Day 3 – 5 Around Hong Kong & Disneyland

The thing about traveling about a cosmopolitan city is that unless you’re doing up a walking map of places to see, the whole journey around just seems pretty much haphazard with not much planning and itinerary to it. That is probably what sums up the rest of my stay in Hong Kong.

After a sumptuous breakfast in Macao, whereby we had to make a huge detour around the casino (with kids in toll) to get to the restaurant, we hitched a shuttle to bring us to the Taipa Ferry Terminal. As we had complimentary ferry tickets back to Hong Kong, we only needed to buy additional tickets for the children. That really saved us a lot of money.

The ferry brought us to Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island where we lugged our luggage down and through the MTR station towards Wan Chai station, 4 stops away. It had started to rain by the time we got to Wan Chai. As we couldn’t find the building of our apartment, I called the landlady to guide us. Apparently the entrance to the apartment is a small narrow doorway tucked between two eateries, and signposted with a purple colour signboard offering massage services (of the sleazy kind or not I do not know).

As there is some kind of restriction on short term rental of apartments in the building so we were told to pretend that we’re guests, rather than tenants. The lifts in the building were claustrophobic and could only hold about 4 of us at any one time. With our luggage, it took us three journeys to get to our apartment on the 7th floor.

While the dingy lift landing was nothing to shout about, I was pleasantly surprised that the interior of the apartment is well kept and clean. Space-wise it was, how would I say, very cozy for the nine of us. Such is the constraints within Hong Kong. With three bedrooms, and a sofa bed in the living room, we quickly allocated our sleeping quarters.

My brother and his wife took the master room with a queen sized bed. We took the room with the bunk bed plus one additional mattress, our helper took the super small room that could only fit a queen sized bed wall to wall, and my mum was happy to take the sofa bed in the living room as it was just next to the balcony.  There are two toilets and a mini kitchen. The shower area in the toilet was so small, you’d have to be super skinny to be able to close the screen.

Once settled, the first order of business was to have dinner. I had wanted for us to go to the Peak this evening but a thunderstorm was looming and our landlady advised us against it. So at last, we grabbed dinner at one of the cha chan ting (coffee shop) at the ground floor of the building. The location of the apartment was really convenient to say the least. There are many eateries and snack shops in the vicinity, the MTR just 5 minutes walk and the airport transfer A11 just one street away.

Since we couldn’t go to the Peak, Theo suggested then that we go shopping at Sogo in Causeway Bay as we also wanted to check out the Toy R Us there. He was already on his toy hunting mode. To enhance the experience, we took the tram line to Sogo. While traveling by tram is cheaper and quite the authentic experience, it was also a case of getting packed into a can of sardines.

By the time we finish our shopping spree, and having our third supper, we were ready to head back home. As everyone was rather beat and not wanting to squeeze onto the tram again, we took a cab back to the apartment instead.

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This day was fully dedicated to Hong Kong Disneyland and I was bursting with excitement. It was my first Disneyland experience, something I have always dreamt of as a kid and now I would have the opportunity to experience it for myself.

To get to Disneyland from Wan Chai, take bus A11 (the same airport transfer bus) to Lantau Link Toll Plaza. Alight and then wait for the shuttle R8 which would bring you straight to Disneyland. The travelling and waiting time took about 2 hours so by the time we got to the theme park it was close to lunch.

To get to the ticketing counter, you have to walk through a tree lined boulevard adorned with well known Disney characters and popular Disney cartoon soundtracks to raise the spirit. Truthfully the 10 minute walk brought tears to my eyes as I anticipated the magical experience ahead of us. After we got the tickets, we got on the Disneyland Railroad to bring us straight to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, bypassing the Main Street.

Without further boring you with details of the day, here are some of the rides that we took as a family and the fun appeal –

 

1. Fantasyland – The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: safe and pleasant kiddie ride through a Winnie the Pooh storybook with slight movements and water sprinklers. Not entirely exciting but good enough to enchant younger children with familiar characters

2. Fantasyland – Cinderella Carousel: the ubiquitous ride of all theme parks, standard fare which the children somehow enjoyed no matter how many times they’ve been on one

3. Fantasyland – Dumbo the Flying Elephant: pick your elephant and control how you want to fly it, up or down. The queue for Dumbo was quite long and may not be worth the 2-minute thrill. But then again, it seems like after you fly an elephant, you just want to do it again.

4. Tomorrowland – Space Mountain: roller coaster ride through the galaxies in complete darkness. Extremely thrilling ride not for the faint hearted especially since you don’t know where you’re heading or when the ride will end.

5. Tomorrowland – Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters: Long queue but well worth the time. It’s an exciting and engaging ride where you get to shoot and kill alien monsters with your laser beam. Particularly fun is having the flexibility to turn your rocket 360 degrees, and to pit your shooting skills against your friends. Suitable for all ages too!

6. Tomorrowland – Autopia: For the child or the child in the adult, the chance to drive a car around a track never fails to appeal.

7. Adventureland – Jungle River Cruise: A river safari cruise around the theme park where you can see almost life like wildlife emerging from bushes and be prepared for a fiery encounter.

8. Toy Story Land – Slinky Dog Spin: Get your fill of centrifugal force as Slinky spins round and round chasing after his tail.

9. Toy Story Land – Toy Soldier Parachute Drop: From the bottom it doesn’t seem like a tall order, but once you’re enlisted, the fall from the heights seems dizzily scary. Quite a good workout for the arms as well.

10. Grizzly Gulch – Runaway Mine Cars: A roller coaster ride with a story and a twist. Definitely not as scary as Space Mountain, and may somehow entice you to go for seconds once you’ve overcome your fear of roller coasters.

11. Main Street – Flights of Fantasy Parade: Taking place everyday at 3pm for about 30 minutes, station yourself at the entrance to Sleeping Beauty Castle or anywhere along the Main Street to come up close and personal with the various Disney characters and their colourful floats. A real feast for the eyes!

As you can tell, we didn’t get the chance to try all the rides even though the queues were quite moderate. The park was just too big to enjoy fully in a day and with kids who need to rest, snack and just run wild constantly. But overall the experience was a very memorable one and by 7.30pm, we were ready to leave. Though we could have waited to watch the fireworks, we decided to leave earlier so as not to squeeze with the exiting crowds.

Nice touch to having a Disney themed MTR as well!

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Final day in Hong Kong and it was a blistery cold and foggy day! Any hopes of visiting the Peak so that my mum could see the famous landmark of HK dissipated and we contended to do more toy shopping. After a sumptuous tim sum lunch at a nearby restaurant, we ventured to Central to check out the Toy R Us branch there. Ended up spending more than a hundred dollars on a Mr Potato Head, a giant foam T Rex, a mini Snow White doll, and Power Rangers Pirate Megazord.

As my mum was visibly tired after this, while Theo wanted to do more toy hunting, we split our ways. I took a bus to bring my mum, my helper and my two younger children back to the apartment first, while Theo took Joel to Kowloon. I would meet with Theo later once they are back in the apartment.

For the first time, I felt like I was on an adventure in a foreign land. As Theo had stayed in HK for six months during his studies here, I didn’t have to worry but alone and with my mum and my children to care for, a huge burden fell on me to choose the right bus and stop at the right stop to get us back. Fortunately I got it right the first time. Then it was hitching a train to meet Theo at Yau Ma Tei. (Turned out that after I left my mum went and had her own little adventure around the neighbourhood too!)

When I met up with Theo, we visited several toy collectors shops but the one with the biggest offerings was at In’s Point which carried 4 levels of toy shops selling Transformers, Marvel, Power Rangers, Gundam etc. However most of the shops only open around 3 pm so we spent about an hour loitering around window shopping and making our pick. Seems like many ardent fans were also doing the same.

After all said and done, we ended up with a Snake Year edition Omega Supreme at about 20% cheaper than the price in Singapore and a Transformers Prime Smoke Screen (released here in HK before Singapore, though prices were comparable). I also got some mini Power Rangers figurines.

Then it was a mad rush back to the apartment to check out at 5pm and catch our flight back to Singapore.