Hong Kong: Disneyland!

How could I not do a post on Disneyland?!  This post is picture heavy!



First up, the Disney train and station!



Walking to the front gates.



Mickey Waffles!
 
 
Toy Story land is also a new land and it was pretty fabulous.  Look at those props!  It was all set up to look like a huge toy box and looked incredible.  This was more aimed for a younger age group but they did have a pretty heavy going RC car ride that went really fast backwards and which had Miss 12 reeling and swearing off rides for life!
 



The slinky dog ride!
 


Meet and greet time!

 
Yes, well.  What can I say?  Perves.
 
 




 
Rest time!  Selfies time!


We ate lunch at Fantasyland.  We ate at the same place last trip and liked it so much I made sure we ate there again this time!  I had yummy chicken with sauce, bok choy and rice.  A meal like this was $75 HKD or about $8 AUD.  Nothing is cheap at Disneyland.


 
Miss 5 became up a pro at using chopsticks by the end of our trip! 
A heaped big bowl of this shrimp fried rice fed all 4 kids till they were bursting and it cost $65 HKD, $7 AUD.  Drinks were $26 HKD, $3 AUD.  We arrived prepared with lots of frozen water bottles and fruit boxes.
 
 
The sparrows made short work of the leftovers!

 
A Pringles break.
 

The line was too long to meet Belle and Aurora so we admired from a distance! 




Mystic Manor had an optical illusion sculpture garden.



Mystic Manor had just opened when we were there and the ride was truly fun.  Miss 5 was a bit scared so anyone under that age I would probably leave off it!  It wasn't a rollercoaster but more of a  lights/noise/special effects ride.  We all had really yummy Blackcurrant jelly icy-poles there too! 

 




 


Adventureland was a favourite with everyone and all 4 kids loved the river boat ride.

 

Before long we realised it was 6pm so decided to stay for the 8pm fireworks.  The whole park looked really pretty as it lit up as it neared dusk.




The lowdown:  If you have kids you really have no choice but to do Disneyland while in Hong Kong.  We actually bought a 2 day ticket and what we missed doing on the first day, we did on the 2nd day.  With the 3 new Lands recently opened, I really don't think it's possible to do everything on offer in 1 day.  A second day ticket cost an extra $12 AUD per adult and about $7 each for the kids.  Well and truly worth the small amount of extra cash and not have to stress about missing anything.  To get to Disneyland from Mongkok took half an hour in the morning and about an hour at night by MTR.

There are 2 live shows showing thru out the day: Golden Mickeys in Fanatsyland and The Lion King in Adventureland.  The Golden Mickeys truly was *spectacular*.  The production is excellent and exteremely well acted.  To think they do that 3 times a day 7 days a week is boggling!  It also didn't hurt that Tarzan in the show was a virtual HE-MAN with rippling muscles and drop dead gorgeous......*cough, cough*.  All 4 of us dumped the kids in the front row then sat a few rows back to rest, take off our shoes and have a little nap but all 4 of us adults loved it!
The Lion King was also a live show with great props, dancing and fire, but compared to the Golden Mickeys it was a little boring.  If you only have time to see one show while there, make sure it's the Mickeys.



Tomorrowland is great to dump the kids at for half an hour and let them get soaked in the wet area.
The new Grizzly Gulch is an old Western town set up with roller coaster and great hot springs and wet area that the kids can get soaked in again.

Put insect repellent on, I got eaten by mozzies.

If you are staying for the end of day fireworks, be prepared to be absolutely SWAMPED by thousands of people also leaving the park at the same time.  We actually lost Miss 12 for a few minutes and we were well and truly panicked as there was no pushing forward when all those people are coming towards you.

Any other tips for HK Disney?




Hong Kong: The Flower Market

The Flower Market is only a couple of streets long, but I thought it deserved it's own post as it was so gloriously beautiful.
 
Compared to Australian prices, flowers in HK are ridiculously cheap.  For a gorgeous HUGE bunch of mixed flowers, it averaged about $5 AUD.  Compared to about $50 AUD at least!  Single roses were 50c AUD each, Orchids about $5 a POT!  If I lived here I would surround myself and my abode with copious amounts of blooms every few days.
 


This was my favourite shop.  I still don't know what those flowers are hanging from the ceiling but I loved them.


A shop dedicated to Orchids!  Hundreds of different varieties and colors.  Sigh.


The Sexy Man looks a little bored here but he actually loved walking thru the Flower Market.




Several shops stocked only Bonsai's, each decades old and all carefully cut and beautifully arranged.  They ranged in price from cheapest as the youngest to most expensive for the oldest trees.


Single rose blooms are individually wrapped in Hong Kong.


A typical flower shop.  They were quite small in size but each was stacked to the brim with blooms.  And the variety!  Us Aussies sadly lack anything remotely interesting flower wise compared to our Asian neighbours.


The streets are interspersed with fruit and vegetable grocers.  The apples were so much sweeter than out Australian apples and to eat a banana was almost like eating a sugared piece of candy!  The kids loved it all.  You could get about 6 bananas and 4 apples for $1 AUD.  A big bunch of large purple grapes and a large bag of lychees for about $1.  They also had tiny little sweet bananas which are the perfect size for babies!  Miss 5 especially liked these and ate about 7 in one go once.  I wish we had them back in Australia, they are the perfect size for lunch boxes.

 
The Dragon Fruit, however, was another story.  According to Miss 12 it tasted like soapy sand.



I just wished I could have bought dozens of bouquets!  But staying in a small apartment with no vases made buying anything impossible.  It was very sad!

Anybody else been to the Flower Market?

Hong Kong: Ngong Ping

 
Whenever I start researching a holiday, I love to find blogs or magazine articles full of photos on where I'm thinking of going.  It's nice to read about where somebody is telling you that you MUST visit, but it's also a bonus to see lots of photos of the area.  So included with my dozens of photos will be a few tips on the area.  Let me know if you guys like this idea!
 
First day into HK we went to Ngong Ping 360 and The Big Buddha.  The most fun way to get to the Big Buddha is by cable car, but it's also the most expensive.  For a return trip for 4 adults and 4 children it cost $125 AUD or $812 HKD.  For a clear bottomed cable car, it was an extra $40 per person.  This option made it just too expensive for us to choose, much to the kids angst, but also my sister is not a fan of heights and couldn't stand the thought of seeing nothing below her.
 
To go by bus to the Big Buddha is only a few dollars per person and by far the cheapest option.  But with 4 children, there was no way we were NOT going to get away with not taking a cable car!
 



The trip is glorious scenery wise and the kids loved the feeling of reaching the tip of a tower then suddenly going down.  My sister didn't like that quite so much!

 
The 300 odd stairs up to the Big Buddha is quite a hike and requires will power to complete in 35C humid heat.  Because this was my 4th trip to the Big Buddha, I refused the trek and instead my sister and I looked at souvenirs and looked after the youngest 2 kids!  It's costs nothing to climb but if you want to go inside the Buddha, it's about $4 AUD each adult and you get a drink/ice cream at the top for free.  You can also choose to lunch with the monks for around $12 AUD, by memory.
 
 
 
 
The 360 view is quite stunning and the Buddha is surrounded by smaller statues.
 

*cough* Holding the BB in hand FAIL!!


My sister and nieces.


Keep walking past the BB and you will get to a Monastery and several places to eat beside it.  The whole reason why we love going to the BB is for lunch.  The yellow place (photo below) is  vegetarian and they serve the most WONDERFUL, scrumptious, gorgeous noodles you will EVER taste.  Seriously. And make sure you squirt the 'Sweet' sauce all over them.  Drooooooool.

 A huge plate of noodles is $15 HKD or $1.50 AUD.  The cakes are equally as yummy and cost $5 HKD each or 70c AUD.

 
 Miss 5 got thru most of this!

 
The cakes are worth buying just for the way they look!  The Rose and Lotus were made from a hard gelatin with a sweet egg and bean paste inside.  The 4 kids weren't too keen on those but declared the donuts the BEST they had ever eaten......and they have eaten a lot.
 
 
It's a beautiful place to sit and eat and we ended up sitting for quite awhile, watching the kids play and explore.
 
Just a side point, if you travel to Hong Kong with children of Western looks and especially with blonde hair, be prepared to be bombarded constantly with the locals and Chinese/Indian tourists wanting photos with them.  By day 3, the kids had posing at the drop of a hat and mid-walk, down to a fine art.  And at the beach!  My goodness, white kids in bathers are a huge attraction...but more on that later.
 

 
The toilets are The Big Buddha are (clean) holes in the ground, so hang on until you get back to Ngong Ping if you can! (No, Miss 12 was NOT really going to the toilet when I took this photo!)


The Ngong Ping village is full of little shops with the usual tourist souvenirs.  When we were there one of them was closing down and had 80% off everything so we actually scored lots of presents even cheaper than normal.  Make sure you grab a brochure at the Cable car pay office as it contains discount coupons you can use at all the shops.


 

There is also a Sweet Paradise cafĂ©!  Crepes full of cheesecake, brownies, fruit, cream and ice cream??  Yes please!  These were $4 - $5 AUD each.  They also sell realistic looking fake food as keyrings.  Miss 12 wanted a million of them for her friends and at $29 HKD each or around $2 AUD, with a special of Buy 2 get 1 free, they ended up being the cheapest we found the whole holiday.


Coming back on the cable car.  The cable car can also be purchased as single trips, if you wanted to save a bit of money by taking the bus there and cable back, or vice versa.


The Hong Kong airport is just over the road!

 
And from the cable car we saw dozens of people digging in the sand with buckets.  We never did find out what they were digging up.  Anybody know?
 
So yes, the Big Buddha and Ngong Ping village is a definite must see while in Hong Kong.  As I mentioned, that was my fourth trip there and it's been enjoyable every time.  The array of food on offer makes it especially nice to visit!  In the village there are cafes and restaurants with *everything* on offer from Italian gelato to Subway to Indian to authentic Asian cuisine. 
 
(A small money saving tip: Subway have huge cups that you can fill with drink for $1.50 AUD with refills for $1 after that.  With 4 very thirsty children, this was very handy and saved us a bit of money rather than buying one bottle of drink for them every single time they complained of thirst.  Another money saving tip: buy bottled water in the streets before going on the cable car.  A large 1 litre bottle of cold water is around 50c AUD compared to $2 for a smaller 500ml bottle within Ngong Ping.)
 
There is also a Tea shop and you can watch tea making demonstrations with free tasting. You can easily spend 3/4 of a day here.
 
Stay tuned for more Hong Kong!