For the record, this post is my opinion (Izick doesn't agrees with all that's written here).
Maybe I'm biased, but you can't argue with facts.
When we planed our stops for the trip (within the limitation the "around the world" ticket offers), we had to choose between 2 choices for the begging of the trip:
1. Hong Kong
2. Thailand and Singapore
At first, I thought, Thailand, what a great place, but, been there 2 times, knows it by hart, lets try something new...
Retroactively; it's not so bad to selecting places you know and love.
Let me count for you all the pro and cons in selecting each destination and you will decide:
1. getting there -
The flight from Israel to both destinations is almost the same. 10 hours to Thailand and 11 to Hong Kong.
2. Getting out of the airport -
Hong Kong is very organized about everything, for the typical Israeli man it could seem little bit strange, almost bizarre and in some cases annoying (But, this is along story and should get it's own post).
So to get out of the airport you have couple of ways, but I'm going to focus on the cheapest way since we are backpackers and not business man.
We took a local bus from the departure area of the air port (no. A31, 17$ HKD ~ 8 NIS) straight to our hotel (if you remember from the last post - Panda Hotel, again, great hotel).
It wasn't a problem finding this bus, there are signs all over the airport and in English (Of course).
You don't need to bargain on the bus fee, since its fix price and you have to have exact amount.
You probably think, how did we have exact amount if we just arrived to Hong Kong, but don't you worry about it, you already know that the Chinese people (In Hong Kong) are very organized, so there is a card called Octopus, that you can buy in every 7 eleven and charge it with money, this card is accepted almost every place we have been in Hong Kong (Buses, shops, attraction etc.) and by using it you don't need to worry about exact change.
On the other hand when you get to Thailand you also have 2 common ways to get out of the airport - shuttle bus ( 100 Baht per person ~ 10 NIS) or by taxi (200 Baht per cab ~ 20 NIS).
when you travel with at least one more person it's cheapest to take a taxi. This is the point you become a true Thai person, when you learn how to bargain for everything, even the cab fare.
For first comers this will be quite hard at the beginning, especially when you get the feeling that no one wants to give you the price your friend (from Israel) told you you have to get (and more than that is a rip-off).
3. Accommodation -
When we planed our arrival to Hong Kong, we also planed our accommodation.
As usual we read about Hotels in Hong Kong in Lametayel site. There weren't much about Hong Kong but from the pieces of information we found we learned that there is a place common to all backpackers. This place located in the middle of Nathan road (very strategic place for tourists). This place is not a hotel, it's an experience of it's own, especially after we went there and saw it in our own eyes.
As I already explained (in my last post) Hong Kong has many tall buildings, so this place is scattered in some of the buildings, it's not hotel or hotels that are organized in one place. When you pay for a room, you don't really know what you are going to get, you can get a room in some floor at the end of the hall and in the same floor local residents can live. Also this room is like a box of cigarettes and to top it all there are only 2 elevators that need to serve all the people in the building (which has at list 35 floors) and they doesn't get to the floor right a way, they can stop for a "break" just in the 30 floor when you are on your way to the 35. And if you think that you are all alone there then you are mistaken, it's ingathering of the exiles and not the good honest people.
So, after all the descriptions we read on the Internet, we decided to take a nice hotel, which doesn't cost much more than the cheapest one (70$ and 50$, accordingly). The location of the hotel isn't in the center of town, but the hotel offers a free bus to the city.
On the other hand, Thailand is the land of all budgets. And just for the comparison, with 70$ we could slept in the luxuries hotel in Bangkok.
4. Food -
This was my biggest disappointment. One of the things a part from the massage that brings me back to Thailand, is the food, ohh the food......
So, for all of you that think that Asian food is the same all over Asia, you are wrong. And the Chinese food you know from home is not what the real Chinese eat here. I can't even describe the horrors I saw there (and I saw bugs in Thailand and it didn't bother me, and I'm not a picky person about food). The only thing I ate the last week was sushi, and also this wasn't as good as I know from home and also from Thailand.
Izick ,on the other hand, found a western supermarket that sold pastrami and bread, and every day I made for him 2 sandwiches, and in time of real crises we entered Burger King. The one thing that really disappointed me in those people, and got me to realize that they are much more western than Asian, is the amount of bakers scattered all over town. It was much easy to found a Croissant than sushi.
Maybe I'm biased, but you can't argue with facts.
When we planed our stops for the trip (within the limitation the "around the world" ticket offers), we had to choose between 2 choices for the begging of the trip:
1. Hong Kong
2. Thailand and Singapore
At first, I thought, Thailand, what a great place, but, been there 2 times, knows it by hart, lets try something new...
Retroactively; it's not so bad to selecting places you know and love.
Let me count for you all the pro and cons in selecting each destination and you will decide:
1. getting there -
The flight from Israel to both destinations is almost the same. 10 hours to Thailand and 11 to Hong Kong.
2. Getting out of the airport -
Hong Kong is very organized about everything, for the typical Israeli man it could seem little bit strange, almost bizarre and in some cases annoying (But, this is along story and should get it's own post).
So to get out of the airport you have couple of ways, but I'm going to focus on the cheapest way since we are backpackers and not business man.
We took a local bus from the departure area of the air port (no. A31, 17$ HKD ~ 8 NIS) straight to our hotel (if you remember from the last post - Panda Hotel, again, great hotel).
It wasn't a problem finding this bus, there are signs all over the airport and in English (Of course).
You don't need to bargain on the bus fee, since its fix price and you have to have exact amount.
You probably think, how did we have exact amount if we just arrived to Hong Kong, but don't you worry about it, you already know that the Chinese people (In Hong Kong) are very organized, so there is a card called Octopus, that you can buy in every 7 eleven and charge it with money, this card is accepted almost every place we have been in Hong Kong (Buses, shops, attraction etc.) and by using it you don't need to worry about exact change.
On the other hand when you get to Thailand you also have 2 common ways to get out of the airport - shuttle bus ( 100 Baht per person ~ 10 NIS) or by taxi (200 Baht per cab ~ 20 NIS).
when you travel with at least one more person it's cheapest to take a taxi. This is the point you become a true Thai person, when you learn how to bargain for everything, even the cab fare.
For first comers this will be quite hard at the beginning, especially when you get the feeling that no one wants to give you the price your friend (from Israel) told you you have to get (and more than that is a rip-off).
3. Accommodation -
When we planed our arrival to Hong Kong, we also planed our accommodation.
As usual we read about Hotels in Hong Kong in Lametayel site. There weren't much about Hong Kong but from the pieces of information we found we learned that there is a place common to all backpackers. This place located in the middle of Nathan road (very strategic place for tourists). This place is not a hotel, it's an experience of it's own, especially after we went there and saw it in our own eyes.
As I already explained (in my last post) Hong Kong has many tall buildings, so this place is scattered in some of the buildings, it's not hotel or hotels that are organized in one place. When you pay for a room, you don't really know what you are going to get, you can get a room in some floor at the end of the hall and in the same floor local residents can live. Also this room is like a box of cigarettes and to top it all there are only 2 elevators that need to serve all the people in the building (which has at list 35 floors) and they doesn't get to the floor right a way, they can stop for a "break" just in the 30 floor when you are on your way to the 35. And if you think that you are all alone there then you are mistaken, it's ingathering of the exiles and not the good honest people.
So, after all the descriptions we read on the Internet, we decided to take a nice hotel, which doesn't cost much more than the cheapest one (70$ and 50$, accordingly). The location of the hotel isn't in the center of town, but the hotel offers a free bus to the city.
On the other hand, Thailand is the land of all budgets. And just for the comparison, with 70$ we could slept in the luxuries hotel in Bangkok.
4. Food -
This was my biggest disappointment. One of the things a part from the massage that brings me back to Thailand, is the food, ohh the food......
So, for all of you that think that Asian food is the same all over Asia, you are wrong. And the Chinese food you know from home is not what the real Chinese eat here. I can't even describe the horrors I saw there (and I saw bugs in Thailand and it didn't bother me, and I'm not a picky person about food). The only thing I ate the last week was sushi, and also this wasn't as good as I know from home and also from Thailand.
Izick ,on the other hand, found a western supermarket that sold pastrami and bread, and every day I made for him 2 sandwiches, and in time of real crises we entered Burger King. The one thing that really disappointed me in those people, and got me to realize that they are much more western than Asian, is the amount of bakers scattered all over town. It was much easy to found a Croissant than sushi.
 |
| From Food |
 |
| From Food |
5. Shopping -
Hong Kong is known for it's electronic shopping, and after being in almost every shopping area I can tell that this is the only thing that worth buying there.
The fashion in Hong Kong is very exclusive (Prada, Dolech & gavana etc...) and the markets are very expensive in the clothes department. A T-short that you can buy for 200 Baht ~ 20 NIS in Thailand you will pay in Hong Kong's market 65 $ HKD ~ 36 NIS.
But shopping wasn't our thing so we didn't pay much for the prices.
Izick check out the electronic department and was quite pleased with the prices (and a person who knows him knows that he know it all in that area). But, to buy good products you need to invest time and time is money (a lot of money in Hong Kong).
6. Places to Go, Thing to See -
At the beginning all we saw in Hong Kong is buildings, malls and a lot of Chinese people. As days goes by we found some interesting things to do, like hiking in the outdoors of Hong Kong.
Thailand, on the other hand offers variety of things to do, from markets (that really offer some good merchandise) to very unique templates, hiking in the nature (although, this is not the best thing Thailand has to offer),shopping malls and great VIP movie theatre.
7. Massage -
Well, here no can beat the variety and price you can get in Thailand. And for me this is the main thing that makes all the difference.
8. Cost -
The missing information in all this story is, when you choose option 2 and go to Thailand you need to add 100$ more to the ticket.
But, when you sum the total cost for this weekend you still get that it was much cheaper to go to Thailand than to Hong Kong (review the Hotel and Food section).
This last week in Hong Kong cost us about 800$ (Just food and Hotel), with this amount we could live for about 1 month in Thailand. So, this factor should be a Major part in selecting your destination.
To conclude this overview, I have one thing impotent to say, that on this thing Izick agree with me.
If you have never been in Thailand, than the decision is very easy, Go to Thailand.
If you already been there and you want to try new thing, and you are willing to miss on the massage and food Thailand has to offer than maybe Hong Kong is the place for you.
תגובה 1:
Navit & Izak:
How are you both?
The blog is great - I am really enjoying the reading.
What do you CAN eat there accept sushi and pastry? What is so repulsive about the food?
PS
Liron has a birthday on the coming Friday (01.12) and we might gather to see the wedding film - we shall miss you.
Love
Liad
הוסף רשומת תגובה