We’ll just go to the Temple St.

Night Market.

This market is also very famous in Hong Kong, comes alive at night and it’s an open air market with a bunch of food stalls serving local dishes.

27:32

But also there is an area that starts with the clothing, accessories and electronics souvenirs, just like the ladies market.

So if you only had time to go to 1 market, we would say go to this one because it offers both the food and the shopping here.

I will say this though, a lot of times when we travel and we go to markets when they have food, I’m always intrigued by a food item here at the night market.

27:55

I was not intrigued by any of the food that they had out.

I’m not going to deny that.

So.

But there was a lot of people eating low.

Yeah, of course.

And a lot of them were tourists.

I’m not going to say it didn’t look good, it just wasn’t anything that caught my eye to to eat.

28:10

But yeah, you can find food here.

You didn’t want any more chicken feet.

I did not want any more chicken feet, although they did not sell any chicken feet here that at least that I saw.

And after the market that ended our first night in Hong Kong?

Squatty’s We’re getting a lot of emails lately from people who are going to destinations that we’ve covered and they’re asking where should we stay?

28:31

Do you have any hotel recommendations?

We actually have revamped almost all of our blog posts on our website, travelsquadpodcast.com to have featured hotels that we would recommend, places that we stayed, the tours and activities that we did.

So go over there if you’ve heard an episode and you want more inspiration on what to do.

28:50

There were links to the actual things that we did travelsquadpodcast.com/episodes and just search for whatever you’re looking for.

So the next morning was a Saturday for us, and Tash and I both had wanted to go to a breakfast spot called Australia Dairy Company.

29:05

I know weird Australia in the name when we’re in Hong Kong.

And while we were at the Temple Night Market the night before, I had brought Jamal by the restaurant so that he could take a look at the menu.

And he stood outside and he was like, I don’t know about this.

29:21

Like, I don’t know if this is something I want to eat.

Doesn’t really look intriguing me.

You know how Jamal is.

But.

I’m not going to deny it did not look intriguing.

Straight up did not look intriguing at all.

When I looked at the menu.

There’s like 3 breakfast items that are available.

29:39

You could order like a few things a la carte and it just didn’t sound good.

But you know, Jamal changed his tune the next day.

So I I will say this about that, but don’t be deceived by the menu because the menu itself is not very impressive, but the food is.

OK.

29:55

Yeah.

So Cash and I are like, Nope, we’re going.

So we dragged them along and it’s a legendary Hong Kong style cafe.

It’s known for its really fast service and its food, of course.

But despite its name, the Australia Dairy Company, it has no direct connection to Australia.

30:11

The name comes from the founders past working on a Australian dairy farm, but the restaurant is really known for the silkiest scrambled eggs I’ve ever had and it’s steamed milk pudding.

And so I like to say I make a really good scrambled egg.

30:28

I think I make probably one of the best scrambled eggs.

When people have mine, they tell me the same thing.

These eggs, I don’t know what they did with it.

They were just straight up delicious.

We got the breakfast set, which includes toast scrambled eggs.

And this is where it threw me off when I looked at the menu before.

OK, Kim.

30:43

So just ride along with me here.

Tell me this does not sound like something you’re just like, why are we coming here?

Macaroni soup with ham.

I see it.

I’m looking at a picture of it right now and I understand where you’re coming from.

It’s very beige.

There’s just a few things on the menu.

30:59

It’s a little underwhelming.

Yeah, so when I see the menu and I see toast, scrambled eggs and give me macaroni soup with some ham in it, it just doesn’t seem like why are we coming here for breakfast right now?

I will say this, the macaroni soup with ham just tasted like a chicken noodle soup with ham.

31:17

It was just, they’re OK whatever, but they have a really good white bread.

The scrambled eggs are just really delicious.

We also ended up getting some French toast.

Their French toast is good too, with some really good Maple syrup.

31:33

Brittany mentioned how they’re famous for their steamed milk pudding.

She ended up getting that.

That was just OK, whatever.

For me, I liked it a lot, but you can get it warm or cold.

I got it warm one day and then we went back here and I got old the next time.

You can also get milk tea which is also served hot or cold and I think I got one of each 2 so they have really good options.

31:55

And we went back and got scrambled eggs with toast and a corned beef sandwich the next day.

So I think was it the next day?

It was the next day, because this first day that we went, that’s what Ryan got for breakfast.

He got their corned beef and egg sandwich and said it was really good.

32:11

So we went back, we’re like, all right, let’s go get some more food.

So that’s where I’m saying I changed my tune.

It was good, but the description even you saw it as you were reading the menu.

Kim not very appealing.

Food was good.

And there’s usually a line, so get there early.

And so after we had breakfast, we went back to the Victoria waterfront on on the Shimsha Shui Promenade and we did the Avenue of Starz Walk.

32:36

So the avenues of Starz Walk is this walkway that they have kind of like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but instead of stars on the floor, they actually have famous actors and actresses handprints along the promenade.

So you can put your hands up to their handprints and it’ll tell you on the placard what they started and what they’re famous for.

32:56

And it looks out to the Victoria Harbor, which we got to see in the daylight for the first time.

And all these actors and actresses are specifically Hong Kong actors and actresses paying homage to the Hong Kong film industry.

So of course, the only real ones we know are Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee.

33:14

So it doesn’t really mean anything to the other ones cause of course we haven’t really been exposed to that film genre from that part of the world.

But nevertheless, regardless, it’s still a great place to walk along the waterfront and just get skyline views of the skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island.

33:30

And then from there we went to the Sky 100 observation deck.

So this is a 360° indoor observation deck that’s located on the 100th floor of the International Commerce Center, and it stands at 1289 feet above sea level.

33:48

It’s the highest observation deck in the city and it just has amazing views.

So it has views of Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and of course the islands there.

Getting up there, it only takes 60 seconds to go from the bottom all the way to 100 floors up.

34:05

So crazy fast elevator, one of the fastest in the world.

So when you’re up here, beyond it just being a lookout to the beautiful cityscape, there are interactive exhibits and there is a cafe where you can enjoy drinks and even get some food.

We went up here because specifically Brittany and Kasha wanted to do high tea up here.

34:25

You would be so excited, Kim.

They do have high tea up here.

And what’s really cool about this National Commerce Center building is below the building is a giant mall.

There is a metro station right below it, but then of course, it’s a commercial building.

Then the Ritz Carlton also is a hotel within this on the top floor.

34:44

So the 100th floor isn’t even the top.

That’s just where they have the observation for you.

So this is a really multifaceted building.

So the high T that we did, even though it is on the Sky 100 Terrace for the observation, it is part of the Ritz Carlton.

35:00

It was a Ritz Carlton high tea.

Take us through the spread.

Well, I was going to say, if you’re only going to do the observation deck, it’s $23 a person and we paid 45, which included the observation deck and the high tea.

Wow, that’s a very affordable price for a Ritz Carlton high tea.

35:18

Yes, and Kim, it came on A4 tier serving set. 4 tiers.

I have not seen anything like that.

Not three.

I know you’re usually particular about your tiers, Kim.

You won’t even the Claire just what in London because it isn’t on a multi Q4.

This takes it to a next level here.

35:36

I will say this.

The spread had your typical savouries on there.

It had a classic egg sandwich with rye, a salmon and dill.

There was even like a wah gras mousse on a pomegranate eclair.

They were OK.

Nothing was stand out on it.

35:51

The desserts, there was a coffee, chocolate cake, a lemon almond tart, a white chocolate and strawberry mousse, a little bit bit of a chocolate cheesecake with a fig cream.

So they had your typical stuff of what you would expect with high tea.

36:07

But none of the things that we got I would say were like really stand out.

And even though this high tea is part of the Ritz Carlton, don’t think that class and elegance that goes to the Ritz Carlton comes with this.

You’re just in the lounge area of the Cafe, so it doesn’t have that sense of elegance.

36:24

The elegance is of course the tray that they bring it on, but atmosphere wise, it’s just whatever.

I’m not going to, it was fun, but maybe you could just do the observation and not the tea.

But the little bit of extra cost that it was to add on the tea with the ticket that you get I think makes it worth it if that’s your thing.

36:41

But don’t expect anything great.

Yeah, if you love high tea and want to experience it in new places, do it.

But if that’s really not your thing, what I would do is buy a ticket to the observation deck and I would still go to the cafe and order either a drink or a bite to eat so you could stay longer and enjoy the views.

36:57

So then after we had gone to the Sky 100 in the International Commerce Center, we had a couple things of our itinerary of what we thought we were going to do.

And in Hong Kong there is a very famous Buddha statue called the Tientan Buddha, or just the Big Buddha.

37:15

But it is rather far away on Lantu Island and it takes a while to get there.

You know, when you look at Hong Kong on a map, you really think, oh, it’s not that big, but it does take a while to move and get around.

So this was going to be the furthest thing that we we’re going to do and we still weren’t even sure at the start of this day if we were going to do it just because of how long it takes to get there.

37:38

But afterwards we opted to do it.

Yeah, the Big Buddha, we had it as a potential on our original itinerary, and then we decided to take it off because of how long it takes to get there and back.

And then right before we went on this trip, we watched The Amazing Race and they went to Hong Kong and they went to the Big Buddha.

37:55

And then we all started talking about it and we said, no, we’re going to fit it in, which is why Jamal and I went to to the markets the night before, so we could specifically fit this in this day, yeah.

Because we were going to go to the markets this day.

And then since Cash and Ryan went to bed because they wanted to put Lenny down because she couldn’t wake up, we told them the markets were just OK, Not like any of the other markets, other places we’ve been.

38:15

So they’re like OK, well we could pass on this.

Let’s go to the big Buddha.

And Kasha herself is also a big Amazing Race fan.

And literally they had only launched 1 episode right before our trip.

And the 1st place, coincidentally, that they went to was Hong Kong.

This was their first stop on the race was going to Big Buddha.

38:34

And it got all of us, like, really excited.

Like, yeah, we got some free time.

Let’s go to Big Buddha.

I just have a question about The Amazing Race.

How much of your travel inspiration that leads to trips comes from watching The Amazing Race?

You mention it a lot on trips.

38:50

Well, I love The Amazing Race, and even when we were in Thailand and met up with Squatty Gavin, he was talking about The Amazing Race.

He loves it too.

I think if you like travel, it’s a great show to watch.

And if you like travel and haven’t watched The Amazing Race, get into The Amazing Race.

Yeah, but I don’t want to say a lot of our travel inspiration comes from it.

39:10

The Amazing Race is is very famous for taking you to the famous spots in a city and also doing weird cultural things that are unique to that place that they’re actually in.

So I would say sometimes, like again, a good example here in Hong Kong, we weren’t planning on going, but we had free time and it just really inspired us to do it.

39:30

But honestly, if we hadn’t seen The Amazing Race and had downtime, this is still an attraction that we would have done anyway.

But it’s really cool to go to a place that you just saw on TV, let alone that fact that, you know, it was just filmed recently.

I’m like, oh, this was where the pit stop was or they had a clue.

39:47

And couple other times we have watched previous seasons of The Amazing Race that we weren’t caught up on and had already been to a place and passed that place and didn’t realize, oh shit, this was on The Amazing Race.

We were here in that exact very spot, you know.

Yeah, Jamal gets all worked up about The Amazing Race.

40:03

We’ve decided Ke$ha and Jamal will run as partners and Ryan will be their cheerleaders, so that’s how it’s going to go.

I think we.

Could win it patient with people other than me and so he won’t have as many freak outs a piece with someone else.

But we need good TV, so we need the freak outs.

40:21

Oh, I, you know, if Kasha and I race, rest assured Jamal will have a freak out.

They will just be less than if Brittany was my partner for sure.

Because I think sometimes, especially not that I’m not comfortable with Kasha, of course I am.

But there’s a different level of comfort with my own wife to where I’m like, I could probably freak out a little bit more and she would with me versus again, if she was to run with somebody else, too.

40:46

Yeah.

I’ve seen it when we’re in the car on road trips and you miss a turn.

It’s always Britney’s fault.

Yeah, because she’s the navigator, and if that’s all she has to do is tell me when to turn and doesn’t tell me when to turn, whose fault is that?

I’m going to give you guys a little insight.

41:03

Little spoiler.

Jamal did not have a freak out in Hong Kong.

Guess where he had the freak out?

Oh.

In Korea, once we were gone on from Cash and Ryan.

Or Brittany just exaggerates the freak outs, which I’m going to stand by.

41:19

But nevertheless, let’s move on from freak outs, an amazing race and get back to.

So we were at Big Buddha.

So what takes so long is unless you hire a taxi to take you there, you have to take the metro and then from the metro you have to get off and then you either take a cable car, which we were going to do, but it does close down occasionally and it was closed.

41:40

So then our only other option was to take a bus.

The bus ride was about an hour and then you get to the very top and then you basically do that same thing all the way back down.

So it’s like a 5 hour excursion.

Yeah, and I just want to interject real quick, she said.

41:57

You got to take the metro.

The metro ride itself is about 45 minutes to an hour, then the bus ride, which is an hour, but everybody needs to take that bus from the metro stop and they only have so many buses running.

So you could wait in line anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half just waiting to get on the bus.

42:15

So it can really really add up on the time.

Which is why I would say take the cable car if it’s open, but it wasn’t.

So we did the bus and we finally get to the parking lot and we’re so excited to get out and see the big Buddha.

And all of a sudden it starts to downpour on us not and like not just a little sprinkle.

42:35

It is full blown raining, winds going, rains coming sideways.

And we’re like, what are we going to do?

Do we just, like ride this bus back?

But the driver’s like, Nope, everyone has to get off because I have to pick up all of the people that have been waiting.

42:50

So we get out of the bus and we find like a little overhang.

Like on the bus stop, I had packed an umbrella, the only umbrella the four of us packed that day.

Yeah, we brought umbrellas on the trip.

I had one, I just didn’t bring it.

And Brittany asked me earlier in the day, are you going to carry your umbrella around?

43:07

And I said no, I’m not.

It’s a bright, beautiful sunny day.

It was so sunny and it gave the chance of rain very minimal when we had looked at the forecast earlier in the day.

But we switched to a different island.

We climbed up the mountain.

This big Buddha is at the top of a mountain, so you’re getting up into the clouds.

43:25

There was no rain on our way up.

But as soon as we got to a certain elevation, specifically the parking lot of it, like again, not just, oh, it rained.

Brittany really hammered this point like it was a torrential downpour, strong winds coming sideways.

So Jamal went and took the umbrella, went to find a taxi, see if we were going to take a taxi back down.

43:45

And then as all of that was happening, the rain started to subside a little bit.

It didn’t stop completely, but it definitely lessened.

So we sent him with the umbrella to the main shopping area and he found us ponchos.

So we each got a poncho and we said, you know what?

44:00

We’re here.

This is the only opportunity we’re going to be able to do it.

Let’s just make the most of it and do it anyways.

You can’t go all that way and not see it.

Well, you can’t do that.

You are very correct.

But you know when Brittany was saying the original thought was already staying on the bus and going and then the drivers like no, no other people are waiting.

44:19

You should have seen the line of everybody who was bailing because they weren’t prepared for the weather as well.

The line was hundreds of people long.

You can’t fit that many people on the bus.

The buses run very sparsely between each other and there is practically no space to even be covered under any sort of awning while waiting in line.

44:38

So we’re like, if we even wait in line right now, we’re just going to be soaked and then have a 2 hour ride back just wet.

It’s going to be terrible.

So that’s why I was originally looking for a taxi to avoid that while they had that one little spot in the awning.

But when we found the ponchos, you are right Kim, it’s like we’re here, let’s put on the ponchos.

44:57

We’re going to get a little wet, at least not fully soaked, and make the most of the experience.

And so glad we did.

The Buddha is standing at 112 feet tall.

He’s on top of a mountain.

You have to climb all these steps to get to him, and he weighs 250 metric tons.

It’s one of the largest seated Buddha statues in the world, and it was made in 1993.

45:18

So you have to go down the street.

It was kind of eerie because everyone had left.

There was like really no one else there.

So we’re walking down to get to where the stairs are and it’s foggy.

It’s eerie.

And we look up at the top of the mountain.

45:34

You can barely see the Buddha.

You can see like the outline, but you can’t really see him.

And we’re like, all right, we’re just going to trek up.

But then as we’re taking pictures, it starts to clear, the rain subsides and we get our beautiful view of the big Buddha.

45:49

Feel like this was very similar to Chrysler Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.

And so we start making our way up.

We did get a little bit.

I wore a skirt this day because like we said earlier in the day, it was a very beautiful day.

So my skirt got soaked.

It was a long skirt too, but I had my poncho on.

46:08

I was good and we made it to the top.

And then when you’re done, seen the big Buddha, you can go stroll.

The area around there is the Poland Monastery.

They have other buildings that you could go into, see Buddhist relics and artwork.

And then of course, because this is such a big tourist attraction, there is a little village in that area with shops, souvenirs that you can stroll.

46:28

So while we were waiting for the bus coming back, we made the most of it, which was really good because most people had left because of the rain.

So we didn’t have to wait very long at all for the next bus to come in terms of waiting for our opportunity to get on.

But I hope if you’re listening and inspired to go to this, it is not a rainy day for you and you really get to enjoy it because it was beautiful when it cleared out.

46:51

But I enjoyed our time here at the Big Buddha and even seen the monastery and other temples that were around in this region.

Worth going to even though it’s a trek to get to.

So the next day was day 4 for us, which was Sunday.

And this was our day to specifically explore Hong Kong Island.

47:11

So from our hotel again, we are right by the harbor.

We walked a block or two over and we took the ferry from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.

And the first item of the day was to go up to Victoria Peak.

And Victoria Peak is the highest point on Hong Kong Island at 1811 feet.

47:30

And what’s really cool about Hong Kong Island is one, if you’ve been there, you know this, but if you haven’t, just Google it.

It’s really a thin, long stretch of skyscrapers.

And they can’t really build more than that along the water because of how steep the mountain scape is on that island.

47:48

So you have to take a tramway to the top and it just gives you amazing beautiful views of the city below.

Yeah.

So you can either hike to the top.

There’s a whole bunch of steps that get you to the top, which I almost opt for, but we didn’t.

We decided take the tram and the tram is just a historic funicular railway that’s been operating since 1888.

48:10

Once you get to the top, you are inside a building that has several stories with toys and games and restaurants and shopping and stuff like that.

But then there’s also a Sky Terrace, Sky Terrace 428, and it’s the highest viewing platform in Hong Kong.

48:29

So that’s where you’re going to go outside, get all of your amazing pictures, and you’re going to have the best views there.

Have you ever heard of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong?

Kim No, It’s one of the most iconic things to do.

And I really did enjoy, you know, sometimes it’s like, well, how many views can you see of different things?

48:45

But this really puts you on a mountain above the skyscrapers, with the skyscrapers being so close to you there.

So a really, really, really unique perspective that I really haven’t experienced in any other city in the world, which I thought was really cool.

Well, you didn’t even mention what the building looks like.

49:02

I’m looking at a picture of it.

It’s very unique.

It’s like a cruise ship on top of a building.

Tower, yeah, it’s like a little short tower and then like a cruise ship looking thing.

That’s really cool.

Top part is the open aired observation deck.

49:17

So that’s where the tram leads you.

It leads you to the bottom level in there.

Then you have a multi story of shops, rest restaurants, souvenirs, and then of course that top area there is the overlook and then behind that, what you can’t see from the building.

There are more shops and restaurants in the back too.

49:36

So you can spend a lot of time up here.

It’s not just all Let’s go and overlook, which is the highlight, of course, but a really cool, unique thing to do here in Hong Kong.

Yeah.

So I would say take your time if you can go first thing in the morning because you can spend a few hours here and get there before it gets super were crowded.

49:54

And I would recommend buying your ticket on Kluke.

We’ve linked it or online in advance because there was a huge ticket queue at the tram station that we got to avoid and just completely bypassed to get onto the tram.

Yeah, because if you don’t buy your tickets in advance, you’ll have to queue for the ticket and then once you have the ticket, then you’re in another queue to get on the tram.

50:15

And during busy season it could be really, really long.

So it’s good to just avoid that and go as early as possible so that line isn’t as long first thing in the morning, which is what we did.

But it’s a double edged sword.

Also look at what the weather is going to because you don’t want to go up there and have it be a cloudy day and you not be able to see anything.

50:32

So play it by ear.

But if you can and the weather is going to be good, go in the morning.

And then when we were on Hong Kong Island, we wanted to visit the central mid level escalators.

This is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world and it stretches 2600 feet.

50:49

So it’s just a whole bunch of connecting escalators and moving walkways that goes up this hilly area and it passes through a whole bunch of different neighborhoods and areas with cafes and bars.

So we did get off and we grabbed a drink and then we got back on and it’s just like a fun way to explore the city.

51:09

Well, like I said, really the only flat area where they have the skyscrapers is going to be along the harbor, but again, with Victoria Peak being 1800 feet high, it gets steep very, very fast.

So of course the city is is multi tiered and leveled, but it starts to become residential, not skyscrapers, etcetera.

51:29

And to make moving throughout the city easier, that’s why they have these escalators.

So nobody’s climbing the steep hills.

So in the morning, people in the residential areas that are up a little bit higher, the escalators go down to the central business district.

But then during the day or later morning from 10:00 onwards, then it goes up for people to be like, OK, well I’m leaving, let me go up.

51:53

And of course, of course, it’s not just one continuous escalator.

At certain points, the escalator stops.

It allows you to go either right, left on the main streets that are there.

So it’s really cool to just go and enjoy and see this unique thing that I’ve never ever seen in a city.

52:08

But do also take the time every once in a while to explore right, left and see what bars, restaurants, things, shops that they have really cool area to go in Hong Kong.

So as we were approaching the very last escalator, it was shut down.

It was being closed, and there was a set of stairs to the side.

52:26

And we’re like, oh man, we can’t even ride the escalator all the way to like the very end.

But right when we got to the very top of the stairs, we looked down and the guy that was cleaning that escalator had opened it back up again and it started moving again.

So we went back down the stairs, rode the escalator back up, and then we’re like, all right, we did it.

52:44

We could say we officially rode all of them.

Yeah, it was kind of devastating, but thankfully he was done after that, so we just made a loop to say we rode the whole thing up.

Yeah, and as Jamal already mentioned, it’s a very hilly, steep city.

So we went to a temple, and we had to climb all of these stairs down to get to it.

53:03

We went to the Man MO temple.

It’s one of the oldest and most famous temples in Hong Kong.

And it’s just crazy because you see all of these skyscrapers around, and then you go to this ancient old temple.

And so we went there.

The whole temple is filled with these coiling incense that are hanging from the ceiling.

53:22

So it’s very smoky, cloudy, hazy in there.

And it’s just really cool to go inside and and just see what the temple looks like on the inside.

So we went and did that.

And then when we were done with the Manhoe Temple, Hong Kong also has an observation Ferris wheel here.

53:39

It’s nothing like the London Eye.

Nothing like that one I forced you to go on in Miami.

That was amazing.

No, not like the one in Miami.

I think the one in Miami was a little bit taller too.

But you know, when in Miami it was lit up.

It was night time, you know, but we were like, OK, let’s just go ahead and ride the observation wheel.

53:56

It’s along the way to get back to the harbor to catch the metro or ferry over, depending on what route we wanted to take.

But the observation wheel, it’s 197 feet tall.

It’s right along Victoria Harbor and the central waterfront.

And it’s relatively new within the last 10 years.

54:14

There’s no significant history.

It was just literally built as a tourist attraction.

But it was 20 Hong Kong dollars, which is equivalent to like $2.50.

We said to ourselves, why are we not going to ride it?

You know, let’s just kill some time, do something a little bit unique.

54:29

And of course, we are with Lenny.

She’s 4, about to be 5, so of course that’s intriguing to her as well.

So I thought it was fun.

The line took about what, 30 minutes to get on?

Wasn’t too bad and it went around a couple times.

So it wasn’t like a one and done.

54:45

You did get your money’s worth for two. $52.

And $0.50, yeah, might as well do that.

And bonus points if you’re there at night and do it at night.

We were still there during daylight, but I think it would be cooler at night because the Hong Kong skyline at night is just really impressive.

55:02

Yeah, when I saw it was $20.00, I was like kind of debating it.

And then I was like, oh, that’s Hong Kong dollars.

It’s less than $3.

The conversion will always get us.

I know like in Mexico, in Sochimelko, where we didn’t get that song.

55:18

I know because it was too much it.

Was five U.S. dollar conversion for the mariachi band and we were so cheap in that moment.

It’s ridiculous thinking about it but you know all the more reason to go back to Sochi Milko and get the mariachi.

But inflation it’s probably 10 bucks now but I still.

55:34

Do it for 10.

So we had taken the ferry over to Hong Kong Island from Kowloon.

This time we decided to take the metro from Hong Kong Island back to Kowloon.

So we went into that.

We dropped Kasha and Lenny off at the hotel, but Ryan, Jamal and I went to Ozone, which is back in the same building as a Sky 100 observation tower because this is a luxury rooftop bar.

56:02

On the. 118th floor of the Ritz Carlton in in Hong Kong.

Is it just a coincidence that you’re at the Ritz Carlton again?

You were also at the Ritz Carlton High Tea.

Yeah, so we would did that during the day, got daytime views.

This we went at night to specifically go to the tallest bar in the world.

56:20

So different views, but it was really because we wanted to be at the highest bar in the.

World, yeah, because Sky 100 really is on the 100th floor and like I said, this International Commerce building, it’s a commercial building.

Hotels are in here, Ritz Carlton being one of them.

56:35

So the Ritz Carlton has so many levels, starting at a certain 1, I don’t remember, but Ozone is part of the Ritz Carlton and it’s on the 118th floor.

And like Brittany mentioned, it’s the highest and tallest rooftop bar in the world.

56:51

So a lot of it’s enclosed, but there is an outdoor terrace that you can go on.

And we wanted to see the Hong Kong skyline lit up at night from that elevation.

So of course, any rooftop bar like that’s going to have a markup.

The fact that it’s in the Ritz Carlton, of course there’s a markup too.

57:07

I just got a straight cocktail and U.S. dollar equivalent was about 23 to 25 bucks.

Brittany and Ryan got a mixed drink from their specialty drink list that they had.

And what was it about 30 for you guys eating?

Yeah, just under 30.

I got one called the Aviary and it came with these little jellies on a spoon to have with it, like these coconut jellies.

57:30

And since it was called the Aviary, what it was served, it was on this little bird’s nest as my coaster.

So it’s very themed up.

It was actually a really delicious cocktail.

The only thing I would say about this bar though, is when you’re on the rooftop of it, it is kind of enclosed.

57:46

So it’s kind of indoor kind of outdoor.

But they charge you a per person minimum if you want to sit right on the window edge, like on the sale to look out.

And it was a 500 Hong Kong dollar minimum if you wanted to sit right there.

58:02

Per person.

So if you’re going to be having a couple drinks or food, it makes since We didn’t really want to do that at that point in time.

I shouldn’t say we didn’t want to do that, but it was late in the day.

We didn’t know if we all had that many drinks in us to do at that point in time.

58:17

I know that kind of sounds silly, but we were sitting on a couch area.

You could stand, look out and see, but you were not right up at the window at the bar to look over the edge, which I think would have been cool.

So.

Oh, so that would be about 60 to $63.

That would have been like 2 drinks.

58:33

That would have been 2 drinks, but at the same time, which isn’t much considering what we said, the drinks were right and it wasn’t an issue of necessarily being cheap.

Ryan was already really tired and I don’t want to blame it on Ryan, because that’s not.

Really.

No, No, no.

No, no, no.

But I was going to say this on top of that is, you know, when you travel with other people, you’re also trying to find that right balance, right?

58:54

Brittany and I may have been willing to do that, but we didn’t want to force Ryan if he wasn’t and feel like the pressure and maybe he wanted to too, and maybe he didn’t want us to feel it.

None of us all spoke up about the mutual like, hey, yeah, let’s do it.

But that was really kind of at least my thought process on the situation too.

59:10

Yeah.

And when we got there, most of those seats were already taken.

So it might have taken a while to get that as well.

But we had gone to dinner beforehand.

And I think if I were to do it differently, I would just have dinner there with the drinks and had that per person minimum and just done that rather than go to dinner beforehand and then just come for the drinks so that you can enjoy the drinks, dinner and the view.

59:35

Good to know.

So our last full day in Hong Kong.

This is the day we’re waiting for.

This is the whole reason we booked this trip.

We were going to Hong Kong Disney and we went all out.

We bought tickets for the day, we bought early access passes to get us into the park an hour early, and we bought their version of a fast pass which will get us on the 8 most popular rides.

59:59

Yeah, it gives you front of the line access to their eight most popular rides because, you know, Disney parks have gotten away from their traditional fast.

Pass system, each of them have different things now where there’s premier access in certain parks where you pay to get to the front of each ride and you have to do it in the moment.

1:00:16

Some parks will allow you to buy those tickets ahead of time for a flat cost not dictated based off of how crowded the park is.

Hong Kong is one of those where it’s just a flat price to get front of the line access to their eight most popular attractions.

And we said to ourselves, well, this is great, let’s go ahead and do that.

1:00:33

Realistically, it’s not as expensive because that’s a beautiful thing about going to Disney parks.

Internationally, they’re not as expensive as here in the the US.

So we’re like early entry plus this not a terrible price at all.

Let’s just go ahead and do it.

So we took the metro to Hong Kong Disneyland.

1:00:49

We got there maybe about 45 minutes before the early access entrance time.

At that point in time, what we did not realize nor did they specify that early entrance only was for one specific land area, which was their newest land that they had opened, which was the world of Frozen, and maybe only one or two attractions in normal fantasyland.

1:01:12

But the greater fantasyland area and other lands were actually closed.

But everybody is rushing to the newest land, which is world of Frozen that opened in November of 2023.

And of course, being with Cash and Ryan who had Lenny, Lenny loves Frozen.

1:01:29

They have Elsa ride out there.

We rode that a couple times and it was good to get that one out of the way first and getting into the park.

Is it similar to the one they have at Epcot?

It’s an identical clone to the one that they have in Epcot, the Frozen Ride.

1:01:44

Of course they don’t have a Frozen Land in Epcot, but that Frozen ride is an identical clone.

OK, so I was there with you.

Yeah, you were.

And they do have another ride there too as well within that land that you were able to ride.

So that was a fun, cool ride.

1:02:00

But we were really excited and we’re like, OK, we’re going to get a lot of stuff done.

And then and of course, as the park starts to get busy, we’re going to go ahead and utilize our front of the line passes.

But let me tell you something, Hong Kong Disneyland did not get busy.

1:02:17

We wasted our money buying those front of the line passes because nothing was greater than a 15 minute wait.

Wow.

Yeah, so maybe we should have done a little bit more research, but when you see that these are available and you hear how crazy Disney can be at times, we’re like, let’s just get what we can.

1:02:34

But there’s 8 lands or 8 themed area, so Main Street USA, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, Grizzly Gulch, Mystic Point, Toy Story Land, and World of Frozen.

So although it sounds large, the park is one of the smaller Disney parks and it was really easy to get through all of the different lands.

1:02:54

You can walk around everywhere and it gets you could go around pretty quickly.

But the longest wait that I saw all day was 20 minutes.

And we’re like, oh, that’s too long.

And we came back when it was like a 10 or 15 minute wait.

Well, not only that, we wrote it and then when it was longer, we also used our front of the line pass ’cause they’re like wait 20 minutes.

1:03:13

This is crazy.

I’m not waiting 20 minutes right now.

I might as well put my money to use and use that front of the line.

That ride was the big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine cars, which is a long way of saying their version of of Thunder Mountain Railroad, right?

So they have a little bit different theming.

1:03:30

It’s almost like Frontierland, but not called Frontierland because of course they’re trying to have a more, I don’t want to say inclusive theme, but not specifically so American theme like Frontierland, right?

But that was their version of it, probably one of the best versions of Thunder Mountain that I’ve ever ridden in all of the Disney parks, maybe even the best.

1:03:48

I loved it a lot.

So that was the long one.

But our favorite ride by far was Mystic Manor, which was their version of the Haunted Mansion.

Again, for cultural reasons, they don’t have the Haunted Mansion because they don’t believe in ghosts, spirits.

It’s taboo.

So they had a really, really awesome theme about a British explorer who connects artifacts.

1:04:09

He travels the world collecting them with his pet monkey.

The pet monkey opens this one box that actually has all the artifacts within the home come to life.

And if anybody is familiar with Disney and the rides and their trackless system, this was the first trackless Disney ride ever created.

1:04:29

And we loved Mystic Manor so much we wrote it how many times?

At least 5-6 times.

That’s what I’m here to say.

I mean, this was a great, phenomenal ride all around.

So you can get done with Disneyland Hong Kong very fast.

It is one of the smallest, if not the smallest like Brittany mentioned.

1:04:46

So it was a great time because there wasn’t a lot of people.

But in terms of big ticket attractions, I wouldn’t say it really had a lot that we loved.

Of course it has Space Mountain Mystic Manor, which is the version of Haunted Mansion, their version of Thunder Mountain, but otherwise not a lot of big ticket attractions like other Disney parks.

1:05:06

We did stay for the 20 minute firework show at the end, which I think was really good.

So we did spend all day there.

But it was nice that it wasn’t super busy because we felt like we could get snacks and like stop and explore and not just focus on like ride, ride, ride.

We got to just like, really enjoy the day.

1:05:23

And what type of snacks did you get there?

OK, I know you’re not going to like this one, but we got a squid jerky, which was delicious.

Jamal didn’t love it, but I liked it and so did cash on Ryan.

Well, I like calamari, so OK, I was like, I’ll try this.

1:05:40

And they were barbecuing it straight up in front of people and it smelled so freaking good.

I know you don’t like seafood, Kim, but it just smelled good with the seasoning and everything that they had on it.

And then I tasted it.

And as soon as I tasted it, I knew this was going to be a Brittany thing.

1:05:56

Like I didn’t dislike it, but I wouldn’t get it again.

And then we got a really good with that slushy.

Yeah, so we got a pineapple Dole Whip in a strawberry slush.

That was really good.

What else did we get?

We got the Mickey donut.

1:06:13

And we got the butter chicken meal.

We got the butter chicken meal and then we ended up getting like incredible burgers at the end of the night.

Delicious.

Yeah, I mean, pretty decent food selection.

Nothing was super crowded, including the lines for the food, which was really nice.

And I feel like we got to ride all of the big rides three to four times.

1:06:31

If it stays like this then you definitely do not need the fast passes and you could probably forgo the early access pass too.

But I did enjoy that early access pass, so no harm there.

But All in all, that concluded our Disney experience.

We’re going to have more information on it on a full Just the Tip episode, talking a little bit more for you Disney fanatics out there, giving more insight into our experience in the park.

1:06:54

So that really concluded all of our time in Hong Kong.

The next morning, all we had was getting to the airport because we were continuing on this trip and headed to Seoul, South Korea.

So make sure to follow us on that.

Episode next and thanks for tuning into this week’s episode.

keep the adventures going

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