Hong Kong - Disneyland, Part 2

Tour date: 11th December 2006

My girl with the sleeping beauty castle at the back in below photo. I couldn't upload another photo of her with Snow White due to blurry image. Pity her as the boys voted her out for exploration inside the castle as they were more keen to take adventurous ride.

They compromise for a small ride at Cinderella Carousel. Again, there was a long ques for the entry.

Passionately waited for the ride to go through.

All four of them inside the swirling cup at the Mad Hatter.

More shopping at Disney outlets for family and friends back home.

Nasrul used to be a huge fan of Buzz Light year. Though the Toy Story land was recently fully completed, there was already a small section for us to see the advertisement of the Toy Story land. The kids enjoyed the Toy Story movie till they all turn into teenage years.

This is the Future Land section. We had an amazing roller coaster ride inside without any photos of us.

A highlight of the night was a beautiful show, Disney in the Stars, a nightly fireworks show based on Fantasy in the Sky at other Disney parks. Fireworks and pyrotechnics are coordinated to orchestrated classic Disney musics such as "A whole new World" (where everybody singing together). The same show was first premiered on 12 September 2005 at the park's inaugural ceremony. I'm sharing some of the photos taken during the awesome show.

We needed to rush back to catch the bus that took us back to the hotel. The tour agent had specifically reminded again and again the time of bus pick-up so that we wont miss our bus. A way out was packed and too crowded with other people dashing out at the same time.

I hope one day, my children will bring my grandchildren to Hong Kong Disneyland and pray that I would be able to witness the event. Maybe, someday :)

Hong Kong - Disneyland, Part 1

Tour date: 11th December 2006

Hong Kong Disneylaned is located on a reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It is the first theme park located inside the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, owned and managed by the Hong Kong International Theme Parks. It was opened to visitors on 12 September 2005, just a year in operation at the time of our visit. We had our group photo taken on the Disneyland main entrance by 1 of the tourist.

Disney attempted to avoid problems of cultural backlash by attempting to incorporate a Chinese culture, customs, and traditions when designing and building the resort, including adherence to the rules of feng shui. A bend was put in a walkway near the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort entrance so good qi @ chi (good) energy wouldn't flow into the South China Sea.

The 2 photos up and below were at the first part of the entrance and entering into the main street of USA.

The park consists of 6 themed areas, 1) Main Street USA, 2) Fantasy land, 3) Adventure land 4) Tomorrow land, 5) Grizzly Gulch and 6) Toy Story Land. The theme park's cast members speak in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin. Guide maps are printed in traditional and simplified Chinese as well as English, French, and Japanese for easy guidance to all it's visitors. For the first part of the entry, I'm sharing our activities before dawn and nightfall due to our short available time to explore all 6 theme parks.

With Sleeping Beauty Castle as a background photo

Below 2 photos are my family photos at the first park, the Main Street of USA with a feeling of a cowboy town with US Marshal looking after the safety aspect of the street. The street was designed to resemble an early 20th-century Midwest town. It was so unfortunate that the kids were not able to explore and experience this street more due to short available times.

After a quick passing through and some photos in the main street, we took a Disneyland Railroad for a relaxing journey and brief overview of the whole parks. We did not miss a thing during a ride and decided which section of the park that we shouldn't missed before witnessing a peak show of a day, Disney fireworks. Children's bought souvenirs for themselves and friends.

Thereafter, we adjourned straight to Adventure Land thinking that the fantasy land was only meant for Syahirah, our only girl. We could just walked by later after everybody had their fun at the Adventure Land. For the record, both the Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land sections was only fully completed and operational in year 2012. 

Below is a crossing bridge to the Tarzan house. We enjoyed the jungle featuring theme, mostly imitate from the Disneyland movies in this section.

We managed to ques for raft rides. It was a long ques and the rides was not really that fun after all.

Naim and Syahirah with the ethnic drummers performing their beautiful native song before we headed back to Tomorrow Land and Fantasy Land. The sun has almost about to set and not much natural lighting at that point but the next 2 section (in the next entry) was beautifully lighten up.

To be continued....

Hong Kong - City Tour, Part 2

Tour date: 11th December 2006

After we finished with the sightseeing at the Victoria Peak, the tour bus took us to 1 of the famous temple, Kwum Yam Shrine in Hong Kong, seated next to beautiful beaches. On a foot walk from the bus parking area, the tour agent had pointed up to Jackie Chan's house right on top of the hill. Thus, I took hubby and the kids using Jackie Chan's house as a background for memento. The cliff of Qian Shui Wan is where a bunch of rich and famous people built an exclusive hideouts for themselves, including Jackie Chan. But I believe, it must be 1 of the house from many of Jackie Chan's property collection.

The Repulse Bay beach is properly kept and well maintained to appreciate the rich neighbourhood. It has a nice children's playground and becoming 1 of tourist major attraction.

The Taoist shrine of Kwum Yam is located just after the children's park at the south eastern end of Repulse Bay of Hong Kong Island. Mostly people came here offering their prayer, whilst, tourist like us just took the opportunity to take photos within a beautiful shrine.

Statues of Kwum Yam

We were told by the tour guide that a touch to Cai Shin (God of prosperity) tummy shall bring good luck and wealth, so, while hubby was entertaining him, we pushed Nasrul up to the Camel stone sculpture. He was very pleased.

Adjacent to the camel statue and next to Kwum Yam statue is a huge statue of Tin Hau. Tin Hau is the English transliteration based on the common Cantonese name of Mazu, 1 of the goddess and/or deities in Taoism belief. 

Tin Hau big statue

Just a left out photo from the 1st entry of taking a ride from the boat for cruising at the Victoria Harbour.

We were so frustrated when the bus made a final stop at the gemstone factor cum exhibition centre to attract tourist buying. Though we complaint as we will be left with so little time to enjoy Disneyland, the tour agent just shut deaf his ear. This was the last trip that we book our tour through any tour agent. Till date, what we did was booking an air ticket and hotels through online and arranged the transport upon our arrival.

Every movement with  a large group were slowing us down.  Each rides for the bus to finally take us to the Disneyland seems to be a nightmare.

As you can see by the way we were crossing a sea tunnel to Disneyland it was already close to 5pm. Sigh.

To be continued... 

Hong Kong - City Tour, Part 1

Tour date: 11th December 2006

Our accommodation in Hong Kong is at Metropark Hotel, Mongkok seated on excellent location in Kowloon, a minute's walk from Prince Edward MRT station. It provides an airport shuttle bus service and it has an award winning Chinese restaurant inside. Among it's nearby attractions are the Goldfish market and Fa Yuen Street. The Ladies market and Sai Yeung Choi Street are less than 10 minutes walk from the hotel. 

Nasrul on viewing deck of Victoria Peak

By 8am, we were ready and waited at the bus stop outside the hotel for the bus provided by the local tour agent to fetch us for city tour and later the same bus will send us to Disneyland. Though we pray that the transfer was smooth and in time, following the given schedule, it was not happen in our case. We ended up regretting taking the package and wishes that we should have go around places on our own. The service was miserably and poorly rated.

After numerous stop fetching the rest of the tourist on nearby hotels, the Hong Kong tour guide made the first stop at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) located at Victoria Harbour. The place was opened in 1988 and became the premier venue for international convention and meeting location. We had our family photos taken by the tour guide in below photo.

Golden Bauhinia Square

Victoria harbour provides a perfect backdrop for events held in the Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). We had few photos to reminiscence the spectacular view of the Victoria Harbour which is a major attraction in Hong Kong. The most splendid view of yearly fireworks display on second night of the Lunar New Year is the most popular event held in the harbour. 

Below photo is the Tsim Shat Sui Waterfront Promenade constructed by the New World Hotel in 1982. In 2003 the group, New World Hotel sponsored HK$40 million for the construction of "Avenue of Star, a salute to eminent Hong Kong film star, open in April 2004. The Avenue of Stars becoming a famous tourist attraction. 

Avenue of a Stars

After we had enough with the photo shoots, the bus took us to Jumbo Floating Restaurant. In here, we had a choice to ride a motorized boat seated nearer the floating restaurant and be acquainted with how fisherman in Hong Kong. The ride is HK$50 for each person. 

Our next destination was to Victoria Gap or famously known as "The Peak", seated at about 150 meters below the summit of Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is a mountain located in the western half of the Hong Kong Island. We had an unobstructed view of Victoria Harbour and it's metropolis. 

To be continued....