Hong Kong Disneyland is 10 years old and has a daily capacity of 34,000 visitors — the fewest of all Disneyland parks.  The park was also constructed very quickly, taking 2 years and opened early, with additional lands such as Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land opening later.

It’s funny looking at the reactions of people who asked if we were going to Hong Kong Disneyland.  Ranging from “Oh cool” to “Don’t go there, only Mainlanders go!”  Funny, given most of the people who visited the day we were there, were mainly people from Hong Kong. I think Hong Kongers are afraid to admit that they actually like something as kawaii as Disney, maintaining the British-influenced stiff upper lip.

To get there, you can easily get to Hong Kong Disneyland via MTR from Sunny Bay.  There is s dedicated line featuring a subway with Mickey Ear windows.  Inside the train has statues of Disney characters.  Seating is very similar to the monorail at Tokyo Disneyland.

Hong Kong Disneyworld is a small park, and it can be done in half a day, especially if the park attendance is lower, which it was.  Scott and I had no problems getting on rides within 5 minutes of joining the queue.

One question we get asked is, “Are the rides big enough for big people?”  We can say, without a doubt, yes.  It’s not like Canada’s Wonderland where Scott and I have problems getting on rides.  Both Hong Kong and Tokyo Disneylands fit big people.

The park is gorgeous, and the lands around the park just add to the stunning scenery – the green hills and mountains.  Local foliage used.

When you arrive at the park, check out the fountain at the entrance, especially the Mickey riding on top of the Whale’s blow spout.

Main Street is uncovered, different from Tokyo and Paris, and refreshingly does not feature a Starbucks! You will notice that Sleeping Beauty’s castle is even smaller than the one at Disneyland.  Funny thing is, the first time I went to any Disney park, which was Disneyland in Anaheim, I thought Sleeping Beauty’s castle was really quite small and I was disappointed.  For the record, Shanghai Disneyland’s castle will be the biggest in the system, bigger than the one at Magic Kingdom at WDW.

We started out in Tomorrowland which seems more futuristic than than it’s retro-futuristic brother at WDW.  Not a criticism, just different and they both have their charms.

Definitely check out Space Mountain and Autotopia.  Space Mountain is definitely different and has some very cool visual effects.  Autotopia features electric vehicles!

I really would love to return for the Iron Man Experience which opens in 2016.  Beyond Stitch, Iron Man is my next favourite Disney, uh, Marvel character.  Yeah, that’s it.

The parades at Hong Kong Disneyland are fantastic- Flights of Fantasy is the 3pm parade, and Paint The Night is the night parade.  During both of the parades, the people actually in the parade REALLY ham it up, getting into their character and interacting with the crowds in a big way.

For Flights of Fantasy, they pull people into the parade to dance at one point.  With Paint the Night, if you have the Hong Kong Disneyland Magic Brush or one of the colour wants from WDW, you can change colours of some of the dancers and a massive electronic wall that’s part of the parade.  It’s quite something. Also if you have the Made with Magic Mickey Glove, Glow Ears or Glow Headband with bow, those will change colour with the parade too.

I’m torn between Tokyo’s or Hong Kong’s night parade being my favourite.  Both have amazing night time photography opportunities, but I think Hong Kong’s wins out for the interactive nature.  If you can’t get to Hong Kong, you can see the Paint the Night Parade at Disneyland in California, so be sure to check it out.

If you don’t have a glow brush to interact with the shows, you can get a package of a glow brush and a glow hand or a glow band for CAD$25.  That’s cheap and a great deal!

It’s fun to have colour change duels with staff selling the brushes at the park. *GRIN*

Admittedly, I’m not one for parades.  The thought of standing in the heat of the sun drives me nuts.  I will say, for both Tokyo and Hong Kong, I’m glad we stuck around for the parades.  They blew me away.

It’s a Small World, always a classic to go on, features characters singing in their native language as well Canada has a significantly bigger presence in the ride than it does in other Small Worlds I’ve been to.  It’s refreshing to see.

Toy Story Land is fantastic!  I am a huge fan of Pixar films and I’ve always wanted to visit Toy Story Land.  Be sure to go on the RC Racer coaster.

Mystic Point is where you’ll find the Mystic Manor which features Disney’s new GPS ride system.  It is AMAZING and a must-do ride!

Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars in Grizzly Gulch is an awesome rollercoaster and almost a combination of Expedition Everest and Big Thunder Mountain. That’s all I will say as I don’t want to ruin any surprises.

Food-wise, Hong Kong Disneyland caters to local tastes.  We found restaurants that offered Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, and Singaporean, in addition to some North American favourites.  We didn’t actually eat at the park due to the huge lunch we had at Crystal Lotus, but did have a snack of curried fish balls which were tasty!

In Tomorrowland you can even get a Mickey lunch box with your meal!

We stayed at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, which is almost a mini version of Grand Floridian.  Such  gorgeous hotel with a great view of Discovery Bay.  If you stay at the hotel, it includes entrance to the park.  Not a bad deal.

Crystal Lotus?  I’ll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

All in all, a nice ending to the holiday.  Tomorrow  we get up at 4:50am to start our 24 hour journey back to Toronto.

To some of us, it’s easy to chuckle at the graphic nature of some of the health and safety posters seen around Hong Kong, but putting yourself in the shoes of someone who has never experienced a big city before, these posters are quite vital to those who simply don’t know better due to life experiences.

When you’re dealing with multiple cultures and different ways of living, and also remembering that Hong Kong dealt with SARS (as did Toronto), and also knowing that there was a recent outbreak of MERS in South Korea, it’s not surprising the Hong Kong and other countries in Asia take health, wellness and safety importantly.

Originally titled: Day 12: Fragrant Harbour – 香港

Givenchy, Gautier, Darling, names names names!  We even passed by Harvey Nicks, sweetie!  Patsy and Edina would be very happy!

After spending the day away from the central business districts of Hong Kong and Kowloon, we decided to spend time closer to Hong Kong by… going to Hong Kong, the city.  People often think of Hong Kong as the combined entities of Kowloon and Hong Kong themselves, but it’s a much bigger place as evidenced by our visit to Tai O yesterday.  I know I’m guilty of that.

Hong Kong is an autonomous territory, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.  Previously it was a British Overseas Territory, handed back to China as agreed to after a 99 year lease in 1997.  An area of 7.2 million people.

It is a vibrant, busy place.  It has no taxes, so shopping is relatively cheap relative to some places.  If you’re looking for a new watch, gold, jade or a new suit, this is the place to be.

MTR is an awesome service.  If you’re a traveller, order the airport express pass in advance and you get 3 days of unlimited travel which was perfect for our needs.

One of the things that struck me about MTR, are the advertisements for safety.  They’re quite funny to me at one level because I can be pretty twisted, but these are very important advertisements especially for mainlanders who may not have the big city experiences that some of us do have.  As MTR’s slogan goes, “Caring for life’s journeys”, and it shows.

Getting up, the day was grey, rainy and humid.  Totally unlike our first day which was beautiful.  When in Rome, do as the Romans – Get yourself an umbrella and make the best of it.

We headed to Causeway Bay which was similar to the area our hotel was in, except for the guys hawking “Copy Watches” and suits – There were none, which was very refreshing!

Ah yes, the guys who love to approach you and say, “Friend!  I’ve got beer for you if you come and look at my suits!  I’ve got ice cream, friend!” or the guys that, right in front of a Rolex shop ask if I’m interested in a copy watch which is a fake watch that might last a year if you’re lucky.  Dude, seriously, I’m wearing an Apple Watch, or a Citizen Blue Angels Skyhawk, or a 25^th Anniversary Swatch Club watch… Do you really think I’m going to be wanting to buy a copy watch?  I’m going to go to a reputable dealer and buy that Seiko Astron for $2000 (which I did not), not go for a copy watch.

I do like watches, I have to admit and I will say that the pricing was out of my league despite the tax free/duty free pricing.

None the less, I am amazed at the number of shops that sell jewellery in Hong Kong and amazed that theses businesses are sustainable.

It’s amazing seeing bamboo being used for construction.  I’ve heard about this and seen pictures, but never in the flesh.

The rain soon cleared up as did the fog/mist/cloud coverage on Victoria Peak, so we decided to get the cable car up to Victoria Peak.  Yes, another tourist trap mecca, but has to be done. J   The cable car journey is quite something.  You’re easily at a 45 degree incline.  It’s quite something to experience especially as a big guy.

The view from Victoria Peak is stunning.  Such a beautiful view of Hong Kong, Kowloon and environs.  It has to be done at least once, and take it from me, words do not do it justice, nor pictures.

We stopped for lunch at the Hong Kong Day restaurant at the peak.  Don’t bother with the other restaurants there, they’re expensive and somewhat westernized.  The Hong Kong Day, while probably inflated, has good cheap food relatively speaking and it was tasty!

We got the Star Ferry back to Kowloon.  This, again, is something that must be done.  For HK$2, it’s cheap, historic and you get some amazing views of the CBD.

Sadly, for today, I did not have my good camera on me, mainly because of the rain so had to settle for my iPhone camera.

One of the first people I worked with when I started my career 20 years ago at Nortel, lives in Hong Kong along with his wife.  He had arranged dinner at the Peninsula Hotel, specifically at Springmoon, the Chinese Restaurant within the hotel.

Scott and I knew this was quite an upscale hotel without even walking in.  Heck, after walking into our hotel and seeing some choice luxury automobiles, walking into the Peninsula and seeing the cars parked outside, we felt very out of place.  Very out of place.

The lobby of the hotel was out of this world, just beautiful.

Dinner was off the planet!  Peking Duck served two ways, Hot & Sour Soup, Fried rice, Mango pudding, just amazing, and the service was stunning. (Dinner pictures coming)

It was so good seeing Albert after 17 years, and his wife Natalie; where we’ve gone and the things we’ve done.  It’s weird knowing that I have spent just slightly over half my life in the working world, and not in school.  The time flies so quickly.

After we stopped by the Avenue of the Stars featuring many icons in the Hong Kong movie industry, beyond Bruce Lee.

The one thing I wish we could do is spend more time in Hong Kong, checking out places outside the standard tourist areas.  We only scratched the surface.  That said, that is why, on trips like Scott and I just took, that we sometimes like to go to a place for a small ‘teaser’ to make us hungry to come back.  Believe me, I really do want to go back to Hong Kong.

Tomorrow would be our last day in Hong Kong.

Waking up Sunday morning, we went down to the Concierge Desk to ask if they could help us with reservations we had made with Ngong Ping 360 for the cable car ride up to the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery.  See, we didn’t get an email confirming the reservation and our printer didn’t print out our confirmation properly.  We had forgotten what time the reservations were for.

It was almost 10:00am when we got downstairs, and our reservation was for 11:30am.  It takes about 45 minutes to get to the cable cars and then 25 minutes to get up to the peak.  Aieee!  Scarfing down breakfast (great buffet at the Sheraton here) we rushed and got there well within time.  In fact, our cable car reservation was 11:30am and our tour started at 1:30pm!  Scott also had the time zone wrong on his watch. LOL!

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  The first fully sunny day we’ve had on our trip.  Which helped with the absolutely stunning view of everything – the airport, Lantau, just beautiful.  Among the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, the high density living, you have some amazing greenery and countryside.

Taking the cable car up to the Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery, it can’t be described and pictures just don’t do this area of Hong Kong justice.  It’s stunningly beautiful.  Definitely a must-do.  And beware, kind of like the Itzukashima temple with deer everywhere, there are cows everywhere.

We stopped in at a tea shop and got a lesson in various kinds of teas in China.  Of course, we picked some up. You can’t visit China and Hong Kong without tea.

Face it, Ngong Ping, at least the ‘village’ is like a mini Niagara Falls.  Meaning it’s a ‘tourist village’.  While the shops are fun to go through, the real heart of the area is the Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha.  That’s where the real culture is.

Scott had arranged a tour which took us to Tai O which is a fishing village on Lantau Island directly across from Macau (which is on a future bucket list).   We took a boat ride out to see Chinese White Dolphins, which sadly there were none to be seen, but again, seeing the countryside was stunning.

Tai O has a great market with all kinds of dried fish which is well worth checking out.  You can also find Egg Waffles here, as well there is a funky knock off shop which is always fun to walk into.

After Tai O we headed back to the Monastery.  We then headed back to Hong Kong.

Getting back to our room, room service had turned down the bed, but they had also arranged all the crap on the desk that I had taken out of my bag!  Now that’s service!

We stopped over by Avenue of the Stars for the nightly light show that happens in the harbour.  Again, worth checking out, and a fun time/place to do night time photography.

One thing that struck me about the area where the hotel is, is the number of jewellery and watch shops there are.  Lots of gold and jade to be found.  It’s like the Vegas of shopping here.

Heading to Tai O, the density of ‘mansions’, what people from Hong Kong call a condo is quite something.

Hong Kong has always fascinated me as a kid.  It probably has to do with James Bond films and the British influences in my life.  Having worked with a people from Hong Kong and China in general, I figured it’s about time we spent some time in China and specifically Hong Kong.

Shanghai and Beijing were on our short list for this trip when panning, but we figured that Hong Kong should be our first experience.

To get there we have to fly through Incheon which is the airport closest to Seoul, South Korea.  We flew Asiana and the itinerary was chosen specifically because of the 747 from NRT (Narita, Japan) to ICN (Incheon, South Korea) and then to HKG (Hong Kong SAR, China).

We took the N’EX aka Narita Express from Tokyo to the airport.  Getting through Narita, for the most part, was a breeze except that they decided to have me empty out my bags and x-ray everything twice despite going through the Gold lane (for those with Priority privileges on airlines).

The lounge was our next stop.  At Narita, Star Alliance folks have their choice of the United lounge or ANA lounges.  Now, the United Lounge is a Global First lounge and was recently renovated.  Still, I’m not about to spend time in a US-based airline lounge.  I want something with local flavour.

The ANA lounge was our first stop. What a treat!  Sushi, the beer pouring robot (okay, it’s really a machine, still…), Sake Bar and the Noodle Bar!  It was a nice place to chill before our flight.

From there, we headed to our gate and were off to Incheon… on a 777.  *POUTS*  And it was understandable that Asiana downgraded the hardware.  There were only six of us in Business Class.

The service was awesome!  The Ssambap choice was great and the Flight Attendant seemed genuinely pleased that we had made that choice.

The Asiana Samarium Business Class seats on the 777 are comfortable and the cabin was quite pleasant. No amenity kit, and I was not expecting one, but you do get slippers and in the bathroom they offer toothbrushes and combs which you can keep.

Connecting at Incheon, we followed the transit signs, went through security where my bag was torn apart and all my bits x-rayed twice.  Once through, though, we headed to the Asiana Business lounge.

When we took our first flight, Asiana has a massive Duty Free catalogue.  It is full of cosmetics and perfumes as one would expect, but a HUGE array of cosmetics and perfumes, as well health supplements and products related.

Looking at the Duty Free shops at Inchon, it is perceived that South Koreans are obsessed with looking good and they’ll do anything to stay looking young.  At least, that’s how it looks from the outside looking in, as well there is a disturbing statistic that many women have had plastic surgery by the time they’re 21.

For a geek like me, there isn’t much out there in terms of electronics shopping. Interesting given LG and Samsung’s strengths in the country.  There is one small shop that sells Samsung hard drives, bluetooth headphones, rice cookers and hot water dispensers.

If you want Omiyage or sunglasses, you’re in luck.  Lots on offer at Incheon.  If you want Louis Vuitton and other high-end names that bore the crap out of me, it’s there.

The Asiana Business Class lounge is spacious, busy, and offers lockers so you can go and shop until you drop if you want.  Food-wise, someone said to me that it’s weird, and it is a bit odd for mid-day.  They have a salad with chicken, chips, breads and a few biscuits on offer.  Later they actually added a lovely vindaloo, spring rolls and a rice dish.

The people of South Korea are very proud of their heritage and it shows.  There are two cultural centres in the airport where you can see presentations of music, dress, and even participate in activities.  They specifically call out that the activities are free to foreigners.

Beyond the lounge, there does not seem to be much on offer food-wise.  There is a very very small food court that has Korean, Japanese, Quiznos and Taco Bell offerings.

There are some airports that excite the heck out of me – Narita, Hong Kong, Chile, Heathrow.  There are airports that I despise – Chicago, Los Angeles (LAX), any airport in New York City.  Incheon I tolerate.  I actually feel like on the return that I’ll want to poke my eyes out if I have to spend 6 hours at that airport.

Thankfully, they offer layover tours!  You also have the option of taking AREX into Seoul.  So if you’re bored at Incheon, it’s you’re own fault! 🙂

After about 3 or 4 hours, we jumped on the A380 from Incheon to Hong Kong.  There are only about 8 of us in Business Class.  There were 3 bridges to the plain – First/Business and Economy on the main floor.  Business/Economy on the second.  We were on the second floor.  By the way the business class bathroom on Asiana’s A380 is huge!

I am amazed that a plane the size of the A380 takes off.  It’s an amazing feat of engineering and it’s so quiet on the second floor.  If Boeing thinks a 787 is quiet, which it is relative to single level planes, the A380 is quieter, inside.

Scott and I opted for the Western meals – We had the Ssambap previously and didn’t want the same meal.  Scott had the steak, I went for the seafood option.  All great choices.

Asiana’s service is top notch.  In fact, I felt a bit out of my element, but it was nice being taken care of by the great service.

The ride was a bit bumpy and you can tell the A380 does get thrown a fair bit in turbulence.  We passed by a big storm system on our way with lightning, so the turbulence was not surprising.

Arriving in Hong Kong, Scott and I unlocked another achievement – Landing on a purpose-built island airport.  The new Hong Kong airport is stunning and easy to get through.  Interestingly, Hong Kong Immigration does not stamp the passport, but opts to give a piece of paper instead.  Ahhh!  But I like having stamps in my passport!  The sticker I received in Japan is awesome with it’s QR code!

Apparently it saves three seconds per passenger, and reduces errors.  That is a significant saving of time.

We picked up our MTR Airport Express passes and we were soon on our way to the Sheraton Hotel and Towers on Nathan Road.  We ended up getting out Suite upgrade, which I think, is the biggest room we’ve had to date, and we are completely spoiled here.