Day 1: 15th June 2007, Friday
Woke up really early in the morning cause the van that was picking us up were to arrive at 7am! Said goodbye to Kwang Yew and off we were to the airport. Thought I’d catch up on my sleep on the way there but wasn’t able to sleep. I wasn’t excited, was rather dreading it because the itinerary was lousy (so I thought).
Checked in, ate breakfast at McDonald and off into the plane. 3 ½ hours journey, watched CSI: New York and Living with Fran (as in Fran Dresher in The Nanny).
Arrived at Hong Kong International Airport at 12.20pm, go through the Immigration Counter (queue was really really long – filled with Koreans and Japanese), get our bags scanned and looked out for the tourist guide. We found Benny finally. A medium size, tanned skinned, bespectacled guy at the age of 48 (and he doesn’t look at all 48, more like 35).
First stop – Benny dropped us off at our hotel, Dorsett Far East Hotel at Tsuen Wan. While we’re on the way, he spoke about Hong Kong and the lifestyle of the Hongkies. He stated the difference between Malaysian Chinese and Hong Kong Chinese. All these he spoke in Cantonese (of which my dad and aunt could not catch). Benny on the other hand isn’t very good in English, which is rather hilarious when he tried his hands at a little English. So dad and him was like chicken and duck talking to each other.
Since the 1st day was Free and Easy, he suggested taking us on a night tour but it will cost an additional HKD390. Places covered, Lui Yan Kai (Ladies Market), Roast Goose Dinner, Victoria Peak, Madame Tussaud and Arena of Stars (Victoria Harbour).
Did some G2000 shopping (they have Father’s Day Sale. Woohoo!) and tried “Chow Tau Foo” (Smelly Bean Curd). The Chow Tau Foo did not at all taste like how it smells. It’s quite good except for the funny after taste in the mouth.
Proceed for the famous “Siew Ngor” (Roast Goose) dinner. Was the restaurant called Foo Lim Fisherman’s Wharf Restaurant or Pleasant Palace Seafood Restaurant? I don’t know. But what a spread of food! Boy oh boy…. HK and China is all about pork, duck, duck and more pork. Really really fatty ones too.
After dinner – took the Peak tram, 10 minutes up to Victoria Peak. 1st view – Madame Tussaud. More photos taken here. Then, it was viewing the whole of HK, including Kowloon (mainland).
Our next and final stop for the night – Arena of Stars, where most HK stars have their hand prints on the side walk (similar to Walk of Fame thingy). Benny said this place is also called Lai Mau Kai (Courtesy Street) because many people as they walk, will bow their heads (to have a look at the hand prints)
Day 2: 16th June 2007, Saturday
Had dim sum for breakfast (a must try when you’re in HK). Delicious delicious char siew pau. Slurp!
First stop – Golden Bauhinia Square located right in front of my favourite building (HK Exhibition and Convention Centre aka The Turtle Building where they film Police Story 4). Snap! Snap! Snap!
Second stop - JC Jewellery Factory, Jackie Chan’s, man. Nothing for me to buy here. Just watch the men working on a diamond ring. Mum of course will have something to buy here lar. She bought an Opal (her birthstone) pendant.
Then it was Repulse Bay, where most of the rich and famous live, including Jackie Chan and Chow Sing Chi. Most orang putih expats live here too, cause they love the sea. There’s a temple here with many deities (Kuan Yin and Buddha). Benny said something about touching the statue of the deities to get your wishes. I played along touching a deity with little children around him. If you want a daughter, touch the girl. If you want a son, touch the boy. If you want twins, touch 2 children lor. Guess what did I touch?
Aberdeen Fishing Village is next – nothing much to see (I find it a little boring).
Went back to Victoria Peak but mid level only. Just to view HK by day and snap more photos.
Next-up, Herbs Shop. The older people (I’m not in the list of older people) bought scallops, Oyster flesh (from Japan. The Japanese takes the pearl and sells the meat to the Chinese). I found the most expensive ginseng here – HK$2.3 million! Crazy! And the ginseng looked like a twig, that’s all!
Finally, our tour of HK ends. We have to take the train from Hung Hum Station to Shenzhen. This was where the nightmare began.
The older group (Mum, Dad, Mum-in-law and Second Aunt, my Jee Chim) got separated from us younger ones (May Lai, Adrian, Choon Hui and I). They took the first train (cause the door closed on us before we could get in) and we younger ones hopped onto the next train (only 15 minutes apart).
The moment we arrived at the last stop, we immediately went straight to immigration and headed straight to Shenzhen immigration. The next thing we know, we lost our older group. Waited for 2 long hours and Choon Hui opted to go back to HK to look for them. Finally found them and got a long lecture. Rupa-rupanya, they were waiting for us at the last station in HK! We made up, said our sorries and off to a new adventure.
1st day in Shenzhen is F&E but tour guide (George) offered to show us the “pasar malam” of Shenzhen after dinner (Chinese food in China is oil and salt – cholesterol and blood pressure shoot up, man!). The pasar malam is so not pasar at all, ok. No stalls, all shops. So ‘til today, I don’t know what George means by Shenzhen “pasar malam”.
Day 3: 17th June 2007, Sunday
We had hotel buffet breakfast before our Shenzhen tour. We had to pay RMB10 for a cup of coffee ok! But we chose not to drink coffee (some sacrifice to make when in China, for all you coffee lovers).
Thereafter, we went to the Shenzhen Xingyu Mineral Museum, just to look at some stones such as jade. They sell stuffs here. So much for just a simple museum.
Well, today is Father’s Day and dad was so into this moonstone (Adrian and I have read a lot about moon stone but we have never seen one before cause it’s not available in Malaysia. We finally saw a real moonstone in China. The beauty of it – it’s the only luminous stone, which glows in the dark). Also found out from the salesgirl that this stone also have some magnetic thingy. Cool! So we got it for Dad as a gift (now it’s sitting in the display at home).
I bought a few jade hanging thingy for RM14.00 per piece. Mum bought another pendant, quite cute because this pendant can move in the inside. Comes with an 18K gold necklace too. Since it is also lychee season, this place also sells tea and their specialty – Lychee Tea. We bought also lar and got a free gift – a pissing man.
Next up, Window of the World. This place has all the major landmark of each major countries / continent in the world but all in miniature size. And we saw how lychee trees looked like.
After lunch, we went to this Herbal Store and got ourselves diagnose by a prominent Chinese Traditional physician called Professor Wu. She was from Indonesia and has been practising Chinese Medicine for 40 years. She’s 70 years old but she looks 10 year younger. And you know what? She is accurate in her diagnostic. She accurately diagnosed dad and Adrian and even myself! But let’s leave that behind because Dad spends the most here, RM2000 on herbs. We also spend the longest time here.
Now, the place we were to go next is my favourite – China Cultural and Folk Village or what the locals here call, Mini China. We watch 2 wonderful, most beautiful world-class cultural show and we had a great time touring the mini buildings of China from different provinces – check the photos here too. Finally, we had 1 meal for dinner (at the Cultural Village) that is good, still oily and salty but good.
After dinner, back to hotel and off to 1 hour of “sai keok” or feet wash and massage, which was a relief to the leg after all the walking for the 3 days. The spa has shuttle service. No joke.
Day 4: 18th June 2007, Monday
After breakfast (the hotel’s), we immediately checked out and head straight to the train station. It was a long long walk. On the way, I saw a shop that sells luggage bags and I was immediately attracted to the bags and of course the price. After much bargaining and pondering (to buy or not to buy), I decided to go ahead and buy. Dad paid.
After the purchase, we continued our long walk to the train station. It is a rule cum policy that public vehicles are not allowed to park at the station even for drop-off. So, walk lar. Good exercise but did not sweat.
This time, we made sure that we wait for everybody to get on to the same train but Alas! We got separated again, this time over in HK. May Lai and mum-in-law was separated because the door of Line 4, which the train heads towards Hung Hum station close on the rest of us. We had to take Line 1 train, which also heads to Hung Hum but upon arrival, May Lai took the wrong exit. It was suppose to be Exit C but they couldn’t find it. It was so stressful but God is good, we found each other.
The new tourist guide (can’t remember her name) seem to look a little pissed. Who cares?! Well in the bus on the way to Disneyland, she just briefed us a little about Disney and gave us our Entrance tickets. Told us to check-in but we can’t get our rooms until after 3pm.
That’s exactly what we did. We checked into Hollywood Hotel at 12.30pm, got our 2 day passes and left our luggage with the concierge and took the shuttle bus to Disneyland. Did a little bit of walking and went to see Lion King show. We were rather disappointed because we were comparing the show to the previous cultural show in Shenzhen. The Lion King show is meant for kids and not us, old farts.
Then, we did a little bit more walking about, saw Cinderella and wanted to take a photo with her but the line was close already. How sad…. So we waited for the Disney Parade, which was the next program. Now, this was GOOD. The parade was really colourful and entertaining. But I pity the people who are in their costumes. Must be sweating like a running tap water. The weather was HOT! The sun was burning, our skins were burning.
After the parade, we realised it was just too hot to walk around, that we decided to go back to the hotel and rest a little. We wanted to catch the fireworks and we must at least take a photo with the mouse himself, Mickey.
As we walked towards the elevator to our rooms, we were just enthralled. Finally, the trip was worth it. We stayed in a 5 Star hotel and everywhere you turn your eyes to, you see Mickey or at least his ears lar.
Choon Hui and I were like school girls squealing when we saw our bedroom. It was lovely. Everything was just Mickey Mouse. We took pictures of the room and even the bath. How I wish I could take the shower curtain too but I couldn’t. The bathroom angle would not permit me to. I even had the mind to want to buy the shower curtain from the hotel but couldn’t find any price list (like most hotels have).
After shower and rest, we went back to the park. Adrian and Choon Hui decided to sleep a little bit more. The rest of went ahead without them. May Lai and I saw Mickey and Minnie photos session, we straight away went in line while Mum, Dad, Mum-in-law and Chim went to get dinner.
We waited really long just to snap photos with them. The wait was worth it. Then, we did our shopping at the Disney Souvenir Shop. After that, it was time for the fireworks, started hunting the rest of the group and managed to find them in the midst of the crowd. We still had a little time left to get our take-away dinner. We were dead hungry.
My oh my! The fireworks were beautiful! It goes along with all the Disney music. Like musical fountain, this was musical fireworks. Lovely. Lovely.
After that, May Lai and I decided to go shopping. I took them to Causeway Bay. We need to catch the MTR – Disney MTR. The train was cute.
Nothing in the stores cause there was NO SALE! How disappointing! Well, at least to mend our wound, Bossini has something. There is a GOD! Haha!
Then, we realised it’s getting late and the last train back is at 12pm. Don’t want to pay so much to get a cab back to Disney. Heard from Adrian earlier that taking a cab from HK Island (Wan Chai, Causeway bay, those areas) to Disney will cost HK$150! That’s really expensive.
I didn’t eat the burger that I bought. Earlier, all I was munching was the fries. After arrival at the last stop to hop back onto the Disney train, I gobbled my burger. What a relief as my stomach was already on strike.
Day 5: 19th June 2007, Monday
I really had a very good sleep and I woke up at 9.00am. I actually thought I wanted to go back to Disney Park to do further shopping but mum said no cause there just isn’t enough time.
I had to do my balance shopping at the shop downstairs. They equally good merchandises but of course, at Disney Park, there’ll be more choices.
We left for the airport at 12pm and hang about at Popeye’s (kinda cool fried chicken/KFC type of outlet). My last mission before leaving Hong Kong was Wing Wah Bakery to buy “lou poh peng” for Ky Lie and of course for my darling hubby.
I didn’t realise I spend such a long time in the shop that when I looked at my watch, to my horror I had to run to plane!
Arrive KLIA at 6.20pm and went straight home. That’s the journey of my HK/Shenzhen/Disneyland trip. All in all, when I felt that my trip was going to be lousy and that I didn’t look forward to it all, I was totally wrong by the end of it. Every penny spend was worth it, especially Shenzhen.
For those who have not been the any Disneyland, HK is a good start. Small, a little disappointing but it was ok. Those who have gone to the bigger ones like Japan or Florida, don’t bother stepping into Hong Kong. You’ll get a BIG disappointment.
By the way, Mega Sale in HK is on the month of July and August. Everything is dirt cheap. Air Asia now flies to Shenzhen. Therefore HK is so accessible now. Grab this opportunity to shop, shop and shop during this period.
*All photos are courtesy of my ever reliable Olympus and Choon Hui’s Canon cameras.
