Before we arrived in Hong Kong, we already booked via Klook the Big Bus Tours, also known as Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tours. The Big Bus Tours is a great way to get around Hong Kong because it has three routes (green, red and blue: each with distinct tours) with dozens of attractions and almost covers everything you need to see in Hong Kong. We booked the Premium Tour (worth Php 2980.00), which is inclusive of a two-day pass of unlimited hop-on-hop-off bus for all three routes, round trip ticket for sky tram pass, round trip Star Ferry tickets and a Sampan ride. On our first day in Hong Kong, we first tried the Big Bus tours green route (Aberdeen and Stanley tours).

Going to Central Ferry Pier 7 from Kowloon

From our guesthouse in Tsim Sha Tsui, we went to the Star Ferry Terminal in Kowloon. We headed to the Big Bus Centre located in the terminal to verify our tickets and get our passes. After some briefing from the staff who was so accommodating and clear in directions, we headed straight to the Star Ferry going to Central Ferry Pier 7. The journey took about 15 minutes across Victoria Harbour.

Big Bus Tours Green Route

The green route was by far the best route. We explored the nature side of the Hong Kong island and sought some popular sights on the south. The Peak Tram was the first stop on the Big Bus Tours Green Route. However, we didn’t hop-off the bus because we want to reserve this destination for our last stop. We also skipped the Ocean Park as it wasn’t part of our itinerary. The first stop we made was the Repulse Bay Beach.

The Repulse Bay

Repulse bay beach is a popular destination in Hong Kong for those who want to unwind especially during summer. This area was known to be the Pilate refuge. However, it was repulsed by the British people. Thus, the name.

Aside from that, the Repulse Bay is also popular to the tourists because of its colorful collection of statues and shrines in the south-east end.

Stanley

If you want to go shopping, there you have the Stanley Market. But if not, still, getting there would give you a lot of fun. Stanley offers you magnificent views of the South China Sea, the beaches and the nearby islands.

We also had our lunch at Stanley before we proceeded to our next destination: Aberdeen.

Aberdeen Fishing Village

Next on the Big Bus Tours Green Route was the Aberdeen fishing village. There was a free Sampan ride in our package so we were able to look around the village.

The sad part about this ride was the realization of the major problem Hong Kong is facing even up to this day: affordable housing. Because of increasing population and extremity in shortage of affordable housing (shoeboxlike apartment can cost up to HK$ 1,500 monthly the least. do the math to know peso equivalent), some minimum waged earners are forced to live in microapartments, coffin houses and even in cages. Some of them live on boats instead of paying thousands of dollars in tiny spaces.

A Sampan ride through the Victoria Harbour is a great way to see Aberdeen in action. If you wish to drop off at the restaurant, you may do so. This structure has been seen in movies and are frequented by movie stars and royalties.

This ends the green route. After getting back to the first hop-on point, we rode another bus for the red route (Hong Kong city tour).

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Cha Esper

Cha of Little Misadvencha is a Filipino Civil Engineer, researcher and a fur mom. She came from General Santos City and finds that everything in life teaches her a lesson. She is inspired to write about and out of her experiences, but later found out that it was her experiences that actually inspire her.