Hong Kong: Day 1 Part 2 Post 3

3:oo PM. The Peak Tram is few minutes walk from St. John's Cathedral. On our way to the Peak Tram Lower Terminus, we saw many people walking to and from the Peak Tram station. The queue for the ticket counter was quite long. I was really excited! For the first time, I really felt like a tourist! Anyways, when I was waiting in line, I cannot help but notice some things. :)

line at the Peak Tram Station

1. I noticed that Koreans, who were totally made up and made us look like shit (fashionwise that is), love to go to Victoria Peak. Lots of them were queueing up for the Tram tickets.

2. The Yakult in Hong Kong (and Bangkok) are much bigger than our Yakult here in the Philippines. :)

Concession stand beside the Tram Ticket counter

3. You'll save time if you buy THE package (roundtrip tram ticket and entrance to Madame Tussauds, around HKD40+). You will have some sort of special line and the line is usually shorter than the queue for buying the tram ticket.

The tram could get really crowded and the 7 minutes ride up the Victoria Peak is quite steep, so make sure you get to grab a seat.

See what I mean?

I am glad I got to get a seat. I promised myself I'll get a seat on our way down cuz it would be diffcult to stand. Btw, I have read that the Peak Tram has been operating for 120 years and not a single case of accident!! :)

For Single Journey tickets:
HK$ 22 (adult) and HK$ 8 (8 to 12 y/o)
For Return ticket or what we would like to call Rountrip ticket:
HK$ 33 (adult) and HK$ 15 (8 to 12 y/o)

We decided to buy the Return ticket. We don't want to be stuck again in the long line for the tickets on our way down. But there are other ways to go down Victoria Peak, like bus, taxi, or just walk...looong walk.

Victoria Peak. Anyways, once we got off the Peak Tram, the exit lead us to the Peak Tower. There were many shops selling souvenirs, clothes, shoes, jewellries, etc. and restaurants, like Bubba Gump, Burger King, coffee and gelato shops, and juice bar. We saw these souvenir t-shirts and we made a mistake of not buying them. We figured we will be going to the night markets and we might as well buy the souvenirs there. But the thing is we never made it to the night markets and were not able to find the same shirts with the same quality in terms of the fabric.

Tip: Buy the souvenirs at the Peak Tower cuz the price is the same with the stores around Harbour City but better in terms of the fabric. The keychains and bracelets are far better than the ones you'll find at Kowloon and again - with the same price!

Once we got tired of looking around, we decided to go to the top of Peak Tower. It was kinda tiring to go to the top - the elevators were endless!

Escalator to Sky Gallery and top of Peak Tower

It was really cold at the top. But the view was great. You can see the buildings at Hong Kong Island and Victoria Harbour. :) You can also find the Sky Gallery at the top of Peak Tower. There were beautiful paintings but we didn't really have time to look at them. We were busy having our pictures taken and looking at the buildings at Hong Kong Island. :)

View of Hong Kong Island from Peak Tower

Then, we got tired of taking pictures and not to mention it was really COLD..we couldn't wait to get inside the Peak Tower! Once inside, we continued looking for souvenirs and some clothes at Giordano and this Hello Kitty store. At the ground floor, there were magicians and they were really funny. :) People had a great time watching them.

The magicians were way down there.

Performers at the ground floor

After almost an hour of walking, we got really tired! This time PAGOD na talaga kami. We went to Burger King to have "some drink". But we ended up buying fries and burgers to go with our drinks. Burger King was kinda popular to teens. A lot of teenagers/highschool kids were there. Maybe they were having gimik with friends. :)

We had enough of this Peak thing and we decided to go to Causeway Bay. On our way to the Peak Tram, we had to get out of the Peak Tower. We saw a new building across the door. But it was too cold to look around. I have read that there are gardens, where you can walk, but maybe we can check out that during summer. There is this queue again to the tram terminus. But everything went smoothly. :)

St. John's Cathedral at night

Lippo Centre Tower can be seen from Garden Road. The walls intend to show koalas climbing a tree.

Tram to Causeway Bay from Central

Causeway Bay. I find it really difficult to walk around Causeway Bay without getting lost, especially during the night. It was like a maze of buildings and stores. From Victoria Peak, we walked to Queens Road Central to ride the tram to Causeway Bay. It was around 6pm. The tram was crowded and there were lots of Filipinos. They were speaking Tagalog, so we listened to their conversations. LOL! Anyways, we didn't have any idea where to get off. Fortunately, we overheard that our kababayans were going to Causeway Bay, too!! So, basically, we just followed them. :)

Causeway Bay at night

Causeaway Bay is like tiny New York. Lots of stores, buildings, lights, billboards, and people. It was fun place for shopping. I sound so cliche! The young salespersons (they seem like a local to me) would say, Bili na, ate! Murang mura lang. LOL! We loved the Giordano Store and Sasa. We spent most of our time there. We also went to Wellcome to buy some food. I was looking for toys for my cousins, so we went looking for Toys R Us. I didn't get to buy anything. I was just tired! I really wanted to seat down and my sister was already complaining. We had our dinner at McDonald's. We noticed that the service crews were quite old, too. :)

A little bit spicy for my taste.

Around 10pm, we decided to go back to our hotel. We hopped on a tram to Kennedy Town. Other trams with signs like, Whitty, were going the same way as the Kennedy Town tram. Just to make sure our tram will pass in front of our hotel, we always ride the tram with Kennedy Town sign. Near our hotel, there was a tram traffick jam! The tram in front of us collided with a bus - or it just looked that way. :) We waited for few minutes. There were cops everywhere, some people were getting off the tram and started walking, tram drivers were yelling, and some people, including us, stayed inside the tram and waited. The local woman beside me kept on narrating to me what happened - in Cantonese! Anyways, the tram started moving after 10 or so minutes. :)

The first day was fun yet tiring. But it is still fun! :)

The Peak Tram
Garden Road, Central
Operation is every day, including Sundays and public holidays
7:00 am to 12:00 midnight.
The tram departs every 10 to 15 minutes.
info@thepeak.com.hk

By Foot From MTR Central Station
Take the MTR to Central and make your way to the J2 exit of the Central MTR station. Turn right, through Chater Garden, cross Queen's Road Central and make your way up Garden Road. You will pass the Bank of China Tower and Citibank Plaza on your left and St John's Cathedral on your right before arriving at the terminus, which is to your left.

By Bus
Board the Peak Tram shuttle bus No. 15C at the Central (Pier 7) Bus Terminus.Daily: 10:00am - 11:40pm (from Central (Pier 7) Bus Terminus)Daily: 10:15am - 11:55pm (from Lower Peak Tram Terminus)
Frequency: 15-20 minutesFare: HK$4.00

Hong Kong Island Tram
www.hktramways.com
Fare: HK$2.00 adult / HK$ 1.00
Time: Everyday from 6:00 to 24:00

Call Customer Service Hotline on (852) 2548 7102
Fax to Hotfax on (852) 2118 6038
Email to enquiry@hktramways.com
Write to Whitty Street Tram Depot, Connaught Road West, Hong Kong