While In Hongkong - Culture Shock

New places, will always come with new story. Starts from the habits of the native people and the culture. Some might be totally different with ours and very unique also. From my short trip to Hongkong and Macau few days ago, I found out some habits and culture that was totally different with mine, there are :

HKIA praying room

• Before we went to this place, we already knew that the challenge for us is to find a place to pray. That is also why we manage to not only stay nearby a mosque, but also to arrange the places we visits so we can stop by at the nearby mosque. All the day trip went well, until we are about to go back to KL and at the airport. My husband almost pray at the emergency exit, but then we find a different kind of sign in front of us. So the picture next to us is the praying room at HKIA. Since it is a praying room, so every religion is welcome here. The room supplied everything we need to pray, Qur'an and Shalah utilities, Bible, and other books that I don't know what it is. This praying room is at Terminal 2, just next to the Pacific Coffee and nearby Disneyland Store. So relief that HK have this place :)

• It is never written that we have to stand at the right side at the escalators or stairs or ways in HK. But that's the practice there, so just left your left side empty. People are always rushing there, they will take the left side to walk faster.

• I found an umbrella dispensers machine at the MTR Station. At the machine, we can find the excellence of buying the umbrella. And what is the most surprising thing for me is that the umbrella is under a warranty. The price for each umbrella is HKD 78. Should really grab one :)  

Cute Umbrella Machine

• Not to forget, Hongkong's street is so small. Actually I kinda like it, very easy to cross the street. Eventhough the streets are small, but the bus using the street are the big buses. Also, since they are using tram as one of they transportation mode, the streets are full with the tram's tracks. Just pay full attention to the traffic light because if you're not, it will be very dangerous. 

• Macau's currency is MOP, but we can use HKD to do transaction in this country. Don't care whether we are at the small shop or at the big department store. Even we can pay our transportation using HKD in this country. They treated the HKD just like they treated their MOP. Only it doesn't work the way around. In Hongkong, no one will receive the MOP to transact. So better finish the MOP before leaving Macau.

Also read here for more stories about Hongkong :

1. Masjid and Halal Food Tour

2. Hongkong Transportation Mode

3. Disneyland Hongkong

While In Hongkong - Transportation Mode

Hongkong surely has a complete and integrated kind of public transportation mode. All of the transportation mode are connected one to another from different point to point. Being a visitors to this country, there will be no such thing of getting lost. Not only because of the transportation, but also because of the complete information is very easy to find. 

Before go deep about the transportation mode, there is one important thing that needed to enjoy the comprehensive transportation, that is the Octopus Card.

Octopus Card

Octopus card is the name of the card that we need to have to travel around Hongkong. Named after the octopus, it describes the function of the card. Can be use for every kind of transportation mode also as a replacement for cash in lots of stores in Hongkong. 

The octopus card actually produced in several type, but for the travellers used, just buy the rent card one. The initial price for this card is HKD 150, contains of HKD 50 deposits and HKD 100 credit. After finished the travelling, we can got the refund for the amount left inside the card and return it, with HKD 9 charge if the time holding for the card is less than 3 months. The refund can be made at the customer services booth at the MTR station. 

If you decided not to have the Octopus card, taking MTR is no problem at all. Simply buy the MTR ticket at the customer service. But problem will occur if you are going to take the bus. The bus will not give you the change, so you must be ready with the exact amount of fare, or just bear the loss from paying more than the fare. 

Transportation Mode
Like I said before, that HK is doing very well in serving public transport not only for the citizen, but also for the visitors. The common public transport used are bus, MTR, taxi, tram and ferry. As the example, I will tell how we decided to choose our transport to get to the hotel from the airport. The airport actually provided all kind of transportation as I mentioned above. 

Airport Express

Airport Express is the express train that will only stop at the Central station and or the airport. Pros of using the airport express is because it is the fastest way to reach the Central station, only 40 minutes. The only problem in using it is, the train will only stop at the Central Station and we need to transfer to the different line to get to our hotel. With a lots of luggages, I strongly not recommend to use this way, because to get to the different line, we need to walk so far. Other than that, the fare for this train also quite expensive, it is around HKD 60  for a single journey. Can check the fare in this link.

Bus Stop..

Public Bus

There are a dozen of public buses that we can choose from the airport. The one with higher fare with less stops, or the one with the lower fare with more stops. The pros of riding the bus is with lots of luggages we do not need to go up and down the bus until we meet our stops, the fare is very cheap, last time it is only HKD 21 per person, and also we can see the city view by riding the bus. The cons is the bus will take about 1 to 1.5 hour to get to the places, but still it depends on the destination. The complete information can be find in this link. 

Taxi

Same with the bus, taxi also a hassle free way for a lot of luggages. The only thing is the taxi driver will count the luggages and put the extra charge HKD 5 to every luggage. The other thing with taxi is, we really need to know the exact address of our destination. Sometimes the taxi driver only know the area but not the exact building that we are looking at, so it will be much better to have the map to the place. 

Ferry

Ferry services from the airport only destined to Macau or Shenzhen (if I am not mistaken), so that is the reason why we do not choose this mode. But we did experiencing the ferry to Macau on the other day, also from a different harbour, called Hongkong Ferry Macau Terminal. The name of the Ferry is Turbo Jet. Will put the details in my Macau trip :) Other than that, the ferry also served us to come across Hongkong Island, Kowloon and the Outlaying Island.  

Tram
Other than all of that transportation above, they still have the tram called the Ding-Ding Tram. The trams journey divided in to West Bound and East Bound Tram. The tram start working on 5 am and will only stop at 12am. Even the rate is also cheap around HKD 2.3 per single journey.

For the recap, to go around Hongkong, we can choose the transportation mode that we want. I have been travelling using the bus, MTR and ferry. But my favourite one is bus, not to tell that I am too lazy to walk so far only to get transferred to the different line, but it is also much  cheaper compare to the MTR. And one main reason, for a traveller I really need to see the city, taking pictures from the bus, getting to know about the road and area that I passed through. 

So this is a wrap for the transportation mode in Hongkong!!

While In Hongkong - Masjid and Halal Food Tour

While In Hongkong is my travelling story about Hongkong. Will write it in a random way from my very own point of view.

I managed to stay at JJ Hotel, a small and nice 3 stars hotel, located inside the office building called Lucky Centre in Wan Chai district. When decided to booked this hotel, we checked for the hotel condition thru Trip Advisor, Booking.com and also from Agoda's visitors reviews. The reviews were good and the most important thing is the hotel is just 5 minutes away from a mosque. Since in Hongkong it will not be easy to find Halal food, so that will be the best choice to stay anywhere nearby a mosque. Usually in that area there will be several places selling Halal food.

This time we arranged our time so that we can visits 2 famous mosque in Hongkong. One which is nearby to our hotel "Masjid Ammar and Osman Ramju Sadick Islamic Centre" and the other one is "Masjid Jami' Kowloon". 

This Ammar and Osman Ramju, is a mosque and also an Islamic Centre. So despite the main function as a praying place, this place also has a library, learning centre, and even an Islamic canteen. This Mosque actually was a replacement for a former Mosque in Happy Valley. Built at 1981, currently this place is still nice and clean. 

Located at the 40 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai, Hongkong. It is so easy to find this place. 

By MTR

From Central MTR station, switched the MTR to Island Line and stop at Wan Chai Station and exit from the Southern Playground. From here, walk about 10 minutes to this place through the Johnston Road. 

By Bus

Take a walk from Central MTR station to Jardine House bus stop. Take the bus number 962, only 4 stops away, and walk about 2 minutes to the mosque. 

And for you who's craving for a Halal Chinese Food, this place is like a heaven on earth. They served a delicious dim sum, and meals with a reasonable price. For me the Red Bean Pau is my favourite. 

To get to the Islamic Centre Canteen, just enter the building and used the lift to the 5th floor. The canteen open from 10 am to 8 pm and for the dim sum, only until 3 pm.

The second Mosque that we've visited was the Masjid Jami' Kowloon. Located at 105 Nathan Road, only a minute away from Tsim Tsa Tsui MTR Station. This is the most busy area in Hongkong after Causeway Bay district. 

When we arrived at this place, it was a praying time. The mosque get the crowd at that time. Different people from different country come to this with the same purpose, to pray. I saw lots of Arab and India people go inside the mosque. 

While waiting for my husband to pray, I walk around to find the Halal food around here. And this is what I found in front of the mosque building. The big standing banner about Al-Maidah Kebab. Located at 13 G/F, Tsim Tsa Tsui Mansion, Nathan Road.

Unfortunately, somehow we can not find the place. Instead we are directed to a weird restaurant named Mughal Club. The place is at 2nd floor, Flat 2 11, Hai Phong Mansion. Weird because when we enter the building, downstairs the place just so nice, but after we go into the restaurant at the 2nd floor, the place is so small. No one is eating there except us. Scary at first, but then the people there is nice. Only the food is a little bit pricey and the taste was just okay. The view from the restaurant is also very poor. Am not so happy after all, but well that's the art of travelling. 

Another place that I also got the brochure in front of the Mosque is Ziafat. The place is at 6/F Harilela Mansion, 81 Nathan Road. While mentioning mansion to this places, please forget the mansion that we usually saw in TV, just totally different.

The other place that we went to eat is an Indonesian restaurant named Rumah Makan Sedap Gurih. This restaurant is located at the hook of Sugar Street Rd, Causeway Bay Area. The food is good, got a real taste of Indonesian's food. The visitors was not only Indonesian people, maybe the Hongkong residents also likes to eat there because the food and the price.

Other than this restaurant, actually there are lot of Indonesian and Halal food around Causeway Bay area, such as :

Blitar Cafe
Shop 201, 2/F, Causeway Bay Centre, 19-23. Sugar Street.

Warung Malang
Flat B-2, 2/F, 9-11 Pennington Street, Causeway Bay.

For the full reference of Halal food at Hongkong, can be found at this site.

And not to be forgotten, there is also one place at the Disneyland that sell Halal food. It is at the Adventure land area, just in front of the Jungle Tree. They served Indian food and also some of Western food like fish fillet. One set of the menu is in a huge portion, can buy 2 set menu for 3 people. The price for one set menu is around HKD 88, pricey but worth it because of the huge portion.

After all, the best thing for this travelling is, actually is not that hard to find Halal food in Hongkong. Even though we are very well prepared in bringing along our own food, it was also nice to try the local food there.

Read the next post  about Hongkong here.. :)