Travel: Shenzhen & Hong Kong

End of November this year, my family off to an oriental vacation except my husband & brother who cant make it as they have to cope up with work and school.

This trip have been planned a way ahead with a service by a tourist agent. Which by my advice you do not need them after you read this. Hope this is helpful enough. (K pasti dalam hati sure fikir susah makan susah nak berconversation- yes that is what we thought!)

Ok as per informed the schedule flight should be on 22th November 2012 at 7pm by Cathay Pacific. Unfortunately the agent reschedule it on 23th November 2012 and the flight is on 10am and we were informed only on 21th November 2012 at 9pm! Reason being is because we going to arrive in Hong Kong midnight and they did not have any hotel for us which will make us sleep over at airport. (Memang tak boleh diterima akal, we have babies and seniors with us. It should be planned since the itenery was emailed to us a week before the schedule date after being persuaded months before!)

Maka terpaksalah teruskan juga on the next day flight , dah bayarkan nak buat macam mana. Deep in heart I dah start not to love this vacation walaupun tak start journey pun lagi. Kami tahu dah yang this whole day memang meant for the journey sahaja. Tak ke rugi satu hari dah kan.

Tips #1: If you are travelling with friends (without kids and seniors), you may proceed to have night flight it is the best time. Setakat tidur airport for a few hour nak tunggu subuh ok kot kan? Hong Kong time sama dengan kita so x de la jetlag mana.

23th November 2012:

9:00 am - we gathered at KLIA for check in.

11:00 am - Take off from Malaysia.

2:00 pm - Arrived in Hong Kong airport.

3:00 pm - Solat in Hong Kong airport (Departure hall level 7, lane A: Jalan straight ke belakang lane ada lambang as photos. Ada tanda kiblat ada tempat wuduk, Alhamdulillah but no sejadah/prayer mat and no telekung). For those who need a place for meditation this is the place as well.

4:30 pm - to China by train to Louhu/Lowu, Shenzhen (Train or metro in Hong Kong and China is easy to understand as the information is compact)

6:30 pm - arrive in Shenzhen, China.

Tips #2: You need to prepare a visa in Malaysia if want to visit China.

7:00 pm - To Prince Hotel, which for me a good location. Terletak next to Shangri La hotel. A walking distance from immegration and near to metro intercity and intracity. Yang penting dekat dengan tempat membeli belah Lowu/Louhu. Dan if you planned to go to Guangzhou the 2 hrs bullet train station is located next to the immegration. Opposite the Prince Hotel.

Prince Hotel : It has big room that can accomodate 4-6 people at once (if you bring extra bed or sleeping bag la) and with almost transparent bathroom.

Tilamnya mak aih keras and have a smell of old room. All beverages provided you have to pay NOT FREE.

Tips #3: If you are travelling within this period of the year, please prepare for sweater and socks as they may get colder during the nights.

8:00 pm - Went for dinner at Halal chinese restaurant. It was quite affordable price makan 5 orang nasi dan 3 lauk only cost us around RM70-75. Walking distance from the hotel. From hotel, walk right until you will see a music/CD shop, (you have to cross a road with a traffic light and pass KFC). Turn right on that alley you will see a halal pakistani restaurant and the chinese restaurant is just next to it.

Here you have choice either to eat at the pakistani which is for us quite mahal. Since we are in China we need to taste their buds.

9:30 pm - my family went to Lowu/Louhu shopping centre which located at the immigration as other group are to tired and went back to hotel. I try to find some curtains here, but due to time constraint, we just window shopping.

Window window pun i tertangkap one of my list. My iphone casing. Here boleh tawar kaw kaw miaw punya. Some of them boleh cakap bahasa melayu (mainly bahasa indonesia). Kalau x tau cakap pun tak apa just tekan je calculator. Please go down to something ridiculous price. Harga yang macam tak logic because later dia akan mintak 'best price'. You all naikkan la sikit. Die akan mintak lagi. If it still over your target price. Walk on biar lantak lah dia maki pun. Kedai ni tutup pukul 10:30 pm so plan betul- betul la yer. Memang by 11 pm tu dah banyak kedai tutup.

Tips #4 - Lowu/ Louhu shopping centre is the best place to by phone accesories and electrical or immitation bag yang gred yang terbaik itu yang kami nampaklah. Bag die siap ada dust bag and paper bag lagi. So now kene berhati-hati dengan online shopping yer puan-puan. Tapi masih ada unbrand bag yang design die pun cantik-cantik. Power bank kat sini yg 11000mA tu boleh dapat as cheap as RM40.

24th November 2012

9:00 pm - after breakfast (makan masak sendiri kat bilik) kami berkumpul dan bergerak ke Dongman Market. Untuk apa lagi shopping ler. Naik taxi tapi sebenarnya boleh naik metro yang dekat dengan Shangri La tu ke Dongman.

Tips #5 - Bawak international socket. Suis mereka dua point je.

9:45 pm - Sampai Dongman, kat sini banyak pakaian kasut dan toys. Nak yang kedai kecil kecil pun boleh nak yang dalam kedai shopping mall pun ok. Kat sini die kurang nak tawar kaw-kaw. Tapi lebih banyak choice berbanding Lowu/Louhu. Kalau saya personnally prefer Louhu. Apa-apa pun depends apa yang kita nak beli. Paling menyedihkanlah kan kalau size yang konon-konon small ni kat China dah kira besar dah. Baju beli hari ni try kat rumah dah koyak. So quality mmg hampeh la sikit. Kene pandai cari.

2:00 pm - Makan wantan mee halal yang satu pengalaman yang menarik. Ia terletak berhampiran metro dan dekat dengan panggung wayang. Dekat kedai nike.

Tips #6 - Boleh beli sim card kat sini RM40 data plan utk 3 hari. Tapi kat sini x boleh Facebook yer.. Keep on instagram je la yer. Atau pun simpan gambar toilet, and lambang halal. Restaurant atau tempat yang penting la. Sebab kalau cakap toilet bathroom tunjuk sign languange pun diorang x faham.

Tips #7 - bawa botol air kosong untuk kegunaan apabila diperlukan.

4:00 pm - kami rush balik hotel because nak solat. It was raining so lepak hotel and masak kat hotel jer.

Tips #8 - bawak aspirin dari Malaysia sebab kat sana x berapa berkesan.

25th November 2012

9:00 pm - we all gather for worlds of wonders. Salah satu attraction kat sini. Boleh la bawa bekal kat sini.

1:00 pm - kami solat di sebuah cafe di antartic.

7:30 pm - persembahan di worlds of wonders yang memang comform x paham. Tapi tengok je lah dah bayar

8:00 pm - balik dan pg dinner kat tempat hari tu.

26 November 2012

6:00 am - Gathered untuk pegi ke station Louhu  ke Hong Kong

7:00 am - Immegration checking and off by train to Tsin Tsat Shun. Our tour guide bought us a day pass.

11:00 am - Arrived in Chung King Hotel, Hong Kong (Recommended; clean, cheap, location & wifi)

12:00 pm - To Hong Kong Disneyland.
                   Mesti terfikir mana nak sembahyang kat Disneyland kan? Sila pergi ke Disnyeland City Hall and ask the service for prayer room. Kat situ boleh solat but not provide sejadah atau pun telekung.
                    Makanan Halal di Hong Kong Disneyland ialah di Tahitian Terrance dekat adventure land.

Tips #9: Kalau nak bawak makanan extra dari luar sorokkan dalam baju. Bag akan dicheck dan makanan luar x dibenarkan masuk.

Tip #10: Pegi Disneyland weekday instead of weekend dan bukan time hujan macam time kami pegi. Pegi lambat sikit around December is ok sebab bile hujan keadaan tersangat sejuk so x tahan sangat. Banyak x dapat main.

6:00 pm - Going back to Hotel.

9:00 pm - We went to Ladies Market. (Nothing cheap compared to Shenzhen. but kalau nak cari keychain t-shirt sini kat sini jer la yang ada)

Tips #11: Diingatkan bahawa Ladies Market ni tutup pkul 11mlm hari biasa. We were informed that it open till late night mcm downtown/uptown kat Malaysia. tapi bukan on weekdays night. so x sempat nak belek2 sangat sebab banyak kedai tgh mengemas.

Tips #12: Metro time until pkul 12 mlm. tapi to be safe 11:30pm tu kami dah gerak balik hotel. Nak naik taxi mahal.

Tips #13: Makanan halal (mostly pakistani food) bersepah-sepah di Hong Kong ni. So x menjadi masalah.

27 November 2012

8:30 am - berkumpul untuk pulang

11:00 am - Flight to Kuala Lumpur