HK Disney Craze
19 Oct 2005 — Hee hee, took a little break over the weekend, but I’m back blogging now. Oh, but not before I thank Sumie for the wonderful dinner she cooked us on Monday night (Potato Salad, Curry Chicken with Brown Rice, and Caramel Pudding) as well as the sweet engagement card and gorgeous bunch of calla lilies — just like her to always be so thoughtful and generous.
9 Sep 2005 — And back to HK… thought I’d take some pictures in the day to show you the views we get from the hotel room
Quite amazing hey? One side’s the port and the other’s the mountain.
So with Peiling and Shihui both at work today, I’m left to wander around HK on my own. And usually when one thinks of HK, they think about the shopping. However having came from China, I really can’t bring myself to buy anything, ‘cos most things cost at least 3 times more, and they basically look very much like the same stuff that you can get in China anyway. The only thing that I’m more interested in is perhaps the fashion, but here’s the crazy thing about buying clothes in HK: in most places, you’re not allowed to try on tops! Some shops allow exchange if it’s the wrong size, but some don’t even let you do that?!? I don’t know but to me, that’s just crazy. Size apart, what if you don’t like the colour on you, or the fit?!? It’s like having to gamble every time you go out shopping, and I for one am not willing to take the risk.
Hence I just end up window-shopping a lot. Same again today, till I came across… none other than 2%!
Remember that shop in Xu Jia Hui in Shanghai where I ended up spending a bomb? That was just a teeny-tiny little stall in a department store, here right in front of me is an actual 2-storey shop, chocked full of 2% fashion. Best part is 75% of their stuff was on 70% sale! And what was great was that they carried stuff for guys as well, so I didn’t neglect Billie in my shopping spree. I went crazy, must have spent hours there.
The total damage: HK$876! Not too bad considering I got 14 items from that!
After all that shopping, had to recharge with some HK street fare: curry fishballs, deep-fried intestines, waffles, cuttlefish, etc… Shiok!
With some time to kill still, and with disney craze hitting HK, I thought I musn’t miss out on the fun too. HK Disneyland officially opens on 12 Sep, which is the day I leave for Beijing, so won’t be able to make it for the actual thing, but as of the moment, the Disneyland train line and the Disneyland train station itself are already operational. You’ll soon see that those are very much part of the magic too! Let’s go!
Here you see the countdown machine — only 3 days to go!
…and here the directions to the Disneyland Resort line, its allocated colour: Pink!
This is the map on the trains.
I shouldn’t tease you any further…
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…and here’s the train itself! Wow! So cute! Have you seen anything more adorable?!?
The windows are in the shape of Mickey!
And so are the hand rails!
The seats are also more comfy than the usual trains. And see, separating the rows of seats are the displays of all our favourite Disney characters!
There’s Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio and Tinkerbell from Peter Pan.
Pluto and Snow White
Chip & Dale and funny ol’ Donald
And of course Mickey & Minnie!
Before you know it, we’ve arrived at the station.
Here’s what it looks like from the outside. With all those lights on, doesn’t it look enchanting? Just like in the movies!
I thought here was where the fun ends, but to my surprise, we were allowed to wander around the grounds even though the main attraction was not opened yet.
Here’s the main entrance. As we got closer to the entry gates, you’re met by a gigantic musical fountain that changes colours according to the music. Pretty stunning, especially at night.
On the way back to Central station to meet Shihui, I couldn’t help but stop to get some of my favourites!
Yes, you’ve guessed right! It is mooncake, and they’ve actually set up stall right in the station itself! How enterprising. And see, it’s our favourite brand too — Wing Wah, and this being HK itself, the mooncakes were so cheap compared to Sydney, too bad Billie’s not here with me… oh well, I’ll just have to have his share too then! Hah!
And finally for dinner tonight, Shihui brought me to a Korean restaurant.
Oh, I just love all those cold kimchi dishes — especially when they’re complimentary! For mains, we had seafood noodles, which is being prepared by the waitress.
And also, BBQ pork ribs and squid. Whoo hoo!
But the specialty of the place was this cold crab dish! Shihui says other than in Korea itself where she first had this tasty morsel, this restaurant was the only one around that served it. Oooh… cold raw crab meat served with tons of bibimbab sauce, absolutely scrumptious!!!