Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 9

Thanks for following my blog so far. I promise you this will be the last in this series :D

As I'd mentioned earlier, Macau is famous for its Casinos. Gambling is legal in this small town and it is a big business out here.

Our hotel had a lot of casinos on the ground floor and I wanted to try my luck in at least 1 game. I felt like I was part of the Hangover movie where Alan and his wolfpack dress up and try their luck at gambling. I was unsure about any of the games and I wanted to bet very little. There was one Roulade table with a Min $50 bet and I decided this is where I would try my fortune. I dug into my wallet and noticed I had no change for 100$. I tried telling the guy I would bet for $50 and if he could give me change (I know you are laughing at this), but he didnt seem to understand. He bet all my $100 and I lost the entire thing. Just like that. I tried another kiosk and lost some more money. I left the Casino after that. The gambling life was not for me.

   

We visited some of the shops inside the hotel and called it a night.

The next day we were up early and went down for breakfast. The spread was huge and there was lots of vegetarian dishes, most of them Indian. After breakfast we went back to the room to finish our final packing. We had to check out at 11 but we could keep our bags at the concierge till we left. Check out experience was just the opposite of Check in. It took just a few seconds. You just need to leave the room and slide the key cards into the Express check in drop boxes situated on each floor. And that's it. No need to meet any hotel staff.

We explored more shops and my mother took a ride on the gondola. On principle, I refused to join her. I have already taken a ride on an actual gondola in Venice. So I didn't want to do this fake ride. But my mom had fun.

It was 12.30pm and time to leave the hotel. We collected our bags and rushed to the shuttle bus which took us to the Taipa Ferry station from where we boarded our ferry back to Hongkong International Airport. It was very convenient that we could check in one bag each at the ferry station (at the Cathay Pacific counter) itself and this would go all the way to our final destination in India. So there was no hassle of collecting our luggage at HKIA and checking them again at the airport. But the limit is 1 bag per person. I wanted to check in both my bags so I had to check in one bag at the ferry point at Macau and one at HKIA.

Since we were done with immigration formality at Macau, we didn't need to go through it again at HKIA.

The ferry dropped us directly at HKIA where we collected our tax refund and boarded a train within the premise which took us to our terminal from where we would be boarding the flight.


Free of our bags we shopped a bit at the Duty free shops and ate our final meal there. It was time to bid adieu. It had been a wonderful trip!

Click here for the beginning of the blog series: HK and Macau Trip - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 8

The day had finally arrived when we had to say goodbye to Hongkong. For even though we were going to come back to Hongkong International Airport (HKIA) the next day this would be the last we would be on HK soil.
We had had so much fun and we knew were going to miss it a lot.
I had not booked the ferry tickets (onward journey) to Macau since I didn't want us to hurry or miss the ferry. We just decided to get the tickets at the counter.
Check out at Holiday Inn was a breeze since we had already started the procedure the previous day. We hailed a taxi and left for China Ferry terminal where we would take the ferry to Macau. There are 2 primary Ferry operators that sail between HK and Macau - TurboJet and Cotai Ferry. I had already booked the return with Cotai so I thought it would be nice to sail with Turbo one way.

There is not a huge difference between the two except that the Cotai is probably a little more plusher than Turbo.

The one thing we found a bit tough was to lug around our heavy suitcases at least to and from the ferry point. There were no trolleys at the China Ferry terminal and even though all our bags came with wheels it still proved to be a bit of a challenge. But luckily there was an option to pay and get our luggages checked in which we did. We got our tickets and proceeded towards immigration. Once cleared we boarded the Turbo ferry to reach a new destination - Macau.

The journey was roughly an hour long and we reached the Ferry station at Macau and collected our bags. We were going to be staying at the Venetian hotel and we knew that there would be free shuttle buses taking us there. With great effort we lugged our bags to the shuttle bus (via a subway) and boarded it.

For those who are unaware, Macau is a resort city which is peppered with Casinos and luxury hotels. It was once ruled by the Portuguese until the late 1990's and you can see the remnants of the Portuguese rule by looking at the architecture of all the buildings around the city.
Unlike Hongkong (which was a British colony until the late 90's), people of Macau are not very comfortable with English. Most can't speak it. They have a separate currency - Macanese Pataca distinct from Hongkong but mercifully they also accept HKD everywhere.

We reached the Magnificent Venetian hotel which was HUGE. It has many casinos and shops within it and it is no surprise that the Venetian features as a tourist attraction in itself. In fact left to my mom, we'd have spent our entire stay at Macau within the hotel. Which wouldn't have been a bad idea except I wanted to venture out at least for a short time.

Coming back to the hotel, however much the hotel is gorgeous and fancy, the check in process sucks big time. It is painfully slow and leaves everyone impatient and angry.Even though there are multiple check in counters the process is still slow any time of the day. We joined a long queue which snaked its way slowly. It took us more than 1.5 hours to finally reach a check in counter and by this time we were tired, angry and totally vexed with the hotel. But once we got inside our room, all our anger evaporated. The room was what dreams are made of. And the bathroom was uber luxurious. And this after staying the last few days in a much smaller and less luxurious room !

My mother was dying to eat something Indian and we ordered Dal chawal and rotis via room service and the way they served the food was akin to a star hotel.
We were in heaven.

As we had less than 24 hours to explore Macau and it was already evening, we could not venture out much. We had to pick one place to visit and we decided to visit Senado square - a historical place where once important meetings, flea markets and large events were hosted. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It was a captivating place with Portuguese style buildings all around.

We looked around, saw some nice shops (things are cheaper in Macau than HK) but  didn't want to buy too much.
We got back to the hotel for the big night - we were ready to hit the casinos.  Click this link to read the final part of the blog.

Here is the link to Part 1 of the blog series: HK and Macau - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 7

Day 5 of our trip. Today we were going to visit the Lantau Island and Tian Tan Buddha.

Tian Tan Buddha, also known as the Big Buddha, is a large bronze statue of Buddha Shakyamuni, completed in 1993, and located at Ngong Ping, Lantau Island. The statue itself is 34 metres tall and you have to climb 268 steps to reach the top.

It was going to be long journey and I relied completely (as always) on google maps to take us there. We took trains on two connecting lines and got off at Tung Chung station. From there we took a bus that took us to Ngong Ping. It was a loooooooong bus ride as Ngong Ping is quite far away from Tung Chung. We were glad that we had loaded up our Octopus cards well as the cost of the bus ride was relatively high probably due to the distance. Usually cable cars would take you there but that option was not possible as the annual maintenance of cable cars was in progress. We were already aware of this fact and were not hugely disappointed.

The Buddha looked magnificent and took our breaths away. It was a very windy day and we walked up the 268 steps to reach the top. Once up we felt a different sense of calm and peace which was truly magical and no photo can capture that feeling.

Before going up the flight of steps, we had to necessarily buy meal tickets in order to visit the floors beneath the statue where a Relic (or alleged cremated remains) of Buddha Himself is showcased. We saw the Relic but I could not make out what part of his created remains was there - nothing was mentioned either. I suppose it would be pretty macabre to mention it. No pictures were allowed there.
We were there at the top for a while and then came down the same stairs to visit the Monastry's restaurant for which we had bought meal tickets. The restaurant is strictly vegetarian and signboards outside warn people to not bring anything other than vegetarian food to the open dining area. The food was good but quite a lot for the two of us. That didn't stop us from eating desserts from the Dessert bar outside - black sesame cake and mango pudding - both of which were fantastic.

Then we finished our tour by exploring Po Lin Monastry and the Hall of the thousand Buddhas. We did a couple of Buddhist rituals (which were uncannily similar to Hindu ones), like lighting incense sticks and offering it to Him and bathing a statue of Buddha with water.

For those who want to know if it's feasible to club Disneyland and TianTanBuddha on the same day because both are located on the Lantau Island -  my personal advice would be 'Dont try it'. . Even if you were to spend just a few hours at Disney (like we did) and proceed towards Tian Tan it doesn't make sense as it takes a long time to reach the place and the place closes to public by 1730. It makes no sense to squeeze both these attractions on the same day.

Completely satisfied with how the day turned out we took the long ride back to Kowloon. We still had some free passes via BigBus for the Ferry ride along the Harbour and we decided to do it today as we were leaving for Macau the next day. We got off at Star Ferry Pier and spotted a BigBus volunteer who ushered us to the Harbour Ferry entrance. We were just in time for the last ride of the day!
It was windy and cloudy day but we still managed to get some good views from our ferry. The cabin itself was quite nicely furnished like an old colonial club but the real deal was to get out and stand on the deck to enjoy the cool wind and magnificent views.

We had a big task at hand now - Packing! We were leaving for Macau the next day and we had to pack all the stuff we'd bought inside our suitcases - a difficult task indeed.  Click this link to read Part 8

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau trip - Part 1

HongKong and Macau weeklong trip Part 6

Another new day at Hongkong. Today we were going to visit Peaktram at the heart of the Island.
The tram is a furnicular railway that takes you from the Peaktram station to the mid and upper levels of the island.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that Peaktram is probably one of the biggest tourist attraction - otherwise there would not be this mile long queue for it.  Literally everytime you go that side you see long queues waiting to get tickets for it. You can get the tickets online here: Peak Tram tickets. Luckily for us we had free passes from BigBus so this allowed us to join the queue waiting for the tram straightaway.

You are not exactly packed into the tram but you may or may not find seats. Thankfully we did. It's a short trip anyway but it goes up a slope and you could lose balance if you are not holding onto something. Plus it's quite inconvenient to take pictures that way.

The only interesting thing about the Peaktram journey (for me, atleast) was that because we were going up a steep slope, we could see all the tall buildings outside in an almost 45 degree angle. It almost makes you wonder if our mind's playing tricks.

But that was all there was to it. I expected it to be a long journey but it was cut short and we ended up in this touristy peak tower at the top with more souvenir shops and other attractions like Madame Tussauds, Skyterrace etc.

We spent some time up the tower, and then took the tram back down. 

Once back down, I was eager to visit a vegan restaurant  I had earlier googled back in India which served Dimsums and tea. The Lockcha Tea house is located quite close to the Peak station inside a pretty huge Botanical park. We had to rely on Googlemaps to guide us to this place. Lockcha teahouse

It turned out to be this exquisite place with very polite waiters giving you the royal treatment. Since we had not reserved our table (I didn't think it would be such a big deal), we were seated in a corner and provided with our own customized menu card which we had to just circle what we needed with a pencil. As the name goes, LockCha is primarily a tea house. Therefore Tea is mandatory. If you do not want tea you would still be charged for it. So I ordered a King Chrysanthemum tea for myself. My mother, being allergic to tea, was OK to just pay for tea but not get anything. They gave us a bottle of water instead (The most expensive water we had bought in HK :) )

The tea was great but I just absolutely LOVED the dimsums. I was eating the most authentic Chinese dimsums without worrying about whether they contained eggs or meat. 

That's me handling the chop sticks like a pro ;)

 After a hearty meal (my mother wasn't as much impressed as me with the food though she did like one of the dishes) , we headed back to the Peak station to take the next trip atop the Bigbus. This time we took a bus towards the western side of the Island. We got off at Queen's road central and proceeded to take the famous mid level escalators. The Central–Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system in Hong Kong is the longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world. It bisects at several streets where you can get off at anytime.

To be honest we had no agenda there except to see what the escalator was all about. We got off at one of the streets and looked around to see shops everywhere but the area looked sort of dirty and the shops didn't appeal to us although we probably covered very little of the area. We wanted to get back but finding a ride proved to be hugely difficult for some reason. Finally we decided to take a cab and just get back to the more familiar Central Pier. I was a bit disappointed at wasting a whole lot of time for this mid level escalator sojourn and my mother was tired. We hadn't yet explored the north eastern part of the Island! So we took our final Bigbus on the Red route which took us along Golden Bahinia square, and Wan Chai before getting off at Causeway. Causeway Bay was a lot more crowded than any other part of the city. Malls were packed and people were literally queuing up outside shops. There was a sale going on in the Michael Kors store in SoHo and you'd think they were giving free MichaelKor bags. I haven't seen this kind of crowd in the malls anywhere, even in India and believe me it can get very crowded in India. 

We just walked away from the crowd and looked around a few independent electronic stores before deciding to head back to our hotel.

By the time we reached our hotel, my mom was super tired. It was only 6 in the evening but she was totally beat and said she was going to bed without dinner. I let her sleep and went to the MTR station wondering where to go. I finally decided to go to the famous Night market on Temple street in an area which was called "Jordan". The night market is similar to ladies market and you get great bargains. I picked up some more knick knacks and bags here. 

I got back to the hotel to find my mom still asleep, ate some dinner and googled a bit about the Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island. For that is where we were headed next day.  Click here to read Part 7

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau trip - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 5

This blog is becoming longer than what I had hoped it would. But I wanted to write down as much as possible so that years later I could come back to this and recall some of these moments wistfully. Plus a little extra detail never hurts:)

On Day 3 of our trip, we set out to make use of our 48 hour Bigbus Pass. We took a local bus to the Star ferry (we could have walked, but we wanted to take a ride on the local bus and it was just 1 stop) and took a ferry across to Hongkong Island. Big bus had provided free passes for the local ferry (both onward and return for 2 days) so we didn't need to buy the tickets.

It was a quick ride across and we reached the Island fairly quickly. One thing that I do need to mention about local transportation - be it MTR or ferry... you need to walk a lot.... A LOT! inside the stations I mean. There are travelators in some stations but despite that you still need to walk. This was OK for both of us, but at times it would get tiring for my mother. Especially after a long day or at places where we needed to walk up long flight of steps where there were no escalators. No wonder the Chinese look fit and healthy. They don't need any additional exercise.

Once we reached the Central Pier, we quickly spotted a BigBus and walked over. We had planned to take the Red Route today which would take us around the Island. But we changed plans when we learnt that we'd have to wait for half an hour for a bus going along that route. There was one going to Stanley/ Aberdeen (Green Route) which was starting immediately and so we hopped on to it.

The Green route bus took us through Aberdeen, Oceans park, Repulse Bay and we got a fantastic view of the South China sea from the top of the bus (unfortunately none of the photos I took of this view justify the beauty so I am not attaching any). We finally got off at Stanley where we hit the famous Stanley market. The first couple of days had been nice and sunny but it had started to get very cloudy on this day and it was constantly drizzling. Thankfully Bigbus was prepared for this eventuality and provided us all with light hooded raincoats. I had brought my own windcheater but my mother's umbrella proved to be difficult to use what with the winds blowing quite strong. The raincoat helped.

Stanley market was unlike the Ladies market at Kowloon in that it was definitely a lot cleaner and more upmarket. Also there were a lot of Art work being sold here which was beautiful.

We bought some bags and souvenirs from Stanley Market, ate our lunch and waited for the next BigBus to take us back. There were several local buses that we could have taken but we wanted to finish the Green Tour as it would take us to our next  ride - on the Sampan (a traditional Chinese fishing boat).

BigBus provided us free passes for the Sampan ride and we got off at Aberdeen to experience it. The Sampan is a traditional Chinese fishing boat and we had an old Chinese fisherwoman taking up the oars. It was decorated with gaudy plastic flowers and traditional Chinese lamps. We went past a traditional looking building right in the middle of the sea and we were told that it is the Jumbo floating restaurant. However we only admired it from outside as the boat didn't make a stop there.

After the ride, we hopped right back onto the bus which took us to Central Pier. At Central Pier there is this huge Ferris Wheel which gives one a spectacular view of the city. And the good thing is that each group gets their own cabin. So we bought our tickets (At 100HKD per ticket, the price was a bit steep which explained the thin crowd).  More than me my mother enjoyed the ride, and we had a spectacular view from up the wheel of all the skyscrapers built on both sides of the bay. 

 Click here to read Part 6

And for those who want to read the blog from the start, here's the link: HK and Macau trip - Part 1

HongKong and Macau weeklong trip Part 4

If you want to experience the best of Hongkong and understand it's culture and history, there's no better way than signing up and taking a ride on the iconic BigBus. I can vouch for it. The bright red double decker open top buses give you a joyride around the city and cover pretty much all the important points in the Island as well as Kowloon (Does not cover Lantau Island though). This is especially useful for those who are on a short trip to HK.
I had already shared the link to BigBus, but here it is again: BigBus Tours HongKong

The BigBus covers 3 Routes - Kowloon, Hongkong Island and Stanley & Aberdeen. We took up a Deluxe 48 hour package which included a Night tour of Kowloon as well. This included a complete tour across routes and also had provided us with free passes for Peaktram (or Sky100), Harbour tour and a Sampan ride. It cost us 69 USD per person and worth every penny.
The thing about BigBus is that you can hop on and hop off at any point wherever and whenever. When you buy the tickets online it is valid for anytime in the next 6 months, but once you "activate it", you need to use it within the next 48 hours. But the free ride passes like the Harbour tour need not be used within the 48 hours.

After getting back to the hotel from Disney, we freshened up and then set out once again towards the Peninsula office block (which is where the Kowloon Night tour kickstarts). It took us a while to find out the exact place where the Bigbus was located, but once we reached, we identified a bigbus volunteer who activated our tickets and gave us all the necessary passes.

We gleefully got to the top of the bus (which was open top), and settled down to marvel at the Night scenes of Kowloon. It took us through the heart of Kowloon, through Tsim sha tsui, Jordan, and Mongkok. We were able to understand the history of these places by tuning into the pre recorded audio guide via earphones provided by the bus.

The tour was for an hour and we got back and took a cab on the same route - but this time we were headed to the Ladies Market in Kowloon. The market is open until midnight with streetside shops selling bags, shoes, clothes, electronic items, souvenirs and pretty much everything else.
You can bargain heavily at these places and the shopkeepers themselves expect this.

We picked up some stuff, mostly gifts, ate at a local restaurant there and got back to the hotel. The next day we were going to the Island.  Click here to read Part 5

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau weeklong trip Part 3

After a relaxed first day (or rather half a day) which we spent just checking into the hotel and walking around nearby areas, we were ready to explore further. Today we were going to Disneyland. You might wonder why two grown adults would find Disney exciting. But Disney is Disney. We just needed to experience it having come this far.

We woke up later than when we'd have preferred and walked into the breakfast buffet lounge at around 10 in the morning. The spread was elaborate but we were a bit cautious about identifying vegetarian food. To our surprise there were even a couple of Indian dishes (idly and sambar was available pretty much everyday. Sometimes there'd be poori chhole, sometimes rotis). I was not really keen on eating Indian in HK so I filled my plate with fruit muesli, brown breads, fruits, yogurts, veg sushi, tofu and various other veg offerings. My mom loved the spread as well and we ate to our heart's content. We needed all that nutrition because we would be expending all our energy.

Around 11 we left the hotel and headed towards the closest MTR station (East Tsim sha tsui) and took two trains that took us to Sunnybay on Lantau Island. From there we switched to the Disney line and reached Disney around noon. We had already got our tickets online which they just scanned (from phone) and let us in.

Disneyland in HK is a much smaller version of the original Disney in the USA. Not that I have been to the one in US, but this is what I have read and I can confirm that this one is quite small.
We did have a good time going around the place though we didn't wait for the parade. We went on a ferry ride (where we saw these realistic looking animals lurking around) and to Tarzan's tree house which were both probably the highlights for us.

Lunch at Disney was just a cheese filled croissant which was seriously yummy. Not much choice for vegetarians at Disney but we were happy with this.

We were ready to leave Disney before the clock turned 4. Once again we took the same route back home (taking 3 trains including the Disney line) and reached the hotel.

Next on the agenda was to activate Big Bus tour. All that and more in the next part.  Click here to read Part 4

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau Trip - Part 1

HongKong and Macau Weeklong trip Part 2

It might make some people wonder why we chose to do a weeklong trip. I mean what is there in HongKong and Macau to do for one whole week? But as we discovered, even a week was a pretty tight squeeze. We would have been happier with 2 additional days - 1 to do a complete tour of Ocean park and another extra day at Macau, because we spent less than 24 hours at Macau in this trip. It all depends on how you plan your trip of course and it is definitely possible to cover everything we did in 5 days. We were taking things a bit relaxed mostly for my mother, but also because we were using public transportation almost 95% of the time and this meant a lot of walking and sometimes trying to figure out the locations as even google maps confuse at times.

Our flight was around 2.15 in the morning (It was delayed by about half an hour). We landed at about 10 in the morning (local time). Immigration and Visa stamping were a breeze and we were finally in Hongkong! After collecting our bags, we went over to the Airport express counter. The Airport express is a super fast train that takes one from the airport to certain points within the city. At these points, there are free shuttle buses that take you to various listed hotels. I had already made my research in advance and the hotel we had booked was listed.

Link to understand the Airport express better: http://www.hongkong.net/transportation/to-from-airport/airport-express

The Airport express tickets cost us 150 HK$ for 2 of us. We also procured two Octopus cards at the same counter and that was 150 HK$ each. The Octopus cards are useful if you expect to use the public transportation a lot. It can be used to swipe your entry and exit at MRT stations, buses etc. Some stores even accept payments with them.

Coming back to the Airport express, most other tourists around us seemed to prefer to take the taxi and so did my mom but I insisted on this, and later even she agreed that this was a much better and cooler ride. It took us less than half an hour to reach Kowloon station. The view outside gave us our first glimpse of this magnificent city. Once there, we took our free shuttle to the hotel.

 The flip side to reaching early was that we had to wait for a while to check in. We had reached our hotel long before noon and Check in time was at 3pm. So we left our bags at the concierge and wandered outside in search of the vegetarian restaurant we had already planned to visit. It was not easy to find it because although I had already googled the location earlier and thought I knew where it was, being on the ground gave me a reality check. It was a bit confusing with no internet. We finally asked some people and reached the place. It was inside a mall and google did not mention that fact. Besides there were no signboards outside, so that kind of explained our difficulty in finding it.  Once we had had our meal, we walked around to see if there were any stores we could pick up bread for dinner. There are 7-11's pretty much on every street, so it was not difficult to find one. We picked up some bread & spread and walked towards the hotel.

Our hotel room was very compact but comfortable. The best thing about Holiday Inn is that they provide each room with a smartphone. You can carry this smartphone everywhere you go around HK, and the calls are absolutely free. Yes, international too. But what was even more exciting was that it came with data. A lot of places in HK have free WIFI but when you are stuck somewhere without wifi and you are struggling to navigate, this is a life saver. Also you can quickly google stuff on this wherever you are. I set up a WIFI hotspot and continued to use internet on my own phone. Thank you Holiday Inn for this handy device. It was such a blessing!

The hugely helpful handyphone

We slept for a bit after check in and later in the evening decided to walk around and explore the Tsim sha tsui area. We wanted to visit Avenue of stars but it was closed for the season, and ended up visiting Garden of stars. It is just an elevated footpath with paintings of celebs splashed across the walls, but the view of the HK skyline from here is breathtaking. Especially at night time.

Our dinner from 7-11

Exhausted from the flight and lack of sleep inflight, we called it a day and went to bed. Next day we were going to Disneyland!!  Click this link to read Part 3

Here is the link to the start of the blog: HK and Macau trip - Part 1

Hongkong and Macau Weeklong trip. Part 1

Author's note: If you are from India and looking to travel to Hongkong and Macau on vacation, this blog series might give you a general overview of both these places, things to plan before the trip (to make your stay smoother) and important places to visit. This below is Part 1 of the series. Read on:

Last week my mom and I travelled to Hongkong and Macau. We had discussed visiting Hongkong some two years back, but the plan got dropped and then we never brought it up until about a month back. This time we decided we will just make it work. My mother generally prefers taking a package tour with one of these travel agencies like SOTC, Thomas Cook etc, but I for one am more comfortable doing my own research and customizing the trip my own way. She was game to trust me and drop the idea of a packaged tour even if it meant trying to hunt for vegetarian meals (which would have been provided for in a packaged tour) and opting for public transport most of the times as opposed to the pick up and drop coach transportation.

We didn't have much time planning since we went pretty much as soon as we'd decided to go. But Google  is such a blessing and it made every single thing easy. I was able to plan a rough itinerary and book for most of the tours within HK right before we left. Which is good, because things are cheaper online than if you want to buy them from the counter. Here I must also thank a couple of my friends I took some tips from as well, in terms of what to cover and what to leave out.

As Indian Nationals we don't need to apply for a Visa, although you do need to submit a rather long Pre-arrival form which, if it gets approved by the authorities, would enable you to travel and make you eligible for an On-arrival Visa from HK Immigration authorities. This link gives all the information: http://www.immd.gov.hk/eng/services/visas/pre-arrival_registration_for_indian_nationals.html

The next thing I did was to book the hotels, flights and some of the tours within Hongkong. I was careful to book refundable tickets even if at a higher cost, because for some reason I was uncertain
whether this trip would happen or not. So I kept my options open.
I was very particular that we fly Cathay Pacific as it would mean an uninterrupted flight without any layovers anywhere. As for the hotel, Google maps helped me in finding the right one. I wanted something very close to an MTR station (Mass Transit Railway - their local metro), as well as an Indian Vegetarian restaurant (so that my mother feels at home.) We booked our room at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile hotel in Tsim Tsha shui area. The location was fantastic, because it was at the tip of Kowloon and walking distance to an MTR Station, shopping districts, Star ferry to take you to the Island and of course the Indian Vegetarian restaurant, which by the way, we ended up eating at just once - on the first day of our visit.

Here are the list of things I booked for in advance, before we made the trip:

- Flights (To and fro) with Cathay Pacific (You get some tax refund on your return. Yay!).

- Travel Insurance: You can do your research and see what suits your needs best. I chose to sign up with ICICI Lombard for our travel insurance: ICICI Lombard

- Hotels (Holiday Inn Golden mile at HK and The Venetian at Macau). I booked via Expedia and Booking.com respectively.

- Big Bus 48 hour deluxe tour (more on this later. Here's the link: https://www.bigbustours.com/en/hong-kong/48-hour-hong-kong-tour-and-night-tour-ticket/)

-Tickets to Disney Land (https://www.hongkongdisneyland.com/)

- Ferry tickets from Macau to Hongkong International airport for the last day of our tour. We can of course buy these at the counter (which is how we got the onward tickets), but I didn't want to take that risk in case we were told the ferry was full. http://www.cotaiwaterjet.com/index.html

In case you intend to visit the Madame Tussauds at Peak station and Ocean Park, you can get these online too. But we didn't buy them in advance because we decided not to go to Madame Tussaud's and only go to Ocean Park if we had the time. We couldn't go and this was disappointing because Ocean park is huge with so many things to see and experience. Maybe next time.
Also, if we hadn't planned on doing the Big Bus tour, we might have had to buy a couple of additional tickets in advance - like the Peak tram passes and Harbour ferry tour as these come free with BigBus.

The other important place we wanted to visit was the Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island. This did not require us to buy any tickets in advance. The only two things I researched about this was how to get to this place via public transport because it is quite a distance from the mainland, and whether it was feasible to club it with Disneyland because both are on Lantau Island. I will get to all this later.

Having done this quick research and bookings, we were finally ready to leave for Hongkong.   Click here to read further: Part 2