6 Things You Should Know Before Going Hong Kong ‼️

Before I begin my list, I just wanna share that the list is purely based on what I’ve learnt and observed during the trip. Many people may already know this, but for those who haven’t visited Hong Kong or are planning a trip, please take note of the following tips to avoid the same silly mistakes I made 🤡

1️⃣ Physical Octopus Card can ONLY be top up using CASH!

💬 Perhaps many are aware of this, but I wasn’t 🥹When I first arrived in Hong Kong, I went to the top-up machine to top-up the physical Octopus card, but only to find out that they do not accept credit cards / Apple Pay. I later find out that the only way to use credit card is to download their Octopus card via App store.

2️⃣ Download ‘Octopus for Tourist’ app via App Store

💬 One thing to point out is that the top-up using credit card via Apple Pay is really a hit or a miss. Sometimes the top-up go through, and sometimes it doesn’t. So I tried to top using my Youtrip Card via Apple Pay, but the top-up didn’t get through. I then switched to another credit card, and it works! The next time when I tried to top using Youtrip, it somehow works again. Honestly, I think the tech team for the app needs to do something about this.

3️⃣ Alipay + WeChat doesn’t work in HK, unless you have HK phone number and bank account

💬 As we will be heading to Shen Zhen and Guangzhou from HK, we wanted to test out our Alipay + WeChat to see if it works in HK first. To our surprise, it didn’t work!! We only find out later that you need to have a local bank account in HK, to be able to use the two apps 🤡 Luckily, we were able to use these two apps in Shen Zhen and Guangzhou without facing any issues. By the way, please make sure you have your WeChat + Alipay Verified before heading to China (You should have the word “Verified” beside your identity information) -> Go ‘Account’ > ‘Settings’ > ‘Accounts and Security’

4️⃣ Bring more cash!! 💵

💬 Yes, I’m aware there’s Youtrip / Revolute cards. But there are still some places in HK that doesn’t accept cashless payment mode. One such example would be the famous and popular traditional Hong Kong cafe (Cha Chaan Teng), Australia Dairy Company (澳洲牛奶公司), which ONLY accept cash.

5️⃣ Be prepared to meet rude and unfriendly waiters, but food is really good!!

💬 I have heard about locals not being particularly friendly, but experiencing it firsthand was surprising!

What happened was we wanted to order the same as the other table (scramble egg toast set), and there were several options (eg. scramble eggs sandwich, scramble eggs on toast) on the menu, but we struggled with Cantonese. This made the waiter quite annoyed and impatient with us 😫 Despite the unpleasant experience, this is likely one of the best — if not the best — scrambled eggs toast I’ve ever had! It’s definitely my food highlight of the trip 🤤🍳

6️⃣ Random water droplets falling from the building

💬 I know this sounds very odd, but while walking around, I noticed there’s always random water droplets falling from buildings or seemingly out of nowhere, even when it hadn’t rained. They landed on my clothes, and once even got into my eyes 😖

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