A couple of months before school let out for the summer, Rebecca and I booked plane tickets to Hong Kong for Thanksgiving break. At the rate this school year is going, Thanksgiving was here before we knew it and on Wednesday afternoon we joined two other couples also bound for Hong Kong in a shuttle ride to the airport. Our flight departed from Seoul around 6:45pm and we arrived in Hong Kong (who is 1 hour behind Seoul) at 11pm. With luggage in tow we took the airport express train into Kowloon which was our home base for the duration of our stay. Just a note, the airport express is incredibly fast and efficient--it only took us 20 minutes to get into the city! We checked into the YMCA Salisbury Hotel (yep, it really is fun to stay at the YMCA!) and crashed for the night.
Rebecca and I celebrated Thanksgiving by emerging ourselves in true American culture--that's right, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland! The reviews of the park are only so-so, but we disagree...we had a blast! From the moment you get on the Disneyland Resort Railway, you truly are surrounded by all things Disney.
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| The Disneyland Resort Railway |
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| We're here! |
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| For you, mom! |
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| Some things look the same whether you're in California or Hong Kong! |
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| Main Street is decked out for Christmas! |
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| Me in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle! |
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| In case you were wondering, the princesses are NOT Chinese:). |
There are only four lands in H.K. Disneyland: Adventureland, Toy Storyland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. We saw them all! In Adventureland we took a raft to Tarzan's Treehouse, rode the Jungle Cruise, and saw the Lion King show.
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| Tarzan's Treehouse |
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| Rebecca posing with Mr. Bones |
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| A chemistry teacher's dream...all in Tarzan's Treehouse. |
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| Jungle Cruise! |
Toy Story Land is pretty much geared toward youngsters, but it was cute. I'm not sorry that I opted out of the Parachute Training ride or the RC car ride.
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| Hey Woody!! |
Fantasyland was whimsical and sweet. We skipped the carousel and Dumbo (although we did have a Goofy and Minnie sighting there) and instead opted for Pooh's Adventure in the Hundred Acre Woods and the famous spinning tea cups!
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| Look, it's Goofy! |
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| Pre-tea cup ride! |
We took a break for lunch and discovered there is hardly a thing at Disneyland that doesn't scream DISNEY!
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| Check out those Mickey croutons! |
After lunch we had to go ride It's a Small World...mainly because we were curious to see if it looked like the ride in California or Florida. Guess what?! It does!! While we waited in line we checked out the myriad of faces--there were literally people from all over the world spending the day at H.K. Disney!
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| Boys in gondolas... |
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| ...and girls in hanboks, all singing "It's a Small World". |
The rest of our afternoon was spent in Tomorrowland and shopping! Rebecca had never driven the Autopia cars--a tradition in my family--so I insisted she go with me! There's a good reason why they have a height requirement on this ride. If you're too short you can't push the gas pedal and drive at the same time. Ahem, the lovely mother in front of me thought it would be cute to let her very small son drive and it was all I could do to avoid bashing into that tyke! Come on people, follow the rules!
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| Rebecca is ready to roll! Notice the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car? |
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| I'm ready too! |
We wanted to catch the Christmas Spectacular Parade and the lighting ceremony, which meant we had a good amount of time to contribute to the Disney economy and snap a few random pictures. During the parade, Main Street was full of people and lovely Disney elves. It even started to "snow" as the parade came to a close.
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| Rebecca and I in front of the castle. |
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| Mickey in the Christmas Spectacular Parade! |
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| The Castle at night...super cool! |
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| Main Street all lit up! |
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| Waiting for the lighting ceremony and enjoying Mickey rice treats. |
Overall, we had a great time at Disneyland! The weather couldn't have been better, and although we weren't eating turkey and stuffing with our families it still felt a little like home!
The next morning we set out to explore Hong Kong island. It was cool to see the city decked out for Christmas, especially since you don't necessarily see this sort of stuff in Seoul. We took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour and caught a taxi to Stanley Market. What we thought would be a five minute taxi ride to the center of the city turned into a thirty minute taxi ride to the south side of Hong Kong Island to the Stanley area. At one part we started to get a bit nervous since we had absolutely no idea where we were or how to get to where we wanted to go. Thankfully the taxi driver knew his stuff and delivered us safely to the market. I wish I had taken some pictures of the plethora of things you could purchase, but let's be honest...I was too busy browsing, bargaining, and shopping!
After we stopped for lunch on the waterfront we ran into our four SFS friends who were also shopping at Stanley Market. It was pretty funny to see them and just goes to show you that even a big city can feel like a small town. One of our best finds near the market was a fantastic grocery store with all sorts of American and other foreign products. I wish I had brought an entire extra suitcase so I could have taken back lots of things that I didn't even know I missed until I saw them on the shelf!
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| Kowloon decked out for the holidays! |
After a long day of shopping we took the bus back to Central. We sat on the top of the double decker and it gave us quite a view as we wound along the two lane road and clung to the side of a cliff. Traffic was terrible and it took over an hour to get back. Once again we took the advice of our colleagues and took a taxi to Lan Kwai Fong, a swanky area filled with restaurants and bars. The only place we stopped was the Hard Rock Cafe for a drink and to grab some take away dinner. We discovered all sorts of fun shops in the subway buildings on our way back to the hotel! After dinner, Rebecca and I decided that we may as well go out to the night market since we were still awake. We first took our spot at the harbourside for the nightly light show and to take some photos of Hong Kong at night. I really think this city is at its best when the sun goes down. Take a look...
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| Hong Kong Island from Kowloon |
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| Beautiful, isn't it? |
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| During the light show... |
On our way to the night market I snapped a few photos of just a few of the millions of neon signs that adorn the buildings on practically EVERY street. The neon signs are almost as entertaining as the light show!
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| Entrance to the night market! |
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| You can find all sorts of goodies at the night market:). |
It didn't take long before I was shopped out! I'm usually a late night sort of person, but I was beat! Thank goodness for vacation time and the gift of being able to sleep in! Rebecca is an early bird and would go out exploring or for coffee and I enjoyed being able to stay in bed a little later than usual and read. We met up on Saturday afternoon for the last thing on our must do list, the jade market. I saw lots of jade in mainland China but I was more interested in pearls. This trip, however, I wanted a second look at the jade. There were probably 100 different vendors all selling jade in all sorts of forms--pendants, earrings, bracelets, bowls, you name it! I was forewarned that I would need to be a tough negotiator and never to pay full price. It was totally out of my comfort zone to bargain when shopping, but I gave it a go and I think I got some great deals (or maybe not, but I felt good about my purchases).
I spent the rest of my last night in Hong Kong shopping for a dress for the faculty Christmas party next weekend and wandering into any store that looked interesting. There certainly were some fun stores full of odds and ends! Saturday night I finished writing my postcards, packed up my VERY full suitcase, and headed to bed so I'd be rested before our early trek to the airport. We checked out of the hotel at 6:30am on Sunday and were back on the SFS campus by 4:30pm after a great weekend! I think I will definitely be going back to Hong Kong sometime in the near future to do some more exploring and I think I'd even be interested in living there someday if Europe doesn't work out. Who knows what the future holds! At this point I've got three weeks until Christmas break and I'm ready to be back in the States to see everyone.
