So it was the last day of our fierce and fearless Hong Kong trip and everyone was experiencing different levels of bittersweet knowing that in a few hours, we would have to leave and kiss this beautiful city goodbye.
But enough of the drama. Here is how our Day 3 went.
We woke up at 7 am in the morning feeling refreshed and energized. The past 2 days were starting to take their toll but it was as if that precious few hours of sleep erased all that. We had time to kill before Disneyland opens (it opens at 12 noon) so we had planned to explore another famous HK tourist spot and hopefully grab some lunch (with rice please!) along the way.
We stayed in Cosmic Guesthouse. This was a hostel in Tsim Sha Tsui at Mirador Mansion. The room was quite small but spacious enough for 4. Airconditioning was good and the comfort room is clean. Staff is also accommodating.
Thank God for 7-11. They sell at affordable prices and they sell food we could understand. 🙂
Destination 1: Victoria Harbour
Victoria harbor was just a few minutes away from our hotel so we decided to walk (we were not going to waste the precious few dollars left on our octopus cards) and enjoy the sights while doing so.
It was midmorning when we reached the harbour and the sight that greeted us took our breaths away.
Seeing the majestic view of Hong Kong island across the sea with the star ferries on full cruise, the gulls flying overhead, the mild breeze blowing our hair and scarves was one of my favorites of the trip. We were so into our “tourist mode” happily taking pictures that we hardly noticed the time.
The famous statue of Bruce Lee
Me at Avenue of the Stars. I kind of regret now having brought that tacky scarf.
We took our lunch at Café de Coral which we found on our way to the subway. It was the first normal lunch that I had since Day 1 and by normal, I meant rice with a slightly recognizable dish (still had that smell/”essence of hk” that I hated but still). The menu is not that expensive and the servings were huge.
Baked Porkchop – apparently a famous dish as this was suggested to us by a chinese-newyorker we met on a train. It’s really good.
With Victoria Harbour and Lunch ticked off on our checklist for the day, it was DISNEY time.
DISNEY LAND
Now don’t get me wrong. I have wanted to go to Disney Land when I was a child. But that was when I was a child. So I wasn’t as excited as the others to go there. I supposed I’d just tag along for the pics and some more sightseeing but I wasn’t really expecting to really “enjoy” it. Ocean park was the one theme/adventure park that I was looking forward to and it didn’t disappoint me. I was hardly expecting Disney Land to live up to the thrill I had at Ocean Park.
But I just had to step inside the Disney Train (the one that goes straight to the Sunny Bay station through Disney Resort Line. Yes Disney has its own exclusive railway.) and it was as if I’ve never thought those thoughts at all. I was mortified and quite embarrassed really to see myself getting all giddy and excited at the sight of the train’s mickey-shaped windows. I had thought those childish feelings have long been buried along with my childhood memories in a safe vault inside my head but I was wrong. And when we reached Disneyland and saw the gates and the welcoming Mickey Statue surfing on top of a fountain shooting off of a whale’s head, I was already lost. The child inside had escaped and had taken over.
Disneyland will definitely not disappoint. Everything is designed to mimic scenes and places you only see in storybooks and animated movies. There were Disney castles, princesses, animals, and every Disney character you can imagine on full display at different parts of the park.
(ROSE: We had to skip the picture taking with the Disney characters to get a good place for the parade which starts at 3:30pm. Though Sam managed to get a picture with Snow White and the prince charming)
I particularly liked Toy Story Land. It was a newly opened section of Disneyland and it had by far the most challenging ride of Disney – the RC RACER. Of course we chose the last row of seats, daredevils that we were!
RC Racer. We were at the tip of that ride. hahaha
I also loved Space Mountain. We went inside a pitch black dome that had a roller coaster inside it. It was quite a scary experience at first because you don’t get to see where the coaster is going to take you. You just have to brace yourself for the next twist, loop, or sudden fall. It also tries to replicate a space scenario where they put up lights, stars, planets and it also had space music!
The experience was quite exhilarating that we had to do another take. Of course the fact that our faces on the picture (we didn’t purchase it we just stole-shot it from the monitors) were quite hilarious on our first take also helped push us to have a do-over. We can’t just have this picture as our remembrance of the legendary space mountain, can we?
This is more like it.
We ended the day watching the parade and the fireworks which was something special. The palace glowed and was bathed with different colors by the fireworks while musical scores from famous disney movies were playing in the background. It really brings you back to your Disney years – and if you didn’t at one point in your life go thru a Disney Phase, then you didn’t have a proper childhood. Hahaha.
Disneyland was a child’s dream come true. Whereas Ocean park was all about thrills, and near-death experiences (ok maybe I’m exaggerating a bit with that but try “the Abbys” and you’ll certainly see where I’m coming from), Disney Land was all about feeling good.
It was around 7 pm when we left Disneyland. All in all, it was an uneventful trip going back to the hotel, getting the bags and taking the subway on the way to the airport until the very last connecting ride. We knew that we could ride the a21 bus from Tsim Sha Tsui straight to the airport but we were afraid of the traffic so we decided to take the subway and its interconnecting network of railways. We figured it’s cheaper and faster – Only to realize that we were right about it being the faster way. But cheaper it is not! We had no problems on our first few connecting rides until we reached the last route where we had to take the airport express. We didn’t know that it would cost 50 hkd. To our dismay, our octopus cards failed us this time. We had to reload at the nearest 7-11 store(so much for saving a few hkd’s). But the airport express was certainly an interesting ride. We got to sit on plush and comfortable chairs and there was internet! It was also super fast that we felt the pressure on our ears. I definitely would take the A21 bus next time though.
So that ends our Day 3 in Hong Kong. I would definitely love to be back because there were still a lot of places I didn’t get to go to. And this time, I wouldn’t make the mistake of not making it to the peak of Victoria peak again!
Till the next DIY trip! Ciao!
Guest post by: Samuel Samson