April Showers

We were so lucky to have Dave and Georgia with us for the majority of April. Hong Kong, however, did not cooperate, and we had less than stellar weather with quite a bit of rain. It's kind of frustrating as hosts when your city doesn't show itself in its best light for your guests, but we still had an amazing time. We managed to do everything on our list and a few off-the-beaten-path things as well. Here are some of the highlights and things that I haven't featured on the blog before:

Sai Kung Country Park is a huge wilderness area on the eastern side of the Hong Kong peninsula  It's a local favorite for the countless hiking trails, beaches, and fresh seafood. Most of the hikes are quite long, but there are a few that are kid-friendly. We did the first stage of the popular Tai Long Wan hiking trail, taking a bus to the trail head and then about 45 minutes walk to the village and beach of Sai Wan. The trail was even paved, so it was no problem for Evangeline.

Setting off!

Views of a reservoir for the first part of the hike

Evangeline, her uncle, and her stick

Striking a pose as we get closer to the beach

Lunch on the rocks

Part of Sai Wan beach

The full crew

Evangeline got a lift for much of the return hike, which was all uphill, poor Dave!

One of the few decent pizzerias in HK happens to be in Sai Kung, so we brought one home after the hike

A challenge to get on the top deck of the bus, but we made it!

We also managed a quick trip to Macau, which was lovely. We stayed in the very southern part, far away from the casino madness, right on the beach. But we made sure to swing through all the casinos, too!

The garish water "show" in the main lobby of the Galaxy

Needless to say, Evangeline loved it!

Waiting for the show to start at the Wynn, right before the security guard made E get down--"too dangerous!"

The Wynn's show was more Chinese, with a dragon that comes out of the floor, a little scary for E

Here we are in Europe....wait, no, that's the Venetian :)

Fortifications at a cafe with our friend Victor

Dave's birthday was going to be just a few days after they left, so we celebrated early. We went to brunch at a place we'd always wanted to go, the famous Jumbo. It's supposedly the world's largest floating restaurant, anchored in Aberdeen Harbour on the south side of Hong Kong Island. The Jumbo is also famous as a tourist trap, with mediocre dim sum at extortionate prices. But on the top deck there is a separate restaurant that is rumored to have a fantastic weekend brunch, so we checked it out. Georgia's friend who happens to work in Shenzhen tagged along.

You can't miss the sign for the free ferry out to the Jumbo

It lives up to its name

One of the dragons that guards the entrance

Fun to watch the busy harbor in between trips to the buffet

Before dessert and...

...after!

A rain shower forced us inside, but that was lovely, too

Dave making his birthday wish

It was a great visit and it just flew by. I wish we could do it all again!

Hong Kong Disneyland

This post is long, long overdue. I started working on it in November, but then had some temporary problems uploading pictures. After that was resolved, the holidays were upon us, and this was left by the wayside. But here it is, at long last!

When you think about it, it's so fun that we live in a city that has its own Disneyland! There are only 6 in the world, including the new one they are building in Shanghai. Evangeline and I first went to Hong Kong Disneyland back in June of 2012 just before we left for the summer. Kids under three get in for free, and I wanted to capitalize. :) Then Joseph got discounted tickets in his swag from the Disney 10K race. He took off on the first of two trips to the US in the month of November, and Evangeline had a school holiday. Since we were left behind, I felt like we deserved a treat, so we headed to Disneyland! After all, we might as well take advantage of living in the same city as a Magic Kingdom, right?

Hong Kong Disneyland is the smallest of all the parks in the Disney family, but I found it refreshingly accessible. The size makes it possible to do nearly everything in one day, and it doesn't feel so crowded. Disclaimer: I've only been to the Magic Kingdom in Anaheim, so I'm hardly a world authority! HK Disney is less than ten years old and they are constantly expanding. The original park is quite similar to the one in Anaheim, with a Main Street USA (!), Tomorrowland, Adventureland, and Fantasyland. All the attractions in the original park are very accessible for small children, which I was surprised with and appreciated. However, the new areas of the park have more rides for older kids and adults.

We took the MTR to Disneyland, which is on Lantau Island, not far from the airport. From the door of our apartment to the gates of Disneyland, it took us about an hour and fifteen minutes, which is pretty awesome. For the last bit of the journey, you transfer to a special Disney car:

Many of the attractions in the original part of the park are just like the ones in the US.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle, although you can't go inside!

Dumbo the Flying Elephants

The Carousel

Teacups!

It's A Small World After All

Memorable "Tomorrowland" entrance

Tarzan's Treehouse and the Jungle Cruise

Almost every single ride in the original park is for little kids, which is awesome when you're with a three year-old, but I can imagine that there was limited appeal for tourists with older children. So when they started the park expansion, they made sure to add some more rides with scare factor.

Signpost to the three new parks

The newest park area that opened this past summer is Grizzly Gulch, which looks a lot like Frontierland. And  sure enough, the main attraction is a fast rollercoaster that looks a lot like Thunder Mountain Railroad. Evangeline is too small for it, but I've heard from friends that it's a really good ride.

Besides that, there wasn't much to do there except watch a little show, which was fun because it was happening in both English and Cantonese. And the musicians were actually playing their instruments, which is always nice to see.

They are working on a new area of the park called Mystic Point, which should open this year some time. From what I saw, the main feature is a Haunted Mansion-inspired attraction. It was fun to see them hard at work building the ride!

Workers behind the wall

The teaser for the new area

My favorite part of the park was Toy Story Land, which was by far the most whimsical and creative. Everything is scaled very large, so you feel like you are one of the toys.

With Woody at the entrance

The area was surrounded by tall grass, creating an illusion that you're a toy in a lawn

Even the loo is creative

Evangeline peeks from behind the "A"

She says the "Slinky" ride was her favorite of the whole park

Ready to ride!

There were two other rides that were aimed at older guests, which was much-needed. Chinese people seem to like to go on rides that are for small children (I was shocked at how many adults without kids were riding the carousel) but as HK Disney aims to serve all of southeast Asia, it seems wise to diversify.

Which leads me to how you know you're in China, even though the park is very on-brand with Disney. First of all, I loved that all park employees had their English names on their nametags. We see a lot of hilarious English names here in Hong Kong (Disco, Pinky, a woman named Mike) but it's not usually appropriate to take pictures of their nametags.

"Fish" handing out stickers to kids

"Man" really loved Evangeline. That might just be his Chinese name, but it was still funny to see

Something you'd never see in the US, a designated smoking area!

These Buzz-inspired dancers in the parade were just so over-the-top Asian to me

I guess monks go to Disney, too!

The thing that surprised me the most was the lack of Mulan in the park. The two times we went, we only saw her once, and it was pretty obscure--there's a live show that is basically just Disney songs, and Mulan dances around while the Prince sings the "I'll Make a Man Out of You" number. The Princess float in the parade had just Belle, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. I asked a few moms that I know why they thought that was. My friend who is originally from China had never noticed before, and was quite surprised; they like Mulan in their house and own the movie. Another friend who grew up in Hong Kong said that people come to Disneyland for the Western experience and just want to see the classic characters. I guess the Mulan movie wasn't very popular in China when it was released, anyway.

It will be interesting to see how the new Disneyland in Shanghai will impact the attendance here in Hong Kong. Will it take away most of the mainland visitors, or will they still want to come to Hong Kong? It's scheduled to open in late 2015, so it's something to keep an eye on.

All in all, we loved our Disneyland experience. The people of Hong Kong are lucky to have the park right here. It seems a lot more affordable than in the US, too. A regular price adult ticket is under $60, but the best deal is for seniors, who only pay $12! Amazing! Some of my friends who live closer to the park have annual passes, which are also very affordable. The cheapest one (quite restricted) is only around $110, so you'd make up the price of the pass in less than two trips. Fun times!