Tag Archives: Hong Kong

14 Hours in Hong Kong: Protests, Dim Sum & Giant Buddhas

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by in Asia, China, Hong Kong

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This is post twelve of twelve on our autumn trip to South Korea. Check out the other posts in this series here:

Mrs. Selfish and I left Busan on a flight bound for Hong Kong at 8 in the morning. While there is typically an afternoon flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco, it was completely booked, so we found ourselves with just a little over 14 hours in Hong Kong.

I love Hong Kong, but the city was on high alert over the ongoing battle between democratic protesters and the local government, who had tear-gassed and beaten demonstrators on several occasions. Not a good place to visit with a 6-month pregnant wife.

With that in mind, we decided to check out some of Hong Kong’s other sites, specifically the Tian Tan Buddha, which we had missed seeing on our last 3 trips to Hong Kong.

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Ending our Selfishness in Korea

10 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by in Asia, South Korea

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Ahn-yong haseyo – Mrs. Selfish and I are once again in South Korea! It feels like we haven’t been here in a long time, but when I check the calendar we were just in Seoul 1.5 years ago.

Of course, a lot has happened since then – we visited 14 countries, drove cross country with all of our worldly positions to San Francisco, and generally tried to find a new normal that doesn’t involve packing our bags every few days.

So why are we back in Korea? Many reasons.

For one, Mrs. Selfish and I love Korean food. We’re also interested in exploring South Korea more since we’ve only been to Seoul, and only for 5 days at that. I have a decent idea of what China, Japan, and Taiwan are like, but South Korea is still somewhat of a mystery though.

Here’s the biggest reason though:

Mrs. Selfish is 5 months pregnant!

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Lounge Deathmatch: Turkish Airlines vs. Cathay Pacific

22 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in China, Europe, Hong Kong, Istanbul

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This is the final post out of eleven posts on Istanbul. Check out our other posts here:

Ever since we got into the miles and points game, Mrs. Selfish and I have made it a personal goal to cash in all of our miles and points for experiences we would never pay cash for. Like staying in an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora or flying Lufthansa first class home from Europe.

While these redemptions have been pretty awesome, we usually get the most value for our miles flying international business class. While your average international flight is expensive – international business class is ridiculously expensive.

Like $3000 one way expensive, if you’re doing it right. And while the flights themselves tend to be great, one side benefit of flying business that we rarely talk about here at the Selfish Years is the lounges.

In the States, airline lounges mean free wifi, edible food, a moderately clean bathroom, free(ish) booze, and a room packed to 70% of capacity. Outside of the States, however, it’s a whole other story.

Let me show you by comparing my two favorite business class lounges, the Turkish Airlines flagship lounge in Istanbul and Cathay Pacific’s “The Wing” in Hong Kong.

Decor & Features

Most international business class lounges are pretty similar. They tend to be swankily decorated. There’s free wifi. There’s usually a showering facility filled with amenities like shampoo, lotion, and tooth paste. There are often free magazines, computer stations, and TVs playing movies.

Lounge Deathmatch 001

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Enjoying Afternoon Tea at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong

04 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by in Asia, China, Food & Drinks, Hong Kong

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The last time Mr. Selfish and I were in Hong Kong, we attempted to go to afternoon tea at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong in Kowloon, which is the 2nd tallest hotel in the world. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it because we didn’t have a reservation and it was a Saturday. This time around, we reserved window seats for afternoon tea.

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Hungry and Jetlagged in Hong Kong

03 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by in Asia, China, Food & Drinks, Hong Kong

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Mr. Selfish and I spent only 36 hours in Hong Kong, and it was a whirlwind of food and lights. We ate dim sum twice and had peking duck once since Mr. Selfish was seriously craving both.

Of course, we went back to Tim Ho Wan for the baked pork buns. They are Mr. Selfish’s favorite, and we haven’t found any better in SF lately.

HK Food 01

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36 Hours in Hong Kong: The Intercontinental Hong Kong

02 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Accommodations, Asia, China, IHG

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Mrs. Selfish and I arrived bleary-eyed and jetlagged at the Hong Kong International Airport at 6:30am, from our 11:30pm flight from San Francisco. After hitting the showers and grabbing a cup of coffee in Cathay Pacific’s Arrival lounge we jumped in the closest cab and headed straight to our first stop, the Intercontinental Hong Kong.

Getting there and Check-in

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The Intercontinental Hong Kong is located right off of the Avenue of the Stars and is pretty easy to get to. If you’re low on bags and traveling by yourself, I recommend taking the express train into town and taking a cab from there, which should run you close to $120 HKD total.

If you’re traveling in groups of two or more, a cab is probably more economical (and definitely faster), and should run you closer to $230 HKD ($30 USD). From memory, it took us around 20–25 minutes to get to the  Intercontinental, since there was relatively little traffic around 7:30am.

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The check-in process was smooth and quick, since I had already arranged everything via email ahead of time. We opted to book an award night for 40,000 IHG points a night instead of paying the ~$400 it would have cost. As an Ambassador member, Mrs. Selfish was granted late check-out, and two drink coupons for the bar.

Intercontinental is pretty stingy when it comes to perks, and doesn’t guarantee their Ambassador members much of anything. They are supposed to upgrade members to a better room upon check-in, but in this case we would have been upgraded to a deluxe room with a view of the Sheraton. Instead, we opted to pay to upgrade to a Superior Harbor View room for an additional $1,200 HKD a night (+10% tax), since the harbor view was the whole reason we chose to stay at the Intercontinental. Otherwise I probably would have chosen the Conrad HK, or the JW Marriott again.

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Amazing skyline views of Hong Kong from the lobby.

Impressively, our room was ready at 8 in the morning, so Mrs. Selfish and I headed to our home for the next 36 hours.

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Back on the Road: An Introduction

01 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by in Accommodations, Asia, China, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Japan, Marriott

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Mrs. Selfish and I have been living in San Francisco for the last few months, exploring the city and the Bay Area. Well, “living”, might be more accurate.

While we’re physically in San Francisco, most of our stuff is still in a pod somewhere in Orlando, Florida, so we’re still living out of suitcases. Normally, I’d view this as a disadvantage, but after traveling for a year I’ve become pretty accustomed to the lifestyle. It’s nice to be able to leave and hop on a plane at the drop of a hat.

So it was with much anticipation, that Mrs. Selfish and I started our annual Thanksgiving trip. This year we decided to visit the Maldives, and Okinawa, Japan, stopping by Hong Kong, Fukuoka, and Tokyo along the way. An odd routing, to be sure, but we were in pursuit of an elusive beast.

The whale shark.

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More on this guy, in a few posts.

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Searching for the Best Dim Sum in Hong Kong

11 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Asia, China, Food & Drinks, Searching for the Best . . .

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Mr. Selfish is partial to the dim sum in San Francisco, particularly the baked barbeque pork buns, since he’s had it since he was a kid. Since we were in Hong Kong for five days, we decided to try to find the best dim sum in Hong Kong, or at least some that would rival the baked pork buns from Mr. Selfish’s childhood.

First, we went to Tim Ho Wan, which is one of the few dim sum restaurants in the world with a Michelin star. It wasn’t fancy and the décor was quite lacking but the dim sum was delicious. Mr. Selfish was quite anxious to try their baked barbeque pork buns. Although they were sweet and fluffy with an egg custardy top, the barbeque pork was thick and savory. These baked pork buns are quite different from the ones in San Fran. Mr. Selfish still managed to eat four of them, and I had two. There are three buns in one order, which is a steal at 16 HKD ($2.06 USD) per order.

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Hong Kong Disneyland – Part 2

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by in Asia, China, Disney

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In yesterday’s post, I went over my general impressions of Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD). Today, we’ll go over the specific rides on which me and Mr. Selfish went. One common denominator for all of the rides was the wait times were usually about 5-10 minutes. This is a very short wait time compared to the rides at Orlando parks or even the rides at Disneyland Paris.

We’ll start with the rides that were unlike any other Disney ride. In the area known as Grizzly Gulch, we rode Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. Although the ride has a long title, it was a very enjoyable roller coaster. In fact, it is very similar to Everest in Animal Kingdom, which is one of my favorite rides. Both Big Grizzly Mountain and Everest both contain fuzzy characters that mess with your track and cause you to ride backwards for a bit. Mr. Selfish and I enjoyed this ride so much that we rode it three times – in the front, all the way in the back, and (for posterity) in the middle.

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Hong Kong Disneyland – Part 1

09 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by in Asia, China, Disney

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As I’ve mentioned previously, Mr. Selfish and I intend on visiting all of the Disney parks in the world. We went to Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD), which is a rather new and small Disney park. Opening in 2005, HKD adheres to the rules of feng shui in an attempt to avoid any cultural backlash from the Chinese.

HK Disney 01

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Hopping Around Hong Kong

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Asia, China

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Mr. Selfish and I first visited Hong Kong in 2009 during our “homeland honeymoon.” We saw a lot of the major sights then and decided to take it a bit easier on our second trip there.

Our first full day in Hong Kong had good weather so we chose to go up to Victoria’s Peak even though we had already been in 2009. At 1,811 feet, the Peak is the highest mountain in Hong Kong. We rode the cable car up and down for 75 Hong Kong dollars (~$9 USD) per person.

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