Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Playing

It's the second day, and I'm totally groggy. 7am. Lack of sleep. 3 people in a room, always ending up waking the other 2 when inadvertently make a a noise.

The tour leader took us for a short walk out of the hotel that led to a Dim sum breakfast! That's in Federal Restaurant, hidden in some crevice of an old shopping mall. That's out of the ordinary itinerary, so we shelled out 50HKD for it. It was worth it just for the custard-filled paus (white silky-smooth steamed buns)!

The classics like chee cheong fun and har gow weren't too shabby, but you really can get equally good stuff down in Singapore.

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Headed to Ngong Ping, where the darned cable car got sheared off by the wind a few days ago, leaving the cablecar ride down for at least 3 months (according to the South China Morning Post)

Thus we had to get up by own means, and that meant walking taking the minibus all 600 or so metres up. It was a really windey, ear-popping 45-minute journey, through undeveloped secondary forest. You could see streams, hikers and a jail.

Finally there, and you see a giant buddha with an equally-large incense urn in front.







For non-believers like me, that counts as a 'boooooring'. Though the cool mountain air felt good, as compared to the stuffy humid dank we get 600m below. I went off to get a bottle of cola and waited in the bus... to get to Disneyland!

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Disneyland! Worth every cent! They say amusement parks are for the kids, to which I say: O RLY?


Even the gate screams FUN FUN FUN!


This adventure is brought to you by Minnie and her 2 goofy assistants!


Main St, USA. CLASSIC. I didn't walk into Disneyland with much expectations (I'm long past watching Mickey on TV and all), but WHOA.


The Lion King Show! Beeeeeeayoooooootiful. So sweet I nearly cried in the middle of the audience. Oh, and the musical accompaniment here totally pwns the original movie soundtrack.


Thank goodness for Canon A710IS's Image Stabilization and ISO800 sensitivity.


Seizure-inducing colourfulness!


Have some eleFUN!

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Pirates of the Carribean! Jungle Boat Ride! Classic!


Beware of realistic crocs, piranah attacks, artillery pirate attacks and fire! You can actually feel the flames! They actually captured the whole pirate atmosphere pretty well, complete with creaky boardwalks and all. Is it the lack of sleep making me gush about every single thing? Bet not.


Drizzled. And it was quiet again.


Mom's shoe broke. Had to get slippers. They're meant to be exorbitantly-priced ripoff souvenirs, but hey, they cost all off 70HKG, that's 14 Singapore Dollars!

Tour guide says prices in Disneyland Hong Kong are kept intentionally cheap to attract their major clientèle, the Chinamen from next door with their lesser purchasing power. Yay for them stinky Chinamen!

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Welcome to Tomorrowland!





Took a quick ride at Autopia, which is essentially, electric cars on tracks, where you press the pedal to accelerate, let go to brake and steer within the narrow space allowed to you. Boooooring. Especially with a slow female driver in front.



Lunched. Fried chicken was the only thing that's barely worth it in here, and strangely, they do provide HDPE plastic gloves so you wont get your grubby hands dirty, or your grubby chicken dirty (whatever way you see it).


To infinity and beyond!


And nu-uh, that isn't a new slogan for alkaline batteries. It's Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters! In this game you ride in carts where you can swivel using a joystick. As it trots along, you see enemies with targets labelled 'Z'. Take your pistol and blast them!


Space Mountain! The rollercoaster in the dark! It brings you into a journey to space, complete with lots - and I mean - lots of heartdropping drops in the dark. Hold on tight and lean into the bends - only if you manage to see them first! My scaredey parents declined to join me.

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STOP! It's Disney Parade time!











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Disney's Golden Mickeys. The most boring half an hour in Hong Kong so far, with the exception of the wait at Chek Lap Kok Customs. And it's in Cantonese and I had to read the teeny weeny subtitles projected onto the side. Bah.

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Oh, and that slow train that's meant to traverse the perimeter of the park is under construction for half of it, so it only brings you from Main St. to Fantasyland, one way. Not to mention, forget about getting paranomic views on it, you'll get metres upon metres of foliage thrusted into your view.

But wait! I forgot! Check out Autopia if you haven't had the thrill of driving a real car before. And Mickey's Philharmonic 3D show, with really true 3D sound effects and obligatory 3D polarising eyeglasses. And well, be surprised when your leg hairs rustle midway! Sentosa's doing something similar, though for $16 just for the ride. Disneyland Hong Kong makes a total mockery out of money-grubbing Sentosa.

Shopped for souvenirs and well, did I mention, they're strangely affordable! Got myself a pair of Mickey-themed Crocs (who can possibly not like the red/black combination?) and changed into them. They're ueberly comfortable, except for the weird tingly feeling you wet when walking on those textured soles...


After many not-so-amazing rides, (the Pooh bear ride wasn't worth the wait AT ALL unless you're below the age of 8) night fell.

And the fireworks began. Some pretty low-height fireworks that wouldn't have been half fun without Sleeping Beauty's castle as the backdrop and the musical accompaniment.





Hell, the tickets are expensive but they pay for the shreer amount of land (in crowded Hong Kong), manpower, fireworks, resources, licenses, decorations, rides, ride design and everything you enjoy so tremendously!

Made our way back Main Street and out to the coach park. Saw this gay couple both wearing white and skipping around like they're one entity. How... sweet.

Left with a sense of loss. It was so fun. While dad and mom are bitching about the tour coach being late. (They're cranky old people who bitch and moan about everything).

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A quick dinner near the hotel. Wanton noodles! Differences: Wantons are more prawn than pork, and hell they're really fresh. The wantons are seasoned with aniseed. The noodles are soft and glassy. They don't normally sell it soupless. They don't serve it with pickled green chilli. But still, yum!



Ye ol' pirate booty for today!

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