Shenzhen and Hong Kong tour (part 4)

Day 4:-


Day 4 was the most interesting day. Hong Kong tour is almost at the end. But it's never complete without visiting a theme park. And that is....

HONG KONG DISNEYLAND!!!

Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 12 September 2005 and is located on a reclaimed land in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. It's a place where all your favorite Disney characters come to live and entertained you. They also added in the latest edition in Disneyland. And it's Toy Story. 

The park consist of 5 different theme areas: Main Street USA, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland and Toy Story Land (new edition). Two new ones will be coming out soon but I'll probably won't visit it for the next few years time.

This is my dad's 2nd time to Disneyland. The park is filled with people. We got our tickets for 1 Day entry. As you enter the park, you can hear all the Disney songs played repeated on the speaker. But no singing of course. And it's on our own to tour around the park. And so we did as a family. It's a good thing we didn't follow the others. I'll tell you why later.

Before we do anything else, we hop on the Hong Kong Disneyland railroad that tour us around Fantasyland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland. While on the train, we plan our time on where we can go and what time to see each shows. 

After we got back to the station, our first destination is Fantasyland. It features Sleeping Beauty castle, as well as many other fantasy places, characters and rides are included. 

I decided to go on a ride while I'm in Disneyland. And I only rode one ride because of the very long queue and like I said, the park is filled with a lot of people, not only from Hong Kong but China and other foreigners as well. I rode "Dumbo, The Flying Elephant". Yeah, we know Dumbo can fly from the movie. It's similar to the flying elephant ride in Genting but just that they used Dumbo in Disneyland (obviously). It's been a while since I ride those. The cast members speak in three languages: Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Even when we go on each ride, finished a ride or see a show, the announcer speak in those three languages. Of course, for the English one, they used the Disney character voices to speak. For this ride, when it comes to English, it's Timothy mouse speaking :). He sound so cute. You can see him on the top of the ride. It took me about 1/2 an hour to get to my turn to ride. This is how crowded HK Disneyland is on a weekend. When my turn came, I chose Dumbo wearing purple. It spins you around, one up and one down, and when the ride comes to an end, it slowly takes you way up and takes you down again. What a fun ride it was :). I'll never forget it. 

Before we go to another area, we saw three Disney characters riding on the Dumbo ride: Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. The people who rode together with them are lucky. 

Our next destination is to see the parade called "Flights of Fantasy Parade". The parade begins at 12:30 and 3:30. It's all the same so don't worry if you missed the earlier one ;). Oh yes. I forgot to mention this. This year, HK Disneyland is celebrating their 5th Anniversary. If you want to see the parade, follow the red lines on the map where the parade will go and go to those areas where the lines are located. Be sure to book your place for front row if you want to see the parade clearer ;). We watched the parade in front of the castle. It was fantastic! So colorful and beautiful. My photos will show you in sequel which came out first in the parade. Thanks to mom who took the photos of the whole show.

Next up is lunch at Clopin's Festival of Foods, instead of fools. Lol! Anyways, they served us Chinese food, something like we eat back in Malaysia, like BBQ pork with rice, chicken with rice, noodles, etc. So we have to eat something before we can go anywhere else in the park. I mean it's better than eating nothing for the whole day. 

After our stomachs are filled up with rice and meat, we went to Adventureland to see another show called "Festival of the Lion King". To be honest, seeing shows don't have to queue up that long unlike the rides cause you can get into the auditorium in no time, even though it's crowded with people. Again, like the Shenzhen cultural shows, no photos or video of the show. But the show is awesome!! What amazes me in the show that the models beside each of the audiences can move their bodies and heads. Even Pumbaa and Simba can move. The story is the same as "The Lion King" movie but shorter and uses human to play the parts of the character from the movie. After the show is touring time again. We can see Tarzan's treehouse in the distant but unfortunately, it's too crowded to take a raft to his treehouse. Oh well. Let's go somewhere else then.

Next is souvenir shop, where you can buy back gifts for your friends or yourselves and take them home with you as memories. I saw so many dolls, dresses, shirts and other things you can find. I bought a charm bracelet for about HK $35. If you buy three and above, it'll be cheaper. Since my dad bought me two t-shirts from Disneyland before so no need to buy those again. Ha ha! Mom bought a cute little Winnie the Pooh dressed in a cow outfit stuffed doll for my 2 year old cousin, Yue Xin, since she promise to buy something from Disneyland. After all, Yue Xin is born in the year of the ox^^. I wanted to buy something for Carmen too but I couldn't find the right gift. But fortunately, I did get her something. Will tell in the next post.

Next is Tomorrowland. We didn't go on any rides but rested our feet and photo taking. While my parents rested, I took some photos of the area. 

We went back to Fantasyland to see a 3D show called "Mickey's PhilharMagic". The show started with Donald playing with Mickey's baton (sounds similar to "The Sorcerer's Apprentice") and while he was conducting the instruments, he was transported to the wonderful world of Disney scenes while trying to get his hat back. It was quite funny. And in this 3D, you can feel water splashing on your face and other effects that comes along the way during the show.

Our last destination is Toy Story Land, the new area just opened. We just look around the area and took photos as well. The most thrilling ride we saw is the "RC Racer" ride. It's much more scarier than the Viking ride. 

The tour around Disneyland comes to an end. We have to leave the park about 5 pm. I was quite upset when we have to leave because I want to stay and watch the fireworks at night :(.  But too bad. We must follow the tour. Well, we're going somewhere after Disneyland anyways. 

Among our tour group, it seems that we are the only ones that cover the whole part of Disneyland because some of them didn't see any shows or plan to stay until 5 pm. That's the reason why we didn't follow them^^.

Goodbye, Hong Kong Disneyland. We'll come back someday in the future (hopefully). 

Just a little reminder for those who are planning to go to Hong Kong Disneyland for the first time. Do not go there during the year end or school holidays because it will be very crowded and it'll take you forever to go on rides, unless you don't have any choice. You don't wanna end up like us, do you?

To be continued.....

Shenzhen and Hong Kong tour (part 3)

Day 3:-


Day 3 isn't my best day ever. And I'll tell you why. After our breakfast, we head to the lobby with our luggage. It was kind of cold and windy outside the hotel. We were to hop on the bus to the train station that'll take us back to Hong Kong. At the train station, there were a lot of people especially at the immigration, plus it's a weekend too. And one thing that I dislike about China is that they always push your way through the line by force without asking. Grrr!! This really makes me upset. They really don't have any manners, do they? We line up in a very long line until the police took us out of the crowded line and took us to the line where all the foreigners go through their immigration. To be honest, that lady tour guide didn't want to let us go and insists of letting us line up with all the rest of the Chinese nationals. We were all pissed off by her. This make us delay our Hong Kong tour too because of this situation. 
After a long hour of waiting, we finally left Shenzhen and off to Hong Kong we go. Of course, everywhere is crowded, even on the train. Our feet were killing us!! 
At the station, we met up with Hong Kong's local tour guide, Derek. On the bus, he talks a lot of jokes. And he interacts with us a lot. At least he's better than Maggie. 
Before we start our Hong Kong tour, we went to a restaurant where we had our lunch. Their food is so much better and delicious than Shenzhen's one, even though it is the same Chinese food. After lunch, we went to another jewellery shop but this time they show us the wheel of fortune kind necklace. It has something to do with feng shui. So we didn't buy those. Mom bought a bangle that is able to help her with her backache. I wanted to buy a jewellery for myself too but they are way too expensive. Oh well. Mom didn't buy the bangle for fun. 
Next is a medicine shop. Oh boy! The medicine and jewellery shop is so the same as Shenzhen tour but it's different because it isn't a museum but just a store. Whew! Thank God for that. And good thing they only let us look around for a short limit of time. 
Next is the Avenue of Stars. It's a place where you can see handprints and models of Hong Kong's famous stars like Jackie Chan, Sam Hui, Michael Hui, Bruce Lee etc. It's also a place for couples to spend time together with each other like a date. The view is awesome but it'll be better in the night time :). 

After that is the Chinese temple located at the beach. While everyone went into the temple, we took some pictures at the beach. According to Derek, one of the apartment on top of the beach is where Jackie Chan lives!! Wow! First time I hear a star lives below the beach. Lol! 

Before we head to our hotel which is called Nina L' Hotel, we went to Victoria Peak where we get to see the whole beautiful city of Hong Kong :). We even got a family photo taken by Alex, a photographer following us on the bus but not on the whole tour. We didn't go all the way to the top but it's okay. As long as we can see the whole of Hong Kong. Told you it's better in the night time with all the shining lights on each buildings.

Finally we checked in into our hotel. Dinner is on our own now. There's a shopping mall near our hotel and it's called Citywalk. That's where we had our dinner there and our own family time together :). We had Mos Burger for dinner. It's a restaurant where they serve Japanese burgers. Mom suggest this because she saw this in Japan last year and we tried it. It was delicious and big. Even the fries are big and thick too. 

After dinner, we decided to walk back to the hotel, since we're too tired to shop. We bought some egg tarts along the way. My friend Carmen suggest I should buy egg tarts in Hong Kong cause their egg tarts are the best. When we got back to our room, I tried the egg tart. It taste so different than our Malaysian egg tart. Time to get some rest. Tomorrow we'll be visiting a theme park. I won't tell you in this post but in the next post. Find out more ;).


Continue in day 4......

Shenzhen and Hong Kong tour (part 2)

Day 2:


Got a wake up call early morning at 6:30 am. Good thing we woke up early than that by our alarm clocks in our mobile phones. We went down to level 2 to have our breakfast. It's provided in the tour package. We also met up with our acquaintances. So far, we knew only a few names since we don't really know each other well. The breakfast is a buffet. And so far, some of the food are hardly delicious :(. 

After breakfast, we hop on the bus together with Maggie, the tour guide of Shenzhen. I mention her on day 1 post. We're headed off to a medicine and herb museum. And the same, we cannot understand what the doctor is saying at all. Only a few of us understand. I saw so many different things in the museum. Yes, it's all written in Chinese but traditional. Sorry, no photos or video taking is allowed in the building. After touring around the herb museum, the doctor asked us to follow the other doctors for a health check (I think). Since we refused to go, we head for the toilet first then the nearest exit. Of course, we did check out some of their Chinese herbs and medicines. 
Next is the mineral and jade museum. It was better than the herb place. We saw so many beautiful jade things, not just in jewelleries alone. Before we head for exit, we stop to buy their  jewelleries. Even I get to buy some too, but 4 only. One I will give to Vanessa on her next birthday :). Can't tell you which one I'll be giving. We also tried their tea. And it was superb!!! It tastes so much tasty than our normal Chinese tea. Well, it does have a peachy taste. We bought 4 for ourselves and our relatives.

It's lunch time. Again like last night's dinner, it consists of rice and other variety type of same food. One thing different about their restaurant is that they always give beer and soft drinks like 7-Up, Coke, Pepsi etc. besides tea. Here in Malaysia, we have to order the beer and fizzy drinks ourselves. How cool is that O.o?
After lunch, we head to a place called "Windows of the World". It's a theme park in Shenzhen where you can see many famous buildings of the world like the Eiffel Towel of Paris, Taj Mahal of India, the Leaning Tower of Pisa of Italy, Angkor Wat of Cambodia, Mount Fuji of Japan, Mount Rushmore of USA and many, many, many more. I guess we don't have to travel around the world to see them anymore. Ha ha! Just kidding. These are all not the real thing. It's just a display. We're gonna see some of them for real in the future ;). We took a lot of pictures around the park. Of course, we also see the 4D movie. It's quite different from Genting's one. The chairs do move but it doesn't have the controls beside us. We still walk around the park after the movie. 

We visited Alps and Snow World for our last visit. It's still the same like Genting, with the toboggan ride and the freezing cold. Except that we don't have ice skiing activity back home. I went inside with the rest for fun. And my, the boots pinch my toes a lot. 

Finally we're leaving for the miniature culture village in Shenzhen. This time, they display many parts of China like the Great Wall of China in Beijing, the Terracotta Warriors etc. We also took plenty of pictures of the displays and the street too. According to Maggie, she said there are two cultural shows we have to see. And it's gonna be interesting. I'll tell you more about it in a mean while. While walking on the street, we saw a very tall man. And mom got a picture together with him and me. And what amazes me is the 4 huge Chinese masks. They use those masks often in Chinese operas. 

Time for the 1st show. And oh my word, it's a lot of people going into the auditorium. We sat in front of Korean visitors. Before the show starts, they announced about some instructions in 4 languages, Mandarin, English, Japanese and Korean. No photos or videos taken btw. But the show was awesome!! The acrobats and somersault movements. It was superb!! Well, China is famous for their acrobat dances, if you see Beijing Olympics on TV in 2008. I love their costumes as well. Very colorful. 

Before the 2nd show, we had our dinner. It's the same old dishes so I won't have to explain that. The 2nd show is at the outdoor auditorium kind. The weather is quite cold so no sweats in our bodies. We saw two clowns blowing a whistle just before the show begins and while we were going up to our seats. The show that we're watching is called "The Phoenix and Dragon Dance" (not sure of the actual name of the show but it's similar). This time the show is showing us China's story and culture about what's it like during war times and Chinese New Year. Of course, they show us the Dragon and Phoenix dance. It was fantastic as always with their movements. 
We leave straight away after the show. And we're free to do anything we want like relaxing or shopping. For us, we went back up to our room feeling tired. Gotta pack our bags cause we have to leave for Hong Kong the next day.


Continue in day 3........

Shenzhen and Hong Kong tour (part 1)

So, you wanna know how my trip went? Well, let me tell you all about it. Okay, here we go. 


Day 1:

We started off when all the people who are going with us on the tour and us, of course are waiting at KLIA. We met up with our local tour guide from Golden Deluxe, Victor. Our flight to Singapore is 10:00. But unfortunately, the flight delayed at 10 minutes. But sometimes delays can save us some time ;). Oh yes. The reason why I say Singapore first is because we have to transit. And nobody likes transits. But oh well. What to do? Anyways, when we reached Changi Airport in Singapore, it's time to board on the plane to Hong Kong!! The plane that we will be boarding most of the time, from Malaysia to our destination and coming back home, is Singapore Airlines. While on the plane, we had lunch. My parents and I ordered the international dishes, mainly Western style meal. I watched 'Winnie the Pooh' (2011) during the journey. I also listened to U Kiss too. Ha ha!! The album that's available is their 2nd full length album, which is 'Neverland'. 
We reached Hong Kong about 7:45 I think. We met with the local tour guide from Hong Kong, Derek. 

But we're not touring Hong Kong yet. We have to tour around Shenzhen, China first. To get to Shenzhen, we have to take the train. It took us about few hours to reach there. 
When we reached Shenzhen, we met with the local tour guide, Maggie. She speaks Mandarin and sometimes in Cantonese. So, me and my parents couldn't really understand what she was saying in the bus. Ah yes, our Mandarin and China's Mandarin is really hard to speak because our accents are different. And we don't have their slang. Even my cousin, Jia Min, told us she couldn't understand China's language that much but at least sometimes it's understandable. Like always, day 1 isn't full of adventures yet because of settling down. We went to a restaurant for our dinner. The meal consists of rice, fish, veggies and soup. The food isn't that fantastic but at least it's better than starving to death. Finally we reach our hotel and rested for the full tour. It's gonna be tiring.


Continue in day 2.........

Going to Shenzhen and Hong Kong

Yep, it's official. I'm finally going to Shenzhen, China and Hong Kong tour for 5 days 4 nights. We will be leaving for KLIA on Thursday early morning. So yeah, I won't be at my computer for 5 days. Hope there's internet connection so I can tweet on Twitter. Wish us luck on our journey. 

Outing With Friends at Mid Valley

Today I got invited to go outing with my college friend, Carmen and her two friends, who are both boys, at Mid Valley. We actually planned to see the book fair happening at the exhibition center. It was crowded at the fair, especially children. And of course, Selangor is having public holiday so it's a lot of people. Not just at the book fair but the whole shopping mall too. We saw some mascots as we walk along the path. The price isn't as cheap as Big Bad Wolf sales. 
After some reading, we head to GSC Cinemas to watch a movie. We bought the tickets earlier before we went to the exhibition. The movie we watch is 'Arthur Christmas'. Before we watch the movie, we took some random pics of the Christmas decorations below.

Next is late lunch. We head to "Spagetti Farm". I ordered carbonara. When my mom came, it's time to say good bye. I had fun today, even though we had a short time there due to the movie.

Lunch at Ribs by Vintry

Hey there. Sorry I haven't updated this blog for so long time due to busy work in college. Don't worry. It's not a goodbye. Just not updated, that's all^^.
Today I had a nice lunch at a new restaurant in Damansara Heights called 'Ribs by Vintry'. It's a restaurant where they served their best pork ribs. Not to mention delicious. Inside there was not many customers. Well, it's because it's still afternoon so maybe people only come in the night time. I bet it's crowded during dinner time. We called the set lunch (with the soup of the day, main course and drinks) plus the additional of dessert and orange juice. I didn't want to eat much cause I'm scared I couldn't finished it in the end and that's not good to waste food. Well, it was a good lunch today. Not too full, not too small, just right :). What a new place to hang out rather than going to the same places again for our family outings.

Nice restaurant inside 

Pork ribs with asparagus and potatoes

Chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream