Just An Ordinary Girl

But luckily, we were given priority access as a tour group. Even so, we still have to wait for 20 minutes just to get on the tram. Of course, I would certainly never pay HKD 28 and wait 2 hours for just a 7 minutes long ride. That will be such a huge waste of time.








The ride uphill is very steep, practically 45 degree, so it can be extremely uncomfortable. Be prepared that you will be pressed into the old wooden benches of the Peak Tram. For those who are standing, please hold on tightly to the rails or handlebars to prevent falls.

But do not worry as the tram is perfectly safe. No accident of any kind has ever occurred since it started its operation in 1888. However, the steepness makes it extremely hard for us to take a nice photo.  Furthermore, there is actually not much of a view to see as the view is often blocked by trees.









Historical and National Heroes

Walking further in, we came to the Historical and National Heroes zone where you will get the chance to meet some of the world's most famous historical and political leaders and icons from the world of Science and the Arts.

Some of the famous faces featured in this zone includes  William Shakespeare, Albert Eisenstein, Charles Dickens, Xi Jinping, Barack Obama, Mahatma Gandhi and many others.





Visitors can even sit on the sofa and get a taste of star- studded interview with Sandra Ng on "Sparkling Club 星星同学会," a famous celebrity talk show in Hong Kong.


World Premiere

The World Premiere zone features a range of famous movie stars from the early black and white Hollywood Era to contemporary Asian film industry.

In this zone, you will be able to meet movie stars such as Marilyn Moore, Amitabh Bachchan, Leo Lai, Audrey Hepburn and many more.



Kung Fu Zone

The newly added Kung Fu zone features some of the famous Chinese Kung Fu movie stars in the world. Fans of Kung Fu movies will get the chance to practice Kung Fu with some of the biggest stars in Chinese Kung Fu movies.

Some of the most famous Kung Fu actors featured in this zone includes Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Michelle Yeoh.




K-Wave Zone

With the Korean Wave taking Hong Kong by storm, the K-Wave zone was recently added at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum Hong Kong.

The K-Wave zone brings together some of South Korea biggest stars like Kim Soo Hyun, Bae Yoon Joon, TVXQ, 2PM's Nichkhun and Super Junior's Choi Siwon.














Music Icons

The Music Icons zone offers visitors the chance to get on the stage and take a photo with your favorite music stars. Experience a music tour through the decades featuring legendary musical icons from around the world.

Some of the famous music icons featured in this zone include Jay Chou, Elvis Presley, Teresa Teng, Anita Mui, Leo Ku, Michael Jackson, Miriam Yeung, Leslie Cheung, Lady Gaga, Madonna and many more.










Some of the virtual characters from movies that you will also find in this zone includes Monkey King (starred by Donnie Yen), Buffalo Demon King (starred by Aaron Kwok) and White Snake Spirit.



I have the feeling that the mall is cater more to rich Mainland Chinese tourists, who seems to be more interested in shopping than enjoying the view.



The Peak is a great place to enjoy the cool climate and have a cup of coffee. However, we spent most of our time taking photos in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I wish we were given more time to explore the rest of the area.

Photo By: Elin Chow
Official Website: Panda Hotel 悦来酒店
Address: 3 Tsuen Wah Street, Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong 香港荃湾荃华街3号

For our 3 days 2 nights company trip to Hong Kong last December, we were staying at Panda Hotel 悦来酒店, a four-star Panda-themed hotel located in Tsuen Wan 荃湾, New Territories 新界, Hong Kong.

Panda Hotel 悦来酒店


Panda Hotel (formerly known as Kowloon Panda Hotel) is located just a 25 minutes drive away from Hong Kong International Airport and Hong Kong Disneyland. With a total of 1,026 rooms, it is currently the largest hotel in Tsuen Wan District.

Hong Kong International Airport > Panda Hotel

Panda Hotel is located in the heart of Tsuen Wan, close to the Tsuen Wan and Tai Wo Hau MTR. There are many ways to reach the hotel from the airport, by rail or road.


Airport shuttle buses depart from the Hong Kong International Airport every hour from 7.00 am to 11.00 pm daily. To take the airport shuttle buses, simply walk through Arrival Hall and approach the airport shuttle counter at B01. For more information about the airport shuttle buses, please visit the Panda hotel's official website.


Surprisingly, the reception is not located at the ground floor of the building. We were dropped off at the side of the road by our tour buses. To reach the reception area, we have make our way through a shopping mall and take the lift up to the third floor. The shopping mall (known as the Panda Place 悦来访) is located the ground floor, second floor and three basement levels beneath Panda Hotel.


Taking the lift up to the third floor, we arrived at a spacious reception area decorated with various Panda related merchandises that is sure to delight any panda lover! Here you will find a variety of Panda plush dolls, bags, key rings, cups, pens and many more. If you are interested in buying any of the merchandises , please approach the hotel concierge at level 3 for assistance.





The spacious reception area offers plenty of comfortable seating for guests to relax. Some of the hotel facilities includes a well-equipped gym, steam and sauna room, swimming pool and a recreation room equipped for table tennis, billiards, air hockey and TV games. The recreation room is a comfortable place for guests to relax with their family and friends and enjoy various games together.

Apart from that, the hotel also offers self-service laundry facilities at an affordable rates. Token-operated wash machine and dryer are available at the laundry pantry. Please purchase token from reception in advance in order to use the wash machine and dryer.


In addition to that, there were also regular, free shuttle buses running from the hotel to Tsim Sha Tsui 尖沙咀 and Mong Kok 旺角 regularly. You may want to check out the shuttle buses schedule on the its official website.

After collecting our room key card, we proceeded straight to our room, which was located on the 12th floor of the building. Access to the room is via the lifts, which can only be accessed by your room card key.

Unfortunately, there are only 4 lifts serving the 1.026 rooms. Do expect short queue at the lifts, which can be very frustrating, especially when you arrived late and tired at the hotel.

Our deluxe room features two single beds with a private en-suite bathroom, a small working desk and a separate seating area. The entire room was warmly lit by yellowish lights, which was actually a little too dim for my liking.

The beds were very clean and comfortable. Between the beds, there was a small cabinet for us to store our belongings in an easy to reach place. However, the room was small, with minimal space to walk after putting our luggage.


Our room is equipped with a flat screen satellite TV, but the TV channel choices were a bit limited compared to many other hotels I have stayed. Furthermore, the hotel does not provide free in room WiFi, which was a big inconvenience for us. We were actually surprised that there are still hotels which does not offer free WiFi, especially in such a modern city like Hong Kong. It was incredibly frustrating to stay in a hotel that does not provide free internet access.

The lack of free WiFi makes the hotel a bad choice for business travelers. I would usually avoid staying in hotels that does not provide WiFi for free.


Our room also features a small seating area with 2 chairs and a round coffee table. The seating area is just perfect for family and friends to gather and sit down together after a tiring day of sightseeing.

Other room amenities also includes individually controlled air-conditioning, in-room safe box and bathroom slippers.


Electric water boiler and basic coffee and tea making facilities are provided in the room as well. Other than that, the hotel also provides complimentary 2 bottles of mineral water (replenished daily) and a mini fridge for us to store our cold drinks and food in the room.


The bathroom was small but well furnished and spotlessly clean.


Basic toiletries such as cotton buds, shower cap, comb and disposable toothbrush and toothpaste are provided for guest use.


The bathroom also comes with a spacious bathtub where you can relax with a hot bath after a long and tiring day. There were sufficient towels provided for every guest as well. Each of them were rolled and placed neatly on a shelf above the bathtub.
Other than that, the bathroom is also well-equipped with soap and shampoo mounted on the wall in a dispenser.


A complimentary buffet breakfast served at Panda Cafe (located just next to the reception area) every morning from 6.00 am to 10.00 am.



Located right next to the Panda Cafe, visitors will find the Children's Playground. The Playground offers a fun and safe environment for children to play while parents can sit, relax and enjoy a cup of coffee in the cafe.


Panda Hotel is situated in the less touristy side of Hong Kong with plenty of convenience stores, local eateries, restaurants and shops located around the area. The area around the hotel is frequented mostly by local people and most likely, you will not see many foreign tourists around. This is where you will get the chance to experience the real Hong Kong culture and way of life.



For our last day in Hong Kong, we decided to enjoy breakfast in Hong Kong like a local. Comparing to many other large cities in Asia, eating in Hong Kong is much more expensive. But we managed to taste some of the delicious food in Hong Kong. I wish we have more time to explore.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience, but not awesome. The only reason why I was staying in this hotel was because this was what the travel agent have booked for our company trip. Certainly, I would not choose to stay in this hotel if I am visiting Hong Kong again. I would not recommend this hotel for business purposes too.

However, Panda Hotel is actually a good choice for budget travelers. I believe this is one of the cheapest 4-star hotels in Hong Kong. You might want to consider this hotel if you have budget constraints.

If you are interested to know more about our trip, you may want to check out our 3D2N Company Trip Summary + Itinerary for the list of attractions that we had visited during our 3 days in Hong Kong. Be sure to follow me on Facebook or Twitter  for the latest updates on my 3 days adventures in Hong Kong! You might also want to check My Wanderlust page for some of my other travel adventures.

Once a small fishing town, Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf is now a famous tourist attraction due to the completion of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui Line in 1997. Surrounded by river and mountains, Tamsui is well-known for its beautiful sunset and fantastic seafood. Besides sightseeing, the wharf still holds its functionality as a harbor for small fishing boats.




Walking further in, you will find the famous Love Sculpture - a fantastic spot to take some tourist photos. It was not a surprise to see lots of tourists gathering in front of the Love Sculpture, eager to snap some keepsake photos of their trip.


Just like any other tourists with a camera, we quickly took our typical tourist photo in front of the Love Sculpture. It was hard to get a nice photo without all the people in the way. We have to constantly wait for other people to walk pass before taking out our camera.


Despite being one of the major attraction in Taipei, the area is surprisingly not as crowded as we have expected.


There is a riverside scenery platform where art performance and concert are held frequently. Visitors can enjoy free live performances at the riverside scenery platform that could accommodate approximately 3,000 people.

Tamsui Fisherman's Wharf is known to be a popular filming location for Taiwanese drama series. If you are a big fan of Taiwanese drama series, you may be able to recognize some of the locations around the wharf!


At night, the bridge illuminates in a wide variety of colors, which created a romantic atmosphere for any romance. Couples and photographers would flock here every night just to enjoy and capture the beauty of the bridge. Unfortunately, we could not stay late enough to see the bridge light up in colors.


Walking further in, we proceeded to climb up a few flight of stairs to the top of the bridge. The climb is impossible for people in wheelchairs or with significant mobility problems.



If you are interested to know more about our trip, you may want to check out our 11D10N round island tour itinerary for the list of attractions that we had visited during our 11 days in Taiwan. Be sure to follow me on Facebook or Twitter  for the latest updates on my 11 days adventures in Taiwan! You might also want to check My Wanderlust page for some of my other travel adventures.

The seats are very comfortable and clean, with plenty of legroom for one to stretch out and relax. There is an USB port to charge your mobile devices and a 110V AC power supply for laptops and other electronic devices at every seat.


The food taste fine and were served hot and nice. However, the portion sizes were a little too small for an extremely hungry stomach.

As for the in-flight entertainment, the selection was really good. I get to enjoy a wide selection of movies, TV series, video games throughout the 4 hours flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong.



However, on our return flight, at least half of the in-flight entertainment system were not working. An USD 50 shopping voucher was offered to all the affected passengers as compensation, which can be used to purchase duty free items on board the flight. The vouchers were only issued an hour before landing when a lot of the duty-free items have ran out of stock. Furthermore, there was not enough time for most of the passengers to browse through the shopping catalogue because the plane was landing soon. As a result, most of them ended up not able to utilize their vouchers at all.

Apart from that, I have to deal with a very rude and hostile counter staff during baggage check-in at Hong Kong International Airport. The lady at the counter staff yelled at me right at the moment I placed my luggage on the conveyor belt. It was a very unpleasant experience. I got to know later the reason of her displeasure. It was because she was rushing off from work and was annoyed that I walked to check in my luggage at her counter.

Overall, the flying experience was pleasant, but not awesome. Having flown with Cathay Pacific many years back, I was actually looking forward to flying with them again, but was disappointed. Cathay Pacific Airways certainly do not deserve the 'World Best Airline" title.

3D2N Tour Package

We booked a 3D2N group tour package directly with Sedunia Travel that include accommodations, attraction tickets, ground transportation, tour guides and meals.

Accommodation

Panda Hotel 悦来酒店

For our 2 nights in Hong Kong, we were staying at Panda Hotel, a 4-star hotel in Tsuen Wan 荃湾, New Territories 新界, Hong Kong. Conveniently located near to Hong Kong International Airport, the hotel is currently the largest hotel in Tsuen Wan District 荃湾区, with a total of 1,026 rooms.



Kuala Lumpur International Airport 吉隆坡国际机场 > Hong Kong International Airport 香港国际机场 > Victoria Peak / The Peak 太平山 >  Madame Tussauds Hong Kong 香港杜莎夫人蜡像馆 > Victoria Harbour 维多利亚港 > Check in Panda Hotel 悦来酒店

Day 2: Hong Kong Disneyland

We spent our entire day 2 at Hong Kong Disneyland 香港迪斯尼乐园. Located on reclaimed land in Penny's Bay 竹篙灣, Lantau island 大嶼山, Disneyland was our main reason to visit Hong Kong this time.

Panda Hotel 悦来酒店 > Hong Kong Disneyland 香港迪斯尼乐园

Day 3: Citygate Outlets

Before we board our flight back to Kuala Lumpur, we did some last-minute shopping at Citygate Premium Outlets Mall.

Located just 10 minutes away from Hong Kong International Airport, Citygate Outlets is the first and largest outlet mall in Hong Kong. Featuring more than 80 international brand names, the outlets offer year-round discounts of 30 to 70 percent on all merchandises.

There was a huge collections of designer brands such as Coach. Burberry, Kate Spade, Armani Exchange, Guess and many more. Great place to shop, especially for those who are on a tight travel schedule as it is located close to the airport.

The mall was overwhelmed by tourists from all over the world, who flocked here in search of good bargains for branded goods. There are good deals to be found, but not all items are cheap. Being a factory outlet, I expected the prices to be a lot more cheaper. I have a feeling that the mall is specially cater to rich Mainland China tourists, who are known for their extravagant spending habits.

I managed to get some great deal from Giordano and Esprit, both of which offered an amazing 50 percent discount on most of its merchandises. We were given an hour and a half to shop before we headed to the airport. The time given to us was not enough to visit all the stores.  Please allocate at least half a day if you wish to visit every store in the mall.

So, basically this is the summarized itinerary for our 3D2N Company Trip to Hong Kong. I am looking forward to our next company trip this year.

As mentioned earlier, I will be posting individual posts on the various tourist attractions we visited in Hong Kong soon. So, be sure to follow me on Facebook or Twitter to get the latest updates on my trip to Hong Kong! Also, please feel free to share my blog posts with your family and friends if you find them helpful. You might also want to check My Wanderlust page for some of my other travel adventures.