Itinerary - The MarkOne: Tokyo

A quick suggested Itinerary for Tokyo from MarkOne

look into special bullet train ticket for tourists
Akihabara - Electric City: go here for electronics shopping
Tsukiji Fish Market
Tokyo Tower - go up to the top if it's a clear day, otherwise just the middle. If the day is cloudy do not go not go up at all.
tokyo national museum
Palace Garden - see the tea house there
Sensoji Temple in Asakusa
Meiji shrine
Ginza - like times square
Imperial Palace
Shinjuku station

Side Trips from Tokyo
kamikur: 800 year old Buddhist statue
Yokohama Chinatown

Itinerary - The Perng: Hong Kong

Originally Posted 8/28/2008

Yea, Hong Kong is great!

1) There is this sizzling rice pot thing you have to eat. It its topped with various combinations of spare ribs, chicken foot, veggie, and chinese sausage but they cook it out front of the store and you pour this sweet soy sauce mixture over it. It then sizzles and gets crusty on the edges, very tasty. It’s close to Times Square on either Jardine’s Bazar St or Jardine’s Crescent St. but it’s hard to miss because they cook the stuff in front.

2) HK is mostly based on Shopping and eating. Other stuff we found that was interesting was to go to the silly downstairs bars. Most bars have Karaoke and people are hardcore about it. There was this dood in a white suit rocking out karaoke at this place we were at in Kowloon but most bars “local” bars had the same vibe.

3) Lan Kwai Fong is a big ex pat area full of bars and western style restaurants. This is where all of my american friends go when they go to HK.

4) If you travel with someone else, go buy the Airport Express Ticket one way in a pair but at the desk. This is the train that gets you into Hong Kong. Somehow the machine charges $100 HKD each ticket ($200 for 2) but the ticket desk will give you $160 HKD for TWO tickets.

4) Stanley is suppose to be cool. I didn’t go but take the bus out there over to the other side of the island. Go on the front/top of the double decker bus since you go over all kinds of hills so it’s suppose to be really silly ride.

5) You can take a ferry from Kowloon to Macau. It’s basically a mini Vegas but definitely a rather interesting place since the gambling culture is so different. Since the Chinese love to gamble, you see people take day trips there and blow a ton of money.

6) The Midway escalators are interesting. Take it from Central as far up as you go. Along they way, hop off of the escalators whenever you see something interesting. There are a bunch of shops, bars, and food along the way.

7) Dim Sum is a must. I went to a place on the Kowloon side last year and again this year. The quality of food is really good. The place I went to was on the Kowloon side on Middle Road between Ashley Road and Nathan Road. It’s on the same side of the street as the Esprit Outlet and you go downstairs.

8) There is a major shopping and night market on the kowloon side. Take the transit to Prince Edward Station and walk back from there, it’s just crazy people watching. Lot of young people walking around and hanging out.

9) Get a foot massage. Special option. =P Seriously, get a foot reflexology massage. It’s weird but it will feel good especially after you’ve been walking around for a few days. Basic concept is that they will hit pressure points on your foot blah blah. It hurts like a bitch but it’s worth doing. I actually felt better overall after getting the message. If you have time, get the lymph node massage (thai massage) + foot massage combo. Foot massage runs about $20ish US depending on where you go and I think it was like $40-$60 US to get the combo, which is not bad at all for like 75 mins of massage

10) Go walk through the Peninsula Hotel. It’s fancy.

We ate mostly on the street level where we saw a lot of people. There are a lot of places in the malls to eat in terms of more proper restaurants that usually run a little bit more but it’s good. So yea, you can definitely spend a lot of time just eating and shopping. A lot of people speak English so it’s not THAT big of a deal. I think you can find the tourist stuff online or in tour books.

Thanks Perng!

Itinerary: MoHi - Hong Kong

MoHi gave me this sample itinerary:

there are plenty of things to do in hong kong.

• There are those touristy things like repulse bay and other notable historic places, but i find those to be very boring.
• You can go to shopping areas in causeway bay or central or tsim sha tsui. they have a lot of pretty girls walking around for you to look at. you can go to mong kok for street vendors and bootleg stuff.
• You can go to the peak. its a place where you can see the city over a hilltop.
• There is good food pretty much everywhere you go. i’ll let you look for that because it shouldn’t be too hard.
• there’s also lan kwai fong (the foreigner’s corner). its the place for young people to hang out and drink and party i suppose. its good to go at night. there’s also stanley park, where a lot of foreigners or tourist go.
• you can go to disneyland or ocean park (snoozers for me).
• you can also hop on a jet boat and go to macau. its an hour long boat ride. you can check out the new casinos or go to the old ones if you want to hang with the triads. oh, everybody also goes to the jumbo seafood floating restaurant in aberdeen.
• here’s a perfect hong kong day for me though: walk to eat hong kong western breakfast, go to the arcade and play the drums, then chill at the sauna for about 3 hours, have some lunch, walk around and then go to the track to watch the horses race, and then play mahjong with chinese folks.

Q: do you recommend staying in a particular area in Hong Kong such as Kowloon or Hong Kong Island?

A: either is fine. both sides are big cities and i’m sure you’ll end up crossing to the other side whichever way you go. i would probably stay on hong kong island though. when i went with my parents way back, we stayed on the kowloon side. when i go with my wife, we stay on the hong kong island side.

Thanks MoHi