day 3: HK disneyland

With my proposal presentation day beckoning, I am feeling much stress now as I am still halfway through. Also, the upcoming mid-semester exams is also dampening my mood. Yes, my exams finish just right before Chinese New Year…

Lately, the song “According to You” by Orianthi has been ringing in my head.

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This is my last post on my trip to Hong Kong last holidays. My next travel post will be my Christmas trip to Singapore. But I dunno if I will have any time to do that post.

After so long, I have finally fulfilled my childhood wish of visiting Disneyland!!! My Mom has been to the Tokyo one before, which she said, is very much bigger than the Hong Kong one.

At the entrance to Disneyland. The building in the background is actually the train station.

The first place that greeted us is Main Street, U.S.A.

I absolutely love the design of the buildings and the streets. Reminds me of those old vintage movies and cartoons I used to watch. Since it was almost December, the place is all decked out in Christmas decorations.

I love the buildings and their old-fashioned signs. I actually walked down the main street and snapped photos of every building I see. Kekeke.

The 2nd one is FantasyLand. No one can ever miss the chance to take pic with the legendary Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle.

In Fantasyland, we watch a 3D show (which was so cute) and took a ride at “It’s a Small World”.

     

The ride is divided into regions of the world, i.e. North America, Europe, Asia, etc. And in each region, there are miniatures with their respective countries’ cultures.

South America, with the famous Amazon rainforest.

 

Mexico and Switzerland (i think?) Are they not just so cute?

I think this was Alaska/Greenland. Looks like Winter Wonderland to me

Mini Christmas Carol Choir ;)

Besides Main Street and Fantasyland, there is also Tomorrowland with their futuristic theme.

 

Finally, there is Adventureland with the jungle theme.

I love the Christmas Parade. There were tonnes of people there so it was difficult to get a good shot.

 

Each parade car represented a different cartoon character. There were Chip N Dale, Ariel the Little Mermaid, Disney Princesses and also Toy Story.

The finale is the parade containing all of Disney’s most famous and lovable characters.

There are also booths where you can lined up to take photo with your favourite characters. I took with Mickey, Goofy and Pluto. I wanted to take with Winnie the Pooh too but there were too many people lining up. Above pic is Belle from Beauty and the Beast taking pics with some cute visitors.

At night, they even had artificial snow. Kekeke. I kinda like it but it became troublesome when it started landing on our food.

The last event of the night was to watch the lovely fireworks display coming from Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Does it not look so beautiful at night all lighted up like that?

The fireworks show was amazing and beautiful. I even took videos of it. Must cost a bomb for all those fireworks.

  

It was time to leave. So I took one last pic with the ginormous Christmas tree at the town square.

Honestly, HK Disneyland is kind of small to my expectations so we managed to finish touring the whole place pretty fast. It was also a busy day, with many visitors so Mom and I did not get on a lot of rides since it was pretty tiring just lining up for the rides.

My favourite theme park would still be Yongin Everland in South Korea. I did not manage to finish touring the place. Wished I can go there again, when it is snowing there. That would be so simply awesome.

    

For dinner, we ate at shops near our hotel. Typical Hong Kong shop just like in the dramas. We had chee cheong fun and pork innards porridge.

day 3: avenue of the stars

I have not been watching as much movies as my roommates…so far the 2 latest movies I have watched is “ZOMBIELAND” and “SHERLOCK HOLMES”.

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In Hong Kong, we stayed at this hotel called, REGAL RIVERSIDE hotel. It is a pretty small twin bed room but very clean and even has a plasma TV. Best thing is they had KBS World channel. So I was able to watch a few Korean shows even when I was in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, we always had dim sum for breakfast. We did not have the conventional hotel breakfast buffet. I think this is more refreshing. Walking to a nearby restaurant for breakfast makes one feel more like a local.

The dim sum is also not bad but since we had a lot of people, we had to go for quantity so we did not have much variety in our dim sum. The dumplings and char siew pau were really good, though.

Taken from the bus. The brown building is actually a Hong Kong University. I forgot the name, I think it was something to do with technology or engineering. You can see there are lots of cars. Most of the time, we are caught in traffic jam.

We went to a shop nearby. One thing I absolutely hate about tours is this: they bring us to these jade, ginseng, etc. shops. What a waste of time because Mom and I are not interested in buying these stuff. So all we do is loiter around the shop. I really hate these.

Our next stop is to AVENUE OF THE STARS, it is like a HK version of Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, USA. Instead of Hollywood stars, they had Hong Kong celebrities’ stars.

I love the scenery in Hong Kong.

Love this photo. It was so amazing being able to take in this view.

All about showbiz here ;)

Me with Andy Lau’s star and handprints…

Some of the famous stars that I managed to take snapshots of: Sei Tai Tin Wong - Aaron Kwok, Leon Lai and Jacky Cheung. Also Tony Leung and wife, Carina Lau. And Maggie Cheung

After this will be my last HK post on Disneyland…

day 2: visiting madame tussauds HK

short update: the supervisor's list was released a few days ago. I am really pleased to get Prof P.T. Thomas as my supervisor because he is an excellent and experienced lecturer. But I am not really good when it comes to clinical and pharmacy practice subjects so I am a little worried. My topic is on doing a questionnaire about blood glucose monitoring for diabetic patients in PPUKM. I have been worrying ever since I got my topic. Here my life of doing my final year research project begins....

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I have been quite busy since uni started but I just feel an obligation to finish up my trip posts. I know it has been really long but better late than never right? ^^

After dinner, we were taken on an optional tour to The Peak. Here was really fun because we get to enjoy the bird's eye (night) view of Hong Kong from the peak. It was so cooling here too, because of the higher altitude, which I enjoyed.

Inside the mall, there is a small tourist attraction called Madame Tussauds'. It is nowhere as huge and variable like the original in London, but I was definitely pleased to be able to take lots and lots of photos here.

1. At the entrance to the museum

The legendary Bruce Lee and our very own Datuk Michelle Yeoh greeted us at the entrance

2. Hollywood extravaganza

Many Hollywood stars in the first section. Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, Eddie Murphy, Mel Gibson, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Pierce "Double 07" Brosnan as well as supermodels Naomi Campbell and Elle Macpherson.

3. Hong Kong own's brightest

You have the HK singers/actors in the same hall as the Hollywood artistes. Leo Ku, Janice, Cecilia Cheung, Kelly Chen in wedding dress, Aaron Kwok, Miriam Yang, Joey Yung and others.

There were also tributes to some of the stars who are no longer with us - Anita Mui and also Leslie Cheung.

Oriental stars of other regions also had their wax figures displayed - Bae Yong-jun (Winter Sonata Korean), Jay Chou (Taiwan) and Ayumi Hamasaki (Japan).

4. Politicians

Too bad I did not really recognize many figures in the politics arena so I did not take pics of them. Those that I do know, like the above pic, President Obama and previous president Bush, with me at the podium. Woo-hoo~~!!

Li Ka-shing and Mao Zedong were the Asian politicians I recognized. Besides that, there were the British Royal Family monarchy and also the late Princess Diana.

5. Historical figures

Madame Tussauds and Albert Einstein.

Who else had their wax figures made? Mahatma Ghandi, Pablo Picasso, William Shakespeare, and there was a cutout of a Rembrandt painting.

6. Music through the era

Lots and lots of oldies in the room. Beatles, Elvis Presley, Tina Turner, and also the late Michael Jackson.

7. Finally, sports athletes.

I am not a huge sports fan but I do know some of the really famous ones. David Beckham, Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, Ronaldhino, and basketball player Yao Ming (even the wax figure was a giant).

Note: There are also other wax figures not stated here because either I don't recognize them or I just plain forgotten about them.

After lots of camera action inside the stuffy museum, Mom and I headed outside the mall for a nice HK scenery.

The HK night view was simply simply amazing. Many people like the countryside but honestly speaking, I love the city. The million bright lights and people who never sleeps - makes the city active and gets me excited.

Too bad my camera was not good enough to capture night sceneries but really, the view was absolutely breathtaking. This remains as one of my favourite photos from the trip.

A replica of the peak tram. Visitors can buy tickets and sit in the tram. I did not get a chance because there were just too many people lining up to buy tickets that night and when you are on a tour, time is limited. Maybe next time, hopefully ;)

Finally, our last destination before retiring in our hotel. This is Ladies Market, almost similar to our own Petaling Street, filled with lots and lots of street vendors selling everything - shoes, handbags, souvenirs and other trinkets.

However, the stuff here are not exactly very cheap. Maybe it is because of the more expensive living costs here. I did managed to buy a black quilted bag for HKD 100 as well as some fridge magnets souvenirs for my collection.

Next HK post: Avenue of Stars and Disneyland.