"Hong Kong, several years after the Hand Over"

“HONGKONG – REVISITED”

My wife and I used to celebrate our wedding anniversaries with private dinners together with our daughters. For our 27th wedding anniversary last August 2 last year, however, as early as January 2007, we decided to give ourselves a break and we carefully planned a Hongkong vacation!

Of all places, friends asked, why Hongkong? Personally, I have only one reason for choosing it over say Bangkok or Singapore or Palawan or Boracay. I was in Hongkong in April 1998 before the Hand Over (i.e., before the England turned over Hongkong back to China) and I want to make a comparison of what was Hongkong then and what is it now after the Hand Over.

As the planner in the family, I carefully planned the Hongkong vacation and of course asked for my wife’s opinion and concurrence along the preparation process! We decided that instead of booking for a packaged tour, we would book months ahead for a Cebu Pacific flight to take advantage of its great plane fare discount! We did the booking on-line by logging in cebupacificair.com and paying the fare using my credit card. We got a fairly reaonable plane fare for round trip Manila-Hong-Manila for two at only P 9,678.16.Cheap, is it not? Since we had to pay for the Philippine travel tax of P1,620.00 each and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport terminal fee of P750.00 each, we spent only P14,418.16 for plane fare! Imagine, it was a lot cheaper compared to other airlines and other destinations!

The next thing I did was to goggle search for affordable clean hotels in Hongkong again using the internet. I was able to compare the hotel rates until I decided to book on-line and pay the 10% down payment again using my credit card. I paid the balance in cash when we checked-in.

I reasoned out that since we do not intend to stay in our hotel room most of the time but rather we intend to be outdoor on sightseeing, we would choose a budget hostel rather than a fancy hotel. We finally chose the Dragon Hostel located in downtown Mongkok, Kowloon side, with only the ratings made by previous occupants as basis. Our room was only P800.00 per person per day for Thursday and Friday and P900.00 per person per day for saturday!

Finally, I applied for an official leave from my office for August 2 and 3 since we had chosen our vacation to be from August 2 till August 5.Having made all the necessary preparatory activities, we were confident that we were ready to take our flight at 8:00 a.m. last August 2!

Nagmamahal,

Edgar Sandalo