Archive for Sleeping
December 23, 2008 at 3:40 am · Filed under Sleeping
Economist — and economic — Aravind passes along a last-minute housing tip (re: a short-term flat rental), which we shall repost here, in case it got buried in the comments ghetto:
If anyone is still looking for accommodations, I have a good tip: check for short-term apartments. There are many still available for the holidays, most have in-suite laundry, internet access, satellite TV (as if), etc - and they are DIRT cheap compared to hotels: I was choosing between 7 places in the range of 190 - 500 HKD per night… that’s $24 - $64 US!!
Two good places to look are: http://hongkong.craigslist.org (under “housting”, “sublets / temporary”), and http://hongkong.gumtree.com.hk (under “Flat…”, “short term”).
(FYI, there’s a whole 2-bedroom flat in Wanchai that I just turned down, for $500 HKD / night available from 12/25 - 1/4… see craigslist’s posts for last Sunday!)
October 9, 2008 at 12:45 pm · Filed under Sleeping
Still looking for affordable places to stay? Here are a few more leads …..
Behold, the Cityview Hotel in Kowloon, near the Yau Ma Tei subway stop. Here is the Tripadvisor review for your edification …
Rates for the end of December/early January list dates $935/990HKD, which works out to about $120-130USD per night.
And here is the Dorsett Seaview.
Check out their website for special webdeals — that last we checked, it was $750-850HKD ($97-110USD) per night for the time around NYE and the festivities. Between the Jordan and Yau Ma Tei subway stops, t’s a little closer to Tsim Sha Tsui.
Here are the Dorsett’s Tripadvisor reviews.
September 21, 2008 at 4:36 pm · Filed under Sleeping
One more affordable hotel reference from Arnold:
The Luxe Manor in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. It’s known as a bargain boutique hotel (with your random Philippe Starck-channeling-Salvador Dali trappings), and you can grab an additional discount by dropping some names.
Contact Stephanie Lee, Asst. Dir. of Sales, at stephanie.lee@theluxemanor.com, or +11 (852) 3763 8875, and mention ‘Dorman Bean’ as a reference!
Here’s the write-up in Trip Advisor. And additional photos of the joint can be found here.
September 1, 2008 at 4:43 pm · Filed under Flying, Seeing, Sleeping
This is worth bubbling up from the comments ghetto …
Per the previous post below, folks have been having incredible luck with Annie — Jane and Chris were able to score a full flight itinerary from NYC to Bangkok to HK and back to NYC for $1350 per person, which is cheaper than the direct NYC-HK flights we’ve found via web services like Kayak and Vayama! We may be giving her a holla ourselves this upcoming week …
Annie is super awesome and I got an incredible deal on airfare. Jane, thank you so much for finding her (and Lian, thank you so much for posting the info). I have “saved” so much money that I can totally afford to hit the craps tables in Macau!
Jane Kim wrote @ August 30th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
We got tickets from NYC to HK to Bangkok and back for $1350! She was really helpful and went through a couple options for us to various tropical beach destinations- Phillipines (most flights are really crowded that time of year), Bali, Vietnam (really expensive for some reason), etc. It’s definitely worth stopping by her office to talk through what you want. She can do all the inter-country travel too.
August 21, 2008 at 2:41 am · Filed under Flying, Seeing, Sleeping
For those of you potentially dealing with multiple itineraries and other travel complexities, the stalwart and resourceful Jane and Chris (and not forgetting the charming and irascible Olive) offer a reference for those in need of a solid, reliable travel agent. Check it!
Annie Chen
East Travel Service Inc.
2 Mott Street Suite 701
212 334 8333
July 3, 2008 at 5:42 pm · Filed under Flying, Seeing, Sleeping
These hotel, airline and hiking tips come courtesy of the redoubtable Maya and Matt from Seattle.
The lowdown on the hotel and airfare:
After much investigation, the package deal from Priceline seemed best, which puts us on Asiana airlines (supposedly award-winning, and you can put the miles on your United account), and we’ll stay at the Holiday Inn Golden Mile. According to my guidebook this is an excellent hotel, and it’s just a few blocks from where Lian and Meredith are staying. It was much cheaper than the Renaissance or other nearby 4 star hotels.
The actual cost might be helpful: 2 people RT airfare LA-Hong Kong (2 hour layover in Seoul) + 6 nights at the Holiday Golden Inn ran me $3100 total. (Priceline has options for various other hotels, including a couple cheaper ones).
And if you start to disassociate amidst all the bustle and commerce of the Hong Kong, then Maya and Matt offer this
sublime natural hike with which to regain your Chi:
There is a lot of hiking in Hong Kong since it’s all hills or skyscrapers.
The Victoria Peak hike (there’s a 1 hour loop) can be extended indefinitely onto some major trail, but I’m not sure that’s worth it.
The Plover Cove hike is a little ways away in New Territories - you take the rail line to Tai Po and then a taxi or bus (I prefer taxi) to Plover Cove. The trail I’m suggesting is the Pat Sin Leng nature trail, my book says “This excellent and easy 4.4 km trail leads from
Plover Cove Country Park Visitor Center at Tai Mei Tuk and heads NE to Bride’s Pool, there are signboards numbered 1 to 22 so it’s hard to get lost. The elevation gain is 300 m, the scenery is excellent, and the 2 waterfalls at Bride’s Pool are delightful.”
What a fine way to work off that roast duck noodle soup you put down the night before!
June 11, 2008 at 12:41 pm · Filed under Sleeping
A tip from my fellow Class of ‘94 Huron River Rat Susan:
I posted a message to the Princeton Traveler’s group and I got strong
recommendations for the YMCA Salisbury:
http://www.ymcahk.org.hk/sales/html/hst001e.htm
It’s in the $100-$130/night range and appears to be very close by. The
family suites are pretty much taken, but it seems that they still have
some availability for single/double rooms.
We’ve always heard good things about the Y as well, and it is very close by indeed …
June 10, 2008 at 6:26 am · Filed under Sleeping
The nexus of FinkelChang wedding fun will be in Kowloon. Lian and I are staying at the Hotel Intercontinental and will be hosting around the clock parties and salons. The hotel is on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. You are welcome to stay at the Intercontinental, however we have not been able to arrange a special group discount with them. 
However, next door (literally the hotels are connected), is the Renaissance Kowloon Hotel. This is the deal we have negotiated with them:
• $1,800HKD ($231USD) per room per night (with one daily buffet breakfast at Patio, Level 4)
• $1,930HKD ($247USD) per room per night (with two daily buffet breakfasts at Patio, Level 4)
These represent a savings of about $50USD per night off the regular sticker price. If you are interested, DOWNLOAD THE FORM HERE! This deal is good until next Monday.
Still feel a little too steep? Never fear – Arnold is still on the case for a lower rate block-hotel deal!
June 6, 2008 at 9:21 pm · Filed under Flying, Sleeping
… and smoke ‘em!
Maya and Diego, our savvy fellow travelers (also, erstwhile ITPers, recent West Coasters and newlyweds), have sent a few helpful links our way. We repost here for your edification.
First is a decent flight search aggregator, called Vayama.com. It specializes in international flights, and it’s capable of dredging up an assortment of non-domestic carriers that Kayak isn’t. Check it.
Second are some HK/Kowloon hostel links. Writes Maya:
We are staying at this place from Dec 31 to Jan 4: Hong Kong Budget Hostel
http://www.hostels.com/hosteldetails.php?HostelNumber=6533
hostels.com is not bad for finding hotels too (you can see a range of budgets, you just have to check a box to include hotels)
This one was also recommended: Dragon Hostel, http://www.hostels.com/en/availability.php/HostelNumber.5065
My friend says, “Both in same building, down the hall from each other, they are in a less touristy part of Kowloon, a 10 minute subway ride to the heart of Kowloon touristy area, or a 45 minute walk”
She also recommends AGAINST staying in the Chungking Mansions, saying that they’re crowded and the shopping area in the bottom of the mansions feels shady.
Hope this helps! (we are staying in a hostel because we plan to be out and about most of the time anyway and just need a place to crash!)
Itinerary: check. Airplane tickets: check. Accommodations: check. That’s how on top of shit Maya and Diego are. Mad props.
Hope you find this useful …
Update!
Some more hostel information from a friend of Maya’s:
For really hostel range, there is Alisan Guesthouse in Causeway Bay (around the corner from my flat actually)
http://home.hkstar.com/~alisangh/
Some friends of mine stayed there and said it was good but basic— the best part would definitely be the location.
For a similar room but possibly cheaper, and in way more colorful/chaotic/insane surroundings, would be any of the hundreds of guesthouses within Chungking Mansions in Tsim Sha Tsui. I would recommend the Himalaya (Block B, 7th Floor) for the old-school, 70s-influenced gritty guesthouse experience (the design is like something out of a Wes Anderson movie). For newer, slicker digs, try some of the top floor rooms, like New International or Tom’s Guesthouse (the new one).
For slightly higher end, check out www.asiarooms.com, and www.zuji.com.hk, for good, current deals.
May 24, 2008 at 12:20 pm · Filed under Flying, General, Sleeping
So by now you all should have received your Save-the-Date Card via the postal service. Only a few months late, but whatevs. Just as long as you receive the actual invites before the wedding itself, we should be copacetic. 
While we must apologize for the delay in recent posts, we would also like this opportunity to relay to you some evolving, and in some cases resolving (no, for real!), behind-the-scenes FinkelChang developments.
Event Schedule.
The schedule of official/non-official events has not changed since we last wrote about it. We’ve made a block reservation at a restaurant in Kowloon for New Year’s Eve for those of you in town by then. Afterwards, we can goof off in the city somewhere, or retire back to the hotel and, uh, play Scrabble. On January 2nd we’re hosting a dim sum (when in Rome …) on Hong Kong island. And beginning around 3pm on the 3rd, the ceremony, complete with a Chuppah! Get ready for a big belly-busting Chinese banquet that evening, and some disco-dancing courtesy of our dynamic guest DJ/VJ duo. Bring it.
Hotels.
Our intention is for everyone to stay on the Kowloon (peninsula) side, rather than the Hong Kong (island). Accordingly, we have been working to secure a bloc of rooms at a few hotels in the area. Stay tuned; more news soon.
Flights.
In a word, generate your itinerary and GET YOUR TICKETS SOON. Spring/summer is a good time to get reasonably priced tix – prices start rising towards the end of summer and creep on up until the holidays. A cursory search on kayak.com for the dates December 30 - January 5 reveals the following results:
NYC
• nonstop: $1282
• 1 stop: $1179
• 2 stop: $1285
Boston
• 1 stop: $1159
• 2 stop: $1166
DC
• 1 stop: $1267
• 2 stop: $1286
Chicago
• nonstop: $1518
• 1 stop: $1339
• 2 stop: $1682
Houston
• 1 stop: $1360
• 2 stop: $1437
Seattle
• nonstop
• 1 stop: $1067
• 2 stop: $1175
SF
• nonstop: $1191
• 1 stop: $1069
• 2 stop: $1175
LA
• nonstop: $1202
• 1 stop: $931
• 2 stop: $1068
London
• nonstop: $2590
• 1 stop: $1050
• 2 stop: $2066
Paris
• nonstop: $1441
• 1 stop: $1142
• 2 stop: $1224
Hope everyone is having a terrific Memorial Day Weekend, and more from us soon!
