Things you shouldn’t do in Hong Kong By Pam Pastor
Publisher:Philippine Daily Inquirer - Publication Date: 10-04-2008

Before planning out that Hong Kong getaway, take note of these useful tips on what you should not do.

1. BOOK YOURSELF in a teeny tiny hotel room. The moment we entered our hotel room at Ibis in North Point, the kids asked, “Are we really staying here for eight nights?” Valid question. To say that the room was small would be an understatement. If I brought my giant pink luggage, I would have had to sleep on top of it. It was hard to move without bumping into someone—even with our arrangement of two adults and two kids in each room. But we managed. Bags were stowed above the safe, dirty clothes were piled high on the window sill and purchases were stashed under the bed. After a few days, you get used to the lack of space. Strangely, you will even start to enjoy it. There’s nothing like watching crappy TV while lounging on a small bed with four crazy kids.

2. GET LOST. Especially if you’re an 11-year-old girl. We hurried down the escalator at the MTR’s Mongkok station to catch the train to Central and Janna was the first one to get on. The doors closed before the rest of us could get in. “Go to Central, go to Central,” Jill told her on the two-way radio as the train sped away. We were all laughing until we realised that she had gotten on the wrong train and wasn’t headed to Central. We started asking ourselves, will she realise it and find her way to the right train? What followed was one nerve-wracking hour of searching and waiting. Jill tried to follow her but didn’t find her at the other stations. The MTR personnel tried helping us look for her. When she couldn’t be found, Janna’s mom Madge was soon led to the police station to file a missing person’s report. Janna appeared at the Central station an hour later. “I knew I was going the wrong way because I saw that the train was headed for Disneyland again. I got off and looked for the train back to Hong Kong island.” After a tearful reunion (the tears were mostly Madge’s), Janna was taken to the police station so her file can be closed. Janna, who claims she never felt lost, didn’t seem shaken up at all. “It’s my first time to go to a police station! Cool! I’m gonna blog about this!” she said. It’s an adventure none of us would forget soon.

3. BUY TOO MANY SHOES. Sneaker lovers know that Hong Kong is a great place for buying new kicks. Not only do they have rare designs, you can get them for a good price. We hit the malls and Fa Yuen street (which is sneaker heaven) in search of new pairs. And because of the Easter sales, the finds were even more irresistible. In total, we ended up buying over 15 pairs of shoes—including five pairs of Nike Dunks—pretty crazy for a group of only eight people.

4. GO CRAZY SWIPING your Octopus card at 7-Eleven. We bought Octopus cards on our second day in Hong Kong. Octopus cards are extremely convenient—you can use them for the MTR, the buses, convenience stores—even restaurants. At the end of your trip, you can surrender your Octopus card for a HK$50 refund. But because we had credit left in our cards, we went to 7-Eleven first to use them up before claiming our refund. We bought crazy fizzy candy, sweets with labels we can’t read and countless Mars bars.

5. EAT AT THE SAME PLACE EVERYDAY. After two strange meals in two strange restaurants where we couldn’t read the menu, we decided that when you’re traveling with kids, when it comes to food, safe is the way to go. And so we ate most of our meals at McDonald’s and Cafe de Coral, which serves good Chinese food fast. Mamsy and I especially loved Cafe de Coral. With the numerous choices they have, I can eat there every day and not get tired of it. The roast duck with rice, roast pork with rice and Shanghai-style spare ribs are our top picks.

6. WEAR THE SAME CLOTHES over and over again. When you know you’re headed to a place where shopping is inevitable, you try to pack light so you can leave luggage space for your purchases. I only had two pairs of jeans, nine shirts and three hoodies for our nine-day trip and I don’t regret it because that meant I had enough space in my bags to go home with two new pairs of pants, three pairs of shoes, one bag and other great Hong Kong finds.

7. TRAVEL ALL THE WAY to Sha Tin for Snoopy’s World. So what if it was 14 MTR stops away from our hotel? Snoopy’s World in Sha Tin is only the second of its kind in the world and so we thought we’d make the long trip. And while we realised that Snoopy’s World is little more than a glorified playground with giant statues of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Woodstock, we didn’t mind. The kids loved it—even if some playground klutz elbowed Jaggy’s eye and Budang and Ito had to sit for timeout. The adults didn’t mind either—Snoopy’s World is located inside New Town Plaza, a huge mall that was also home to branches of Muji and Ben and Jerry’s and a great Adidas sale. It proved something I’ve long believed—that there is great shopping in every single corner of Hong Kong.

8. BRING FOUR KIDS to Mongkok’s Ladies’ Market. The night market isn’t really a place for kids—not with the chaos and the narrow alleys and the countless little things they might pick up and drop or accidentally hit. But we survived unscathed and loaded with more finds—jackets for the little ones and scarves, socks and bags for the adults in the group.

9. HOARD KINDER SURPRISE EGGS. Kinder Eggs are this generation’s Cracker Jacks—or fine, Cheezels and Chickadees. Each hollow chocolate egg contains a surprise toy inside—everything from mini mouse traps, waving queens and swinging birds to ugly baby firefighters, puzzles and SpongeBob characters. For adults, the chocolate egg is as much of a treat as the toy—because it’s made by the same people who churn out the exquisite Ferrero Rocher. During the entire trip, the kids managed to collect 20 boxes of Kinder Surprise—that’s 60 eggs in all.

10. ACT LIKE A KID. The rules say act your age. But not when you are at Ocean Park and Hong Kong Disneyland. The dolphin show, the colorful clowns, the encounter with Stitch, the Disney parade, the caramel popcorn, the cotton candy and Space Mountain—they all make you feel like you are eight again. It’s true—you’re never too old for theme park fun.

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