Hong Kong (香港) - iVenture Hong Kong Flexi Attractions Pass

I managed to save up a lot for my Hong Kong trip. Our AirAsia tickets were bought during point redemption period, so, we only had to pay airport taxes and fuel surcharges. Expenses on accommodation and transportation were greatly reduced with the promotions we saw through Internet. Even with all the activities we had like Hong Kong Disneyland, Sky100, Peak tram and Lamma Fisherfolk's Village, it was done with low prices thanks to iVenture Card.

360 degree view from Sky100

My friend told me about this great package called iVenture Card, a smart card that offers the best deals to tourist destinations all over the world. With this card, you can have free accesses to some of the famous attractions. Hong Kong is one of the cities where iVenture Card has offers in. You have the flexibility of choosing what you want to do and when you want to do it. Depending on which packages you choose, you will have a wide range of activities and tourist attactions to go to.

Lamma Island is one of the attractions in the list

Hong Kong Flexi Attractions Pass is the one we took. We got to choose 4 attractions out of its selection for us to do throughout our 4 days in Hong Kong. At the price of HK$ 430 (RM 172) for adult and HK$ 310 (RM 124) for child, I do believe it is a good deal. You can click here to see the list of attractions included in the package.

Besides free entrances to your selected attractions, there are also extra offers for you to enjoy. For example, you can have a HK$ 20 discount off your Madame Tussauds entrance fee when you are at The Peak. There are also Disneyland Hong Kong Combo and Ocean Park Hong Kong Combo where you can save HK$ 30 off for the entrance fees of these theme parks. If you plan to go to Macau, you can take the Hong Kong & Macau Flexi Attractions Pass which allows you to choose 7 attractions out of its list in these 2 countries.

HK$ 30 cheaper for Disneyland Hong Kong through iVenture Card

Once you bought it through the website, you can go to the following places to collect your card; Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1, New Mandarin Plaza and Shun Tak Centre in Hong Kong and Macau Maritime Ferry Terminal and Largo da Torre de Macau in Macau. Overall, iVenture Card is a good investment to your travel budget provided the choices are the places you plan to visit.

Besides Hong Kong and Macau, there are iVenture Card for cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Tasmania in Australia, Durban in South Africa, and Singapore.

Hotel Review - YesInn @Fortress Hill, Hong Kong

Hong Kong is well-known for its expensive accommodations. Luckily, we found a place that is decent and clean in an affordable price. In fact, you can even find amazing deals if you come in a group and stay for a few days. 

Welcome to YesInn @Fortress Hill. This hostel is located in a safe neighbourhood and just about five minutes walk away from Fortress Hil MTR Station. Besides MTR, there are buses stopping near the hostel as well as trams passing by. Taxis are widely available too. In short, you won't have any trouble commuting with public transportation.

I've been to Hong Kong twice and for both time I made this place my home for the stay. Clean and comfortable, with attached bathroom and TV (a rare treat for hostels) as well, you can't ask for a better deal. Plus, the fact that both time there were four of us and we stayed 4D/3N in the city island just begged us to take the family ensuites deal.

This was the room I first stayed back in 2011

I didn't take any photo of my room during my latest visit and I have only one picture of the room on my first visit. If you want to look for more pictures of the hostel, you can just click here. My sister (who I went with early this year) was impressed and found the room comfortable and clean and there is no better endorsement than that.

You might want to consider YesInn @Fortress Hill the next time you go to Hong Kong.

*TO BE CONTINUED*

 Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

YesInn @Fortress Hill Hostel,
Flat B, 15/F, Front Block,
Continental Mansion,
294 King's Road,
Fortress Hill, Hong Kong.

There are 3 branches of YesInn in Hong Kong (Fortress Hill, Causeway Bay and Kowloon) and the one that I stayed in both time was YesInn @Fortress Hill. We took the 3-4 persons private for 3 nights package at HK$ 1759 (about RM 695 which is less than RM 60/pax/night at the exchange rate of HK$ 100 = RM 39.50). A reasonable offer, I would say.

Friday's Newsflash - MyPass Prepaid Card

For foreign travellers planning to visit Malaysia, a new product launched by Touch N' Go Sdn. Bhd. is here for your travel convenience. Introducing MyPass, a multipurpose electronic purse which you can use to make payment on most of the public transportation in Kuala Lumpur, selected retail outlets, food and beverages chains, attractions and theme parks, and so on. Examples of shops that accept MyPass are 7-Eleven stores, MyNews outlets, The Chicken Rice Shop, and so on.

Besides using it as a debit card, you can also redeem discounts at attractions around the capital city as well as selected ones in the country. To name a few of its discounts and privileges, you will receive 10% discount on tickets to KL Tower Observation Deck, 15% discounts for Petrosains, 30% discounts on buffet lunch and dinner in Shogun Japanese restaurant, and many more. 

Sold at the price of RM 38.00, MyPass comes with RM 10.00 preloaded as well as complimentary Hotlink SIM pack and Malaysia travel guide. The MyPass pack can be obtained in the both KLIA and LCCT, KL Sentral, Touch N' Go hubs, KL Hop On Hop Off counter, and selected petrol stations. You can also easily reload the card at any LRT, monorail and KTM stations and petrol stations bearing the Touch N' Go logo. For more information, do look at its website at www.mypass.com.my. I believe such a card will be a popular product among tourists as it is easy to use and comes with lots of discounts and benefits. 

Shah Alam - i-City

Yet to buy a laptop, hence, irregular update.

My friend treated me to i-City, Shah Alam, few weeks back as my birthday treat (a one-month late birthday gift). I always thought that i-City is only for its night light view but apparently, there are other attractions beside the night light show. It was a Group On promotion that we took which include five attractions available in i-City.

Water World @ i-City

First of all, we went to the Water World @ i-City for some water rides. To be honest, I was quite disappointed with the rides available in the park. It was just too small to justify its name. I mean, I would have assume a water theme park named Water World @ i-City would take hours to fully finish their rides. But, sadly, all it took was just an hour plus and you are done with it.

These water slides are just so-so

Look at the Ultimate Tornado which is AMAZING...

And most of the water slides are not thrilling, to be honest. The only saving grace has to be the Ultimate Tornado spiral slide which is AWESOME. Make sure there are four of you for the ride require four persons. If not, ask some strangers to join you for it.

Ultimate Tornado takes four persons to go for it

Next in the voucher is the SnoWalk. While dress code insists its patrons to wear long pants and covered shoes, I went in with shorts and flip flop. I ended up shivering non stop. Generally, nothing much for you to do here other than riding on few slides they have here and taking pictures. I believe the Snow World in Genting Highland is a better option of the two. For SnoWalk, please bring your own gloves and boots if you want to save your budget for the rental fee is steep.

Ice sculptures in SnoWalk

Trick Art Museum is more like a photo taking outlet where public do candid poses along with the paintings. These paintings, if posed correctly, will give off a three dimensional impression. The selection is not that many and appeals only to those who are interested in doing funny shots. The remaining two attractions included in the Group On voucher are Ferris wheel and the double-deck carousel. Nothing much can be said about these two rides.

Entrance to the Trick Art Museum

Few of these paintings on display

I honestly think i-City has the potential to grow but the management team is not really giving all their bests to improve it. The best asset of this place has to be the night light display and understandably so. It is rather beautiful.

Ferris wheel

Carousel

With the Group On voucher, the visit is still border line worth it. However, if you ask me whether I would go without it, sorry, can’t do.

Beautiful night light, the best asset in i-City

Sharing is caring. A word of advice and a piece of information.

Each attraction has its own entrance fee. For Water World @ i-City, the price for adult is RM 40.00 on Mondays to Fridays and RM 50.00 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays while for children, it is RM 30.00 and RM 40.00 respectively. For SnoWalk, the entrance prices before 6 pm are RM 25.00 and RM 20.00 for adult and children, after 6 pm are RM 35.00 and RM 30.00 respectively. Trick Art Museum is free of charge if you purchased Water World @ i-City's ticket. If not, the charge is RM 5.00. 

Friday’s Newsflash – Air Asia Free Seat Promotion and AllMalaysia’s Virtual Travel Fair

This week’s Friday’s Newsflash will be packed with information for us travel junkies.

The first one being that Air Asia is having its Free Seat promotion. It’s not exactly smoking hot news as most of you should know about it. Domestic flights from Kuala Lumpur begin an all-inclusive fare of RM 26 while international flights are from RM 56 onwards. Booking period is from 18 to 23 September 2012 with international flights open for booking from 20 to 23 September 2012. Travel period is from 1 April to 30 September 2013.

To be frank, this Free Seat promotion is nothing to shout about. Yes, it is cheaper than the normal fare but not as cheap as the old days. I mean, flying to Kota Kinabalu takes more than RM 100 for return ticket? Last year, I managed to secure a return ticket at RM 40 plus for this year’s April (though I ended up burning the ticket).

As for the international destinations, flying to Semarang takes more than RM 200 for return trips? I went there with their launching price at around RM 176 for return ticket. All in all, cheap, but not THAT cheap. However, I’m still a sucker for it since I’m planning to fly somewhere around that time frame.

The second news of the day is the Virtual Travel Fair 2012 that is going on at the moment. Starting from 7 September to 30 September 2012, you can hunt for the perfect travel package that you have been waiting for. With both domestic and international travel packages to choose from, you will be spoilt for choices.

Besides that, Macau Tourism Office is sponsoring a 3D/2N trip for two worth RM 3,000 for one lucky person. All you have to do to win that fantastic prize is to just count the number of SOTA logos in the picture and create a creative slogan. That’s all and you are on your way to winning an amazing trip.

For more information regarding the contest or the travel packages, click here.