Saturday, January 24, 2009

Hong Kong - Disneyland!!!

Viv, Jenn, Jayden and myself decided to go to Disneyland together. We planned on meeting at the Yau Ma Tei MTR station at 10 am but Viv and I bumped into them having breakfast at the same place we were going to.... ok Hong Kong is not THAT small, the cafe is right next to the MTR station.


Can you tell that Disneyland is a big deal (big revenue generator) in Hong Kong?

We had to change trains twice before getting to the special Disneyland route. If we didn't realise how crazy people are about Disneyland, we were about to get the message loud and clear.
Micley Mouse shaped windows on the special train

Mickey Mouse shaped hand holders

Bronze statue of the grasshopper from Pinocchio (??????). There were statues of other Disney characters dotted throughout the carriages as well as Disney posters.

Jayden holding on to the Mickey Mouse hand holder.

Jayden amusing himself and being a limelight hogger again.

The train was quite full so we were worried that the lines to buy the entrance tickets were going to be crazy. Jenn and I sprinted out of the doors the minute the train stopped and ran up a long flight of stairs to be greeted with this:

The entrance to the long long walkway that would eventually lead us to the ticket sales area. Cheh... waste of energy... especially when we power walked to the ticket sales booths and were greeted with this scene:
No lines.... what's with the suitcase I wonder... HKD360 per person thank you very much.

The building on the left is the Disney train station and once we walk through that underpass, we get to the start of Disneyland : Main Street USA.

First thing we did was duck into the Animation Academy for a class.

The newly weds pretending to be young innocent students in the classroom.

The guy taking the class is an animator for Disney. He told us that they work without using erasers which was what we were going to attempt to do as well.

Showing off his finished Mickey. I wasn't impressed. Mine was way better.

I hate to say I told you so.

After signing my life away as an obscenely well paid animator with total artistic control, we continued on to look at the Art of Animation. It was a room with displays on the history of animation, sketches of Disney characters, statues of characters and this:




Alice looking like she's been possessed by a demon.


Jayden unleashing his inner Beast on poor GH (Belle)



After that we strolled down Main Street USA and all the shops were very quaint, very 1950s.

Inside the shops though, was a totally different story. Total advertiser's dream. Giant money sucking trap. Darn you, Mickey and your super adorable merchandise.



This was what a person looked like after being spat out by the giant money sucking venus traps.

This is the Sleeping Beauty Castle where countless little girls had spun fantasies in their heads.

Then we jumped on the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups for nostalgic reasons. This was the only ride Dad would ever let us go on when we were kids. Such an irresponsible parent because this ride was fraught with dangher. Check it out for yourselves:





The teacup was not designed with the Beast in mind.

Then it was time for the very very annoying It's A Small World ride.

This was a boatride and we went around the "canal"while the world passed us by - Asia, Australia, America, Africa, etc. Throughout the whole ride, It's A Small World in different languages played in the background over and over and over and over again. Annoying, much?

This ride brought back memories of the times we took GH and Viv to go on this pathetic little boatride at our local amusement arcase when they were very young. It was called It's A Small World as well.
My favourite scene
Before we went off to It's A Small World, we'd gone and gotten the fast pass tickets to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Basically there were a handful of rides where you could get these fast pass tickets for certain sessions and when you use these puppies, you get to waltz past all the poor smultz that had been queueing for ages to go straight to the top of the queue.

The newly weds looking smug and the crowd looking envious.
The Pooh ride was beautiful and sweet but a tad forgetable. Basically we sat in a little cart and went on a ride with scenes from the forest where Pooh, Tigger and Hunny got up to some mischief. I tell ya, that Christopher is not very good at spelling.

This is Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride but we didn't go on it because the line was long and it wasn't a fast pass ride.

We did see a Dumbo sitting on top of another Dumbo though.. very rare sighting very rare.

The newly weds got a glimpse of what their future love child would look like.

Next up was Stitch's Encounter - an interactive show where we watch a short clip featuring Stitch and the dialog involves the audience because the voice is done by someone in the backstage. By the way I was plucked out of the audience by Stitch - he said I was sooooo beautiful and that he was my boyfriend from then onwards. Not that I am bragging or anything. But he ditched me the minute something bad happened and he had to run away. Hmm typical.

The second fast pass ride we went on was the Space Mountain ride. Basically a roller coaster in total darkness with no giant scary dips, just hair raising violent twists. I was so worried about banging my head on something.

Saw this funny thing cycling around. Not sure what it was but it can talk and shoot water at passerbys. Maybe a mad scientist.

Disneyland was divided into 4 sections - Main Street USA, Fantasyland,Tomorrowland and Adventureland.

Adventureland is where Tarzan's treehouse was. But you have to take a "ferry" to get to it and the queue was crazy long so we didn't bother.

Looked cool though.

Then we went to Mickey's PhilharMagic. This was my favourite show.



Waiting to get into the theatre. This was basically a 4D show except it was so so so much more captivating than that. From Donald Duck swimming with Ariel while she sang out her frustrations in Part of the World, giving us a whiff of the apple pie that was being offered to Donald Duck at Beast's dining table to Donald Duck interacting with Jasmine after Aladdin showed her a whole new world... everything was AWESOME. Shuddup.

Then we somehow managed to stumble across the beginning of the Parade.

A retro looking Mickey.

The pages behind Chip (or was it Dale) showed the process of animation.



The 3 beauties of Disney

Sleeping Beauty??

Snow White:

Cinderella under the clock tower... geddit?

Alice in Wonderland Float:

Viv reackons Alica looked like a transvestite. Tough crowd!


Ariel being a flirt:


Mickey and Minnie in CNY garb.

After the parade, High School Musical also had some thing happening. I am ashamed to admit that the music was quite catchy and i found myself bopping along to it like a teenybopper. Little devil voice in me told me to go check out their CD when I have some spare time. STOP IT STOP IT!!! I REFUSE TO TURN INTO MEL.

Then we went off to another fast pass ride : Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

So the aim was to blast as many of the "z"signs that could be found throughout the whole ride - Z being the sign of the baddie that Buzz was fighting. Quite fun except I didnt realise until the last 5 minutes that the car we sat in could be spun around to aid in getting a better shot at some of the harder-to-get-at Zs. My score was terrible!

Next up: Festival of the Lion King. Basically this was a show where Simba was being honored and a bunch of actors entertained him by acting out his life story. This was kinda boring.








Simba and Nala singing Can You Feel The Love Tonight?

Then it was time to tour Mickey's House.


Jayden getting a whiff of something yummy that Minnie was cooking up.

Mickey's kitchen

GH wanting to snack on something from Mickey's fridge.

Mickey's to do list



Mickey's living room

Cool poster of Mickey and Walt Disney

There was also Mickey's bedroom etc but I got sick of jostling for positions with the crowd so we left.

My boyfriend

Jayden eating Mickey the ice cream

Mickey the mango pudding

Then it was on to the Storybook Theater, our last stop for the day/night. They were showing the Golden Mickeys - kinda like the Oscars where they were giving out awards for best hero, best couple etc.
Check out hunky Tarzan... yum yum:






This was very nice. Glad I caught the whole thing:




Cinderella's Carousel at night or according to Mei Mei, merry go round. So unromantic.

The newly weds feeding their faces in one of Disney's foodcourts. Built like a castle and there are statutues of couples like Beauty and the Beast.

My camera died after this so I didn't manage to get a video of the fireworks going off and sweet Disney love songs blaring from the stereos. Oh well. It was a good day.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Hong Kong - Avenue of Stars

Unlike our last Hong Kong trip, we managed to behave like semi rational humans and did some sight seeing instead of overdosing ourselves with shopping. We went and checked out the Avenue of Stars, Hong Kong's version of Manns Chinese Theatre Walk of Fame in Hollywood.


Who needs the Statue of Liberty when you can have Statue of Scantily Clad Film Lady?

Viv the hopeful starlet cosying up to the director.... casting couch ??? wink wink nudge nudge

Monica's first love, David Chiang Da Wei's hands imprints.

Sam Hui aka Hii.... hey the Hiis are famous people!!

Jackie Chan's dainty hands hehehehe

Andy Lau's hands imprint - I see from his palms him asking my hand for marriage some time this year.

Tony Leung's hands - in your dreams, Mel.

Bruce Lee doing what he does best.... hai yaaaaaaaa ... lots of tourists doing stupid poses with him in the background... poor Brucey.

Wong Sir.... rest in peace.

This one is for you too, Ah Here.

Interestingly enough, I also see from Aaron's palms him asking me to marry him in the near future.... decisions decisions.

View of Central from the sidewalk. Very hazy.

Managed to get a shot with a very quaint looking boat in the foreground....

The local hobos like to hang out here too....

Came back at night too a few days later:


Chinese New Year lights on the buildings.
Pretty huh?

Sucker


Now I know I look and sound like a hardass but I am actually a real sucker for a good sappy romance novel (or an intelligent super gory thriller but that's a different post altogether). I haven't felt this way about a book for a long time, i.e. read it all in one go and wanting to read the whole series in a day so kudos to Stephenie Meyer.

Twilight should have been the most cliche of all romance novels - vampire love story but it is very sweet and laugh-out-loud funny at times. Read it. Now excuse me while I go find my own perfect looking hot vampire boyfriend who shows up at the right moment to sweep me into his arms and save me from danger.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hong Kong - The Loot Post

This is the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Viv and I spent all our time here in Hong Kong.... ok I lie. On with the shopping post hehehe...

Chinese New Year is just around the corner and all the shopping centres have brought out their best CNY decorations.
Goldfishes at IFC

Dolphins at Pacific Place (Check out Dior in the background!!)

J Lindeberg standalone shop...

Even Disneyland caught the CNY bug.... here's the word FU (Blessings) written Mickey Mouse style.

Another giant display at some mall
Lights hanging over the 4 storey long elevators in Langham Place.

Chinese lion dancers display at Langham Place.
At Harbour City.

My loot:
My Minnie Mouse cushion/pillow that I bought from Disneyland. She suffers from personality disorder because at night she turns into:
Mickey Mouse!!!

Hong Kong was really cold for the first 2 days that we were there so I bought a jacket and a pair of jeans from the little local "designer" shops in Island Beverley.

Bought this faux leather jacket because every second shop was selling a variation. I blame it on peer pressure.

Heels (of course)

Whole lot of funky accessories to go with my super short haircut.

A year's worth of eyes

When I Grow Up....

I want to be her!! Ok the human version of her anyway.

Leave me a note if you want to contribute to my bag fund. Thanks.. I'll give you my first born.