Disneyland HK

I just wanna bang on the drum all day

Annette's company had a holiday outing at Disneyland Hong Kong and I was able to tag along. Being mid-December, the weather was almost perfect and the crowds were very light. Perfect day to check out the new park.

After we arrived and surveyed our surroundings, we quickly realized that this Disney was about a quarter the size of Disney World, if that. (We just visted the Florida park last year when Annette had a conference there.) Still present were the familiar areas 'Main Street USA,' 'Adventure Land,' and 'Tomorrow Land', and many of the traditional rides such as Space Mountain and Dumbo. Conspiciously missing were 'It's a small world' (which Annette had really wanted to ride in Florida but it was closed) and 'Pirates of the Carribean'. Maybe they will add them later.

Anyhow, shortly after we arrived, the big parade started. It was actually on par with DW, if not a little better. Many of the costumes were incredibly intricate.


Parade

Tuba

Parade

Army Men

Space People

Like Ocean Park, Disney was decked out with Holiday cheer. We snapped this photo in front of the giant Christmas tree.


Christmas Tree

Our favorite rides were in Adventureland. Space mountian was maybe not quite as exciting as the original, but the "Buzz Lightyear" ride left us very satisfied. On that ride, you sit in a car with a lazer equipped 'space gun' and zap aliens. It even keeps your score. We saved the Earth on four different occasions that day.


Beam me up, Scotty!


The castle was much smaller than we though it would be.. and the color scheme was a little weird too.. pink and blue?


Mini Castle

Of course we had to get our photo with some of the characters.


Asian Chip and Dale

Annette in Space

We also went to three of the shows - the 3D "Mickey's Philharmagic" was a clone of the Disney world version.. which was great since we both really enjoyed it both times. Next was a live action "Lion King" show which was pretty good.. costumed actors and animatronic animals sang the songs from the cartoon. It was all in English, with some Chinese translation here and there. On the other hand, 'The Golden Mickeys' was in Cantonese.. which wasn't a big deal since most of the time it featured actors singing Disney songs in the original English.

After seeing pretty much all the park had to offer, we watched the fireworks show and lingered on main street for a few minutes as the snow (foam) fell around us.


Christmas Tree

Wes

Fountain

Ocean Park

Wes and a Panda

Early December provided us with a beautiful day to visit Ocean Park, Hong Kong's most famous theme park (well, at least until Disney came to town this year.) This was actually Annette's second visit to the park.. she had been there once before when she was very small. She vaguely remembers her brother Richard and sister Angela riding a scary roller coaster there. She may have been to small to ride the coasters last time, but no excuses were going to get her out of it on this visit.

Our first stop was the panda exhibit. Having visited the San Diego Zoo earlier in the year, we were able to compare the exhibits and found the Ocean Park version to be a little better. First off, it was air conditioned (Pandas can't stand the HK heat), and secondly we could actually see the pandas since the pandas were on a hillside facing us and didn't have a whole lot to hide behind. One panda sat happily chewing on bamboo while we snapped some pictures.


Panda

Next was the butterfly exhibit. Some landed on Annette.


Annette in the Butterfly Exhibit

The highlight of the day was the cable car ride, which took us across the southern side of the island and allowed us to get great views of the South China sea.


Gondola Ride

View from the gondola


After taking the cable car to the other main area of the park, we finally got around to riding the roller coaster. The line was very short.. we walked right up and were on within 5 minutes (could it be that the folks here don't like scary rides? or are the all home because it is 'winter'?) Anyhow, the roller coaster was great fun. We did three or so loopty-loops, which Annette missed out on because her eyes were glued shut.


Next was Annette's favorite part of the day - the reef aquarium. The aquarium has all kinds of marine life swimming around in a huge and deep tank - there are three walkways around the aquarium at different depths, so you can get a good luck at all the fish, turtles, sharks, eels, and so on. A separate shark exhibit had a tunnel that took us right beneath the menacing sharks.


The Reef

The Reef - downstairs

Shark!!!!

The most surreal part of the day came when we went to the dolphin and seal show. Right before the show, a 'mariachi' band took the stage and sang "La Bamba" in Spanish to the theatre full of Chinese folks. Not many of them seemed to know the words.


Surreal "La Bamba" Performance

Next, we walked around the park a little and visited the Chinese history displays.


Wes checking out the rides

Annette made friends with a seal

Boat

Annette at Pacific Pier

We saw this mural and had to take a picture. Could someone please explain exactly what is going on here? A naked guy bathing with a penguin next to a woman wearing a sweater bathing a duck?


What the?

One big difference from other theme parks we have been to were the squid and cuttlefish booths that were sprinkled througout the park. Now I've had calamari a few times and it is fine, but I don't think I'll be trying the cuttlefish any time soon. The smell emanating from the cuttlefish shack was one of the worst scents ever generated by mankind.


Mmm.. cuttlefish

Mr. Squid says "mmmm.. squid"


Ocean Park was in full holiday spirit, complete with a Christmas tree and Christmas village, complete with fake snow fluttering through the air (which turned out to be some sort of soapy foam). Of course we had to have our photo with Santa and his special elf.


Our Christmas Card photo

Annette's first trip to the PRC

During Thanksgiving this year, Deloitte held its annual National Tax Conference in the People's Republic of China. The conference itself was about as much fun as can be expected. The most exciting part was my first view of mainland China.


View from Hotel Room

View from Hotel Room

The conference was held in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province which is about 2 hours southwest of Shanghai. Hangzhou is a popular Chinese tourist destination and is particularly famous for the West Lake. The Hyatt Regency where we stayed was located just across the street from the lake and had a very good view. We did not have much opportunity to explore the city, but I did have a chance to walk by the lake during one of the breaks.



Soldier on Path

Boats ready to take tourists around the lake.

One of the most surprising things about Hangzhou were the large number of upscale western shops in the district around the lake. I passed at least 2 Starbuck's, an Armani Casa, a Ferrari store, and a store for almost every major designer that you would see on 5th Avenue in New York.




Boat on Lake





Statues and a few local people


Another boat



Shops

Lamma Island Hike

Fall is finally upon us in Hong Kong, after Summer heat and humidity lasted into early November. When a 'cold' front brought the temperature down to around 65 last week the locals all bundled up in coats and scarves. Annette and I decided it was perfect weather for a hike on Lamma island. Unlike the locals, we felt that wearing sunscreen was more appropriate than a winter coat.

We set out a little after noon and walked down to the central ferry pier. HK$20 (~US$2.60) got us a ticket on the ferry to the island's main village, Yung Shue Wan, which features a small harbor and a surprisingly large number of 'earthy' shops offering handicrafts, artwork, and organic/vegetarian fare. As we discovered, Lamma is home to many expats seeking a slow-paced alternative to the city.

The next thing we discovered is that we had arrived on Lamma on "Lamma Fun Day." A poster promised live music, games, food, and more. "What luck!" we thought. It turns out that our excitement was a bit unwarranted. We followed the narrow pathway through the village to a beach on the other side where the expatriate residents had set up face-painting and carnival games on the beach. Back on the concrete path there were 'booths' set up where you could buy arts and crafts and other items. (The 'other' items being decades old self-help books, second hand knick knacks, and HK$20 shots of cheap liquor. We passed.)

Soon we felt we had experienced all the "Lamma Fun Day" had to offer so we headed down the trail. A quick note about Hong Kong Trails.. unbeknownst to most outsiders, Hong Kong has a great amount of green space. This may be one of the most populated places on the planet, but most people are crammed into a small area, leaving a great deal of park land and over a hundred miles of nature trails. The trails themselves are, for the most part, concrete paths about 3' wide. Despite the finished walkway, many of the trails are quite challenging since they scale even the highest peaks.

Anyhow, our trail took on a bit of elevation as we traversed the island on our way to Sok Kwu Wan, a village on the opposite side. We hiked up to a vantage point where we could get a good look at the coastline and passing boats. After a water break we continued on our way.

The trail into Sok Kwo Wan offered scenic views of the village and the harbor which contains floating homes and fish farming cages. We walked down to the beach to enjoy the view from there. We were disappointed to see how much broken glass and garbage was strewn about that beach - it looked like the last beach cleanup was a few decades ago.

Sok Kwo Wan itself is popular for its harborside seafood restaurants. Most of the restaurants have tanks in front of the kitchen so you can choose exactly which fish or crab you'd like to have for dinner. It was still a little early so we decided to pass on the seafood and catch the ferry back to Hong Kong.

Well, that sums up our trip to Lamma. There are dozens more islands to explore, so we will be taking advantage of the cool weather to see some of them before the heat returns.


Lamma Beach

Sok Kwo Wan

Sok Kwo Wan

Annette on the beach

What's for dinner?

Lots to choose from..

Macau

Largo de Senado (Senate Square)

After Wes' visa was approved, we had to plan a trip outside Hong Kong so that we could leave and re-enter to 'activate' the visa. While Hong Kong is part of China, it is treated as a 'Special Administrative Region' (SAR) and has its own immigration policies. For example, 'mainland' Chinese citizens are not allowed to immigrate to Hong Kong without a visa.

Macau is another SAR and is a popular place for expats to visit to fulfill a 'visa run' since it is only an hour away by ferry and Americans can visit there without a visa. Not as internationally well-known as Hong Kong, Macau was formerly a Portuguese Colony (in fact, the oldest European colony in China). Macau became a Chinese SAR in 1999.

Upon our arrival in Macau, we boarded a bus that took us to the historical square of Macau, Largo de Senado. The square was bordered by historical buildings built in the Portuguese style. Also, the street was lined with black and white stones that reminded Annette of Lisbon.


Largo de Senado


Hiking up from the town square, we made it to Monte Fort, which was built by Jesuits in the 17th century. In 1622, one of the priests singlehandedly defended Macau from invading Danish forces with a lucky canon shot that hit the powder supply on one of the Danish ships.


Monte Fort

Next we walked down from the fort to the ruins of St. Pauls' Cathedral, dominated by an ornate facade that tells the story of the church through its many statues and sculptures.


St. Paul Church Facade

While Macau was dominated by Christianity in the 1600's, today it is better known for its casinos. Annette and I decided to check out the Hotel Casino Lisboa, which is one of the most 70s-hideous buildings either of us has ever seen. The hotel lobby was luxuriously furnished with interesting artwork and historical artifacts. We proceeded to the casino but found that we first had to check the backpack that Wes was carrying. But, when Wes got to the bag check, the casino staff searched the bag and attempted to make Wes throw away the snacks and water bottle inside, at which point we decided that it wasn't worth the sacrifice to go into the casino.

As we had just found out, the casino scene in Macau is not quite as customer friendly as Las Vegas. Casinos have strict dress codes, table minimums are quite high (around $35 for a hand of blackjack), the dealers automatically take 10% of your winnings, and there aren't even free drinks for players!

Leaving the hotel Lisboa, we walked to Guia hill, where we paid HK $2 (about $0.25) to ride a small cable car to the top. The hilltop was lined with WWII bunkers, one of which was turned into a museum. Guia hill is also home to the oldest lighthouse on the China coast (ca. 1865).


Guia Hill Lighthouse

Portuguese-style tile street sign

Mosaic on ceiling at Hotel Lisboa

Our last stop in Macau was the Sands casino, which had just opened in the last year. It is part of a new wave of casinos that are more 'Vegas-style'. At the sands Wes was able to check the backpack successfully, so we went inside for a look. The interior of the Sands was felt much more like a Vegas casino, with rows and rows of slot machines and table games, a theatre, and a seafood buffet. We tried our luck at the slot machines but went through our $12 in credits without hitting the jackpot. We thought about staying for the buffet but ultimately decided to catch the ferry back to HK for a relaxing dinner at home.